Kusaka, Hidenori
Fic. K968
2009
Fic. K968
2009
Pokémon Adventures,
originally released in Japan as Pocket Monsters Special (Japanese: ポケットモンスター SPECIAL Hepburn: Poketto Monsutā Supesharu?), is a
Pokémon-related manga based on the video games. Satoshi Tajiri once stated that
the Pocket Monsters Special series is closest to what he imagined the Pokémon
world to be: "This is the comic that most resembles the world I was trying
to convey."[1] (僕が伝えたかった世界に最も近い漫画です。 Boku ga tsutaetakatta sekai ni mottomo chikai manga
desu.?)
The series is written by
Hidenori Kusaka and illustrated by Mato for the first nine volumes. When Mato
became ill and was unable to continue illustrating the series, Satoshi Yamamoto
took over as the illustrator and still continues as the series' artist.
Pokémon Adventures has sold
over 150 million copies of its manga world wide, making it one of the
best-selling manga of Viz Media. The manga was translated into English in North
America by VIZ Media, but publication stopped in 2001 at Volume 7. Viz had
re-released the series in the form of The Best of Pokémon Adventures: Red and
The Best of Pokémon Adventures: Yellow, respectively, for $7.95 each, $6 less
than nearly a decade before, when the publisher first began to publish the
manga. VIZ Media has begun to release the series again with a 2nd edition,
although with edits not present in the first edition and original Japanese
version. As of March 2015, 46 volumes have been released (Volumes 1 through 27,
30 through 48), along with two pairs of mini-volumes depicting the "Black
& White" and "X & Y" arc. In Southeast Asia, Singapore
publisher Chuang Yi was translating Pokémon Adventures into English, and
continued to translate new volumes up to volume 41. The company, however, has
entered voluntary liquidation in early 2014 and translation stopped. Jilin Fine
Arts, in collaboration with the VIZ Media Shanghai Branch, has translated the
manga into Chinese. In Taiwan, it is published by Ching Win, who translates it
into Mandarin and releases it in their monthly CoroCoro Comic magazine.