To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokémon Adventures, VIZ Media has published a new book for readers entitled Pokémon Adventures 20th Anniversary Illustration Book: The Art of Pokémon Adventures. This book became longer than its title by featuring over 170 pages of illustrations, including several fold-out landscapes and a removable poster featuring the cover art. The book is illustrated and compiled by Satoshi Yamamoto, illustrator of the Pokémon Adventures manga.
Yamamoto, who celebrated his 50th birthday along with the 20th anniversary, has included hundreds of full-color illustrations, manga covers, and sketches for readers to pore over. Many illustrations will be familiar to readers of the manga, as some of the art is directly from the manga and its covers. Readers will be pleasantly surprised, however, to find the endless concept sketches, components (art which is later combined with others for a larger compilation), drafts, and artist notes, and a detailed index identifying each piece.
Some of my favorite spreads include:
- The back cover, which features various villains from the Pokémon Adventures series. (Above)
- Pages 126-127, which feature character designs and special effects, with many partial sketches to show how Yamamoto creates his compelling scenes and characters.
- Pages 110-111, which feature cover art from Pokémon X•Y, Volume 3. Page 110 shows the front cover illustration, while page 111 shows component art of X and Kangaskhan from the scene on page 110 above the art for the back cover of the edition.
- Page 33, which is one of the fold-out landscapes, featuring the compiled cover art from Pokémon Adventures volumes 23-25.
The book wraps up with a bonus release of the Pokémon Ranger side story, published in English for the first time. This thrilling short is a great introduction to the Pokémon Rangers of Fiore Region, and their unique relationships with Pokémon.
You can get Pokémon Adventures 20th Anniversary Illustration Book: The Art of Pokémon Adventures on Amazon for $16.99 and free one-day shipping with Amazon Prime.
