Friday, November 20, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: POKEMON ADVENTURES: Collector's Edition Volume 3

POKÉMON ADVENTURES: COLLECTOR'S EDITION, VOL. 3
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Hidenori Kusaka
ART: Mato
TRANSLATION: Kaori Inuoe
LETTERS: Wayne Truman
EDITORS: William Flanagan and Annette Roman; Joel Enos (Collector's Edition)
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1123-9; paperback; (August 2020); Rated “A” for “All Ages”
664pp, B&W, $17.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN, £14.99 UK

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise managed by the Pokémon Company, a company founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.  The franchise was created by Japanese video game designer and director, Satoshi Tajiri, in 1995.  The franchise began in 1996 as a pair of video games, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, for the original “Game Boy” handheld game console.  Pokémon is centered on fictional creatures called “Pokémon.”  Humans, known as “Pokémon Trainers,” catch and train the Pokémon to use in battles for sport.

The Pokémon franchise includes a number of animated television series (known as “anime”) and animated films.  There are also Pokémon manga (comics), and many are simply comic book adaptations of the Pokémon video games, anime, and films, although there are some manga that feature original stories set in the world of Pokémon.

Pokémon Adventures is a Japanese manga series featuring original Pokémon stories written by Hidenori KusakaMato was the series' first artist, and when he left due to illness, Satoshi Yamamoto became the series current artist.

VIZ Media has been publishing English-language editions of the various Pokémon Adventures series as paperback graphic novels since June 2009.  Starting April 2020, VIZ Media began publishing Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition.  This is a paperback series in which each volume of Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition collects the contents of three graphic novels in one paperback oversize or “omnibus.”

Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition, Vol. 3 (Chapters 79 to 116) is written by Hidenori Kusaka and drawn by Mato.  It opens with the final 12 chapters of the “Yellow” series.  Here, a girl named Amarillo Del Bosque Verde a.k.a. “Yellow” is on Cerise Island.  With the help of the Pokémon, “Pikachu,” she has her final showdown with Lance, one of the “Elite Four,” a group of individuals whose abilities with Pokémon may surpass even the abilities of Gym Leaders.  Can trainers, “Green,” “Red,” and “Blue,” also win their battles against the Elite Four?

Then, the “Gold and Silver” series begins.  Gold is a Pokémon trainer who believes that Pokémon and their human trainers should be partners.  Gold meets a secretive young man, Silver, who is a Pokémon thief.  On a mission for Professor Elm and Professor Oak, Gold chases Silver from one city to the next and finds himself caught in a terrible conspiracy involving Team Rocket and a powerful, shadowy figure, all vying to control a powerful, mysterious Pokémon.

[This volume includes miscellaneous text and art, including maps, character files, and Pokémon information.]

THE LOWDOWN:  I have never played a Pokémon video game or watched a Pokémon movie or TV series.  I have read a few Pokémon manga, including the recently released Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution manga.  The Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition manga is the largest Pokémon manga that I have ever read.

Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition Graphic Novel Volume 3 is a big old chunk of Pokémon Adventures comics.  I don't know if I want to ever read that much Pokémon manga under one cover again.  But, dear readers, you want to know... is this third volume of Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition any good?

I thought Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution was a truly good read.  None of Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition Vol. 3 grabbed me the way Evolution did, but this big book is still a good read.  This huge book will probably be a really good read for Pokémon manga fans.  At the cover price of $17.99, I wouldn't pass it up... if I were a Pokémon reader.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Pokémon manga will want Pokémon Adventures: Collector's Edition.

6 out of 10


Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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