The Pokemon Adventures manga series is one of the oldest parts of the Pokemon franchise. Today we are going to provide a look into the creator’s minds!
The Pokemon Adventures manga started almost 20 years ago with Hidenori Kusaka as the writer and eventually Satoshi Yamamoto joined as the artist. Since then, the duo have been responsible with taking the story from the video games and bringing them to life via ink and paper. They have given us great characters like Ruby and Sapphire from Hoenn, reunited us with old fiends like the Kanto Dexholders with the Johto and Hoenn Dexholders, brought us amazing friends like Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, and a heart wrenching plot involving Black and White. They have recently wrapped up the stories for XY saga and the OmegaRuby-AlphaSapphire saga. Currently they are working on the Black2-White2 saga and Sun-Moon saga.
Back in August, Hidenori and Yamamoto were invited to the Barcelona Manga Fair in Spain to talk about the process of taking the Pokemon games and putting them into the pages of the Adventures. The pair discuss about how they got involved in Pokemon, the hardships of losing a friend and coming aboard a new project, the difficulties of working with an already decided story and the creativity they get to have with so many characters.
Below is an excerpt from the interview.
How complex is to work on a static franchise like Pokémon while introducing your own ideas?
Kusaka: Working on Pokémon is difficult. Maybe the most difficult part is that we have to follow the story of another product, which is a video game. We can’t afford to create a manga that people playing the video games don’t like. On the other hand, if everything was exactly the same between the games and the adaptation, the manga would be boring. When you’re playing a Pokémon game, you put yourself into the character, whereas an established character has to drive the story in a manga. We have to create good characters and surprise people as they’re reading. That balance between what we have to change and what remains the same is probably the most difficult part.
Yamamoto: Every time there’s a new video game, there’s also a design team responsible for the new Pokémon creatures and human characters. I receive their work and I have to follow and respect some guidelines, so I try to attach my own creativity to all that. But there’s also some parts where I have more freedom, so that’s up to my imagination. For example, there’s an original idea in the manga devised by me, which is that every character has their own way of catching Pokémon.
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon were recently released. How do you deal with a new video game? Is there any coordination for the manga adaptation?
Kusaka: Not at all. The only advantage we have is that we get the game like two months before release so we can start getting acquainted with the story and prepare new scripts. That’s all. Later, while playing the game, I can ask if I have any doubts, but most of the time I don’t ask, because I can get a response that make me lose part of my creative freedom. So sometimes I just pass on feedback. (laughs)
Is it hard? I mean, the first steps before starting work on the manga.
Kusaka: During the creative process, there’s always some parts that are harder than others. Right now we’re playing Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon but we haven’t started working on the manga adaptation. What I’ve already seen is that if I create a script exactly the same as the game, it’s going to be quite a cold plot. This one is probably the most difficult game adaptation we’ve faced.
Yamamoto: Every new Pokémon saga is difficult in terms of transforming the video game content into manga. In my personal case, I have to face the situation of “I’m so sleepy but I can’t sleep now because I have to deliver this work soon.” It’s my creative strength. (laughs) I love drawing, but sometimes I can’t put everything I want on paper because of the short amount of time, and that can make me suffer.
You can read the full interview on Anime News Network.
