Pokémon Pocket Monsters

Pocket Monsters was one of the first Pokémon manga to come out in Japan and ran for 14 volumes all of which were translated into English but never reached American shores most likely due to its content and practically unrecognizable characters. Nevertheless, it is highly original and it is the first manga to introduce Pokémon. It has a sequel "Pokémon Ruby-Sapphire". The author is Anakubo Kosaku.

The manga follows Red, a young boy competing with a rival, Green, to complete the Pokédex and become the champion of Pokemon. In this manga, Pokémon can talk. It is thought that a Clefairy is the main character, although it is just a follower of Red. Clefairy is obnoxious but lovable, whose big mouth sometimes gets it into trouble. Surprisingly enough, Clefairy comes up with clever ideas to help Red and Pikachu.

In the first few manga books, Red's team consists of Pikachu and Clefairy only. However, later on, Red gains a valuable companion in Tyrogue, as well. Pikachu himself is unable to talk, similar to the Pikachu in Magical Pokemon Journey.

The story also goes to the Johto region, where Red gets introduced to trainers Gold and Silver, supposedly based on the video game characters. The story then goes to Hoenn in the last book, where Red thinks of receiving a Torchic and abandoning Clefairy. It is after this that the story continues under the name of Pokemon Ruby-Sapphire, starting the volume number from 1 again.

Characters

Red: Charged with completing the Pokemon Zukan, he is Green's rival.

Pippi: Red's first Pokemon ally. Pippi is very vulgar.

Pikachu: Pippi's younger cousin who joins Red and Pippi. He is unable to talk.

External links

* [http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/manga/pocket_monsters.html Dogasu's backback]
* [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pocket_Monsters_%28manga%29 Bulbapedia entry]
* [http://www.chuangyi.com.sg/english/sud_pages/pokemon/pm/pm.htm Pokemon web-site]