Since this series is intended to be comedic, Clefairy and Red remain silly from here on out, defeating gym leaders through unconventional means and bumbling their way across the world. Rather than taking one of the prepared starters, Red chooses the Clefairy, which had saved him through its shenanigans. When he arrives, however, he discovers that Clefairy had followed him to the lab. Clefairy manages a fluke victory by falling on it, circumventing a match-up that was difficult even before fairy types, allowing Red to continue on his way to Professor Oak's lab to choose a starter. In the bizarre gag manga known by the straightforward title Pokémon: Pocket Monsters, Red begins his adventure by wandering out into the tall grass and stumbling across some very territorial monsters led by a Nidoran. There doesn't seem to be a clear reason as to why Poliwhirl was chosen by the creators, but Poliwhirl was fairly prominent in early advertisements for the series, especially around the time of its debut in the west. While Red does visit Professor Oak and obtain a more conventional starter (Bulbasaur), Poliwhirl would always be the Pokémon that he bonded with first. Read More: Pokémon: Red's First Pokémon Was, Not Pikachu

When Red fell in and was at risk of drowning, Poliwag was able to evolve and pull him out of the water, setting the stage for a partnership that would last a lifetime. Red first met Poliwhirl when it was just a wild Poliwag, near a small pond.

In this continuity, Red sets off to meet Professor Oak with one Pokémon by his side already: a Poliwhirl.

Being the first, a lot of the traditions of the series hadn't been fully established yet, giving its early chapters quite a different feel from the games.

By far the longest and most popular manga series in the franchise, Pokémon Adventures, or Pokémon Special as it is known in Japan, was the first to debut.

Pocket monsters japanese