Hey guys, I have some questions about which editions should I get.
I live in Singapore so I have a choice between Vizmedia and Shogakukan's editions...
Yeah, as the others have mentioned, Viz and Chaung Yi use different translation scripts. (Also, the most recent volumes are translated by Shogakukan Asia rather than Chuang Yi.) [Edit: you already said that in your post. My bad.] The Singaporean translation flips the pages, as you'll already know, but it stopped doing that around Vol. 40 or 41. Viz did it for its first edition printings--those are the ones you're probably familiar with--but the ones currently available read right to left. I'm not sure if the Viz books these days are higher quality than the first editions that would've been available a decade ago. The current ones feature a soft cover, stiff paper covered in a thin layer of protective plastic. The pages are off-white. I'm including a picture of a page from Vol. 28 in this post to show off some weird censorship, so you might be able to get an idea of the quality of the pages.
Both companies have translated up to Vol. 49 so far (out of 52 released in Japan). However, Viz has been playing catch-up and publishing out of order--Vol. 28 just came out today, and Vol. 29 and Vol. 50 are both coming out on July 7th. Because of this, volumes 30 and onwards are not in the correct order--Vol. 30 is listed as Pokémon Adventures Diamond and Pearl/Platinum Vol. 1 and 31-40 are listed as 2-11. The later story arcs have been handled similarly. Because of that, they'll also cut volumes in half. For instance, Vol. 43 contains the end of the HeartGold/SoulSilver arc and the beginning of the Black and White arc, so they put the first half into the end of Vol. 42, AKA HGSS Vol. 2, and sold the other half as B&W Vol. 1. Chuang Yi/Shogakukan doesn't do that. Viz also practices censorship, as I already mentioned. If you want to learn more about Viz's translations, we talk a lot about them in this thread.
Pokemon Adventures Vol. 28 came out today. Does anyone know what the English titles are?
Speaking of which... I got (Viz's version of) Pokémon Adventures Vol. 28 today! Chapter titles are:
Adventure 318: Sneaky Like Shedinja II
Adventure 319: Verily Vanquishing Vileplume I
Adventure 320: Verily Vanquishing Vileplume II
Adventure 321: Cunning Kirlia
Adventure 322: Susceptible to Sceptile
Adventure 323: A Cheeky Charizard Change-Up I
Adventure 324: A Cheeky Charizard Change-Up II
Adventure 325: Standing in the Way with Starmie
Adventure 326: Lemme at 'Em, Lapras!
Adventure 327: Facing Gulpin is Hard to Swallow
For those of you who are wondering how they handled that "Emerald pees on Ruby and Sapphire" scene... They altered the artwork so that Emerald is dumping a soda can off the roof. And yes, he's holding it at groin level. They alter the dialogue to include a PSA about not drinking too much soda. I am serious. You don't have to take my word for it, either: check it out!
I love how even Sceptile seems to be exasperated with this ridiculous line. Yes, it still makes a rainbow. And yes, Ruby still freaks out at the idea that he might have gotten
soda on him. That's...not actually really out of character for Ruby. (Sapphire tells him "This ain't no time to cry over spilled soda!") I think this might be my favourite edit yet, though the lightning blasting Ruby away was pretty good.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything of note in the book.