Webcomic / Pokemon: Festival of Champions

Pokemon: Festival of Champions is a Pokémon doujinshi by Seijun Tombo. It has been published via Pixiv since 2010.

Red, Green, and Blue^note Given that it's a Japanese doujin, it uses the original Japanese names instead of the Western names, meaning Green is the male rival, and Blue is the female trainer, unlike in the West, where it's the other way around. are three friends from Pallet Town who come to enter the Indigo League after a year spent on their respective journeys. Trainers from all around the world come to participate, from rookies like our heroes to the Elite Four themselves.

The comic thus far has been compiled into three volumes: Red (parts 1-4), Green (5-7), and Blue (8-11).

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This webcomic has examples of:

• Air Jousting: Swanna and Espeon engage one another, with the latter using Psychic on a tree to match her speed.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • The entire class of Dark-type Pokemon is this; the type was only recently discovered and the public has a lot of misconceptions about them, causing them to be feared and hated. Karen's ultimate goal as a trainer is to change the world's view of Dark-type Pokemon. While she doesn't win her battle with Green, her Pokemon perform well enough to win over the crowd.
  • Apparently in the past, Ghost-type Pokemon were viewed similarly. Agatha did extensive research on Ghost-types and won the Indigo League with them several times, and this led to Ghost-types being accepted as a type in their own right. This is what inspires Karen to do the same thing for Dark-type Pokemon.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: How Karen got her Murkrow, Umbreon, and Houndoom; she was the first person to accept them all for what they were rather than reacting to them with fear or disgust.
• Berserk Button: Abused Pokemon is Red's personal trigger. When he and Green found a Pikachu grown feral because of its former trainer's abuse, the sheer hatred in the preteen Red's eyes for the Pikachu's fate disturbed Green. His raid in Silph Co. is pretty much motivated by vengeance for the orphaned Cubone he adopted in the Lavender Tower.
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending of Green vs. Karen is more bitter than sweet because of various reasons; Karen loses the match but she successfully shows to the tournament audience that Dark-type is no less loyal, powerful, and courageous than other Pokemon. However, the fact that he wins yet still lacks the audience's cheer feeds Green's inferiority complex toward Red, because Karen is similar in a lot of ways to Red, and Green falls fully into his ambitious power thirst to sate his empty heart.
• Blood Knight: Green. He tends to specifically seek out this trait in his Pokemon as well; Arcanine and Raticate show it the most.
  • Espeon picked it up as well considering she hates to lose and will attempt to match her opponent in close-quarters combat.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Gold is shown as one of the spectators, making snide remarks on the trainers fighting no matter how impressive their showings or respectable their goals toward the overall betterment of the Pokemon in the world. For example, he mocks Karen's attempt to prove how Dark-types aren't evil to the mass, ignorant of just how hard the obstacles she and her Pokemon had been through to come that far.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Red's reason to be a trainer is because he saw just what kind of torture an abusive trainer can do to their Pokemon.
    • Even afterwards, he resembles the Anime's Ash... until his battle with Team Rocket. Going through that kind of danger at a young age, seeing his pokemon horribly hurt, considering himself the same kind of monster as Giovanni, who hurt his partners for his own ends... it clearly devastated the young boy.
  • Green becomes obsessed with strength because his Raticate, the first Pokemon he befriends, died because of his negligence and his Eevee, his first Pokemon even before his starter, grieved endlessly because of it. His immense guilt causes him to vow to be strong so he'll Never Be Hurt Again.
  • Blue's flashback chapter details how she started on her Pokemon journey, mostly to follow after Red and Green. She came across Raticate's grave in Pokemon Tower and, soon after, was introduced to Team Rocket and the damage they caused.
• Breather Episode: Everything about Blue's Clefable in Blue vs. Skyla is jammed between Green succumbing into villainy and Skyla's backstory about how she attempts to save her airport.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Blue, during her battle with Skyla, is clearly distinct from Green's Awesomeness by Analysis or Red's Hot-Blooded full-force attacks, by taking strange or embarrassing tactics (using Cute Charm and Substitute); showboating; comparing the battle to Poke-Star Studios' Movies... and yet, Skyla sees through her giddy excitement to see a trainer who absolutely knows what she is doing.
• The Charmer: Blue's Clefable can use its Cute Charm ability to make its opponents fall in love with it. It does so against Skyla's Dodrio to hilarious effect.
• Childhood Friends: Red, Green, and Blue are childhood friends from Pallet Town.
• Combat Pragmatist: Literally everyone. For example, when Red and Misty are set to fight in a sandy terrain, where none of them have advantage over the other, Misty decides to flood the entire arena into a giant pool with her two other Pokemon so her Starmie can use its skill sets like crazy.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When Red, Green, and Blue decide to have a battle royale, they each choose their starter as their first Pokemon. Since each one is weak to one of the others, they all go for the ones they're strong against and the round lasts about three seconds.
• Dare to Be Badass:
  • Blue didn't immediately become Pokemon trainer like Red and Green because she has a phobia for Pokemon. At first, she became a trainer because she felt sorry that Bulbasaur was left behind, but she wasn't seriously competing until she cleaned up the fallout of Silph Co. raid against Team Rocket. Red and Green were scared emotionally, Green gave away his Eevee to her in his pursuit for strength, and there was nothing she could do about it. Blue's Pokemon phobia returns from witnessing so many atrocities associated with Pokemon despite her hard work until that point. Then Haunter helped Blue to deal with her and Eevee's issues, and she decided that she will be strong enough to protect her friends, by being their equal - as prospective Champions.
  • In Chapter 14 Part 2, young Elesa is seen in the audience, entranced by how beautiful and powerful Skyla is after she gets out of her battle slump, with the implication that her future as a Gym Leader is inspired by this battle.
• Darker and Edgier: While the storyline of the webmanga is pretty much following the game, the story beats do not because of the Adaptation Expansion. Lethal fights do exist, Pokemon battle being a blood sport is emphasized with the very visceral action scenes, Team Rocket's crimes with all its entails, the implied discrimination against certain type of Pokemon is seen the first hand. Several chapters are narrated by the Pokemon to see that they're real flesh-and-blood with their own feelings.
• Deep Sleep: Eevee develops hypersomnia after being traded to Blue. It gets bad enough that a nurse tells Blue that there isn't any cure. Blue has to enter Eevee's dreams with Haunter's help in order to wake her up.
• Died Standing Up: Downplayed because it's non-fatal; Karen's Houndoom ends up passing out while triumphantly standing on Green's Rhydon after their last attack knock each other out.
• The Fighting Narcissist: Blue's Espeon, despite its time with Blue makes it more graceful, vain, and girly, still has traces of Green's battle doctrine. It gives Puppy-Dog Eyes to taunt Skyla's Swanna whether or not it's going to use its real attack, and after downing the Swanna the first time with said attack, Espeon's laughing at how everything on the field belongs to it.
• Flat "What": Red's reaction to seeing Blue's Clefable using its Cute Charm ability to seduce the Dodrio it's battling.
• From Stray to Pet:
  • Red met his Pikachu when it broke into his house, feral and badly wounded after being abused by Pokemon and humans alike. Although Pikachu was extremely distrustful of humans at first, Red eventually managed to befriend it.
  • Karen took in her Murkrow and Umbreon after finding them badly wounded, with the implication that they had been beaten and abandoned by their trainers.
  • Green obtained Growlithe after rescuing it from Team Rocket; he freed it from its cage and told it to go home, but it chose to stay with him instead, seemingly not having another trainer to go back to.
• Heroic BSoD: Green's Eevee was unable to battle after the death of Raticate. Green ended up trading it to Blue, and it seems to have gotten much better under her care, considering that it's since evolved into an Espeon.
• Kick the Morality Pet: Green is a lot kinder to Blue than to Red, even after he becomes a jackass. So when he attempts to sic his Arcanine to Blue when she tries to stop him and Red from fighting, it's treated as Green has finally Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
• Killed Off for Real: When Green's Raticate is poisoned, it doesn't faint after so many steps without medical attention. It dies.
• Libation for the Dead: After... everything that happens with Red, Blue, Green; Eevee's coma and Team Rocket, Blue and Red have a picnic with all their pokemon. They leave a portion of food on a leaf, for Raticate.
  • As the sun rises on a new chapter, Eevee eats it. And evolves.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: When Blue goes into Eevee's dreams in Chapter 11, she and Eevee nearly get caught in one. Eevee's is a reality where she was able to find an Antidote in time to save Raticate, while Blue's is one where she, Red, and Green are all together and happy. Blue is able to snap them both out of it.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The first battle of the preliminaries we see is a Gengar (Blue's) versus a Nidorino, in reference to the opening of Pokémon Red and Blue.
  • Red's Cubone lost its mother to Team Rocket, and its mother now haunts Pokemon Tower, just like in the original games.
  • Red received Lapras as a gift from a researcher just before the battle against Giovanni at Silph Co.; the player in the original games receives a Lapras in the same way.
  • Red's first opponent in the preliminaries is a trainer with a Beedrill and a Sandslash. The guy trained the Sandslash to No-Sell Water-Type attacks. Not only this is a nod to A.J. from the anime, the trainer also looks like A.J. and is named Akira, A.J.'s Japanese name.
  • One of Green's party members is a Raticate that ends up dying in battle right before Green reaches Lavender Town. In the original games, Green has a Raticate in his party in a couple of early rival battles but loses it by the time he reaches Lavender Town; a common fan theory is that the Raticate died offscreen, possibly due to the player injuring it in battle. Here, it's because Raticate was poisoned by one of Team Rocket's Pokemon.
  • The cover art of the three volumes are all stylized after the original Japanese covers of Red, Green, and Blue. The poses of our protagonists on the other hand are from their official arts in FireRed and LeafGreen.
  • One of the inciting incidents that spurs Red to want to take a journey rather than living contentedly in Pallet Town is seeing Mew, much like in Pokémon Adventures.
• Nightmare Face: Karen's Umbreon really likes making wide Slasher Smile full of sharp fangs. After the battle, Karen and her Dark-type team endear themselves on the audience, and this Slasher Smile practically becomes the Umbreon's charm point.
• No-Sell:
  • Red's first battle in the preliminaries is against a Sandslash that has trained itself to be immune to Water-type moves ^note Based on a character (A.J./Akira) from early in the anime., allowing it to shrug off Lapras' attack with ease.
  • Dark-type Pokemon being immune to Psychic-type attacks is explained by Professor Oak; Dark-type Pokemon secret a chemical in their skin that neutralizes psychic waves. Green's Alakazam, however, is intelligent enough to work around this.
  • For her fight against Red (who she knows uses Pikachu), Misty specifically brings a Quagsire, since it's both Water-type and Ground-type and therefore immune to Electric-type attacks. Red, who doesn't know Johto Pokemon typing, wastes a move because of this.
• Patchwork Fic: It's mostly based on the games, but a few elements of the story borrow from the anime.
  • Though he maintains his game counterpart's high degree of competence, Red's overall personality and treatment is quite similar to Ash, being outgoing and passionate if a bit erratic.
  • Red has been associated with Pikachu since the days of Yellow, but their bond in the story borrows quite a bit from the anime, such as them starting off rough due to Pikachu's bad attitude and ultimately bonding after a rough night in Viridian Forest.
  • Red has a Butterfree on his team, which is all but stated to be the first Pokemon he caught. This is definitely the case for Ash, but Red has never shown any signs of owning a Butterfree in canon, and it's the only thing on his team here that isn't in some way a starter or a storyline encounter.
  • Misty is a significant character with a relatively close relationship with Red, mirroring Misty's importance in the first few seasons of the anime.
• Prefers the Illusion: After being traded to Blue, Eevee develops hypersomnia and spends most of its time asleep. Blue discovers that Eevee is living in a dream world where she was able to save Raticate's life.
• Reflecting Laser: Blue's Espeon downs Skyla's Swanna the first time by setting up Reflect barriers around the Swanna not only to crush the bird between them, but also to bounce off its Swift into one point.
• Ship Tease: There's a lot of them between Red and Misty, complete with She's Not My Girlfriend.
• Shrine to the Fallen: Lavender Tower in general, as in the games. More specifically, Blue finds Green's Raticate's photograph in a frame with offerings there.
• Slasher Smile: Karen's Umbreon often breaks into one during battle. Its awkward bow to the audience after the match implies that this is just how it smiles now. That unnaturally wide jaw, those sharp teeth and eyes - you can see why its original trainer thought it could not be their old eevee and abandoned it.
• Speed Blitz: At least one pokemon in Red, Blue, and Green's team adopt this approach. In Green's case, Raticate specialized in this and Arcanine developed Extreme Speed. In Red's case, Pikachu's Quick Attack also matches them while using electricity. In Blue's case, Espeon uses Reflect to set up platforms and then bounces around to hit the enemy from every angle having learned from both Raticate and Pikachu.
• Taking Up the Mantle: Several characters among the pokemon have this reaction to Raticate's death.
  • Pikachu, who had created the Signature Move Volt Tackle in order to keep up with its Quick Attack, wills itself to continue growing in strength to honour their rivalry.
  • Eevee, who was so close to it that it entirely lost its ability to battle after the loss, eats the berries kept as an offering to symbolically imbibe its famous fighting spirit. Its bounding attack across the Reflects during the Skyla battle is even a visual Call-Back to Rattata's motion while battling Pikachu!
  • Arcanine, the fastest Growlithe Green could find, creates the Signature Move Extreme Speed.
• Tournament Arc: The plot is based entirely around the Indigo League tournament. Instead of a Boss Rush style bonanza like in the game, Indigo League is more like the Olympic-like elimination tournament, with the Elite 4 being guaranteed seats in semi-final that can waltz in without prelims because they're so strong, their victories in the prelims are pretty much Foregone Conclusion.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • Green was just an ordinary, if slightly bratty and smug, childhood friend of Red and Blue. Then his Raticate died, and he never forgives his own 'weakness', growing obsessed with victory to make sure that he'll never again experience sorrow.
  • Green's Growlithe he saved from Team Rocket grows up to be a very savage-looking Arcanine similarly obsessed with battle just like its trainer. It ends up attacking Blue's Espeon under Green's order when she tries to stop Green and Red from fighting, despite they were friends back when they were Growlithe and Eevee.
• Worthy Opponent: Raticate acknowledged Pikachu as this after it managed to land a blow on it using Volt Tackle.
  • Blue's Arcanine and Karen's Houndoom also acknowledge each other's strength in their battle.