Pokemon Special vs. Electric Tale of Pikachu

[Redstar]

So I'm curious. Why is it that so many people seem to prefer the Pokemon Special manga over the Electric Tale of Pikachu?

The art is more realistic, the characters have depth, the world is presented in an intelligent and reimagined way with new technology and large cities, and actual culture is depicted. I could new get into Pokemon Special because the art style is poor and the story is cliche.

Any thoughts?

 

[¡Chucho!]

I think Special is just advertised more within the community.

 

[Ash_Pokemaster]

So I'm curious. Why is it that so many people seem to prefer the Pokemon Special manga over the Electric Tale of Pikachu?

The art is more realistic, the characters have depth, the world is presented in an intelligent and reimagined way with new technology and large cities, and actual culture is depicted. I could new get into Pokemon Special because the art style is poor and the story is cliche.

Any thoughts?

While you're mostly right about Electric Tale of Pikachu depicting a more realistic Pokemon World, let's not lose the point. They are Pokemon manga, and Pokemon Special works much better as one than any other. Pokemon Special doesn't offer many culture references, but it doesn't deny them either. It just focuses on the adventures of the characters that are involved in it. One could easily imagine normal life of the Pokemon World that is developed in Pokemon Special, and it could be pretty similar to that of Electric Tales of Pikachu, but as I said, the manga focuses mostly on the Pokemon part. Electric Tales of Pikachu barely shows the adventures of the heroes. I would say that it rather focuses in side stories of people and things that they meet on their quest. Of course, both are great. They just have a different point of view.

And you're wrong about Pokemon Special not developing the characters and the storyline. My personal opinion is that both are equally developed in both manga. Also, rather Electric Tales of Pikachu uses a lot of stereotypes; and not that this is that bad, but Special follows a much different road. Every character is unique, stereotypes are not strictly followed. The storyline is pretty interesting, -of course known- and it is a perfect adaption of the one on the video game, adding every single aspect needed to make an interesting manga out of a game. To add the lines of Satoshi Tajiri, "This is the comic that most resembles the world I was trying to convey."

 

[Redstar]

While you're mostly right about Electric Tale of Pikachu depicting a more realistic Pokemon World, let's not lose the point. They are Pokemon manga, and Pokemon Special works much better as one than any other. Pokemon Special doesn't offer many culture references, but it doesn't deny them either. It just focuses on the adventures of the characters that are involved in it. One could easily imagine normal life of the Pokemon World that is developed in Pokemon Special, and it could be pretty similar to that of Electric Tales of Pikachu, but as I said, the manga focuses mostly on the Pokemon part. Electric Tales of Pikachu barely shows the adventures of the heroes. I would say that it rather focuses in side stories of people and things that they meet on their quest. Of course, both are great. They just have a different point of view.

And you're wrong about Pokemon Special not developing the characters and the storyline. My personal opinion is that both are equally developed in both manga. Also, rather Electric Tales of Pikachu uses a lot of stereotypes; and not that this is that bad, but Special follows a much different road. Every character is unique, stereotypes are not strictly followed. The storyline is pretty interesting, -of course known- and it is a perfect adaption of the one on the video game, adding every single aspect needed to make an interesting manga out of a game. To add the lines of Satoshi Tajiri, "This is the comic that most resembles the world I was trying to convey."

I suppose you're right. All of your points are pretty fair, though "because Satoshi likes it" doesn't really count for much. I don't like it, so obviously Tajiri doesn't have influence over us all. Different stories hit us in different places.

I do admit that Special seems vastly superior, in only that more time has been put into it... If Electric Tale wasn't so episodic, it would have the potential to seriously rival it. Seriously. Some of the plot lines, like Jesse and James getting MARRIED and having a BABY were a serious take at a shipping dream, even though the guy only wrote it because it felt like a clean end to the story and those characters.

I just wish it had last a bit longer. Maybe someday someone will take up the helm and expand it.

 

[fire243]

I suppose you're right. All of your points are pretty fair, though "because Satoshi likes it" doesn't really count for much. I don't like it, so obviously Tajiri doesn't have influence over us all. Different stories hit us in different places.

I do admit that Special seems vastly superior, in only that more time has been put into it... If Electric Tale wasn't so episodic, it would have the potential to seriously rival it. Seriously. Some of the plot lines, like Jesse and James getting MARRIED and having a BABY were a serious take at a shipping dream, even though the guy only wrote it because it felt like a clean end to the story and those characters.

I just wish it had last a bit longer. Maybe someday someone will take up the helm and expand it.

I think the fact that the electric tale of pikachu ended after four volume might be the reason why there is a smaller following.

When the adventures series is still continuing, fans has new stuff to discuss. If the manga series has ended, fans will gradually fade away due to a lack of new things to discuss.

 

[aipom man]

pokemon special is the best THE BEST

 

[Redstar]

pokemon special is the best THE BEST

Maybe you can explain why?

Because the stifling art style and the cliche story certainly isn't proving to me that it's the "best".

 

[aipom man]

pokemon special isnt cliche if anything id say that the electrec tale of pikachu is the CLICHIEST

 

[Redstar]

pokemon special isnt cliche if anything id say that the electrec tale of pikachu is the CLICHIEST

So being the only Pokemon interpretation to not present Sabrina as evil, but as a loving, compassionate woman as well as presenting a real permeating theme of culture and technology throughout is cliche? Giving the characters real backgrounds and developing interactions is cliche?

I suppose Ono being given a simple line describing episodes of the anime and having to write the corresponding issue from scratch was cliche, as well as giving all fans of the anime what they wanted: a true ending. Yeah, I totally get you.

 

[Star★Seeker]

I personally prefer PokeSpe. It's art may not be the best, but it has great characters and is very fun overall. It's very well done and alot of plotholes are resolved. Not only that, but it has a continuing and intertwined story. As for EToP, I can't say much, since I haven't read it completely.

 

[invisible-chan]

So I'm curious. Why is it that so many people seem to prefer the Pokemon Special manga over the Electric Tale of Pikachu?

The art is more realistic, the characters have depth, the world is presented in an intelligent and reimagined way with new technology and large cities, and actual culture is depicted. I could new get into Pokemon Special because the art style is poor and the story is cliche.

Any thoughts?

Well, here's my diddy on the matter. I think I'm going to be the only one to agree with you that the EToP is better than PokeSupe, on certain aspects. First of all, there are major differences between the two that doesn't quite make them comparable. EToP is based on the anime while PokeSupe is based on the game. EToP also relies heavily on the reader watching or knowing about the anime. PokeSupe, however, creates its own story that doesn't require game knowledge and actually strays from it drastically.

In EToP, the manga tries to get it to seem more plausible in real life. Because there is a wide range of people who have seen the anime, it wants to get them to be interested in it as well.

PokeSupe wasn't intended to reach the same fans as it did as EToP. PokeSupe was intended to give the games a supposedly deeper plot and more characterization. While it is your opinion to say that the art is poor, it is far from that to say that about the characterization. Some of the characters of PokeSupe are given far more background than I've seen from EToP. I don't know how far you've read, but clearly it isn't enough to have seen the story behind Blue/Green and Silver. PokeSupe gives player characters with virtually no personality; Red, Blue, Crys, etc... something the readers can relate to.

I suppose you're right. All of your points are pretty fair, though "because Satoshi likes it" doesn't really count for much. I don't like it, so obviously Tajiri doesn't have influence over us all. Different stories hit us in different places.

I do admit that Special seems vastly superior, in only that more time has been put into it... If Electric Tale wasn't so episodic, it would have the potential to seriously rival it. Seriously. Some of the plot lines, like Jesse and James getting MARRIED and having a BABY were a serious take at a shipping dream, even though the guy only wrote it because it felt like a clean end to the story and those characters.

I just wish it had last a bit longer. Maybe someday someone will take up the helm and expand it.

I think everyone keeps getting a misinterpretation of that quote. I'm pretty sure that he's not saying, "That one has better characters and story," but, "That manga is closest to having world like I envisioned. The rules and interaction are what I pictured." What I mean by this is, if the Pokemon world were real, you wouldn't have Pokemon directly sent to a box. You could keep as many as you want, but to officially use in a battle, you can only have six. Or Pokemon are not resticted as they are in the games. They can move freely, use attacks out of turn and moves that should have been forgotten, etc. I think that Satoshi Tajiri's should have a big impact on whether a manga is a good interpretation of Pokemon. He is its creator after all. Whether you like it/prefer it is all up to you, though.

There is quite a bit of shipping in PokeSupe that you would probably be interested if you got into it. I love that RocketShipping had a "happy" ending in that manga. In PokeSupe, even though several ships seem obvious and lean towards canon, there is only one that is official, so if you don't like the seemingly canon ones, no hurt to your ship. (I pretty much ignore the ships since most of the "canon" ones are completly against I like because of the games)

EToP should have been longer. I'm really upset that they cut it short. I would have been interested in what it did with Ash and Misty and how he would have delt with May and Dawn's entrance.

 

[Redstar]

Well, here's my diddy on the matter. I think I'm going to be the only one to agree with you that the EToP is better than PokeSupe, on certain aspects. First of all, there are major differences between the two that doesn't quite make them comparable. EToP is based on the anime while PokeSupe is based on the game. EToP also relies heavily on the reader watching or knowing about the anime. PokeSupe, however, creates its own story that doesn't require game knowledge and actually strays from it drastically.

In EToP, the manga tries to get it to seem more plausible in real life. Because there is a wide range of people who have seen the anime, it wants to get them to be interested in it as well.

PokeSupe wasn't intended to reach the same fans as it did as EToP. PokeSupe was intended to give the games a supposedly deeper plot and more characterization. While it is your opinion to say that the art is poor, it is far from that to say that about the characterization. Some of the characters of PokeSupe are given far more background than I've seen from EToP. I don't know how far you've read, but clearly it isn't enough to have seen the story behind Blue/Green and Silver. PokeSupe gives player characters with virtually no personality; Red, Blue, Crys, etc... something the readers can relate to.



I think everyone keeps getting a misinterpretation of that quote. I'm pretty sure that he's not saying, "That one has better characters and story," but, "That manga is closest to having world like I envisioned. The rules and interaction are what I pictured." What I mean by this is, if the Pokemon world were real, you wouldn't have Pokemon directly sent to a box. You could keep as many as you want, but to officially use in a battle, you can only have six. Or Pokemon are not resticted as they are in the games. They can move freely, use attacks out of turn and moves that should have been forgotten, etc. I think that Satoshi Tajiri's should have a big impact on whether a manga is a good interpretation of Pokemon. He is its creator after all. Whether you like it/prefer it is all up to you, though.

There is quite a bit of shipping in PokeSupe that you would probably be interested if you got into it. I love that RocketShipping had a "happy" ending in that manga. In PokeSupe, even though several ships seem obvious and lean towards canon, there is only one that is official, so if you don't like the seemingly canon ones, no hurt to your ship. (I pretty much ignore the ships since most of the "canon" ones are completly against I like because of the games)

EToP should have been longer. I'm really upset that they cut it short. I would have been interested in what it did with Ash and Misty and how he would have delt with May and Dawn's entrance.

It's really a matter of preference. I started to red PokeSupe, and was downloading scans via this very site, but I was overwhelmed because there were literally hundreds of pages. I was only able to download the first 14 chapters of volume one. Of that, I only read the first chapter, and I wasn't impressed. I liked some of the artistic directions, such as the spined-Charmander, etc., but over-all it made me feel really... lonely. I don't know why, but it made me feel so overwhelmingly lonely I couldn't continue. EToP, however, feels colorful and wide and open. It invites me to go inside and experience the world. I'm sure PokeSupe develops over time, but that first hump seems a dangerous one.

I do wish EToP would continue, but unfortunately it officially wont. I'm actually penning a comic with a friend that is inspired on many aspects of the Pokemon franchise, with EToP included. So it's a pseudo-continuation, if anyone's interested.

 

[pokexpress]

I prefer PokeSpe, because it's more faithful to the game storyline. I am quite sick of Pokemon anime, probably that's why I don't like EToP all that much (although it IS much better than the anime, I think).