Overall honest opinions of Pokemon Adventures/Special
Well, first the battles. I particularly liked how the battles are very strategic, as they generally take advantage of field effects, conditions of the field, vulnerabilities by a Pokemon and so on. These cannot be replicated in the games, which has more systematic battles rather than dynamic. The anime has this too, but the manga is able to demonstrate the techniques well. Of course, it helps that the main battles are held by skilled trainers, who are able to make use of the Pokemon's abilities and attributes to do well. I mean, in the games, Stealth Rock is just rocks that Pokemon can get hurt, but in the manga, Pokemon can ride on it and get an air boost! Because battles can happen in pretty much anywhere, it makes me interested to see how the battles will turn out, as the equally-skilled trainers often have something up their sleeves. It's also an interesting quirk that trainers ride their Pokemon while they battle, which you never actually see in the anime.
The realistic take on the Pokemon world is also something I admire, although not always liking them. First of all, the anime is more kid-friendly, so you never see a lot of the dark side of the Pokemon abilities (one example I can recall in the anime is Hunter J). The manga shows us not only their dark side, but their talents as well, which is what I actually liked. We get to see Garchomp perform that flying technique, or Mantine carrying 20 Remoraid (I wished Mantine is this useful in the games too!), Skarmory making use of steel feathers like a boomerang, or funnily, Qwilfish swelling up like a balloon and floating. In other words, every Pokemon in the manga is shown to be useful in some way, unlike the games, where there will always be a bottom tier for all the Pokemon that cannot perform well (On the bright side, we have Pokeathlon wonder Sunkern!). Heck, Delibird is actually threatening in the manga!
When the characters do fun stuff, it's always fun to watch. There's the Great Marsh, where the three protagonists go to hunt for a Grass-type, and there's the Goldenrod race (in that event, Sudowoodo was caught), and there's the bike race where Red has to race to the finish (here, Snorlax was caught), and there's Emerald's soil-shooting talent. They are fun to watch because they are generally exciting activities. I also like the banter by Diamond (Lucas) and Pearl (Barry), because that made the characters more interesting.
I like how every character has a moment of awesomeness. Casting aside the main protagonists, we have that swimmer in Hoenn, Gabby and Ty the reporter and cameraman, the Magma and Aqua admins, the Gym Leaders, Dr. Footstep, Chairman of the Pokemon Fan Club, Juan and so on. Having the relatively less important characters do something great is something you don't normally see in the anime (all but three of Kanto's Gym Leaders were only important in the episodes they were in).
OK, now for the negative views. I didn't like how all the Dex Holders are like the ultimate chosen ones. OK, the concept of them being gifted is nothing special, but it feels that if you are not a Dex Holder, you are not gifted and powerful. Well, that may not necessarily be true, but that's how I feel, because they are very young and they are already special. It's common in manga, I know, but it's something I dislike. Also there are two characters whom I actually dislike. I am going to cast Agatha, because she's not important anymore. So, the characters are *ahem* Green (Leaf) and Sird. I felt like Sird is immortal, and Green, well, I think she is too perfect as a character.
Well, the main negative view is how dark the manga can get. Every time I read a new story arc, I grew less and less happy when I begin, because I often felt down at the end of the story arcs, where bad things happen here and there. I got the feeling starting from Ruby and Sapphire onwards, and when I started reading Diamond and Pearl, I lost the happy feeling of enjoying it, as if expecting something bad to happen so soon. I feel the same way for Black and White, where the first few chapters felt depressing, despite not being exactly depressing themselves. In other words, I feel the dark part of the story had outweighed the light as the series go on.
Well, that's my honest view of the manga.
Thanks for reading.
