Just a few steps away from Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter stands the home of Pokémon League players in Manchester. Stepping into Fanboy Three on Hilton Street, you’ll hear the enthusiastic players before you see them.
That’s because they are in the deceptively large basement of the game store where they share a space with budding Warhammer players in what is called an “organised play space.”
Fanboy Three has been in the city for almost two decades now. Opened in 2004, they were one of the first dedicated play stores in the city inspired by the US model where fans of all things nerdy can come to buy, debate, compete or simply connect.
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“We were the first dedicated, organised play store. Somewhere you could go in, play games, buy games, hangout with other people who could play games,” explains the owner David Salisbury, 57.
“That’s like the whole point. Imagine going into a bar and instead of serving beer and spirits, we serve card boosters, and miniatures and role playing games.”
Every Monday, the basement of Fanboy Three transforms into the arena for what is called a ‘Pokémonday Pokémon League.’ Here, fans of the insanely popular Japanese animated series gather to play the famous Pokémon TCG.
Pokémon TCG, or Pokémon trading card game as many will know it, is the game where two players who have amassed a deck of 60 Pokémon characters battle.
An accessible way for people to get into Pokémon, the players can be of any age, from any background and differing skill level.
“Pokémon is really wholesome, Nintendo really hit it out the park.” David told the MEN about it’s appeal. "You are assembling your little team- of cute animals and then you’re going on an adventure.
“This is something that we call in the industry as a ‘nostalgia brand’. When life gets tough, you start remembering when the hardest thing you had to do was go to the corner shop and open a pack of Pokemon and hope you got a Charizard in it.
“We definitely saw a resurgence of that during the pandemic because that generation were now in their thirties and forties and so they had a lot of things going on in their life. A lot of people are drawn to that sort of thing, that nostalgia.”
David’s description of grown ups falling back in love with a favourite childhood pastime describes workmates Andy, 36 and Jay, 34. The pair just started coming to Fanboy Three for Pokémonday a year ago.
Inspired by the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Japanese export, they first started collecting cards again. Collecting turned to having a go at the trading card game and the Pokémon buzz hasn’t stopped there with the pair now running their own Youtube channel to document their journey back into the hobby.
“It was nostalgia. I played back in 1998, but I stopped in high school.” Said Jay. Same, I stopped playing because it wasn’t cool back then.” Andy interjected.
Jay continued: “Now we’ve got our own disposal income, I’ve got kids as well and I’m getting them into the game. Andy has nephews and nieces.
"It feels good to be playing again. Although my wife’s probably not too happy, it’s very expensive!”
While Jay and Andy are at Pokémondays for nostalgia reasons, 25-year-old Daz is there because of the sense of belonging Pokémon gives them. Originally from Essex, the journalist moved to Manchester in 2016 and got into playing the trading card game after years of collecting.
“I feel like I picked a really a good time to get into playing. It feels a lot more welcoming here, one issue that I had is that I didn’t feel welcome in card shops necessarily because it’s usually a lot of nerdy men." They said.
“Nerd communities can be misogynistic and transphobic and stuff like that but the community here is really lovely and the community is also diversifying and I just want it keep getting bigger because it means I can play more.”
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