Popular Pokemon manga-style fan artist returns with one of Gen 1's most mysterious relationships

A popular Pokemon fan artist has returned to reflect on one of the original game's most mysterious relationships. 

That would be the relationship between the famed Professor Oak, and the powerful Kanto Elite Four member Agatha. The manga-style recreation just below shows the two characters in the prime of their youth, and meeting each other for the first time back when they were supposedly close friends and rivals.

Agatha and Oak were originally in the first Pokemon games, where Agatha revealed a few hints about their relationship to one another, telling the player that while Oak was once "tough and handsome," the intervening decades had softened him. In FireRed and LeafGreen, she even goes as far as to suggest that Oak is "a shadow of his former self." Later on, in Pokemon Masters EX, we found out more about their true relationship. Agatha reveals their relationships sadly became strained when Agatha deemed Oak to be too weak to compete at a professional level of Pokemon battling, souring their relationship forever.

It's a bit of a sad story really, but we've never actually seen the events play out in person. Twitter user pokeyugami, the creator of the impressive manga-style gameplay demo just below, remedies that with their brilliant new creation, imagining what it would be like if we were playing as Professor Oak himself, and there to witness the beginning of his and Agatha's friendship.

Around this time last year, pokeyagumi first caught attention for their manga-like reimagining of the original Pokemon game, showing us what a chonky manga Pikachu would look like. They've sort of become known as one of the more intriguing and talented Pokemon fans out there ever since, and we'd highly recommend keeping an eye on their Twitter to see what else they create down the line.

It's a pity we'll likely never see these scenes in a mainline Pokemon game, but there's no reason to expect we couldn't one day see the events unfold in one of the many Pokemon anime adaptations. Speaking of, since Ash and Pikachu have now departed the Pokemon anime, we now know who will be replacing them, as our next dynamic duo step into the fold.

Check out our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet review to see what we made of the most recent entries in Nintendo's long-standing series.