Post by fabapfp on Jul 12, 2023 22:02:35 GMT
So did you know that there are like, tons of different Pokemon Manga that no one ever talks about? Bulbapedia alone has over a hundred different entries under "manga," but most of those articles are barren, and most people in the fandom seem to think "the pokemon manga" starts and ends with Pokemon Adventures/ Pokespe.
I sort of get why this is, since most of these manga haven't been released in the west, and even those that have been just simply don't seem to have that much interest (even pokespe, by far the most well known pokemon manga.) Regardless, I want to at least *try* to gauge interest in these; both as some are important/ interesting pieces of pokemon history, as well as out of concern that some of the more obscure ones have/ will become lost media.
I've picked out 5 Manga I personally am interested in, but know these are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these. There's spinoff mangas, anime adaptations, and so much more that it would literally be impossible to compile in one post.
Pokemon Colosseum Snatcher Leo And Pokemon Colosseum Snatchers
Two similarly named Adaptations of Pokemon: Colosseum for the Gamecube. They were created by the same author but ran in 2 different magazines; Colosseum Snatchers was serialized in CoroCoro Comic and Snatcher Leo was serialized in Shogaku Ninensei. They both ran for 3 issues each and were not printed anywhere outside of their original publications.
Recently, twitter user OrreShitpost posted a collection of manga related to Colosseum and it's sequel, Pokemon XD. I've downloaded & looked through the files they posted, but my computer couldn't seem to open a few of them (when I try to unzip the files I get an error message saying they have "unreadable characters"). Fortunately, though, I do have access to the two aforementioned manga, as well as another Colosseum adaptation that doesn't seem to be documented on Bulbapedia. This collection seems to have all of Snatcher Leo, but only the first of Colosseum Snatchers, leading me to believe that it might be lost media. I spoke to Orreshitpost briefly, and they said that the collection was sourced from a collective of Japanese fans, probably explaining why my PC couldn't open some of the files. I will leave a link to Orreshitpost's tweet for anyone interested.
Pokemon Pocket Monsters
Pokemon Pocket Monsters, simply known as "Pocket Monsters" in it's native region of Japan, is "the first true pokemon manga" according to Bulbapedia. For a metric on how early on in Pokemon's lifetime this was, this predates Pikachu's usage as the series's mascot (this manga's Red uses the original mascot, Clefairy), as well as several other stylistic intricacies of the franchise. It is the longest running pokemon manga, and despite it's relative obscurity in the west, is actually still ongoing.
A good summary of this manga's style would be pretty much the exact opposite of Pokespe, as where that manga is known for it's focus on fleshing out the story of the games & having a bit of a darker tone, this series relies heavily on slapstick and gag comedy. There's a lot of toilet humor and references to Japanese pop culture.
I mentioned before that the series is still ongoing, so let me elaborate on that. The series ran in CoroCoro Magazine up until the end of it's Sun and Moon adaptation, and since has been published in CoroCoro Special and CoroCoro Aniki as the aptly named "Pocket Monsters Aniki."
This manga has a bit of an odd localization history- according to Bulbapedia, official English translations do exist, but were never released in North America, probably due to the manga's crude sense of humor (there are multiple panels with visible genitalia as the punchline, it's fine in Japan but would be frowned upon here in the states). The series has, however, been translated into traditional Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Thailand, and Vietnamese.
I should also mention that Twitter/ Tumblr user Bug Catcher Gina is working on translating the original run of the series, and that there are English translations available on Mangadex as well. This is only of the original Red/ Blue run, however, and the rest of the manga has exceedingly few scans of it online. Despite this, I wouldn't necessarily call it "lost media," as I believe most of the manga is available through Amazon Jp.
Bug Catcher Gina: bugcatchergina.tumblr.com/
Let's Play the Pokemon Card Game!
Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a manga following several protagonists learning to play the Pokemon TCG. It seems to have started with X&Y and seems to have gotten an adaptation ever since. Starting with Sun and Moon, each issue has been compiled into several volumes, which are also available on Amazon JP. There are also a few issues available to read on the official Japanese TCG website, which I'll link: www.pokemon-card.com/info/2017/20171222_000581.html
There isn't really much else to it, but the reason I find this manga interesting is because of one unique thing it does: all of the characters are loosely based on in-game characters, by which I mean that this manga basically created official, bizzarro-world knockoff versions of several human Pokemon characters, which I think would be cool to see documented. The reason I actually discovered this Manga is because I found fan art of these characters on twitter many moons ago.
Besides the Amazon listings and official website, There's also mangadex listings for all of these, but they don't seem to have any issues actually uploaded to read. I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say none of these have been translated to English either.
Pokemon: ReBURST
Definitley the most unique of the Manga we're discussing today, Pokemon ReBURST is a manga about trainers fusing with their Pokemon by using a technique called "Burst." It gained a little bit of attention recently in a tweet remarking on it's strange premise, and there have been a few deep-dive videos made on it by TheJWittz and MrBuddy, which I regrettably haven't watched as of making this post.
This series ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday around the release of Pokemon's gen 5 (2010-2012 ish) and has 8 Volumes. Volumes 1, 2, and 8 are up on Pokemon Special Gallery, as well as some other miscellaneous scans. I admittedly haven't done enough research to know if any of the series is lost, but it wouldn't surprise me, based on it's premise, obscurity and age (remember that 2012 is 10+ years ago). I have found an Amazon listing for it's first volume (used), as well as an Ebay listing for all 8 volumes. Bulbapedia also has an archive of the series' official website.
Ebay listing: www.ebay.com/itm/124806677090
Pokemon Special Gallery: jb2448.info/index.php?/category/1251
Official Website archive: web.archive.org/web/20121003044546/http://websunday.net/rensai/pokemon/
This is all I have for now. I'm going to do more research, obviously, but could use some help as these things are really, really hard to find info on, or at least if you're American. Hope this will spark some interest as I notice there's a lot of misinfo about Pokemon manga out there (I mostly just see any non-pokespe manga get mistaken for it), and hopefully with enough awareness, we can remedy that.
Also, feel free to ask about any other Manga not mentioned here!
