Dengeki! Pikachu
Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu

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I’d predict that most people reading this will be familiar with the well liked other Pokemon manga, following Red and Blue and all those other characters. There is little in common between these two, with this entry being an extremely loose adaptation of the beginning of the anime with Ash Ketchum. And it's Crazy Go-Nuts. This short series can be hilarious, intentionally and unintentionally, and on that token, I’d like to recommend it. However, in terms of actual artistic quality, there isn’t too much good I can say.

Ash and his Pikachu (named Jean Luc Pikachu; This series likes its puns) travel all over the Kanto ... region, meeting Brock, Misty, Team Rocket, and various other characters. A strange aspect to this manga is that some of the stories are original while others are ripped straight from the anime. You never know if you’re going to meet 3 eevee brothers or traverse an ancient temple dedicated to ghost types. Similarly, Ash’s character is changed a bit. He’s much hornier and rough than his anime incarnation and uses the catchphrase, “What’s their damage?” a lot. Jessie and James seem to be explicitly a couple as well, and seem more like teenagers, which adds a layer of sadness to their unfortunate fall into gang life.

The main reason to read this is to see Pokemon and Pokemon characters rendered in this goofy manga. Professor Oak is a hot guy now (a bit like the guy from Scarlet and Violet), Pidgeotto leaves to take R&R, and Ditto impersonates Ash for nefarious purposes. I wish I could send all the images I saved here. The artwork has that Western-y commercial feel, though it's perfectly suitable to the subject matter. I just like seeing pokemon illustrated.

The series is short and fun and if you have any nostalgia for Pokemon or its anime, it might scratch an itch. Sorry for using the English names!

A good addition to any collection or for any fan whether they are just starting out or an old-time fan. You don't need to know anything about Pokemon to be able to understand this manga.

There is also a more in-depth story line than the one presented in the anime that not only makes connections to the real world, like talking about school and how there is a test to get one's license to become a Pokemon Trainer, but also a more in-depth look at the Pokemon world as a whole and more detailed information on how everything works.

It is a twist on the anime ... that delves a little deeper into both the reality, making it easier to connect to our world, and the technology of that world itself.

Dengeki! Pikachu is based on the anime Pokemon (1997). If you know the anime, you will be familiar with this manga. It’s basically the story about Satoshi’s adventures, aiming to be a Pokemon Master, covering some of the same events of the anime, from the moment that Satoshi begins his journey in Masara Town to the Orange Islands.

The problem with this manga is that it cuts much of the content that made the things work in the anime, making everything here meaningless, very rushed and without impact. For example, in the anime there is an entire episode to show Satoshi meeting and forming a friendship ... with Pikachu. In this manga, Satoshi just find a random Pikachu that appeared in his house and they become friends for whatever was the reason. The same thing goes for the other Pokemon that Satoshi captured in this manga (some of them off-screen), they all lack personality and seem like just wild creatures. The fast pace also affected the world-building, making everything feel dry compared to the anime, even when the manga was trying to be creative in its own way. Another problem is when the manga makes technical explanations about the Pokemon or about other things, which are just a few pages and panels of info dumping. The manga is more like a bunch of selected episodes of the anime adapted in a poor story than a proper story.

It's hard to talk about the progression of the story, because the manga has a lot of time jumps (due to the way the manga was written). For example, the gyms weren’t even shown properly. The only gym battles that actually happened were Kasumi and Natsume (water and psychic), all the other gyms happened off-screen. Some gym leaders don't even appear. The manga skips how Satoshi get all the badges and also skips other important events, like some battles, training and how Satoshi’s Pokemon evolved. When those events weren’t skipped, they were just rushed and making no sense.

The characters seem more like a parody of the anime characters or just a very superficial version of them, with no personality, charisma or development, especially looking how the characters act in some parts, like Satoshi in the forest of the Pikachu, where the manga is not capable of creating the slightest drama, even in a moment like that (something that was very well done in the anime).

The art style and designs are a bit different comparing to the anime designs or the original game designs. The Pokemon look more menacing and wilder (looking like monsters), some humans look older and sillier, and the girls, in general, are more sexualized. This manga also has some fan-service moments and sexually suggestive illustrations (probably because the mangaka also made some hentai), which were censored in the American version of this manga, thinking about the target audience.

Overall, this manga doesn’t work as an adaptation of the original games, it also doesn’t work as an independent story, it’s more like a very bad retelling of some events of the anime, which is not interesting enough to read if you already know the anime and if you don’t know the anime, it’s just a messy story, with erratic pace, lots of time jumps, uninteresting battles, bland characters, unsatisfying conclusions and some parts that just felt wrong.