The Adventures Exclusive That is Yellow

Jul 31

When it comes to exclusive characters, Pokémon Adventures/Special is no stranger to them. For the Red/Blue/Yellow arc, they introduced a character that would hold the title of Yellow. That being… Yellow, or Amarillo del Bosque Verde (Yellow of Viridian Forest).

What’s in a Name: Why Yellow?

With the manga loosely being on the games, at least from a story perspective, the characters are named after each of the four Gen 1 games (Japan had Red and Green, with Blue being an improved version of both and Yellow. Internationally, players got Red and Blue which were ran similarly to Japan’s Blue and Yellow, which would be come the original third “enhanced” version inspired by the anime). The player character, rival, and both female characters in the Kanto arc are named after the generation one games.

Red: The player character and original protagonist for the first part of the Kanto arc.
Green/Blue Oak: The rival. Outside of Japan, and the Chinese translation (according to Bulbapedia), the official name for your rival in the generation one games (and their subsequent remakes) is Blue Oak. This is due to the fact that, internationally, players got Red and Blue. And while you can change your rival’s name in these games, his default name is Green/Blue. Since I know him as Blue, that’s what I’ll be referring to him as Blue.
Blue/Green: There is a debate whether or not this character is the same one as the one shown on the promotional work alongside Red and Blue. Officially, she was not planned for RBGY, though she may have been the inspiration for this character. Similar to Green/Blue Oak, she will go by Blue or Green depending on the region (Blue in Japan, China, Thailand, and Vietnam according to Bulbapedia, Green everywhere else). This would be due to the fact that she would take her name from Blue, the improved version of Red/Green, and was most likely given Green since Green wasn’t internationally released. She’s also may be the basis for Leaf, however, there isn’t official confirmation that Green and Leaf are the same character outside of the manga’s FireRed/LeafGreen arc. I’ll be referring to her as Green.

In Yellow’s case, she is not a player character, rival, or inspired by the promo material. She does get her name from Pokémon Yellow. However, the player in Yellow is Red, with the game itself being inspired by Ash and the anime. So when they got to the Yellow arc in the manga, where Red was M.I.A., a character was created.

Yellow.

What Makes Yellow, Yellow?

Because Yellow was specifically created for the manga, she didn’t really have a game concept to uses as a starting point. Granted, the manga doesn’t really follow the canon story of the games (ex. in the manga, Sabrina, Koga, and Lt. Surge working for Team Rocket and the Kanto E4 being antagonists in this arc). However, all of the game characters had a reference point to go off of.

While the overarching plot for the Yellow arc is locating Red, Yellow’s character gets the chance to expand. Initially, she meets Red during one of the Red/Blue/Green arc, where Red saves her from some wild Dratini. Later, after running into his Pikachu at the beginning of the Yellow arc, she takes it upon herself to find him as thanks for helping her back then.

Setup aside, what makes Yellow, Yellow falls onto a few factors,

She is initially presented as a boy, but does reveal that she’s a girl.
She, alongside Lance and Giovanni, was born in Viridian Forest and was granted powers because of it.
She would become an official Dex Holder and be titled as the Healer.

A reveal for Yellow’s character is the fact that she’s actually a girl. She spends a good chunk of this and the next arc pretending to be a boy. It is revealed that Green was the one to convince her to do so for the time being, but she does eventually reveal it to the other Dex Holder.

If you’re not familiar with the manga, you may be wondering what a Dex Holder is, this is a term given to the trainers who obtain a Dex. Each Dex Holder is given a title/nickname. For example, Red is “The Fighter”, while Gold (a.k.a. Ethan) is “The Hatcher”. Yellow’s is “The Healer” because of her ability to heal others because it’s a gift she was born with.

Speaking of natural born abilities, she along with Lance and Giovanni, was one of the rare few to be born in the Viridian Forest. As such, she and the other Viridian Forest born individuals, are gifted with abilities to heal and communicate with their Pokémon. It is a trait specific to a select few Kanto trainers, which makes sense, and is exclusive to the manga. However, it does limit how much this concept can be explored. Especially now that the manga hasn’t brought Yellow back since the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum arc. I also think it would have been interesting if it was explored with a few non-Kanto characters (I feel like Silver and N could easily qualify for different reasons).

Trivia

She is the youngest of the Kanto Dex Holders, being fifteen as of the Emerald Arc, while Blue is sixteen in the Emerald arc, and Red and Green are twenty (as of ORAS). Blue and Yellow’s ages could change depending on if they appear in the Adventures ORAS arc, which may not be likely based on what I know presently. So, as of right now, Bulbapedia has their Emerald arc ages as their current confirmed age.
Most of her Pokémon don’t evolve right awaye. During a good chunk of the Yellow arc, most of her team does not evolve, with the main exceptions being the Rattata Red helped her catch during the Red/Blue/Green arc and the female Pikachu she gets after saving Red and returning his Pikachu to him. The rest of her Pokémon evolve during the chapter, “The Might of… Metapod” during her battle with Lance.
Her most popular ship is Specialshipping (a.k.a. Red x Yellow). Granted, with Yellow’s age not being updated since Emerald and her not being present since DPPt, I doubt it would be canon presently. Not that it was necessarily canon to begin with (the closest implication/hint I can think of is their Pikachu, since they have a Pichu egg together that is given to Gold). That said, Specialshipping is Yellow’s most popular ship, and it gets it’s name from the Japanese title (Pokémon Special).
As mentioned earlier, Yellow is one of a few manga exclusive characters. She’s also one of two manga characters named after one of the games. The only other one being Emerald. This trend stopped in the Sinnoh arcs. From there, the only characters in the manga to be named after a games (one way or another) are the player characters and a few of the rivals (ex. Berry is Pearl, Hilda is White, and Helio is Sun). The only exceptions are the remake arcs that came out around this time (i.e. HGSS and ORAS), where they use the preexisting Adventures characters in a remake centric storyline.

Will Yellow Ever Appear Outside of the Manga?

As of right now, no. Based on what I’ve heard, or I suppose haven’t, there isn’t a plan to bring Yellow out of the manga. And with her last appearance being in the DPPt arc, which ran from 2008-2011 in Japan, I have my doubts that they’ll bring her back in the manga. Though I would be pleasantly surprised if she appeared or was alluded to in ORAS or a future manga.

If she were to appear outside of the manga, I feel like it would be in Pokémon Masters EX, the gatcha mobile game. This 3v3 battle game has brought in characters from the games as well as a few from the anime (namely Ash, Jessie, and James). So, assuming Dena, the company behind Pokémon Masters EX, wants to bring in the few manga exclusive characters out there, that would be the only way I could see Yellow appearing outside of the manga.