TRAINER'S EYE #78 - "Memories Sent In Rowlet Feathers" ft. Johto Times

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Johto Times, a Pokemon Trainer from the U.K and founder of the Johto Times newsletter. The Johto Times is a Pokemon-focused newsletter publishing weekly content with a focus on personal memories and nostalgia.

Johto Times shares their Pokemon journey starting during the initial days of Pokemania where Pokemon first arrived and people across the world bought the games and trading cards. Johto Times shares his first experience playing Pokemon and shares why the Johto region games are his favorite games.

Johto Times eventually transitions to talking about his experience with Pokemon GO and playing in his small town. He shares what he enjoys about the game and how it resembled when he first experience Pokemon when he was younger.

Finally, Johto Times shares why he started a Pokemon newsletter and his goals to see what the newsletter becomes in the future. He gives insight in how he chooses his guests for interviews and some of the rare Pokemon toys he has collected over the years and some of his favorite parts of Pokemon history he had the privilege to cover. 

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with Johto Times: Website | Twitter 

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to as the Pokemon Turns. Our journey takes us to the uk where we meet a founder of a Pokemon centric newsletter centered around the idea of preserving memories and the history of Pokemon. The newsletter's goal is to preserve the history of the early Pokemon fan community and to recollect what it was like for Pokemon fans growing up in the late nineties and early two thousands. It does this by releasing content about events, reader submissions, photos, and interviews with past time guests such as the band members from one of the Pokemon theme songs. Here is its origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is Johto Times. Today, I'm joined by Johto Times. They are a Pokemon focused newsletter created back in February of 2023, where they publish weekly content every Thursday with a focus on opinions, personal memories, and nostalgia. Johto Times, welcome to the show!

Johto Times: 1:35

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

David Hernandez: 1:38

For sure. Now, let's start from the beginning. So, what's your first experience with PokemoOh, goodness, n?

Johto Times: 1:42

So I first started with Pokemon back in 1999. I'm from the UK and that's the year that it hit. So I was right there, Pokemania, everyone, like it was everywhere. You could not get away from it. I was, the perfect age, the perfect sort of target demograph for this. the problem was that, We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so I couldn't get a hold of the games and the trading cards until later, so I think it was probably a year later where we got Pokemon cards and then I think 2001 is when I got Pokemon Blue and a Game Boy Color, and then a few months after that it was Crystal and Crystal and Johto was just Absolutely incredible. I adore those games and it just kind of kept going from there. I bought every other game on release day after that. It was, you know, I wasn't going to miss any more. I think by that point my friends had caught kind of, Come off Pokemon a little bit. They'd moved away from it. but that's when I started to go online and I started to talk to other fans and, chat with them about Pokemon. Even the anime, the anime, I'd wake up at like seven 13 in the morning. I'd rush downstairs, hit record on the VCR and just record to watch it later.

David Hernandez: 2:50

VCR, you take me way back now. If you're listening, you don't know what a VCR is. It was like a big box, and what was it? Cartridge. And you put it in, and then it plays the little, Toot! Kind of sound effect.

Johto Times: 3:01

please don't say we've reached a point in life where we have to explain what VCR Is this what it's like to be old? Now, I feel very old these days.

David Hernandez: 3:10

We've reached a point where we have to explain DVDs.

Johto Times: 3:12

Oh, no. And this make, this is bad because before we had a VCR, I had a Betamax. Is it Betamax? Betamax? Uh, which is even older than that. That goes back even further, which I think was better quality, but anyway, that's not the point. I

David Hernandez: 3:24

Is that like the 8 Tracks or something like that?

Johto Times: 3:26

think so. They're just smaller tapes, but apparently the tape was better quality. I'm not sure. I was very young at the time, but, again, we didn't have a lot of money. So we had a lot of older things that we kept a hold off.

David Hernandez: 3:37

Now, you mentioned how you were online trying to find the communities or you're part of the communities. Now, this is, of course, before, I guess, the days of Discord and what we have now. What were, like, some sites that you would visit to just kind of engage with other people with Pokémon?

Johto Times: 3:49

Oh goodness. So I think one of the very first websites that I ever visited was a website called the Pokemon Masters. And I would go online because I didn't have an in internet connection at home. so I used to go onto like the computers at school, drawing it lessons and then sort of like quickly minimize it when the teacher came around. but I would we all did it. And then it was PokeMasters, Serebii, of course Serebii was around that time as well. Pokemon Elite 2000. just loads of great sites, but they were very different than, you know, now you've got like just a few that survived from those days and everything else is just Facebook and YouTube shorts and TikToks and it's just not the same. I feel back then you went to these sites and they were just so personalized. Everyone, you know, there were sections for things that they had like a fan art section and fan fiction and, you know, even like gifts and all kinds of things. And I feel like. Um, forums, you know, forums were a huge thing, and I'd be on various forums chatting away, and that encouraged discussion, whereas now I feel like discussion is dictated to you. you sort of have, like, a Facebook page that will put out a question or something, then you get responses to that, and you don't really have control, and, you know, and then things get lost in algorithms and all that kind of stuff, and I miss the days of where people were creative in different ways, and the control was with the user that owned that community. And they had that, originality. They could do what they wanted and hopefully, we can go back to those times. It is happening. Like, there's a really thriving community on NeoCities, which was like GeoCities back then, but like old style websites. But they're modern, I guess. they're really cool. There's a few great Pokemon communities just on that platform alone.

David Hernandez: 5:31

Now, of course, you're known as Johto time. So is that kind of your favorite region?

Johto Times: 5:35

Oh, as I said crystal, I adored that game I just absolutely loved The Johto region, it was, it was great. So it was a very easy choice when it came to choosing a name and times, obviously, cause it's, it's like a newsletter. So yeah, Johto Times just, it just seemed to work really well.

David Hernandez: 5:50

So what was it about Pokemon crystal that really what, what about that game makes it your favorite?

Johto Times: 5:55

It's very easy, this one, so I've mentioned this a few times, I Just remember playing Pokemon Blue on a Game Boy Color, and I'm not sure if you've used the Game Boy Color but, when you put in a regular Game Boy game that's normally on, like, a sort of green Game Boy screen, usually, when you put them onto that console. It does colorize them, and you can sort of see a bit of color, and I just assumed, oh, that's, that's the Game Boy Color, well that's neat, that's cool, and then, Pokemon Crystal went into there and it's a whole different thing, like, the vibrancy of the color, like, just putting that cartridge in, I remember vividly, I'd been shopping, I really wanted Pokemon Silver, and I'd been saving up my pocket money to get Pokemon Silver, absolutely determined, Lugia, the best one, yeah, absolutely have to have it. I was in stores just holding the box, reading the back, just, like, really wanting this game. So I saved up all my money, went to the store, and Silver wasn't in stock. The guy at the counter said, well, Pokémon Crystal's just come out, and it's an improvement. over silver and, you know, waiting weeks, months for this game, thinking to myself, well, I kind of really want to get silver. But he said, look, I promise you that you will appreciate this one more. So I took his word, didn't go home immediately. Mum decided to take a detour to my brother's house. So I ended up, I couldn't wait, sat on my brother's floor Just turned on this, Game Boy Color, and you see the title screen, and the title screen is just, Suicune running across this field, and the Unown sort of flashing, and then the music comes in, you see the sprites of, Pichu coming out of the grass, and all this color, and it just blew me away, like, I'm amazed that the game looks this good, I guess that was like shock factor for me, was like, wow, this is like a whole other level, like, now, when you play it on an emulator or something, it's not, it hasn't got the same sort of kick as, as going from blue to crystal. It was, it was quite a step forward and of course after crystal going to pokemon ruby and sapphire on the game boy advance was an even larger jump. but there was just something really special about that time and it was just a really, really good time, so I have some very strong, very, positive memories of crystal.

David Hernandez: 7:56

You mentioned a lot about how, not only those games, revolutionized Pokemon experiences, because you think about the day and night mechanic, you know, before that we just knew regular one colors that changed with the towns, if you're lucky.

Johto Times: 8:06

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 8:06

and then you mentioned how, you know, you got the different vibrant colors of the cutscene and the different Pokemon, and was very, it really drawed you into that region,

Johto Times: 8:16

It really did, and another thing that I should add as well is that, if I didn't have a Game Boy Color and I just had, like, a regular Game Boy or something, and I wanted to play Crystal, I wouldn't have been able to, because Crystal was a Game Boy Color exclusive, so I got very lucky in the console that I had matching up with the game that I had, so it could have been a very different experience with Pokémon. I wouldn't have been able to play it, I still have it. I never got rid of it. I've, I will always it. Yeah, I've still got it to this day.

David Hernandez: 8:42

Does it still work or it still safe?

Johto Times: 8:45

sorry, no, it doesn't save, no, but, uh, that's fine. I'm happy to just leave that as it is. I do have an additional copy of Crystal that I do plan to change the battery on at some point. Plus HeartGoldSoulSilver is a very, very fun game and I still have copies of that as well, so I can still enjoy the Johto region.

David Hernandez: 9:00

Well, let's talk about those real quick. How do you like those adaptations to your favorite region?

Johto Times: 9:04

Oh, they're a masterpiece. They're so good. Like, they were so faithful, and they put so much love into those games. It really is a dream come true for a fan to go from that game to this incredible game. They improved in almost every way, and I love them to bits. And this is why, you know, I've got friends that started and played with Diamond and Pearl growing up, and then they get Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and it's a very different feeling. There's some, you know, there's a lot of people that really do not like those games. I'm certainly one of those people. I feel like they, I don't want to be too negative, but I think the majority of people listening to this probably understand where I'm coming from when they, hear that I'm dissatisfied with those games. It's a real shame. I wish that people that grew up with Diamond and Pearl had the same, sort of connection with the game like I did with, Gold, Silver, and Crystal to HeartGold and SoulSilver..

David Hernandez: 9:56

The last question in regards to just the video games, if you're going to do a playthrough of Pokemon Crystal, what six Pokemon would you choose?

Johto Times: 10:03

Oh my goodness, so, that's a tough one. I should have prepared for that question, shouldn't I? Um, I, I think I would try and sort of replicate the team that I had back then, and it was just a mix of all kinds of different Pokémon. I like some really weird, odd Pokémon. Like, I'm a fan of Fortress, for example. I don't know why, I just liked the fact that it could use spikes, and every time a new Pokémon came in they'd take damage. I just thought that was really cool. And I do like the steel type, so Steelix I also really like. I probably wouldn't have both of them in a team, because of the type, and I'd probably try and go for something like, like a nice mix of them, so. I also really like Jumpluff as well. I had a Jumpluff in my team that I took all the way to level 100, for some reason, so I love Jumpluff. so I probably, I'd probably bring Jumpluff along. I'm not a competitive Pokémon player, you could probably tell. Um, Jumpluff, I probably,

David Hernandez: 10:53

your team. You can choose whatever six Pokemon you want.

Johto Times: 10:55

yeah, so I think I would go with Steelix, Jumpluff, Poliwrath. Because I had one of those. I'd probably bring Charizard back over from blue. I'd probably want him in there. Victreebel or maybe Misdreavus? I thought Misdreavus was really cool when I was a kid. I would probably lose immediately, but still that would be probably my team off the top of my head that I would go for.

David Hernandez: 11:16

I think the only thing I didn't like about Mistribious is that you had to wait till the end of the game to

Johto Times: 11:20

Oh yeah, yeah.

David Hernandez: 11:22

was like you cuz he didn't get you didn't get one to Mount Silver and it was in the cave I think at night and I'm like, what's the point of this? It's like the game's already over I'm not gonna bring it into red Yes,

Johto Times: 11:34

continued to play Crystal way beyond that. And I had a local friend that I would battle with and trade. And I guess one thing that's missing from that experience these days, because people don't really play second gen and trade with link cables and things. You have the battle house in Viridian and you could play like a CPU version of. that training. You know what I'm talking about? And we would use that and you could level up your team way, way more using that. So we easily got to level 100 and I also used the, pocket Pikachu as well, to do like a mystery gift to my friend every day. And, we'd share things like that. So that was really great. Not mixed records. What's it called? You could use the infrared port on the top of the, Game Boy Colors, and you could do a mystery gift once a day. so we got loads of cool items, and, I remember one time I got a Nintendo 64 for my room in the game as, like, a little item, like dolls you could get, but this was a Nintendo 64. And my friend got a plant, and he was so upset, like, tears, like Crying, because he didn't get a Nintendo 64 that he just went home and I didn't see him for the rest of the day, and I just, I was smiling that I got this Nintendo 64. I was absolutely delighted with that, But just little memories like that just come to the forefront and it's like, it was just such a good generation. I loved it so much.

David Hernandez: 12:50

For those who may not know what we're talking about. So there was a little house in Viridian and whenever you, I think it was a mystery gift or you just had to interact with the game, like

Johto Times: 12:58

I think you, you needed to, like, trade or battle or just do a mystery gift. It might have been a mystery gift, I can't remember. It's so long since I've done it.

David Hernandez: 13:06

I know it's been a while for me too. So basically, you know, you had to interact with somebody else somehow. We don't remember which way it was. And what was fun about it is that when you go to this battle house, they'd be a trainer. And the last trainer we interacted with, they would bring a team, I believe, of level 50 of whatever Pokemon they had in the party at the time of the interaction. So you got to face a CPU of, for example, I guess in your case, you battled your friends, level 50 whenever you went into that

Johto Times: 13:31

Yeah. Exactly. I think when you first battle, I think it's Kal, I think, there's like a trainer called Kal, and you can fight his Pokemon.

David Hernandez: 13:39

It's coming back to me. It's been a minute, but it's finished to me

Johto Times: 13:42

But it was a great way of levelling up because Johto, it was terrible to get experience after a certain point. So, how on earth are you supposed to defeat Red in Mount Silver when you've got like level 60 Pokemon, because that's about as high as I could get. And then you've got his team with like level 80, whatever, and it's like, this is going to be very, very difficult. So you have to grind, but at least with, trading and doing the battle house with my friend, you could easily get those levels up. but you could only do it once per day. So it meant that you had to get back over there, get down that street, take your link cables, and just start battling.

David Hernandez: 14:14

So, eventually, you know, we fast forward to 2016 and Pokemon Go comes out. I know you play Pokemon Go, so did you start day one or did you come in afterwards?

Johto Times: 14:21

I think I started On the day, because I don't think it came to the UK the same day as it came to the US, but I got an APK I just played it on my phone regardless. It's like, I'm not missing out on Pokemon Go. so I played it and my battery was terrible. I didn't have data on my phone and it was just, it wasn't working. and it was down a lot. I remember that. It was just inundated with like people trying to connect all the time constantly and it was just down, down, down all the time. but yes, those like first few weeks of playing Pokemon, it was back. Pokemon was back for everyone. Everyone was enjoying it. You know, just the crazy videos that I saw online of like, I think it was like, A hundred people plus running down a beach because there was a Blastoise or something I remember seeing and it was like, that was crazy times. And it just felt like a complete restart for Pokemon, like everyone was like talking about it, everybody wanted to play the games, games were just selling out.

David Hernandez: 15:15

What's your favorite way to play Pokemon Go?

Johto Times: 15:17

I do like to play it on my own. It's nice. It's a great excuse to get out of the house and just, have a nice walk and just explore new places that I haven't been before. that was kind of the, the main sort of selling point of the game for me. but also finding local communities and actually speaking to people who play it locally, and meeting up with them I did make some good friends. But sadly that fell away over time, people, started doing their own thing and obviously the pandemic happened and, that sort of prevented a lot of those meeting up. So I think a lot of the smaller communities in my area kind of died at that point, but you still get the odd people here and there playing it, and sometimes it's like a little nod and a wave, like, I see what you're playing there, and you know, so that still, that still happens, but I live in a small, sort of like, on the outskirts of a town, so it's more of a village, and you don't really see that many people around, so it's more of a rural area where I live.

David Hernandez: 16:06

Did you feel like when Pokemon Go came out and the Pokemania was kind of going at that point that it was similar to back when we first started playing in 1990s?

Johto Times: 16:14

Definitely, yeah. It felt like it was just everybody wanted to play Pokemon Go and I've not seen anything quite like that since, and I don't think we'll see anything like it again. That was like day one of Pokemon in 1999 for me. everybody was just talking about it, it was in the news, it was, it was just everywhere, wasn't it? It was, it was crazy. Which is fantastic, you know, as a Pokemon fan it's like, wow, everyone's playing Pokemon again, this is amazing. and I think this was around the time where I kind of stopped playing Pokemon, I wasn't playing it much at all, so it was nice for me to come back and actually explore that. You know, that was just Pokémon for a few years for me and then it died off again a little bit and then I came back to it. I tend to do that with Pokémon these days, just kind of fall off and then come back.

David Hernandez: 16:53

You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Now, moving forward, eventually you decide to start the Johto Times. Why did you want to start the Johto Times? What was the reasoning behind it?

Johto Times: 17:57

I've always written about games and, and sort of. communicated with people in, in the games industry. Not, not on a high level. I'm certainly not going to call myself a games journalist or anything, but I've reviewed AAA games and I've had, my writing in print and I've always enjoyed writing about things I kind of lost interest a bit, and I wanted to do something different, and I just thought, well, wouldn't it be great to write about Pokemon, and originally it was just going to be a WordPress blog or something. I was just going to write about my memories of Pokemon and just share them with anyone that was interested in listening. And then I thought, well, what about a mailing list or a newsletter? So we went for this newsletter and I put out a few issues, and it went really well. There was a lot of really positive comments, and, the subscribers started to shoot up, and it was like, wow, okay, let's keep doing this. And we just expanded it from there, and, I think as of December, I think we reached, 500 subscribers, which for me is a huge number. I expected to maybe get a hundred. in a whole year and we got that the first month. And then, people, came to me and said, Hey, you know, if you thought about contacting this person or having an interview with these people and it just kind of built from there really. So we've been doing interviews and people's memories and, sharing opinion pieces and collections and, you know, then you put some news in there and you put a mailbag in there in case people want to, like, contact the site and, share their, creative endeavors like any artwork or, you know, if they've got a tattoo that they want to share, you know, depending on where it is, they'll take a picture of it and send Um,

David Hernandez: 19:24

Oh my gosh, have you seen a lot of bear, behinds a lot

Johto Times: 19:28

I, not yet, not yet, but you know, we're only a year in, so let's see what happens in the future. But it's great to see people just write in and share their memories, you know, of like when they attended an event or something. and I try and get those published on the site because it's really nice to get people's, memories and sort of just, Capture them for future generations to look at, especially if they've got photographs because it's just a really nice window into the past that we're never going to see again. the very first one that we did was, a Mew distribution event, the Millennium Dome in London in the year 2000. And that was great, like, just, just seeing the photographs from that era. it's just really special, and I think that does resonate with people, whether they grew up in that era, or they, they're new fans, and they don't remember those times, but they want to learn about it. They want to see what it was like for those people back then. and I want to keep doing that. I also like the idea of preserving the history of the Pokémon fan community, so we've done lots of interviews with, websites. From back then, like I mentioned, Pokémasters and Pokémon Elite 2000, we did interview, the former webmaster of Pokemon Elite 2000, which was someone that I used to speak to when I was a kid. Um, I'd go to their sites and then, um, speak to a few of them and we kept in touch. And, when I did this newsletter I thought, oh, wouldn't it be cool if I could recontact them again and just see what they're up to these days? And actually quite a lot of old friendships have been rekindled because of this newsletter, so that's been really nice.

David Hernandez: 20:55

One thing that I got to check out when you streamed on Twitch is you got to show off your Pokemon collection. And a lot of unique items that I remember collecting a kid that I obviously don't have now but you've been able to preserve. can you share like some of your most like prized

Johto Times: 21:08

Oh goodness right. Well obviously I have shared quite a few on Twitch and I've put some on the, Johto Times, website as well and I've shared them in the newsletters but, I think some of my favorites is probably the Pokémon Mini. I really loved the Pokémon Mini growing up and I don't know anybody else that has one that I know, like, personally, but I was able to buy a couple of games back then, and then I went to, a gaming event about ten years ago, and I saw Pokemon Pinball Mini, and it was factory sealed. And they were like, well, I don't know what this is, you can have it for, like, five pounds or something. I'm like Thank you. Yes, I'll grab that. Um, and it's still sealed. I haven't opened it yet. Not because I, I like the idea of keeping them sealed. It's just I haven't had an opportunity to play it. But now I'm thinking, well, I should maybe just keep it sealed. I also have probably one of the rarer ones, which was, Pokemon Tetris, which I think only got a release in Portugal for some reason. there's quite a few that was released in Japan and I probably won't ever get those because they're worth hundreds and hundreds and I'm just not going to spend that much money. but I have, probably another one that I really appreciate is, Jun'ichi Masuda and Sugimori, autograph, from Omega Ruby. they had, like, a sign in event, and I happened to know someone that was running that event, and I couldn't make it, so they got me an autograph, uh, just in time for Christmas. I also collect, video game music albums. So I have Almost all of the, Pokemon mainline video game albums, I even have Pokemon Red and Green from Japan, but, yeah, those are some really nice things that I have.

David Hernandez: 22:35

Another thing I love about your newsletter is you've done a lot of unique interviews and from one interview to another, for me, I always look for people that I want to interview who interest me, who got a story that I feel like, other people need to listen to. My first question would be like, how do you pick people you want to interview? Like, what do you look for when it comes to trying to have people within your newsletter?

Johto Times: 22:55

So in terms of like people that I want to interview. Obviously people would just assume, Oh, go for like the really famous people, you know, try and interview those But I really like to speak to people that ran. Like old Pokemon websites and sort of get their angle of what it was like to run a community and run a website back then because they were there at the start as well And they were the ones that were you know Sharing like the latest news and stuff and they really sort of sharing all this stuff as it broke. So it's really good to interview those people. It's really good as well to also speak to people That are just, you know, regular Joes, just, you know, playing Pokemon and grew up with it, and maybe they had Pokemon Red and Blue at Christmas and they opened it up and, you know, they got it from under the tree and just opened it up and played it all day. Those kinds of people are fantastic to talk to because they're passionate whereas I feel like people that are maybe a little bit more famous, they were paid to do a job and maybe their experiences aren't as great, maybe there was a lot of pressure on them to, get those jobs done, but, it's always really cool as well to speak to people that had a direct connection with Pokemon. So, for example, Michael Hageny we interviewed, and he was the voice director for the Pokémon anime, and he was the voice of Psyduck and Charmander and Snorlax and dozens of Pokemon, which just blew me away. I was like, this is amazing. You know, actually learning about his, history of how he got into the industry and how he got that role and, you know, the things that he's done since then, it was just really special. to speak to someone like that, and I try and ask questions that other people haven't asked, because I like to add to the conversation. I like to add something that they haven't heard before, which I think is really important, because you imagine they probably get the same sort of, question all the time about what was it like to work with, you know, whoever, and, and, uh, you know, what's it like to, how did you come up with the voice of this character, and it's questions that they've heard before, and, and while it's to include those questions. I do like to sort of ask more about them, keep it personal, so it's like, well, how did you get into this in the first place? What was it like, working your way up the ladder to get to that position? Those kinds of things I think is really important. Show them that you take an interest in them. so yeah, there's been some really great people and I'm very, very privileged to even had their time, for that, because, you know, in the grand scheme of things. Johto Times is still relatively small. It's a small project. It doesn't reach a huge number of people. You know, we're not IGN. We're not these, like, you know, we don't reach millions of people. so it's nice that they've given us the time to do that. I hope it continues. I hope we manage to speak to all kinds of different people.

David Hernandez: 25:28

You know, the one thing about your interviews is your interview guests are just as diverse as probably one that I could imagine. You've had people like Chris Nicola, who created the Pokedex toy. You the musical group behind the totally Pokemon album, which I didn't know was a thing until I read the article and then people who hosted fan sites, like you said. How do you find some of these people?'cause some of these people we're talking maybe 20, 25 years have passed since we may have even heard of'em, or we may never heard of'em. Like how do you about trying to find the you cover?

Johto Times: 25:56

so I'm very fortunate like I said before I used to do a lot of writing for video games And I've built up a network over time and sometimes I get introduced to people Which is a really good way if you get introduced to someone and say hey, you know this person's I know this person I can vouch for them and I want to introduce you to them because they really want to do an interview and so we can get on talking terms that way and sometimes it's people that I've known from the past, you know, it's people I've had a conversation with and it, and you know, I said, Hey, do you want to just, I'm doing this project now, would you like to get involved with this? And then sometimes it's just the case of being really lucky and just asking politely and saying, Hey, you know, I've got this project. It'd be really great to have you involved and just state the reasons, you know, say, well, you know, I think it'd be great for all these people to learn about the work that you've done. So for example, with Johto, as you said, Not many people know who they are. They don't know, I mean, we all know the music. Do do do do do do do, do do do do do do do. You know, that kind of, Everybody wants to be, I'm not gonna, no. But, you everyone knows that song.

David Hernandez: 26:55

mind. Let's let's do some karaoke. Let's go.

Johto Times: 26:58

Everybody no.

David Hernandez: 26:59

He wants to master. Everybody wants to show their

Johto Times: 27:03

The audio won't sync. It's fine. maybe time. Um, you need to pay me more But no, the, uh, but no geotech. They, they, they're a fantastic band, you know, they're very talented and they, they all came together. They were handpicked and they brought together, and they made all this music, for the anime and for the, the movie. You know, they, they shared it on this one album. I think it did get put onto the Pokémon the 3rd movie as well, their soundtrack. So, almost, you know, two opportunities to, get noticed, but yeah, They did not get the attention that they deserved, and I just thought, well that's a really good reason to interview them. And I, I actually did have contact details for all of them, all six of them, but sadly, one wasn't able to respond for whatever reason, the other one was just super busy, and, and I think it's really important to really respect people, if they can't do something. But we still had a really good interview with the four people that we did. So I was quite content with how that came out, and I got loads of personal photographs from, the archive of, one of the band members, and they shared them and it was, great. You just sort of, again, you see this sort of insight into what it was like for them. You know, there's pictures that have never been seen before, all that kind of stuff. It was, it's just great putting these together sometimes as a fan myself as well, growing up with these. people and the things that they contributed to. it's a real honor to speak to them. So I have to try and not, get starstruck, I guess, and just try and remain as professional as I can.

David Hernandez: 28:28

Has it been difficult to kind of stay calm because I put myself in your shoes and like we'll use the guys from Johto, like you're interviewing the people who actually played the theme song. Like I would be shaking in my boots if I were you. Do you like feel the pressure to have a good interview with them or not even just them, but with anybody else,

Johto Times: 28:43

I just try and remember that they're people, you know, on a human level, we communicate like me and you are doing now and it just becomes easy. And I guess maybe I've just had a bit more practice doing it over the years when I've been working with people, you know, in the games industry. but you do get a bit starstruck and I remember once there was someone that I was interviewing unrelated to Johto Times and, at the end I was kind of like, oh, I'm a huge fan and it was really difficult for me to hold back and I've got, I've got to tell you how much I love you, I think you're great, I love what you're doing, you know, so that was really, really hard. But they understand, you know, they, get that a lot from people, especially it's like, oh, you're the voice of Psyduck, like, what the heck, so.

David Hernandez: 29:21

imagine putting that on your resume.

Johto Times: 29:23

oh yeah, I was the voice of Charmander, you it's, it's great, but the interview is fantastic. I do recommend that you check out those interviews because they are very insightful. I always try and make sure that we get some good answers, from people we've been very lucky with the answers that we've got.

David Hernandez: 29:40

Well, Johto Times, you've been a wonderful guest. I do have one last question before we close this taco stand.

Johto Times: 29:45

Hmm.

David Hernandez: 29:45

for those who may not know, this is actually your one year anniversary. As the newsletter grows, you know, what do you hope Johto times becomes it within the Pokemon community? Like, what do you envision it to be in the longterm?

Johto Times: 29:56

So, when I started, as I said, I just really wanted just a place where I could share my Pokémon memories, but genuinely feel now it's going to be about preserving the past, it's going to be about keeping a record of all of this, like, fan community content from the sort of late 90s, early 2000s era. And It's a resource for people to go back to, where they can learn about all of these sites, all of these events, all of these people, and I really think that's going to be like one of the pillars of this newsletter, and I hope that many years from now, when it finally comes to an end, that there'll be a huge resource there of dozens of interviews, loads of memories. and tons of photographs and stuff where you could just browse through and just really, you know, relive that era, I guess. that's kind of where I would like it to be, but obviously, projects, the scope of a project changes all the time and it could grow, it could shrink, but I will continue to do it as long as I enjoy doing it. I think that's The really important thing there is that it's something that I enjoy doing, which, with my previous projects, I sort of grew a little bit tired of those, but I'm very dedicated and I will keep doing this for as long as I can.

David Hernandez: 31:01

Johto times. Thank you for coming on the show. Before you do go. If people want to check out your newsletter, if they want to check out your content, if they want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

Johto Times: 31:11

Yeah, so, the newsletter, which is the best way of keeping in touch with anything, because it comes out every Thursday and if you subscribe, it goes directly to your email inbox. If you go to Johto.substack.com, you can check out a wealth of stuff that we've already written and is already on that website. and then every new issue you can get directly to your inbox if you type in your email address. it's good for us as well because we get to see exactly who's checking out what and which features are popular and then we know which ones to prioritize in the future. so thank you for, for having this podcast with me. I really appreciate the opportunity to plug, the work that I'm doing, but I also really want to say thank you to all the people that's currently, reading, that it's really great to have your support and to all the guests that we've had. Really appreciate all those people that have given us their time. And, obviously, to the editorial team as well, which is made up of Roy, Dragonfree, Renan, Jim, and Stefan. I should also give thanks to Josh as well, who was editing the newsletter but had to leave in December. really appreciate everything that he did as well. So, yeah, it's been a really big team effort, and it wouldn't be possible without them.

David Hernandez: 32:20

cool beans and I'll make sure to include links, everything he said in the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash as the pokeball turns. Now, if you aren't able to support the show financially, you can always support the show by sharing it with your Pokemon community, because this show wouldn't exist without listeners like you. Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.