Pokemon has always been a series that's been a strange one for me, because on one hand, I adore so much of it, with the plethora of absolutely iconic designs and the way it can capture such a powerful sense of freewheeling adventure being points that I particularly gravitated towards. With that said, I've always found the way that these cool ideas have been contrasted with such comparatively tepid ideas to be a huge disservice to the potential the franchise had, mostly with the anime and the way it so strongly sticks to a formula that ends up making for a predictable narrative that ends up running against the sense of grand adventure that it's clearly trying to convey and evoke. Enter Pokemon Adventures, a series which takes the core concepts and setting that the games establish, and then seems to twist them into something that while still decidedly family friendly, has a lot more to it both in terms of worldbuilding and feeling free to craft some far darker moments. It feels like that this is the one case of Pokemon not feeling hampered by its usual insistence on maintaining tradition, instead getting a bit weirder with things, most notably the way Team Rocket and the gym leaders are handled, being made into their own characters as opposed to feeling purely like obstacles designed to get in the way of the protagonists, but even ignoring that it just in general feels like this does quite a bit with its world in a short amount of time.
In particular I think it's interesting the way there seems to be a focus on being pretty playful with the implications of a world with animals that naturally shoot laser beams or have psychic powers walking around, along with the various weird and wonderful applications that such powers could have. Even the battles featured here feel closer to a deeper look a the mechanics behind certain attacks rather than a proper, long winded clash, fights usually ending in a move or two, but ensuring that said moves are always memorable and wildly out there, my favourites including using a Blastoise's hydro pump as a jetpack, and using Electrodes like grenades due to their self-destruct move. Similarly, I love the angle that Team Rocket takes in this, with their goals involving not only harnessing the natural powers at hand, but trying to enhance them through a series of horrific experiments that ultimately paint the team as a far more evil group than in any other of their iterations, being this constant underground force, secretly pulling so many strings and being unafraid to utilise acts of brutality against anyone who gets in their way. It all goes a long way to not only make the world feel cohesive, but also adds some real tension to the events that transpire.
There are still some issues however, for one, the art is a bit hit or miss, with quite a few scenes being practically incomprehensible with how they're framed, which is especially problematic during the action scenes when it all feels like a bit of a blur. Similarly, the pacing definitely feels a bit off, with a lot of the events that occur feeling like they should have been expanded upon a bit more, with many moments only getting a chapter to be focused on before the plot continues to the next thing. While it leads to a pretty consistent ramp of intensity, the story also never gives enough time for the reader to dwell on an individual moment for it to really feel special or memorable, even when we get to stuff like Mewtwo being introduced and then pretty swiftly taken care of. The stakes are there, but it quickly feels as if everything is a tad anticlimactic when problems are dealt with just as fast as they're introduced. Still though, on the whole, this is a lovely time, and I'm glad to be experiencing another piece of Pokemon media that feels as if it's attempting to actually do something different with the amazing potential the franchise has, even if this falters in its pacing regularly.
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