Pokemon Adventures manga creators discuss the writing process, struggles

Coming from an ANN interview with creators Hidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamoto...

ANN: How complex is to work on a static franchise like Pokémon while introducing your own ideas?

Kusaka: Working on Pokémon is difficult. Maybe the most difficult part is that we have to follow the story of another product, which is a video game. We can't afford to create a manga that people playing the video games don't like. On the other hand, if everything was exactly the same between the games and the adaptation, the manga would be boring. When you're playing a Pokémon game, you put yourself into the character, whereas an established character has to drive the story in a manga. We have to create good characters and surprise people as they're reading. That balance between what we have to change and what remains the same is probably the most difficult part.

Yamamoto: Every time there's a new video game, there's also a design team responsible for the new Pokémon creatures and human characters. I receive their work and I have to follow and respect some guidelines, so I try to attach my own creativity to all that. But there's also some parts where I have more freedom, so that's up to my imagination. For example, there's an original idea in the manga devised by me, which is that every character has their own way of catching Pokémon.

ANN: Is it hard? I mean, the first steps before starting work on the manga.

Kusaka: During the creative process, there's always some parts that are harder than others. Right now we're playing Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon but we haven't started working on the manga adaptation. What I've already seen is that if I create a script exactly the same as the game, it's going to be quite a cold plot. This one is probably the most difficult game adaptation we've faced.

Yamamoto: Every new Pokémon saga is difficult in terms of transforming the video game content into manga. In my personal case, I have to face the situation of “I'm so sleepy but I can't sleep now because I have to deliver this work soon.” It's my creative strength. (laughs) I love drawing, but sometimes I can't put everything I want on paper because of the short amount of time, and that can make me suffer.