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!

Funny story about this one; Many people will say that you must have watched the Anime to understand the manga adaptation, otherwise you will be lost. I came into this read expecting to know nothing and get nothing, because I had not been a watcher of the show in my child years and knew only a few bits and pieces from what I had managed to tune into; I was more familiar with the games.

And yet, out of the all the Pokemon manga, this one turned out my favorite (Special fans, please don't stone me).

Story: For a comic that was supposed to be an ... adaptation of a show, EToP does an excellent job of holding itself without any support, even sprinkling in plenty of game references but standing perfectly well alone. The storyline flows on a more episodic, "Day in the life of-" structure rather then having an over-arching plot of epic length like it's more popular other, so there is only very basic continuity between the chapters; This works so that you can crack open any of the shorts and read a complete story with a solid beginning, middle and end. The stories themselves vary in tone, you read an emotional and touching chapter first and be immediately followed up by over-the-top silliness, or you can get everything in the same chapter- some silliness here, then an action scene and some drama and even darkness, followed by mood and emotion before turning back to silliness. This can be done with just as equal variation in quality- sometimes these chapters work, the mood flowing very easily throughout with no bumps in the road; Other times the transitions feel awkward and out-of-place, taking you out of the story- which unfortunately detracts a point. There also moments of "Tell, and not show-" that is, things happen off-screen that are explained rather than shown, which is where you start remembering that this is an adaptation, and doesn't fit in with the rest of the series that tries to tell it's own story with no outside help, and that takes off another point. The pacing itself is sometimes good here, and then rushed there, and going back-and-forth between the two but mostly staying on the better side of things.

One of the highlights of EToP, for me at least, is the world-building, which stands out as unique in the whole of the Pokemon franchise. The author really outdid himself trying to establish this near-future environment with hover-vehicles, advanced machinery and Pokedexs that act like holographic smartphones. This manga also dives into explaining things like "Trainer's leave"- an official school break that gives young trainers time to journey with their Pokemon in the league before returning to their studies, back-stories on places and events, and snippets into the biology of the monsters themselves. All of these seemingly minor details work to breath life into this comic, making it that much more engaging as a story.

Story overall: 8

Art: Ono's art is regarded as being one of the best, if not the best, of the Pokemanga. And it is true- his semi-realistic portrayal of Pokemon, especially that infamous Gyarados and Haunter, is one-of-a-kind among the licensed products. He attempts to keep his characters in very dynamic poses, in ways that are fun to watch as well as keeping the story flowing clearly. This makes the action scenes, when they happen, to come across as exciting and engaging, even the cute and cuddly Pikachu is drawn as a hissing beast when the scene requires it. Among the things that are great about the art are the backgrounds and designs- the panels are usually drawn with some sort of background illustration that, like I explained above, give the story it's identity. The designs vary between futuristic or cultural, all interesting in their own right, and it makes the world feel big and expansive.

However, Ono's anatomy can sometimes get odd-looking; And I'm not talking about the fan-service, everybody knows about that and frankly, I don't care. His Pokemon illustration sometimes change appearance in an inconsistent manner unlike the one described above- eyes and body types can be drawn in either the stylized style of Ono and then change abruptly to the simplified style more reminiscent of Ken Sugimori's official art, within the span of a single page! This may not be a big deal to some, but I found it a bit jarring, and for that am I forced to take off a point.

Art overall: 9

Character: This one is a bit spotty. On one hand, the reoccurring characters with the exception of Ash don't receive much development at all, remaining the same throughout the story. On the other, this works due to the episodic nature of the series and the fact that it takes place mostly from a third-person viewpoint of Ash, meaning the rest of the characters are not as important and do not need development, being entertaining enough to be enjoyable and memorable as they are.

Ash's development from bratty, bumbling novice trainer into a competent battler with a fair knowledge of tactics is rather realistic and even somewhat subtle, with Ash slowly maturing but retaining his personality enough to be a good protagonist. The rest of the characters are one-shot, hit-and-miss types, so when you have a chapter with good and funny characters, you also get those that grate on your nerves. A good cast, but I think a full 10 wouldn't really be fitting.

Characters overall: 9

Enjoyment: Shortest review of all: This series knows what it wants to be: A fun read that tugs at heartstrings, tugs at nightmares or draws a laugh from the audience. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but the pros outweigh the cons enough to give this category a full score.

Enjoyment overall: 10

Total overall: 9/10

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.