１月17日 ~ Day 17 / Back to Home
It feels good to be able to post completed readings back to back (technically a little later by 2 hours but fell asleep before I got to type up the summary, haha). But no one would know if I didn’t say anything right? This chapter is a few pages shorter than the others, but fast-paced thanks to the action. It looks like I’m already halfway done but I’m not quite ready to let it end. I should have a week left of content if I keep up at this pace though. Then I can decide if I want to look for the other volumes in the series.
Pocket Monsters Special Volume 1 - page 103 of 200 (13 pages total - chapter 7)
We finally get to see Team Rocket in action in this chapter, and if I didn’t already know from the fandom, it would’ve been a surprise to see Koga (still unnamed in this chapter) as a member of the organization. Then again, considering what potential skills he has being a poison-type handling ninja, it does make sense that Team Rocket would want to recruit him.
What I didn’t quite catch the last chapter but got clarified for me in this one is Kasumi’s Gyarados was originally a Koiking (the pre-evolved form), and it was through the medicine injected by Team Rocket that forced evolve it (didn’t catch originally) and rampage (did catch originally). We see the same thing happen with Koga’s Saihorn force evolved into Saidon with the medicine Koga injects it. Not only does its skills power up, but it appears immune to its normal type weaknesses.
I enjoyed seeing Kasumi and Red work together in this chapter. I wish they would stop needlessly injuring Kasumi, but they gotta paint Red as the hero so I guess that’s what the author had to do to give the protagonist the spotlight.
I think it’s awesome too how OP Pikachu is in the manga. In the anime, they tone Satoshi’s Pikachu’s ability for plot convenience and have it overcome unbelievable wins (vs Katsura’s Saidon) for the same reason, but their relationship improved significantly by the end of the first episode, so it’s harder to grow from there. At least in the manga, Red’s Pikachu seems to be annoyed to be in its current position, but it won’t ignore Red completely… less out of respect for Red and more for pride in its own power it feels like. I’m sure they’re destined to be the best of friends later, but I for now, I enjoy their relationship. How does Pikachu keep taking down all these rock/ground type Pokemon though?
I forgot to mention in the last chapter, but it’s interesting to see that Okido-hakase talks with a Kansai dialect. I forget the timing of the manga compared to the games and anime, (if I remember correctly, the games came first), but it makes me wonder if a neighboring region had already been established when the original games came out since the Kanto region is based on Japan’s eastern Kanto region, and someone like Okido-hakase (and also Masaki later on) has a dialect from the western region.
Vocab for Reference - New words are bolded
伏せる・ふせる・to lie flat (on the ground)
うじゃうじゃ・in swarms
引き下がる・ひきさがる・to back down; to give up
暗い・くらい・dark
思いっきり・おもいきり・to the best of one’s ability
機嫌・きげん・temper; mood; spirits
うろうろ・aimlessly
歯向かう・はむかう・to oppose; to defy
捻り潰す・ひねりつぶす・to pinch and crush; to pinch out
一々・いちいち・every single; each and every
悪党・あくとう・scoundrel; rascal; villain
偉そう・えらそう・pompous; proud; conceited
堪る・たまる・to bear; to endure
泥だらけ・どろだらけ・covered in mud; mud-caked
触る・さわる・to touch; to feel
活躍・かつやく・great efforts
惜しい・おしい・regrettable; disappointing; unfortunate
崩れる・くずれる・to collapse; to crumble
偶然・ぐうぜん・by chance; unexpectedly; accidentally
