A manga adaptation of the 15th Pokemon movie, “Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice” features an entertaining coming-of age story about a young Pokemon who is willing to challenge the mighty Kyurem in order to be a member of The Sword of Justice! An enjoyable story that Pokemon fans of all ages will definitely enjoy!
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MANGA TITLE: Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice by Momota Inoue
ORIGINAL CONCEPT by Satoshi Tajiri
SUPERVISED BY Tsunekazu Ishihara
SCRIPT by Hideki Sonoda
STORY & ART by Momota Inoue
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shogakukan, Inc.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC
RATED: For All Ages
RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2013
Ash and Pikachu, along with their friends Iris and Cilan, are on a train headed to the next stop on their journey. From the train, Ash spots an injured Pokemon – one he’s never seen before. He’s trying to figure out how he can help when the train is attacked by the Legendary Kyurem, a Dragon-type Pokemon with immense power! Ash and the others barely manage to escape the rampaging Kyurem’s attack, and as the dust settles, they turn their attention to the injured Pokemon.
Their new acquaintance turns out to be the Mythical Pokemon Keldeo, and it’s on a mission to rescue its friends – Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion, the Legendary Pokemon known as the Swords of Justice – from Kyurem’s icy clutches!
But Kyurem’s rampage isn’t over, and it’s drawing power from Reshiram and Zekrom, changing into Black Kyurem or White Kyurem to make its attacks even stronger! Why is Kyurem attacking Ash and his friends with such unrelenting fury? How will they be able to overcome this danger?
In Japan, right after the film “Pokémon the Movie: Black – Victini and Reshiram and White – Victini and Zekrom†in 2011, audiences were teased with a new Boundary Pokemon known as Kyurem, but also teased with new Pokémon such as Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and the newest Pokémon, Keldeo.
By the summer of 2012, the 15th Pokemon film titled “Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice†(or “Kyurem vs. the Sacred Swordsman: Keldeoâ€) was released in theaters to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of Japanese manga publisher Shogakukan. And by December 2012, American audiences were treated with the latest Pokemon film!
And now “Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice†was released on DVD and manga courtesy of Viz Media.
The manga mirrors the animated film with a few slight differences.
The story revolves around a young Pokémon named Keldeo who has been training with Sword of Justice Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion (three Pokemon that are protectors against evil Pokemon). But during training, he wants to learn how to use the move “Sacred Sword†so he can become part of the group and fight against Kyurem. But the three feel that Keldeo is just not ready to be a Sword of Justice just yet.
That night, Keldeo sneaks out and goes to the Full Court to challenge Kyurem. He pretends to be a member of the Sword of Justice and challenges Kyurem to a duel.
During the battle, Kyurem easily beats Keldeo and breaks off his horn.  The three Sword of Justice comes to Keldeo’s rescue but Kyurem transforms to White Kyurem and uses his power to freeze them, shocked about what has transpired, Keldeo runs away in fear. While Kyurem, chases after him to let Keldeo know that their battle is not over.
Meanwhile, in another city, Ash and his friends Iris and Cilan are on the train and take a brief stop in Windy Station to try some Darumaka boxed lunches. They are interrupted when they discover an injured Keldeo on the train. They rush to his aid but Keldeo tells them that Kyurem is coming and he collapses. Iris recalls being told a story about Kyurem from an elder, that Kyurem is a dragon Pokemon and is the living corpse of the ancient dragon that Reshiram and Zekrom split from after the original owners of the dragon Pokémon had a conflict. Meanwhile, Kyurem arrives and tries to attack all of them but everyone manages to escape.
The three take Keldeo to Roshan City’s Pokemon Center for rehabilitation and Nurse Joy explains to them about who Keldeo is and how he is training to be a Sword of Justice.
Learning about how the Sword of Justice are protectors of Pokémon in danger, Ash and friends come up with a plan to help Keldeo free the Sword of Justice but also giving him the confidence that he can also be a member of the Sword of Justice one day.
Primary differences between the manga and animated film is the film introduces us to Keldeo and the other Sword of Justice and establishes how Keldeo is a bit hard-headed, especially when it comes to listening to the three Sword of Justice members. In the manga series, the story doesn’t showcase those little details and goes straight to Keldeo going against Kyurem.
But the main storyline is pretty much intact. As it the manga series is a coming-of-age story about Keldeo needing to discover his true self and to be confident in battle and to prove that he is worth of being a “Sword of Justice”.
The artwork by Momota Inoue is very good for a children’s manga and having read this and also having talked to my 10-year-old who has also read it, he enjoyed the manga and also the character design and artwork by Inoue.
A manga adaptation of the 15th Pokemon movie, “Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice” features an entertaining coming-of age story about a young Pokemon who is willing to challenge the mighty Kyurem in order to be a member of The Sword of Justice! An enjoyable story that Pokemon fans of all ages will definitely enjoy!