Part 70: Ruby and Sapphire

PokeSpe Entry - Fighting Girl meets Boy.

So previously in the Pokemon Yellow lets play, I talked about how wonderful the Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures manga was, especially on how it interpreted the characters and scenarios of the Generation 1 games, the introduction of Yellow herself, and their take on the Elite 4. Unfortunately, due to many issues, I missed the GSC LP and never got a chance to talk about that manga, which was a pity because it's good in its own right. However, as GSC hit volume 10, the artist assisting on the PokeSpe manga Mato became ill, and weakness in her hand left her unable to draw anymore. Her replacement was Satoshi Yamamoto and to sum up the differences.



Mato's images had a sort of deformed style to them which made them feel very much like they could have been from the video game itself. Yamamoto, on the other hand, had images more in line with the characters official arts and designs. On the whole, I like them both, for various reasons.

Anyway, while GSC continued once more upon the growing world of Red, Green, and Blue along with the newer cast, all the gym leaders and... frankly felt very connected to the RGB arc, much like the game itself, RS felt like a split from that story to a whole new one. Our story opens up, as the game does, with Ruby, our first protagonist, arriving in Littleroot Town, so, what's Ruby like?


So... Ruby and Sapphire introduced the contests to the game mechanics, and, the anime put those in May's ballpark, but Pokemon Special decided instead to make them Ruby's game, despite being the protagonist (Son of Norman, arriving from Johto into Hoenn) he has no interests in battle or anything that isn't beautiful, he simply wants to make his Pokemon stand-out and win contests. He's everything that Red and Gold are not, he has a narcissistic streak and a rather negative attitude overall but deep down, he's a good heart.



But Ruby is only one half of our star cast, after all, if his focus is on contests, and he hates battle, then what does that leave Sapphire?



Sapphire is everything Ruby isn't, he's obsessed with fashion and beauty, she wears literal leaves and shoves her nose up pokemon's asses to tell how sick they are, she's a wild girl, she's obsessed with strength and being the best in battle. You know how Birch is the professor most likely to actually be out in the field doing things? Sapphire takes that to maximum levels. She finds Ruby to be a prat, stuck up and acting pathetic, while he finds her to be nothing more than a brute, rude, crass and dirty.


Our two protagonists are completely opposite of one another, and that ultimately leads to their main conflict for this manga,



Thus begins a tale of two heroes, Ruby, and his travel to become a contest master, and the conflicts that lead him to fight Team Magma, and Sapphire and her goal to become the greatest battler, which pits her against Team Aqua.

The best part about Ruby and Sapphire, beyond the obvious twist on what their 'expected' portrayals should be, is that RS really does treat them as equals, there are many chapters that focus on one or the other, their characters start out simple, but develop a lot of depth and nuance, and their conflicts are some of the greatest in PokeSpe, if not the greatest to a lot of people.

But uh... Ruby's kind of... ran away from home since his father doesn't accept what he wants to do with himself (Not knowing that Norman has decided to accept Ruby's ambition to master contests.)



And Normans pursuit of his son is intense as hell. Well, I know this is shorter than normal, but we have just started out. I hope you've all enjoyed reading.