Pokémon Special/YMMV


 * Americans Hate Tingle: In the English-speaking fandom, the Ruby & Sapphire arc is pretty divisive, particularly due to its Arc Fatigue and rather infamous conclusion, but it's apparently very popular in Japan.
 * Base Breaker: Yellow, who's seen as either a perfectly fine character, or a Canon Sue of massive proportions.
 * To a lesser extent, Red. Fans either love him for being the original hero, or hate him because he's a bland and uninteresting Kid Hero compared to everyone else.
 * Broken Base: Whether Viz's or Chuang Yi's translation is better.
 * Another frequent discussion topic is whether this manga or the anime is better.
 * Complete Monster: Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius, Big Bad of the Unova saga, keeps his original monster credentials and takes them Up to Eleven. As in the games, he is the true leader of Team Plasma and is thus responsible for all the evil committed by Team Plasma. Posing as a kindly and benevolent individual who seeks Pokemon liberation from trainers, he is in truth a sadistic, self serving, narcissistic sociopath who seeks to disarm all trainers and exploit the power Pokemon possess so that he can become ruler of the Unova region and from there Take Over the World. To accomplish this, he raised his son N in an isolated environment and groomed him to be The Hero of legend by giving him a false view of the reality of humans and Pokemon, making him believe his Pokemon friends needed to be freed from the captivity of trainers, but Ghetsis actually planned to enslave all Pokemon for himself, and had no love for N as his son, viewing him only as a usable and ultimately disposable "decorative ornament" for his Evil Plan. He also used Mind Control to violate other humans' minds and make them release their beloved Pokémon companions, and it's suggested that he's used this on N too in order to obscure conflicting ideas from his mind. On his orders, Team Plasma steals Pokemon from trainers under the ruse of liberation, also nearly killing three Legendary Pokemon and abducting three other Legendary Pokemon to be used as test subjects. Ghetsis reveals his true colors when he has his team attack Unova's League Tournament site and place many spectators in harm's way, capturing six of Unova's Gym Leaders to have them beaten down and tied to crosses as a show of his team's power, even getting the one resilient Gym Leader to submit by threatening the life of an innocent hostage, and when some trainers attempt to free them, Ghetsis orders to have them all killed to make further examples of them. When he faces Black in battle, Ghetsis attempts to have the boy and all his Pokemon burned alive by flames created by his Hydreigon and brought to life by Volcarona in order to silence him, and when Ghetsis loses, he has his associate's Beheeyem make it so that Black ends up sealed inside the Light Stone, while he uses Black and White's distress as an opportunity to escape, cruelly mocking them as he does so. Two years later, Ghetsis captures the legendary Kyurem and uses it's freezing power as a destructive Freeze Ray to decimate many cities, freezing populated areas solid and endangering countless lives. Ghetsis attempted to raise Kyurem's maximum power so he could put the entire continent on ice in order to extort total control from it's leaders, and when N and some other young trainers try to stop him, he orders Kyurem to attack them all directly, being even willing to kill his own son. Seeing all Pokemon and fellow humans as tools for his use and thinking so little of their lives that he'd do them harm in a most casual manner with a pleasant grin on his face, Ghetsis sought to dominate everything in his path and relished the ways he could make others suffer in the process.
 * Sird of Team Galactic most likely qualifies for all the shit she has pulled. Her aura is described by Riley to be one of pure malice and evil.
 * The Masked Man from the G/S/C Chapter seems to qualify.
 * Similarly to the above there's Cyrus in the D/P/PL Chapter, who seems so monstrously evil and utterly detached from humanity
 * Cyrus' ex-crony Charon subverts it only because, despite being characterized as a cynical, greedy, utterly self-serving old sociopath with little to no redeeming features, he lacks the capability to pull off any of his heinous plots.
 * Crack Pairing: Many, many ships in this fandom.
 * 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.
 * Downer Ending: The conclusion of the FRLG arc.
 * Similarly,
 * Easily Forgiven:
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Blaine and Mewtwo in the first arc, Norman in Hoenn.
 * Wally for awakening a legendary and whom Took a Level in Badass. Also there are fans who wish he took Emerald's spot as the main character in the Battle Frontier.
 * Mimi and Zuzu, Ruby's Milotic and Swampert respectively, are also very popular.
 * First Installment Wins: An official poll conducted in 2005 saw Red, the first protagonist, voted as the most popular character in the series. In second was Yellow, the second protagonist, who at the time of the poll had not made an appearance in years.
 * The latest human and Pokemon poll shows Red topping yet again (with Gold, Ruby, and Yellow ranking 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively), while Pika tops the poll for the Pokemon.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In the American Pokémon community, this is pretty much THE popular Pokémon manga. In Japan, not quite so much; sure, it's popular enough to have lasted as long as it has, but THE popular Pokémon manga there is the Gag Series Pocket Monsters, of which the American base is not all that fond. Admittedly, it may help that the vast majority of other Pokémon manga end up under No Export for You.
 * Growing the Beard: The manga really started to hit its stride in the second volume with the introduction of Green, the expansion on Team Rockets' plans, and the first glimpse at Mewtwo. Then it really took off in the following volume with the raid on Silph Co.
 * Harsher in Hindsight:
 * The RS arc was chosen via poll to be re-released in wide-ban format. The arc whose legendaries had nature-based abilities and used them to wreak havoc on the region. Cue the horrific earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan right afterward. The aforementioned Tohoku Earthquake caused the publisher to postpone the release of second and third volume of wide-ban format.
 * When fans first saw the image of, there were a lot of rape jokes going around. When the following chapter came out,.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: So much that it's almost more prophetic than hilarious.
 * In the Yellow arc, there's a flashback of Oak's Kangaskhan beating one of Agatha's ghosts with a Dizzy Punch, which should be a total cop out seeing how Normal moves don't affect Ghosts. Now about a decade later in the newer games, Kangaskhan is given the ability Scrappy...which allows Normal (and Fighting) attacks to hit Ghost types.
 * The new "critical captures" feature in Black and White games sound a lot like capture spots.
 * So, you dress up as a Rocket member to infiltrate their base, only to have your cover blown because your disguise was ripped off...Special did it long before the HGSS games were released.
 * is finished off by a Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur simultaneously using their strongest attacks. It's the Triple Finish!
 * In the GSC arc, Misty ends up fighting Suicune in a cave behind Tohjo Falls. Turns out there really is a cave there in the game canon...
 * Eusine's Electrode can fly around with the power of electric currents. Gen 4 introduces Magnet Rise.
 * The manga started FatherlyShipping in the GSC arc. Hilariously enough, rather than having Falkner and Janine respect each other over their mutual daddy issues, the HGSS games took it into the other direction.
 * In Pokemon Platinum, you get the chance to purchase an insanely expensive villa and furnish it with insanely expensive furniture. Good thing that the lead character of the corresponding arc was conveniently already established to be insanely rich.
 * A green jewel meant to control Rayquaza...Emerald had one on his forehead before the HGSS games came up with the concept.
 * It took five generations for Game Freak to have the Gym Leaders more involved with the plot, have secondary jobs, and have them directly oppose the evil villainous team. It took only one for Pokespe.
 * Black's Munna clearing his head is a reference to the C-Gear. There is now a Munna C-Gear skin available.
 * In the GSC arc, some Rocket grunts fill a Spider Web with electricity. Gen 5 introduces the move Electroweb.
 * In the Platinum arc, Caitlin's personal Pokemon is a Gallade. As it turns out in the BW games, she is a master of psychic Pokemon.
 * The confirmation of  in BW 2... yup, Poke Spe already called it in the GSC arc.
 * Hype Backlash: It's very rare, but it happens occasionally as a result of its common perception as the "official" manga or the one and only manga, and the fact that is greatly overshadows the other manga in the fandom's eyes. Of course, the reason it overshadows the other manga is that most of them never get released outside of Japan as well as not being long enough to warrant much discussion.
 * Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Really a lot. (SpecialShipping, OldRivalShipping, etc.)
 * Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Green has been shipped with Red, Blue, Silver, Sabrina, and even Yellow.
 * Despite Yellow's obvious crush on Red, fans have shipped her with many, many other characters, including those who have yet to appear!
 * How has Red not been mentioned yet? He's been paired with EVERYONE.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Giovanni manipulated nearly every event in the first Chapter of the manga and can predict how a battle will turn out, what moves his opponent will make, how to counter-attack, AND the time it will take for it all to happen, all with a suaveness, dignity, and imposing demeanor of a Diabolical Mastermind Yakuza boss. Given he's been a trainer for YEARS, and, it makes sense. It also makes him a poster-boy (man?) for this trope.
 * Green also demonstrates aspects of this, despite being a heroine; she She eventually becomes a Guile Hero.
 * The Masked Man / Pryce of the Gold, Silver, and Crystal Chapter, whose plan was years in the making and came just an inch of success in the end.
 * Team Galactic's Cyrus also qualifies; he's ahead of the good guys, even Cynthia, throughout most of the Diamond and Pearl Chapter.
 * Ghetsis in the Unova arc has some serious credentials for magnificence too, being a Crazy Prepared Manipulative Bastard and The Chessmaster extraordinaire who actually subverts his game counterpart's Smug Snake status in the BW Chapter, having planned everything out well in advance (including his fallback scheme) and never losing his composure.
 * Lysandre of the XY/Z Chapter is also a strong qualifier. Like Giovanni and Cyrus he's suave, intelligent, stylish and ruthless, and like Ghetsis, has a back-up plan that he launches immediately once his initial master plan fails.
 * Memetic Mutation: It's quite popular on pixiv to take a scene from the manga and render it anime-style.
 * Medleys are also popular on niconico, usually with fans (as the characters) singing original lyrics.
 * Fans have no doubt in their minds that the author, Hidenori Kusaka, can see into the future. That, or he may just have a Celebi.
 * Moe: Yellow should definitely count.
 * Many a Dia fan has stated that he is the personification of adorableness.
 * Moral Event Horizon: While the Elite Four's plan for human genocide is horrific on it's own, Agatha's part in it is especially bad because she has no good reason for it - she simply desires greatness and to prove the supremacy of strong Pokemon trained by elite trainers in order to spite Professor Oak. She also gleefully expresses her desire to see both Oak and his grandson Blue dead.
 * What the Mask of Ice did to all the children he kidnapped put him on the line. Threatening the life of Kurt's granddaughter in order to make him comply with his commands sent him soaring over it into practically irredeemable territory.
 * Archie crosses it when he
 * Sird crossed the horizon when she had her Darkrai turn the four Kanto trainers plus Silver into stone and left them there for dead.
 * Cyrus' plan to tear the entire universe apart through a time/space distortion and then recreate it but devoid of spirit counts, as does Charon and Giratina
 * Ghetsis, being the habitual Dog Kicker that he is, has crossed the line several times over. His original Moral Event Horizon plans from the games are still here, but on top of that he has the Unova Gym Leaders captured, beaten up/tortured, and hung up on crosses in order to make a statement of Team Plasma's superiorty, and then tries to have his Hydregion kill Black with fire. When normal trainers interfere and stand up to Team Plasma, he orders for them to be killed too! Then when he and Black face off, he unleashes a team specially formed and trained to counter Black's team so that he can render Black defenseless and then murder him and his Pokemon via burning alive in order to cover up N's defeat. But the ultimate kicker is what happens after the battle -
 * If Lysandre's part in the destruction of Vaniville Town didn't immediately put him far over the line, most certainly does.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * The Pokémon Tower sequence, featuring zombie Pokémon and Blue's Charmeleon cutting an Arbok in half (though you find out later that it lived...)
 * The bit from Arbok's Pokédex description stating that it could survive and regenerate as long as it still had its head was confirmed canon in the Yellow chapter.
 * Blaine's Mewtwo cancer. His skin is literally bubbling and melting off, and from the RGB arc to the GSC one, the cancer spreads from his forearm all the way to his chest.
 * Red in the Yellow arc
 * Green's hand getting cut off during her battle with Lorelei which later reveals to be
 * The infamous conclusion to the FRLG arc.
 * The artist said that he was a fan of monster and horror movies, and that he wanted to incorporate as much of it as possible in the final battle of the RS arc; at certain parts, it shows.
 * Maxie during the final battle of the RS, right for Ruby to see. Can you imagine how Ruby felt, having already seen ?
 * Team Plasma
 * Real Women Never Wear Dresses/What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: There are those who bash White for being a Neutral Female and not being an Action Girl like her predecessors. Never mind that:
 * 1) There's still plenty of time for her to grow into an Action Girl. After all, Yellow knew even less about Pokemon training when she started out.
 * 2) She has a full-time job that doesn't leave her room for Pokemon training, nor does her job require it.
 * 3) Said job involves running her own business. When she actually does decide that she needs to learn how to fight, she actually has to suspend her agency.
 * And all this ends up a moot point anyway, since she does become a very competent Action Girl by the end.
 * The Scrappy: Yellow and Emerald attract the most ire from fans. Especially the latter; the former being more of a Base Breaker.
 * On the Pokemon front, White's Tepig, Gigi, seems to be the most reviled Mon in the series..
 * By the end of the arc, Gigi is somewhat Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. However, to say what did to the protagonists in the last chapter lost him many potential fans would be a HUGE understatement.
 * Shared Universe: The regions from the Pokémon Ranger series also exist in the PokéSpe-verse, although the manga for it only exists online.
 * Pokémon Snap also exists in this canon.
 * Shipping: There is a fandom for the shipping aspect. The shipping index applies here.
 * Ship Tease: Arguably Wallace and Winona.
 * There's also Ruby/Sapphire, Ruby/Courtney, Green/Silver, Blue/Green, Gold/Crystal, Silver/Crystal, Red/Yellow, Silver/Yellow and Red/Misty.
 * The Sinnoh trio gets a lot with each other in their arcs. OT3, anyone?
 * As of now, it's probably safe to say that every single member of the 4 Power Trios has had notable moments with each other.
 * Don't forget Bill and Daisy, which is quite nearly canon.
 * White admits to herself that she finds Black to be pretty cool within two days of meeting him.
 * When White goes missing, Black spends the whole night looking for her, and, upon meeting the person who he thinks is responsible for her disappearance, immediately sics his entire team on said person.
 * The train scene. Oh boy the train scene.
 * Ship-to-Ship Combat: Despite the shipping fandom being peaceful in general, small breaks happen every now and then. Blue/Green and Green/Silver shippers in particular are quite bitter enemies. And the less said about the ongoing Dia/Platinum vs. Pearl/Platinum debate, the better.
 * Most N/White shippers tend to have quite a bit of flak to launch at Black/White shippers, and vice-versa. A bit ironic, really, since the game-verse ship (FerrisWheelShipping) comes from the ever-famous ferris wheel scene, while in the manga, that scene is Unsurprisingly, said scene hasn't halted the shippers even slightly.
 * Toy Ship: The most canon romance with the Dex holders so far is
 * More tellingly, if two kids are willing, you do have to wonder just what drives them.
 * Values Dissonance: Norman and Giovanni are good fathers?
 * The latter in particular is Hilarious in Hindsight because HGSS games show that Giovanni was a complete asshole to his kid! He may or may not have loved his son but that doesn't change the fact that he walked out on him.
 * Except in this canon, that didn't happen, as Giovanni was only separated from his kid because . This version of Giovanni may still be a terrible person, but he's a great father.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Thanks to his long red hair, there's hardly a reader who hasn't mistaken Silver for a girl upon seeing him for the first time. In-story, Gold mistakes Bugsy, the Azalea Town gym leader, for a girl when meeting him.
 * The Shadow Triad appear to be Mello Expies.
 * Villain Sue: Arguably Sird, who has had in a hand in pretty much everything evil since she debuted and has never been defeated in battle as of yet.
 * N shows signs of being one too, being portrayed as almost all knowing when it comes to Pokemon, able to break people's spirits with a simple Hannibal Lecture and make things go his way. It's subverted at the very end when he's revealed to be nothing more than a disposable brainwashed pawn in his father's evil scheme.
 * Woolseyism: Viz switching Green and Blue's names around may be this seeing as Red and Blue were the original games to come out in the US.
 * During GSC, Gold faces the Sprout Tower's sages. In the Japanese original, they have punny names; this is kept in Chuang Yi's version, but Viz played it for game accuracy and the pun was lost.
 * When the Gym Leaders are introduced during the Pokemon League, Lt. Surge is referred as "The Lightning Soldier" rather than his official game title, "The Lightning American", because we're not sure if America exists in this canon.
 * At the end of the GSC arc, rather than editing out the image of Gold patting Green's butt, Viz made Gold claim it was an accident. Since Gold's face still indicates him doing it on purpose, it works by making him seem like he was making excuses for himself.
 * Dia and Pearl's pun-based manzai skits are different in every translation, for obvious reasons.
 * The Woobie: All of the kids qualify on at least one point of their stories.