Pokemon Mystery Dungeon In Different Mediums Script

Overview:

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one of my favourite games of all time. In fact, to this day Red/Blue Rescue Team and Sky are my favourite Pokemon games. I find that a lot of people on Youtube don’t have much to say about these games, a shame really since the stories these games have are incredible. The emotional journey of one day becoming a Pokemon and setting out to explore a world where you interact with Pokemon as people. Rather than from the perspective of a trainer raising a pet to fight. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon franchise has been popular enough to have its stories translated into a myriad of different mediums to experience the games’ stories such as in the form of a manga or anime. Well, that is actually a lie, to make this clear from the start all these different adaptations are glorified advertisements. Nothing wrong with that; most modern anime is created to just promote the source material, which could be a: manga, or even a visual novel. Most turn out great and help skyrocket sales for the source material. I sure as hell wouldn’t know about my favourite series today, Re;Zero, without the anime adaptation bringing light to a series made by an author who originally started writing it for fun, back when it was just a web novel. He is also a butcher which might explain his obsession with (…death… *To be recorded separately*)

You know, the people making these large-scale ads should really pat themselves on the back knowing they transformed something into a different medium and made it good enough for people to want to continue the story. While they are advertisements, they don’t feel that way because the ad already gave you a taste for what the series is like or might be like in the future, giving you that unconscious push to look into the original story without being explicitly told to do so. Marketing 101 ladies and gentlemen!

But getting back on topic, these different adaptations are glorified advertisements. The different adaptations of the Mystery Dungeon stories we will be looking at today were made to simply spread awareness about the games. Letting people know they exist and what not. I still think they’ll be an interesting look as some of these stories give a unique twist to the original game’s stories. Allowing us to see the characters and world in a new light, but don’t expect these short stories to rival the games because unlike most anime adaptations, they don’t.

For the purposes of this video, we’ll review each of the different Mystery Dungeon stories separately to look at how they stand on their own. Then we’ll be pitting them against one another to find which one was the best out of the ones we looked at. Now, with all those silly formalities aside let us see what Pokemon Mystery Dungeon looks like in different mediums.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Ginji’s Rescue Team: Brief Review

History:

First, we’ll start with how Ginji’s Rescue Team’s manga came to fruition. It was first published in the Japanese Corocoro comics in 2005. Then it was later translated and published by Nintendo Power in 2006. Although, this was only in North America as over in the UK the comic was published in Jetix Magazine, interesting trivia considering I always knew Jetix as the weird TV station that aired old anime cartoons in the west. The Mystery Dungeon issues ran from September 2006 up until February 2007 in Nintendo power under the issues 207,208,209,210, 211 and 212. The manga’s story and art is done by Makoto Mizobuchi, who’s responsible for other Pokemon-related things for instance:the Ranger manga series, The Pokemon Pocket edition series, another Pokemon Mystery Dungeon manga called Explorers of Flame, which we will be looking at later on and some other cool series. I’ll leave a link in the description of the video if anyone’s really that interested in knowing what else he made, but hey you’re all here for Mystery Dungeon so I’m sure you won’t care that much-. This is my poor attempt at being funny roll with it…

Swiftly *ahem* moving on from...that, something weird that I found interesting was in the Dutch translation of Ginji’s Rescue Team they accidentally left one small sentence in English, that must have left a lot of kids confused.

They later compiled the 6 chapters into one short manga volume by Viz Media, under the label Viz Kids, seemingly being the only Pokemon manga series produced by Viz. Dutch and France got an entirely new set of box art to go with the manga chapters; honestly, it would have been better if they just used the official art the manga already had. I can’t imagine slapping on new text in another language is more difficult than making entirely new art, although it does make for an intriguing piece of history in hindsight. Now, I feel enough time has passed, it’s time to dive into the story.

Story Summary:

Ginji bolts home from school one afternoon to look for his birthday presents that his mom hid away. After scouring the house to no avail, the boy succumbs to sleep and wakes up as a Pokemon. He meets a Mudkip, and together, they both save a Caterpie who fell down a fissure in the woods. They then set out from there to become a Rescue Team, beginning by escorting Gengar to the Hill of Ancients. After a heated battle with Zapdos they all meet Xatu who reveals that Ginji is a human and a great calamity awaits him. Sometime later Gengar has told the legendries and some Pokemon in the square about the Ninetales legend, revealing that Ginji is human. Prompting Ginji to seek the truth by searching for Ninetales. After having his fair share of challenges in-between it all such as fighting Moltres and Articuno, Ginji meets Ninetales. She reveals that Gengar was the human from the legend and that Ginji was summoned to calm the Natural Disasters plaguing the Pokemon world. Though after they defeated Groundon things went back to normal, this time Ginji bolting to school.

Story:

Now, as I stated at the start of the video the story for this manga is nowhere near as good as the original, not even close. It is impossible to translate a 20-hour story into a 6-chapter manga and make it as good or better than the original. With All that being said, Ginji’s rescue team did a good job with the chapters it had to work with.

To start with, I like how Makoto Mizobuchi decides to interpret some dungeons in unique ways. The Aridos’ nest within what I’ll assume to be the Tiny Woods was a nice fight scene that established the start of Mudkip’s development. The art Mizobuchi did of the cave’s surrounding area really created a sinister atmosphere, something that he pulled off splendidly in Articuno’s first appearance. Mt. Freeze being a bit of a maze was interesting to see as well; Mizobuchi likely created these alternatives for what Mystery Dungeons look like to get around the page limit he had. For the most part, the power scaling in fights seemed to be alright as well except for maybe Zapdos who got screwed over by Mud Sport. A useless move given so much power outside of the games. Pokemon, never change.

This manga had a myriad of changes to the story to best suit the 6-chapter format. By chapter 2 our heroes are already fighting Zapdos heading to the Hill of Ancients, it had its location changed from the Great Canyon to Mt. Thunder. Also just a side note, I really like how Torchic has his headband on in some of the art here akin to how its worn in Red Rescue Team’s promotional art. Pokemon, never chan-Noooooooooooooo!(insert image of fixed art in rescue team DX)

3 out of the 6 chapters focus on the fugitive arc, the most important story arc in the games. Ginji’s rescue team doesn’t do this arc justice, but…I think that’s ok. The original game’s fugitive arc was heart wrenching, emotional and even inspiring in some ways. You’ve lost your memories in this unknown world trying to figure out who the hell you are and when you find a lead for how you became a Pokemon, suddenly, your life is at stake. All the bonds you forged. The people you met, are ready to kill you. You can neither scorn nor deny them. All you can do is ‘run’ and ‘survive’. Seek the truth, you choose to believe in that truth because whether at the end it’s decided if you have to live or die, at least you were able to find an answer. What really gets the tears streaming though is your partner’s decision to stay with you. Them sticking with you despite everything makes it feel like you forged a real connection, like you made a real friend, making the reveal of your innocence all the sweeter. Man…did I really just went on that long of a rant, my mouth never seems to rest, scripted or not.

Anyways, back to what I was saying…The manga doesn’t have the same impact as: you barely get to know the Pokemon from the square, what happens initially doesn’t faze Ginji, Mudkip tagging along with him when Ginji is accused is more a testament to Mudkip’s character rather than their friendship since they barely knew each other AND because the whole square aren’t after Ginji there isn’t that sense of urgency like in the games. I need to take a breath after that…deep…deep breahs…

One last negative for the road. Why is the text describing Gengar blatantly says he’s up to no good? Cringe aside this just ruins Gengar’s twist of having malicious intent. Now, you could hop into the comments and say it was obvious, or whatever. However, in my defense, we all sometimes just want to keep our suspension of disbelief, alright?

I want to end things with the note that in the games the final challenge our heroes have to face is Raquaza instead of Groudon. This change is fine since the meteor plot line would have taken up too much time and the explanation that Gengar caused Groundon’s awakening, its defeat being the climax, was good enough.

Characters:

Ginji is your typical shounen protagonist-type character. Stubborn and reckless to a fault. Someone with a good heart. Not particularly bright but always inspiring. What makes Ginji different is how blunt his character can be, this guy is just straight-up brutal, and I love it. At the end of the story, Ginji’s realization that he was summoned to a different world to solve their problems gave him the necessary motivation to potentially face school and get his grades up since it made him realize that he has the ability to do a lot of things if he puts in the extra work.

Ginji’s brutal attitude inspires character growth for Mudkip who is, as Ginji puts it, wishy-washy. Has aspirations to do big things but when it comes time to attempt to do those things, he instead procrastinates. Holding onto the desire to be better like it’s some distant goal for the future, is it sad that I relate to this soooo much?

But, by the end of the story, Mudkip becomes so much better just by trying and I can also appreciate how wholesome he can be, like him sticking with Ginji, no doubt in his mind, that he’s innocent. Or jumping in front of a rock to prevent Gengar from being injured, which helped Gengar realise that staying to protect Gardevoir was the right choice because sometimes making sacrifices for those you care about is more fulfilling than being scared and selfish, like he was. Gengar is also quite dubious this time around compared to the original red rescue team since his overarching goal is to awaken Groudon to destroy the Pokemon world. Gengar frames Ginji to buy time so he can awaken Groudon. He’s also the one to individually tell Moltres and Articuno about Ginji’s devious actions. In stark contrast to the games where he frames the player to eliminate his chances of being found out as the humans from the Ninetales’ legend.

The legendary bird’s characterizations aren’t much different from how they were portrayed in the games minus Articuno who is given somewhat of a personality. Articuno is shown to be slightly more cautious in contrast to Moltres and Zapdos. Zapdos is mostly a mindless beast with a lot of power. In my opinion, Moltres is quite gullible, quickly believing what Gengar has to say and reaffirming Gengar’s belief to itself when he thinks Ginji is doing something slightly unfavorable. Articuno was the only Pokemon they couldn’t beat, it’s only thanks to Absol that they convinced Articuno to let them go free.

Absol is hands down my favourite character in the manga. This is a rare case where the manga outshined the games; Absol’s character here is shown to empathize with Ginji as he was also outcasted by the spread of strange rumors, it being about how he’s the disaster Pokemon, one who brings calamity wherever he goes. It gives him a clear motivation for why he decides to help Ginji on behalf of saving the Pokemon world and saving him from Articuno. The games simply left his character quite ambiguous, him joining the party as an ally, to which we never learn anything further regarding Absol.

Alakazam’s team was added last minute into the story and I’m just wondering, what did they do to you Alakazam? Tyranitar and Charizard are pretty much the same because…they didn’t have much character to begin with so you can’t exactly screw up what didn’t exist in the first place. Alakazam got done dirty though, maybe it’s how his lines were translated, like here where he talks about how Mudkip has grown from being a weakling just makes me cringe. Him calling Mudkip a weakling comes off as Alakazam being full of himself.

When you’re forced to become fugitives in the games Alakazam wants to get rid of you, however, he understands the situation you’re in and gives you time to run away to find the truth. He wishes you the best instead of here where it feels like he’s mocking them.

Finally, looking at the various Pokemon from the Pokemon Square, their characters are non-existent here and you know what? Fair play to Makoto Mizobuchi. It’s understandable since it is a lot of characters, and their main purpose was to serve as NPCs that would allow you to buy items and equipment for your adventures. Though it would have been nice to at least see Pelipper.

Overall enjoyment/Conclusion:

A decent adaptation. Ginji’s rescue team is not perfect, carrying over some of Rescue Team’s faults like the Pokemon from Pokemon Square being dry characters, no individual personality in sight. The manga’s length leading to changes in the story such as Ginji just not caring about what is happening, even though we as readers are supposed to have investment into it. Regardless, in its limited run time it managed to do characterization better than Red and Blue Rescue Team. They’re being a visible dynamic between Torchi,Mudkip and Absol’s friendship with one another. The manga using a lot of subtly to develop the characters and boy does it work; this one is definitely a strong contender for being Pokemon Mystery Dungeon’s best ad.

If you’re looking to read this manga amazon has some good prices, so look their preferably and not…eBay. They’re really trying to scam people with that shipping cost.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Go-Getters Out of the Gate:

History:

Team Go-Getters Out of The Gate was created by Team Koitabashi, named after the lead animator Tsukasa Koitabashi. This special first aired in Japan on the 23rd of March 2007 and aired on September 7th 2006, a few months earlier in America on Cartoon Network. Despite being made by a Japanese animation team. WHAT?! As far as I’m aware there isn’t any real explanation for this online, so I’ll just assume they wanted to advertise the Mystery Dungeon games to a more western audience than Japanese one. While you’d think this special would just be lost to time, the official Pokemon Youtube channels, both in Japanese and English, eventually uploaded this special in 2015 as sort of a small advertisement for Super Mystery Dungeon to show people that, ‘hey’ Mystery Dungeon is still a thing. I think?! Uploaded on the 3rd of July on the Japanese Youtube channel and October 22nd on the English Youtube Channel.

Story Summary:

Our story starts with a regular human one day waking up as a Squirtle. He’s greeted by a Charmander who runs a rescue team with another Pokemon, Chikorita, known as Team Go-Getters. Their main purpose is to help Pokemon in need after the influx of strange natural disasters happening in the Pokemon world. And Squirtle quickly joins their rescue team? OK?! I mean, that was quick. A race against time as their mission throughout the special is to rescue Pichu’s brother who had been held captive by Skarmory before another Rescue Team known as Team Meanies.

By the end they were able to defeat Skarmory using Corozal twigs and Squirtle gaining access to a quick seed; the special ending with Charmander, Chikorita and Squirtle heading back to the Pelipper’s Office for more jobs. Near the end, hinting to a larger narrative.

Story:

Unlike Ginji’s rescue team this one wreaks of advertisement; it’s plastered all over it with a massive rainbow neon sign yelling it down your ears. And I can’t be too mad at them especially since animation takes a lot of time and money compared to drawing manga. Furthermore, 22 minutes really can’t fully establish a story or world. So, this special just adopts a simple rescue team mission of saving Pichu’s brother with some subtle hints to the original rescue team’s story such as the natural disasters plaguing the Pokemon world and Team Alakazam in Magma Carvern, an important location the games. Something weird that they did was making Skarmory revert to being calm after getting roughed up. Likewise, to how you fought Raquaza to calm him down, it’s an idea that isn’t properly explored in the games either as Raquaza is the only immediate example for this. Granted, exploring this idea was in no way necessary, just thought I’d mention it.

Other than that, I like how in this special Charmander uses his fire to scare away the Shroomish in contrast to how Ginji burns the Sunkern to a crisp in the manga.

Characters: To begin with all the characters don’t have much depth to them, a 22-minute special I know, though similar to many other kids shows, especially of the anime variety the characters fall into set tropes. Team Meanies being the bully characters up to no good. Team Go-Getters being an upstart rescue team with a set level of ambition to one day be the best, you know standard stuff.

Same goes for our main character Squirtle who’s pretty much an average person. Don’t take this as criticism of the character though since the main character of the Mystery Dungeon games acts as a self-insert, Squirtle fills the role well enough. Moreover, I liked Squirtle’s small progression in his abilities. He wanted to learn water gun so desperately but kept using bubble instead. Eventually, he’s able to use it after his failed attempts. I know it was only 2 or 3 times but, come on, they had 22 minutes. Can’t expect too much out of an ad.

Charmander and Chikorita have some slight differences in their personality, Charmander being the one more prone to being positive and Chikarita being the one most likely to be easily dejected when things go wrong, like when Team Meanies ate all their items. Out of the two Charmander is the most like your partner Pokemon in the games.

To wrap up the character discussion, other characters simply get mentioned or just play minor roles in the special; conversely, one that always bugs the hell out of me is how: Lombre, Bellsprout, and Snubbell act when any rescue team besides Team Alakazam take on a Rescue Mission. You’re not as good as Team ACT, they’re the best.

I’d like to see you try and form a rescue tea-(Insert Lombre punch)

YOU LITTLE-----(maybe voice distortion?)

Overall enjoyment/Conclusion:

All in all, Team Go-Getters isn’t half bad honestly. Even if Ginji’s rescue team had more character development and some more interesting takes on the original game’s story, this anime relegating itself to one standalone story made it quite enjoyable honestly. Even if the characters are underdeveloped, I wouldn’t say it was a weak point for the special. A character being one-dimensional throughout a whole narrative is boring because you spend more time with them. Here it’s only about 22 minutes so you won’t really care. This a fun watch for any Mystery Dungeon fan out there and a good gateway into the games. To watch it just search up Team Go-getters on Youtube and you should find the special on Pokemon’s official Youtube channel. Though, for all the lazy people out there, there’ll be a link in the description of this video.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Flame/Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blazing Exploration Team:

History:

Explorers of Flame was released on the 28th of August 2008 written and illustrated by Makoto Mizobuchi, the same person who wrote and illustrated Ginji’s Rescue Team, published in the Corocoro comics in Japan. There isn’t anything else online I can find with the history behind this manga since it never got an official English translation.

Story Summary:

Summary as usual. This time our story begins with a Totodile attempting to register for Wigglytuff’s guild that trains Pokemon into becoming full-fledged explorers. Totodile chickens out and runs to a beach where he finds a Chimchar laying in the sand claiming he’s human. From there the rest of the chapter follows Chimchar, who claims his name is Fire. Fire?! I thought this was a joke at first, but it seems like there are folks who’d name their kids, fire I guess…has the end of humanity reached so soon. Fire and Totodile go to chase after a Zubat and Koffing that ran away after Totodile kinda just gives it to them, partner Pokemon having a low IQ? Check! Wouldn’t be Mystery Dungeon if they didn’t.

After a rock her and some confusion there, they recover the Relic Fragment, meeting an explorer known as Dusknoir along the way. By Chapter 2 they’ve become full-fledged members of Wigglytuff’s Explorers Guild, one time skip later and there is a thief stealing all the time gears across the Pokemon world. The Guild decides to help leading to Fire and Totodile fighting Grovyle. They defeat Grovyle with the help of Dusknoir and back to the future, he goes to be…executed?! Well, yeah plot twist turns out Dusknoir is evil and is looking to execute: Fire, Totodile, and Grovyle. The trio manages to escape. Totodile shares his concerns if whether he and Fire should trust Grovyle. They agree to stay with one another at least until they all reach the past. Grovyle guides them to the legendary Pokemon, Celebi, who will create the gate for them to go back. Unfortunately, Dusknoir is a few steps ahead of them as he blocks them from getting to the gate of Time created by Celebiwith his Sabyele and big daddy Primal Dialga. This was when Dusknoir revealed that Flame was from the future and Grovyle’s partner! DUN DUN DUN! Anyway, Celebi teleports them to the passage of time. While Primal Dialga does interrupt her teleportation, she’s able to get them close enough to where they are able to jump into the gate, the trio being flung to the past.

From here Grovyle sets out to get the rest of the time gears, while Fire and Totodile set their sites on searching for the hidden land. They get assistance from a wise Torchal who redirects them to brine cave. Heading into the dungeon’s depths Totodile puts in his Relic Fragment and Lapris appears to be their guide towards the Hidden land.

After crossing the Hidden Land, before they can put their relic fragment into the rainbow start stone ship Dusknoir interrupts and attack them. Dusknoir was on the cusp of victory though Deus Ex Machina appeared in the form of Grovyle, assisting the duo in stopping Dusknoir. Dusknoir again drops a gigantic nuke on Fire, claiming that them restoring the future will make all the future Pokemon disappear including himself, Grovyle. While Grovyle confirms this Fire is given no time to digest this information as Dusknoir attempts to attack once again, Grovyle intervenes and drags Dusknoir into the portal back to the future. He entrusts the future of everyone in their hands.

Chimchar and Totodile head for the top of Temporal Tower. One fight with Dialga later and they save the world! Hooray!

No, Dammit No! Fire has to say goodbye to Totodile as now he and the rest of the Pokemon disappear from the world. Sometime later and Totodile is still mourning Fire’s death. As a gift for stopping Temporal Tower’s fall aka the corruption of time, Dialga brings back Fire, we’ll assume it was a happily ever after.

If you’re wondering, Dialga also brought back all from the future as well, which was shown in special episode 5 in Explorers of Sky. They don’t show that resolution here though so in this universe they could be presumed as dead. Oof!

Story:

You’re probs wondering why that summary was so long, well that’s because that’s what the majority of this manga focuses on. Ginji’s Rescue Team despite having to fit a 20-hour plot into 6 manga chapters had room to start developing some of the characters from the games in its own way. Here?(Insert ain’t nobody got time for that joke)

I mean Explorers of Flame follows Ginji’s rescue team’s story structure. Chapter 1 focusing on some basic introductions to the characters and the most in-depth detail and backgrounds for what Mystery Dungeons are like. Jump to chapter 2 and suddenly, we’re already nails deep into the plot.

The original time and darkness have an average story playtime of 23 hours, about the same as Red and Blue Rescue Team. Even despite that, there is a much more heavy focus on the plot in Time and Darkness a lot of your time in the main game experiencing the story. In the previous games, you’d be screwing around a lot waiting for stuff to happen, taking up a large part of the playtime.

Mizobuchi this time around didn’t focus at all on making unique interpretations of the game’s dungeons and such. Heck, you don’t even get to see the dungeons this time around besides the first chapter. And you know what, screw it, I still found the story more enjoyable to read than Ginji’s Rescue Team. Maybe this is just my clear bias for Sky showing but the story here hits those emotional cues much better than the previous manga did. The betrayal of Dusknoir, finding out you might soon be killed and the shocking reveal behind how you became a Pokemon. It still doesn’t hit as hard as the games, but it hits more than Ginji’s Rescue Team. Not to mention the chemistry between the characters being ever so slightly better, we’ll get to that in a bit.

Looking into some of the story changes, Koffing and Zubat never come back again since here the expedition arc was cut for time’s sake. Torchal appears later down the road when Fire and Totodile are looking for the Hidden Land like in the games rather than his first appearance being after you’ve been flushed out of the waterfall cave. Some other minor changes being that you don’t set out to save Mesprit and you only look to help protect the time gear entrusted to Azelf. When Fire and Totodile headed back to Wigglytuff’s guild it was already frozen in time. Huh

This story change bugs the hell out of me but not as much as the one coming next. Grovyle initially doesn’t come with Fire and Totodile in favor of collecting all the time gears. Ok, shouldn’t they wait for Grovyle then? I mean without the time gears you can’t fix Temporal Tower so going ahead without him isn’t really that smart, especially considering Lapris is their only form of transport towards the Hidden Land and YOU’RE ALREADY OCCUPYING THEM! And I’m sorry, Grovyle could not have shown up in time to save them, unless he knows teleportation or Lapris is as fast as lightning then this shouldn’t be possible. My Deus Ex Machina alert has now rung high into the sky!

The most jarring change that still keeps me up at night is how WIGGLYTUFF SAYS NOTHING! Literally not a single line, we only see the back of him. Then somehow, they make Wigglytuff as small as FLIPPING CHATOT! Makoto Mizobuchi, you done goof here pal. And due to Wigglytuff’s absence, , Wigglytuff and Chatot never went through Brine Cave in this version, Torchal just tells you that ‘hey’ that’s where the Hidden Land is located.’ My pettiness aside, like with Ginji’s rescue team it doesn’t do the original game justice it still did a fine job entertaining me.

Characters:

Now at first, I thought Fire was going to be parallel to how Ginji was written. I’m glad to say that he’s much better than that; sassy, confident, hard-headed and loveable. I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to say Fire falls into that shounen protagonist trope. Nonetheless, Ginji was the type of person who goes with the flow and if you rub him the wrong way, he’ll tell you, an absolute savage that boy.

This might have evoked change for Mudkip but it killed the tension for some of rescue team’s most important plot points, turning moments that should have been serious turned into comedy instead. Fire evokes change in Totodile in a similar way but he’s encouraging, unlike Ginji. Fire’s sassy nature is like hope to the group because when all hope seems lost, he’s still ready to fight and crack jokes, not fearing the despair in front of him. Fire tells Totodile to compromise and work with Grovyle to get to the future instead of trusting what he says. This is Fire being considerate by giving Totodile time to accept a truth he knows he has to accept. Can’t forget how Fire’s first impression was absolute gold. Struck me like lazer I tell ya.

Totodile is similar to Mudkip in the sense that they both become proactive in achieving their goals. Sad to admit, Mudkip was a bit lazy, procrastinating any chance he got. Totodile lets fear consume him and arguably is more gullible than Mudkip. My dude casually hands his ‘precious treasure’ to some strangers like it’s nothing. Ok?! That’s your fault for being dumb buddy idk what to tell you. Lucky for him he’s a character in a story. Real-life ain’t so kind. (*I know from experience*)

Totodile is your partner from Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky but gullible. His growth is invisible for the most part since from chapters 1 to 2 there is a time skip. They have a few missions under their belt and Totodile is feeling more confident, not changing at all really other than him feeling Dusknoir’s betrayal and the hesitation to trust Grovyle. I swear I don’t like repeating this point, but again, the game had more time to explore how the twists of the story negatively impacted your partner. The hopelessness felt and the strength of heart it took for them to trod along and eventually accept the truth for what it was.

Grovyle is relatively similar to his game counterpart. Only this time he comes off more smug, still indifferent to how you and your partner perceive him at the start, but this Grovyle will rub things in your face if he feels like it. Grovyle’s stoic nature in the games is fine but it feels underdeveloped, like his relationship with the player before becoming a Pokemon should have been shown. At least, this manga gives us a slight differentiation in Grovyle’s personality.

Dusknoir and the guild members have no differentiations with how they act. Obviously, the guild members aren’t developed because of this little resource we call time. Dusknoir’s reveal of being a fake happened a little too quick and way more obvious here. Man had red flags all over him. It does ruin the shock of the reveal but let’s not dwell on the time constraints too much. All of the Treasure Town Pokemon got Thanos snapped in this universe. Fair enough Mizobuchi. The Pokemon in Pokemon Square had some relevance to the story, in Treasure Town they only exist to provide resources to the player, how sad.

Overall enjoyment/Conclusion:

Surprisingly, even though this time around there was a heavy focus on the story, I’d say this manga rivals Ginji’s Rescue Team. Now, I wouldn’t say surpass since that’s my own personal bias leaking through, attempting to keep Explorers of Sky forever on top. But there is an improvement in the quality of characters even if there are fewer of them developed. The story is adapted better than Ginji’s rescue team, the emotional moments still being as impactful as ever. What brings Ginji’s Rescue Team to Explorers of Flame’s level is the manga’s strength in encapsulating the Mystery Dungeon’s worlds in a new light through its artwork and changes to the story. In order to navigate around Rescue Team’s robust story. In Explorers of Flame, many of the changes tend to be either daft or unnecessary. I won’t put a link in this time since there is no way to read it in English besides, *ahem* other means. If you’re feeling like a masochist with money to spend, it’s always available on Amazon for a (not so) cheap price.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time and Darkness:

History:

In Japan this special first aired on September 9th 2007 as part of Pokemon Sunday, which in summary, was a variety show featuring reruns of old Pokemon episodes and specials, containing some live action elements. 3 days later the special would be released online.

America wouldn’t get it until August 17th 2008, being part of a Pokemon pack containing a Palkia and Dialga-styled DS lite, carrying case, etc, it’s DVD being part of the pack.

It wouldn’t air on TV in America until September 1st of the same year. Weirdly enough you could also get it for free in Woolworth stores in the UK if you either bought: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, Diamond, or Pearl.

The special was also released on Youtube on the same day as the Team Go-Getters Special.

Story Summary:

The special begins in a cave, we see a Grovyle stealing an item that it refers to as a time gear. We then cut to see a Chimchar trying to get into Wigglytuff’s guild as an apprentice, however, when he is discovered by Diglett and some of the guild members spot him he runs away to the shore of a beach. Say hello to the protagonist this time around, Piplup, and after some back and forth of him realizing he’s a Pokemon with no memories Chimchar proposes they head to Wigglytuff’s guild in hopes Wigglytuff knows something about Piplup becoming a Pokemon. Spoiler alert, he doesn’t. Frankly, I think Chimchar used it as an excuse to recruit Piplup as Chimchar quickly realized Piplup wasn’t one to accept things so easily.

Nonetheless, they form an exploration team called Pokepals. The next day they head to a Mystery Dungeon called Labyrinth cave to obtain one of Gabite’s scales for a Shinx who needs to heal his ill sister. After obtaining it and defeating Gabite Piplup decides to continue his journey as an explorer with Chimchar, once again at the end of the special alluding to a larger narrative.

Story:

Go-Getters Out of The Gate had the same story structure/format as this one. Unlike Go-Getters Out of The Gate though this one uses the format and structure a little better. As an example, it’s more clear what certain items actually do in the story and even unlike Ginji’s Rescue Team there is no let’s change how moves work for the sake of the plot. Corsala twigs were something made up until they became items in Rescue Team DX. I think it’s better to only use items that will appear in the games to show off their intended effect rather than making something entirely new.

If not, kids will either go looking for them and won’t find them or by changing their effects, they will just misunderstand how to use the items. Some food for thought there. Besides that, the special’s story is pretty standard, there is the showcase of the main character’s ability to see into the future after touching something. To end things off it's worth mentioning that the Labyrinth Dungeon was added to the games and you are able to access the dungeon through Wonder Mail. Thankfully, for all us lazy people you can get access to the dungeon by going to Spinda’s Café if you own Explorers of Sky. HAH!

Characters:

Again, moving into characters not much has been changed here. This special is pretty much the mirror of the Go-Getters special, the main differences in the characters being our protagonist and partner Pokemon. Particularly Piplup who has a strong individual personality, he’s actually surprised when becoming a Pokemon, Squirtle kinda of just rolls with it, allowing himself to be dragged around by Chikarita and Charmander. Piplup is assertive if necessary and if he isn’t into it, he’ll do the bare minimum, he’s most likely to take things with a grain of salt.

Chimchar is the complete opposite to this, being rather naïve. He believes that Wigglytuff sleeping is a sign of a great explorer. Sparkles were in his eyes…

Even so, that naivete is admirable, wanting to help Pokemon in need anyway he can. The partner in the games had very little confidence but we don’t need to worry about Chimchar, he’s got that. You can decide whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Overall enjoyment/Conclusion:

Another day another special, aside from a few changes in how items were explained, improved story structure, and such, this is an imitation of how Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate did things. And, it works; like always the link for this special is in the description if you want to check it out. But yeah, pretty cool I’d say.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Beyond Time and Darkness:

History:

Airing 2 years after the original special on the 12th of April 2009 in Japan and October 9th of the same year in America, this special was given to those on DVD from Gamestop who pre-ordered Explorers of Sky. Like Go-Getters Out of The Gate and it's original special this was posted on the Official Pokemon Youtube Channel on the same day.

Story:

This special is a continuation from the previous explorers of time and darkness one. It opens with a montage of Chimchar, Grovyle, and Piplup going on various different adventures together, the montage ending with them mounting on Lapris to head to the hidden land. And though Temporal Tower lies beyond the Hidden Land, unfortunately, Dusknoir and a group of Sabyele appear to halt their progression indefinitely by stealing Chimchar’s relic fragment. After they fight, Dusknoir springs onto Piplup that everyone from the future will disappear after time is properly restored, Grovyle retrains Dusknoir when he attempts to once again steal the relic fragment. He takes him to the future leaving the task for saving the world up to Chimchar and Piplup. The two mounting on a rainbow path that takes them to Temporal Tower, the special ending with a silhouette of Dialga in the distance.

Story: I’m not sure how to feel about this one… On one hand, for those who have already played Time and Darkness it’s a good reminder to them to pick up the definitive edition of those games by showing them, frankly, one of the highlights the story. On the other hand, this approach ruins the reveals of major plot twists in the game that can take away from some of the game’s emotions. Ironically the special could deter people from wanting to play the games because if they already know some major game-changing plot reveals, then what’s the point. For what it's worth at least they didn’t spoil the game’s ending but still, come on.

A different approach they could’ve taken was doing what they did for the last two specials, have an individual story somewhat unrelated to the game’s plot to encourage people to want to play the game. It might be an unintentional blessing that they left some details ambiguous like who the hell Dusknoir is, what the future looks like,etc. They also never specified this was the Grovyle who was stealing the time gears, sooooooooo maybe they’re different people??? What do you think-? Forget it, unless you’re braindead then it ain’t fooling anyone. Nevertheless, it’s always important to maintain that suspension of disbelief, I swear it’s important people!!!!!

….Anyway…

A good plot line they could’ve used was the Shamin plotline, I mean they are the Pokemon at the FRONT OF THE BOX SET. In a lovely sky garden might I add.

Characters:

I’ll keep this one brief since these are the same characters from the previous special. Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Sabeleye all act in line with how they were characterized in the game. Chimchar is the same as well, I want to say he’s more confident now, but he seems about the same honestly. Him running away from the guild in the first special could be seen as cowardly yet he was all good fighting Gabite, meanwhile, in the games your partner is sniveling and crying about a Zubat and Koffing stealing their special treasure-.

Piplup has changed though. Before in the first special he clearly wants no business with the guild or Chimchar, he only agrees to form a team in hopes he can eventually find the truth behind his real identity. He also didn’t come off as the self-sacrificial type like does here. Now, he’s willing to give up his own life for the sake of fixing the future, his convictions only damper when he realizes that his death will have a negative impact on Chimchar. Usually, I would say, yup this development is fantastic or something like that. But, we as an audience don’t see any of this, we’re just told to believe, ‘he changes I swear, take my word for it.’ It’s the same thing as taking a character out of the story for a month and they used to be bratty and annoying, then he comes back humble, kind, and caring. You’d just be like what?! I’d like to be kind and say they didn’t have enough time to develop things. My response to that would be, there didn’t need to be so much time to develop things, you’ve made the special to advertise the games right? Then just make a self-contained story giving viewers a taste for what the story will be when they play it, you did the same the first two times, how this time any different?

Look how brief I kept things…

Overall enjoyment/Conclusion:

I didn’t enjoy this one, my issues with spoiling the game's story aside, this special feels like an inferior version to the games in every way. The dialogue reflects poorly on the seriousness of the circumstances. Like look here(Insert clip of Grovyle telling Piplup he will die) he told you, you are going to die! This reaction is, unnatural! The music doesn’t suit and the pacing for that same Piplup scene doesn’t give the viewer or even Piplup enough time to process that: him, Grovyle, Dusknoir and all the future Pokemon will die, leaving Chimchar behind. Aside from that despite how negative I’ve been this isn’t the worse thing you’ll watch; in fact, I implore you to watch it yourself. It’s still a nice piece of history to look back on and appreciate.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Strategy Guide:

Believe it or not but there was a short comic that came with the Explorers of Time and Darkness strategy guide that creates a story revolving around Explorers of Time’s box art. Written and illustrated by Ken Sugimori who illustrated art for the Pokemon movies, TCG cards, and merchandise.

In the comic Chimchar and Turtwig are on their first rescue mission inside a forest. When they are about to open a treasure box they’d found, Weavile’s team comes in and beats them up. They only stop and decide to let Chimchar and Turtwig have the treasure box’s spoils when Weavile senses something is amiss; they promptly head out of the forest. Allowing, Chimchar and Turtwig successfully complete their mission.

The characters in this comic are flat and rushed pacing as usual. In terms of an advertisement for the games, it fails in the regard of getting you to buy it. In spite of that this comic came with the strategy guide, which you buy when you already own the game. In that sense, it’s great as a neat little bonus. It for sure isn’t a contender for best ad. All the same, it quickly gets you hyped to play the games. So, if you really want to own this one, make sure you have a copy of the game first.

Just to make sure everyone buys the correct one, it’s the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Exp Of Time/Darkness Prima Official Game Guide since looking online there is a strategy guide for Sky and another Explorers of Time and Darkness o

ne. This strategy guide can be found for a reasonable price on eBay and Amazon.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity’s Trailers Brief Discussion:

The Gates to Infinity trailers were released on the 1st November in Japan and on the 26th March elsewhere in 2013. These short trailers were also re-released in 2015 on the same day as the other PMD specials to promote the release of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon.

It’s quite hard to summarise this one since it’s a collage of key moments within Gates to Infinity’s story but we’ll start somewhere. It begins with a human turning into a Pokemon, realizing he’s turned into an Oshawott. He wakes up in surprise when he realizes the Pikachu near him can talk. From there we’ll assume they got to know each other and Pikachu asks him if he wants to help her form a Pokemon paradise. Oshawott agrees to help her and the first short ends with them running through the request gate beginning their journey to build Paradise.

The second short starts off by showing, again, some key moments in Gates’ story, things ending with Kureyum appearing as all of Oshawott’s allies find it difficult to breathe. I’m not going to bother going into detail about every little moment shown in the trailer and how well it adapted the game because we’d be here all day. Plus, it’s a trailer, critiquing it would make me feel like I’m becoming narcissistic. Unless I already am, which in that case… no apologies are given for my behavior.

I think these two shorts are charming. For one, the lighting in both of them is simply outstanding really showcasing the joy you’ll have when building a paradise for all the Pokemon to happily enjoy themselves. To be honest this short is selling the game’s story short and is overselling what Paradise was like in the game. Because jeez did that turn out to be an underdeveloped idea.

Pikachu’s character is portrayed to be quite outgoing and admirable, in line with the portrayal of Gate’s partner. Oshawatt is your standard average kid transformed into a Pokemon. We don’t get enough about the other characters to say anything more substantial other than they seem in line with their game counterparts.

Making a short animated trailer to advertise your game, is a neat idea. Especially with that lighting, I bought Gates in a heartbeat. They did the same for Black and White 2 a year before and for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire the next year. You know, it’s a real shame these animated trailers never aired on TV; please don’t quote me on that because they might have aired it and I just didn’t check.

Like always you can watch this trailer on Pokemon’s Official Youtube channel, I’ll leave a link to the trailer in the description of this video.

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: Go For It! Novice Investigation Team:

Finally, let’s finish things with the final Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story adapted into a different medium. The Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon manga was released in the Corocoro comics, to once again, promote the release of Super Mystery Dungeon in its 2015 October issue.

Has the world decided to be kinder to me with these shorter summaries lately? Riolu, Froakie, and Archen are tasked to look through the newly discovered Corocoro pass. They fight a Mightyena, rough up a Garchomp with their alliance attack and they’ve conquered the dungeon, hooray! The manga issue ends with Deoxys seeing Raquaza in the sky, like in the game intro, sensing something is amiss with the Pokemon World. In addition, Latios and Latias are spotted flying in the sky by Archen. Despite all that, today, our heroes are victorious. Successfully completing their mission, the other story to be told in Super Mystery Dungeon.

Not much else to say really. Froakie, our partner Pokemon this time, is just like the partner in the Super Mystery Dungeon game, our protagonist is typical and I’m not expecting this single issue to flesh out multiple characters. I’d say it’s a decent ad. It showcases the game’s mechanics well like its alliance attacks. Low and behold, Pokemon moves are accurately depicted and aren’t changed around to make some cool-looking move or technique. I’m looking at you guys!(Insert image) It’s done in an entertaining way so I have no qualms about how they were handled.

Similar to Explorers of Flame there is no official English translation so I won’t send the link for where I read it here, a quick google search should do the trick. Though I will leave a link to the Reddit page that translated this manga into English.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Manga, which one is the best?

It is now time for our Pokemon Mystery Dungeon awards. After carefully considering and reviewing all of the different manga individually I have decided that out of Ginji’s Rescue Team, Explorers of Flame, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: Go For It! Novice Investigation Team and The Strategy Guide’s short comic, I have chosen…

Drum roll…… …… …… 5 second pause

Explorers of Flame!

Let me explain, the Strategy Guide’s comic was too short and bare-bones to be considered a good advertisement or adaptation. It was good for getting you excited to play the game, but that’s about it. It foreshadows what will happen in the game and that’s it! It doesn’t carve its own individual identity for itself. Not to mention it doesn’t help you have to buy the strategy guide to read it. Who buys a strategy guide for a game they don’t own?

While the Super Mystery Dungeon manga was decent showing how certain moves worked in-game, Explorers of Flame shines with how it adapted the story from Time, Darkness, and Sky really well in 6 chapters.

Ginji’s rescue team came close to winning as it did a good job subtly developing a lot of the characters and presenting the Mystery Dungeons the characters explore in unique ways. But for all the good it did their it killed many of Rescue Team’s special most important moments either with comedy or more rushed pacing than Explorers of Flame.

These are the reasons why, at least for the manga, Explorers of Flame comes out on top!

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Anime, which one is better?

Looking at the last sub-category our contenders are: Go-Getters Out of the Gate, Explorers of Time and Darkness, Explorers Beyond Time and Darkness, and last but not least the Gates to Infinity Trailers.

The winner is…… …… …… 5-second pause.

Explorers of Time and Darkness!

Let’s briefly go over why. Firstly, the Time and Darkness Special does what Go-Getters Out of the Gate does, that is having an individual story and explaining how game mechanics work, but better. Time and Darkness doesn’t change how moves work in the games while Go-Getters Out of the Gate does, leading to some discrepancies in player understanding. Also, I find the voice acting much less cringy this time around, somehow much more well-rounded. Characters are also less flat as well, having more dynamics to how they are as a person rather than I’m a Squirtle now and I’ve turned into a Pokemon. No reason to freak out.

The Beyond Time and Darkness special is just inferior to the games in every way. A lot of the emotional weight and plot twists are just brushed aside. Piplup you just found out you are about to die, at least look shocked!

Gates to Infinity’s trailers are jaw drop gorgeous and work as a fantastic ad for the games.The only problem being there isn’t enough here to say it’s the best, only enough to say it’s a good trailer that carried out its desired purpose well.

These are the reasons why Explorers of Time and Darkness’ special is the best anime special for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon in Different Mediums, which is the better adaptation?

We have made it all the way to the finals. Pitting the manga Explorers of Flame against Explorers of Time and Darkness’ anime special. One last time, que the drumroll!

…… …… …… 5-second pause

Explorers of Time and Darkness is our winner!

I liked Explorers of Flame as much as the next person but just like Ginji’s rescue team, some plot points didn’t need to be cut, like why was Wigglytuff a non-existent character in Explorers of Flame? Not to mention Explorers of Flame not showcasing what Mystery Dungeons were like at all. If there were to be more Mystery Dungeon adaptations, they should follow what Explorers of Time and Darkness did. Make an individual story for the manga or special that can easily represent the games. Let the special teach players about different game mechanics. By cramming the game’s stories in these adaptations, no one will be happy because there will never be enough time to tell the story well and take a unique spin on that same story.

With all that said, congratulations Explorers of Time and Darkness Special. I have crowned you the best of all the different adaptations made for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Outro

Today’s video was a long one, I know. But before we completely end things today I’d like to give my thanks to Bulbapedia! Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to research all of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon’s different adaptations and find the information regarding how they were created. Another small thanks to the ones who translated Explorers of Flame and the Redditor who translated the Super Mystery Dungeon manga. All that being said, see you all in the next video! Think Bigger! Think Harder!

(Outro plays)