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Uh...where's the Pokemon?
No matter how many spin-offs/adaptations the Pokemon franchise has, one thing usually remains certain (as long as humans are involved): Pokemon are living creatures, and it takes time, effort, and love to understand them, bond with them, and/or fight by their side.

Yeah, not seeing it here.

The problem with this manga is not the Pokemon/human fusion concept; it is a cool idea and fan artists have been doing it for ages. The problem is that the mangaka did a rather dismal job creating his world and concepts by barely including any Pokemon/human interaction in his story.

The opening suggests that this region is full of Pokemon as well as my opening statement, yet when the actual story gets going, we rarely see any Pokemon, even just hanging out in the background. I realize that the new fighting style is being showcased above all-else, but it is shown to be something not anybody can do, so I question why nobody even thinks to use Pokemon at all in any conventional situation. Hell, the mooks use guns, kind of missing the point of Fantasy Gun Control.

Also, the Burst process itself is a prime example of not focusing at all on the Pokemon. You'd think if standard battling with Pokemon requires spending a lot of time bonding with it, than actually fusing with it should be a whole 'nother can of worms. Nope, all it takes is lots of physical training entirely on the part of the human! The main character never actually met his signature Pokemon until the time came to fuse with it.

I suspect the mangaka jumped the Pokemon bandwagon 'cause he didn't want to be bothered making up his own monster designs. I honestly think the story would've flowed better if he had so we wouldn't be bothered by preconceived notions. Something that supports this theory is that somewhere it's stated that he spent a couple years getting the story together...when the BW games had only been out for a couple months and Gen 5 Pokemon (when they do appear) are all that are showcased.


The plot is nothing more than standard shonen fare. Hot-blooded boy wants to find his dad and kicks ass along the way. Except with Pokemon, whose roles have been demoted to transformation trinkets.

At least the battles look cool.
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