POCKET MONSTERS SPECIAL: X & Y

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA ActionPocket Monsters SPECIAL
MANGA AdventurePocket Monsters SPECIAL: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire
MANGA ActionPocket Monsters SPECIAL: Black 2 & White 2
MANGA ActionPocket Monsters XY: Pokemon Ryuuouden

REVIEWS

• 

  Oleyver

  80/100
  a great return of a saga that started to run out of steam, from the least expected storyline

  While Kusaka was trying to recover from that mess that was Black&White by writing BW2 and, at least, close the circle of the story in Unima, he probably had a nervous breakdown and started to reread his whole work, trying to find where he "lost the touch". For me, the manga started to run out of steam since Emerald, not the saga, the character, unlike Yellow he was totally not needed, we already had Wally who was instead thrown out of the window. However, the Emerald story itself worked because it was the cool final battle of the three dexholders trios, ending with 30 volumes, OCD power I call you. Every story written after this was too bound to the game it was based on, it became too simple, too linear and even tying the villain’s plots to the original characters was blatant fanservice. Every arc started to be like a commercial for the game. XY is a great return to the past, the story of Kalos is a story played by Kalos characters in the Kalos region, those few "guest stars" are there not because they're tied to the events by some new revelation on their past, but because they became, through the past events we already experienced, important figures of the Pokemon world, therefore their role is to aid the new characters instead of overshadowing them. Talking about the actual protagonists of this arc, I would not say they are very original, since both X and Y have an aspect of Ruby’s background, but still they’re not cheap characters, their motives are believable and their actions are well weighed. About the villains you cannot do very much giving the original story of the XY games, Ruby&Sapphire suffered the same problem and that arc was much longer than this one. On my point of view, the success of this part derives from its conciseness, it succeeds in giving us two full fledged protagonist and a bunch of good secondary characters in a short but intense story, and the tension is created ALSO because this story is original, it’s not the gym tour of Sinnoh and Unima (and partially Hoenn, Sapphire storyline IS kinda weak on that front). The change of rhythm from the main storyline screams that this is the kind of story Kusaka wants to write and what is his vision of the Pokemon world, the care he put here made me love XY manga so much that it become one of my three favourites arcs in the entire series, despite the fact that the XY games are the worst. I hate France.

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• 

  TheSoggyCrisp

  80/100
  A Beautiful Rendition of Trubbish

  I can't praise this arc enough. Before I get into my infinite praises I might as well start with what I didn't like since I don't have too many issues. Some of our main gang didn't get as much screen time as they deserved. This is a loose point however as by the end I didn't mind it and even though I feel like someone like Tierno was somewhat left behind he definetly still had his moments and had a cool special chapter after the main story which showed him well. But overall the main cast was INCREDIBLE. They had great and distinct personalities. It's surreal to see someone like Shauna be so wildly different yet it works due to how boring the characters were in the games. Back to negatives however, the third dex really confused me. Forgive if I missed something but nothing happened with the third dex right? Fennekin was also really left behind though by the end it was cool for Trevor to pick it up even if that didn't go anywhere due to there being no continuation. The whole third pokedex thing makes me think the creator wanted to do an emerald type thing and that was supposed to lead into the next arc but due to there being no Pokemon Z version that plot point was dropped... I don't know though. Honestly that's kind of it for negatives and these two points barely even bothered me so regardless to say I loved this arc. I don't think I can honestly say all that I love but for starters: X and Y are incredible, they rival the GSC and RS pokedex holders in terms of dynamics and they were always a joy to see develop. X looked like he could have been boring at the start but I never got tired of his whole thing. This arc seems to share alot of dna from RS but trust me that isn't a bad thing especially as this arc doesn't have a stupid ending like RS. The whole mega charizard stone reveal felt like celebi 2.0 to me for a second and I was scared but when I thought about it more it didn't come out of nowhere and was actually a well done reveal that gave me a shock factor while not destroying all previously built up tension. The returning characters unlike previous arcs didn't feel unnatural which is awesome, Blue I didn't see coming but it never felt cheap to me. That's true for all game elements this time around. For my FRLG review my main issue was how the arc felt more like an advertisement for the games rather than a story. That's fixed with XY, the plot is awesome and always moving and all elements are slowly and naturally added. Team Flare did their job well, I loved how they weren't just some secret organization we spend alot of the early story building NO they drop us right into the main story. Team Flare controlling everything and having our heroes always having to be ready to fight is really cool, it makes team flare unique and very opposing, it also keeps up engagement to the story as we start at an intense peak. Truly a well done change of pace for this manga and I am really impressed I don't think this review did the arc justice so please read or re-read it if you're seeing it. It's an awesome addition to the adventures world!

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