!! discovering pokemon !!

it may come as a surprise, but my introduction to the pokemon was not by playing one of the games for myself!

"oh, you were a fan of the anime first?"

WRONG!!!!!

the first piece of media i consumed of the pokemon franchise wasnt the games, the anime, or even the tcg! it was, in fact, this book right here:

or well... not exactly my very first. technically i had also watched my cousin play a tiny bit of x and y. but when it came to things i owned myself, the pokemon deluxe essential handbook was my first piece of pokemon! i eventually found pokemon pearl and black 2 lying around house in places (probably either given to me or - more likely - accidentally left by one of my cousins), which i tried and failed to beat until i was 10, when i was gifted pokemon moon... a few days later as the original alola games only came out 2 days after my birthday. and the rest is history!