First impressions Pokemon manga made?

[Super-Staff]

Like what judgements did you make for Pokemon manga based on just reading a synopsis online or looking at the cover at a book store? Did the manga seem dumb but ended up being enjoyable? Were you expecting more but ended up disappointed?

For me, the first manga for Pokemon I ever saw was Electric Tale of Pikachu. I hadn't had much experience with comics in general back then, much less manga. So I assumed it would just be a carbon copy of the anime. When I began to read it, I was very wrong!

When it comes to Pokemon Adventures and Magical Pokemon Journey, I took a look at the covers for volume 1 which were in book stores back in the day and assumed they would be lame/watered down. I was also wrong about this. I never judged any comics, especially Pokemon related, so harshly again.

[Pokedawn.Cu.CC]

To be honest, i dont even know when i started watching Pokemon..

[pacman000]

When Pokemon was new, I saw a Pokemon comic while checking out. I picked it up, looked at it...and put it back because it wasn't exactly like the TV show.

I probably shouldn't have done that...

[xEryChan]

The way my friend talked about made me want to read it and see if it was as good as it sounded. She said that she thought the Adventures manga was a lot better then the anime and I was curious to know what it was like because I liked the anime, I thought it was awesome. I wanted to see what the manga was like because, she's not the first person I heard that prefers the manga over the anime.

So she gave me the link to it and I started reading it. I was definitely not disappointed either. I seriously loved the manga and I'm glad I read it.

[SlimeStack]

A friend told me last year that the Adventures manga is the best form of Pokémon media in terms of story and art. So I read the Red and Blue arc and he was right; I got hooked. Now I own all 20 of Viz's current volumes and have DPP vol. 7 preordered.

[Dreamingflower]

I started to read the summaries and character profiles on serebii before I found a site where I could read it. Thought I don't remember much about my first impressions, only that I was super curious what it was about.

[mjjfan10]

To be 100% honest...
I only started reading it when BW came out.
I've actually started importing some of the manga (mostly BW) just because I love N like the whole Team Plasma plot.

[Trutown]

My opinion on Pokemon Adventures:

Is it good?
Usually. Only when Doctor Wh- I mean Celebii is not involved.

Does it always make sense?
No.

Do I like all of the characters?
No, but some of my favorite fictional characters are in this series.

Is the overall plot well done?
There is no overall plot for the series as a whole, so I am going with no.

Is it immune to my criticism?
No. Nothing really is.

Do I enjoy it?
Hell yes.

[Fake Psychic]

Pokemon Adventures, I read it when I got bored so maybe I could be interested in reading manga based on Pokemon (Read it at Bulbapedia first then interested). Then it becomes one of my favorable Mangas of all time because of the twisting plot and Good characterization. Not because it is Pokemon actually, because it is a great manga than any I have ever read. But still has its Pragmatic and simple sides(Like Pokemon) which I loved (Unlike most of Shonen mangas which is overexaggerated).

The next was Pokemon 7, kinda funny and enjoyable I think. But with its very enjoyable sides as well with the one that dressed like Arsene Lupin(Rocco)

[MattySadler]

Well the anime had just come out in the UK and was pretty big, I loved it. Was in a shop once and spotted this comic and noticed you could actually see the Pokemon in their Pokeballs, which was enough to catch my interest. I liked it as it was just a different interpretation to the anime and I loved the darker, gritty more 'real' aspects. Years later I saw the quote about it most resembling the world he was trying to convey!

[Trainer93]

Lets get this out of the way; I have been a fan of pokemon ever since they first evented it and I love it. Now when I was a kid I really enjoyed the anime; however, it really didn't take much for me too grow out of it. So I started to believe that maybe it lost its luster to me, but I recently just started reading the manga. I was skeptical at first, but in the end I decided I would give it a go. I love it, I can't stop saying how fricking amazing it is. Ash always bored me to death, but the main charecters in the manga are awesome right now I'm in the first gen. I can't wait to read more of it.

[Platinum fan.]

Electric Tale of Pikachu was the first Pokemon manga I ever read because it came out in comic form when Pokemon was still hot and big in the world. I of course got them all, but then I saw a new Pokemon book and it was Pokemon Adventures. It was also in comic form back then. It had two chapters in it. The one where Red and Green (guy) accidentally switched Pokemon and Green's Machoke evolved to Machamp and when Red teamed up with Bill to catch Eevee, who kept switching between forms, at Erika's request. I loved it since then as a kid but they stopped publishing manga comics soon. I could only read summaries online for the following years until I found copies in my bookshop in 2010. I've been hooked ever since. Honestly other then the games themselves this is the best form of Pokemon media ever. It's flawed, yes, more then some will address, but I love it.

[marioluigifan05]

Electric Tale of Pikachu - Thought it would be a bad anime novellization. I was wrong.
Special (RBGYGSC): Thought it would be a bad fanfic. I was wrong.
Special (RSEDPPBW): Thought it would be good. I was wrong.

[WildHennaCharizard]

Electric Tale of Pikachu: was a fun read back in the day.. had it's funny parts, its scary parts (Haunter in the bad guy and nearly kills Sabrina!) and of the how the english version censored some things.

The other Pokemon manga with Red was it? I read a couple issues when I found them was very good.

[Kutie Pie]

My brothers and I had two volumes as kids (if you call them volumes, since they were released as comic books here for a while). I knew they were different from the anime, but as I wasn't familiar with the names, I replaced "Red" and "Blue" with "Ash" and "Gary", if they weren't to begin with. I don't remember if Green was in these particular volumes or not. We had the first one, and the one that had Lavender Town. The one with Lavender Town really drove it home for us that this was so much different from the anime, and we thought it was cool. Not sure if we showed it to our mom, though, not sure what she would've thought about such violence at the time.

We eventually lost the copies, and we pretty much forgot about it until we noticed the manga at the library and online. While I don't think the boys are interested in reading it, I have read what I was able to find online, and the parts I recognized from my childhood I enjoyed, and the rest of the volumes were just amazing. They really went to great heights to show that this wasn't the Pokémon world we were familiar with. It's really dark for a children's manga, and I like that. One of these days, I'll start collecting the manga (especially if I can find the first Kanto and Johto volumes), but not at the moment.

[GoshinX03]

The first thing I noticed was how much more serious and personal the Pokemon battles are in the manga compared to the anime.

[Dragontail]

I first noticed the dark themes of Adventures, and the sensual content of the Japanese ETP.

[Azimuth1011]

The PokeSpe manga was very well made, and as the above poster said, had a darker theme compared to the anime.

[Skullkraken]

I thought Pokemon Adventures RB was awesome when I first saw it as a kid, and I was right. It's much closer to the game world than the anime, and as an adult it's still thoroughly enjoyable.

[Aquarelle]

I found out about the existence of Pokemon manga back in 2006 when I read some of the Pokespecial summaries on the main site. From what I read, it seemed like one of the coolest things ever and I immediately wanted to get my own copies of all the volumes. Later that year, I imported all the Pokespecial volumes that were available in English from Singapore and still love the series to this day.

I also found out about the DPA manga from these forums and purchased all the volumes. That manga was great, too.