Pokemon Tales Art/Children Books

Okay, first off, I could’ve sworn I remembered reading about these in a thread on E4 a couple years ago, but I haven’t been able to find it. So if a thread on these exists, I apologize.

But these seem really cool. It’d be great for species or artist collectors, and in that way, I’m interested in finding one, specifically Swinub’s Nose. I haven’t been able to find any available on the internet, but I figure there’s no way these aren’t collected somewhere. Also, I have no idea what one would even offer on one of these. On Ebay a cyndaquil book sold for $200, and there’s also a listing for an entire case of the totodile ones for pretty cheap. On other used books sites, you find a lot very affordably, but others are nowhere to be found. It’s such a wild range; are these the kind of thing where you just have to pay whatever is necessary whenever they appear? I’ll be patient and make some saved searches, of course, if that’s the only way, but I hoping there’s something more I can learn.

Does anyone here own any? Any more info about these would be great to see! Also do scans exist? If nothing else, sharing the artwork would be awesome.

Here’s an example.

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swinub is my girlfriend’s favorite pokemon. I had no idea these existed, I bet she would really like that one!

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These books are so good! I have the full Japanese release but need a few of the English. They have great artwork but aren’t that easy to find these days.

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Love these books! Truly a cool art treasure! I have the Squirtle book illustrated by Kimura

Here you are =)

Yes, they are some of the most amazing collectibles in the hobby for me. Unfortunately, the gen 2 ones are more rare from what I’ve seen. And some gen 1 copies are indeed very unusually rare. Sometimes, like in the instance of Magnemite (by Kinebuchi), a seller pops up with an old case of hundreds, and it swamps the market. Others are just plain hard as hell to find. Even Japanese copies are not all that common, but def more available.

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Thank you! That’s exactly the thread I was looking for! I guess I’ll just have to keep my eyes and ears open.

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Thanks for linking the thread, @brendantheclayboy :slight_smile:

@implode As others have pointed out, some issues are for some reason harder to find than others. The “Gold and Silver Tales”, like the Swinub one you posted, are generally even exponentially rarer than the original “Pokemon Tales”.
The search is worth it, though! Like you said, they’re treasures for artist and species collectors alike and still fairly unknown. I haven’t made any progress on my collection in quite some time, but I’m definitely planning on completimg them someday.

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Love the look of these even though i don’t own any (yet). Would love to own heart-pounding sand and little ghost some day but they indeed aren’t very common to find. I may have already missed the best opportunities since i turned down some listings with what i thought was too high price but these too have gained some popularity, at least in some niche group of people, so can’t really be sure how much i would have to drop money for getting them

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I got mine in a huge bundle from a Mercari Japan listing, got pretty lucky tbh. Personally, I wouldn’t want to pay more than 20-30 bucks max for a used copy (Japanese, that is).

Since you said you’re particularily interested in Kusube’s Little Ghost story, maybe you might enjoy this video:

Found it by accident some time and it was actually the first time I’ve seen these books and the very reason I started collecting them :slight_smile:

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I hope to acquire the two illustrated by Yuka Morii one day. Never made it out of Japan!

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That’s interesting that it was her first pokemon-related project

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I have the Caterpie Book :slight_smile:

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I love these.

I saw the title of the thread and immediately went to dig for these! My Mom bought them for me back when I was a little girl :smile:

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“Pokémon Tales” books have really awesome art style made by different illustrators. I have 2 books out of the 48 of the Main Japanese series: Transforming Ditto :jp: and Let’s Make Pizza, Machop! :jp:

8) Transforming Ditto: This book was illustrated by Sumiyoshi Kizuki … I bought this book because for 2 reasons: “Lineless Art Style” (I use that term to refer to those Art Style that doesn’t have black borders :sweat_smile: … An example can be seen in Skyridge Delibird) and also, because searching on other places were confusing. I tried searching with its Japanese name へんしんメタモン and most results are related to Ditto plushies …

The book itself is really adorable. Basically, in this book, Ditto wants to make Cubone feel better (who is sad). After learning a lesson of life, Ditto used transform.

36) Let’s Make Pizza, Machop!: This book was illustrated by Yuka Morii … I bought this book because of the concept that a group of Pokémon make a Pizza :pizza: … and also because it was starring Machop … My favourite frames were the Sad Machop (I feel bad for him) and the one where everyone is eating Pizza. It’s a really adorable story.

(I haven’t uploaded the inside of Let’s Make Pizza, Machop! yet, but might be in a few days)

I love the art style applied in those books. The book collection might increase slowly, but I’m happy with those 2. Also, believe it or not, they can be good resources to learn basic Japanese and reinforce what has been learned.

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Oh jeez are these about to stonk? I get worried whenever a formerly niche product gets some internet attention :joy:

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Hadn’t seen the video earlier! Nice to know english translation exists and is available for everyone, the story combined to that art is adorable :slight_smile: that’s what i would be willing to pay too but let’s see if it’s a realistic thought

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