Pokémon

I got into Pokémon around 2017 (otherwise known as the Sun & Moon era) via a friend giving me my first ever cards from the TCG: Pumkaboo, Mienshao and Zebstrika - all duplicates, of course - and I fell in love. I obsessively collected these cards for about two years until 2019, when I got the Unified Minds box set for my birthday. After that, I ended up forgetting about Pokémon and collecting the cards for a couple years until part-way through 2023 when one of my other friends got a 3DS... and subsequently developed a hyperfixation on all things Pokémon. One thing led to another, and they started collecting cards like I used to, which reminded me that I had about 300 Pokémon cards sitting in a box in my desk (the horror!), so I bought a nice D-ring binder and those fancy plastic card storage pages that only hold 9 cards a page and the rest is history. Currently (as of Jan 2024) my collection has a total of about 540 cards but, truthfully, I'm planning on downsizing a bit and giving away some of those cards to my friends. I don't actually play the TCG (although I'd love to actually get into it someday), so my collection really just consists of cards that are part of my first bout of Poké-mania/card-collecting fever, cards with art that I find pretty, and cards that are part of my favorite gen (which is Gen V). If you're curious, my all-time top "chase" card was the full-art Plasma Freeze Ghetsis card. I absolutely love Kanako Eo's artwork (and Ghetsis in general) so I'm absolutely ecstatic that I can say I own a copy of this card now! I'm still planning on collecting more of the Team Plasma Pokemon cards though.

For the mainline games, the only one I've played to (plot) completion is Pokémon Black. I was on Victory Road in Pokémon Black 2 before I took a break and my first 3DS got completely wrecked on vacation (I own another 2011 3DS now), so I'm not sure if there's more to the plot (what am I saying, of course there's more) and thus can't say for sure that I played it to completion. I've also tried playing Pokémon X but personally, the 3D graphics felt very jarring to me and I didn't get past the first route in it. On the other hand, I picked up a copy of Ultra Moon a while ago and I'm actually really enjoying it! I especially like the caring-for-Pokémon aspect of Ultra Moon; the character customization is also a refreshing change. As it stands, the Gen V games are my all-time favorites. Unova all the way, baby! Now if you really want to get technical here, my very first Pokémon game was Pokémon GO all the way back in 2018, but... I don't think that counts as a mainline game, haha. In terms of other mobile games, I also play Pokémon Masters EX. I think it's an interesting game with an interesting plot, but once you get through the main story arcs there isn't much to do outside of grinding, leveling up sync pairs and lodge interactions imo. I still like logging on every now end then though.

I've also read some of Pokémon Adventures/Special (via scanlations online), although it was just the chapters for BW and B2W2. I really liked it! I highly recommend checking out the series as a whole or even just reading the chapters from your favorite game/gen, and imo it's not very difficult to find websites that host the entire series in this day and age. In the future, I think I might try to collect the BW and B2W2 volumes of Pokéspe, or maybe I'll just read the Sun & Moon chapters online next... Anyways, Pokémon word vomit over, Zenith out. Ciao!

Games I've Played

Currently Playing: Pokémon Black 2!

Current Team: