Let’s Interview: Johto Times

Johto Times is a Pokémon website that opened on February 2023. Created by Darren, it features interviews with various site owners and creators, as well as articles going over the history of the Pokémon community. In this interview, I speak with Darren about the website, and what he has achieved with Johto Times.

Yep, this time we’re interviewing the folks at Johto Times.

Which in recent times, has become one of our favourite Pokemon sites around. Indeed, as people who’ve interviewed hundreds of creatives ourselves at Gaming Reinvented, we’ve always found it fascinating to read interviews with creators in a fandom or niche hobby. To understand exactly what went into many of our favourite fanworks, and to see what made the people behind them tick.

And we also know what it feels like to always be the interviewer here. To be the person talking to others about their work online rather than getting the chance to explain yourself to anyone else.

So, we thought we’d flip the script. To give Darren and the Johto Times staff the same sort of interview they’d give their own interviewees.

Let’s give the folks at Johto Times an interview in their own style!

The Interview

Who are you? Who runs Johto Times?

Darren: Hey! My name is Darren and I run a Pokémon newsletter called Johto Times, which (mostly) focuses on the late 90s and early 2000s era of Pokémon. It features interviews, memories, collections, opinion pieces, and lots of content. It’s a project that I started back in February 2023, and one of its goals is to document and preserve the early history of Pokémon and its fan communities.

And why that name? Why not Hoenn Times or Unova Times or Paldea Times?

Darren: One of my favourite Pokémon titles is Pokémon Crystal, and that generation of Pokémon games meant a great deal to me growing up. Despite starting with Pokémon Blue, I absolutely adored Crystal. I wanted to recognise this fact when it came to naming the project.

What was your first game?

Darren: My first ever video game was Treasure Island Dizzy on a hand-me-down Sinclair ZX Spectrum I got from my siblings, but my first Nintendo games were Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World. While all my friends were on Playstation, I was hooked on Nintendo.

What games do you play nowadays?

Darren: In recent years I fell off from playing video games, I don’t really have as much free time as I used to which I am sure will resonate with a lot of people. My gaming itch changes often, but at this very moment in time I am playing Valheim and Phasmophobia on my PC, and on my Switch 2 it’s Pokémon Pokopia.

How about Pokemon games? What was your intro to that series?

Darren: As I mentioned earlier, I started with Pokémon Blue. I know I bought the game on August 17th, 2001, because I still have the receipt from the Gamestation store I bought it from. However, my introduction to Pokémon began two years earlier in 1999 when Pokémania arrived in the United Kingdom. I remember seeing my classmates browse the Pokémon and Wizards of the Coast websites for Pokémon trading cards, which were a huge deal at my school. My family didn’t have a lot of money so I made do with Pokémon stickers, posters, and watching the anime on television.

Favourite generation? Surely generation 2 has to be up there, right?

Darren: How did you guess? You must be a psychic-type Pokémon! I have a deep nostalgic appreciation for the first and second generation of Pokémon games. However, in the years since, I cannot ignore how incredible the fourth generation of games were. HeartGold, SoulSilver, and spin-off titles such as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky on Nintendo DS are titles I consider to be part of the “Golden Age” of Pokémon. Fans were so fortunate to live through that, and I wish I appreciated it more at the time.

Still, how did you get into website development?

Darren: My background is in content, so developing websites isn’t really my thing. My role on Johto Times is writing and sourcing, managing social media channels, and brainstorming ideas on what readers might want to see. The technical stuff is managed by a good friend called Renan. I also need to point out that I have an editorial team who kindly help me out with proofreading and suggestions to improve what has been written. They really help everything shine, and I am very fortunate to have their support.

Did you make your own Pokemon fan site as a kid?

Darren: I have certainly dabbled, but I couldn’t make anything nearly as good as most other fansites out there. There were some really amazing ones I used to visit back then, and there are some extremely talented people who make beautiful looking ones to this day. I wish I had taken more time to learn how to build them as a kid.

What other fan sites did you personally visit in the olden days?

Darren: Websites that immediately come to mind are The PokéMasters, Pokémon Elite 2000, PokéSchool, and of course Serebii, which continues to be thriving to this day. I didn’t have an internet connection at home until late 2002, so I would visit these websites during my IT class, trying to hide the screen from my teacher and other students so I wouldn’t be teased for it. After the tidal wave that was Pokémania had ended, it was unpopular to still enjoy Pokémon as an older teen. Obviously we know that mindset is ridiculous and damaging today, but that was the reality in my school.

Onto Johto Times now. What made you decide to create the site?

Darren: There were quite a few reasons really. I have a deep appreciation for the world of Pokémon I grew up with, and I loved visiting fansites and forums back then. As social media took over, and information about the past was lost due to the closure of these fan spaces, a lot of the culture of this early era has been lost. Small forums which were active around the release of Pokémon titles showing how excited fans were for a specific game? Gone. Information about official events with photographs and their personal experiences of visiting them? Gone. While Pokémon as a franchise continues to thrive and move forward, who is preserving an accurate record of the past?

I originally started the project to share my personal memories about those times, but it grew into something much bigger very quickly. I wanted to learn more about other people’s memories of growing up with Pokémon, highlight all the great fansites from back then, and speak directly with the people who made Pokémon possible. I strongly believe that keeping a record of this era to educate new fans as they come into Pokémon, is deeply important. It’s also great for those who were a part of it to take a trip down memory lane. Even if it didn’t reach people, I still support Johto Times because it’s something I personally love to do.

One of the biggest draws are the interviews with Pokemon related creators. What made you decide to set up those?

Darren: I am super proud of those interviews! Speaking to some of the key people behind Pokémon has been an honour. As mentioned earlier, I felt that I had an opportunity with Johto Times to document the words of individuals who played a role in making Pokémon the success it was back then, and because of those people it has grown to become what it is today. That deserves to be recognised, and I am extremely grateful to anyone who makes that time to speak with us.

How has it been getting these organised? Have people generally been responsive to your interview requests?

Darren: To answer the first part of this question, I have a good conversation with each guest and explain what the project is about, and how they can be involved. From there, we stay in contact and I try to be as flexible as I can, working around their schedules and trying to be as available as I can, within reason.

As for the second part, guests are mostly responsive, and when they see that our goal isn’t to get a headline, but have a genuine conversation going about their achievements, they seem happy to oblige. I guess I present myself well enough, and the work we have previously done speaks for itself. There’s no guarantees however, so I never confirm an interview until their answers are locked in.

Have you ever had a creative refuse an interview? Or just not respond at all?

Darren: Absolutely! As much as we would love to speak with everyone, not every guest is going to be on board. There’s usually a variety of reasons for this, including uncertainty in what they’re allowed to discuss, or their availability. We have to respect that sometimes, things don’t work out. The most frustrating part is when someone confirms they are interested in an interview, and then doesn’t commit to what they have agreed. It can be extremely demotivating to research and write up a set of questions, only to be ignored.

From day one I had a noteworthy guest who I believe could have given us a great interview. They wanted me to call them at an unreasonable hour, and I expressed that my interest was a written interview. They told me to “forget it” and that was the last I heard from them.

I’ve noticed that the rise in scams has made people a bit more wary of messages from strangers than they used to be, especially given the prevalence of AI art scammers. Has that made it harder to get people to trust you when messaging them?

Darren: All I can do is be my authentic self, speaking from the heart and expressing that my intentions for this project are well meaning. It is up to each guest to make their judgement. Personally, I have never been accused of being an AI but given how that technology continues to advance, it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens someday.

Onto the interview content now. What’s your favourite interview so far?

Darren: I have a lot of favourites, but our interview with Stuart Zagnit, the voice of Professor Oak in the English adaptation of Pokémon, is there at the top, for now at least! I always do my best to remain a professional, but imagine what it was like for me to speak to the voice of your childhood? How can you not fanboy out to something like speaking to Professor Oak? I had a similar experience with Michael Haigney, the voice of Psyduck and Charmander, amongst many others!

Any you feel didn’t go as well as they could?

Darren: Without naming names, I was extremely disappointed that one of our guests used AI to write their answers. I wanted to scrap the whole thing, but instead I contacted them and asked if they would consider going back to re-write every answer, or else I couldn’t in good faith publish the interview. While it was an awkward exchange, they understood my position, and kindly did as requested. I urge all future guests to speak from the heart, and not rely upon this damaging technology.

If you had to choose any creator, who would you most want to interview? What’s your dream interviewee on Johto Times?

Darren: I would love to speak with Junichi Masuda, the composer of the original Pokémon games. His music was massively inspirational as a child, and to this day I have a huge respect for the work that he did back then. I would also have loved to have spoken with the late Rachael Lillis, the voice of Misty and Jessie in the Pokémon anime. She seemed like such a lovely person.

Do you ever get messages from people that want to be interviewed? Do you tend to take them up on the offer?

Darren: It would certainly make my job easier if people could find us first! But yes, we have had a couple of people come forward and tell us they worked on fansites back in the day, and if we would be interested in sharing their stories. When we published our interview with The Pokémon Factory, it was with the current owner of the website at the time, since I wasn’t able to find the original owners. However, because of that interview, they saw it and got in touch to express their interest in an interview too!

A couple of years ago, you moved from Substack to your own website. What inspired this change?

Darren: When I started Johto Times, I had no idea how long it would last. It wouldn’t be sensible to pay for a domain or hosting if I didn’t have a long term commitment to it. As the project and my enthusiasm grew, and once I understood what the pillars of the project would be, I knew that we would eventually outgrow a freely hosted blog. I was limited by what Substack offered as a platform, and having a bespoke website and community was the right decision for me.

I am immensely grateful to Substack for giving us a platform to grow and build from, but I am at home with Johto Times with our own domain and hosting. I encourage everyone who wants to build something, to do it on their own turf and not on someone else’s, where they can restrict and control what you want to express.

Recently you added a forum for people to discuss the series. What made you want to set up a new forum in 2025?

Darren: I’ve always been a fan of forums, I spent a lot of time on them when I was younger. I despise where social media has taken us in these past few years, and I wanted to create an alternative for likeminded fans to join. There’s something special about being able to login to a forum, check and respond to conversations, and logout again. A forum respects your time, unlike social media which encourages you to keep scrolling. A forum has no algorithm to keep you tied to your phone. I’m very proud of our little community, and I want to see lots of small communities do their own things too!

Do you feel like there could be a market for them again?

Darren: Unfortunately, social media is here to stay, and people will prefer them over traditional forums. There was a time when social media and forums both had a place online. MySpace and Live Journal were places only your friends would know what music you were listening to, or what you had for lunch. I also miss the early days of Twitter where we would share cat memes. Forums were a place for longer and more meaningful discussions, and you could opt to take part in them or find or start a new conversation entirely. Personally, I would much rather have a small, close-knit community forum than any social media presence these days.

If anyone is reading this who wants to find an alternative to social media, I urge you to sign up to a couple of forum communities that you like the sound of, and engage with conversations! You might even make some meaningful friendships.

Do you miss the old days of the internet in general? Personally we’ve got quite a lot of nostalgia for the world of fan sites, forums, etc…

Darren: The old days were far from perfect, I don’t look through my rose-tinted spectacles and tell people how wonderful it was. However I do have a lot of very happy memories from those days, and it is quite the departure from where we are today in 2026. Back then we retained a lot of control over the things we had, such as our own website and forum, even IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers.

These days, we relinquish that for the convenience of building our homes on other platforms, such as Discord and Facebook. These huge companies have the keys and the control over what you say, amongst many other things. So yes, I absolutely miss the old days.

How does it feel knowing lots of people enjoy the site? Did you expect Johto Times to catch on?

Darren: I consider Johto Times to be a fairly niche project, but that’s exactly where I want it to stay. This project should be considered a resource of reliable information that people are aware of if they wish to learn about Pokémon’s past, and anything about the culture of its fan communities. Everyone can work together doing their own small thing, and we can be a part of a much larger picture. But I digress! I am extremely grateful for anyone who visits and interacts with Johto Times, and appreciates what we do. I hope many others will discover us in the years to come.

What are some of your future plans for the site going forward?

Darren: Currently, I have a few features to go through, and I plan to chase up some more opportunities before our Christmas break. We also need to do some work on the back end of the website to make it more functional, and try to encourage more people to join in the conversations on our forum. I also want to launch the Johto Times Awards, which will recognise the talent and creativity of fansites and their creators.

Finally, what advice would you give someone looking to set up a site like this and why?

Darren: If you have a topic that you’re passionate about, create a space of your own, and express yourself! Try not to jump in at the deep end, start small and see how you feel after a couple of months! I recommend checking out a community called Neocities, a throwback to the old hosting platform Geocities. If it’s focused on Pokémon and it takes off, get in touch with me! I’d love to see it for myself.

Thanks for the advice there! Yeah, we’d recommend Neocities as well, at least if you’re starting and can’t afford to host your own website. They’re one of the few hosting services that are run by and for the people rather than large corporations, and one that’s keeping the small web alive and well in 2026 as a result of that. So, it’s definitely better to go with them than some fly-by-night operation that could close down on a whim one Sunday afternoon.

And hey, if you need web development advice, there are plenty of places to get that for free as well. This beginner’s guide on MDN Web Docs seems like it’s really useful for someone starting out, and freeCodeCamp is another good option there as well.

Either way, if you’re interested in setting up a website of any kind (Pokemon related or otherwise), try it out! Use the resources linked above, and see what you can create. It could even become your full-time career if you stick with it enough.

Still, thanks to Johto Times for the interview, and thanks to you guys for reading it. It was really interesting to learn all about the site and its inspirations (as well as the interviews it’s made a name for itself with), and we’re excited to see what other articles are added in future.

Check them out if you have fond memories of Pokemon fan sites and want a trip down memory lane, then leave your thoughts on the article in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!

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