This review will contain no spoilers unless further warned. I will also be calling the rival guy Blue and the rival girl Green as to follow their localized names. Img800https://tiny.io/i/utksely.jpeg Background The hype surrounding Yellow is rather immense with many citing it to be a blossom into a more serious venture than originally implied with plenty of heartfelt moments and great battles along the way. Expectations held in check once again I entered the series with one question in mind what is the goal of Pokmon Adventures: Yellow? Having established the series isnt merely for nostalgiadriven people even if it panders in my previous review Ill mostly be disregarding those elements bar some touchup in later sections. So make sure to check that one out if you want to hear some generally less specific and retaining flaws with the series. To set the stage Yellow begins two years after the events of Red Green and Blue. Our previous protagonist Red has mysteriously gone missing upon receiving a strange challenge from a mysterious challenge. His Pikachu Pika returns to Professor Oaks lab injured and near death upon seeing this Professor Oak entrusts Pika to Reds friend Yellow. Naturally Yellow is our protagonist for the part as we follow his many misadventures looking for Red. Also yes if youve read Red Yellow is the kid Red gave the Ratata to. Kind of cool they set it up I suppose. Miscellaneous Misadventures Img800https://tiny.io/i/0Iygkeh.jpeg Yellows first thirtyorso chapters attempt to mirror Reds structure establishing our main character and the world through various disconnected escapades. Does it succeed at this? Initially I was going to say no but upon further thought theres a lot to love. They really dont waste time throwing you into the world nor do they waste time chucking familiar characters at you. Seriously I dont know if they didnt want to come up with characters not from the games or something but damn is there a drought of originality here. Its cool to see Yellow meet each person and form their own dynamic separate to Red though. Ill get into how this actually plays out during the characters. If youre looking for some fun adventure elements youll probably find this aspect weaker than Reds portrayal but if youre fine with just seeing Yellows perspective on these places youll probably enjoy it. Img800https://tiny.io/i/sTvWh2d.jpeg The exemplary chapter here is one not one many will remember but it takes the spot of my favorite chapter in the series thus far. Pidgeotto PickMeUp follows Yellows Caterpie and Pidgeotto getting into wacky shenanigans as Yellow is off gathering food. Its so simple yet brilliant. We get to see the bumbling Caterpie stumble into one hazardous situation after the next with Pidgeotto saving him from the crux of danger each and every time. You can feel their bond genuinely grow and evolve fleshing out the needed subtext in their characters all without dialogue. The pacing draws back for this singular chapter and bothers to establish things. Even if the rest of the manga rushes off at breakneck speed and hastily bandages over genuine character building I very much appreciate this isolated moment. It really shows how much better the story could be if they took time building and establishing things. Its whatever though and the Pokmon were woefully underdeveloped anyways. The Characters Img800https://tiny.io/i/GOagKBw.png Picking up from where our last section left off how do our characters mesh? Well its a pretty mixed bag. Yellow is rather weak as a protagonist at the very least upon an initial viewing. They have none of the charm or unique characteristics that Red has and end up feeling like a hollow shell because of it. Their only majorly established character trait is that they love Pokmon which they harp on which is sometimes fun mind you but Red has the same trait so it comes off as redundant. At least it contributes thematically I suppose which Ill get into in the spoiler section. Blue is surprisingly used to great effect here honestly. I expected them to pull him back and out of the story considering Red is out of the equation but they went ahead and tried to play him off of Yellow which was great. Him being a mentor figure makes him a perfect straight man and creates decent conflict with Yellows love for Pokmon being so extreme. Their conversations were generally witty so its a shame we didnt get to see more of them here. I dont even have anything to say about Green though. She really didnt do much bar some plotrelated things and some fun dialogue with Bill. Our main antagonistic group the Elite Four is a very mixed bag I could not be more baffled with the character archetypes they chose to put here. Strong but kindhearted fighting guy? Okay makes sense. Mysterious and imposing powerful guy? Checks out. Ice cold secretary? Uhhhh.? Old woman with a grudge? Fucking hell lmfao. I dont think they turned out too poorly but the character archetypes they chose are incredibly basic and uncharismatic bar Bruno whos automatically likable to most due to his jovial and chaotic tone. I couldnt imagine any of these guys have any chemistry together either. They dont really get scenes where theyre all together so I couldnt really say but its by far the opposite of compelling. Lorelei is just cold thats it. Agatha is just a hateful and evil old woman with some past thrown in that establishes more about Professor Oak than anything. I will admit Lance the dragon and serious type has a bit more put on him though. The issue is it doesnt make any fucking sense He hates people for polluting the environment which hurts Pokmon? Yeah thats a great motivation. Thats a pretty complicated issue though I wonder what hes gonna do to fix such a nuanced problem. Img800https://tiny.io/i/jIIpMpl.jpeg God damn it Lance. He doesnt think humans and Pokmon can coexist so his first solution is to attempt to literally eradicate the entirety of humanity bar an elite few. This guy is presented as a smart political leader lmfao. Its really needless to elaborate upon why this is utterly idiotic and crass but point in case the entire crux of their plan will collapse upon completing it. Not only is it logistically impossible but there will be no one to manufacture or produce what people in modern society need to survive. Not even Pokballs or Pokmon healing stations. Also if you only leave your friends who are strong trainers whats the point? Theres nothing to be gained from any of this. You could say Oh its a kids manga it doesnt have to make sense but that doesnt cut it for me. If other kids manga can make sense Pokmon can too. Obviously leaving the good will for the premise of Pokmon if the antagonists are so cartoonishly evil and villainistic to superficially inflate the stakes maybe they should just consider toning it down a bit or justifying their villainous tendencies. Sorry Lance but any leeway your philosophy had was eradicated by a sloppily introduced motive. Though I would like to add the obvious implication that Lances viewset diametrically opposes Yellows which leads to a satisfying conclusion. Getting back on track Bruno was by far my favorite member of the Elite Four he was just so god damn charming. Hes most certainly a walking stereotype so I see why you wouldnt like him but his interactions and battles are simply too fun to ignore. Battling above a pit of acid on an Onyx bridge? Thats fucking brilliant what a lad. I would be remiss to not mention the Team Rocket leaders from the previous part and I gotta say they were okay. Angry girl is just angry girl and poison guy is just poison guy. Koga poison guy did have some relative personality added in his surprising reliability I suppose but its really nothing that will wow anyone. Lt. Surge made a great return though. Spinning his militant personality into one slightly more jovial and abrasive was a smart move as it really accentuates Bills cowardness elevating them both as characters. They got paired against Bruno as well with everyone within that fight managing to elevate each other. I feel I may have gone overboard with this section but finally it ends at last with one final caveat. Connecting back the circle we once again arrive on the main topic of the series: Pokmon. I previously stated in my last review that the Pokmon remained woefully underdeveloped for the duration of the series does that remain true here? Well yes but to a slightly lesser extent. For example cite the Pidgeotto and Caterpie chapter I mentioned earlier. Each Pokmon had their own unique sense of personality they really needed that. Especially considering how onenote and bland their names are. I mean cmon. Graveller is Gravvy? Pikachu is Pika? Venusaur is Saur? I mean could they get more uncreative? I wonder what they named Caterpie Img800https://tiny.io/i/n42MGUz.jpeg Fuck. Character spoilers Mysteries and Battles Img800https://tiny.io/i/8rpLmBH.jpeg The premise for this part is alluring I couldnt help but be intrigued as to where they would take this whole Red is missing plot line. As a hook its strong but the true worth lies in how its executed. To be concise and curt it was done pretty well. Reds whereabouts gave genuine stakes to the plot and pushed it with a sense of urgency even if thats somewhat ruined by Yellows bumbling around as they travel through a forest of Exeggutor or whatever. Overall the conclusion is satisfying if a little anticlimactic and it leads to a brilliant fight scene. On the polar end of the scale I cant really say the same for a certain mystery revolving Yellow. I wont say what it is for spoilers sake but it added nothing to the plot it was obvious I literally knew it was that way the whole time. Im sure people whove read it will know what Im on about here and I must apologize to those of you who havent but its just too strange not to mention. Surprisingly I went through the entirety of the last review without discussing the fights once. Even though the climactic battle for Red Green and Blue was phenomenal I didnt find it worth touching up on here but for Yellow I feel its an entirely different story. The emphasis is placed far heavier on battles to convey story and character drama with the entire last stretch of 30 chapters being purely centered around fighting. At its best Pokmon Adventures can have nuanced fights that involve a great level of strategy and cleverness at its worst Pokmon Adventures is inconsistent and simple. Unfortunately this volley of stories was really a mixed bag so lets break those of the Elite Four Arc down one by one. If you consider fight matchups spoilers feel free to skip the next four paragraphs. Beginning at a high point fuck was Lt. Surge and Bill vs Bruno good. I briefly talked about this earlier but all of the characters compliment each other incredibly well. Lt. Surges jovial militancy directly mirrors Brunos fightloving attitude with these traits making them both extremely charismatic. Bill is a nice addition to Lt. Surges side as well as he adds even more comedic relief to the battle. Its funny to see him so out of his element considering hes a scientist. Once again the Onyx rock bridge setting was brilliant. It was so wildly creative and showed off a great amount of flare from Brunos side which is part of why I love him. He was even kind enough to not cheat though he easily could have. The actual fight itself was a lot of fun if not shortlived. It was cool to see Bill strategize and Lt. Surge put his plan into action it really felt like they were a team. One battle I reflect far less happily upon is Green and Sabrina vs Lorelei however. Im sorry but the whole rivalry between Sabrina and Green is disjointed and forced. What reason do they even have to hate each other? Is it because theyre both petty or both girls? They may have fought in the past but even before that they had a peculiar and unjustified rivalry. Its not a big deal but it makes one care less about their matchup when their dynamic is neither compelling nor sensible. The opponent they are put up against is rather lame as well. Out of the Elite Four she perhaps gets the least development. For the most part her personality consists of being evil and icecold which is ironically reflected by her Pokmon all being ice types. Ultimately that minor strike of characterization only goes so far however. So the characters arent exactly up to snuff here but what about the actual fight? I mean it was fine. The concept of shackling the two rivals together to create conflict is really fun despite their lack of chemistry. The events end up being rather short and onenote however. I wont complain considering it was a weak matchup but the fight was ultimately just near meaningless and disappointing. Koga and Blue vs Agatha is a strange duel it was executed better than the Loralee fight at least. They bother establishing connections and history between Blue and Agatha which adds some tension and nuance to the fight at play no matter how strong it is. Agatha is ultimately a lame archetype with little for her beyond a past grudge but I can at the very least appreciate what they did here. Koga shockingly wasnt too bad either. Unlike Sabrina hes not a fucking pussy and decided to work with Blue and even be nice for their shared interests. It really gave me a newfound respect for the guy. The fight itself was perhaps the best of these first three as well. The strategy employed was clever at times and its interesting to see people try and beat an enemy that literally lives in their shadows. Overall the matchup was shockingly enjoyable. Img800https://tiny.io/i/73pCfbg.jpeg Lastly for the climax of the manga we have Lance vs Yellow. This is the thematic ziptie of the arc as it closes everything up well. Ill get to that in the thematic section however. Otherwise the structure of the fight is rather well put together. There are two major dramatic twists during the fight one being the return of a character and one involving Yellows development. Its ultimately engaging I dug the contrast and chemistry between the two as they brawled it out. Sorry for being vague as opposed to analytical here but I really cant spoil. Either way this fight was practically the perfect conclusion to what they set up earlier in this part. The Thematics Img800https://tiny.io/i/yjTRN8z.jpeg Pokmon isnt exactly known for thematic complexities or nuanced subtleties but in this case I think it warrants its own section. Not that I think theres a lot to analyze here but I would be remiss not to mention what they explored here. Obviously the most baseline and simple theme of Pokmon is friendship. This reflected through not only the premise itself but the main characters as well. Never have I seen it emphasized to such an extent as with Yellow however with their love for Pokmon sometimes being a detriment to their character. It really does grind the pacing to a halt at times with many characters acting shocked that they care about their Pokmon so much but it ultimately pays off in the finale. As discussed earlier they directly contrast Lance and Yellows philosophies. One full of hatred due to the conditions around him while the other has a similar understanding of how horrible things can be but changes things the right way anyways. The touch on pollution was pretty cool as well. They set it up in earlier chapters via having Yellow train in an industrialized wasteland and they pay it off by having the main antagonists direct motivation being this destruction that humans breed. For an adult this is simple but I think its nice for younger kids to consider pollution more. Especially in the way its presented as opposed to something corporate and superficial. The Conclusion Img800https://tiny.io/i/VP6JgRh.jpeg Pokmon Adventures: Yellow was once again a hit and miss but its attempt at a more serious and structured narrative was a lot of fun to experience. The thematics were fun more often than not and it wrapped itself up neatly. Not without its flaws of course especially with ones that I left out due to the coverage of the last review such as how the world building is rushed and often pandering. In the end though my experience was resoundingly positive. Heres to Pokmon Adventures: Gold Silver and Crystal