Pokémon: Sword & Shield

I just remembered that I've reviewed all the previous Pokespe arcs and I "recently" finished the latest arc, Sword and Shield so why not continue the trend. I have no idea how long my previous reviews were or what I wrote, nor do I want to check them out now, no way. So let's just look at this little arc... and I do mean little.

Without a hint of exaggeration, this arc deleted any previous faith I had that this manga could be great again, I've given up on it just like I've given up on the anime after Journeys (though I do hear that the newest anime season is pretty good). Honestly I think the Pokemon franchise as a whole isn't interesting to me anymore.

So is this the worst Pokespe arc? Nah, probably like 4th or 5th worst but that's just a guess. But I just don't believe this manga can be interesting anymore, maybe the next arc after this will prove me wrong but at least for right now, I'm not interested in giving it another shot. There's nothing shockingly bad in this arc but for the 4th arc in a row it just feels so... nothing? Empty? Feels like the problems that kind of existed in the early days of the manga have finally overwhelmed it and took away any positives.

How the heck did I write 2K words for all the other arcs? Yeesh, well I'll give it a shot.

I’d say it was the Diamond and Pearl arc that first started the problem modern Pokespe faces. The problem of one to one adaptation. The first few Pokemon games were very light on story before slowly adding more and more plot and characters for each game until we get to games like Sun and Moon where the dialogue never stops. Having more story in later games may seem like a positive as it creates more options and toys for a manga with more time to delve into. But the problem is the manga no longer has more time.

Everything is rushed. New Pokemon generations come and go just like that, leaving so little time for a monthly manga to create its story and add to the games to the point where everything starts to feel like a checklist that is being filled before our eyes. That is exactly what I felt reading SWSH monthly, like Kusaka is trying his best just to get as many elements from the games as possible while desperately trying to shove in any ounce of creativity he can in such a limited time.

I think most will agree that the main thing that draws people to the manga is how different it is from the games. Some of the stuff people advertise about it, like how dark it is, isn’t the most accurate but there was still a whole lot of weirdness in the early arcs that slowly got chipped away at to create a less interesting mundane world… Really it feels like the manga known for its creativity has become the anime, a soulless world that just advertises. In that way I feel like the anime is probably now superior because in recent years it has been much less rigid unlike Pokespe which only becomes more and more rigid with time.

How the heck did I do 2K words for all the previous arcs? I know I already mentioned that but… what? This is crazy? WTH is there to talk about? I finished the arc not that long ago but I can barely tell you anything about it, what additions it made, it all just went right through me. But okay, I’ll try to be more specific and an easy way to do that is by talking about the characters.

Our two pokedex holders for this arc are Sou and Schilly or whatever rubbish names they have in English. Sadly the Scottish Schilly dream is dead and as a person who has in-depth knowledge of what it's like to be a damn Scott I am rather disappointed.

Schilly is a fun character with an enjoyable personality… She is fun to watch… But that’s just not enough. I feel like I’ve been having this exact same problem with most of the recent Pokespe protagonists, they just have nothing going on beyond ‘enjoyable to watch’.

The biggest offender for this in my mind is Whi-Two (awful name). She had a really interesting backstory and could potentially have really interesting dynamics with other characters and yet the only thing I remember her for are the funny faces she makes. This is partly because of how short and rushed the B2W2 arc was but still it is a problem.

But this isn’t a B2W2 review which I’ve already done and I… probably talked about that… probably…

I think there is a pretty big problem with how Pokespe sometimes handles its female pokedex holders with them often just feeling like support for their male counterpart. That role isn’t bad in concept but I think it used a little too much and doesn’t allow them to have much of a chance to develop on their own.

Blue (F) definitely was there as a support character for Red but this was the first arc when the whole pokedex holder concept wasn’t well fleshed out. Both Green and Blue are side characters and don’t get nearly as much development and focus as Red.

Then there’s the GSC arc which successfully gives Crystal her own side of story mostly because she only enters the story once her other Johto dex holders are out of commission. Then there’s Sapphire in RS and she gets pretty much equal focus to Ruby if not maybe a little less.

Fire Red Leaf Green had an opportunity to finally give Blue her chance to shine but instead we got another arc centred around Red which I found pretty disappointing. Platinum was the focus of her arc so that’s fine.

Then we have the Black and White arc. Black is my absolute favourite dex holder but I have to admit that White absolutely plays second fiddle to him, she gets a tiny fraction of his development and is maybe the most clear example of a support dex holder. But White also feels like a fully fleshed out character at least.

I already talked about B2W2 so we can move on from that. Y doesn’t suffer from this problem but Sapphire absolutely does in the ORAS arc. She just doesn’t have nearly enough agency in her own remake arc, she can’t even speak for a lot of it. The SM arc was also bad for this, Moon was a neat concept for a character who only really complimented Sun.

This review is all over the place, I apologise for that but hopefully my point is clear. Alot of the arcs aren’t very balanced for each dex holder and SWSH is just a continuation of that. Schilly has her own goal with getting her Pokemon back but once again Sou gets the majority of the “development” and page time with Schilly usually just being a goofball which is endearing but it is still disappointing how little she does.

So let’s talk about Sou… (I really regret writing this review but I might as well finish this). He’s just lame… These new protagonists are just so god damn lame. You know his entire personality from the moment you meet him, the community had to make the theory that he was secretly evil in order to make him actually interesting.

He has sort of a negative turn which is kind of a payoff but it ends as quickly as it begins, amounts to nothing and is hand waved away by saying it was because of bad vibe poison. It is still supposed to be an exaggeration of how he actually feels if I remember correctly but it still feels so undercooked.

I’M LOSING MY MIND, THIS MANGA IS SO UNINTERESTING, WHY DID I READ IT!!!???

Sou makes weapons, he’s the chill guy who you can never quite decipher, a trope I’ve seen a billion times. Nothing interesting is done with him, kind of wish we didn’t absolutely have to have both protagonists in each arc so we could just focus on developing one single protagonist…

The rivals… They are just like they are in the games, nothing interesting. It is sort of neat to see the interactions they have with each other and Sou and Schilly but because of how many characters there are and how little time there is it feels like the manga barely gets to expand on them which was what originally made the manga so interesting originally, we got to see more of this world.

Now the arcs just feel like sloppy retellings with tiny sprinkles of originality to make it slightly different.

I seriously can’t remember much else, the art is fine, the plot is fine, the other characters are fine. The gym challenge is such a big part of the SWSH games and yet it is such an afterthought here. We just have this awkward in between where we still have to spend multiple chapters in these boring fights that are barely paid off without really delving into it and making the most of a region with a culture that revolves entirely around the gym challenge.

What’s interesting about seeing the SWSH story again? I really wish we could just have an originally story set in the region now that the games don’t have the story depth of a gameboy game. That approach only worked when there was a near infinite room to expand and be creative. Now the manga feels as sterilised as the anime.

Is anyone ever going to read this? Surely not… Why am I even writing this? Not a single human is ever going to read it, I’m actually going mad… WHAT AM I DOING, WHY AM I WASTING MY TIME DOING THIS… THIS IS THE GREATEST REVIEW EVER MADE!!!

Then we get to the later part of the arc where we journey to the dlc lands… Did anyone enjoy this? This is what I mean when I say that Pokespe is now nothing but showcases of game elements. That was always the case but the story always felt cohesive, now I just feel like there’s the minimum amount of story to justify this highlight reel of the features of the game which makes no sense since let’s be honest, the manga doesn’t really function as advertisement for the games. No one who hasn’t already bought the games gets convinced by the manga, it is just stupid and pointless.

So we do the whole story from the main game then get the completely forced justification for moving swiftly to the dlc plots, I feel like I can see the desperate cries of the author to try and fit it all in. The plot is in shambles and things just sort of happen. This isn’t a story, it just isn’t.

The arc was already overstuffed with characters and then we got introduced to all the DLC characters… If anyone likes this arc I would love to talk to you because…

But let’s talk about Marvin… Marvin, Marvin, Marvin… I hate Marvin so much, more than any other character in this god damn manga, he is so, so frustrating I just… What were they thinking?

I remember when I first started reading SWSH, I saw Marvin in the first chapter and saw how he was used to introduce us to the world of Galar. I thought that was a really neat idea… Then he stayed for the next chapter, and then the next chapter and then the one after that until he eventually got a starter?! And before I knew it he was basically a main character. A completely lifeless character only there so other characters can scream exposition to him. He’s so boring and yet there he is chapter after chapter, soaking up panels. I hate him.

Or maybe I really like Marvin because hey… He does a great job of representing everything wrong with this arc and the direction the manga has gone in as a whole while remaining in a small, puntable package. Maybe the arc after SWSH will be good but I have no more patience. I rated this arc a 5/10 so apparently I see it as average. I guess that isn’t inaccurate, it is very meh but I also can’t really think of any positives? It is a completely soul destroying experience (ok that’s dramatic) and I just felt nothing while reading it. I would rather just re-experience the story of SWSH with the games and that is saying something because those games suck.

In conclusion… I’m down with Pokemon, I really think I am, I’m just not interested in this series at least for the moment. I have no desire to play the new games or even replay the old ones. I've heard the new anime is good but I’m not even interested in checking that out and I’m certainly not interested in continuing this manga… If anyone reads this then I’m impressed.