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* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: In the English-speaking fandom, the ''Ruby & Sapphire'' arc is pretty divisive, particularly due to its [[Arc Fatigue]] and [[Deus Ex Machina|rather infamous conclusion]], but it's apparently very popular in Japan.
* [[Arc Fatigue]]: The Hoenn and Sinnoh arcs get the most flak for this, ''especially'' the former given how the Grodon VS Kyogre chapters go on and on ''and on'', and the story just does not seem to want to end until it finally does.
** The Black 2/White 2 Chapter started in 2013, around half a year after the games it's based on, but its run immediately ended due to the manga not having enough magazines and the need to promote the XY arc (since Gen VI was already underway). The arc would only continue in 2016, after both XY and ORAS have wrapped up and SM (aka Gen VII) has begun. Only in 2017 did the arc start to show signs of approaching the climax, which
* [[Ass Pull]]: {{spoiler|Ruby had Celebi on him the whole time in Ruby and Sapphire, and he uses it to undo the deaths of several characters. While it did get some brief Foreshadowing, it still feels like a lazy cop-out to not have to any permanent consequences.}}
* [[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.
** Blake is a rather controversial character, with fans either disliking or appreciating his cold and arrogant Mr. Perfect personality, and finding his classmate persona either highly amusing or just plain aggravating.
** Non-Dexholder example: Shana from Kalos. Some find her pessimism, a complete 180 degree flip from her game canon counterpart, to be off-putting. Others find it refreshing and point out that it makes sense given what happened to X and to Vaniville Town.
* [[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.
** Whether the demotion of several important/popular characters not named after the games (such as Wally, Cheren and Bianca) was a good move or not.
** Whether the [[Adaptational Villainy]] of some of the characters is necessary for the plot or off-putting for those who liked their original characterizations. Many people at least agree that the original in-game characters (especially in the first chapter) didn't have much to begin with.
* [[Complete Monster]]: [[Sinister Minister|Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius]], [[Big Bad]] of the Unova saga, keeps his original monster credentials and takes them [[Up to Eleven]], making him [[Adaptational Villainy|come off even worse than his gameverse counterpart.]] As in the games, he is the true leader of [[Animal Wrongs Group|Team Plasma]] and is thus responsible for all the evil committed by Team Plasma. [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Posing as a kindly and benevolent individual]] who seeks Pokemon liberation from trainers, he is in truth a habitually [[Soft-Spoken Sadist|sadistic]], [[It's All About Me|self serving]], [[Narcissist|narcissistic]] [[The Sociopath|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 [[Abusive Parents|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 [[I Lied|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 "decoration" for his [[Evil Plan]]. He also used [[Mind Control]] to [[Mind Rape|violate other humans' minds]] and make them release their beloved Pokémon companions, and it's heavily 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, with his loyal servants, the Shadow Triad, also nearly killing three Legendary Pokemon and abducting three other Legendary Pokemon to be used as test subjects. Ghetsis reveals his [[
** Sird of Team Galactic most likely qualifies as this. She's first seen working undercover as a member of Team Rocket's Beast Trio in the FireRed and LeafGreen arc, and unlike her comrades she is shown to commit atrocities [[For the Evulz]], culminating in her attempting to petrify Deoxys with an attack from her Darkrai only for it to end up hitting the five young dexholders Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Silver, turning them to stone. Sird showed no remorse for this and even took satisfaction in it. We later find out that she ended up saving Archie and Maxie from certain doom only to make the two men duel to the death for a special armor that grants eternal life to whoever wears it. Archie ended up murdering Maxie for the armor, an act of evil that Sird flat out commended. However, it turned out that if the armor was to be removed, it would drain the life from the one wearing it and kill them, which ended up happening to Archie at the end of the Emerald arc. In the Diamond and Pearl arc, Sird reveals her fixation on the Poke'Dex, which is so great that she hijacked Charon's [[Mind Control]] program to override one Galactic grunt's mind with her own, effectively brainwashing him into doing her bidding and trying to steal a Poke'Dex from Dia, Pearl, or Platinum - an end to which he'd attempt anything, even risking the three kids' lives in the process. If her latter appearances are any indication, Sird is a [[Hidden Agenda Villain]] with probable [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]. According to Riley, her aura is one of pure malevolence and evil.
** The Masked Man from the G/S/C Chapter ''seems'' to qualify, what with him abducting six different children and raising them to be molded into his followers, brainwashing many members of Team Rocket with [[Mind Control]] masks, having no compunction with threatening to kill anyone in his way (even threatening the life of a small child in order to get something from her grandfather), risking bringing about the death of the entire planet through a [[Time Crash]], and being an emotionless madman who claims that Pokemon are only useful as tools and weapons. {{spoiler|It's [[Anti-Villain|majorly averted]] in the end, with both the characters and the reader realizing he's just an insane but miserable and lonely old man who does love Pokemon and is motivated by a desire to make things right for his Lapras, but has become a [[Misanthrope Supreme]] due to holding his pain and grief in for years.}}
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*** 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.
* [[Counterpart Comparison]]: The manga is commonly compared to ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' recently due to the overuse of kanji words in a scene (notably some of them are the same to the Menacing symbols from JoJo) as well as the fact that the protagonists change all the time after every part and that there is a large amount of [[Gorn]].
* [[Crack Pairing]]: Many, many ships [https://web.archive.org/web/20100923133134/http://forums.mangafox.com/showthread.php?t=146853 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. Subverted by the ''Black 2 and White 2'' arc, in which Cheren becomes a regularly appearing character.
* [[Downer Ending]]: The conclusion of the FRLG arc. {{spoiler|The next arc rectifies it, though.}}
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** Mimi and Zuzu, Ruby's Milotic and Swampert respectively, are also very popular.
* [[First Installment Wins]]: An [http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Special:_November_2005_update 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20120109062442/http://family.shogakukan.co.jp/kids/netkun/pokemon/official/story/0904/popular_human.html human] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20131227111110/http://family.shogakukan.co.jp/kids/netkun/pokemon/official/story/0904/popular_poke.html 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 (manga)|Pocket Monsters]]'', of which the American base [[Americans Hate Tingle|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.
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*** How has Red not been mentioned yet? He's been paired with EVERYONE.
* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Kusaka seems fond of this trope for his villains:
** 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 {{spoiler|wrote THE BOOK on Ground types & his Viridian powers, though his
** Lance of the Elite Four, whose plan to wipe out humanity while eliminating all opposition that could stand against him is very nearly successful, and at the tail end of it he even manages to outplay Giovanni himself!
** Green also demonstrates aspects of this, despite being a heroine; she {{spoiler|manipulates nearly every event in the second arc by setting Yellow on her quest and telling her never to remove her hat-- which she bugs with a GPS beacon and recording device. "I've been... um... using Yellow as my learning aid!"}} 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; through careful planning, series of tactical diversions, and sheer determination, Cyrus manages to stay one step ahead of the heroes and succeeds in capturing the Lake Guardians, harnessing their power to create the Red Chains. When the second one was incomplete due to the Guardians' escaping, Cyrus had a weaker artificially-created Red Chain as a substitute. With the Red Chains, Cyrus takes control over Dialga and Palkia, forcing them to fight each other. The resulting clash will tear apart the Space-Time continuum, allowing Cyrus to create his "complete" world in its wake. Upon his defeat, Cyrus begins to see the error of his ways and later returns to assist the Dex Holders in taking down the traitorous Charon. Cyrus then departs alongside his loyal commanders to lands unknown, commending the Dex Holders for their noble and "complete" hearts.
** Ghetsis in the
** Colress in the B2/W2 Chapter, who manages to stay one step ahead of the law while wreaking terrible destruction upon Unova, all while remaining perversely likable in his eccentric manchild attitude.
** 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.
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** In the Viz release, the main characters are named Blake and Whitley, rather than the Japanese names of Lack-Two and Whi-Two, which work fine for Japanese...not so much for English.
* [[The Woobie]]: All of the kids qualify on at least one point of their stories.
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