Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure, Volume 2 by Shigekatsu Ihara

Hareta and Piplup battle their way across the land of Sinnoh, racking up more badges and running into Team Galactic seemingly everywhere they go. In HeartHome City, Hareta and Mitsumi enter their Pokémon into a famous contest there. In fact, they encounter Jun again, who is certain that his Pokémon will win the contest.

But none of the judges seem all that entranced with either Hareta or Jun's performance, especially when Piplup Pecks the lead judge, and Jun's Staravia blows off the man's hat, revealing his bald head. Mitsumi is in the Master Class, and as Hareta cheers for her, he meets a scary-looking guy who claims to be an old friend of Mitsumi's, but when he tells Mitsumi about it, she doesn't know who he is talking about.

Hareta fights with several other Gym leaders, winning badges, and then runs into Team Galactic again. Befor he can win or lose, he is helped by a young woman and her Garchomp. The member of Team Galactic he was fighting was running to give something to his boss, something that will help his boss capture Dialga, but he runs away when the woman helps Hareta.

The woman, whose name is Cynthia, says she is also researching Legends concerning Dialga, but there is a nearby town named Celestic Town which holds a site associated with Dialga, where they might be able to learn more. After asking Hareta to pass on a message to the town's leader, Cynthia's Grandmother, Cynthia says she would like to battle Mitsumi, telling Mitsumi that Mitsumi is an "up and comer". Mitsumi is flustered, but acts like she doesn't know what Cynthia means, and takes off with Hareta.

In Celestic Town, Hareta and Mitsumi visit the shine and witness an old Lady telling some members of Team Galactic to get out of her town. Hareta recognizes their leader as the man he bit on the ass, and the man tells him he already gave the relic to his leader, who intends to get Dialga. But the old lady won't help him, and so the leader ensures that no one can get to the relics by planting a bomb that will blow them up!

Hareta calls out all his Pokémon and gets to the bomb and tries to disarm it. However, when it is tampered with, the bomb speeds up, so there is only 30 seconds left on it. But using Piplup's Brine attack, he sends the bomb up high in the air, where it explodes more or less harmlessly. In thanks for saving the relics, the old Lady, who turns out to be the Leader of the Town and Cynthia's grandmother, tells Hareta all about the relics.

Unfortunately, the creepy man who was supposed to be Mitsumi's friend shows up with some members of Team Galactic, and he turns out to be Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic. Mitsumi and he know each other, but she says she is no longer his friend, nor ever could be.

Cyrus reveals his motivation. He wishes to control time and become a God, ruling the world. Hareta attacks Cyrus and his followers and Mitsumi backs him up, but one of the members of Team Galactic calls her a vile traitor, making the old lady wonder if Mitsumi was once a member of Team Galactic. Cyrus takes off, and Hareta follows him and fights him, while Mitsumi squares off against Team Galactic member Jupiter. Hareta loses and is knocked into the lake. Jun shows up and takes off with Mitsumi to stop Cyrus and Team Galactic.

Meanwhile Hareta is rescued by Byron, the Father of Roarke, the Gym Leader from the first volume. Byron inspires Hareta to train more in hopes of stopping Cyrus. Byron sends Hareta to Iron Island to train, but there Hareta encounters more Team Galactic members, and is helped by a Pokémon Trainer named Riley and his Pokémon, Lucario. He gives Hareta a Pokémon Egg, which eventually hatches into a Pokémon named Riolu. And Hareta's Shinx evolves into Luxio.

When Byron returns to the Island to pick up Hareta and his Pokémon for a return battle, he can see how much stronger Hareta and his Pokémon have grown. But before they can battle, there is an explosion in Sinnoh. What could have happened? And does Cyrus have anything to do with it?

So continues Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Since I already covered, in my last review, how much this series is just a re-tread of the original Pokémon series, I'll continue on with another track here: The concept of Time in the series.

In this series, time makes no sense. Hareta is supposedly fighting against Cyrus, trying to beat him to Dialga, so he's supposedly on some kind of time table. Yet Hareta thinks nothing of going to Iron Island for days (and how long he spends there isn't really stated outright, but I'm sure it was at least a few days) to train and level up his Pokémon. I know that in a game, players need to level up their characters, but honestly! In a story, it just makes no sense. It's as if Cyrus is going to wait for Hareta to get stronger just so he can battle him. Again, this might make sense in a game, but in a story, it just looks ridiculous.

Games are based on different kinds of timelines than written or visual stories. In a game, the endgame may not happen until the main character gets there. In a written story. It makes no sense for Hareta to take as long as he wants training. While this manga may adhere more to the timeline of the game than that of an actual written story, it was a bad choice to make. The idea that he can't just take forever to deal with Cyrus is never acknowledged. You know, if they had stated that Hareta thinks, "I know I have to deal with Cyrus, but he's too strong for me right now, so I have to train as much as I can to get better... but I can't take too long or he'll succeed without me to stop him!" I would have felt better about the whole thing. The whole time constraints thing is just never mentioned, as if not mentioning it makes it go away. Well, it didn't for me.

And some people may say, "Hey, it's just a manga for kids, lighten up!" And that may be so, but I am used to holding manga to a higher standard, and in this case? EPIC FAIL. Manga for kids doesn't have to be dumb, stupid or brainless. But maybe I am asking too much for this less-than-spectacular series.