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Pocket Monsters adventure special series by Kusaka Hidenori
Been a while since the first time I started the series, and right now might as well take the time to catch up with the story. If you love the pokemon games and wanted to read a much deeper plot compared to the anime, then Pokespe is there to satisfy that want!
While some parts don't exactly follow the game plot fully, Pokespe does follow most of the game plot in the narrative and have the story flows in a seamless way. While you may only initially get attached to say Red, Blue/Green, Yellow or Green/Blue when you first started the series, you'll end up liking the rest of the other younger pokedex owners as the story continues. And yes, since the Pokespe's plot had a continuous narrative as it connects all the main Pokemon game plots, Red and the others DOES grow up accordingly (unlike Ash/Satoshi in the anime who somehow remains 10yo throughout the series even as the story moves on to other regions beside Kanto) so that should be the other appeal to the series.
And to be honest, there are a lot of elements used in the Pokemon anime that are present in PokeSpe, except that it's more equally distributed in the manga. As in, Red's speciality being the skilled Pokemon fighter, Blue Oak (Green Ookido in Japanese ver) being the skilled Pokemon trainer, Yellow being the healer and having the special ability to listen to the heart of the Pokemon and so on with the rest of the pokedex holders. And each of the PokeDex holders did excel in their own specialities and actually do achieve their goals. And of course, as much as it wasn't planned... they do ended up engulfed in important events occuring in their respective regions, which always ended up with them encountering various legendary pokemons in the process. Also, the task of 'saving the day' did not just fall on one person (as in just Ash in the anime) but each of the pokedex holders had their own part to take. Which is to be honest, was a much more engaging story to follow. Cos really, Ash/Satoshi was pretty imba in the anime for being the 'chosen one' for many situations, as if there was no other pokedex holders in existence besides him.
Unlike the anime, the Team Rocket in Pokespe was not just treated like some comedic sub villain charas (esp with regards to Jesse-James-Meowth trio). And Team Rocket's motivation in PokeSpe also was much deeper explored and not just about making chaos. As in Sakaki/Giovanni's motives for trying to gather the strongest pokemons in order to find his son, who turned out to be Silver. And another part about PokeSpe that I love was that, the villains aren't absolutely evil and at times, may end up to be unexpected allies. Not just for Team Rocket, the Kanto Elite Four, Team Magma, Team Aqua, Team Galactic, Team Plasma and Team Skull... so far. Like each villain teams did not only had their share of really selfish/evil people, but there's also people who had some good traits yet for personal reasons, end up taking the extreme positions.
To be fair, I do love the anime for some of its story elements. But when the story was being simplified to just about catching pokemons, fighting gym leaders and encountering adventures with the legendaries and that all falls onto one sole Pokemon trainer that doesn't seem to age nor in experience, well... it's hard to keep the interest to continue following the series, as compared to say... watching the digimon adventure series which had a similar formula. Except that the monsters were digital.
And that was really what I didn't like much about the main Pokemon anime. Like the anime mainly focusing on Satoshi/Ash and made it out like he's the only character of importance while turning Gary Oak into a typical rival side character who later on barely included in any of the important events. And the gym leaders, mainly Brock and Misty (alongside few other new characters introduced) being reduced to just supporting characters. In contrast, Pokespe don't just focus on Red specifically (or any of the other main characters) and neither of the mains nor the supporting characters were being overly focused on or neglected. Each and every characters had their own strength and weaknesses and had their respective growth and character development. Which was another reason to keep on reading and following the series.
Besides that, the story itself was pretty engaging and it's amazing how Kusaka manage to tie all of the important events from the different pokemon games into a continuous story. Seriously if you love the pokemon games, you should read Pokespe.
Been a while since the first time I started the series, and right now might as well take the time to catch up with the story. If you love the pokemon games and wanted to read a much deeper plot compared to the anime, then Pokespe is there to satisfy that want!
While some parts don't exactly follow the game plot fully, Pokespe does follow most of the game plot in the narrative and have the story flows in a seamless way. While you may only initially get attached to say Red, Blue/Green, Yellow or Green/Blue when you first started the series, you'll end up liking the rest of the other younger pokedex owners as the story continues. And yes, since the Pokespe's plot had a continuous narrative as it connects all the main Pokemon game plots, Red and the others DOES grow up accordingly (unlike Ash/Satoshi in the anime who somehow remains 10yo throughout the series even as the story moves on to other regions beside Kanto) so that should be the other appeal to the series.
And to be honest, there are a lot of elements used in the Pokemon anime that are present in PokeSpe, except that it's more equally distributed in the manga. As in, Red's speciality being the skilled Pokemon fighter, Blue Oak (Green Ookido in Japanese ver) being the skilled Pokemon trainer, Yellow being the healer and having the special ability to listen to the heart of the Pokemon and so on with the rest of the pokedex holders. And each of the PokeDex holders did excel in their own specialities and actually do achieve their goals. And of course, as much as it wasn't planned... they do ended up engulfed in important events occuring in their respective regions, which always ended up with them encountering various legendary pokemons in the process. Also, the task of 'saving the day' did not just fall on one person (as in just Ash in the anime) but each of the pokedex holders had their own part to take. Which is to be honest, was a much more engaging story to follow. Cos really, Ash/Satoshi was pretty imba in the anime for being the 'chosen one' for many situations, as if there was no other pokedex holders in existence besides him.
Unlike the anime, the Team Rocket in Pokespe was not just treated like some comedic sub villain charas (esp with regards to Jesse-James-Meowth trio). And Team Rocket's motivation in PokeSpe also was much deeper explored and not just about making chaos. As in Sakaki/Giovanni's motives for trying to gather the strongest pokemons in order to find his son, who turned out to be Silver. And another part about PokeSpe that I love was that, the villains aren't absolutely evil and at times, may end up to be unexpected allies. Not just for Team Rocket, the Kanto Elite Four, Team Magma, Team Aqua, Team Galactic, Team Plasma and Team Skull... so far. Like each villain teams did not only had their share of really selfish/evil people, but there's also people who had some good traits yet for personal reasons, end up taking the extreme positions.
To be fair, I do love the anime for some of its story elements. But when the story was being simplified to just about catching pokemons, fighting gym leaders and encountering adventures with the legendaries and that all falls onto one sole Pokemon trainer that doesn't seem to age nor in experience, well... it's hard to keep the interest to continue following the series, as compared to say... watching the digimon adventure series which had a similar formula. Except that the monsters were digital.
And that was really what I didn't like much about the main Pokemon anime. Like the anime mainly focusing on Satoshi/Ash and made it out like he's the only character of importance while turning Gary Oak into a typical rival side character who later on barely included in any of the important events. And the gym leaders, mainly Brock and Misty (alongside few other new characters introduced) being reduced to just supporting characters. In contrast, Pokespe don't just focus on Red specifically (or any of the other main characters) and neither of the mains nor the supporting characters were being overly focused on or neglected. Each and every characters had their own strength and weaknesses and had their respective growth and character development. Which was another reason to keep on reading and following the series.
Besides that, the story itself was pretty engaging and it's amazing how Kusaka manage to tie all of the important events from the different pokemon games into a continuous story. Seriously if you love the pokemon games, you should read Pokespe.
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