The Pokemon TV Show should Follow the Exploits of Red, not Ash

http://www.youtube.com... Thanks to Korashk for posting this fun and unique topic. I shall present my own observations on the manga, Pokemon Adventures [1], which will encompass my opponent's arguments whilst negating the resolution along the way. 1: Problems with the manga. Having read a substantial portion of the manga for the purposes of this debate, I must say that I find it rather poor compared to the anime series. In fact, a lot of it reads like bad fan fiction- check out, and this is no joke, Red's battle with decomposing zombie Psyduck [2]. Much of the dialogue is annoyingly corny (no, it isn't Pikachu, it's 'Pika'). Furthermore, the plot line just reads like a story version of the Blue/Red/Yellow original games, leaving no room for storyline expansion- they even find Mewtwo in Cerulean cave, (and defeat him ridiculously easily), visit each of the same towns, defeat each of the same leaders, go on to win at Indigo Plateau...the main characters are called 'Red' 'Green' and 'Blue' which is weirdly unimaginative (perhaps some kind of bad slur on the original games). The pokemon even have HEALTH BARS. (and for some reason, electric attacks apparantly work on ground types-fairly inconsistent considering its rigid adherance to the games otherwise). There are occasional variations, such as some of the Gym Leaders having Team Rocket affiliations, but even these borrow heavily from the games. Perhaps this kind of dogged tie-in with the original games would attract hardcore fans of the video game, but in would remain just that- a supporting role for the games, no different from the myriad of game and book tie-ins that infest our stores. This is hardly likely to attract the wider audience, and if the original anime had stuck with the games instead of finding it's own feet, there is little doubt it wouldn't be as popular as it is now. 2: The manga is bizarrely violent, and could never gain a foothold in its target market. Pro has aspirations about Pokemon broadening it's appeal to a larger market, but lets face it- the only substantial audience Pokemon is likely to ever get is the pre-teens market, even if the danger element is more emphasised. I can't imagine an anime about kids with pocket monsters fighting each other for special badges pulling in a 'wide variety of audiences. I just can't. If fact, the more violent overtones of the manga series would, I think, work against it's target market (Pokemon DIE in the manga). There isn't the cutesy fainting sequence when a Pokemon is defeated-sometimes they get sliced in half, or frozen and broken into pieces. This, amazingly enough for a manga based on Pokemon, isn't for children. But nor, as Pro seems to think, is there a particularly deep message behind the series. It doesn't have any more lessons to teach to children than the anime- in fact, I think the anime has the edge in this regard. In the manga, the protagonist easily defeats everyone, even the most powerful trainers and Pokemon in the world, whilst barely working for it. He's looks about eight. On the other hand, Ash is thrust into a larger world, following his dreams but never managing to get to the top. He fails to win when he takes on Indigo Plateau, and learns a lesson about picking himself back up from defeat. There is an emphasis on friendship and trust, while the manga is just about battling and getting stronger. I should address Pro's point about the theme song here, too. He seems to think that because the theme song talks about battling, then the series must follow rigidly to it. But apart from being a very weak argument, he conveniently ignores all the other theme songs that Pokemon has- often espousing very different values. Also, he only gives the first few lines of the the song-the rest of it continues to include lyrics about friendship. In fact, the song is about friendship AND battling, which the anime holds to, whereas the manga is just about battling. (A youtube video of the song, as well as others in the series is included). 3: Should Ash's exploits in the movies be excluded? Pro makes it very clear in his opening round that he is referring to the anime series when he says that it should have followed Red's exploits, and therefore Ash's accomplishments (Which far exceed Red's if allowed) in the movies should be ignored. However, I don't think he's thought this through. It is true that the movies and anime are separate, but it is also true that they are linked. For instance, in the first movie, Mewtwo (who is, seriously, rubbish in the manga) defeats Gary whilst working for Giovanni. This event also occurs in the anime, as both Ash and Gary make references to it, and Ash even meets Mewtwo later in the anime. More importantly, however, if Red's adventures had been made into the series, and become as popular as the current series (which it wouldn't), would it be any different? No, likely, they would have kept back the legendaries, and deeper plot lines and the greatest accomplishments, and made them into movies, just like in the current series. So Red's accomplishment's in the series would probably be LESS impressive as Ash's, with all his more impressive achievements saved up for the movies. [1] http://www.onemanga.com... [2] http://www.onemanga.com...