What is Manga?
Manga is the Japanese word for “comic”. In Japan, more paper is used for the printing of comics than for toilet paper! Huge, telephone book sized volumes come out monthly, with the latest instalments of popular comics. Small, thick books (known here as graphic novels) usually over one hundred pages in length are also available. These contain collections of stories, or one continuing plot line. Such compilations are called Tankubon. Manga is usually printed in black and white, on thick white paper, or newsprint.
A monthly Manga Magazine
What Pokémon Manga exist?
There are a number of Pokemon manga, but only three have seen an English-language release. These three will be the focus of this article. These titles are Pokemon! By Toshiro Ono (Japanese title: Den-Geki Pikachu), Pokemon Adventures! by Hidenori Kusaka and Mato (Japanese title: Pokémon Special), and Magical Pokemon Journey! by Yumi Tsukirino (Japanese title: PiPiPi Pokémon). Available in Japan, in addition to those above, are many others, including Pocket Monsters by Kosaku Anakubo; Pokemon Getto Da Ze! ("Pokémon: Gotta Catch 'Em All!") by Miho Asada; Pika-Q Puzzle Land; and Pokémon Zensho ("Pokemon Encyclopedia"). Also, A daily newspaper comic by Ashura Benimaru runs. (An American newspaper comic existed, too, but we don't like to talk about it.)
What is Doushinjuu?
Of course, these are just the official versions. There are tons of Doushinjuu, or fan comics available. These are written, drawn and produced by fans. Some are quite lewd, others are parodies, romances or crossovers. Often, these stories are published in fanzines, or offered as gimmicks in other Manga books. Each year there is large convention-type gathering for Doushinjuu artist to sell their self-printed books, or to seek jobs in the manga industry. This gathering is known as Comicon, or Comiket. Some fan-volumes can even be found on the Internet for purchase --just be careful you don't buy something you wouldn't want your mom to see!
Additionally, the well-known English-language amateur web-doushinjuu, Chibi Kitties!! has been rolling out the sweetness since 2001, and Charles Ellis and Megan Kearney's BOM/MSB-Fan-Adaptation remains the longest produced English-language MSB Doushinjuu.
Where can I find Mewtwo in Manga?
Mewtwo, aside from a few perverted doushinjuu, appears rarely in the Manga volumes (Mew is more popular--and marketable!). When the movie first came out, there were, of course, film comics. Film comics are basically books made up of screenshots with text boxes pasted on. in the west, you can find these in a collection of five (I believe) monthly magazine-style comics, or in one squarebound graphic novel. Viz produced film comics for the first two films. They didn't sell well, and can probably be found for discount in many bookstores. Mewtwo played a large role in Pokémon Special/Pokémon Adventures And can be found in volume three and seven. Mew appears in volumes one and two.
Tell me about Toshihiro Ono
Toshiro Ono, author of Den Geki Pikachu gained fame in the fan world for the editing that had to be done to make his manga fit for the North American market. The first few issues of tyhe comic ran unedited, but complaints came pouring in. Eventually, virtually every panel featuring female characters was altered – Misty’s shorts and shirt were lengthened, and Jessie’s breasts removed. This may sound drastic, but Ono's females were all in possesion of what is best decribed as "Frontally loaded rocket launchers".
Because of the comic's borderline racy artwork, although it had no offensive content, persay, it was finally cancelled in Japan. How, or why it came to be of the few to be released here, I will never know. If the content was so suggestive, why did it reside next to the junior chapter books in every Chapters across Canada? Regardless, this manga is available in a series of sixteen monthly comics, or four VIZ graphic novels.
Pokemon follows Satoshi/Ash's adventures, and each comic presents a television episode rewritten to make it more realistic or give it a new spin. Characters are made over in a more shounen manga (Boy's comics) style, and the stories often have a spin of naughty humour (much reduced in the English edit). For full details on this, I highly recommend visiting Den-Geki Pikachu Uncensored
Status: publication completed
In an interview with Animerica MagazineOno spoke about an original “Birth of Mewtwo” Manga, in no way based on the CD drama. He stated that by the time he had finished the script, an alternate opening had been written and his story lacked cohesion. However, despite the common rumour (that even we at KD are guilty of perpetuating) the script was not discarded. The two-issue Manga ran in CoroCoroComics Magazine in 1998, and while dificult to locate, can be found. KD hopes to have some available pieces from this work.
VS
Japanese versus North American
Tell Me about Yumi Tsukirino
Yumi Tsukirino is an author of “shoujo Manga”, that is, Manga aimed at young girls. She fits the generic bill very well. her manga, PiPiPi Pokemon Adventure is full of cute, fluffy, romantic stand-alone stories about Maron/Hazel, a young girl with a pet Pikachu. The comic follows Hazel's ill-fated attempts to win the love of her pokemon trainer friend Almond through means such as magic potions, baking contests, holiday parties and surprise gifts. Each issue stands alone, though characters tend to be reoccuring. Maron/Hazel tries to gain Almond's attention, competes with her rival, Coconut, and tries to solve everyone's problems --and problems are never hard to solve, if you put your whole heart into it! Her clueless Pikachu and phobic Clefairy are her constant companions, with cameos by just about any pokémon you can dream up.
As a bonus, perhaps because the stories are such light fare, Tsukirino suppliments each volume with a "special" section, following her manga-writing process, her gameboy adventures, and some amusing mini-comics guest-starring Ash and Misty, shocked at being dumped into the world of "cute" pokemon. Also, each volume ends in a mock-preview, a different manga style each time.
This manga is available in a series of numerous square-bound oversize monthly comics, or seven VIZ graphic novels
Status: 7/10 volumes available. Publication ended.
However... Willow Haze is engaged in a 'scanslation" effort --each comic is scanned into the computer, translated, and the english text is pasted into the speach bubbles, and posted ready for download. This way, you can finish reading the last three volumes unreleased by Viz!
Tell Me about Hidenori Kusaka and MATO
...and that other guy...
Hidenori Kusaka, author of Pokemon Special! (Pokemon Adventures!) and his artist partner, MATO, wrote their manga aimed at young boys, and based on the gameboy game. Pokémon special is available in English as Pokémon Adventures, published monthly in the same format as Magical Pokémon Journey, and is also available in at least six delightfully thick VIZ graphic novels.
Pokémon Adventures is cute and charming, but also rather fatalistic. Even as it tells a dark story, it employs charmingly innocent characters, near-chibi artwork, and amusing dialogue. Within the gameboy-inspired story, Team Rocket has gained immense power in the world, almost all of the gym leaders are corrupt. Many steal and ship pokemon to Rocket laboratories for use in experiments. Three young trainers from Pallet Town, the rash and impetious Red, intellectual Blue and the femme fatal thief Green (Japanese -- The rash and impetious GREEN, intellectual RED and the femme fatal thief BLUE), compete with each other to become pokémon masters. Later in the series, a young mystery trainer, the Yellow Caballero, becomes the story focus, eventually joined by characters such as Ruby and Crystal.
Midway through the series, artist MATO left the project and the art department was taken over by Satoshi Yamamoto. The art stays similar, and the series continues. In fact, Pokemon Special is one of the few that have been published since Pocket Monsters began -- That's nearly ten years! While Viz no longer translates the story, it is still being released in Japan, and an English version is available...in Korea.... Now, while this is sad, it's by no means a blow to the story. I have only the first three volumes, but they wrap up so nicely, you would think that's all there are. Hidenori Kusaka gives the reader a large number of entry-and-exit points, so the story is very accesible.
Status: 7/??. Publication ended --but still running in Japan!
Researching the update to this article, I turned time and again to Pokespecial TK, and I was very surprised to see that they had listed us as a resource! I guess KD gets around!
The aforemention Korean-English manga can be purchased online, but nowhere else, unless, of course, you want to mail us a couple from sunny Korea! You can find them at Singapor Chuang yi
