Pocket Monsters
in 1996






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Dogasu's Backpack | Features | Pocket Monsters in 1996

Red & Green

It's been twenty years since the Japanese release of Pocket Monsters Red & Green. While fans in the West wouldn't know what a "Pokémon" was for another two years or so the Japanese media was covering the franchise pretty frequently.  So, as a neat kind of time capsule, I thought it'd be nice to take a look at the magazines that were out in Japan at the time and see how Pocket Monsters was being represented in the early days.

Click on each image to view a larger version.

Famitsu: March 8th, 1996 (unconfirmed)

The March 8th, 1996 issue (I think...) of the video game magazine Famitsu reviewed Pocket Monsters Red & Green. The games received a score of 29 out of 40. Here's what the editors had to say about this new Game Boy RPG:

Famitsu
This is an RPG with two ROMs on sale, "Red" and "Green," that make use of the Game Link Cable. Capture the over 100 "Pocket Monsters" that appear in the wild and create a Pokemon Encyclopedia.
8: Judging it as an RPG...well, I guess the Game Boy has its limitations, doesn't it? But that doesn't take away from the game's true flavor. The fun of collecting all those monsters, the pleasure of trading those collected monsters...it's rather like a trading card game and it's easy to see how it'll catch on.
7:  They made two versions to stir up the monster collection aspect of the game. Will any other company be able to duplicate this feat? If you're the kind of person who can feel excited about befriending a large variety of monsters and raising them then I think this game is for you. There's always something going on so it's a game that can be approached from all sorts of different angles.
7:  Buying a different colored cartridge from your friend and then trading Pokemon with them. Filling up your encyclopedia, little by little....maybe I'm showing my age here but this brings back memories of the Bikkuriman Balls. I've become obsessed with this game and I applaud them trying new things. I personally become more interested in raising the monsters than capturing new ones but thought the story could have been better.
7:  Collecting monsters and entering them into an encyclopedia is like Cardass or baseball cards. The raising pokemon aspect of this game is, of course, really fun. The difference in the two versions are the rate at which certain monsters appear which is sure to capture the hearts of collectors. There are battles and strategies that make the game fun as well.


CoroCoro Comics: April 1996

On-sale: March 15th, 1996

CoroCoro Comics

The April 1996 issue of CoroCoro Comics went on sale about half a month after the release of Pocket Monsters Red & Green. How did the magazine cover the series?

Not a whole lot.

The original Game Boy games weren't overnight hits and so media coverage of the games was a bit restrained in the beginning. The first place anything Pokemon appears is in the monthly Tokoton Ranking, a listing of the month's most popular video games. The game doesn't place in the Top Ten but let's check in on what was popular at the time anyway.

Tokoton Ranking
List of Most Wanted Games

First Place:  Dragon Quest VI
Second Place:  Rockman X3 (Mega Man X3)
Third Place:  Super Donkey Kong 2 (Donkey Kong Country 2)
Fourth Place:  Super Momotarou Dentetsu DX
Fifth Place:  Street Fighter Zero
Sixth Place:  Kirby's Block Ball
Seventh Place:  Virtua Fighter 2
Eighth Place:  Bahamut Lagoon
Ninth Place:  Romancing Saga 3
Tenth Place:  Yoshi's Island

Now I should point out that this isn't a list of the best-selling games or anything like that; this is just the games that received the most votes from the magazine's readers the previous month.

At the bottom of the page is a list of "most anticipated games." Pocket Monsters ranks in at number four.



The complete list:

First Place:  Super Bomberman 4
Second Place:  Mini Yonku Stallion (working title)
Third Place:  Super Mario RPG
Fourth Place:  Pocket Monsters
Fifth Place:  Kirby Super Star
Sixth Place:  Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 3
Seventh Place:  Final Fantasy VII
Eighth Place:  Excite Stage '96
Ninth Place:  Super Mario 64 (working title)
Tenth Place:  Super Mario Kart R (working title)

The red box over to the right highlights this new Pocket Monsters game:

"This is a Game Boy RPG where 150 monsters appear. Let's all trade pokemon!"

Super informative!

So the game didn't hit the charts right away. I'm sure it'll start picking up steam soon.

On page 408 we get a single page talking about how to beat the first four Gym Leaders.



I won't bother translating this page since the strategies here aren't exactly mind-blowing (use electric attacks on Water-Types!) but I would like to point out that CoroCoro keeps referring to Ground-Type attacks as "Earth-Type attacks" (大地系) for some reason. The text under the picture of Pikachu and Pippi there advertises the start of the new "The Strange Pokemon Pippi" (ふしぎポケモンピッピ) in the April issue of CoroCoro Comics' sister magazine CoroCoro Special. "The Strange Pokemon Pippi" is what Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga was called for the first half a year or so.

The final appearance of Pocket Monsters in the April issue is this two-page advertisement for the aforementioned CoroCoro Comics Special.

CoroCoro Comics Special Ad

What's interesting to me is that, throughout this first issue, Pocket Monsters Red & Green is only ever referred to as simply Pocket Monsters.

CoroCoro Comics: May 1996

On-sale: April 15th, 1996

CoroCoro May 1996

Pocket Monsters was beginning to pick up steam as more and more people began to play this new Game Boy RPG. The first mention of the franchise comes in the monthly Tokoton Ranking where it debuted on the charts at number five! Not too shabby!

Tokoton Ranking
List of Most Wanted Games

First Place:  Super Mario RPG
Second Place:  Dragon Quest VI
Third Place: 
Super Donkey Kong 2 (Donkey Kong Country 2)
Fourth Place:  Rockman X3 (Mega Man X3)
Fifth Place:  Pocket Monsters
Sixth Place: 
Super Momotarou Dentetsu DX
Seventh Place:  Virtua Fighter
Eighth Place:  Derby Stallion 96
Ninth Place:  Bahamut Lagoon
Tenth Place:  Kirby's Block Ball

The text under the image there reads "Which one do you want? Red or Green?" It then states that the game received 2,509 votes that month.

The big story in this issue, however, was the official reveal of the mythical pokemon Mew! In the January 2016 issue of Switch, series producer Ishihara Tsunekazu was asked when he realized that Pocket Monsters was actually becoming a big hit. He talks about the games causing a shortage of Game Boy Link Cables for a minute before going on to talk about Mew:

"In addition, there were all these rumors that were spreading but only through word-of-mouth. But then once media outlets like CoroCoro Comics started writing about them then everybody started to talk about how there seems to be a mythical pokemon named Mew. That moment, when these urban legends started to spread more and more, is when we realized that it had become a hit."

さらに当時はまだ口コミでしか広がってい なかった噂のようなものが、「コロコロコミック」などのメディアに載ることによって、「どうやら幻のポケモン、ミュウがいるらしい」といった話が、ある種 の都市伝説のようになっていきました。そういった都市伝説的な話題がどんどん広がっていったときに、ヒットを実感しました。


The CoroCoro Comics media Mr. Ishihara's talking about probably started with this:

Mew

So the text splashed across the top of the two pages there are "We're giving away the 151st pokemon in Pocket Monsters!" Here's what the rest of the text on that first (right-most) page says:

Purple arrow: Its name is Mew!!
In reality, this pokemon is the newest species of pokemon recently discovered by Orchid-Hakase. And you won't believe this, but you CoroCoro Comics readers out there will be able to get your hands on one!

The green text bubble beside Orchid-Hakase:
"I'm also shocked! To find out that a monster like this exists is a huge discovery. But even if you get really excited and search your own game cart for one you won't be able to find it. Oh, what's that? You want one for yourself? Well, I'll give one out only to you CoroCoro Comics readers!"

The purple text under Mew:
Mew's Profile
Name:  Mew, Species: New Kind of Pokemon
This is an extinct pokemon. It has a high intelligence and can remember anything.

Yellow box at the bottom:
What's that!? This mythical pokemon will be given away to 20 lucky CoroCoro readers!!

The top half of the second page says that it's impossible to capture Mew but hey, here are three pokemon that you can capture that can be kind of tricky! Those three are Kabigon, Strike, and Lucky.

The bottom half explains how you can enter the Mew Giveaway:

Those of you who want the mythical 151st pokemon Mew should write the following on a postcard

① Address ② Name ③ What grade you're in ④ Telephone Number ⑤ The name of your favorite pokemon and why ⑥ The name of your least favorite pokemon and why

...and then send it to the address on the left. Twenty lucky winners will receive a Mew of their very own! The application deadline is May 4th and the winners will be announced in the July issue of this magazine. Winners will be sent detailed instructions on how to send their game carts to Orchid-Hakase.

Back in those days you had to physically send you game carts to Nintendo via the postal service in order to get a mythical pokemon added to your games. Can you imagine if that was still the case today!?

The only other presence Pocket Monsters had in the magazine was in these ads for the upcoming issue of the sister magazine CoroCoro Special which was going to feature the second chapter of Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga as well as a guide to all the pokemon and a set of silver-colored stickers:



The franchise's presence in the magazine is only going to keep growing!

CoroCoro Comics: July 1996

On-sale: June 15th, 1996

July 1996

I wasn't able to get my hands on the June 1996 issue but I was able to get the following month's issue.

Pocket Monsters' first appearance in this month's issue comes on the very left there of this Batomen feature. Batomen were these little puck things that featured characters from popular series and the announcement on the left side of the page is that there would be Pokemon (and Virtua Fighter Kids, and Super Bomberman) versions of these Batomen things coming soon.

Batomen

I also kind of love how the piece of artwork they used to represent Pokemon was a picture of Nidoking, of all things. Like, back in those days you could just slap a picture of any old pokemon and everyone would be happy; the marketing departments weren't so cold and calculating back then as they are now.

Next up is this page talking about the soon-to-be-released Game Boy Pocket. Guess which franchise they got to represent Game Boy games?

Game Boy Pocket

I'm not entirely sure why they used a Super Game Boy screenshot of Pocket Monsters to advertise the black-and-white Game Boy Pocket, but it is what it is.

Up next is the Tokoton Ranking! This month Pocket Monsters keeps its Number Four spot after climbing up from fifth place the month before.

Tokoton Ranking
List of Most Wanted Games

First Place:  Super Bomberman 4
Second Place:  Super Mario RPG
Third Place: 
Hoshi no Kirby Deluxe (Kirby Super Star)
Fourth Place:  Pocket Monsters
Fifth Place:  Rockman X3 (Mega Man X3)
Sixth Place: 
Derby Stallion 96
Seventh Place:  Dragon Quest VI
Eighth Place:  Excite Stage '96
Ninth Place:  Super Donkey Kong 2 (Donkey Kong Country 2)
Tenth Place:  Tekken 2

The text under Pocket Monsters' entry reads "If you let Kabigon get away once then you won't be able to catch it again!" Which is an outright lie, of course, but whatever.

Next up are a couple of ads that feature Pocket Monsters. The full-color ad mentions that they'll be giving away 100 Mews (whose name they misspell, by the way) in the next issue of CoroCoro Comics even though they just gave away 20 of the things back in April. The black-and-white ad says the same thing, name misspelling and all.

CoroCoro Ad CoroCoro Ad

There's also this ad a bit later on for a strategy guide to the games that features that piece of Sugimori Ken artwork of Red, Green, and unnamed girl.

Insert

CoroCoro Comics had a special hobby section (which is kind of weird considering the entire magazine is one big hobby section) and this month's section features Pocket Monsters merchandise.

Super Hobby Club Pokemon Hobby

The first page (the cover) shows off these new "Jumbo Cardass Chip Shooters" from Bandai, which just look like Pogs to me featuring pokemon characters.

The next page shows off a series of Gachapon figurines, of which there are 30 in total. For toys made in the 90s they look pretty alright, I guess? The figurines feature data chips on them with one of only three elements - Fire, Water, or Grass - that appear to be assigned randomly to each pokemon. Pikachu's Grass now, for example, and Kabigon's Water. The figures are tiny enough that three of them can fit into a single Gachapon capsule. You "battle" with your friends by hiding a figurine in your hand and then playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, presenting the figure whenever you get to "go!" The "type" of your figurine determines who wins the match. Instructions at the bottom of the page tell kids how to vote for which pokemon will be turned into a Gachapon figure next.

The rest of the magazine is ads for game guides and the next issue of CoroCoro.

Game Guide CoroCoro Comics ad CoroCoro Special ad

Unfortunately I don't have the next issue but I was able to get my hands on the issue that comes after!


CoroCoro Comics: September 1996

On-sale: August 15th, 1996

CoroCoro Comics September 1996

By the time the September 1996 issue of CoroCoro Comics came out Pocket Monsters Red & Green had been out for almost six months. Let's check in to see how it did in the Tokoton Ranking:

Tokoton Ranking
List of Most Wanted Games

First Place:  Super Mario 64
Second Place:  Super Bomberman 4
Third Place: 
Hoshi no Kirby Deluxe (Kirby Super Star)
Fourth Place:  Pocket Monsters
Fifth Place:  Derby Stallion 96
Sixth Place:  Nights

Seventh Place:  Excite Stage '96
Eighth Place:  Rockman X3 (Mega Man X3)
Ninth Place:  PoPoLoCrois Monogatari
Tenth Place:  Treasure Hunter G

The text under Pocket Monsters' entry this time? "It seems like you'll be able to trade your monsters to Pokemon 2!" Pokemon 2 also makes it to Number 2 in the list of "most anticipated games" at the bottom of the page with a total of 3,541 votes.

Kitai no Game Best

So I'm guessing that at some point in the August issue - which came out in July - the fact that sequels to Pocket Monsters were in development was announced at some point?. That's pretty fast! To put that in perspective, that would be like learning about Sun and Moon in April 2014, six months after the release of X&Y! Can you imagine?

Next up is an ad for the next month's issue of CoroCoro Comics that mentions that the next issue will come with a "golden game stationary kit" featuring characters from Let's Go and Pokemon. An image of a constipated-looking Pippi from Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga is used to represent the franchise, for some reason.


CoroCoro ad

The first full section devoted to Pocket Monsters is this two-page spread talking about the brand new Trading Card Game due to come out in late October. CoroCoro refers to the game
simply as Pokemon Card.

Pokemon TCG

Page 150:

Five Exclusive News Flashes for Pokemon Card!!
The popular Game Boy game Pocket Monsters is becoming a card game. You must be looking forward to seeing what kind of game it'll be. This month we're going to introduce you to some really interesting cards!!

1) The pokemon can battle each other!!
You can battle your friends in Pokemon Card just like you can in the Pocket Monsters Game Boy games. Defeat your opponents by using pokemon with a variety of attacks and skills!! Use each pocket monster's unique attributes to decide which cards you should play!!

2) There are lots of different powers!!
There are non-attack cards in Pokemon Card that are able to damage your opponent as well. There are a lot of powers and techniques but if you have a good balance of cards then you'll be able to win easily.

Picture Caption: Some pokemon can change their weaknesses at will. This is the man-made CG pokemon "Porygon."

Orange Box at the bottom: "Pocket Monsters Card Game"
Maker: Creatures, Distributor: Media Factory. On-sale in late October. 102 different cards altogether. One set includes 60 cards / price TBD. Expansion packs will have ten cards each / price TBD.

Page 151:

3) Pokemon Cards Evolve!!
Pokemon can level up and evolve into strong pokemon just like they do in the Game Boy games. To do this you have to place the appropriate evolution cards on top of the original. Your pokemon gains new powers every time it evolves and is a great way to power up weaker creatures.

Pikachu grows in two stages!
Pikachu: It uses electricity to shock its opponents. It's not all that strong.
Evolution 1
Raichu: It battles with speedy and powerful electric attacks!

Fushigidane grows in three stages!
Fushigidane: It's a capable fighter who heals itself whenever it attacks.
Evolution 1
Fushigisou: We know that the flower bud on its back is still growing.
Evolution 2
Fushigibana: It's HP shoots way up and it becomes invincible. Its attack power is also high.

...let us just take a moment to enjoy how absurd the claim that Fushigibana "becomes invincible" is for just a second, shall we?

OK, next!


4) It'll feature all-new artwork
Twenty different illustrations that you can't see in the Game Boy games will appear in the card game. It'll be fun to see a side of the pokemon you didn't notice in the games and to see the kinds of places they live. You can, of course, use these cards as Monster Cards.

5) Trainer Cards are super useful!
These are cards that can help you in battle. Use them well to help turn the tables of the match.

Dousing Machine: Lets you bring back one card that's already been discarded.
Pokemon Zukan: Lets you heal pokemon who have received damage.
Computer Search: Lets you add one of your favorite cards.
Pippi Doll: Can be used as a Pokemon Card.
Energy Retrieval: Lets you bring back two cards that you've already used up.
Energy Removal: Lets you remove your opponents' energy cards.

And at the bottom of the page is a short blurb advertising Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga despite it have absolutely nothing to do with the TCG.

The very next page moves away from trading cards to talk about stickers. There's also a giveaway for a pokemon notebook at the bottom of the page.

Stickers

There are a few ads for a new Batomen Cyclone line (left) and the next issue of CoroCoro Comics. The next issue promises to have exclusive information on the play system of the Pokemon TCG (center, right).

Batomen Cyclone CoroCoro Comics ad (Full Color) CoroCoro Comics ad (Black and White)

A little further into the magazine we come across a mini booklet that features this:

Phone Line
Phone Line (Close-Up

It's a radio program where kids can call in for help with their homework, apparently? I'll let a translation of the text speak for itself:

National Kids' Phone Hotline
Accepting all your troubles and questions!!

Filled with hints on how to do your homework!? It's a phone hotline you can call everyday!
We can also answer any questions you come up with while studying during summer vacation. Call everyday! We're having special events for CoroCoro Comics readers: On August 26th you can call about Mini Yonku and on September 24th you can call about Pokemon. Look forward to it!

"I'll teach you everything about Pokemon!"

Available on TBS Radio (available on nine stations nationwide)
Broadcasts Monday ~ Friday from 4:00pm to 4:30pm

We accept calls between 3:45pm and 4:30pm Monday through Friday. Make sure to only call during this time!


The TBS Kids' Phone Hotline wrapped up in 2008, according to the hotline's official website.

After that is the "first" chapter of Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga!

Pocket Monsters

I'm putting the word "first" in quotations because the manga had already been running in CoroCoro Special for a number of months by this point under the title
"The Strange Pokemon Pippi" (ふしぎポケモンピッピ). This chapter, however, is the CoroCoro Comics debut of the manga and, as you can see, it receives a full-color title page.

At the end of the manga chapter is this two-page "Pockemon Club" section that catches readers up to speed on the plot-less manga they just read. Notice how they use the older "pockemon" romanization that, if you really think about it, makes more sense? They also misspell Pikachu's name, something that would be absolutely unheard of today.

Pockemon Club

Toward the end of the magazine are two more ads for the next month's issue of
CoroCoro Comics that more or less say the same thing that all the others said:

CoroCoro ad CoroCoro ad

Finally, CoroCoro Comics, like other manga anthology magazines, prints comments from the authors at the end of each issue. Let's see what Pocket Monsters artists Anakubo Kousaku has to say about his first chapter of the manga:

Authors Close-up

"Have you read my new manga? I'm waiting for your feedback!! Please look forward to next month. (Anakubo)"

...and that's it for this month!  Pocket Monsters is really starting to pick up steam!!


CoroCoro Comics: October 1996

On-sale: September 15th, 1996

October 1996

The first thing you see when you open the October 1996 issue of CoroCoro Comics is this build-it-yourself "stationary set" featuring Let's Go and Pocket Monsters. It's printed on cardboard stock and has perforated lines that allow you to detach the pieces. A how-to guide is printed later in the magazine.

Stationary (front) Stationary (back)

When you click on the images above to enlarge it you'll see that the pokemon they use to advertise the franchise for this particular set are Lizardon, Arbo, Eevee, Seadra, and Mew. How delightfully random!

Trading Card Game

Next up is this feature on the Trading Card Game which, according to this page, now has a set release date of October 20th, 1996. Here's a translation of the five main elements the magazine points out:

An Exclusive Scoop on the "Pocket Monsters" Card Game!

An Introduction to the Game System of the Pokemon Card Game!!
We're going to explain to you how to play this new card game that has a different flavor to it from the Game Boy games.  We're also going to reveal some of the card types ahead of the game's release!

The Pokemon Card Game is a battle game!
Let's beat your opponents' monsters one by one by skillfully using various monsters' and attack items!

1) Your Deck
You place 60 of your cards in a pile face-down and then draw them one by one. Your deck is the heart of your match.

2) Prize Card
Place six of your cards face-down. You can take one card whenever you defeat one of your opponent's pokemon and the player who draws all their prize cards first is the winner.

3)  Active Pokemon
The pokemon / item that's actually battling at any given moment. In other words, it's the game's main character. The battle begins when you attach Energy Cards to it!

Even during battle you're able to use Energy Cards to have your pokemon trade places with one of the pokemon waiting off on the bench!

4)  Bench
This is where pokemon who are able to fight wait their turn. You can also attach Energy Cards to the pokemon while they're on the bench. You can see what pokemon your opponent has on his or her bench and plan your strategy accordingly.

5)  Hand
The cards you draw from your deck become your Hand. You don't have to show these cards to your opponent so make that a part of your strategy as well.


And here's the text in the green-ish box that features the Pikachu and Orchid-Hakase cards.:


Use Pokemon Cards to Battle!
The first wave will have 102 cards in all. There are a lot of different pokemon so do your best to figure out each one's abilities. Which pokemon will be your favorite?

Pikachu
It's a pokemon who specializes in Electric attacks just like in the manga.

Orchid-Hakase
This powerful card lets you swap out all the cards in your Hand!


"Just like in the manga"...remember, at this time Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters was the only Pocket Monsters-related manga in existence! It was literally "the" manga at the time!

And finally, here's the text in the orange-ish scroll at the very left:

Pokemon Glossary
Pocket Monsters!
Monsters who live in places like mountains and forests. You can capture them with Monster Balls.

Orchid-Hakase!
The pokemon authority. He asks you to complete his Pokemon Bestiary.

Evolution!
Sometimes a pokemon battles and grows into an even stronger pokemon.

Next up is the monthly Tokoton Ranking! This month Pokemon moves up a spot to Number Three.

Tokoton
List of Most Wanted Games

First Place:  Super Mario 64
Second Place:  Super Bomberman 4
Third Place:  Pocket Monsters

Fourth Place:  Hoshi no Kirby Deluxe (Kirby Super Star)
Fifth Place:  Super Mario RPG
Sixth Place:  Dragon Quest VI

Seventh Place:  Derby Stallion 96
Eighth Place:  Saturn Bomberman
Ninth Place:  Tobal No. 1
Tenth Place:  Street Fighter Zero 2

The text for Pocket Monsters this month says "There will be over 200 pokemon in Pokemon 2!"

Pocket Monsters 2 also retained its Number Two spot in the list of "Most Anticipated Games" with 3,866 votes.

The franchise's next appearance in the magazine came in these two ads. The one on the left is an ad for the next month's issue of CoroCoro and features a giant pair of women's breasts, nipples and all. The 90s sure were a different time, huh? The ad on the right is for some gashapon toys.


Next up is this feature on Pokemon Cardass, the awkwardly-named trading card series. There are two sets - a red set and a green set - and you can only get certain pokemon in certain sets just like in the games. The feature on the left shows off the second wave of Gashapon pokemon figurines with some rather questionable sculpts. The rules for how to play with these are repeated from the previous issue.



Next up are some more ads; the one on the left is for the next issue of the now-defunct Famitsu Bros magazine while the one on the right's an advertisement for next month's CoroCoro that tells us that the next issue will come with an exclusive Pikachu and Pippi TCG card.


Once we get to page 500 or so we're given a page explaining how to put together the stationary kit that was at the front of the magazine. You can use the cardboard pieces to play a board game and also they double as stencils?

After that is an ad for the next month's
CoroCoro because apparently they like having half the magazine be ads for the next issue for some reason. This ad is pretty much exclusively pointing out all the pokemon-related extras that'll come packaged with the next issue: there's the aforementioned Pikachu and Pippi TCG cards, a "Pokemon Card Game Pre-Sale Victory Manual," information about the second wave of Pokemon-themed Batomen, information about a new Pokemon battle pencil game, and an exclusive report on the upcoming Pokemon Cardass stickers.

Oh, and also information on the upcoming Pocket Monsters Blue version, the newest game in the series being released to celebrate Red & Green selling over a million copies! From what I can tell this ad right here is the very first mention of this game anywhere in this magazine which is really weird way to announce the first new game in a white-hot series like Pocket Monsters.


Next up is the chapter of Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga that would eventually be released as the fifth chapter of the first volume, "Search for the Mythical Pokemon Mew." After that is an ad for, you guessed it, next month's issue of CoroCoro.


The rest of the magazine is just more ads, basically. The one on the left is for the next month's issue of CoroCoro Special and will feature two chapters of Anakubo Kousaku's Pocket Monsters manga, apparently. The one on the right is yet another ad for next month's issue of regular CoroCoro Comics. This one is kind of funny because it uses one of the janky "pokemon" Mr. Anakubo created for his manga to help promote the franchise.


As we get to the end of the magazine we get some new comments from Mr. Anakubo:


"I'm really thankful for all the impressions and fan letters I got after the first chapter. I'll continue to do my best! (Anakubo)"

Finally, the back cover of the magazine features this art board (basically a piece of cardboard you put under your paper to avoid scratching whatever surface you're writing on) featuring characters from "Pocke mon" in what is apparently the second in a series of three images. I'm a bit confused by this last part; the previous issue most definitely did not come with one of these art boards so I'm wondering when and where "Part One" would have been released. The text at the top there challenges us to find all three legendary birds in this image.



I unfortunately don't have the November issue at the moment but I did manage to find the December one!


CoroCoro Comics: December 1996

On-sale: November 15th, 1996



Coming Soon!




 

 

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