Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure, Volume 1

Hareta is a normal kid, except for his rapport with Pokémon. This only increased when Professor Rowan sent him to be raised by Pokémon in the wild, allowing him to understand all sorts of Pokémon.

But now Professor Rowan needs Hareta's help, and sends his assistant, Mitsumi, to see Hareta and ask his help. With her, Professor Rowan sends three Pokéballs, each bearing a single rare Pokémon to travel with Hareta. Hareta agrees to help Professor Rowan seek Dialga, the Pokémon who controls Time.

Hareta finds himself with Piplup as his Pokémon, a prideful bird-like Pokémon who at first won't fight because he feels Hareta isn't worthy of him. But Hareta's pure innocence and joy in testing himself bring Piplup around, and the two face off against an Onix who seems almost to have been hypnotized. Hareta and Piplup win, and find that two Pokémon trainers, part of a group called Team Galactic, had something to do with Onix being hypnotized. Hareta fights them, and bites one of them on the buttocks, something that will allow him to recognize the two when he sees them again.

Hareta gets his first badge when he fights the gym leader of Oreburgh City, Roarke, and then goes around racking up more badges along the way by dint of refusal to back down and his bond with Piplup. Along the way, he meets another trainer named Jun who seems intent on being Hareta's rival and who is romantically interested in Mitsumi. But Hareta only has Piplup to fight with, and Jun has many. Hareta takes some time off to go catch himself some more Pokémon to fight with, and when Hareta meets a very rare Pokémon named Munchlax, it sets all the other Pokémon trainers in a frenzy to catch it. But will Hareta allow the Pokémon who helped him be captured?

I found this book... tiresome. It's so much like the original Pokémon series as to be ridiculous. It's as if they took the original series, threw it in a pot, stirred a few times, poured it out and voila! New series!

Some of the details have been changed, but the overall story is the same. Instead of Ash and Pikachu, there's Hareta and Piplup. Professor Rowan instead of Professor Oak (both of them are even named after trees!). Mitsumi instead of Misty (and how close are their names to each other?) Instead of Ash's rival Gary, we get Jun, who seems to be afflicted with Brock's attraction to women. And instead of Team Rocket, there is team Galactic, both of whom are played for laughs. It's like the original series seen through a mirror sweated up with steam, or through a dirty window. In short, it's insulting to even call this a new series.

If you want something almost exactly the same as the original Pokémon, with only a little different, this series is for you. Otherwise, there is nothing new here, with the exception of a few new types of Pokémon. I'd say I wasn't going to read any more, except that I read both 1 and 2 shortly after the other, so that isn't quite true. But I almost certainly won't be reading any more after this.