With Gahn as my witness, I will *always* love Pokemon. It's great that there are so many people that share this interest with me; if it weren't for Pokemon's popularity, we'd probably be without the new episodes, tons and tons of Pokemon-related products, and a movie...but for the love of James, the whole TREND thing is starting to annoy the crap out of me. A year ago, I could wear my Pikachu shirt, and nobody would recognize it but the *true* Pokemon fans. Now, wherever I go, I'm at risk of being called a "Trend freak", or having people yell "Pokemon sucks! It's for ten-year olds!" or something along those lines. (Either that, or I have people yelling stuff like "PIKA PIKA!" or "BULBA BULBA!" at me...) Well, I am *proud* to say, I'm sixteen, and I've been an avid fan of anime most of my life. I can remember, back in the day...it was probably around September of '98, when Pokemon first debuted in America, I thought "Hey...it's anime! It's gotta be cool!" My friends and I started watching it, every morning at six while getting ready for marching band (which started at 6:30...), then we'd spend first hour talking about the episode. Good times. Nowadays, every time I try to go to the mall to get myself some cool Pokemon stuff, I have to push through humongous crowds of screaming little snot-nosed brats. I know that's harsh, but it makes me very angry, because *they* are the fad-followers. Pokemon is nothing to them but the "flavor of the month". It's *insane*. I went to go watch the Pokemon movie on Wednesday night, and even though I live in a teeny-tiny podunk town with a fair-sized theatre, the theatre was PACKED with little tykes who wouldn't SHUT UP after the movie started, who wouldn't stop yelling stuff like "HEY LOOK, MOMMY, IT'S MEW! MEWMEWMEWMEWMEW!!!" I mean, kids are *stabbing each other* for cards, the game is being exiled on playgrounds all over the country, Baptist ministers are burning Pokemon toys, psychologists are even comparing Pokemon obsessions to alcohol and drug addictions. It's all of *those* people that are making Pokemon look bad. I understand that many of us are true fans, and we'll still like Pokemon *after* the whole craze is over. But currently, I'm starting to get rather annoyed. I'm able to laugh at it all, though, because I know that it will end eventually, and then, I'll get *huge* discounts on all the Poke-merchandise I could never afford ^_^.