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What was the exact context of Satoshi Tajiri saying the Adventures manga was closest to the way he imagined the world of Pokémon

WaterTypeStarter

Well-Known Member
Many fans of the manga have taken it to mean that the Adventures manga is what he wanted Pokemon to be like. However, what is the actual context behind this?
 

pacman000

On a quest to be the best...
I know of only two interviews with Satoshi Tajiri, one from the late 90’s done by Time Asia, the other in the early 2000’s by a Japanese show about video games. Here’s the Time Asia interview: https://web.archive.org/web/2007121...magazine/99/1122/pokemon6.fullinterview1.html

I can’t find a reference to Pokemon Special there. Perhaps it’s in the other interview, or perhaps there’s still another interview I’ve missed/forgotten about.
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
Here if you can read japanese. The interview was featured on some plastic bands as part of the early volume releases. It also features Junichi Masuda, Ken Sugimori, and even Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, recommending the Pokemon Adventures manga. Shigeru has proclaimed himself King of the Video Game World lol. He's not wrong.
 
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Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
And he sort stopped say those after 90s poké manin days
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
And he sort stopped say those after 90s poké manin days
You're always so negative when it comes to the manga. He stopped saying a lot of things after the 90s considering he stopped working on Pokemon after Gen 2.
 

Ku-ri-boh

Member
What is even more amazing is people in English speaking forums still parroting something from that long ago to defend anything questionable that happens in Special, or anytime other mangas are brought up as comparison simply because English users won't stop referring to Special as "the manga"

The fact that 1 very ancient tongue in cheek fact is the only tool of argument used constantly seems to me like scraping at the bottom of the barrel

I have nothing against people here, you guys are cool and updated anyway, what I'm referring to here are clueless people in other random forums or sections who barely even read RGB chapter yet won't stop singing praises of Special
 

Jeal

Well-Known Member
He mean Special was the closest manga to his vision, not that Special was the closest to his vision on every single medium. Simple as that.
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Even in recent years, PMSP is still called "the definitive edition of Pokemon manga" by official.
Didn't we have lots of the 90s and 2000s Pokémon Manga that much closer to the 90s and 2000s generation one and two's Games (RGBY/GSC) ?
 

pacman000

On a quest to be the best...
Well, there was Pokemon Zensho. Don't know of any other direct adaptions.
 

JHG95

Member
It was for its time the most faithful adaptation but has since then gone in its own direction.
 

Blue Saturday

Unfurl your Blessed Wings!
I always took that as the portrayal of the world being much more that of monsters fighting alongside trainers in combat versus more pet-like with the anime while still having real time based combat that isn’t an abstraction of the games. Take Red's trip to the Safari Zone where he catchs/fights those Godzilla-sized Kaiju-looking Nidoking who are fighting over a Nidoqueen and almost gets eaten by a living venus flytrap, Victreebel and is kind of beaten up and battle-damaged after the affair because he broke the Safari Zone's rules and almost got himself killed as a result.
 
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DayQuil95

Well-Known Member
I always took that as the portrayal of the world being much more that of monsters fighting alongside traineRS in combat versus more pet-like with the anime while still having real time based combat that isn’t an abstraction of the games. Take Red's trip to the Safari Zone where he catchs/fights those Godzilla-sized Kaiju-looking Nidoking who are fighting over a Nidoqueen and almost gets eaten by a living venus flytrap, Victreebel and is kind of beaten up and battle-damaged after the affair because he broke the Safari Zone's rules and almost got himself killed as a result.
Exactly this. I always found it hard to believe that the likes of Giovanni and Ghetsis would simply follow the rules when fighting against the protagonist for the sake of their biggest plans that they put everything in, yet, also found it hard to believe that the fights would follow the thematics of the anime. So when I've first read Pokémon Adventures I thought that was exactly how things worked, both trainers and Pokémon fighting side-by-side in major battles that are not part of the League, while the official battles between Gym Leaders and trainers wouldn't be as static as the one we are used to, but rather a more active version that still respects what we see, and Adventures simply nailed my view on it, also explaining stuff like your character "whiting out" when losing.
 

pacman000

On a quest to be the best...
Trivia: In the earliest plans for Capsule Monsters, protagonist & the monsters fought. They removed the ability for the trainer to fight because they thought allowing the trainer to fight would make the monsters pointless.

In a normal RPG, the protagonist levels up, right? But in the Pokémon games, your Pokémon mature as they travel with you. Why is that?

Sugimori: At one time, the protagonist would fight as well. But then we asked ourselves “If you can fight on your own, what’s the point of having Pokémon?”

Masuda: At first, the protagonist and his Pokémon had a human-pet relationship. When we started making the game, however, we wondered whether it wouldn’t be better if they were more like friends. That’s when the story changed to one where everyone grew up together. Since they were meant to be friends, we made it so that each player could raise a Pokémon and develop its personality. That’s why they can only learn 4 moves. When deciding on what sort of moves he wants his Pokémon to have, the owner’s personality will come out. We designed it so that you’d feel your Pokémon were something that belonged to you, friends to you.

Source: https://www.glitterberri.com/pokemon-red-blue/game-freak-staff-interview/creating-the-game/
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Capsule monsters fighting along the protagonist. I see the UltraSeven was really full force back then :p
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
I personally see it as the Kanto-arc specifically feeling like the closest thing to Tajiri's original vision of the series in terms of visuals and tone.

While I can't speak for future arcs since they felt like the series changed over the years as the plots got more rushed and convoluted, the world of the Kanto arc (at least to me) feels like an all ages adventure that had a similar tone to Stephen Spielberg or Studio Ghibli (creating stories that teetered between kid friendly & adult in terms of how dark, serious, and emotional scenes could get). Additionally, it tackled a lot of the themes that were in the games' undertones but couldn't be fleshed out due to whatever reasons such as genetic engineering, experimenting on animals, or the rapid urbanization of Japan that was going on in the 90s (something also brought up in films like Pom Poco) which was part of the reasons why Tajiri created pokemon in the first place because he wanted to find a way for kids to experience the joy he had exploring forests and collecting bugs as a kid. Mato's illustrations especially made the manga feel like a Ghibli film while still coming off as a homage to the games since the soft/chibi-esque character designs gave the manga a light hearted tone that contrasted the darker & serious elements, while the environments felt like the layouts of the games brought to life yet had a calm/quaint feel to them.

The world of the manga's Kanto arc in general had a simple, charming, and all around timeless feel to it that basically summed up what made Gen 1 feel so magical before Pokemon became the franchise behemoth it is today (and this is coming from someone who loves all the generations). If you want to know what got many 90s kids into pokemon in the first place, I highly recommend reading the Kanto arc more than anything else to see what Gen 1 games felt like for Tajiri & most of us back then.
 
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