Pokémon Adventures (2017 Anime)

Pokémon Adventures (Japanese: ポケットモンスターSPECIAL Pocket Monsters SPECIAL) is a Japanese anime television series produced by and directed by Hidenori Kusaka, an adaptation of the manga series of the same name created by.

Pokémon Adventures is produced by, and co-licensed by (the publisher of the original manga) and , airing on Idea Channel. Viz Media handles the dubbing (though there's little censoring). Pokémon Adventures first aired in Japan on, and later aired in America on Toonami on July 15th, 2017.

The anime series follows a rotating cast of characters, similar to the games which the manga was based off of. The first arc (Red, Blue, & Green) features Red, a 11-year-old who wants to become a Pokémon Champion and later on a Pokémon Master.

Red, Blue, & Green

 * - Red, additional voices
 * - Blue Oak
 * - Professor Oak
 * - Green, additional voices
 * - Giovanni
 * - Yellow, additional voices

Red Blue, & Green

 * TBA
 * TBA
 * TBA

Season 1: Red, Blue, & Green
In season one, 12-year-old Red appears in Pallet Town with his trusty Poliwhirl, Poli, and gains the respect of Professor Oak and a Pokédex, setting off on his journey to become a Pokémon Master. He encounters his grandson Blue Oak, who poses a threat to his goal and the two quickly become rivals. Red also gets tangled up in Team Rocket's plot to take control over Kanto thanks to a con artist named Green and helps out Blaine in stopping Mewtwo. He eventually becomes the Pokémon Champion and a Pokémon Master in a long and grueling battle against Blue.

Season 2: Yellow
After the disappearance of Champion Red, Yellow searches for him when finding an injured Pika.

Episodes
Main Article: Pokémon Adventure/Episodes

Animation
Studio Pierrot, most notable for creating the Naruto anime and Bleach anime, was responsible for the animation. The art style was more modern and detailed than the main anime series, resembling the Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 animated trailer. Satoshi Yamamoto, the illustrator of the manga series, had been involved with the animation.

Tetsuya Nishio, the character designer of Naruto, had read the manga and tried to follow the character designs of the manga series with his own creative liberties while Ken Sugimori worked on the Pokémon designs.

Broadcasting
Viz Media handles the dubbing and broadcasting, rather than The Pokémon Company International. Blood, sexual content, alcohol references, and more are kept in the English dub but is censored for cable television where it's rated TV-PG-14.

Pokémon Adventures first aired in Japan on in 2015, and Viz Media was given the task to dub the series due to publishing the original manga. After being dubbed, it was advertised as a new series available on Toonami where it brought many views.

Casting
Hidenori Kusaka immediately sought out for Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor of Blue. He had offered him to play Blue after seeing his multiple roles in anime, and was impressed by his portrayal of Sasuke from Naruto who Kusaka said was similar to Blue.

Red was auditioned by many actors, and Johnny Yong Bosch was chosen to play the character due to his versatility and his portrayal of Nate Adams from Yo-kai Watch which was noted as a "young boy's voice" and showed his flexibility.

Soundtrack
TBA

Reception
Pokémon Adventures was met with positive reviews, ranking high on lists such as IGN's "Top 100 Animated Series as of 2017" where it was ranked at 47 and was called "A great adaptation of the manga, and an amazing shonen anime with excellent choreography and animation". IMDb had also given Pokémon Adventures an 8.3/10.

Due to airing on Black Box exclusively, upon its premiere it had brought 3 million views and many subscriptions after its airing was made.

Red, Blue, & Green

 * Yellow's age is changed to 10.


 * The Pokémon designs are based on their current and more modern designs, so Charmander's back has no spikes.

Trivia

 * The series is rated TV-PG-V on Idea Channel.
 * The creators of the manga had worked on the anime.
 * The Pokémon Company International doesn't dub the anime, due to it being more mature and not needing many censors. Blood is limitted throughout the series though, and a lot of things pass the radar.