ポケットモンスター SPECIAL / POKÉMON ADVENTURES

The Pokespe logo for Viz Media's first English translation in the early 2000s. Pokemon Special (Japanese: ポケットモンスターSPECIAL Pocket Monsters SPECIAL) (English translations: Pokemon Adventures), usually shortened by it's fanbase as Pokespe (Japanese: ポケスペ PokeSupe), is one of the several Pokemon manga. It began publication on March 3, 1997 in a Japanese children's manga magazine, and the series' first bound volume was released on August 8, 1997 by the Japanese manga publication company Shogakukan. The series is still ongoing, with 50 volumes currently released, over 500 chapters, 12 different arcs, and 19 unique main characters each with their own stories that span all 6 regions in the pokemon universe. The author is Hidenori Kusaka (日下秀憲), and the series has had two artists: Mato (真斗) for volumes 1-9 until she was replaced by Satoshi Yamamoto (山本サトシ) starting with volume 10 (Mato was forced to stop drawing for the series due to an illness she got which left her hand weak and unable to draw). Pokespe has a colourful English translation history. The first English translation was by Chaung Yi, a English publication company based in Singapore, in May 2000 with volume 1 of the RBG Arc. Chaung Yi still translates the series chronologically, in order, and in a constant fashion. However, there are many translation errors, and they flip their manga to a left-right format. In July 2000, Viz Media began releasing Pokespe under the same title than Chaung Yi used ("Pokemon Adventures") but the rest of Viz's translation history for the series couldn't be anymore different. The RGB and Y arcs were translated, uncensored, in English in the early 2000s but were released in a "monthly comic book" format, similar to superhero comics. They were flipped to a left-right format, and all of the bonuses, even region maps, were omitted. Viz also put their own special bonuses into the issues, like stickers. These monthly issues were not full bound volumes, but only a few chapters per issue (like monthly manga magazines). Once the Yellow arc was finished, Viz never went back to releasing Pokespe until 2006, when they released two separate Pokespe bound volumes: "Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red" and "Best of Pokemon Adventures: Yellow". These two volumes used the same translations from the original monthly comic book run in the early 2000s, but skipped many chapters and left out very important details and plot points, so it's pretty hard to follow. Finally, in 2009, Viz Media announced that they would be re-releasing Pokemon Adventures from the very beginning in a second edition. The translation was brand new with some unfortunate censorships. As of August 6 2013, Viz Media will have every arc either completed or currently publishing, except for the FRLG arc, the E arc, the Pt arc and the B2W2 arc, because they either have not finished translating the previous arcs or the arc has not even been finished in Japan yet. Pokespe has been translated and published in several other different languages and countries: China in Traditional and Simplified Mandarin, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, South Korea, Poland, Latin American countries and Thailand. However, several of these translations had only translated the first or second arcs. The Viz Media translation is sold in The United States of America, Canada, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. In 2014, it was announced that Chaung Yi would be shutting down all operations. Therefore, Chaung Yi will no longer be releasing Pokemon Adventures books, and all of their past releases are now out of print. Their website is also permanently down. Earlier this year, Viz Media announced that they would be creating a new publishing label called "Perfect Square"; this is the new label that Pokemon Adventures is currently being printed under. PokeSpe will no longer be published under the "Viz Kids" label, and all older releases have been receiving re-prints with the "Perfect Square" packaging. Also in 2014, French manga publisher Kurokawa announced their own re-releases of the RGB/Y arcs. These will compile several volumes into three bigger volumes (similar to VizBig editions of Viz manga), and the second volume will have a never before seen art of Green Okido/Blue Oak/Green Oak by MATO.