Magical Pokémon Journey Part 6

    (Viz, 2001-2002)
™ and © Viz Communications, Inc.

The world of Pokémon is a big place, so you’d expect that there would be a lot going on in it that does not involve Ash, Misty, and Team Rocket. Magical Pokémon Journey is another series set in the same continuity but utilizing different characters.

Hazel and her friends (Cashew, Almond, Pistachio — yes, they are all named after nuts) live among the Pokémon, but they are not the trainers readers are used to from TV and videogames. After all, not everyone with a horse is a jockey.

This is an excellent example of shojo (Japanese “girls’ comics”). The series focuses on cuter Pokémon and there are a number of differences between this comic book and the more familiar cartoon. The Pokémon all talk. They have individual names. And they do not fight. (At least not in this issue. Instead, two Pokémon compete by seeing which one can name more flowers.)

In many ways this comic book, by Yumi Tsukirino, with English adaptation by Gerard Jones, more closely resembles a Rumiko Takahashi manga than the Pokémon cartoon.

This should appeal to younger readers. It may be especially popular among girls who don’t see the appeal Pokémon has had for their brothers.

— Jack Abramowitz
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