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And these aren't even all the protagonists.note 
Pokémon Adventures (known as "Pocket Monsters SPECIAL" in Japan) is a manga adaptation of the Pokémon games series. It follows the adventures of the Dex Holders — characters mostly modeled off of the games' Player Characters and Rivals — as they work towards their various dreams and fight the evil teams trying to fulfill their own nefarious goals.

The manga series is authored by Hidenori Kusaka. It was illustrated by Mato for the first 9 volumes, and since volume 10, has been illustrated by Satoshi Yamamoto. Each story arc, or "Chapter," corresponds with a game in the Pokemon series, starting with the Red, Green and Blue Chapter up to the currently running Sword and Shield Chapter. It is published by Shōgakukan under the Ladybird Comics Special imprint. In the United States, Viz Media holds the license and has released up to the X.Y Chaper in single volumes, up to the Sword and Shield Chapter in smaller "mini-volumes" and the first six arcs, corresponding to the first three generations, are also available in the "Collector's Edition", 3-in-1 omnibuses with a larger trim size.

While there are multiple other Pokémon manga, this is the most well known due to being one of the few that was released outside of Japan and its status as a Long Runner. If you see or hear a Pokémon fan talk about "the manga", this is probably what they are referring to. (Some of the other manga are listed here.)

Note: The characters named Blue and Green had their names switched in translation so the boys' names matched the English games (in Japan, Green's the boy and Blue's the girl; outside Japan, Blue's the boy and Green's the girl.) This wiki's policy is to use the English names, but examples on other pages may see mixing of Blue/Green for the boy and the girl due to the wide use of both names for each character in the fandom. If you see any examples using the Japanese names, please change them to the English ones.


This manga provides examples of:

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    A-E 
  • Aborted Arc: Four straight arcs in a row - FireRed/LeafGreen, Emerald, Diamond/Pearl and Platinum - appeared to be setting up the manga-exclusive villain Sird as the villain with a master plan that involves stealing Pokédexs. But after Platinum, Sird is neither seen nor spoken of again, despite the fact that she was never defeated and is still at large.
    • Red was clearly being set up to be a Gym Leader, likely due to his game counterpart being the final one in the Space World demo. Come the actual Gold and Silver games, that aspect ended up being scrapped out, so Red likewise didn't become one, giving up the position to Blue.
  • Action Girl: All the main female 'Dex Holders are quite capable of battling and defending themselves. In fact, after Red, the next Dex holders that actually battle and win gym badges are Sapphire and Platinum.
    • At first White was an exception, as she doesn't regard herself as a trainer (she doesn't train pokémon that way and doesn't even possess any to fight with; her pokémon actors and actresses aren't hers, either). But, she changes that midway through the arc, becoming a trainer and ultimately as competent a battler as the other female 'Dex Holders, even to the point of leading the charge against Team Plasma in the final battle of the B2/W2 arc.
    • Whitley is another exception, and unlike White she stays that way. Despite being good enough in battles to earn a Pokédex in a school tournament, she's a dedicated pacifist and refuses to have anything to do with battling most of the time.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: DJ Mary looks more attractive compared to how she looks in the TCG, lacking glasses.
  • Adaptational Badass: The Ultimate Moves are considerably more powerful in this manga than in the games, and seem to lack the recharge time that makes them Awesome, but Impractical.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The manga generally has tighter continuity than the games and the anime, so some elements get streamlined:
    • The female PC in the HeartGold and SoulSilver games, Lyra, is officially considered a separate character than the one from Crystal, Kris. Adventures merges the two by sticking Crystal in Lyra's outfit for the arc.
    • Anabel from Emerald reappears in Sun and Moon as part of the International Police under rather convoluted circumstances: apparently, Emerald and Sun and Moon take place in different dimensions, and Anabel accidentally crossed between them; the Police of the Sun and Moon world then recruited her to help investigate cross-dimensional incidents. Adventures slightly simplifies this to only involve one Pokémon dimension instead of two; in at least the English version, she claims to be a native of the Ultra Beast dimension instead.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Crystal has slightly different colored hair (dark indigo) compared to her game counterpart (teal).
    • Also, most of the Dex Holders have different eye color compared to their game counterpart, such as Ruby's eye color being red instead of gray like Brendan.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The plots of the games are expanded on, with minor characters getting bigger roles and/or more characterization.
  • Adaptation Name Change: The protagonists' names are taken from the games they come from rather than the official names Nintendo gave them, even in Japanese (e.g. May/Haruka is called Sapphire and Dawn/Hikari is Platinum).
  • Adaptation Origin Connection: Just like in Pokémon: The First Movie, Team Rocket is responsible for Mewtwo's creation. In the original games, it was a project by an independent group of scientists.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: Discussed on this page.
  • Adaptational Explanation: The DPP games never explain the Broken Bridge with the three Psyduck afflicted by headaches that the player has to get Secret Medicine for. Here, it's a massive horde of Psyduck that Diamond, Pearl and Platinum can't fight their way past and have to go through an alternative route, and it ends up being a convoluted plot by Team Galactic to detour Paka and Uji (Platinum's original bodyguards before the mix-up happened) to get ambushed.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: This happens with Norman, the protagonist's father in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. In the games, Norman is a kind, gentle person who respects his child's wishes and would most likely not use physical violence. In the manga, Norman is a lot meaner and beats up his son for disobeying him. Despite his harshness, he is on the side of good — he is genuinely supportive of Ruby.
  • Adaptational Late Appearance: In the games, the Pokétch Co. President and his clowns would appear early on to give the player a Pokétch, while here, Diamond encounters them in the middle of his journey and ends up promoting the device instead.
  • Adaptational Mundanity: When Red visits Lavender Town, it turns out that the rumors of ghosts and the zombie Pokémon were merely the result of Team Rocket's manipulations, who used a Gastly to reanimate the dead; unlike the games where the ghosts were very real.
    • In the ORAS games, Zinnia reveals that there are multiple different realities in the world of Pokémon. In the ORAS arc however, Zinnia instead says that the dimensional shifter may have transported the meteorite to a different location, removing any aspects of parallel reality. Sun and Moon similarly limits its multiversal dimensions to the Pokémon world and Ultra Space, instead of implying multiple Pokémon worlds.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Silver's a Jerkass with no heroic actions in the games who only learns to trust and care for his Pokémon after the player beats him at Victory Road, whereas here he's driven for vengeance for Green and himself, but, while he's not the nicest guy, will help people in trouble from time to time.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Lt. Surge, Koga, Sabrina are admins of Team Rocket in the first arc, but eventually pull a Heel–Face Turn.
    • The Kanto Elite Four (Bruno, Agatha, Lorelei, Lance) are trying to Kill All Humans for the sake of Pokémon. They also pull a Heel–Face Turn bar Agatha, who disappears.
    • Pryce is the Masked Man, the Big Bad of the second arc. He takes control of the remains of Team Rocket so he can travel back in time to reunite with two Lapras he lost to an avalanche. Working for him are Will and Karen, who were also not evil in the games. They all also have a Heel–Face Turn eventually.
    • N has fewer sympathetic qualities and more Kick the Dog moments than he does in the games, although he is still an Anti-Villain who undergoes a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Gladion is more ruthless than in the games, outright using his Type: Null to brutally attack Kiawe, and he has a more villainous goal (capturing the Island Guardians). Later chapters reveal that it's all to stop Lusamine, so the end verdict is that he is more of an Anti-Hero than his game counterpart ever was.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: Viz's titles from the GSC saga to the DPP saga use these such as A Conk on Cranidos' Cranium.
  • A Dog Named "Perro": In the X & Y chapter, X nicknames most of his Pokémon after their names in the French localization with the exception being his first Pokémon Kangaskhan, who are named after their Japanese name (the English name in the English translation).
  • Aerith and Bob: In a world full of Japanese/Anglo names, nobody seems to comment that the Dex Holders' names are colors, jewels, celestial bodies, metalsnote  and single letters.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • There is a surprisingly large amount of information on the background of the Pokémon world in the back section of the books. This includes the main characters' teams' levels, amount of Pokémon seen and caught, Pokédex functions, maps detailing where everything took place, etc. There was even one detailing the exact duties of the Kanto/Johto Gym Leaders.
    • The Pokédex pages on the netkun site provide details of various Pokémon that had been shown in the series, such as the Gym Leaders' Pokémons' genders.
  • Anachronic Order: While the story normally follows the order of the games released, the HGSS and ORAS arcs take place in between the Emerald and DP arcs. This is evident as the Generation IV main characters are still kids when they appear in ORAS arc.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Silver are turned to stone at the end of FireRed and LeafGreen. It's ambiguous whether they remember their time there. Later, in the Emerald chapter, it's revealed that Silver, at least, was conscious the entire time.
    • Black is absorbed into the Light Stone with Reshiram at the end of Black and White. Averted as the B 2 W 2 chapter shows he was in the Dream World the whole time
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Gold and Silver, after their fight with the Mask of Ice at the Lake of Rage, are promptly dropped for a while to focus on first on Red's efforts to take the Gym Leader challenge, before he gives it up to Blue due to lingering wounds from his battle with Lorelei and then focuses on Crystal.
  • Animal Wrongs Group:
    • The Kanto Elite Four want to exterminate all humanity so that the Pokémon can live in harmony.
    • Team Plasma are just like their game counterparts, wanting to separate Pokémon from humans.
  • Anime Hair:
    • Red and Blue, to name some.
    • Gold lampshades this at one point when he complains about his hair being all wild and messy, then realizes that it's always like that.
    • Justified with Emerald. His large, impossibly curved hairdo requires hair gel to maintain.
    • The Sinnoh chairman has his hair shaped like a humongous serving of soft-serve ice cream.
  • Anti-Climax: Near the end of the Ruby and Sapphire arc, Wallace finally accepts his role as Hoenn's champion and prepares to battle Archie and Maxie for the fate of the region. He gets to kick ass for all of two pages before they reveal they have Winona as a hostage, forcing Wallace to stand down and allow himself to get beaten to a pulp.
    • In Poni Island, Sun and Moon manages to awaken Solgaleo and Lunala, where they seemed to be poised to put an end to the Ultra Beast threat. However, Sun forcefully separates from Solgaleo, and to make the matters worse, is dragged to Ultra Space by Necrozma with Solgaleo, where Moon and Lunala follow suit. This results in the Ultra Beasts ravaging Alola for six months uncontested.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit:
    • Justified and explained in the Crystal chapter, when the storage system goes down and Crystal can't drop off her captures. The Professors discuss that there's nothing stopping Crystal from carrying seven or eight or more Pokémon, but it's harder to devote enough care and attention to that many; the League recommends stopping at six for this reason and most trainers don't think highly of those who carry more.
    • Averted with the conclusion of the same chapter when every caught Pokémon help calm Lugia and Ho-oh down and in the Emerald chapter when Guile Hideout sets the rental Pokémon on Emerald and the Frontier Brains.
    • Enforced on the number of Dex Holders who act as the protagonists: Professor Oak only makes 3 Pokédexs per Generation (he later makes a brand new one for Red, who gives his old one to Yellow).
  • Arc Welding: The series is very good with this, with many plot points and elements from prior arcs coming back into play in later arcs.
    • Volume 40 (the end of Platinum) has the Sinnoh trio receiving the Manaphy Egg from the Pokémon Ranger manga, and Looker jetting off to Unova to investigate the Seven Sages.
    • The HeartGold and SoulSilver saga takes place before Diamond and Pearl and Platinum. Meaning that everything that happened in the former saga acted as a prequel to the latter saga.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: A variation: When Looker infiltrates the Unova League, he finds three people suspicious. The list includes Zinzolin calling himself Gray and Colress going as "Hood Man" who are dressed very oddly, but in the middle is Leo, a young boy wearing PokéManiac pants.
  • Art Evolution:
    • Quite noticeable due to the change in artists from Mato to Satoshi Yamamoto. Compare the Kanto group to the Hoenn or Sinnoh at the same age, the Kanto trio to them in the Sevii arc, or even Gold at the beginning to himself by the end of the Gold, Silver, and Crystal arc.
    • Diamond got chubbier throughout the Diamond and Pearl arc, while his Lax got smaller.
  • Author Appeal: Apparently the creators have a soft spot for human Latias, as she's seen in every author note since her debut until volume 37. Here she is as a cheerleader and here she is as an idol.
  • Author Avatar:
    • In the author notes, Kusaka is represented by an Electrode, Mato a glasses-wearing Oddish holding a pencil, and Yamamoto a Swalot. There was a reference to this in the beginning of the Emerald arc in that an Electrode and a Swalot are the Pokémon Spenser and Lucy have a double battle against for the Battle Frontier's opening ceremony.
    • Before volume 15, Satoshi Yamamoto's avatar was a Slowpoke. Also in the Red and Blue Chapter, Hidenori Kusaka's avatar is what one would assume is a manga version of himself. In volume 4, it's the same guy with an Electrode for a head.
    • The Unova film director bears an uncanny resemblance to Kusaka himself.
  • Back for the Finale: In the climax of each arc, the gym leaders or minor characters would reappear to contribute in resolving the conflict.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • Steven, Courtney and Norman from the climax of the Ruby and Sapphire arc thanks to Celebi.
    • Something brings Archie and Maxie back for OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, but it's only temporary.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Played straight in this page in volume 32.
  • Badass Adorable:
    • Yellow has a few tricks up her sleeve.
    • Gold's Togepi takes the cake. It took down Silver's Tyranitar (which knocked Togepi out too) and Lance's (admittedly wounded) Dragonite before launching itself right through its Hyper Beam!
    • Guile Hideout from Emerald has a Surskit that he frequently uses.
  • Badass Normal:
    • Pretty much everybody; while trainers still generally just hang back and give orders like in the games and anime, here, some actually provide physical support. A common variation is riding your Pokémon while it's fighting. Giovanni actually says a truly 'great' trainer has to hone his own body instead of just relying on your Pokémon. This is the same advice Chuck goes by and passed down to Blue.
    • When Team Rocket attacks Indigo Plateau and the Gym Leaders retaliate, some of the Gym Leaders fight with their own fists alongside of their Pokémon. Among the confusion, you can see that Falkner slams one grunt to the ground, Janine performs a flying kick in a grunt's face, Clair is whipping them, and Chuck is throwing six of them at a time. Pity there was only one shot of Blue apparently kicking someone off panel.
    • In a later panel (volume 14, page 32 to be exact) Blue is explicitly shown punching someone to the ground.
    • Sapphire is a pretty badass normal too, having been training in the jungle with her Pokémon since childhood, giving her Charles Atlas Superpower. So far, she has carried several people while running on foot, torn apart a steel pole, and a lot more..
    • Crystal is the same, having broken her arms as a kid and learned to do things with only her legs. The result: near superhuman strength in her legs, which is why she uses them so often.
    • Gold is able to shoot Poké Balls with unerring accuracy because of his skills with a pool cue.
    • Red has survived things considered near impossible to bounce back from, even by Dex Holder standards. Plus, he tanks Pokémon moves like a boss on a regular basis, and has thrown down with Pokémon one-on-one when needed (IE stabbing a Nidoqueen in the eye). The most recent example is Deoxys itself.
  • Bag of Holding: Props and accessories appear to be kept in tiny capsules, which are then kept inside a prop case.
    • Yellow keeps a fishing Rod in her tiny pouch. It's twice her size. Gold has a billiard cue, but it's retractable. And Moon has a regular-sized bow.
  • Batman Gambit: Grimsley challenges Black to a game on Route 4 involving guessing where a Drilbur will pop up out of holes it'd dug into the ground of a construction site. In the middle of the game, a man falls into one of Drilbur's holes, injuring himself. Grimsley reveals to Black that he'd told the workers beforehand not to enter the construction zone; the man who'd fallen wasn't a worker at all, but a disguised member of Team Plasma. The plan to catch him relies entirely on the Plasma grunt being stupid enough to either miss the memo or outright ignore it, which is a trait almost invariably assigned to evil team footsoldiers across the entire franchise.
  • Behemoth Battle: The manga starts it with Groudon and Kyogre in the RS arc, continuing with Dialga/Palkia, then the two of them against Giratina, Zekrom/Reshiram, and Xerneas/Yveltal. The Sun and Moon arc also sets up a battle between Ultra Necrozma and Zygarde Complete Form, something not found in the games.
  • Big Bad:
    • Giovanni for the Red and Blue and FireRed and LeafGreen chapter as the leader of Team Rocket.
    • Lance in the Yellow chapter as the leader of the Elite Four.
    • The Masked Man aka Pryce for the Gold, Silver, and Crystal chapter as the new leader of Team Rocket.
    • Archie & Maxie in the Ruby and Sapphire chapter.
    • Guile Hideout aka Archie again in the Emerald chapter.
    • Cyrus in the Diamond and Pearl chapter.
    • Charon in the Platinum chapter.
    • In the HeartGold and SoulSilver chapter, the Rocket Executives, Archer, Ariana, Petrel and Proton, fulfill this role as a Big Bad Duumvirate.
    • In the Black and White chapter, there's N and Ghetsis, followed by Colress and still Ghetsis in the Black 2 and White 2 chapter.
    • Lysandre in the X and Y chapter.
    • The OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire chapter technically has the meteor aiming to hit Hoenn as the main threat. Zinnia, meanwhile, is a more active villain making the situation worse.
    • Sun and Moon gives us a Big Bad Ensemble of Lusamine, Faba and Necrozma.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Red shows up just in time to help defeat the Elite Four at the end of the Yellow Chapter. Red does it again in the GSC arc, stopping the maglev.
    • Eusine shows up to free the heroes from Suicune's crystal wall near the end of the GSC Chapter.
    • Of all people, the Trick Master shows up to let Sapphire and Wallace through the barrier surrounding Sootopolis City.
    • Gold emerging from his Guile Hideout disguise in the Emerald Chapter.
    • Norman riding Rayquaza in to stop Kyogre and Groudon in the Ruby and Sapphire Chapter.
    • Regigigas specifically sneaks into one of Platinum's Poké Balls in order to serve this role when needed in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Chapters. Also in Platinum, Giratina is about to escape the Distortion World, only to have Cynthia waiting on the other side to slam it with Draco Meteor.
    • Black has to fight N, but the Seven Sages block him. Unlike the games, however, none of the Gym Leaders can do this. Instead, every named minor character Black met during his journey comes to assist him.
  • Big Eater:
    • Diamond, seen eating in almost every round. This trait is also shared with practically every single one of his Pokémon; his initial Pokémon, Munchlax, is one of the franchise's poster kids for this trope and is only really outdone by Diamond himself.
    • Black's Musha loves to eat. Good thing it has a free and endless supply of its favorite food courtesy of its trainer's head (Black's dreams).
  • Big Fancy House: Misty and Platinum have mansions for homes.
  • Big "WHAT?!": How Y, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor reacts when they learn that X's Charmeleon had a Mega Stone all along.
    • Marvin also reacts in the same way when he learns that the famous model of Hulbury is also its Gym Leader.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation:
    • The Viz translations have too many examples to list, but a particularly egregious one was in the Emerald saga, during the Battle Dome challenge. Emerald is looking at the opponent's team in a screen, which clearly displays three Pokémon:
      Emerald: Which of these two Pokémon is he likely to use...? (Funnily enough, the opponent does indeed only use two Pokémon)
    • Another particularly ridiculous example: Blake's codename, Black No. 2, is often mistranslated as Blake No. 2 by Viz.
    • Chuang Yi's translation did this multiple times too such as referring to Corsola as Corasola all throughout PS121, even in the title (VS Corasola).
  • Bloodier and Gorier: Every now and again, the violence in Pokémon Adventures is much higher than that of the original games and anime, with examples such as an Arbok getting cut in half, Zinnia punched in the gut hard enough to puke blood, and six of the Unova Gym Leaders getting crucified (though only in the Japanese version).
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: As amateur comedians, Dia and Pearl do one per round in Diamond and Pearl until they decide to split up temporarily.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Dia to Platinum during their first meeting (although he and Pearl only became her bodyguards due to a misunderstanding).
  • Book Dumb: Sapphire's an interesting case. She only has basic literacy and had trouble understanding the questions in Roxanne's written gym examnote  but she was able to ace the exam anyway by asking an assistant to tell her what the words were. It's explained that as Professor Birch's daughter she spends almost all of her time doing field research for him in the wild. As a result she is highly knowledgeable about Pokémon but has poor social grace and literacy.
  • Book Ends: Gold first fights the Masked Man in Ilex Forest, and it's in Ilex Forest where he fights Pryce one last time.
    • Diamond and Pearl begins with Diamond and Pearl performing their Boke and Tsukkomi Routine on the stage in Jubilife City. In Platinum they do another on the same stage.
    • In the beginning of Black 2 and White 2, Lack-Two's finds Colress by deducing that Genesect is flying around a perimeter, and gets his bodysuit exposed during the battle. His final battle against Colress has him deducing the same thing, only to be reduced to his bodysuit when it turns out to be false.
    • X and Y begins with X on his pajamas while Y is wearing a Sky Trainer suit. The arc ends with Y on her pajamas with X wearing his regular outfit.
    • Sun and Moon begins with Moon having just arrived at Alola, whereas the ending has Moon getting ready to go back to Alola.
  • Bowdlerize:
    • At the end of Viz's original release of the Red and Blue Mt. Moon arc, Red carries an unconscious Misty out of the caves. She comes to, finds herself covered in dirt, and punches Red because she thinks he's groping her. The reprint instead has her complain more about being dirty instead of accuse Red of something inappropriate, though she still hits him.
    • The re-release edited the Green vs. Sabrina encounter in the Silph Co. arc. Originally, Green had Poké Balls stuffed into the front of her dress where her breasts would be and tricked Sabrina into ripping the top of it by insulting the older woman's "health", releasing her two Pokémon. The re-release has Green insult Sabrina's fashion sense instead, and with the Clothing Damage edited out in such a way that it looks like she pulled Jigglypuff and Clefairy out of nowhere. Even then, the aftermath of the dress ripping (she tied the top of her dress together) is still there in later panels.
    • Crystal's mom no longer gives her a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man slap hard enough to knock her to the ground, but instead a Death Glare that makes her physically recoil. Now Crystal is running away over something completely insignificant.
    • Rather than having Norman punch Ruby and send the kid flying, lightning strikes (or strikes near) Norman's hand instead. In a later page, his dialogue has been softened to make him more understanding of Ruby's goal.
    • When Ruby and Sapphire first meet Emerald, he's peeing off a balcony and accidentally hits them with the stream. The English release makes it so he's emptying a can of soda instead; getting one dumped on you is still rude and unpleasant, but less... unsanitary.
    • Much like the anime, Lenora's apron was edited out to avoid racist implications.
    • Near the end of Black and White, Team Plasma displays the defeated Gym Leaders tied to crosses. Viz edited the art so they're tied to poles instead, with arms behind them.
    • There was a gratuitous fanservice round in XY when Y's clothes were stolen by an Electrike, and her Froakie used its frubbles as a form of Censor Suds. Viz drew in a modest sports bra underneath, making Froakie's foam seem redundant.
    • In OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, Rayquaza sucker-punches Zinnia in the gut with its tail. Viz edited some panels where Zinnia was coughing up blood afterward, but she still shows blood around her mouth for the next round or two. The impact itself wasn't censored at all.
  • Break the Cutie:
    • Green was kidnapped at age five by a giant bird (later revealed to be Ho-Oh) so she could work for the Masked Man, giving her a crippling fear of birds. After eleven long years of fighting for her freedom, overcoming her phobias, and generally breaking free of her past, she locates her parents and goes off for a joyous and tearful reunion, only to have them disappear in front of her eyes.
    • White gets hit hard. Right after the highest moment of her life (working on the Pokémon Musical to the point of exhaustion to make sure it would be a hit), N reveals to her that her star actress has always wanted to battle. Then her star actress abandons her, allowing White to fall off the Ferris Wheel. White is then left barely conscious on the ground below, her eyes full of tears.
    • Black, to an extent, gets this when Musha leaves him.
    • White, once again, after Black gets sucked into the Light Stone after beating N at the Pokémon league
  • Brick Joke:
    • In the beginning of the Ruby and Sapphire arc, Ruby makes an offhand remark how Mudkip is better than Treecko (appearance-wise, anyways). In the middle of the Emerald arc, which is two arcs later (which in-story is about a year), Ruby discovers that Emerald's Sceptile is in fact the same Treecko, which had since gone missing. He cheerfully asks the Sceptile if it remembers him, and sure enough, it turns out that it had been carrying a grudge for that remark. Ruby promptly gets punched in the face.
    • The FireRed and LeafGreen arc has Old Master Ultima looking for the Old Sea Map, the item needed to find Faraway Island which is home to the "ancestor" of all Pokémon, Mew. She passes this information on to Captain Briney, only for her to learn that he's already found the island, making all her efforts moot. Seems like a one-note joke but later in the Emerald arc, soil from Faraway Island was what helped calm down all the berserk Pokémon in the Battle Frontier.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Bill and Eusine.
    • The director's aide in Black and White arc, who constantly gets smacked by his boss (and once got kicked in the face).
    • The majority of the protagonists in their introduction arcs. Red for example becomes a butt monkey to his own Pikachu.
  • The Cameo: Few characters from spinoff games would get one panels of screentime, such as Hayley from My Pokémon Ranch or Solana and Lunick from Pokémon Ranger.
    • A huge instance happens at the end of Emerald arc after Scott makes a wish to Jirachi that lots of people would come to Battle Frontier, as minor characters from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and even Sinnoh show up.
    • The Blue Sky Clefairy and Jigglypuff comedy duo appears in the Mt. Silver training chapter.
    • The guy running the Veilstone Game Corner reappears in Kalos, this time running the Pokémon-Amie minigames.
    • Another mass instance occurs when it's publicly announced that a meteor will Hoenn, featuring the likes of the Hoenn fan club chairman, Captain Stern and Dock, Wally, Trick Master, Swimmer Jack, and Todd Snap.
  • Canon Foreigner:
  • The Call: Most Dex Holders, but Yellow and Crystal stand out as being chosen by Pokémon (Pika and Suicune) and tasked with a mission (find Red, stop the Mask of Ice)
  • Call-Back: Quite frequently are past events brought up in the present, even if said events were hundreds of chapters ago.
    • The first chapter begins with a bunch of kids in Pallet Town trying to catch a Nidorino but falling. Red shows up and shows them how it's done with his Poliwhirl and the kids realizing it's Red, the best Pokémon trainer in Pallet Town. Skip ahead to the start of FireRed and LeafGreen and almost the exact scene plays out (itself a Shout-Out to the iconic Gengar vs. Nidorino intro from the first game) with Venusaur instead of Poliwhirl and the kids recognizing Red as the best trainer in Kanto.
    • During Gold and Silver, while the President of the Pokémon Fan Club is communicating with all his members, we catch a glimpse of a girl in a bathtub with her Tentacool, a reference to the Red and Blue arc. Not to mention that a pair comprising of a Swimmer and Bug Catcher is seen in the Indigo Plateau, who first appeared in the bike race.
    • Ruby's Establishing Character Moment is when he tells that his Pokémon are always "intelligent, strong, adorable, cool, and beautiful!". The first thing that's heard from the contest hall in DP arc is: "Your Pokémon is cool, cute, clever, strong, and beautiful!", which is repeated by Fantina.
    • Way, way back in the Red and Blue arc, Red was led around the Safari Zone by a mechanical Pidgey. Hundreds of chapters later, there are mechanical Starly guides in the Sinnoh Battle Frontier. It also turns out that there are mechanical Hoothoot in the Johto Safari Zone.
    • When Gold's riding a Pokémon alongside Crystal, he throws a food at her and almost burns her. HeartGold and SoulSilver arc begins with Gold riding the same Pokémon alongside Whitney, throwing a food at her and soaking her in water.
    • When Gold meets Lance at Ruins of Alph, his Togepi waves at Lance's Tyranitar, showing that the baby Pokémon still remembers taking on the much larger Pokémon back in Gold, Silver, and Crystal.
    • The three vacationing video game developers who were nearly killed during the Groudon/Kyogre clash turn out to be from Unova.
    • A more subtle example is the beginning of the RS arc, featuring Ruby's mom watching Norman on TV. Cue ORAS arc with Sapphire watching Ruby on PokéNav.
      • Heck, the entirety of the ORAS arc is a callback to the RS arc, the countdown of the meteor resembling the countdown to the deadline of Ruby and Sapphire's bet.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: It was always there, but Yamamoto is really improving with this. More characters are coming out with a variety of faces and body types (with the occasional Gonk thrown in). What's especially noteworthy are the Plasma grunts; each of them look distinctly unique despite them all having the same uniform.
    • The Flare grunts (and every grunts from then on) look distinct despite that they all have the same hairstyle and eye-concealing shades.
  • Catchphrase:
  • Characterization Marches On: Given the limited amount of personality present in the game's protagonists, the mangaka really went out of their way to create unique characterizations for them.
    • Colress in Black and White and early on in Black and White 2 is shown as a very calm and analytic scientist. However from volume 53, Colress is shown as very playful and more of a Psychopathic Manchild, in contrast to Blake who is a child that acts like a serous adult.
  • The Chosen Many: And people are aware of it.
    • A Galactic grunt controlled by Sird lampshades the tendency for Dex Holders to get involved in large-scale battles.
    • Professor Oak wonders whether Pokédex Holders are destined to live their lives, surrounded by battles.
  • The Chosen One: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune choosing their partner is a major storyline in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, though Suicune gets the most focus as the mascot of Crystal.
  • Character Development: The heroes pretty much mature as they go through their main arc.
    • Or, villain-wise, they get crazier.
    • Though some just lose interest in their original motives for villainy - Lance, Sabrina, Lt. Surge, Koga, Lorelei, Bruno, Will and Karen for example - and decide to become good, while others end up getting redeemed through the situation at hand (Giovanni, Lance and Pryce.)
  • Cliffhanger: Later parts of B2W2 arcs and SM arcs have this frequently. Some examples are:
    • One chapter ends with Sun looking towards...well, the sun, where he sees a sun-shaped silhouette shows up.
    • The second part of the penultimate chapter of B2W2 ends with Colress about to use Techno Blast on Blake.
  • Clothing Damage: Both played for drama and comedy. One notable moment had Green's top ripped during a battle...to reveal an interesting new place for girls to conceal their Poké Balls.
    • Black and White are on the receiving end of this courtesy of Virizion. Whites' lower half of her shirt rips, offering up some mild fanservice and bare midriff at her expense (though you barely get a good look for the rest of the chapter).
  • The Coats Are Off: The battle between Red and Giovanni at the end of FRLG has Giovanni unleashing a Badass Boast to Red and punctuating that with throwing his coat off. Red responds in kind. Cue Mewtwo vs. Deoxys.
    • Inverted at the end of the RS arc. Wallace accepts his position as champion, including its Badass Cape.
  • Colorful Theme Naming: With the protagonists being named after the games, this was inevitable; with the most direct being Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Black, and White. Though as the games have backed off after Generation V, so have the characters.
  • Combined Energy Attack: In most arc finales, Dex Holders combine their attacks to take down the Big Bad. What's interesting is that whenever older Dex Holders show up to support the newer generation, it's always an electric attack that is the finishing blow. (Megavolt, Super Rising Thunder (Which was really just Volt Tackle), and Volt Tackle.)
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Part of Diamond and Pearl's act:
    Pearl: Act stupid so I can hit you!
  • Contractual Purity: invokedWhite freaks at the idea of Tep evolving and having Gigi pair up with a different, presumably larger, not-as-adorable Pokémon. She gets over it quickly and figures out a new way to market them.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The series is often praised for having rotating main characters with wildly-different personalities, unlike the anime. Based on the male protagonists alone we have Red for the RGB chapter, Gold for GSC, Ruby for RS, Diamond for DP, Black for BW, Blake for B2W2, X for XY, Sun for SM, and Soudo for SWSH.
  • Contrived Coincidence:
    • During Groudon and Kyogre's fight in Ruby and Sapphire, Sapphire gets thrown by a blast and Steven catches her, which turns out to be extremely advantageous to both: Sapphire finally gets to deliver a letter to him that she's been carrying the entire chapter, and in that letter Steven gets the exact piece of information he needs to awaken the Regi golems and have them contain the fight. More than that, the information is that he needs Wailord and Relicanth to do it, and both happen to be on Sapphire's team. Both characters note the extreme implausibility of things lining up like this and conclude that destiny must be at work.
    • The entire premise of Emerald: Jirachi only awakens from its slumber for one week every thousand years. That week and the location where it occurs just so happens to overlap perfectly with the Battle Frontier's opening week.
    • Diamond and Pearl starts with a big one, too. Diamond and Pearl crash into Professors Rowan and Berlitz, drop identical envelopes containing location directions and end up grabbing each others' envelope in the confusion. Plus, Platinum was instructed to wait for men in red and green scarves, which Diamond and Pearl also happen to be wearing. This mess is what causes Diamond and Pearl to go traveling with Platinum instead of her intended bodyguards.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: The final battle of Yellow briefly moves to the crater of a volcano.
  • Conveniently Empty Building: The entirety of Vermillion City's population was out of town due to a major event at the docks when Lance decimates it with a Hyper Beam. However, Lance does acknowledge that there were probably a few people still inside.
  • Covert Pervert: Ruby takes Sapphire's measurements while she's unconscious (in order to alter a set of clothes for her).
    Ruby: "Ahhh...it always feels good after a kind deed!!"
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
    • Ruby, who normally avoids battles in public, is a scarily competent battler.
    • Platinum's real bodyguards: who's going to think much of two guys whose names are based on the word 'idiot' (Uji and Paka)? Hell, you might think her dad was one for hiring them in the first place. After a few comical mishaps, the two get into a battle with Team Galactic, and you can see that they really are skilled battlers, displaying clever strategies and outwitting Saturn himself.
    • Diamond never tries to appear dumb, he just prefers to let Pearl do all the talking because it means he can keep eating his food and messes up his show with Pearl in his introduction cause he'd rather be eating with his Munchlax. He works out from the word go that he and Pearl weren't supposed to be Platinum's bodyguards and is usually the one to come up with a crazy but practical solution to the issue at hand.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: Six of the Unova Gym Leaders end up being tied up to crosses. Considering that Team Plasma is made up of pretentious knight wannabes, this may be intentional on their part. Naturally, Viz edited the scene so that the Gym Leaders were simply tied to poles with their arms bound behind them.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Red's first few battles (with him being the winner) up until he faces Misty. This is made a plot point, as Misty points out that his victories have made him cocky and he can't afford to take winning for granted.
    • In the first chapter, Mew defeats Red's Poliwhirl in a single panel before flying off.
    • When Gold has a six on six battle with Silver, Silver defeats all of Gold's Pokémon, only losing Tyranitar in the process.
    • Red in his first battle with Deoxys (but, to be fair, unlike the games, Deoxys could form change in-battle, giving it one hell of an advantage over anything).
    • Thinking that Byron was responsible for her father's kidnapping, Platinum quickly knocks out both his Bronzong with one Flamethrower from her Ponyta.
    • The Trial Captains are utterly pulverized in their first encounter of the Ultra Beasts, who are then made a short work by Gladion thanks to his Silvally.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Sapphire has prominent ones, as part of being a Wild Child.
  • Cute and Psycho: Caitlin gets this way when wanting to have a Pokémon battle.
  • Cute Kitten: Ruby has a Skitty which later evolves to a Delcatty.
  • Darker and Edgier: The tone overall remains similarly lighthearted, but it is a good deal grittier than the anime and most of the original games.
    • Unlike the games, Pokémon battles are very frequently portrayed as life-or-death situations with lasting consequences, whether it be against a rampaging wild Pokémon or an evil Pokémon Trainer with no qualms about outright killing those who stand in their way. Trainers on both sides of the morality spectrum ordering their Pokémon to attack their human enemies directly is also a common sight.
    • The really defining moments for this were the Pokémon zombies back in the first arc, and not much later when an Arbok gets cut in two.
    • Special mention goes to the Kalos arc for already being this just from the first chapter. We have protagonists with trust issues with anyone apart from their social circle, their hometown destroyed by two legendary Pokémon, an evil team constantly trying to kill the protagonists for their Magnetic Plot Device, a friend that underwent Demonic Possession due to the previously stated event, and an Obviously Evil antagonist. Even at the end of the chapter, the heroes all have the gut feeling that the villain was right about how horrible people are, though they resolve to stay optimistic regardless.
  • Darkest Hour:
    • The final battle/climax of Ruby and Sapphire. Norman, Courtney, Steven are all dead. Wallace gets the crap beaten out of him by Maxie and Archie who's both gone insane for destruction at this point. Winona is held hostage.
    • The Emerald arc has a Near-Villain Victory as Guile Hideout gets his wish.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Green and Silver's childhood. They were kidnapped by the Masked Man when they were very young and forced to work for him until they escaped.
  • Declaration of Protection: Dia and Pearl officially feel this way for Platinum after the mishaps in Veilstone City, where the meet her real bodyguards and witness them seemingly be killed by Team Galactic.
  • Deconstructive Parody: The Sun and Moon chapter, mainly when it reaches the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon-based half. Although it is meant to be darker, half of the moments are extremely hilarious.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype
    • Gold on being the maverick, where at the end of HGSS arc he even manages to relate to his Togebo, where he realized he saw Togebo as unreliable just like how everyone else saw Gold very unreliable.
    • Black on Stock Shōnen Hero, where he is hotheaded, and has a direct goal. However, he has a deep knowledge of Pokémon from the result of continuous study that he did in order to prepare for his gym challenge. He's also the chosen hero of truth, but not before getting angry at the people who decided that for him and he even admits he has no idea what he's doing at many points towards the end of BW.
    • White on being the Neutral Female, where she was completely useless in battle initially for Black and White arc. The deconstruction is actually invoked by N in the Ferris wheel, who calls her out for never giving Gigi a chance in battles. She then comes back as a competent trainer, with a full team. She even leads the battle against Ghetsis and Black Kyurem right after Black is freed from the Light Stone! Whitley also seems to be part of this, where she would even refuse to catch a Pokémon and "accidentally" wins the tournament in the beginning of the arc. Justified in that she's a member of Team Plasma who still believes in the cause of "Pokémon liberation".
    • Blake on The Ace. (One of the chapters is even called "Mr. Perfect"!) Him being perfect however shows that he only focuses on his mission, and lacks the ability to comprehend his and other's emotions.
  • Deconstructed Trope: Like the games, in the BW chapter, Bianca is actively on the run from her father who wants to drag her back home. Unfortunately, this results in her being unable to spend any time training her Pokémon or actually get anything in general done, further feeding into her self-esteem issues.
  • Defiant Strip: Sapphire was introduced in a skimpy Garden Garment, but Ruby freaked out and convinced her to put on regular clothes. Later, when Sapphire gets ultra pissed off at Ruby's selfishness, she strips right in front of him, making him freak out, and puts her garden garment back on.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Platinum starts out quite bossy and snobbish to Diamond and Pearl, but soon becomes a precious friend that they can't bear to be without and vice-versa.
  • Demoted to Extra: To an extent, Cheren and Bianca in the Black and White arc. In a way, the two titular main characters even take on their Character Development arcs from the games.
  • Determinator: Gold refuses to give up against the Masked Man even though he'd been beaten several times.
    Masked Man: Hmm...You're a tough one...Ilex Forest, Lake of Rage and Indigo Plateau. Three times we've fought and three times you've lost...Despite all that, you're still coming at me. I have to give you some credit for that and remember your name.
    Gold: (Panting) Open your ears and listen well then!!! Remember this, I am...(Gives Focus Bands to his Pokémon) GOLD! From New Bark Town!!
  • Deus ex machina: Ruby apparently had Celebi on him for the entirety of Ruby and Sapphire, allowing him to undo the deaths of his father and several others.
  • Diabolus ex Machina:
    • Near the end of the Ruby and Sapphire arc. After weeks of wanton destruction and many a Heroic Sacrifice, the main cast has finally succeeded in quelling Kyogre and Groudon. So now everything's fine, right? Cue the return of Archie and Maxie, who not only don't undergo a Heel Realization like their game counterparts, but proceed to join forces, batter the weary heroes, and attempt to start the whole crisis over again.
    • The end of the FireRed and LeafGreen arc: Team Rocket has been stopped, Deoxys has been calmed, Mewtwo has found peace, Silver has accepted his father, and no one other than Orm has died despite the intense battles and the falling airship rigged with explosives. All seems well until Sird somehow shows up and makes a last-ditch attempt to recapture Deoxys, which fails but causes the five Dex Holders present to be turned to stone.
  • Disappeared Dad: Koga for Janine, and (presumably) Hayate for Falkner.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The Sinnoh Trio make a lot of noise in Mt. Coronet's caves. Cyrus' response is to bury them alive in a rock slide.
  • Doing It for the Art: In-Universe. White, the president of a Pokémon talent agency, always makes sure that her Pokémon actors get the best possible treatment and that her clients are satisfied even if it means she fails to make a profit and has to camp outside in a tent. However, she is shown to be worried about her finances.
  • Doomed Hometown: Vaniville Town gets destroyed in the second round of the XY chapter.
  • Double Take: When Yellow's "Uncle" sees the Mask's Rocket grunts.
  • Downer Beginning: The XY arc starts with the protagonists' hometown getting destroyed by Xerneas and Yveltal and Team Flare painting a giant target on their backs, signalling the overall tone of the arc.
  • Downer Ending: The conclusion of FireRed and LeafGreen. The Kanto Dex Holders and Silver have been turned into stone and Sird gets away.
    • The BW arc ends with Ghetsis still on the loose, the remaining Team Plasma members fleeing, and Black trapped inside the Light Stone with Reshiram.
  • Dragon Rider:
    • Blue and Wally both have dragon-like Pokémon (Charizard and Flygon, respectively).
    • Dragon-type trainers Lance, Clair and Drake too.
    • Black and N ride atop Reisham and Zekrom respectively in their fight.
    • Ruby and Sapphire ride Rayquaza in OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, and Latios and Latias give rides to Emerald and his friends as well.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
    • The Viz versions rarely used nicknames in Red and Blue, so when the Yellow arc rolled around, Red's Pikachu seemingly got one out of nowhere and everyone acted like it always had one. To make things worse, they kept switching back and forth between nicknames and actual names. From Gold and Silver onwards the translators became more consistent with nicknames.
    • There is a scene in FireRed and LeafGreen when Red and Blue traded their starters with one another for a bit, prompting Mewtwo to comment with a Title Drop to go along with the types or starter they ended up with. The English versions either keep the Title Drop despite Green's name being changed to Blue; or replace it with the phrase "like fire and water", which keeps the meaning but doesn't match the illustration of Charizard and Venusaur.
    • The Sinnoh Trio started their journey on September 28th, the day the Diamond and Pearl games were released in Japan. The Viz translators caught on to the reference and changed it to April 22nd, the day the games were released in America. However, this shows that Viz doesn't read ahead, as of this point of the story winter is rapidly approaching Sinnoh, necessitating the change into the Platinum outfits. Apparently in Sinnoh, it starts snowing in May.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • In Japan, the rival of the first arc is Green and the girl is Blue. But in the published English version, this is reversed because of the way the Japan's Green Version game was changed into Blue Version for international releases.
    • The French version has "X" and "Y" be nicknames for "Xavier" and "Yvonne," which are relatively common French names. Y's name change was also kept in the Viz release.
    • The English version also changed Lack-two and Whi-two's names to Blake and Whitley, possibly a reference to Hilbert and Hilda's demo names Blair and Whitlea (or possibly just a coincidence, given that both sets of names are based on "black" and "white").
    • Sun's Pokémon are nicknamed for currency puns, which don't translate overseas so Viz changed the names to new currency puns. Unfortunately, both versions use the same name of "Dollar" but each assigns it to different Pokémon — in Japan, it's his Alolan Meowth while in America it's his Litten.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • In her battle against Green, Sabrina hypnotizes her to see her greatest fear: a pagoda surrounded by birds. i.e. Johto's Bell Tower.
    • In Red and Blue, right before the start of the Pokémon League, a few trainer classes from Pokémon Gold and Silver can be seen in the crowd.
    • In Yellow, the default pattern of Arbok looks similar to its pattern in Gold and Silver. Red's Saur also uses Sweet Scent, a move that wasn't available until the aforementioned game.
    • In Gold and Silver, when the horde of Pokémon intervene to calm down Lugia and Ho-Oh, some of the Pokémon helping out are Azurill, Wynaut, and Kecleon—which wouldn't appear until the Generation 3 games Ruby and Sapphire.
      • Professor Elm and Youngster Joey are seen taking care of a Zigzagoon in the epilogue.
    • Riley and Sailor Eldritch during the Jirachi arc. They can be seen on one panel after Scott makes his wish.
    • Archie's last sentence being "Galac-."
    • Manaphy is mentioned and seen in silhouette in Emerald.
    • The line said by Sird to Archie after she gives him the Guile Hideout sword and armor. "If you bear your sword to bring harm upon us, with claws and fangs, we will exact a toll," a quote from a Sinnoh myth.
    • There was also that point where Giovanni had discovered Rhydon's evolution, Rhyperior.
    • Near the end of FireRed and LeafGreen, Deoxys mentions going to a faraway land that has a meteor that can help Deoxys change forms at will. In Sinnoh's Veilstone City, perhaps?
    • Kyurem Uses Sheer Cold to freeze Colress, which it couldn't do until gen 8.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Discussed on this page.
  • Easily Forgiven:
    • Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Koga and Blaine were allowed to stay Gym Leaders (or, in Koga's case, become a member of the Elite Four) even though they were high-ranking members of Team Rocket and participated in cruel experimentation of Pokémon. It's implied by the Masked Man that they could still be arrested by the authorities if they were ever found out, since it's the heroes that gave them the free pass.
    • Will and Karen also get to be part of the Elite Four, Lance and Lorelei don't seem to be any legal repercussions from their past actions, and Pryce also gets to return to being a Gym Leader in the HeartGoldSoulSilver arc.
    • Red is quick to forgive Deoxys despite the fact that it nearly killed his team of Pokémon.
    • Ultimately averted in B2W2 arc as all of Team Plasma barring Whitley were arrested by the International Police, with even N having to pay his debt to society (which he does so gladly).
    • Zinnia is responsible for most of what went wrong in Ruby and Sapphire's lives. But after they learn that she had noble intentions and see what a pitiful person she truly is, they have no trouble forgiving her and saying that they'd gladly be her friends.
    • Lampshaded by Plumeria in near the end of SM arc, concerning Lusamine.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Notable for actually making use of the main "implied but never stated" facet of the franchise ("Pokémon are Pocket Monsters, and pose a threat to humans who can't defend against them because they lack (conscious) Pokémon") instead of putting it in the background.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Red, Green, and Blue team up with the three admins of Team Rocket against three of the Elite Four.
      • And later they team up with one of the Elite Four against three new Team Rocket admins...
    • In the ORAS arc, Archie and Maxie with Primal Groudon and Kyogre are about to test their moves on Rayquaza, only to be stopped by an enormous meteor crashing. The Weather Trio then work together to stop the large meteor that's about to crash.
  • Evil Laugh: Lance does this a lot in the Yellow arc. (Kufufufufufu...)
  • Evil Egg Eater: Gold was trying to keep his newly-obtained Pokémon egg from being eaten by a hungry Gligar. The egg then hatches into a surprisingly violent and aggressive Togepi, who proceeds to defeat the Gligar with its Metronome attack.
  • Evil Redhead:
    • Subverted. Silver isn't evil, just a jerk (at first) due to a bad childhood.
    • Lance was evil but reformed during the GSC chapter.
    • Maxie of Team Magma fits this to a tee, as does Lysandre of Team Flare.
    • Also, Mars from Team Galactic and Ariana of Team Rocket.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Aqua vs. Magma, just like in the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire games, but moreso here. (But notably not in the Alpha/Omega remake chapters; there they work together instead.)
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: Teams Aqua and Magma are up to their old tricks in OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, but this time they're doing it to try and protect the world from an oncoming meteor. Giovanni shows up to lend a hand as well.
  • Eviler than Thou: Team Aqua was generally portrayed as crueler than Team Magma, trying to kill four people simply for seeing them in action, trapping two girls in a Drowning Pit, trying to kill the three Gym Leaders obstructing Kyogre (whereas Magma was satisfied simply incapacitating them), and before suffering Sanity Slippage from the Blue Orb, Archie leaves one of his admins to die because he can't be bothered with saving him. Archie also wins the battle to the death with Maxie for armor required to save their lives because Maxie is visibly hesitant to fight with him by that point.
  • Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: The Japanese version starts doing this at the Sun & Moon chapters (He Appears!! Sun the Courier! in the first chapter) and Viz starts doing it in Chapter 29 (Darkness!! The Mysterious Claws of Necrozma!) with the exception being when Viz put out their full volumes for the X & Y arc as they just reused the titles from the mini-volumes (e.g. What Does Charmander Do When It Dozes)
  • Exposed to the Elements: Lampshaded and discussed during the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum chapter around Snowpoint, as the three major characters there are all underdressed for snow: Platinum simply hasn't received the warmer clothes she ordered and nearly freezes to death before they come in, Candice puts fashion over practicality and credits her ability to deal with it to being able to focus, and Maylene can't afford extra clothes and stays active to keep warm.
  • Extremity Extremist: Crys mainly using her legs to throw Poké Balls.

    F-M 
  • Fallen Angel: Cyrus; there's even a shot of him with his Honchkrow behind him with its wings outstretched at the end of the arc.
  • Fire/Ice Duo: Gold and Silver in chapter 114, when they team up against the Mask of Ice.
  • Five-Man Band: The Kalos kids are this, with Y as The Leader, X as The Lancer, Trevor as The Smart Guy, Tierno as The Big Guy, and Shauna as The Heart. X and Y are an interesting case in that it's X who is The Hero and recognized as the strongest battler in the group, but it's Y who makes the group's decisions and is the one that the group listens to.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Red saves Yellow from a Dratini. Later in the next arc, Yellow not only faces their evolved forms, but defeats them.
    • During the Emerald arc and Factory challenge, Emerald discusses the roles of a fast lead fighter, a [[Mighty Glacier a bulky fighter able to handle many situations]], and a a defensive fighter... which is the team he ends up with.
    • At the beginning of the Diamond & Pearl arc, Diamond notes the oddities of their "price", which Pearl quickly dismisses. As it turns out Diamond has figured out the truth since day one.
  • Freudian Trio: The first four generations form this.
    • Kanto Group (excluding Yellow)
      • Red: Hotblooded Idiot Hero, later mellows out (Id)
      • Blue: Stoic, coolheaded (Superego)
      • Green: Sneaky, conniving trickster (Ego)
    • Johto Group
      • Gold: Exactly like Red with a more mischievous side (Id)
      • Silver: Cold, aloof (Superego)
      • Crystal: Serious and hardworking, but gets ruffled by Gold (Ego, sometimes Superego)
    • Hoenn Group
      • Ruby: Calm and rational (Superego)
      • Sapphire: Hotblooded, but mellows out in the Emerald arc (Id <->Ego)
      • Emerald: As the latecomer to the trio, he's technically the most immature out of them, but not so much (Id <->Ego)
    • Sinnoh Group (Hard to say, since the Sinnoh trio seems to have played each of the three roles at least once in their arc, but the following stand out.)
      • Diamond: Slow, dopey, and a glutton, but has moments of self-awareness (Ego)
      • Pearl: Rash, likes to shout, but is the de-facto leader of the trio (Id)
      • Platinum: Stoic at first, but likes to experience new things and is the one who holds the trio together (Superego)
  • Fun with Acronyms: The word "Rocket" in Team Rocket stands for Raid On the City, Knock out Evil Tusks. Seen here.
  • Fusion Dance:
    • Bill and a Rattata get fused together early in Red and Blue due to a teleporter accident, similar to the games.
    • Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are fused together by Team Rocket using the power of the Gym Badges in Red and Blue.
  • Gambit Pileup: The end of Yellow started with Evil Plan, continued into some heroic Gambit Roulettes, and in the end Giovanni's moment of heroism actually turned out to be part of Lance's plan and Yellow somehow managing to outwit him. It gets crazier later on. Suffice it to say everyone gets to play Xanatos Speed Chess at some point - even Guile Hideout (or rather, GOLD disguised as Guile Hideout)!
  • Gambit Roulette: A heroic one for Gold in Emerald. Sure, he probably made some of it up as he went along, but he got a fake arm from Emerald before he even needed it and somehow had a perfectly good fake copy of Guile's armor despite there being only really obscure legends about it. And, although it was coincidence, the fact that Guile landed RIGHT nearby the fake copy only makes it more shocking.
  • Gang of Hats:
    • The Sinnoh trio's mons all have a unifying trait, Diamond's are slow powerhouses with his appetite, Pearl's are all fast, loud and energetic while Platinum's tend to be aloof or proud and always well groomed.
    • The trainer's nature and characteristics tend to rub off on their Pokémon, as seen when Red and Blue end up with each other's team: while Blue's are at first serious and hard working after their time with Red they are all a lot more mellow and vice versa.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Ruby and Pearl are males with female sounding names.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
    • Crystal's mother to Crystal after she loses the will to continue on her mission after failing to catch Suicune.
    • Blue tries this on Red during FireRed and LeafGreen after he loses to Deoxys the first time.
  • "Gender-Normative Parent" Plot: Ruby ran away from his tough, distant battling master dad so he can win contests, which are essentially Pokémon beauty competitions.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: In the Gold, Silver, and Crystal finale, trainers from all over Kanto and Johto send all of their Pokémon to Ilex Forest through Bill's transporter system to assist in calming down Ho-oh and Lugia.
  • Good Morning, Crono: Gold's introduction in his arc, being woken up for some errands.
  • Gratuitous English:
    • In the original Japanese volumes, Lt. Surge, Gold, Ruby, Jupiter and Saturn inexplicably use words such as "OH MY GOD!!!" and "BOSS!" in plain English when the rest of the text is in Japanese.
    • Steven, Platinum, and her mother all sign their names in English.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted, Gold wears his when he's flying and underwater. Goggles do nothing most of the time.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Crystal's job. She actually succeeds in doing so for the Johto Dex and later the Hoenn Dex.
  • Harmful to Minors: When Ruby was younger, he had his head slashed open by a Salamance!
  • Heel–Face Turn: The Team Rocket executive trio (Sabrina, Koga, Lt. Surge), Blaine and Mewtwo, the Kanto Elite Four (save for Agatha), Will and Karen, Pryce, Archie, Maxie, Courtney, Tabitha, Amber, Blaise, Deoxys, Cyrus and all the Team Galactic commanders (except for Charon), N and many others from Team Plasma, Zinnia, Guzma and Plumeria.
  • Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: Averted, as all (good) Gym Leaders and Elite Four members actively take part in the battle against whatever evil is plaguing their region, though the Dex Holders will still eventually be the ones who will have to take down the current Big Bad.
  • Hero, Rival, Baddie Team-Up: In Book 3, Red has to team up with rival Pokémon trainer Blue and thief Green in order to get into Saffron City, which is apparently off-limits due to Team Rocket using a Psychic Pokémon to put a large bubble shield around the city, keeping Red, Blue, and Green from getting in.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Red has two of them - one in the very first chapter of Red and Blue where he was defeated by Mew and had his confidence shattered and much later in FireRed and LeafGreen when he was defeated by Deoxys.
    • Bill gets a short one in Gold, Silver, and Crystal when he starts feeling useless due to his inability to get the transfer system to work again, meaning that he can do nothing to help the Dex Holders in their fight. As Daisy tries to calm him down (as he had been injured earlier while protecting her), he ignores her and his injuries in order to angrily try to get the system up, before just breaking down, crying, and yelling in frustration.
    • Crys in Gold, Silver, and Crystal goes through a particularly rough one as well, after she fails at catching Suicune AND failing to understand it. It's so bad that she loses her ability to catch even the weakest of Pokémon; it takes a slap from her mom and training from scratch to snap out of it.
    • Gold gets one near the end of Gold, Silver, and Crystal when he thought Professor Oak was telling him to stop pursuing the Masked Man despite everything that he has done.
    • Ruby had one after his Feebas abandoned him in the Ruby and Sapphire saga.
    • Silver goes through a pretty bad one in FireRed and LeafGreen after finding out that Giovanni is his father.
    • Emerald breaks down when he, Ruby, and Sapphire are trying to learn "the ultimate attacks" for their starters, and reveals his childhood experiences.
    • Diamond and Pearl are pretty badly shaken up after meeting Platinum's real bodyguards in Veilstone and being unable to save them but desperately try to hide it from Platinum. This is also just before they stop with their comedic duo act.
    • Pearl has another breakdown when he is unable to stop Team Galactic from blowing up Lake Valor. He gets some good advice from Crasher Wake that helps pull him out of it.
    • White gets a major one when Gigi willingly decides to go with N for recognizing her battling potential. White falls out of the Ferris Wheel, and lies on the ground with her eyes blank and full of tears.
    • Averted with Sun, where it seems like he might experience one after finding out that his money-collecting amounted to nothing for his goal. Moon comments how he is still like his usual self in Ultra Space.
  • Heroic RRoD:
    • Mewtwo is the strongest Pokémon the heroes have to fight the Elite Four in Yellow. The problem is that by using him Blaine risks dying because of the way he made Mewtwo and no one else is able to use him. Entei later fixes this by breaking the bond they share and healing Blaine.
    • To a lesser extent Yellow's healing and empathic powers drain her strength really quickly (to say nothing of her syncing with her Pokémon) which might be why she almost always sleeps straight after a fight.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • In Gold, Silver, and Crystal Gold gives the Rainbow and Silver wings to Crystal and Silver to ensure their safety in the voids of time as he goes of alone without protection to go after Pryce. He manages to get back out fine.
    • Two in the Ruby and Sapphire. To stop the rampaging Groudon and Kyogre, Norman and Steven awaken Rayquaza and the Regis respectively at the cost of their lives. They were revived due to Celebi.
    • Red in FRLG He stayed behind the airship in order to safely land it. Although he got out alright.
    • Also in FRLG: Even though he's not a hero, Giovanni gains one for shielding his son from a raging inferno which Deoxys dumped them into.
    • Dia nearly has one in the finale of the DP arc, jumping into the temporal rift Dialga and Palkia made with his Mamoswine to try and seal it before Regigigas stopped him. He does it again in the Platinum arc, pushing Pearl out of harm's way as Giratina's Shadow Force hits him. Yes, he really was that close to dying.
  • Heroic Second Wind: Don't expect any protagonist, or anyone fighting for good, for that matter, to win the match without taking a bad beating first.
    • Villainous example: Archie and Maxie after Groudon and Kyogre have been beaten and later Guile Hideout desperately trying to put his armor back on after being beaten.
  • Heroism Motivation Speech: Gold at the climax of Gold and Silver.
    Silver: Why have you come this far...? Do you even have a reason to battle at all? Is it for...me...?
    Gold: Don't be stupid! Who's fighting for you? ...I've been thinking...the reason why I chose to battle... I can't say whom I'm fighting for...it's too mushy for me! But in my battles, I fight for myself! But, I figured if I could help other people along the way, it wouldn't hurt. Silver, Crys, after meeting you guys...I've been able to travel to different places, meet different people. We've had our share of battles, and it's been really fun...I've enjoyed myself!
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: The Kanto trio in the FireRed/LeafGreen saga. Team Rocket starts attacking the Sevii Islands and demanding that they turn over the Pokédex Holders, so the Ungrateful Townsfolk blame the Dex Holders for the attack.
    • Also discussed in the XY arc, after the Ultimate Weapon is activated. The Dex Holders along with the Gym Leaders need to stay hidden, as Team Flare is blaming the incident on them.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: The Kanto Elite Four turned up to be no different from the Team Rocket they detest.
  • Hey, That's My Line!: Red brags to Green about his two badges. She steals them, and when Team Rocket catches up to her she brags about "her" two badges. Red's not happy to see she's stealing his possessions and his lines.
  • Hostage for MacGuffin:
    • Noland surrenders the Jirachi report for Anabel's safety.
    • Platinum is the daughter of the Berlitz family, the richest family in Sinnoh, so at one point Saturn hopes to kidnap her and hold her for ransom.
  • Hot-Blooded:
    • Gold. Professor Oak even tells Crys to watch over him since almost no one can really stop him when he gets agitated. Except her. She doesn't take that as a compliment.
    • Pearl is rash and excitable, and he shouts an awful lot.
    • Sapphire once had flames bursting out of the background when she was about to take Roxanne's test. She has since then mellowed out, however. Her Expy, Y, was also noted for being hotheaded and impulsive, and has also since then mellowed out.
    • Black. He has a daily ritual where he always starts out by shouting his intent to win the Pokémon League at the top of his lungs.
  • Hot Springs Episode:
    • Not a full-on episode, but in the GSC arc, Both Red and Sabrina bathe in Mt. Silver's therapeutic hot springs to aid the healing of their injuries.
    • Sapphire and Flannery fought their official gym battle while bathing in the Lavaridge hot springs.
  • Hour of Power:
    • Mewtwo can fight for only three minutes, due to some Applied Phlebotinum issues that went with his cloning. Entei eventually fixes this. And in any case, it was always more of a problem for his trainer than for him.
    • Yellow's Pokémon can count too. She can make their levels rise when she "synchronizes her spirit with them". Given how fast this drains her stamina, this isn't something she can do often. The rise in strength it provides though is enough to make a pair of Rocket admins retreat (one of whom was enough to deal with Lorelei single handedly).
    • In Ruby and Sapphire: Steven using the Regis and Norman using Rayquaza: the Regis contain the destruction that Kyogre and Groudon cause in their fight while Rayquaza ends the battle just by showing up but this leads to Steven and Norman's (temporary) death
  • A House Divided: Both Team Magma and Team Aqua manage to convince several Hoenn Gym Leaders of their righteousness. Since both teams are well known enemies, the Gym Leaders nearly turn on each other before realizing both teams are evil.
  • Humiliation Conga: A Diancie thief gets this in the XY arc.
  • Hypocrite:
    • The Kanto Elite Four are extremists who wanted to purge the planet from evil and pollution, but doesn't seem to care about Team Rocket who are against their goals. They would rather gang-up against the protagonists (who wanted to stop Team Rocket) instead. Subverted when it's revealed that there's a reason for this, as Lance needed Giovanni, Team Rocket's leader, alive and drawn to the Elite Four's headquarters in order for their plan to be completed.
    • Team Plasma in spades. They claim they want to liberate Pokémon from trainers and act like a bunch of Knight Templar, but this amounts to kidnapping them from even children under the guise of "liberating" them. Yet, they use Pokémon to that end and many of them don't hesitate to either attack trainers or leave the unconscious Pokémon behind in the aftermath. Those that actually believe in the cause like Whitley came across as having Selective Obliviousness at best to the pain and suffering they cause, although she eventually acknowledges this and tearfully apologizes for it.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the Ruby and Sapphire chapter, the Pokémon Fan Club President asks Ruby to use his battle prowess as a trainer to escape from being kidnapped by Team Magma. Not wanting to battle as usual, he asks the President why he doesn't battle them himself. When he claims that he's scared of battles, Ruby accuses him of getting others to do the things he doesn't like.
  • Iconic Item: Some of the Dex Holders have at least one. Examples are Red's cap and fingerless gloves, Green and Silver's gloves, Yellow's hats, Gold's billiards cue and Crystal's earrings.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Chapters are called "rounds", and the story arcs are called "chapters". Chuang Yi titled the rounds "Vs. [Pokémon that is prominent in said chapter]" (except rounds in the fifth chapter), while the official translation always had new titles which incorporated the 'mon's name for the first three chapters, after which they just started making up entirely new titles.
  • Idiot Hair: Ruby's mom. And Ruby himself, for that matter.
  • Idiot Hero:
    • Red in the beginning, but he grew out of it by the end of the first arc.
    • Diamond too, until we find out he was Obfuscating Stupidity.
    • Black isn't stupid, per se, but he's too single-minded on his dream and has to have his Musha eat his dream in order to get any thinking done.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Quite frequently are Poké Balls modified or launched in an unusual manner for various effects in battle.
    • This is most seen with Gold, Crystal, Moon, and Bruno. Gold uses his billiards stick to launch trick shots, Crystal uses her legs due to an accident that broke her arms as a kid, Moon uses her bow and Poké Ball-tipped arrows to fire at enemies and Bruno can launch Poké Ball using his nunchucks... because.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Lt. Surge, officially an Anti-Hero after a gradual Heel–Face Turn, pulls this with some of his previous henchmen that were being controlled by the Masked Man during the penultimate battle of the second arc.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals:
    • Some of the supporting cast like the Pokémon Fanclub President and the Swimmers.
    • The Galactic grunts. Dia notes that they have a Hive Mind and cannot think on their own.
  • Improbable Hairstyle:
    • Emerald has his hair shaped like a croissant, apparently to make himself look taller. Justified in that he uses hair gel to keep it like that.
    • The Sinnoh chairman's looks like a large swirl of ice cream.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Mewtwo uses a giant spoon. (And makes it look badass, too.)
  • Improvised Zip Line:
    • Janine uses her Ariados to go across buildings.
    • Ruby uses his Pokéblock case to slide down a line that has one end tied to his Marshtomp's arm and the other to Courtney's.
  • Inconsistent Dub
    • The original Viz printing of Chapter 12 literally translates Razor Leaf as "Leaf Cutter".
    • Chapter 26 translates Pokémon Mansion as Pokémon House
    • Viz couldn't make up their minds with the Pokémon's nicknames until they finally got consistent in the Gold and Silver arc.
    • In volume 6, Blue's sister was referred to as May. In volume 14, she was correctly identified as Daisy.
    • Viz isn't sure whether or not one member of the Team Rocket Elite Trio is named Ryo or Al.
    • Similarly, Viz had Pearl refer to Crasher Wake as "Crasher Wake" in the Diamond and Pearl chapter, and as "Master" in the Platinum chapter. In the Japanese original, he called him the latter in both chapters.
  • Indy Escape: Happens in DP arc during an exploration of Solaceon Ruins.
  • Indy Ploy: How some of the protagonists foil the villain's plans. Especially Gold.
    • After doing said Indy Ploy Gold will claim that it was all part of the plan, despite that it obviously wasn't.
    Gold: I knew that having a fake suit of armour would come in handy!
    Ruby/Sapphire/Crystal: Liar.
  • In-Series Nickname: Platinum gets different ones depending on the translation: "Ojou-sama" in Japanese, "Missy" in Chuang Yi's English version, and "Lady" in Viz's English Version. Diamond is called "Dia" as well. Crystal's name is usually shortened to just "Crys" and Latios and Latias call Emerald "Em" or "Rald" depending on the translation.
  • Interface Spoiler: Averted: The start of each round in the Ruby and Sapphire shows the Pokémon that Ruby and Sapphire have with them and their levels (Sapphire) or condition (Ruby) except that Ruby reveals he's had Celebi the whole time.
  • Irony: Bianca's Oshawott gets beat up by a rather vicious-looking, wild Audino. Audino mainly exist in the games to be beaten up for experience points.
    • Near the end of the B2W2 arc, 2 Team Plasma grunts reassure their comrades, saying that everything will be fine as long as they have Ghetsis. What Ghetsis does in the next chapter is blow up the frigate and try to eliminate everyone by crashing it into N's Castle.
    • In the XY arc, Korrina, Gurkinn, and Diantha go on a search for Yveltal in a cocoon form, due to Team Flare already having ahold of Xerneas in a tree form. However, Yveltal goes on to be caught by Malva of Team Flare, while Xerneas is caught by Y, one of the dexholders.
      • Speaking of legendaries, AZ warns Lysandre that they incurred the wrath of the Watcher (Zygarde), subsequently with Blue coming to Kalos in search of the Z Pokémon to resolve the conflict. It ends up under the control of Lysandre near the end of XY arc.
    • In the start of the XY arc, all the attention X received as a child drove him to depression. Once the final battle is over, however, the Kalos quintet are distressed over the lack of attention they're getting for defeating Team Flare.
  • It's All My Fault: How Hugh feels about Team Plasma stealing his little sister's Purrloin. She just wanted to be with it, but he made her battle. He blames it on his own weakness—after all, if he was strong, he wouldn't have lost to the Plasma grunts and Purrloin wouldn't have been taken away.
  • It's Up to You: In Emerald, Gold says this to the RSE gang after he and Crys get pummeled by the Jirachi wished Kyogre.
  • Jerkass:
    • Quite possibly Volkner, who uses up so much electricity running his gym just because he's bored...resulting the rest of Sunyshore to go into a total blackout.
    • Oh, Blue and Green, so much in the first arc. With Blue, he spends a lot of his time acting smug and superior to Red, and constantly refuses to change even after working with him several times. And as for Green, it gets pretty far out when, a lot of chapters after she returns the badges she had stolen from Red, redeeming her a little, it turns out those were fake. The both of them finally change their behavior at the Pokémon League tournament though. Character Development at it's most noticeable, as they go on to become Red's best friends.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
    • Blue and Green from the first arc, Blue being snide and dismissive and Green gleefully manipulating and stealing from other people. Both change towards the finale.
    • In keeping with their Red Oni, Blue Oni relationship Gold and Silver both show different sides of this: Gold is loud mouthed, rash and rude while Silver is cold and cynical but both genuinely care about all Pokémon and try to help those in need.
    • Black is a bit of a jerk to his friends and causes no end of trouble for Professor Juniper without so much of a hint of apology because he's so focused on his goals. When this gets pointed out to him by Cheren he tries his hardest to fix this.
  • Joker Immunity: Though the world of Adventures has much more drama and emphasis on Character Death than other Pokémon media, it is not immune to this trope especially when Pokémon remakes are around the corner.
    • Pryce (aka the "Masked Man") returns from the time void he fell in at the end of Gold, Silver & Crystal chapter and Giovanni's fatal disease he got during the FireRed and LeafGreen chapter is cured by Celebi in the HeartGold and SoulSilver chapter.
    • Played with in OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire: Maxie and Archie were implied to be dead by the end of Emerald chapter based on the expositions from Guile Hideout (aka Archie), and yet both of them return fine and well. Then they explain that, for all intents and purposes, they didn't survive, but some higher power brought them back temporarily to help with the current crisis. They soon run out of time and return to the afterlife.
    • Averted with the Aqua and Magma Admins; most of the originals went Screw This, I'm Outta Here or a performed a Heel–Face Turn in the Ruby and Sapphire chapter, and the sequel chapter justifies their returning and looking different by revealing that their names are code-names used by Team Aqua/Magma that new people have inherited.
  • Jurassic Farce: The Safari Zone is portrayed this way, complete with a logo based on the one from the movie, with a Nidoking's head in place of the T-rex skull.
  • Karma Houdini: Karen and Will. They tried to Mind Rape Green, beat Silver senseless, mocked Green for caring about him, made it very clear that they're working for the Big Bad For the Evulz, and the only reason why they stopped working for him was not because they saw the light...it was because they got scared shitless. And though it may match up with the games, are these the kind of people you want in your league-recognized Elite Four? Geez, at least Koga helped out the good guys a few times and had enough moments where he redeemed himself. And Bruno's more sinister involvment in the Kanto Elite Four was due to mind control. Will and Karen have no such excuse.
    • Agatha is an even worse example. She masterminds the plan to commit mass genocide on all humanity, escapes without punishment, and is never seen again.
  • Kid Hero: All the Dex Holders start out their adventures when they are 10-11. However, due to the lack of Comic-Book Time, the eldest of the protagonists (Red, Green and Blue) are now roughly in their twenties as of X and Y.
  • Kick the Dog: The criminal organizations are all generally guilty of this in some form, but Team Rocket's especially bad with this due to their experiments during the original R/G/B arc, most notably Eevee.
    • Erika seems to kick that very same Eevee, until Red learns that it was a test; a rare subversion.
  • Kill All Humans: Part of the Elite Four's goal in the Yellow arc.
  • Killed Off for Real: Archie/Guile Hideout, Maxie, Orm and possibly the original Matt who is left to drown. The first two are Double Subverted with the release of OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire chapter, as they first appear alive and well but later reveal that they've only been given a temporary reprieve, although they hold on to the hope that they will be revived again.
  • Large Ham:
    • Black has a habit of shouting as loudly as possible in order to pep himself up. "I'M GONNA BE CHAMPION OF THE POKÉMON LEAGUE!!!"
    • Casey is constantly yelling. Even when she is whispering, or even when she is thinking, the shape of her speech bubbles imply that she is doing so extremely loudly.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Team Flare get their butts thoroughly whooped in the climax of the XY arc. Tierno, Trevor and Shauna beat up the Team Flare Admins, Clemont, Bonnie, Alexa, Viola, Yvette and the Sky Trainers who were forced to help move Xerneas' tree form ambush and beat the Team Flare Grunts that are strapping Pokémon to try and repower the Ultimate Weapon despite the aid of Malva's Delphox, the Team Flare agents stationed around Kalos are attacked and defeated by the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, Lysandre and Malva fall onto jagged rocks and are completely paralyzed and Xerosic's attempt at revenge sometime later via robot Essentia is thwarted by Trevor, his newly evolved Florges and Magearna.
  • Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Yellow surfs on lava. Potentially justified in that the surfboard was made from hard light, but they stay in the lava a smidgen too long to have realistically handled the heat.
  • The Leader: Considering its Geodesic Cast, there are several. Notably Trainers Red, Gold, Platinum, and Y of their respective branches of the Dex Holders. Also Erika is the leader of the Kanto Gym Leaders (though she admits she'd rather defer to Blaine), Winona for Hoenn, and Pryce for Johto.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Team Aqua and Team Magma go after Ruby and Sapphire because they've been seen acting on their ill-intentions. And they make a very good effort in pulling it off.
  • Legacy Character: In the OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire chapter, it's revealed that Tabitha, Courtney, Matt, and Shelly are lieutenant code-names used by Team Aqua/Magma. This Retcon was made to explain why these characters look radically different from the original designs as well as not override the fates of the original members of Team Aqua/Magma. The remaining Admins on each team, Amber and Blaise, didn't get replaced since they were Canon Foreigners in the first place.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Ruby, whenever he stops being Camp Straight and does regular battling. A big part of why he hates it is because his demeanor changes drastically during a battle, and he scared Sapphire as a child when he fought against a Salamence. His fight with Norman's at the Weather institute shows them both getting more dangerous and emotionless as they go on.
  • Level Grinding: Directly referenced in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Byron realizes that Diamond isn't as an effective a fighter as Pearl and Platinum, and so sends him off to train with Riley; who then has Dia take a crash course by going through a dangerous cave route multiple times.
  • Light Is Not Good: Dragonite in all of its appearances. A cute, gentle-looking, cream-colored dragon who always poses a threat to the protagonists. (Except for Ultima's.)
  • Limited Wardrobe:
    • Most of the characters pretty much stay in the same outfits all the time with minor, if any, alterations between arcs until future games give them new threads. Justified in that they usually spend their time roaming around.
    • Taken to extremes when in the Ruby and Sapphire arc we're given a peek inside in Ruby's closet...and all his spare clothing is completely identical to his normal outfit - so much so that he didn't really miss out on anything when he made a more civil outfit for Sapphire! On that note Sapphire's clothes are pretty much an outfit made for her by Ruby and plants fashioned into a simple tribal outfit.
    • Diamond and Platinum both change outfits to deal with the cold now that winter is setting in (and that Platinum is in a mountain range). Pearl simply rolls his sleeves down.
    • Crystal's mom forces her to change outfits at the start of HeartGold and SoulSilver to teach a group of school kids, only for Crystal to get caught up in trying to stop Team Rocket. When Gold comments on her new threads she gets very defensive. After the arc she seems to have gone back to wearing her old outfit however.
    • Exaggerated: Even in flashbacks showing Dex Holders as younger children, everyone wears the exact same design of clothes they are wearing now. And no, it's not like the clothes are shown to be too big for them at that age. At the very least in the anime, characters are shown wearing different clothes when they are younger. The exceptions are Sapphire, who wore a more frilly dress, White, and Moon, since cloths from Alola aren't up to her taste.
    • As Henry and Casey travel around in Professor Magnolia's RV, they do actually have alternate clothing options while on their journey; they just choose to wear the same outfits almost all the time.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Platinum didn't have any friends growing up because she spent most of her time reading.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine: Most females in the series.
    • Tomboyish Ponytail turned Compressed Hair for Yellow. Nearly no one can tell that Yellow is a girl unless she isn't wearing her hat. Red, Gold, Crystal, and Blaine were all shocked when Yellow's hat is removed, suddenly realizing she was a girl the whole time.
  • Long Runner: Despite the many different Pokémon manga made over the years (and many are still being made), only Pokémon Special started when the franchise did and will likely continue for as long as it has too.
  • Love Triangle: A notable one involves Red with either Green and Misty, Yellow and Green, or Yellow and Misty. Early on Misty clearly falls for Red and he shows attraction to her. However, Misty has rarely appeared lately, thus the most notable ones are Red with Green and Yellow since Red might like Green as seen in the RGB saga and vice versa, especially with her consoling him in FRLG. He might even like Yellow and vice versa (Well... The latter is definitely confirmed).
  • Love Dodecahedron: Taken up to INFINITY. Here, Misty likes Red who either likes Yellow, Blue (female), who seems to enjoy flirting with him more than any other character. Meanwhile, Gold has Ship Tease with Crystal and Yellow, but also has some Ho Yay moments with Silver who may or may not have feelings for his surrogate sister Blue (female). From the Hoenn trio, Ruby has a canon Slap-Slap-Kiss relationship with Sapphire who may have had a crush on Red, and Emerald has sort-of feelings for Crystal. Lastly, Diamond has a crush on Platinum who might feel the same way or she might also like Pearl who might like her back, or she's really just Oblivious to Love. Mind you, these are just the main characters ALONE. So you can imagine how messy it is for everyone else in the cast.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Silver is Giovanni's long-lost son. This was at first hinted in FRLG games (before the FRLG arc's release where it was made canon to the manga) and latter on confirmed in HGSS games.
  • Magic Skirt: Pretty much every character who has a skirt.
  • Magikarp Power: The contest driven Ruby is distraught over how ugly his Feebas Mimi looks and wishes it was as beautiful as a Milotic so it could excel in the beauty contests. Guess what Feebas evolves into once its beauty stat is maxed out...
  • Make Room for the New Plot: Averted with the reasons the characters have for their journeys, and is twice lampshaded out by the characters themselves when they avert it: Ruby and Sapphire (after they've saved Hoenn) panic and ask what day it is so they can finish their competition (Emerald later has a similar case in his Battle Frontier conquest. Diamond remarks to Platinum that their original reason for being on Spear Pillar was so she could make her family crest and not to stop the end of the world, and Diamond himself along with Pearl only sidelined their dream of becoming a great comedy act, continuing to practice during their journey and picking it up again after everything's over.
  • Male Gaze:
    • Elesa is first formally introduced with her on her knees and her rear facing the audience.
    • Bianca appears to be incapable of standing up straight as her rear is almost always thrust out. It's all the more pronounced whenever she falls down (which is often).
    • Skyla's hot pants are indeed short enough that part of her rear is visible.
  • Manchild: Crystal's hyper mother, who jumps around, has Girlish Pigtails, wears clothing someone her age normally wouldn't wear, and has a Verbal Tic, though she can be serious when the time comes for it. She is also the one who forced Crys into her HGSS outfit.
  • Market-Based Title:
    • First of all, the Singapore and US releases rename the series from Pokémon Special to Pokémon Adventures.
    • Starting with Gen IV, Viz also gave the chapters subtitles ("Diamond and Pearl/Platinum", "Black and White", etc.) and renumbered them from the beginning in order to set them apart from each other and the Generation II/III chapters, as multiple arcs were being published at once (up to three at the same time). Generations II and III themselves have their own labels ("Gold & Silver", "Ruby & Sapphire", "FireRed & LeafGreen", and "Emerald") on the covers, but continue their numbering from the previous chapters.
    • Viz also published two versions of the Black and White chapter; the first with half the rounds per book and dropping "Adventures" from the title, and the second as normal. Later arcs (X and Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Sun and Moon) only followed the half-volume version, though Black 2 and White 2 got the full-volume treatment. X and Y eventually got their own full-volume "Adventures" releases, once Black 2/White 2 finally finished up (around four years after the end of the X and Y half-volumes).
    • Additionally, the addition of the "/Platinum" to the Gen IV arc was done to differentiate from the Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga series that Viz had just finished up localizing.
  • Married at Sea: Wally's cousin and her fiancé during the Emerald Saga.
  • Marshmallow Hell: When Y's Froakie gets back her clothes after they were stolen, Y hugs the frog to her chest...while the only thing she's wearing topside is a makeshift Frubble bra.
  • Masquerading As the Unseen: In Emerald, Gold does this when he wears a replica of Guile Hideout's armor in an attempt to trick Guile's Pokémon into listening to him instead of the real Guile.
  • Master-Apprentice Chain: Averted. Crasher Wake was the one who trained Palmer, Pearl's father. Then after that, Palmer was the one who taught Pearl the basics of Pokémon battling and the one who taught him "Move Prediction". Years after that, Wake takes on Pearl as his new apprentice to polish his skills even further.
  • Meido: Latias' initial human disguise. Later on she's a journalist, then a nurse. All of them are rather modest, but really cute.
  • Mind Rape: Happens twice to Green, first with Sabrina in Red and Blue, and then again with Will in Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Both times, a Psychic-type Pokémon forces her to remember her childhood with the Masked Man.
  • Mutual Pining: In the Ruby and Sapphire arc, this turns out to have been Ruby and Sapphire's dynamic the entire time, with both of them working for the sake of a beloved childhood friend while completely unaware that the other happens to be the childhood friend in question.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Ruby when he realized that he had been mistreating Mimi and caused her to run away, and also when Sapphire chews him out for not caring about what happens to Hoenn.

    N-S 
  • Named by the Adaptation: The male and female Rocket Executives in the GSC arc are named Carl and Sham, and Falkner's father is named Walker.
  • Never Mess with Granny:
    • Agatha, or she'll suck out your soul!
    • The Sevii Islands' Move Tutor (Kiwame in Japan, Kimberly in Singapore, Ultima in the US) too or she'll hit you hard with her staff.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Giovanni helps out Yellow in fighting Lance, and would've defeated him flawlessly if he didn't bring his badge, which allows Lance to summon Lugia.
    • Noland asked Scott for the Jirachi report, hoping to find the info on where Jirachi would appear next. By doing so, he learned that Jirachi can grant wishes once its third eye is opened, which Guile forced that info out of him in the Battle Tower.
    • Buck tries to protect the Magma Stone from Team Galactic. By doing so, he awakens their true target, Heatran, and leads them right to it.
    • Everything that the Johto trio did in HeartGold and SoulSilver to get Arceus away from Team Rocket in fact allowed the bad guys to capture and control it.
    • The Dark Stone is protected in Lenora's impenetrable underground office/gym and the only key is destroyed. Black, however, remembers how to get in from his Gym challenge and a Plasma grunt disguised as Brycen tricks him into opening it.
    • Sun's focus on his goal of buying back his grandpa's island from Aether Foundation and ignoring the fight against the UB's gives Necrozma time to snatch him and Solgaleo, forcing Moon to follow them to save Sun and leave the rest of the region in the mercy of the UB's and thus fulfilled Lusamine's goal of having Alola being overrun by UB's by the six month time skip. Not helped that Faba broke Sun's hopes of getting it back.
  • The Nicknamer:
    • Most of the Dex Holders (and a couple other characters) nickname their Pokémon.
    • Gold likes to give (often negative) nicknames to other characters, such as "Prissy Boy" for Ruby and "Strict Woman" for Crystal.
  • No Infantile Amnesia: Played with. While Green remembers being abducted at age of 5 by the Tower Duo, (which later causes her ornitophobia) Silver doesn't because he was 2.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Averted in the first gen chapters. Team Rocket introduced a mass amount of non-native and over-leveled Pokémon into the Viridian Forest as to breed the ultimate army. Even after Team Rocket is defeated the first time and all their schemes no longer active, the Pokémon are still in the Forest, occasionally rampaging and attacking people.
  • No Man of Woman Born: The Draconid people made a prophecy thousands of years ago that The Chosen One will ride on Rayquaza to help it destroy a meteor that would otherwise destroy the Earth, but doing so would cost the rider's life. Because obviously an unprotected human being would automatically die upon reaching the stratosphere. Good thing space suits have been invented since then!
  • Nominal Hero: The Unova Elite Four are originally unconcerned regarding the threat of Team Plasma, but when Team Plasma attacks the Pokémon League at the climax of Black and White, they eventually do step in to provide their assistance. While Caitlin, Marshal, and Shauntal battle Thundurus, Landorus, and Tornadus, Grimsley splits off to directly battle the Hood Man (that is, Colress in disguise) that's controlling the legendary Pokémon. The Hood Man taunts Grimsley about going back on his earlier statement that he wouldn't be getting involved with the conflict unless it concerned him directly, but Grimsley openly (though somewhat transparently) responds that he's only doing it for selfish reasons.
    Grimsley: No, the stories are all true. But something happened that forced my hand.
    Hood Man: Oh? What was it?
    Grimsley: Your Team Plasma has been building a castle underground. For the past several months, the subtle rumblings have been shaking the table in my chamber. My cards and roulette have been constantly knocked off-balance, and this made me very irritated. That's the reason why.
  • No Name Given:
    • A few reoccurring characters don't get formally named, such as Crystal's mother.
      • In Pokéspedia, her name is revealed to be Mirei.
    • Lady Platinum Berlitz's first name was unknown for the first part of Diamond and Pearl because the writer didn't know the name of the then-unreleased (but inevitable) third version.
  • Non Human Side Kick: There is all of the heroes' Pokémon teams, but this is most fitting for their to their first ones (Ex. Gold's Aipom and Silver's Sneasel).
  • Non-Human Undead: An early chapter had Red having to battle against undead Pokemon.
  • Not the Fall That Kills You…: After Gigi goes with N in Black and White, White falls off the Nimbasa Ferris Wheel and her body is perfectly fine; except for some mental trauma afterward. To be fair, she didn't fall off at the wheel's highest point; she was getting ready to jump off from a safe distance but fell off when she wasn't ready.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: After seeing that Blake attempted to catch Genesect with a Luxury Ball, Colress says this about himself and Blake, claiming that both of them think on the same level in trying to bring out a Pokémon's potential. This doesn't stop Colress from trying to kill Blake, however.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity:
    • Ruby's actually a very competent battler, he just doesn't want to show it because he gets extremely serious when doing so.
    • Diamond apparently knew that he and Pearl weren't supposed to be with Platinum during Diamond and Pearl.
  • The Ojou: Lady Platinum Berlitz, Misty, and Erika.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: After the main crisis in Emerald is dealt with, Emerald still has one more Frontier Symbol to get. The venue is in good condition, but it's a tournament format and Trainers are needed to staff it. The people present realize that there are ten Pokédex Holders right there, and the owner loves the idea of a celebrity tournament to promote the Battle Frontier... cut to an epilogue a week later. Crystal shows us the tournament bracket and mentions that she lost to Green in the first round, plus Emerald can be assumed to have won and received the Symbol, but that's all the detail we get.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Yellow's Omanyte who had a rather cute, comical one when a Tentacruel shows up. Complete with censored speech bubble in the Viz release.
    • Ruby loses it when Norman shows up at the Weather Institute.
    • Darach absolutely freaks when Caitlin momentarily loses control over her psychic powers.
  • Old Master: Professor Oak certainly counts. Juan and E4 Drake too.
  • Once a Season:
    • An announcer would be present in almost every tournament, where his name was finally revealed to be Chairtarō in the SM arc.
    • The fanclub chairman of the region (who all look similar to each other) would approach the dexholder of that region and ask if what they have on them are Poké Balls.
    • More like once a generation finishes, so far. Someone (usually Red) will suggest doing something together and the rest of the cast will suddenly turn all chibi and surprised.
    • Also Blue's 'obnoxious girl' comment on Green, which is followed by a glare from Silver.
    • Diamond and Pearl practice their manzai routines in every round.
  • One-Letter Name: The protagonists of the XY arc are named, well, X and Y. The official English translation has Y's real name be Yvonne though, and the French translation also has X's real name be Xavier.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted in the Viz version as it followed game accuracy; a construction worker in Diamond and Pearl has a Psyduck named Yellow.
    • Averted with a few of the chapter names. Both chapters 13 and 367 are named "Vs. Psyduck".
    • Both chapter 27 and chapter 32 are "Vs. Kadabra" and chapters 25 and 31 are are both "Vs. Articuno."
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Gold goes so far as to deliberately give the police an incorrect description of Silver in order to be this.
  • Open-Minded Parent: Gold's mother. Sapphire's dad (Professor Birch) is also quite lenient in allowing his daughter to collect research data in the wild and travel the entire Hoenn region for months.
  • Orwellian Retcon: Sometimes minor to major details (art and dialogue) from the magazines get changed around in the official volumes. For example, Platinum's scarf, Pokédex, Pokétch, and bike were originally pink, but they were changed to red later.
  • Out-of-Character Alert: When Essentia knocks Y out, steals her Xerneas, and disguises herself as Y to the group, X is quickly able to see through the ruse due to her not apologizing for going off on her own and referring to him as anata (a more personal way of saying you in Japanese).
  • Out of Focus: Red in the Yellow Chapter, and Gold and Silver during a good deal of the GSC arc, which switches to Crystal unexpectedly after a cliffhanger.
  • Parental Abandonment: For some reason all the Dex Holders, except for Ruby and Green, either has only one parent or none at all (and the latter two don't exactly have perfect family histories).
    • Platinum also turns out to have both a mother and father.
    • Strangely enough, Red is the most well-adjusted Dex Holder despite the fact that he has absolutely no relatives; none have ever been mentioned or hinted at. It's interesting in the FLRG arc when he muses that he probably isn't fighting as hard as Blue and Green because he doesn't have any family to protect/rescue.
  • Pattern-Coded Eggs: Gold's egg, laid by Red's Pika and Yellow's Chuchu, has a jagged black design on the bottom that matches Pibu's fur collar.
  • Personality Swap: One story had Red and Blue's Pokémon swapped. By the end, even their attitudes were switched around.
  • Pet the Dog: Giovanni is pretty much EVIL, but he loves his son and will even rescue his mortal enemies if he's in a good mood. (One wonders what sort of odd honor system the guy has...)
    • The formerly evil Gym Leaders get some in the GSC arc. Koga shows up with Bruno to save Red and Blue, Lt. Surge helps free the brainwashed Team Rocket soldiers from the Masked Man's control, and Sabrina helps out Red, at the same time asking if Eevee is well, showing regret about helping to torture it years ago. Even before that, the Rocket admins kept to their Exact Words and helped the Dex Holders beat (one each) of the Elite Four, with special notice going to Sabrina who risked her own life to protect an unconscious Green when the two were cuffed together.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Several of the smaller and supposedly weaker Pokémon owned by the various Dex Holders are able to kick all kinds of ass, the original being Red's Pika, but also including Gold's Aibo, Silver's Sneasel, and Yellow's entire team (initially), just to name a few. Not to mention how even the smallest flying Pokémon can carry a human with ease. For the freaking awesomest example of this trope in the whole series, Pryce in the HGSS chapter takes on Dialga. With a Swinub.
  • Playing Possum: At one point Koga captures Blue and has a Grimer restraining him; when Blue tries to fight back Koga has his Golbat use Razor Wind on him. Blue is seemingly knocked out from this, but it later turns out that the pendant he was wearing at the time protected him, and he was just lying still because he knew if he pretended he was passed out Koga would eventually call off the Grimer. It worked.
  • Playing Tennis with the Boss: Guile can reflect Pokémon attacks back with his sword.
  • Please Wake Up: Pearl after Diamond saves him from Gratina's Shadow Force
    Pearl: You just fainted right? Th-this isn't funny Dia... It's one of those one offs, right? You're going to get up now and say I'm Poké-aayy right?
  • Pokémon Speak: Mostly averted, with the exception of Red's Pikachu that does this rarely. Viz added SFX that follows this trope in a few spots, but not as a common occurrence. Makes sense that Pokémon in this world don't say their names seeing how other countries have their own languages and their own names for all the different species of Pokémon. In fact, most of the time Pokémons are mute in the manga.
  • Police Are Useless: As per with the rest of the franchise. Except for Falkner, but that's only because he's a Gym Leader as well. On the plus side, it's actually expected of the Gym Leaders to handle criminal organizations.
  • Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Faux Affably Evil Ghetsis in contrast to Hot-Blooded Black.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Diamond and Pearl is full of it:
    • Platinum thinks Diamond and Pearl are hired bodyguards, and they in turn think she's a tour guide. Both sides notice the other acting odd for what they think they are, but don't act on it. Meanwhile, the real bodyguards think Diamond and Pearl hijacked their client on purpose and are in league with Team Galactic; and Professor Berlitz is out of the loop that anything's wrong. Thankfully, once Diamond and Pearl meet the real bodyguards, they're able to get on the same side against Team Galactic and clear things up.
    • This also applies to several of the chapter's Gym battles, as some of the Leaders mistake the trio for challengers and arrange matches before the heroes even realize what's going on. And then Byron finds Professors Rowan and Berlitz trapped by Team Galactic and takes the trap back to his Gym; leading Platinum to think Byron was the one who trapped them and Byron to think Platinum was a Galactic agent coming back to finish the job.
  • The Power of Friendship:
    • Played straight in Emerald and Diamond and Pearl arcs. In the former, Emerald comes to realize his genuine love and bond with Pokémon and Dex Holders, compared to Guile Hideout who abandoned all of his previous companions. In the latter, Cyrus notes how Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum all supporting each other has led to his defeat.
      • At the end of FireRed/LeafGreen arc, Sird notes that the dexholder's strength comes from the bonds they have with each other.
    • Discussed in the Black 2 and White 2 arc, where Colress sees that Looker is trying to persuade him about the power of bonds from Pokémon and humans.
  • Precision F-Strike: Varies with the translator, but Captain Eldritch has one when he forgets to steer the ship and it heads towards the rock.
  • Prequel: Despite being written afterwards, the HeartGold/SoulSilver chapter in fact happened before the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum ones, setting up many events for the Sinnoh saga like the birth of Dia's Munchlax. The same goes to OmegaRuby/AlphaSahhpire chapter, being in the same year as HeartGold/SoulSilver''.
  • Pronoun Trouble: In the Chuang Yi version, Yellow is referred to as "he" by her uncle and Professor Oak when they speak to Crystal. In the Japanese a genderless pronoun was used. It's much harder to hide her gender when talking about her in English.
    • Somewhat averted in the Viz version, as Oak and Wilton avoid using pronouns when they talk to Crystal about Yellow. Surprisingly, they do it in a way that doesn't sound too awkward.
  • Properly Paranoid: After the Kalos kids accidentally gave their names to a Team Flare member, they have taken several steps to ensure that they will not be located so easily, all of which basically boils down to staying away from strangers while sticking together no matter what. When Shauna runs off on her own, she easily gets lured by what she believes is someone who shares her interests and ends up Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Psychic Link: Caitlin utilizes the telepathic abilities of herself and her Gothitelle in order to make psychic contact with the Unova region's gym leaders, who are being held captive at the time by agents of Team Plasma, allowing them to pass a message onto Black and White.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
    • "I shall guard the exit...With! My! Life!" Didn't work as he got swatted off pretty quickly.
    • Also in the RS arc...
    Archie: All who stand in our way shall die...and die...and die! GO! TO! HELL!
  • Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Wallace and Gold gets thrown one of these in the R/S and GSC arcs respectively. Dia also got thrown with one of these in the DP arc, but he manages to retaliate quickly.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of every arc the previous generations heroes step out of the spotlight...
    • The Bus Came Back: ...only to show up again down the line helping out the new generation or getting their help with a problem they're having (which usually coincides with whenever a Pokémon remake game is released).
  • Race Lift:
    • Dawn/Hikari are coded to be Japanese in their source game and anime, whereas Platinum is from a very European-coded family with a very European name (Berlitz).
    • Victor in the games is meant to be a Galarian/UK native, but his counterpart, Sōdo Tsurugi, is explicitly Asian.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Most notably, Sapphire, Wallace and Norman all blast Ruby for his self-centeredness.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Besides Red and Blue, Archie and Maxie.
    • Sapphire and Ruby too. Ironically enough, their color schemes contrast with their personalities.
    • Gold and Silver (much to Silver's annoyance).
    • Pearl and Diamond. They even use it in their double act.
    • Y and X, which goes along well with their own color schemes and dynamic.
  • Red String of Fate: Between Red and Yellow at the end of the Yellow arc. Also somewhat in FRLG with Yellow's fishing line. Of course, said strings probably weren't red, but the symbolism is still clear with their pinky fingers being connected.
  • Renamed the Same: Early on in the English version of Yellow, Yellow uses a fake name of "Amarillo del Bosque Verde". Unfortunately, the Paper-Thin Disguise didn't work, as everyone hearing it knew it meant "Yellow of the Viridian Forest". In the original Japanese, she just gives her real name from the start.
  • The Rival: Red and Blue (Green in the original Japanese version), Gold and Silver, Crystal and Eusine, Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Rotating Arcs: In keeping with the nature of the games, instead of a single long Myth Arc, the manga focuses on (loosely) adapting the story of one generation of games then putting a new cast and story in the spotlight for the next. Previous characters are referenced and previous protagonists may make significant appearances, but in general the focus is on the current generation.
  • Rule of Cool: "Team Rocket's Battleship has transformed into a mid-air battle stadium!"
  • Rummage Fail: Neatly averted as the top half of the Poké Balls are translucent so you can see the Pokémon inside. Handy!
  • Running Gag: In the early parts of the DP arc, Platinum would try to imitate some actions that seem new and interesting to her. But quickly stops when Pearl notices. And when confronted by Pearl about said action:
    Pearl: (Sweatdrops) You did a (Action she was doing a while ago) just now, didn't you?
    Platinum: (Nonchalant) I did not.
    Pearl: You definitely did!
    Platinum: I definitely did not. Stop being a pest.
    • There's also:
    Pearl: I'm the funny man and you're the stooge!
    Dia: EEHH?!
    Pearl: Put the food down already!
    Dia: EEHH?!!
    • (Viz's English version changes the wording but otherwise keeps both gags intact.)
    • Dia's Amusing Injuries gets bonus points because Pearl flat out tells him to come up with a one line gag that can be used repeatedly
    Dia: I'm Pokéaay!
    • Also, Yellow's height. In the GSC arc both Crystal and Gold are surprised by Yellow's shortness, realizing that Yellow is a year older than they are and yet she's a full head shorter than them. Silver gets his turn for this realization in the FRLG arc.
    • Gold making some claim only for people behind him to all think he's a liar.
  • Samus Is a Girl:
    • Yellow. A strange play in that she was introduced as a girl, but you didn't know her name nor the fact that she returned as a main character until towards the end of her arc.
    • Also, this was attempted with Crys, when "he" accepted Oak's request to complete the Pokédex. However, the effect was ruined by the fact that Crys had not only been shown on the cover, but also on several pages leading up to the actual occurrence. It at least happens In-Universe, in that Oak and Bill didn't know that Crys/"Chris" was a girl, since she sent the notice by letter.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: As of recent with Soudo and Schieldmilia.
  • Say My Name: "RUBY!!" "SAPPHIRE!!"
    • Also at the GSC Finale: "GOLD!!" and "Argh, RED!!"
    • And now at the BW Finale: "BLAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!"
    • As asides, several more minor examples.
    Grimsley: I'm going after him.
    Shauntal: Grimsley!
  • Scissors Cuts Rock: Red's Pikachu is able to take out Brock's Onix with a well-placed Thundershock. (Despite the fact that it shouldn't be able to, but the series was still young, so most people just ignore it.)
  • Self-Parody: As of recently, the manga has made multiple self-aware remarks in itself, such as
    • Gladion making an assumption that Hau is doing the tournament to "prove himself" just like Blue, when really he's just doing it for fun.
    • Yamamoto making an apology on BW2 hiatus, along with a doodle He makes even more later on.
    • Moon asking Zossie if the cause of darkness in Ultra Megapolis is due to "scientist tried to obtain a great power, but were unable to control it."
  • Series Continuity Error: At one point early on in the series, Green asks Red how many Pokémon he thinks there are. He responds that it's common knowledge that there are 150, but she informs him that there's actually a 151st Pokémon—Mew. However, the 150th Pokémon is Mewtwo, and at this point in the story he's still being created. Of course, casual fans probably would've been confused if they switched the two's numbers, so it's forgivable.
  • Shared Universe: The regions from the Pokémon Ranger series exist in Adventures although the manga for it only exists online and in an anniversary art book.
    • Pokémon Snap also exists in this canon, as the main character appears in Emerald.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Maybe not in that degree at that point of the story.
    Brawly: That guy (Ruby)?! Your friend's inside the cave?!
    Sapphire: Fr-Friend?! (Blushes and waves arms frantically) I don't have such a strange friend!!
    • Also, Black and White. (Not that they actually are, as of yet)
    Random woman: You should go there with your boyfriend!
    White: He's not my boyfriend, he's my employee!
    • Also happens with X and Y, though whether or not X is in denial or he really doesn't see Y like that is unclear.
    Cassius: Now you can finally find out what happened to your girlfriend's mom—
    • This is now parodied in Sun and Moon arc, when Olivia asks this to Moon.
    Moon: But I still wouldn't call myself his friend...
    Olivia: Gyann!! So innocent! So cute! That's how I was too—when I was about your age, I also pretended that I wasn't interested in boys either.
  • She's a Man in Japan: Tate is mistakenly referred to as a girl in the Chuang Yi version.
  • Shirtless Scene: the end of the FireRed and LeafGreen arc sees Red going shirtless because of all the Clothing Damage from his fights with Deoxys. He also uses his shirt to keep the yoke (steering wheel) of the rocket airship in an upright position. This continues into the Emerald arc as well because he was shirtless when he was turned to stone.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: After clearing up their misunderstanding with Platinum's bodyguards, Dia and Pearl set aside their dream to become comedians in order to protect Platinum. After their own misunderstanding with Platinum was cleared up, they then set out on their own to stop Team Galactic. This was the point in the story when the once-per-chapter jokes stopped.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Sird gets Yellow to use her powers in vain to tire her out, knowing that she'd have no chance if Yellow was conscious. This is mostly due to what happens when Yellow synchronizes her spirits with her Pokémon's, but Yellow being The Healer wouldn't be helpful to Sird, either.
  • Show Within a Show: Proteam Omega, a mecha anime that Diamond is a massive fan of. The Goldenrod Radio director created the show by basing it off of Red's team. Turns out Silver is a massive fan as well.
  • Shown Their Work: Everything that Pokémon do is based on some bit of flavor text from the games (generally accompanied by Pokédex citation), and any inconsistency with the game mechanics is explicitly Hand Waved as a special case. Some rather noticeable inconsistencies aren't Hand Waved though.
    • The rental Pokémon Emerald uses at the Battle Factory? Yes, those are actual rental Pokémon straight out of the games. Also, Emerald himself is quite the meta-gamer, using and acknowledging many game mechanics and strategies used in competitive battling. Like when he knew that Glalie's Sheer Cold would miss, as Sceptile was level 51 and thus actually NOT a rental Pokémon.
  • Small Role, Big Impact:
    • Mew appears only few times throughout the story, but it's what humbled Red in the very beginning of the story and made him go on his adventure.
    • Blue Sky Clefairy and Jigglypuff duo were only seen on Diamond and Pearl's flashback, but they're what led the two to pursue Manzai, thus participating in the comedy competition and kicking off the plot of Diamond and Pearl.
    • Henry's father, where the only info we know of him is given from Sword himself. Still, his untimely death led to Henry being unable to complete his tool-forging training, where he'd then take interest in the Rusted Sword and Shield in the Slumbering Weald and meet Casey.
  • Soap Opera Disease: Giovanni; the only reason we know he has anything is a comment of his that "this body is wasting away". Celebi treats him in the HGSS chapter.
  • Spoon Bending: Mewtwo, an incredibly powerful psychic Pokémon, is shown to wield a massive spoon.
  • Stockholm Syndrome:
    • Silver is initially unwilling to battle Will because he fears this might be why Will works for the Mask of Ice. When Will reveals that only Green and Silver were kidnapped and the others were there of their own free will, Silver fights him seriously.
    • In Black and White, N has Gigi abducted along with her handler, then has her dropped into a Servine's waiting coils to be strangled. This makes Gigi realize her battling potential, so she willingly decides to side with him.
  • Story Arc: Several, each based on a game in the main series.
  • Stealth Pun: In the BW chapter, White gets a Sandile to cry at any scene in a movie. Crocodile Tears!
  • Suicidal "Gotcha!": In the HeartGold & SoulSilver chapter, Silver lets go of a bridge he was dangling over in his battle against Petrel only to rise back up on his Gyarados.
  • Superdickery: On the netkun site's previews, it looked like Skyla just killed Black by shoving him off the Celestial Tower. Reading the actual chapter shows that her Swanna was there to catch him.
  • Supreme Chef:
    • Diamond is a skilled cook and Poffin maker.
    • Also, Emerald's Sceptile and Sudowoodo show remarkable skill in cooking and once faced off against each other in a cook-off for Emerald's attention.
  • Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The artwork, especially Mato's, is rather cutesy, the plot usually starts out lighthearted, it's Pokémon for god's sake, so it's a bit of an eye-popper when some of the more violent actions come up.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • In general, a lot of real-world physics that are either downplayed, handwaved, or outright disregarded in the anime and games are in full effect in Adventures, often to dramatic effect. Examples include:
      • Blue's Machamp using a broken piece of the arena floor as leverage to catapult Red's Snorlax in the Pokémon League finals in Volume 3.
      • Red's full-body freezing at the hands of Lorelei leaving him with frostbite that would handicap his movement and battling ability.
      • The Super Nerd's torture of Yellow by luring her to a city street at night, and striking her and her Pokémon with his Marowak's Bonemerang (which she cannot see) while his Persian scratches up the side of a building so she can't hear it coming.
      • Gold and Silver getting trapped beneath the rubble of the Tin Tower and Silver rebuking Gold for having his Quilava ignite its flames for a light source, as it would consume their limited supply of oxygen.
      • And Team Galactic Commander Jupiter using her Tangrowth's Flash to not only blind Platinum, Maylene, and Candice, but to create multiple shadows for her Sableye to attack all three of them with Shadow Sneak simultaneously.
    • Unlike the games, Pokémon can potentially be killed in battle. One of the first instances was Red fighting a special Eevee that could change between its three evolutionary forms at will. He eventually defeated and captured it, but it was gravely wounded and required immediate medical treatment. Furthermore, the only thing that kept it from dying was being put into a Poké Ball, and therefore, stasis.
    • After their first major battle against Team Rocket, Misty insists that she and Red train to get stronger and be more prepared. Red, having held his own better than Misty, brushes that fear aside and is served a Humble Pie the next day in a Curb-Stomp Battle by Misty, having trained and evolved her Staryu. This, along with a What the Hell, Hero? rant, makes Red realize that he needs to train more and apologizes for his behavior.
    • Gold spends the first part of the ''GSC'' saga being brash, expecting things to go his way. Sometimes it works; such as when he stopped a thief, but only because he wanted a refund for the food that the thief destroyed although the person that was stolen from still thanked him by paying for his lunch, as well as his race against Whitney and earning multiple autographs from DJ Mary. However, he ends up on the receiving end of What the Hell, Hero? speeches from Professor Oak and plenty of others for his attitude, even getting in trouble for his attitude.
      • This Wrong Genre Savvy comes to play when dealing with the stolen Totodile arc, when Gold thinks it is relieved to be rescued only to get bitten by the Pokémon. By the time Gold and Silver bumped into each other in Sprout Tower, Totodile had become loyal to Silver. Gold believing it was smiling in relief was proven false; Totodile can't change their facial expressions that well.
    • As a child, Blue had people talking about how he'll do great things since he is the grandson on Prof. Oak. Instead of taking the words as compliments, Blue is frustrated with his actions being held in comparison with his grandfather and wishes to be known for his own person rather than who he is related to. His mentor, Chuck, never treated him better or worse than any other student, which was a major factor to Blue having great respect for the man.
    • After being a Butt-Monkey for a good chunk of the DP arc, Dia calls Pearl out on this in a middle of a fight with Cyrus.
    • Platinum calls out Dia and Pearl for lying to her about being her bodyguards, but apologizes the next day and calls herself out, acknowledging that she was no better for than them in the past.
    • Despite having a Heel Realization, Pryce is still attacked by Giovanni for abducting his son all of those years ago. If Lance hadn't intervened, Pryce would have most likely been killed.

    T-Y 
  • Take a Third Option: Koga gives Blue the choice to be used as a hostage to persuade Professor Oak to work for Team Rocket, or die painfully. Blue decides to go down fighting and sics his Scyther on Koga.
  • Taken for Granite: At the end of FireRed and LeafGreen, the 4 Kanto Dex Holders and Silver get turned into stone due to being in the proximity of Mewtwo and Darkrai's clashing attacks.
  • Taught by Television: In Emerald, Crystal uses Mr. Mime's barriers in the same way she saw Sabrina use in her match with Bugsy in Gold, Silver, and Crystal.
  • Thanatos Gambit: Steven willingly releases and controls the Regi trio, despite his implied awareness that doing so would result in his own death, in order to defeat Groudon and Kyogre. Norman later does the same with Rayquaza, to a similar end.
  • Third-Option Adaptation: Whether it's regarding player characters, starters, or version-exclusive plot points, the manga's general answer to different player options is to make room for all of them somewhere. For instance, in the Generation VII games, the Totem Lurantis summons a Trumbeak and Castform as its allies in Sun and Moon, whereas in the Ultra versions, it first summons Kecleon and Comfey. In the manga, it summons two Castform, two Trumbeak, a trio of Comfey and a Kecleon.
  • Title Drop:
    • In FireRed and LeafGreen, Mewtwo does this for something of a pun/joke when he saw Red and Blue trade their starter Pokémon. Became Lost in Translation in the English version due to Blue not retaining his Japanese name of Green.
    FireRed and LeafGreen.
    • Also in HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Kimono Girls exclaim how the bells of the Ecruteak City warms the *heart* and resound in the *soul*.
    • ORAS arc starts off by stating "that was the end and was also the beginning."
  • Those Two Guys: Yuko, Maya, and Yuki are Those Three Girls, fellow classmates at the Aspertia Trainer's School who are Blake's fangirls, Whitley's friends, and holds animosity toward Hugh .
  • Too Long; Didn't Dub: For some reason, Viz chose not to alter Unown's messages in the Ruins of Alph. Instead they just added notes of what it translates to ("Ananuke = Escape", for instance).
  • Train-Station Goodbye: How Black and White part ways at Nimbasa.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia:
    • Red's Pikachu during the Yellow arc, caused by Red getting frozen.
    • Silver's Sneasel also had some repressed memories from when it and Silver were kidnapped by the Mask of Ice. They come back in FireRed and LeafGreen when Silver visits Viridian City; just enough for Yellow to get a read on them and help identify Silver's father.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Many of the Dex Holders themselves are extremely, if not frighteningly, precocious, to say the least; especially Green. This usually indicates some kind of Dark and Troubled Past, though other times no explanation is given.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: Enough screentime is usually given to the protagonists of each arc who embark on their journeys separately by utilizing this, as was the case in Ruby and Sapphire and the latter parts of Diamond and Pearl and Black and White.
    • A non-dexholder instance occurs in XY arc, with the focus given to Shalour Gym Leader Korrina.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Wanda, who is conventionally pretty, has a Gonk husband.
  • Ungrateful Townsfolk: Found in FireRed and LeafGreen. Team Rocket starts bombarding the Sevii Islands and says they'll stop if the people turn over the Kanto Pokédex Holders. The people immediately start hunting the kids down and blaming them for the attack.
  • Unholy Matrimony: Malva wants this kind of relationship with Lysandre. It's yet to be seen how he feels about her. However, it seems what she had in mind once Team Flare's goal was met would've been much more sinister and vindictive: betraying Lysandre and taking everything from him as revenge for him never returning her feelings while using her as a pawn.
  • Unrelated in the Adaptation: Victor and Gloria's equivalents here have never met Hop or Leon, with the latter asking who the two are when they meet after herding some Wooloo back into a pen.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension:
    • Winona and Wallace had a falling out before Ruby and Sapphire started, though Wallace is obviously still interested in continuing their relationship. Unfortunately for him, Winona is not a Best Her to Bed Her type of girl and feels insecure about having a Champion for a boyfriend. Numerous hints are given about their past relationship and possibilities of a new one, but their last appearance in Emerald has Winona simply musing about just that. We'll never know if they actually try again.
    • Ruby and Sapphire. Sapphire very much wants to bring up their feelings again, but Ruby's supposed amnesia of their confessions and Sapphire's newfound hot temper and jerkassery prevents the relationship from advancing. Ruby nearly ruins things for good during OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire by keeping Sapphire Locked Out of the Loop, but apologizes and finally admits his feelings.
  • Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Gold mistakes Bugsy for a girl in the beginning of Gold, Silver, and Crystal and actually asks "her" out. Gold is naturally distraught by this.
  • Urine Trouble: Ruby and Sapphire arrive at the Battle Frontier and admire a rainbow made by some water spray. Then they look up, and realize it's caused by Emerald taking a leak. Averted in the US translation, as the pee was replaced with soda.
  • Verbal Tic: Pearl tends to say "Dia- I mean Diamond..." whenever he's trying to tell Diamond something important.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Can occasionally happen, with perhaps the crowning example being Ghetsis in the penultimate chapter of the B2W2 arc, who after being defeated and denied control over anything, loses his Mask of Sanity completely and ultimately goes Laughing Mad.
  • Villainous Rescue: Giovanni frees Red from his frozen prison in Yellow and later saves Yellow when she was battling Lance.
  • Wax On, Wax Off: It helped Gold's Cyndaquil evolve into Quilava, but the Day Care Granny really just wanted some chores around the house to be done.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: In OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire. Everyone is acting to stop the meteor heading for the planet, but nobody trusts the others enough to work together and they keep getting in each other's way.
  • Wealth's in a Name:
    • The Dex Holders' names are in accordance with the main-series game titles (so they're all named after colors and/or rocks), but the characters who come from notably wealthy families are Gold and Platinum.
    • Invoked by Sun, who is not wealthy but aims to earn a large amount of money. His Pokémon's nicknames all have to do with money, such as "Dollar", "(Y)en", and "Baht" in Japanese and "Cent", "Dollar", and "Quarter" in English.
  • We Can Rule Together: Happens often in the early arcs.
    • Meeting Red the second time, Giovanni asks Red to join him, where Red would have to comply if he loses the match.
    • Red gets this again in the second arc from Lorelei and Agatha of the Elite Four.
    • Ruby has this for a very short moment when Courtney corners him.
    • Cyrus implies this to Diamond and Pearl in Celestic Town.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Silver get turned to stone at the end of FireRed and LeafGreen.
    • Sird from FireRed and LeafGreen is revealed in Diamond and Pearl to have been a mole sent by Team Galactic to investigate Team Rocket.
    • Gigi leaves White for N part of the way through Black and White.
    • Black is sealed with Reshiram in the Light Stone at the end of the Black and White.
    • White and N find the Light Stone part way through Black and White 2.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Ruby took two separate tongue-lashings from Sapphire and Wallace for not wanting to help resolve the crisis with Kyogre and Groudon - and, in the case of Wallace, for heartlessly abandoning one of his Pokémon after calling it ugly.
    • Cheren calls out Black for selfishly going off on his own when they had already promised each other (with Bianca) that they'd start off together, impatiently opening the package with the starter Pokémon inside without them, with the other Pokédexes being ruined in the subsequent chaos (forcing Cheren and Bianca's journeys to be delayed), and taking off without thanking or even saying goodbye to Professor Juniper, who gave him the opportunity to go out on a journey in the first place.
    • Y nearly chews X out for confronting Team Flare on his own and leaving his friends behind, and only doesn't push through with it because she knows that he will just clam up even more if she lashed out at him.
  • Who Would Want to Watch Us?: In Round 28 of Red and Blue, Green reminds Red and Blue, "This isn't a Game Boy, you know!"
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
    • Green has a huge fear of birds due to being kidnapped by Ho-Oh, until the Gold, Silver, and Crystal finale.
    • Sapphire easily loses to Tucker, implying that she's still terrified of Salamence.
    • Lance is terrified of Yellow, which Petrel uses against him in HeartGold and SoulSilver by disguising as her. Or it's something else....
    • Hugh's little sister has fears of Deino after a grunt using one took her Purrloin. She overcomes it by the end of B2W2 arc, even owning one of her own.
  • "With Our Swords" Scene: After the Sinnoh Gym Leaders get thrashed at Spear Pillar, three of them pass on one of their Pokémon to Platinum so that she can fight in their stead. Subverted in that the Poké Balls immediately get busted so that she can't call them out. Double-subverted in that she's allowed to keep them anyways for another mission.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • Red's first Pokémon, Poliwhirl/Poliwrath, tends to suffer during any of Red's battles.
    • Whenever Platinum brings out Ponyta to a gym challenge, expect the poor horse to be quickly beaten to the ground.
  • Worf Had the Flu: The reason Petrel managed to beat Lance? Petrel disguised himself as the person Lance is afraid of the most: Yellow.
  • Work Off the Debt: The reason why Black ends up traveling with White is because he trashed all of her filming equipment while battling a wild Galvantula, and she needs him to pay it back.
  • World of Badass: Oh yeah. Even Bill gets a moment or two, like shielding Daisy from debris and then ignoring the fact that he was hurt so that he could help the Dex Holders.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Generally, nobody has problem smacking anyone else down, regardless of who that person is if they are in the way of saving/destroying the world.
  • Year Outside, Hour Inside: According to Juan, zigzagged with Mirage Island, but played straight while Ruby and Sapphire are unconscious on it. Three days pass by on the island and three weeks in the real world.
  • You Dont Look Like Yourself: Scarlet looks like Wednesday Addams from her TV series instead of how Juliana looks in the games.
  • You're Insane!: Yellow screams this to Lance at the end of her saga.
    Lance: This was my object from the beginning—to take control of this Pokémon! To ride the one that no one has ever been able to tame!
    Yellow: Turn that Pokémon against the world...?! No! You can't! LANCE, IT'S INSANE!!

Alternative Title(s): Pokemon Special

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