I came to know Pokémon thanks to the anime. I don't remember what exactly my first episode was, but I do remember one of the first episodes I saw, namely Address Unown. After watching this episode and the following Johto episodes, as well as several earlier episodes, my love for Pokémon started. I followed the Pokémon anime all the way through the Advanced Generation series and the first half of the Diamond & Pearl series. After that I didn't watch the anime as regularly as I used to, but I would still follow it through Bulbapedia and Serebii. I started watching the anime regularly again at the end of Best Wishes series and am currently still watching it.
In 2005, I received my first Pokémon game, Pokémon Emerald, along with a silver Game Boy Advance SP. I remember having a hard time picking my Starter Pokémon, as I couldn't choose between Torchic and Mudkip. After thinking hard, I chose Mudkip, my first Pokémon ever. I evolved Mudkip all the way to a Swampert which became my strongest and, to this day, my favourite Pokémon. One day I decided to restart my game, just to play the beginning of Pokémon Emerald again, but without saving my game. As you can probably guess I accidentally saved my game, losing all the progress I had made. I remember being devastated by this and I didn't touch my game again for at least a week. However, I decided to replay the game and managed to catch up to the point I was before and beyond.
On Christmas 2006, I got Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, a game I absolutely loved. To this day the Mystery Dungeon series are my favourite spin-off games in the Pokémon franchise. One year later, I bought a Nintendo DS Lite with another spin-off game, Pokémon Ranger, a game that I really love as well. I finally got myself a New Nintendo 3DS in 2016, along with Pokémon Sun. I was the fortunate winner of a Nintendo Switch, as part of Bulbagarden's 12 Days of Christmas Trivia Contest in 2017. The next year, I got my first Pokémon game for the console, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!.
I was never too interested in the competitive side of Pokémon and only liked to casually play the games. In 2015, however, I started getting into it, watching lots of YouTube videos as well as playing on Pokémon Showdown.
I wasn't a big collector or player of the TCG, but I did buy packs from time to time and trade cards at school.
The only Pokémon manga I have read is Pokémon Adventures.
