"There are trainers who work hard everyday for Pokémon championships. These talented boys and girls... They are known as... The Golden Boys!"
— Gold
Pokemon Golden Boys (Pokemon Kin Gin: Golden Boys in Japanese) is a manga written and drawn by Muneo Saito, and based on Pokémon Gold and Silver, eventually including Pokémon Crystal elements. The manga ran in CoroCoro Comic from November 1999 to September 2001.
Its full name is Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys. It follows the basic story of the games quite well, with quite a few twists added in. Rare for a Pokémon adaptation, it shows characters eating meat and shows cars quite explicitly.
Gold, a determined young boy, is asked by the well-known Professor Elm to go to Mr. Pokémon in Cherrygrove City. With his new Pokémon, a Totodile, he invokes on a mission to meet this man and fulfill his mission. He encounters the mysterious Black, who becomes his rival. Unable to find Mr. Pokémon he goes on a journey to find him, fighting gym leaders on the side.
Not to be confused with a Pokémon adaptation of Golden Boy.
This manga provides examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job:
- Almost everyone has brown eyes, even Pokémon, regardless of their original colors.
- Kris' hair has been changed from blue to an almost green hue of teal.
- Ambiguously Gay: Bugsy. He acts abnormally nice toward Gold, and not toward anyone else. He's always blushing near him, and making flirty remarks, toward him too. His movement is also quite flamboyant.
- Ascended Extra: The gym leaders, the rocket executive, and Joey are given more screentime than in the games.
- Author Appeal: Basketball appears quite a few times.
- Blush Sticker: Almost everyone has markings on their cheeks. Sometimes they disappear for a panel or so at a time, but they're usually permanent.
- Cut Short: The manga was cut short at 3 volumes but clearly was meant to go on longer. Red is referenced several times but is never actually seen.
- Early Adaptation Weirdness: Crystal makes references to non-Pokémon gods, which is rare for the franchise.
- Evil Laugh: Black is prone to these, often accompanied by flamboyant looking poses.
- Evil Redhead: Black is a cruel redheaded boy who hates anyone he deems "weak".
- Expy: A Rocket Grunt that appeared looked a lot like Waluigi.
- Gratuitous English: "OKAY!" is commonly stated by both Gold and Chris.
- Jerkass: Black, possibly more then any other Silver counterpart. He gets a "My God, What Have I Done?" in the end, but it's in a "I have made a fool of myself" context.
- Meaningful Name: This has to be the reason for Silver being named "Black". It most likely refers to his clothing and his behavior (him having a "black" heart).
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Black technically wins his battle with Gold in the ninth chapter. However, the fact that he did so via having his Sneasel push Gold's Quilava in the way of Gold's Hitmontop's Triple Kick and then finish off the badly damaged Fire-type means that the entire audience is upset at Black. Gold is labeled the true winner after an indifferent Black stomps off because Gold fought fairly and Gold gets a Tyrogue.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The characters play "Pokémon Basketball" in a dramatic manner.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- The unnamed male Rocket Executive was made into a character named "Grey".
- The protagonist and rivals are unnamed in game canon (with the male lead being named "Ethan" years later). The manga names them "Gold" and "Black".
- Odd Name Out: There's Gold, Black, and Chris (short for "Crystal"). Black is the only one not named after a Generation 2 game.
- Obstructive Vigilantism: A part at the beginning of the game - where the player is asked to give the name of their rival by reporting it to the police (in the original he tells you his name for no reason, in the DS remakes the Player Character gets a look at his trainer card) - is portrayed as Gold misleading the police so he can take him down himself.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gold and Black.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Black's starter, Chikorita, is a feminine looking grass type. He quickly abandons it for being his standard of weak though. Gold obtains it.
- The Rival: Black is Gold's rival, though Black looks down on Gold.
- Spell My Name With An S: The short version of Crystal's name is either "Chris", "Crys", or "Kris".
- Tomboy: Chris is both an explorer and a trainer. Unlike most Kris counterparts, she owns a Cyndaquil rather then the more commonly used Chikorita.
- Tomboyish Name: Crystal's nickname, Chris, fits her tomboyish nature.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Gold mistakes Bugsy for a girl at first, but doesn't make a big deal about it.
- Word Salad Title: Variation. It makes sense considering the protagonist is named "Gold" and it's based off a game series where one of the games is "Gold", but it still is random and makes no sense in its apparent context.
