What pokémon mangas are there?

[moon]

Most of us probably know of the rather awesome Pokémon Special / Adventures manga. But there are many more, and I haven't kept track of them. I know there is a Kanto manga featuring Gary and Ash, and there is the PiPiPi one and the Golden Boys and the Reburst one.

But, pretty much I wonder if some of you know better how many different pokémon mangas there really are.
Is there one that you think is as good as PokéSpe?
Is there one that is really bad and should be avoided?
What are the other mangas based on? Games or the anime or something completely new?

 

[Manga Reader X]

I know there is a Kanto manga featuring Gary and Ash

Yes, that's Pokémon Zensho.

But, pretty much I wonder if some of you know better how many different pokémon mangas there really are.

Here are two great guides to a lot of different Pokémon mangas. You will find more info on almost every Pokémon manga mentioned in this post there:

bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_manga
dogasu.bulbagarden.net/manga.html

The only one who might know exactly how many Pokémon mangas there are is the publisher, Shogakukan. I have found 79 different Pokémon manga series (not kidding) and there are probably a lot of 'undiscovered' Pokémon mangas as well. Many of those are completely unknown to the fanbase and out of those 79 series 63 are covered in Bulbapedia's guide, if I remember correctly. (The guide might have been updated since I counted the series.)
The reason why so many Pokémon mangas are unknown is because a lot of them are only published in magazines, which pretty much makes those mangas go extinct after the magazine is out of print. Some Pokémon mangas don't get a volume release because there aren't enough chapters to fill a volume, while there are some that have enough chapters, but still doesn't get a volume release. That is because Shogakukan almost never publishes a Pokémon manga in a volume that hasn't been published in CoroCoro. If a Pokémon manga is published in another one of Shogakukan's magazines it will probably not get a volume release.

This was the case with Phantom Thief Pokémon 7 vol. 2 (chapter 13-24), it's sequel Phantom Thief Pokémon V, Mobilize!! Pokémon Ranger and Pokémon Battle Stories. All of these mangas are created by the same mangaka, the very talented Miho Asada, who also is the mangaka who has made most original Pokémon manga series (meaning that they aren't based on the games, anime, TCG, etc.). 5 of 7 of her Pokémon manga series have never gotten volume releases. This makes it incredibly unfair in my opinion.

This crap above might be because Shogakukan wants Pokémon mangas to be promoted properly in CoroCoro, in order to increase sales.

Chuang Yi has published 18 of those 79 Pokémon manga series and VIZ has published 12 of those 79 series. Both publishers mostly publish manga adaptions of the Pokémon movies.

Is there one that you think is as good as PokéSpe?

I really like Phantom Thief Pokémon 7, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! and Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys. Pokémon Battle Frontier and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team are also worth to read. The Electric Tale of Pikachu looks good as well, but I haven't had time to read it yet.

Is there one that is really bad

Pokémon Pocket Monsters (aka 'the creepy Clefairy manga') and probably it's sequels. Pokémon Pocket Monsters is a gag manga with terrible artwork and puns that aren't even funny. This might be because it is very difficult to accurately translate gag mangas while preserving the jokes.

Manga adations of the Pokémon movies and direct anime adaptions such as Ash & Pikachu and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl seem unnecessary to read since it would probably be better to just watch the original movie / anime episode. However, The Electric Tale of Pikachu isn't an direct adaption in my opinon, so that one still looks good.

Magical Pokémon Journey and its sequel Pokémon Chamo-Chamo ☆ Pretty ♪ are too girly for my taste.

Pokémon mangas that are about playing Pokémon games / TCG in a world without Pokémon, such as Pokémon Battrio: Aim to be Battrio Master!, Pokémon Platinum: Aim to Be Battle King!! and Aim to Be a Card Master!!. They just don't look interesting. None of them have ever been released in English though, so I haven't read any of them.

What are the other mangas based on? Games or the anime or something completely new?

Bulbapedia has categorized the Pokémon mangas pretty good. Pokémon mangas can be based on the games, the anime, the TCG or be a completely original story.



Feel free to ask more questions and I will try to answer them :)

 

[moon]

Whoa, thank you for the fantastic reply! You seem to know a lot. Good username you picked on PC ;)

Pokémon Zensho, is that the same as Electric Tale of Pikachu?

I just spent 10 minutes flicking through that bulbapedia article and some links from it. I had no idea there were... SO many mangas. And that some don't even get published in volumes. But what surprises me is that only two or three mangas are generally well known when you mention pokémon manga to pokémon fans.

I will make sure to read that Rescue Team manga, and re-read Electric Tale of Pikachu (I don't really know if I reached the ending last time) and I'll try to find Reburst somewhere too, because I read a couple of chapters of that and really liked it a while back.

It appears there's a whole smörgåsbord for people who are interested in pokémon manga but don't feel they know where to start. Well, obviously you should start with Pokémon Adventures (I think so at least ;D) but after that, it's an unknown jungle.

Thanks again for clearing a lot of things up, though!

 

[Manga Reader X]

Bulbapedia recently added some more Pokémon mangas. Now we're up in 79 Pokémon mangas.

Good username you picked on PC ;)

Couldn't come up with anything better. It's pretty cheesy.

Pokémon Zensho, is that the same as Electric Tale of Pikachu?

No. Pokémon Zensho is a 10 chapter Pokémon manga that takes place in Kanto and starts at chapter 0 and ends at chapter 9. It follows the games closer than any other Pokémon manga. It is based on Pokémon Red and Green. It was never released in English, but is available in at least Japanese, Cantonese Chinese and Italian.

The Electric Tale of Pikachu is based of season 1 and 2 of the anime, in other words Kanto and the Orange Islands.

I have imported Pokémon Zensho from Japan, so if you have any questions about Zensho I might be able to help out with that.

what surprises me is that only two or three mangas are generally well known when you mention pokémon manga to pokémon fans.

Anything not published by VIZ and still in print is pretty much doomed to be forgotten. Also, Pokémon Adventures steals the spotlight. Sure Pokémon Adventures is great, but the other mangas deserve some attention every once in a while.

Then there's the fact that neither Chuang Yi, nor VIZ has published any Pokémon manga that isn't Pokémon Adventures or a manga adation of a Pokémon movie since the end of 2010 (VIZ) and since the end of 2011 (Chuang Yi).

Though VIZ will finally release a new Pokémon manga this fall, named Pokémon Pocket Monsters: serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?606734-Pokemon-Pocket-Comics

It's a collection of Pokémon 4Komas. Pokémon 4Koma is a four panel gag manga, sort of like a nws paper comic strip. There's not much storyline there, but it's nice that they finally release something. Odd choice though, I was sure that they would go for RéBURST

Something that probably affected this as well is the death of PokéCommunity's manga section, which happened in the spring of 2008. Many Pokémon manga pros used to hang out here until that tragic event :'(

I will make sure to read that Rescue Team manga, and re-read Electric Tale of Pikachu (I don't really know if I reached the ending last time)

Depends if you're reading the magazine editions or the volume editions. The magazine editions ends at chapter 16, while the volume editions end at chapter 20. If I remember correctly this is because VIZ couldn't meet the deadlines due to the extensive censoring they had to do. This also caused chapter 2 and 3 to switch places in the magazine editions. The mangaka of The Electric Tale of Pikachu, Toshihiro Ono is mainly a hentai mangaka, so he followed his instincts and drew all the females in EToP very 'well-equipped'.
Here is a comparison picture between the uncensored Japanese magazine editions and the slightly censored Japanese volume editions of EToP: smg.photobucket.com/user/BlackjackGabbiani/media/Scans/Onoedits.jpg.html - Go there on your own risk!

It appears there's a whole smörgåsbord for people who are interested in pokémon manga but don't feel they know where to start. Well, obviously you should start with Pokémon Adventures (I think so at least ;D) but after that, it's an unknown jungle.

Yeah, but if they want to buy something I recommend to at least buy Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys, Pokémon Battle Frontier, The Electric Tale of Pikachu and Phantom Thief Pokémon 7, since those mangas either are very hard to get, or will become very hard to get.

Not so fun fact: The Electric Tale of Pikachu volume 4's current market price is USD$75. Volume 3's current market price is USD$30. Volume 4 is so expensive because chapter 16-20 were never published in the magazines, so if people want to read it they have to getthe volume. Add that it has been out of print for 12 years or so + capitalistic greed and that is what you get. Luckily I found all of my EToP volumes at a fair price.

Also, a lot of unknown Pokémon mangas are included i Japanese Pokémon game guide books.