So lately I've been really getting down on collecting Pokemon Adventures volumes. I got everything released in English by Viz with the exception of B/W arcs. For the past few weeks I've been reading these off and on but I've yet to comment on them outside of Red/Blue/Green/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal.
Pokemon Adventures: Ruby & Sapphire
At first I had my doubts about this one. Focusing the arc so much on Pokemon Contests is not my cup of tea at all, but both Ruby and Sapphire were likable protagonists enough to carry me through. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by this one, and while it wasn't as refined as the G/S/C arc, it was still a pretty solid ride and I could easily see people finding this one to be one of the better arcs in the series. They did a good job for the first time they really focused on a brand new cast of characters I felt.
Pokemon Adventures: Fire Red & Leaf Green
One word to describe this arc: Epic. The new Rocket grunts are meh, but this entire arc overall is probably the most solid in the entire series, if you ignore the end. The only issue with it is that I feel like this arc could've had more legs to it, but for the three volumes of content it has, it's really damn good stuff. Everytime Red, Blue, and Green appear in the series they become better and better characters. Silver's arc in here was also pretty great.
Pokemon Adventures: Emerald (incomplete)
I have two more volumes to read of this, because of a lack of English release. But so far this has to be the most disappointing arc I've ever came across. The main character is about as bullshit as you can get, expecting the readers to believe he's some type of great trainer even though he hasn't had any development or arc of his own like every other trainer in the series. At least when Yellow was introduced, she was largely an inexperienced trainer and we saw her grow and develop. Maybe this changes with Emerald later on, but overall I'm down on this one.
Pokemon Adventures: Diamond & Pearl
The beginning of this arc was a very slow start. Honestly all three main characters I was very meh on at first, and the comedy shit got annoying and old fast cause of how much times was spent interrupting battles doing it. As the arc went on however, it got progressively better with a lot of time spent on character development. The ending climax with the batshit Cyrus was epic as well. However I feel as a whole, it was less solid than R/S or G/S/C arcs, but it's right behind it quality-wise as far as I'm concerned.
Pokemon Adventures: Platinum
Pretty meh arc overall. Best way to describe this arc: Rushed as hell. I guess that's understandable cause there was probably a need to close it to get to B/W, which I'll be getting later to this week. It was nice to see some closure to some of the stuff unresolved in the previous arcs. Also, wtf happened to Sird? Talk about wasted plotline. Maybe they're saving her for the inevitable revisit when D/P gets remade.
Pokemon Adventures: Heart Gold & Soul Silver
This is a pretty awesome little arc as well, but feels very rushed. It's nice to see Giovanni and Pryce back to set the younger generation of Team Rocket straight, and I suppose they left Team Rocket's status as being a bad guy group int he air for future exploration. The suggested crush Kris has on Gold unfortunately went nowhere, as did a lot of things in this arc. It tied nicely to the D/P arc as well.
