Festival of Champions is a fan manga passion project by artist/author Seijun that has been an ongioing comic since 2011 following Red, Green, and Blue.
Not sure if a lot of people on the forum know about it so I wanted to share it.
It is a more realistic take on Pokemon in terms of art style and a pretty compelling tournament/battle series.
I’d say its a pg-13 manga due to some cursing and the more realisitc damage Pokemon take in battles, Sammy Oak smokes cigarettes too.
The story is pretty engaging and features trainers from all over the world.
For those who read on you get to see how much the artist improves as time goes on and really grows into his style.
There are currently 17 chapeters out and translated into English as of today.
Most chapters are longer than the one I have uploaded below. To continue reading you can find the manga here:
The artist also has a booth store you can buy the physical manga from (in Japanese only):
Bumping this out of appreciation for this series. I last read every chapter maybe four or five months ago but remember being extremely drawn into the battles and character development. Highly recommend for anyone who wants a glimpse of what “real” battling would look like, with higher stakes and extremely in depth strategies. Seriously, a flying Espeon and frozen tidal waves are fantastic uses of Pokémon’s potential.
What I love about “Festival of Champions” (beyond art style) is the fact that it gives Pokémon important lore and make them more important in the story. For example, Green’s Raticate. As a Rattata, he used to have a friendship with Eevee. Manga explains how Raticate passed away and how it affected Eevee psychologically.
Japanese only as far a I am aware. As an Umbreon and Espeon fan I wish I could have the chapters containing their battles and development in English physically
I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I read the original adventures manga and the Ruby and Sapphire arc. This blows them out of the water on every metric imo
I read this manga a couple years ago and remember really enjoying it! Felt like the kind of tone i have been wanting in a pokemon story for a long time! Love all of the lore that they get into. Thanks for the reminder to read this again soon!
