Pokemon: Adventures Collector's Edition 6by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 7 Sapphire gets four of the eight Gym Badges, and Ruby earns ten of the twenty contest ribbons, but it takes them a while to get to that point, as they keep getting involved with things related to Team Aqua, Team Magma, and general people.I say Sapphire "gets" Gym Badges, because she usually doesn't win them by defeating a Gym Leader, as one would expect. Instead, she impresses said Gym Leader, sometimes with her skills as a trainer. It's frustrating, but the rules in the manga allow for Gym Leaders to give out Badges to anyone for any reason they see fit (there's even one who gives it to kids in his town for simply rushing at him headlong with their pokemon, despite them having no hope of winning an actual battle). I do like how her cleverness and quick-thinking in battle and dangerous situations is highlighted. Ruby has a brutal fight with his dad ... who just wanted to tell him he's free to do contests after all? I mean, the fight borders on abusive, and Ruby's life is definitely on the line! How does this make Ruby happy? I don't get it. But I also don't get why he wants to hide his battle prowess. It should be noted that Contests in the manga do not have a battle aspect (they do in the anime). We don't get to see much of the Contests he's in; in fact, the one we mainly see is where a certain Gym Leader dominated the Beauty division, inspiring Ruby to want to be mentored by him. All that said, I like that Ruby ends up with pokemon he would not have chosen (they chose him), including an "ugly" one that he champions as his Beauty entry! (Of course, readers should know that this pokemon will evolve into his ultimate dream "beautiful" pokemon, but it's nice to see Ruby accept this pokemon as-is in the "ugly" stage without knowing this!) This volume really delves into Team Aqua and Team Magma and their respective goals. It's interesting seeing the different perspectives from those who have only interacted with one Team, or been against one while allied temporarily with the other. Sapphire and Ruby have had negative run-ins with both teams, so hopefully their insights will be useful for getting the Gym Leaders on board with the fact that both teams are bad and dangerous. There is a lot of action and adventure in this volume -- so many unusual situations and challenges. Somehow we still don't have a much better feel for Ruby and Sapphire, but that's partially because they can't focus on their own goals very easily, and any encounter with Team Magma or Team Aqua focuses mostly on their goals. But getting three normal-sized volumes in one, slightly larger book is a great deal that's almost like binge-reading the series in chunks. The next one is sure to be a doozy with two legendary pokemon on the verge of being woken up. Written: April 1, 2021
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