Pokemon Adventures is a manga series that seems to largely revolve around incremental improvements to its formula with each new arc largely refining the concepts of previous ones with Yellow bringing a more structured narrative to the table and Gold Silver Crystal representing an increase in both scope and its characters and now Ruby and Sapphire deciding to alter its storytelling approach to feel more like an expanded take on the games rather than something completely separate. No longer will you see gym leaders being aligned with the evil masterminds and other similar plot developments and yet it all makes sense. The first two generations of Pokemon games had very little narrative to speak of beyond broad concepts of some evil guys and wanting to be the champion but from this game forward there ended up being a bigger focus on telling a more traditional narrative to go along with what the games already went into. All this is to say this is the most faithful adaptation yet but its also really great and still keeps the same tradition of past arcs where there are a ton of ideas that get massively expanded upon it just happens that this time theyre closer to the source material. I think one of the best things that this arc ends up doing is being able to better structure the idea of multiple plotlines jumping around with there essentially once again being 2 interweaving plotlines with the protagonists. The kicker is that this time its paced in such a way where both stories feel as if they get equal focus put upon them at an even rate so while it can be a bit slower at points it feels like a constant flow of buildup and intrigue that manages to culminate in a satisfying collision between everything thats being juggled. I think that the characters are handled pretty well as well this time around feeling far more powerfully selfmotivated compared to just following the plot arbitrarily with their actions and dynamics with one another feeling like natural results of their characters as opposed to the outside force of the writer simply willing them to do things for the sake of plot convenience. thats not to say that there arent any instances of this of course as there are a lot of issues that get solved through total coincidence and the grand finale is handled in the most obnoxiously copout way imaginable but the journey up to that point is played excellently and the decision doesnt really undermine anything other than the raw narrative itself with none of the thematic weight being lost in the process at all. If the Pokemon Adventures manga continues this trend of feeling closer to an amped up game storyline from now on count me in if this is what can be done with it everything feels bigger and more exciting here so many cool moments fun scenes and incredible stakes can be felt here that truly makes each and every threat feel mountainous and I love that one of the comfiest series out there to me is able to have such a high quality adaptation.