Rejoice, awaiting Pokemon fans looking to fill some gaps in your collection – a listing on Viz Media’s website have confirmed their acquisition of Pokemon Adventures: Heart Gold & Soul Silver. Volume one is scheduled for release early August 2013 for $9.99/US, $12.99/CAN. Listings for this license originally popped up on Amazon (US/CAN) in mid-December.
This three volume arc of the Pokemon story is being published as a separate Pokemon Adventures collection, instead of being in numbered sequence with the on-going series. The same thing was done with Diamond & Pearl Platinum, and Black & White.
Chronologically, Viz Media has already published Pokemon Adventures’ chapters for the ‘original’ Gold and Silver arcs, which are similar but different than Heart Gold & Soul Silver. They both follow the two leads who were named after the originating game series. These volumes were released as Pokemon Adventures (Vols. 8-14), with a box set published this past September (Amazon US/CAN).
Amazon listings (US/CAN) also reveal the date of the first collected volume of Pokemon Adventures: Black & White. Viz Media has been releasing mini volumes of this series since July 2011 to keep in close proximity to the original Japanese serialized chapters. They’ll be releasing those chapters again in thicker graphic novels that are in line with both the price and page count of their other Pokemon Adventures books.
The B&W listing brings two questions to mind: will these new volumes take the artwork from the collected editions in Japan (which often have some updates compared to chapters originally published in magazines), or will it be the same we’ve seen in the minis? And the second question – am I picky enough about bookshelf consistency to sell my minis and replace with these? Knowing myself, the possibility is high… What about you?
BW has finally started being released in volumes in Japan, and, yup, changes have already started.