Thread: Pokemon Anime vs. Manga (PokeSpe, DPA, anything)

As the title implies, what's your honest stance on this comparison? I'd get into mine but I'm far more curious in hearing the thoughts of you guys here. Compare the Anime to PokeSpe, DPA and/or any other Manga in terms of characters, stories and so forth.

Be detailed, be honest, be fair, be mature and blah blah blah. You can disagree with each other so long as it doesn't get out of hand.

And... GO!

Well manga is better because it shows more maturity and feels more complete. The anime feels like it is incomplete and really is off at times. It is worth the money despite that fact that I research pokemon shippings.

Originally Posted by ThisIsSparta9000

Well manga is better because it shows more maturity and feels more complete. The anime feels like it is incomplete and really is off at times. It is worth the money despite that fact that I research pokemon shippings.

There is more than one manga. Please, specify which one you're talking about.

The anime at least tries to treat each Pokemon as a living character, whereas Special tends to treat them all as dumb beasts and marginalize them in favour of human-centered drama. Therefore, anime > Special.

And before someone says something about the anime's "endless filler' or Ash never accomplishing something, consider that Special introduces endless droves of new protagonists and them boots them out of the spotlight whenever the new games come around whether they're accomplished anything or not. It's really not any better.

Can't really say anything about the other manga series, though.

Originally Posted by YamiiDenryuu

The anime at least tries to treat each Pokemon as a living character, whereas Special tends to treat them all as dumb beasts and marginalize them in favour of human-centered drama.

I always saw that as just being true to the games where Pokemon are basically animals. Whether you like that or not is purely up to you.

consider that Special introduces endless droves of new protagonists and them boots them out of the spotlight whenever the new games come around whether they're accomplished anything or not. It's really not any better.

I consider it better from a storytelling and character standpoint. Ash has been hopelessly striving to become a Pokemon Master yet can never achieve said goal or win a single league. It's also frustrating given how Pokemon as a whole doesn't show signs of stopping so the Anime will go on.

How is Special better? It knows when enough is enough for a character and the story arc tied to him/her/them. In addition, while Ash has his moments, he's become very stale and worn his welcome.

Nowadays, my main problem is Ash being a very boring and unidimensional character. He haven't notable quirks as his other companions, almost no brainer (mainly outside battles) and his constant "YAY" character. It became boring since he never retains his knowledge and can't do amazing stuff not related to pokemon.

my opinion is that the anime=manga(PokeSpe).

the reason is that they are both good on what they do, the manga is an exiting and dark theme pokemon media that is made to the mid-age pokemon fans, the love interest and heavy storylines are good and the use of the diferent people involve is fantastic, for example before reading it I never thought of lance being evil, or archie or maxie death, and the involvement with all the characthers is great, even if the only time a lot of dexholders was on one place was in the emerald series, the anime in the other hand is a great way to start inmersing in the pokemon fandom for the children, they involve a lot of things in the games and make them kid friendly, personaly when they talk with me about pokemon I always end up refering to the anime, the battle are more realistic and by that more exiting, and as the PokeSpe they give the charachers personalities and great interaction, but unlike PokeSpe they also give pokemon personalities, I always like seeing piplup and oshawott because of there personalities rather than in battle.
So at the end I can't decide in what is better so it's a good to enjoy them both for what they bring to the table, the anime for a kid friendly show to the little pokefans of the future and the manga for the actionpack adventure for the teenagers/adults

I like the anime better. The only manga I've read is Special, which I enjoyed, but I love the anime much more. The anime focuses on trainer-Pokémon bonds, which is something that Special rarely does. I watch the anime for all the little moments in which Satoshi bonds with his Pokémon. That doesn't really happen in Special, probably because it just gets to the point most of the time. The anime, with its hundreds of fillers, has plenty of time to focus on relationships. In fact, most of my favorite episodes are fillers for this reason.

Originally Posted by Satoshi_Pikachu

I like the anime better. The only manga I've read is Special, which I enjoyed, but I love the anime much more. The anime focuses on trainer-Pokémon bonds, which is something that Special rarely does. I watch the anime for all the little moments in which Satoshi bonds with his Pokémon. That doesn't really happen in Special, probably because it just gets to the point most of the time. The anime, with its hundreds of fillers, has plenty of time to focus on relationships. In fact, most of my favorite episodes are fillers for this reason.

Don't get me wrong, I don't HATE the Anime since AG has a lot of good episodes and the series overall has its moments. But the fillers slow down what little plot there is (waiting for the next Gym battle goes from "Oh boy, I can't wait" to "Oh my god, can we just get this over with already") and the feeling of utter aimlessness kinda getting annoying. PokeSpe has a plot with more substances and while it could stand to take its time better, I like how it doesn't meander as much as the Anime.

The human's characterizations aren't are good as the Pokemon's (Oshawott for one). I suppose it's a reason why PokeSpe is loved more because it not only dials down the sappiness but give good characterizations to the human protagonists the ones we can relate to the most. Pokemon basically become animals which isn't really a "bad" thing since it's like that in the games and kinda makes sense for what it's worth.

Originally Posted by matt0044

Originally Posted by Satoshi_Pikachu

I like the anime better. The only manga I've read is Special, which I enjoyed, but I love the anime much more. The anime focuses on trainer-Pokémon bonds, which is something that Special rarely does. I watch the anime for all the little moments in which Satoshi bonds with his Pokémon. That doesn't really happen in Special, probably because it just gets to the point most of the time. The anime, with its hundreds of fillers, has plenty of time to focus on relationships. In fact, most of my favorite episodes are fillers for this reason.

Don't get me wrong, I don't HATE the Anime since AG has a lot of good episodes and the series overall has its moments. But the fillers slow down what little plot there is (waiting for the next Gym battle goes from "Oh boy, I can't wait" to "Oh my god, can we just get this over with already") and the feeling of utter aimlessness kinda getting annoying. PokeSpe has a plot with more substances and while it could stand to take its time better, I like how it doesn't meander as much as the Anime.

The human's characterizations aren't are good as the Pokemon's (Oshawott for one). I suppose it's a reason why PokeSpe is loved more because it not only dials down the sappiness but give good characterizations to the human protagonists the ones we can relate to the most. Pokemon basically become animals which isn't really a "bad" thing since it's like that in the games and kinda makes sense for what it's worth.

Eh, I agree to you that Pokémon Special has a lot more plot than the anime does, I'm just saying that's not what I like for entertainment. I only dislike fillers when they're bad fillers. Obviously I don't like fillers like the one with paras back in Kanto, but I love Pikachu's Forest (I forgot the dub name). I don't watch the Pokémon anime for the battles. I only really love ONE battle in the entire series (Shinji VS Satoshi). I watch it, like I said before, for the relationships between Pokémon and their trainers.

Human characterizations in the anime are pretty hit-and-miss. On one hand you get a bunch of characters who get some real development, but for others it's just crap (poor Takeshi). It would be nice if they developed all humans equally, but I don't mind it too much because they usually do it right for the most important characters. And I agree that Special might be more similar to the games by showing Pokémon as more animal-like, but now that I've seen the anime, I like to think of Pokémon as sentient beings with human-like intelligence. In my opinion, that makes the whole capturing and making them battle a lot more moral.

Also, where did you get that Pokémon Special is loved more? Pokémon Special doesn't have nearly as many fans as the anime does. Most fans worldwide probably don't even know it exists.

In the end it all comes down to personal preference. I don't think we can say one is better than the other, we just like different aspects of them.

Originally Posted by Satoshi_Pikachu

Also, where did you get that Pokémon Special is loved more? Pokémon Special doesn't have nearly as many fans as the anime does. Most fans worldwide probably don't even know it exists.

I actually meant when comparing the two series and not actually how many fans each one has. And I do like how Pokemon in the Anime are shown with more personalities but I can at least respect PokeSpe for its own take on Pokemon as a species.

Originally Posted by matt0044

Originally Posted by Satoshi_Pikachu

Also, where did you get that Pokémon Special is loved more? Pokémon Special doesn't have nearly as many fans as the anime does. Most fans worldwide probably don't even know it exists.

I actually meant when comparing the two series and not actually how many fans each one has. And I do like how Pokemon in the Anime are shown with more personalities but I can at least respect PokeSpe for its own take on Pokemon as a species.

Oh, so you meant you loved it more. Well, yeah, I guess I can respect that too, but I don't really like it.

For me, the Manga Stories by a country smile!

Originally Posted by Eitarou

Originally Posted by ThisIsSparta9000

Well manga is better because it shows more maturity and feels more complete. The anime feels like it is incomplete and really is off at times. It is worth the money despite that fact that I research pokemon shippings.

There is more than one manga. Please, specify which one you're talking about.

The Japanese one. Well all of them.

To me the fascination about Pokémon has always been human-development – how a small innocent kid turns into a master of handling creatures with supernatural powers they use in battles on each other. Anime focuses much on this self-development theme (both on the trainer's and Pokémon's side), but the problem is if there is actual "self-development" in the end – Ash always stays 10 years old, Pikachu as Pikachu, they both forget pretty much everything they learned from a previous region when they enter a new one etc. PokeSpe is much more realistic when it comes to character development, which turns this set to the manga's favor.

Then there's an other thing: the context. Both anime and PokeSpe have their up and downs in this one. Anime is much more...how to say it...an open context, where he have a REALLY lot of plot holes. PokeSpe's universum is on the other hand much more closed one – the one, where universal causal laws make much more sense and things happened in the past have cautions in the future. This is why it is actually too hard to choose between the too formats. The open-contextual anime gives us a really great chance to fill those plot holes by ourselves when people write more and more fanfics, whether it's about what happened to Ritchie after Whirl Islands or what if Max finally aged enough to become a trainer. PokeSpe isn't as a great springboard for fanfics as the anime is, because all the plot holes have been filled already by the "official writers".

When we take other trump cards for both series: PokeSpe how it handles dark themes and how anime has an amazing ability to surround much of the things in mystery, starting with the "Pokémon Master" title, I'll say this competition is a tie. Both are winners.

@Tomreal Nice way of putting it. Though PokeSpe does have things like what Blue and Green got up to during Red's adventures and so on.