Join the Beginner Book Club Here!
View this book on Natively
View a preview of this book on Bookwalker
ポケットモンスタースペシャル・Pokemon Adventures Book Club!
We will read Volume 1 starting on April 19th 2025, but we have yet to pick a schedule for the reading - please vote on the schedule in the thread below. That will be announced as soon as it is settled! Be sure to set this thread to ’Watching’ to get all the latest updates on the reading！
If you are reading this at a later date, please check out the threads below to read our discussions and questions. The threads stay open for several years so feel free to add your own comments to the discussion. Some readers will still have these threads set to watching, so if you have a question you may well get a response.
Introduction
If you’re familiar with the world of Pokémon in one way or another, you probably have a good idea of what to expect with this one. This manga follows the games region to region as they come out, so this first volume starts in the Kanto region, and the Kanto arc lasts for the first 3 volumes. In those volumes, our protagonist Red takes off on his Pokémon journey, encounters mysterious Pokémon, goes head to head with the evil Team Rocket, and finds his own path to becoming a Pokémon Master! This manga is widely considered the “darkest” or most serious Pokémon content out there, so it should keep things interested for all readers. Whether you’re a seasoned Pokémon master, or clueless as to what the yellow rat on the cover is, this manga is a fun ride to be on!
View the original nomination post here
How it works
We create a reading schedule, with a set number of pages to work through each week. Each week we create a new discussion thread for that week’s reading. In those threads we discuss everything from vocab and grammar to the characters and story. We try to help each other by contributing to the shared vocab list, by answering each other’s questions and by keeping each other motivated.
What to expect from the this book
This book is pretty middle of the road for the Beginner’s Book Club, but I think it will fall a bit on the easier end. It’s rated level 23 on Natively but has some characters speaking regional dialects, and frequent use of ‘fake’ words like Pokémon names which can at times be confusing. It also has some decently dense pages here and there, but is not too bad. There is quite a lot of kanji usage but there is full furigana throughout which will generally make word look ups easier.
If you are a complete beginner to Japanese the Absolute Beginner’s Book club is likely a better place to start, but if you have been learning Japanese for a while and want to give yourself a challenge, then this will be a good book to read with the support of the group.
Where to purchase
-
Physical
CD Japan, Amazon Japan -
Digital
Bookwalker, Kobo
Schedules and Links
- Start date: Apr 19, 2025
Schedule 1
Schedule 1 (1 chapter a week - 14 weeks)
| Week | Pages | Chapter | No of Pages | Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 5 → 18 | 1 | 14p | Apr 19 |
| #2 | 19 → 32 | 2 | 14p | Apr 26 |
| #3 | 33 → 46 | 3 | 14p | May 3 |
| #4 | 47 → 60 | 4 | 14p | May 10 |
| #5 | 61 → 74 | 5 | 14p | May 17 |
| #6 | 75 → 88 | 6 | 14p | May 24 |
| #7 | 89 → 102 | 7 | 14p | May 31 |
| #8 | 103 → 116 | 8 | 14p | Jun 7 |
| #9 | 117 → 130 | 9 | 14p | Jun 14 |
| #10 | 131 → 144 | 10 | 14p | Jun 21 |
| #11 | 145 → 158 | 11 | 14p | Jun 28 |
| #12 | 159 → 172 | 12 | 14p | Jul 5 |
| #13 | 173 → 186 | 13 | 14p | Jul 12 |
| #14 | 187 → 200 | 14 | 14p | Jul 19 |
Schedule 2
Schedule 2 (1 chapter/week → 1.5 chapters/week at midway point - 11 Weeks)
| Week | Pages | Chapter | No of Pages | Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 5 → 18 | 1 | 14p | Apr 19 |
| #2 | 19 → 32 | 2 | 14p | Apr 26 |
| #3 | 33 → 46 | 3 | 14p | May 3 |
| #4 | 47 → 60 | 4 | 14p | May 10 |
| #5 | 61 → 74 | 5 | 14p | May 17 |
| #6 | 75 → 95 | 6/7 | 21p | May 24 |
| #7 | 96 → 116 | 7/8 | 14p | May 31 |
| #8 | 117 → 137 | 9/10 | 21p | Jun 7 |
| #9 | 138 → 158 | 10/11 | 21p | Jun 14 |
| #10 | 159 → 179 | 12/13 | 21p | Jun 21 |
| #11 | 180 → 200 | 13/14 | 21p | Jun 28 |
Schedule 3
Schedule 3 (1 chapter/week → 1.5 chapters/week → 2 chapters/week - 9 Weeks)
| Week | Pages | Chapter | No of Pages | Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 5 → 18 | 1 | 14p | Apr 19 |
| #2 | 19 → 32 | 2 | 14p | Apr 26 |
| #3 | 33 → 53 | 3/4 | 21p | May 3 |
| #4 | 54 → 74 | 4/5 | 21p | May 10 |
| #5 | 75 → 95 | 6/7 | 21p | May 17 |
| #6 | 96 → 116 | 7/8 | 21p | May 24 |
| #7 | 117 → 144 | 9/10 | 28p | May 31 |
| #8 | 145 → 172 | 11/12 | 28p | Jun 7 |
| #9 | 173 → 200 | 13/14 | 28p | Jun 14 |
Vocabulary
Resources
- Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
- ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence and it will try and break the sentence down into its individual parts.
- Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s obviously not going to be right all the time, so if you want to check your translation it’s often better to ask in the thread.
Discussion Guidelines
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
- Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
- Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
- Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
- When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
- Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Membership
Will you be reading with us?
- Yes
- Yes, but I might start late
- Maybe
- No
Which version will you be reading?
- Digital
- Physical
What reading schedule do you prefer (Multiple is fine)
- Schedule 1
- Schedule 2
- Schedule 3
P.S. Most of this post was stolen from past contributors. Thank you all who have built up this club over the years <3
definitely want to do this book justice though because as many others have already mentioned this book was really important to me as a kid as well!