The Pokémon Company has been anything but shy about celebrating the franchise’s 30th anniversary. I, for better or worse, am a sucker for a good ol’ strategy book, so one drop I was excited enough to preorder was the new Deluxe Character Book. While the book does show some age-old favoritism for specific Pokémon, it also serves as a colorful and thoughtful celebration of the full franchise.
The book's construction definitely has a premium feel. The gold-lined pages make it stand out against any selection of guide or coffee books. The cover art features an array of Pokémon in gold and silver line art, offering some entertainment in finding each Pokémon hidden in the collage. Full color is reserved for Pikachu, who is also the star of the inner cover art, and unsurprisingly much of the book in general.
The guidebook initially greets you with a foreword from the CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara. He expresses his gratitude to Pokémon fans, who he hopes “can unearth for the first time or rediscover the magic of the Pokémon world.” A cute detail here is a full color picture of Exeggutor, who Ishihara has previously mentioned is his personal favorite Pokémon, underneath the President’s signature.
This gracious foreword is followed by an introduction that frankly had me feeling things. In just a few short paragraphs, this introduction outlines what Pokémon is and has been throughout its 30-year history. This is a very core part of the book: an attempt at encompassing information from each segment of the franchise, and embracing Trainers at any point in their Pokémon journey.
From there, you essentially get a full-on encyclopedia that includes every Pokémon in numerical Pokédex order, from Bulbasaur to Pecharunt. Chapters are generally organized by region, each of which starts with a general overview page that briefly describes the region's relevance to particular Pokémon games, arcs in the movies and TV series, and appearance in TCG form.
The exceptions to that structure are entire chapters dedicated to Pikachu, New Discoveries, and Legendary and Mythical Pokemon.
Each of these sections has a specific page color and little labels in the top corner, making it easy to flip through. An Index at the back also indicates the pages dedicated to individual Pokémon in alphabetical order.
Now, what exactly do you learn about each of the 1,025 Pokémon included in the book? In short, what you’d expect from a particularly elaborate Pokédex.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/pokemon-deluxe-character-guide-book-hands-on
