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Nov 8, 2023
Pocket Monsters Zensho is a very faithful adaptation of the original games of the franchise, Pocket Monster: Red/Green, probably the most faithful thinking about manga. In this manga our main character is called Satoshi and the story follows his journey from Masara Town to the Pokemon League.
Each chapter is named after a town (except the last one), showing one of the main events of the games. Chapter one shows the introduction of Satoshi and his Rival, named Shigeru. Chapter two to nine, all the gyms leaders and other side event like the St. Annu, the Safari Zone and the Sylph Company. Chapter 10 shows the
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conclusion in the Pokemon League, which is extremely rushed.
This manga is competent enough to remind the reader of the order of progression of the games and also manages to be creative at some moments, but everything here is very robotic and weak. There is nothing really exciting to read. The characters are very bland, without any charisma or development, even about the Pokemon. There are not many battles, everything is easily and quickly resolved, in the case of battles, they are like one-hit KO’s. It is pretty short, so there is not much how to expect much build up. It’s not really recommendable, because it’s nothing that someone who already is familiar to the franchise hasn’t seen before and better in other titles of the franchise and for someone who don’t know the franchise, is not really a good first impression.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 2, 2023
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 30, 2023
The eighth Pokemon movie begins with a sequence showing events from years ago, during a medieval looking era. It was when the main Pokemon of the movie were introduced, Mew and Lucario, and also Lucario’s trainer/master Aaron, a kind of knight from a palace or kingdom. At that time, there was a war happening between different kingdoms, using Pokemon and people as soldiers. At the end of the sequence, Aaron abandoned Lucario and his kingdom, because of the war. Unfortunately, this left Lucario sad and confused. That was the most interesting part of the movie, maybe a good idea for a spin-off about that time.
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to the present time, Satoshi and friends (Haruka, Takeshi and Masato) were going to a festival that happen in the palace from that time. The festival sequence was pretty fun and was used to introduce more movie only characters, like Eileen (the current queen of the palace) and Kidd Summers. Lucario also reappears, thanks to Satoshi, because he was similar to Aaron in spirit.
The main plot really begins when Mew appeared and took away Pikachu and Nyarth to the Tree of World’s Origin, where that Mew lives. The movie was basically a rescue mission, about Satoshi and friends, and even Rocket Gang (Musashi and Kojirou), trying to bring back Pikachu and Nyarth, with the help of Lucario and Kidd. Exactly the same premise of the third Pokemon movie.
The real problem with this movie starts here. Basically, there was no real urgency or an antagonist, unlike in the third movie. Pikachu and Nyarth weren’t actually in danger. For example, what would happen if Satoshi and friends took one week, one month or even one year to reach the Tree. Mew was having fun playing with Pikachu and Nyarth, Mew was not a real threat. Meanwhile, the movie spends a lot of time with the characters driving a car to reach the Tree, and showing flashbacks about Lucario’s life with Aaron at the war time. Wouldn’t be more interesting if they quickly arrived the Tree and the movie showed they walking in the Tree most part of the time, with Lucario interacting with them and becoming friends while they were in danger, instead of spending a lot time driving a car, without tension, to reach the Tree.
When the characters were in the Tree, there was a bit of danger, because the Tree had some White Blood Cells, which protect the Tree against bacteria (humans in this case), which was a cool concept, but other than that, there were not many challenges in the Tree for the characters, unlike in the Crystal Tower of the third movie.
It was a bit weird and disappointing how easily some things were solved or simply weren’t solved for whatever was the reason. For example, when they were in the Tree, Satoshi saw Pikachu at the top of the Tree, why didn't Satoshi just used Ohsubame to fly to the top of the Tree to get Pikachu, apparently that would be too easy, Satoshi plays in hard mode. In addition to the Tree’s Cells, there were also the Regi trio (Regirock, Regice and Registeel), that were like guardians of the Tree, which doesn’t make much sense, if the Cells already exist to protect the Tree and how the Regis were easily avoided. It was just because the Cells don’t count Pokemon as bacteria or because the movies need to show legendary Pokemon. When the characters were absorbed by the Cells, Mew simply appeared and solved the problem, telling to the Tree that Satoshi and friends were not bacteria.
The movie also had the same problem as other Pokemon movies, the secondary characters like Haruka, Takeshi and Masato were not really important. Even characters like the queen and Kidd weren’t very important. It’s understandable that the characters of the series weren’t too useful, they need to be in the movie just because they are the main cast of the series, but other characters could have been more important. Even the Pokemon of the main cast weren’t much used, a common problem in some Pokemon movies. There weren’t many battles or action choreographies, that could show more tension or danger to the viewer, which was a bit disappointing, because people love a good Pokemon battle or action scene. Lucario protecting the characters from Regis was a bit similar to Lugia in the second movie, but even Lucario protecting them was not too impressive as Lugia.
Finally, the climax, after finding Pikachu and Nyarth. The sudden human activity in the Tree caused problems for Mew and the Tree, because they were like one. Mew was weakened and the Tree started to collapse, exactly like the Crystal Tower in the third movie. In this part, there was a twist about Aaron. Lucario finally figured out the truth about him. Lucario then solved the situation, fulfilling its role in this movie and the movie ends, exactly like in the third movie, but extremely abrupt and easy.
Like other Pokemon movies, this movie was enjoyable. It was well animated, the scenarios were beautiful, the opening sequence was fun, soundtrack was fine and there were some interesting ideas. However, was a bit disappointing in rewatch, considering the amount of time without real tension, the lack of an antagonist, how easily some things were solved, the abrupt ending and the lack of an interesting theme. It was fun to watch it as a child, but paying attention is easy to see that some things could be better. If you are not familiar with Pokemon movies, this movie probably is not the best entry, and if you are familiar, you will notice that some things here were done better in other Pokemon movies.
That was my first review, sorry for any mistake.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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