A new Pokemon franchise manga is set to release next month, and this one will be a comedy! The new manga is called Pokemon ~Detouring Volt Tacklers!!~ (English title unconfirmed; the Japanese name is Pocket Monster ~Yorimichi Volteccers!!~). It will be based on the Pokemon Horizons: The Series anime, and set in that world, with those characters.
The announcement came earlier this week via the August issue of Ciao magazine, published by Shogakukan. The new manga will be written by Rikka Kise, a newcomer to the Pokémon publishing journey. Pokemon ~Detouring Volt Tacklers!!~ will premier August 3rd, 2023, in the next issue of Ciao.
Another reveal was also made in the same issue of Ciao. The currently running Pokemon manga in the magazine, Pokemon: Liko's Treasure, has finished with its final chapter. The manga began its run in the magazine on May 2nd, and already has reached its conclusion this month after two issues. It was also part of the Pokemon Horizons: The Series anime universe, telling a short side story to accompany the anime about one of the characters, Liko.
Pokemon Horizons: The Series is the first part of the new Pokemon anime that does not have the previous main character, Ash Ketchum, who left the series after finally becoming the Pokemon World Champion. It follows two new characters, Liko and Roy, along with Pokemon from the latest games Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. It also has a new Pikachu character known as Captain Pikachu.
The anime first aired on April 14th, 2023, and is set to continue to air for the remainder of this year and into the foreseeable future. These short spin-off manga are helping to flesh out the newest world, and especially these new characters, considering the original anime series centered on Ash and his Pikachu was on TV from 1998 to 2022. Now, they have all new characters and stories to explore.
Likely, Pokemon ~Detouring Volt Tacklers!!~ will be another short story like Pokemon: Liko's Adventures. The final length has not been announced at this time, but Liko's Adventures also finished without any warning, so it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that this one will be the same. The goal is to get fans interested in, and invested in, the new characters and help them move on from Ash, and hopefully this new comedy can continue to do just that - especially after all the negative press from the associated games with this generation of Pokemon.
Pokemon ~Detouring Volt Tacklers!!~ will be published on August 3rd, 2023, in Ciao magazine.
Source: AnimeNewsNetwork