The Electric Tale of Pikachu

The Electric Tale of Pikachu (Japanese: ポケットモンスター・電撃ピカチュウ Pocket Monsters: Dengeki Pikachu) is a four-volume Pokémon manga series made by Toshihiro Ono, originally serialized in Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic Special. It is loosely based on .
The manga follows the overall plot of the Pokémon: Indigo League and Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands seasons of . However, the story is not very sequential, as only a few select episodes from the seasons were picked to be adapted into manga form. The manga concludes with Ash's victory in the Orange League.
The Pokémon illustrations in this manga are not based on the official artwork by Ken Sugimori, and so many appear to be more/less stylized in comparison.
==Differences between the animated series and the manga==
*The characters are the same as in , although characters differ between versions in significant ways. does a significant amount of traveling on his own, although and appear frequently as traveling companions.
*Many main and recurring characters own Pokémon that they do not own in the animated series, such as Ash's Fearow.
*Occasionally, a story from the animated series will be adapted to the manga but will be altered slightly. For example, in Play Misty For Me, Ash battles Misty for the just like in the series; however, she challenges him to retrieve his from her rather than a traditional battle.
*Sabrina is shown as a kind, caring person, unlike in other depictions where she is shown as cold and indifferent to others.
*Similar to Sabrina, Damian is shown to be a nicer person who returns for his waiting Charmander after a coma. This personality change ties in with the differences in owned Pokémon between the manga and as Ash's Charmander is not Damian's Charmander.
*Unlike in , Gary Oak is shown to have a sister named May Oak.
*Jessie and James are canonically confirmed as a couple in this manga: they are shown to be married at the end of volume four.
*Captured Pokémon are assigned "ranks" based on their rarity. Rank D Pokémon (such as ) are the most common, while Rank A Pokémon (such as ) are the rarest.
*Ash's clothes differ in this manga from time to time.
==English translations==
The Electric Tale of Pikachu has been released in English by both VIZ Media and Chuang Yi.
===VIZ Media===
The Electric Tale of Pikachu was the first Pokémon manga to be translated officially into English, making its debut in included with home video releases of and subsequently released in full as sixteen monthly issues. These sixteen monthly issues were treated as four separate series, each consisting of four issues, and ran from November 1998 through February 2000. When the issues were collected for their graphic novels, each volume was named for their four-issue arc: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, Pikachu Shocks Back, Electric Pikachu Boogaloo and Surf's Up, Pikachu. The VIZ graphic novels do not mention any volume numbers or relation to each other, as each volume is titled as though it is a separate series.
The manga was heavily promoted by VIZ Media and was featured in several commercial advertisements. Aside from the promotional home video samplers, a collection was also released featuring the first two chapters entitled the Special Signature Edition Red Version. This special edition was included with a Pokémon Video Suitcase promotional set. A second edition, the Special Signature Edition Blue Version, which contains the second two chapters of the same series, was included with a second Pokémon Video Suitcase set.
By the end of 1999, the monthly issue-version of the manga had shipped more than 7.25 million copies in the U.S., with issue 1 of The Electric Tale of Pikachu in particular selling over a million copies. Viz Media claimed that it was the best-selling comic book in the U.S. since 1993.“POKéMON #1 HITS 1 MILLION COPIES!” VIZ Media press release (archived)
===Chuang Yi===
The Electric Tale of Pikachu was also released by Chuang Yi in their publishing region. Since the translations were licensed from VIZ Media's version, they contain all of the same edits. Chuang Yi's volumes do not have individual titles, though they also use the same English title The Electric Tale of Pikachu.
Chuang Yi's version of , while based on VIZ Media's translation, restored the final two pages of To Evolve or Not to Evolve, That Is the Question! which were omitted from VIZ Media's version. As VIZ Media chose to omit the pages originally, these pages are the only two of the manga which Chuang Yi translated themselves.
==International versions==
In , the first volume of this series was released by Conrad Editora in four monthly issues. These are direct translations of VIZ Media's monthly issues and therefore contain all of VIZ Media's edits.
In , a French edition titled was published by Imavision Distribution, the same company that released on VHS and DVD in French-speaking regions of Canada. The French version includes the first four monthly issues and are directly based on VIZ Media's English version, including edits. The order of the issues for ET02 and ET03 is reversed in the French publication as well, just like the English.
In the region, the manga has been translated to Mandarin by Da Ran as in Taiwan and to Cantonese as .
There was also a translation in n, renamed as .
In , all four volumes were released titled , published by 대원씨아이 . The Korean versions are translations based on the original Japanese version published by Shogakukan.
File:Electric Tale of Pikachu TW volume 1.png|Volume one published in 
File:Electric Tales of Pikachu Cantonese.png|All four volumes published in 
File:Electric Tale of Pikachu ID volume 1.png|Volume one published in 
==Controversy and censorship==
This manga is perhaps the most controversial Pokémon manga ever published, due almost entirely to the fact that the original Japanese version of the manga series had a lot of sexual content, including women such as , Jessie, and the Sensational Sisters given oversized busts, often accompanied by skimpy clothing or swimwear. In order to make the series marketable to younger English-speaking readers, much of this was censored during VIZ Media's translations and all of the sexual content was taken out, leading to a "cleaner" version of the manga for international readers. The Japanese volumes of the manga were also slightly censored from the original versions published in CoroCoro. According to Toshihiro Ono, these edits were done by himself.
One scene in particular that was heavily edited was when battles Misty for the in Play Misty For Me. In the original, Misty wears a very revealing swimsuit, which is completely redrawn as a wetsuit in the English version.
There was one scene that was removed altogether from the English version. It is the original ending of To Evolve or Not to Evolve, That Is the Question!. This scene was set in a hot spring, and it pictured a naked (with ) relaxing and washing herself, making a comment about how her chest should evolve, too. All of a sudden, , Mikey and are seen sitting in another hot spring, and they see Misty washing herself. Misty, noticing their presence, is extremely embarrassed and feels very violated; and she runs away in anger. This scene was likely deleted due to excessive nudity and the adult nature of the scene. This scene, however, is not removed from Chuang Yi's version.
===Scene removed from the North American adaptation===
File:pikachu2 082.png|Page 1 of the scene that was removed by American censors.
File:pikachu2 083.png|Page 2 of the scene that was removed by American censors.
File:EToP hot spring scene CY.png|English translation by Chuang Yi.
==In other languages==
==Related articles==
* List of Electric Tale of Pikachu chapters
* List of Electric Tale of Pikachu monthly issues
* List of Electric Tale of Pikachu volumes
==External links==
* (provides a side-by-side comparison of the English and Japanese versions).
==References==
*
Category:Manga
de:Pocket Monsters: Dengeki Pikachu
es:El Cuento Eléctrico de Pikachu
fr:Electric Tale of Pikachu
it:The Electric Tale of Pikachu
ja:電撃! ピカチュウ
zh:电击皮卡丘