Dear Ashitaka,

Yes, according to my local newspaper and visits to my local
comic book and card store, it does seem that Pokemon's
popularity here has dropped at least amongst the kids =(.
The article in my local newspaper interviewed several local
comic book store owners about it.  All say that the
popularity has dropped dramatically!  The 3 that I visit
weekly (1 of which was interviewed in the article) now has
less shelf space devoted to Pokemon cards and related goods.
One store had 2 huge tables of Pokemon stuff, but now, it
only has half a table of stuff on display.  The store owners
plus Wizards of the West Coast (the national card store that
carries role playing game cards) say that it is probably due
to the recent flood of Pokemon cards available (All stores
carried at least some of them for sale including discount
stores, high end retail stores, candy stores, etc.), plus
the fact that the new booster packs (The Team Rocket series)
took a long time to come out!  Kids got bored and found
other things to play with.  In the article, the comic store
owners say that Digimon and Magic are now popular with the
ex-Pokemon set.

As for Japan, I have no idea about Pokemon's popularity
there now, but I have heard rumors that it was waning too.
I hope this helps confirm at least some of your suspicions!


Sincerely,

Sonia