New Adventures, RéBURST manga released
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March 2011 has been an exciting time for Pokémon manga fans, especially Pokémon Adventures fans, with new releases from VIZ Media in North America, Chuang Yi in Singapore, and Shōgakukan in Japan.
In Japan, the first chapter of the new manga by Mitsuhisa Tamura and Jin Kusude, Pokémon RéBURST (ポケットモンスター RéBURST), appeared in the March 2011 issue of Weekly Shōnen Sunday. This manga follows the adventures of main character Ryouga and his friend Miruto. In addition, volume 38 of the popular manga Pokémon Adventures (ポケットモンスター SPECIAL Pocket Monsters Special) was released by Shōgakukan at the end of February. This volume marks the end of the Diamond & Pearl chapter as well as the beginning of the Platinum chapter. Also released at the end of February was the second and third volumes of Pokémon Try Adventure (ポケモントライアドベンチャー Pocket Monsters Try Adventure), a manga created by Miho Asada, the author of Pokémon Get da Ze! and the popular Phantom Thief Pokémon 7 manga.
In North America, VIZ Media released Volume 30 of Pokémon Adventures, published as Volume 1 of a second series, "Pokémon Adventures: Diamond and Pearl/Platinum". This release was originally planned for February, but was pushed back to March for unknown reasons. This volume marks the beginning of the Diamond & Pearl chapter, and allows fans to follow the adventures of characters Diamond, Pearl and Lady Berlitz simultaneously with VIZ Media's continued releases of the Gold, Silver & Crystal chapter, the next volume of which is due out in April. In addition, VIZ Media announced in a press release that they have acquired the licence for the brand-new Black & White chapter of Pokémon Adventures. The Black & White chapter, which has been serializing in magazines for a few weeks, has not yet been published in graphic novel format in Japan, so it is believed by many fans that these volumes (which are shorter than usual and retail for $4.99 USD) will be made directly from the magazine chapters with original cover artwork. The first two volumes of the Black & White chapter as published by VIZ Media are due out in July.
Finally, in Singapore, Chuang Yi has released Volume 35 of Pokémon Adventures. Like VIZ Media's publication of Volume 30, this was originally slated for a late February release, but was pushed back to March 8th for unknown reasons. This is the fifth volume of the Diamond & Pearl chapter.