How long have you gone without watching the show?

[Lunanight]

3-4 weeks, the only reason is because monferno evolved and the sunyshore gym is finally going to be challenged by ash sooner or later

 

[Platinum fan.]

I took major breaks in the Johto, Hoenn, and Battle Frontier saga to be honest. Orange Island and Kanto are the only sagas in which I saw every episode. Johto bored me to tears which is sad because the Johto Starters are my collectively favorite starters and the region had great potential with Casey but nothing happened and I skipped a large portion of Johto. In fact other then gym battles and the league the only episode that really got me interested was Jigglypuff vs Snubbull (lol). Hoenn was better but I still skipped episodes and only watched May's contest and Ash's gym's. Everything else looked dumb. Battle Frontier I skipped altogther and just read the highlights on serebi since it looked interesting at first but turned out to be false. Sinnoh is the first region since Orange Islands that I watched every episode and have enjoyed it all the way. I do plan on finishing Hoenn and truly watching the BF saga someday online but probably not soon.

 

[Champion Jared 14]

It has been...over a month now...I've seen recent episodes, I just don't watch them on television...I watch them on youtube...What was the last one that I saw? I think the last one I saw was the one with Lyra being introduced...

 

[Mr.Brightside]

So i guess i'm the only one who didn't stopped watching the show during the Johto saga. I watched Pokemon without missing a single episode from the first till the eighth season but then the channel that aired the show stopped. So, it took me around 5-7 months to find the show on the internet and watch it again.

Actually, now that i think about it there was a small hiatus between seasons but that was only for a few months in each new season, because the show had to be translated in Greek.

Now it's almost 6 months since i finished BF and i haven't watched a single episode from DP. I will do it sooner or later but i'm having a dilemma on whether i should watch the dubbed or original Japanese version, since i can't watch it on tv again.

 

[Thriller]

In 1999, my cable company didn't carry WB and at the time, I lived too far away from any WB stations, so I had no choice but to stop after March of the Exeggcutor Squad. My cable company didn't get WB until Fall 2003, but by that time it was too late, I had already caught up to all the Kanto episodes I missed thanks to CN starting to air the show in 2002. Oh well, at least I got the network just in time for the epic Hoenn Saga (which has been my favorite so far).

Nowadays though, I don't watch the show much anymore. I suppose I can wake up every Saturday at 6:45 but I'm the kind of person who likes to sleep every second I can, so I stay in bed until I need to get ready for school (yes, I got weekend classes).

 

[Cobalt_Latios]

It seems like just about everyone originally gave up on the show at some point in Johto.

Here's a question:

Did anyone here actually watch all the Johto episodes in their original run? I'm quite curious if anyone made it through all of Johto when it was "brand new" and airing for the first time.

I did... sort of. Actually, I missed a good dozen during Johto League Champions... but I think I caught them on Youtube a few years back. But to be relevant, I caught most of them during their original run.

Though, I forget which channel I was watching it on at the time; YTV or KidsWB!, ...

I remember KidsWB hyped up the Hoenn episodes by airing the first two episodes about 7 months before Johto even ended. KidsWB actually still promoted the hell out of the show even in the Hoenn era, and then came the big switch to Cartoon Network with Battle Frontier and the new PUSA voices.

Oh yeah, I remember that. It got to the point where Pokemon was their "big hit" at the time and even went as far as making a contest during the two parter with Kyogre/Groudon (although, let's face it, TG arc was better... even though it was lacking).

Oh I remember... a bit steamed when I found out KidsWB! wouldn't even have Pokemon, which prompted me to switch medium, which is what I've been doing ever since. Though, watching it on YTV is still fun... sort of.

You have to admit that by not following these eps in their original run, you kind of miss out on everything that was going on in the fandom at the time. Even though anyone can now catch up on these episodes and watch them now, it still won't have the same impact as if you were watching them when they were airing for the first time.

No kidding. But, I do love it when you can watch the episodes and every now and again it contains some kind of blurp that tells you about what was on at the time. It's a little something I like about the "online" episodes.

The only reason why I missed out on most of JLC was mainly because I was part of Scouts (the Canadian equivalent to Boy Scouts), and they'd have regular camps every few weekends. Guess when they'd air new Pokemon episodes? Yup...

C_L

 

[MrPostman]

Since Jessie released her Dustox in a complete rehash of that Butterfree episode. I had been sleeping through some of the more recent DP eps. because DP was so boring, but JUST UGGHHH. Getting up for it was not worth it anymore. The BF was incredibly tempting too (just pure unadulterated garbage).

 

[CyberCubed]

Battle Frontier I skipped altogther and just read the highlights on serebi since it looked interesting at first but turned out to be false.

And how did it turn out to be false? While some of the fillers were dull, it was one of the better arcs of the series. Even Team Rocket and Brock got good screentime in Battle Frontier. Ash had his most fully evolved team at the time, (again, until we got into late DP), and if you never watched some of the Frontier Brains/Contests that region, its kinda sad. You don't actually realize how boring the contest rivalries in DP are (excluding Ursula of course) until you go back and watch some of those older contests. Then you'll see why everyone complained.

Oh yeah, I remember that. It got to the point where Pokemon was their "big hit" at the time and even went as far as making a contest during the two parter with Kyogre/Groudon (although, let's face it, TG arc was better... even though it was lacking).

KidsWB promoted the hell out of it. I remember how they aired Movie 7 on Saturday Mornings too. I believe that was the only movie to actually air on the KidsWB block.

The only reason why I missed out on most of JLC was mainly because I was part of Scouts (the Canadian equivalent to Boy Scouts), and they'd have regular camps every few weekends. Guess when they'd air new Pokemon episodes? Yup...

C_L

Well most of JLC was filler. Johto filler at its worse. I think there are only 20 episodes from that season that are actually important, the other batch are all filler.

 

[NES]

Well i've missed a lot of episodes, in all seasons, i think the longest break was right after Roark i stopped watching the show until Kotone made an appearance, i returned to watch the show because of curiosity.

It seems like just about everyone originally gave up on the show at some point in Johto.

Actually my break in Johto might be longer, i just remember watching the league lol and some episode here and there... but yeah i lost interest of the show right there and returned until Hoenn introduced new characters and stuff. Probably the longest, for how many years Johto was going?

Full seasons i watched were Kanto, Orange Islands and battle frontier.

I often watch old episodes to know what i missed.

 

[CyberCubed]

Johto went on for 3 years, it was 150 episodes.

Johto originally aired in 2001, 2002, and early 2003 in the U.S. R/S didn't come out in the U.S. will November 2003, so the Hoenn eps didn't start for awhile.

 

[Platinum fan.]

And how did it turn out to be false? While some of the fillers were dull, it was one of the better arcs of the series. Even Team Rocket and Brock got good screentime in Battle Frontier. Ash had his most fully evolved team at the time, (again, until we got into late DP), and if you never watched some of the Frontier Brains/Contests that region, its kinda sad. You don't actually realize how boring the contest rivalries in DP are (excluding Ursula of course) until you go back and watch some of those older contests. Then you'll see why everyone complained.


Well I was having a fallout with Pokemon at the time, I was just disappointed that the Battle Frontier wasn't as unique with using special rules or battling a powerful trainers before the brains. I admit I would have loved to see Ash use rental Pokemon to win serious battles. From what I saw the BF were gym leaders using some legendaries. That's why I was disappointed in the BF, but I will spend some time to watch it when I find the time, that's all. It's not like I flat out said the BF was so horrible like you do with Johto. I just choose to see the highlights on how everything turned out. Some of the few battles I actually watched were May's GF vs Drew and Solidad.

 

[CyberCubed]

Well I was having a fallout with Pokemon at the time, I was just disappointed that the Battle Frontier wasn't as unique with using special rules or battling a powerful trainers before the brains.

I never really did understand why they did away with the special BF rules, but after that initial surprise I didn't care so much. Battle Frontier also brought back lots of Ash's old Pokemon that hadn't been used since Johto.

From what I saw the BF were gym leaders using some legendaries. That's why I was disappointed in the BF,

Why would that bother you? Noland used Articuno and Brandon had the 3 Regi's, but you're acting like that was a bad thing.

Seeing Ash's Charizard be strong enough to go head to head with an Articuno was not only impressive, but it showed that Charizard's training wasn't for nothing and he was actually growing stronger.

 

[Platinum fan.]

I never really did understand why they did away with the special BF rules, but after that initial surprise I didn't care so much. Battle Frontier also brought back lots of Ash's old Pokemon that hadn't been used since Johto.



Why would that bother you? Noland used Articuno and Brandon had the 3 Regi's, but you're acting like that was a bad thing.

Seeing Ash's Charizard be strong enough to go head to head with an Articuno was not only impressive, but it showed that Charizard's training wasn't for nothing and he was actually growing stronger.

True. I admit I do feel bad for skipping the BF, Because I really do enjoy most of Ash's battles and May's contest. From what I saw from the highlights it was better then other saga's. But Like I said the only one's I have actually saw were May's Grand Festival and some of the Brain battles, Recently I saw the Regis and Anabel, I've been watching out of order. And I don't mind them using Legendaries either, I thought it was about time. Once I get some real time off my jobs I plan on rewatching some old sagas and finishing the BF saga. Truthfully I've just gotten back into Pokemon after a long absence, Kinda embrassing huh?

 

[Charmbracelet]

When Misty left, I stopped watching for like almost 2 years...

But then I came back onboard LOL

 

[Jesse GS the II]

I've gone on a couple of long hiatuses over the years. My first one was kinda mandatory - my cable provider stopped carrying Kids' WB in the summer of 2000, and I had to wait until my dad switched to a new provider in the fall to get caught up, so I missed a lot of later Orange Islands episodes.

The second time was in late 2001/early 2002. I had two main reasons for walking away from the show; first, it was the middle of Johto, and things were getting monotonous. Second, I was in my sophomore year in high school, and it was common knowledge among my classmates that I still watched "Pokémon". Thus, I had no friends, and I made myself stop liking the show so I would fit in with everyone else. (High school was pretty brutal when I think about it.) When I went away to college in the fall of 2004, I found out that people there didn't care about what I did and didn't like, so I gradually got back into it, quickly playing catch-up on everything that had changed since the arrival in Hoenn.

And then, just a few months later, I stopped watching again - in a way. When I'd first laid eyes on the show in 1999, I was an impressionable 12-year-old who really had no sense of quality control. In 2005, I was 18, and a little more aware of whether or not something I watched on TV was bad. "Pokémon" was bad. At least, the dub was - Season 7 was practically the height of 4Kids making bonehead mistakes, cutting out random things, and pulling scripts out of their ***. I thought "Hmm, maybe the Japanese version would be more entertaining." So I downloaded a few Japanese episodes and was promptly blown away by how much better the music and voice acting was, and how much more real the characters felt. I haven't watched the dub since - aside from the Season 9 premiere in 2006, to see whether or not PUSA did a better job than 4Kids did. I wasn't very impressed. I've stayed faithful to the Japanese version ever since.

 

[~Silver Aura~]

*Dedicated pokemon fan coming through*

I've never ever had a hiatus I'm still watching pokemon to this day. The anime was my first dose of pokemon I can't just toss it aside like a pair of dirty socks. So yeah still watching the anime and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

 

[Yamato-san]

technically, you could say that I was on hiatus when the series started. Oh, this takes me back. As "luck" would have it, just a few months before the Pokemon craze hit America, my family moved away from a region that had both WB and local networks that would end up happening to air the first 40-something episodes, to an area that had neither. Aside from having to watch stuff on an antennae in between living in a condo and finding a permanent home, when we finally did get cable, they didn't have it. Being interested in Pokemon through the video games, I wanted to watch the show, and finally got to when my brother got the first volume of the VHS for his birthday. Afterwards, I would continue trying to collect the following volumes, until one day, my cable provider suddenly got WB for reasons unknown. This was in the middle of the Orange Islands arc... my collection of VHSes managed to extend up to the 8th gym. I filled in the rest of the gap with reruns (though I'd already read spoilers on the internet).

I would create another large gap a few years later, when I'd start downloading Japanese episodes around the time of Adan's Gym, when the dub was barely around the point that Grovyle was evolving. I got off the dub almost completely here (probably a good thing given how god-awful Grovyle's voice was, to say nothing of the worsening changes in background music), and started rewatching AG in Japanese from the first episode.

It seems like just about everyone originally gave up on the show at some point in Johto.

Here's a question:

Did anyone here actually watch all the Johto episodes in their original run? I'm quite curious if anyone made it through all of Johto when it was "brand new" and airing for the first time.

I tried to, but I think on a few occasions, Kids WB would make some unannounced schedule change. There was also a matter of Digimon being on at the same time, but I might've resolved that on some weeks either by watching one of the shows air an encore later that week (did they have encores? Digimon might've), or taping one of them and watching the other on a different TV. Meh, my memory's foggy, but I do remember managing to watch almost all of Jouto's Engish dub as it was airing, with just a few select episodes missing (I think some of the key ones missing were around when the dub title changed from Johto Journeys to Johto League Champions).

I never really did stop watching entirely.

Like most people, I almost originally gave up on the show back at the mid-point of Johto. Both Charizard and Squirtle had left Ash's roster (which at the time, we didn't know if they would come back), the GS ball was dropped with no closure, and all those tedious Johto fillers were coming in at full force.

I decided to stick with Johto in hopes it'd get better, (to be fair, the tail-end of Johto was an improvement), and went from there.

So I can't say I ever did stop watching, and I have actually seen every episode of the show at least once. But Johto was truly the only time where I was *really* tempted to give up for good. I'm glad I stuck with it though.

although I did stick out all of Jouto, the ridiculous string of fillers in Johto League Champions was really turning me off (not only that, but I think there was a summer of reruns occuring sometime after Bayleaf's evolution and Kecleon makings its premier). One day, I felt that I didn't check up on Japanese spoilers in a while, but when I finally did, I was kinda looking forward to what lay ahead. They'd finally get to the next Gym... which would actually lead to the Whirl Islands, featuring a Lugia mini-arc. Sometime after that was done, Fushigidane would finally leave, Satoshi would get an egg with a Gomazou, and some other things as the arc finally approached its end (though I don't think I spoiled the league, yet). I was even more excited when I found downloads of the Japanese openings for the first time, including the spoilering Ready, Go! It was pretty awesome, making it seem like Satoshi would get a Yogiras, practically all of his reserve roster being there, etc. Little did I know, at least some of that would be a disappointment. Hell, I'll never forget how when the dub actually did get to Ash getting Phanpy, the episode in question was very crappy (Ash runs around trying to get a Pokemon he just hatched into a ball -_-). Maybe it was the spoilers, but as much as I wanted things of relevance happening through all of Jouto, I then realized that important episodes don't always equate to good episodes (and let this be a lesson to anyone else reading this).

 

[SoulSilverMstr411]

I'm ashamed to say it's been at least 3 or 4 years since I've watched the show on a reguluar basis. But I still catch the odd episode whenever I can. Thank God for online episode guides!

 

[Profesco]

It seems like just about everyone originally gave up on the show at some point in Johto.

Here's a question:

Did anyone here actually watch all the Johto episodes in their original run? I'm quite curious if anyone made it through all of Johto when it was "brand new" and airing for the first time.

I did. I enjoyed them, too. The first time I ever heard the theme of Johto Journeys, I became absolutely entwined with the series. I never skipped a weekend episode during Johto. I don't remember the Johto saga being as horrible as everyone here seems to repeatedly accuse it of being. Seems like a lot of exaggeration to me most of the time.

Anyway, I never hiatused from the show. I started watching with Kanto and I've been keeping up on it ever since. These days I am usually so worn out by Saturday morning that I don't wake up in time to see it on TV, so I watch it by other means, but I do still watch every episode.


From the first moment I discovered Pokemon, there has never been another fandom that took my attention quite as much. Pokemon is my single focal hobby. I can't imagine spending more of my free time on some other show or game.

 

[Kotone]

I didn't watch alot since it got bad after johto