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The Pocket Monsters Manga Is Ending After 23 Years

Shogakukan’s Monthly Coro Coro Comics magazine announced last Friday that Kōsaku Anakubo’s Pocket Monsters manga will end in the magazine’s November issue on October 15 after 23 years of pubication

Pocket Monsters is a manga series that is created by Kosaku Anakubo, having been printed for 23 years, it’s one of the oldest parts of the Pokémon media franchise. The comedy manga follows Red and his Pokémon Clefairy, who can communicate in human speech. The first issue was released in November ’96, while Pokémon Red & Green were released in February ’96. For frame of reference, the Pokémon anime didn’t start until 1997. Pocket Monsters is known for its inappropriate humor and the series has become infamous for Red showing off his private parts in one of the early issues. The version of Red from Pocket Monsters has been traveling to different regions with a mischievous Clefairy for over twenty years.

But now Red’s journey is apparently coming to a finish, as it has been announced that the final issue of the Pocket Monsters manga will be printed in the next issue of CoroCoro Comics. The news has broken on Japanese social media and has been translated by Twitter user Dogasu.

In actuality, Pocket Monsters debuted before the original Pokemon anime, and featured Red, as oppsed to Ash. Pocket Monsters’ protagonist is followed around by a troublemaking Clefairy as his main Pokemon and this reflects the anime’s original plans to have Ash’s companion be a Clefairy as opposed to Pikachu.

This does not mean that this is the end of the Pokemon franchise though. The franchise has seen a good number of Pokemon manga series over the years, and one of the longest-running ones, Pokemon Adventures which also started in 1997, is still being published.  This title also follows Red instead of Ash, with Pikachu as his companion.

Outside of Japan, Pocket Monsters has never been as big as Pokémon Adventure. The final chapter of Pocket Monsters represents another ending within the Pokémon franchise and marks another step in the new direction that the series is taking. Some speculate the author has now decided to call it a day, given that twenty-three years is a long time to be working on a comic. The timing seems to match the other shifts within the Pokémon franchise.

The manga series’ most recent compiled book volume shipped in September 2018. This volume was the second in the Pocket Monsters Sun・Moon arc, based on the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon games. Chuang Yi Publishing Pte Ltd. previously released the manga in English in Singapore.

The new Pocket Monster television anime will premiere on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on November 17 at 5:30 p.m. as an “expanded live broadcast special.” The series will then air on Sundays at 6:00 p.m., the same timeslot as Pokémon Sun & Moon.

The Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Nintendo Switch role-playing games will ship worldwide for the Switch on November 15. The games will take place in the new Galar region.

The final issue of Pocket Monsters will be released on October 15, 2019.

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