Shadao
Aim to be a Pokémon Master
This question is for fans who grew up with Pokémon during the late 90s and early 2000s. Recently, I've been looking through old, surviving websites to see what the fandom reception towards Ash like back in the day, and I realized that the character that Ash was based on, Red, was rarely mentioned if at all. Nintendo Power's strategy guide back in 1998 called Red "Ash" and Ash was pretty much synonymous with main human protagonist as far as mainstream media is concerned. Yet I know that the character Red rose to prominence as a separate character from Ash in the late 2000s, but I don't know when and how exactly that started.
I only came into online Pokémon fandom as a lurker in the late 2007, so I don't know what exactly happened before that time period. And since the late 90s/early 2000s was the era of early Internet that saw many website defunct in present, it's going to be a hard one to find on my own. So I ask fans from the 90s and 2000s, when and how did you first heard of Red?
I only came into online Pokémon fandom as a lurker in the late 2007, so I don't know what exactly happened before that time period. And since the late 90s/early 2000s was the era of early Internet that saw many website defunct in present, it's going to be a hard one to find on my own. So I ask fans from the 90s and 2000s, when and how did you first heard of Red?