The Pokémon universe is one of the largest anime franchises worldwide. It is no wonder that there are several manga series about pocket monsters. The most internationally successful manga is Pocket Monsters SPECIAL, which is published here under the title “Pokémon: The First Adventures.” However, the manga is not as cheerful as the anime.
What is “Pokémon: The First Adventures?” The most famous manga of the Pokémon series has some special features:
- Unlike many other mangas, the story is not based on the anime, but on the video games.
- Therefore, the protagonists and rivals are named the same as in the video games.
- The manga sheds more light on the backgrounds of the video game characters, for example, that Silver is Giovanni’s son.
- The manga is much more direct about certain themes like torture and death.
Especially the last point seems a bit disturbing. In the anime, it has rarely been a topic that a Pokémon has died. After battles, most pocket monsters are simply “defeated” and can be revived by Nurse Joy.
MeinMMO reveals why Meowth can actually speak in the anime series:
The Pokémon manga is more brutal
How is the death of Pokémon expressed in the manga? Because Pokémon can die in battles, the manga feels much darker than the anime. The pocket monsters are not simply killed by a fire or electric attack and fall over, but often die in brutal ways (via CBR):
- Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket, is a sadist who cares nothing for the lives of Pokémon. He freezes several Magmar with his Weezing and shatters them into pieces.
- The gym leader Koga uses poison Pokémon. His Arbok has such potent venom that in one scene it burns the skin of a Psyduck. As a result, several bones are visible, and even the eyeballs melt in their sockets.
- Later, Blue uses his Charmeleon against the Arbok and slices it in half. The spine and muscles are visible in cross-section.
- Team Rocket conducts genetic experiments on Pokémon. In one case, they fuse Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos into a being that suffers pain due to its existence.
Some of the mentioned scenes can be seen in the tweet by 13TwistedScraps:
Even outside of Pokémon battles, things can get brutal. Siegfried, a member of the Elite Four, wiped out an entire city with a Hyper Beam. Even the abuse of one’s own children is a topic in the manga.
Where can I read the manga? If you want to see for yourself the mature storyline, you can get the manga yourself. The printed mangas are available from Panini Publishing, and the digital version can be purchased on several sales platforms like Amazon.
How many volumes are there? There are now all arcs, from Red, Blue, and Green to Crimson, each game generation is included. Even Black and White 2 and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have their own arc.
The regular volumes run up to volume 65; the mini volumes, which were only introduced from X and Y, now encompass 25 volumes. Pokémon is now the absolute leader. But there was a time when Digimon briefly had the upper hand: For 27 years, Pokémon has been the largest anime franchise, but there was a time when Digimon was ahead.
