The moment we stop infering broad characteristics based on labels derived from narrow characteristics, we can start properly perceiving the world as a set of spectra rather than clearly defined bordered groups of things. Just because you share characteristics with a certain group, like enjoying pokémon designs, need not ever mean you need to enjoy or even care about everything or even anything else that the average enjoyer of said thing is thought to like. People are not defined by labels, they are described by them, and they can sometimes be inaccurate or ambiguous due to how gradual everything is. You can't do anything about others thinking of you as a "fake fan" due to preconceived notions of what that should entail, but you can at least find it in yourself to acknowledge that you can like what you like and not care about things you don't care about without having to fit anyone else's image of what a "fan" should be.

I am a great enjoyer of Sylveon, have a Sylveon form I use in some cases. The idea of a creature evolved from love is lovely to me, and those ribbons are very versatile. Do I know a single move it does? No, also don't care :D And I can and should enjoy the things I do my way. It's nobody else's business how I enjoy things so long as nobody gets hurt~

thank you!
i had a similar reason attracting me to indeedee. besides just being cute and round, i like the concept of a psychic pokemon that senses emotions & just wants to make others happy
i hope that comic didnt come off as overly self deprecating, i just thought it was a funny idea

Sometimes when you are drawing a character from a piece of media you haven't actually seen/read you have to say "fuck it, we ball," do the minimum research possible and draw 'em, because their design totally kicks ass.

You are not a fake fan, even if you only like the character designs. If you enjoy any part of the series and want to consider yourself a fan, then you are a fan of that series. You don't have to know much of a series if anything to be a fan of it.

For example, I've only seen bits and pieces of the Earthbound series. But even with how little I've seen the games, I still am a fan of that series because I enjoy it and I wanna be a fan of it. Same applies here, even if you don't play the games, look at the show, or read the manga, as long as you want to be one, you're a real Pokemon fan.

And this is coming from someone who does know a lot about Pokemon. I know a majority of the moves and items from nearly the entire series, I've seen many seasons of the show, I've played a majority of the games to some extent, and so on. You're still just as real of a fan as I am.

Thank you for taking some of your valuable time to read my ramblings, I hope the rest of your week goes wonderfully!