The first series tells the story of Ash Ketchum (known as Satoshi in the Japanese version, he is named after Pokémon’s creator, Satoshi Tajiri) and his quest to become a Pokémon Master. However, unlike in the video games, he is given a Pikachu as his first Pokémon under unusual circumstances. Much of the series focuses on the friendship between Ash, Pikachu, Misty, Brock, May, Max, Tracey, Dawn and the various Pokémon and Trainers along the way. Joining Ash on his adventures are Brock (known as Takeshi in Japan) who wants to become the world’s best Pokemon breeder and Misty (Kasumi in Japan) who wants to be a water Pokemon trainer (Brock and Misty were gym leaders in the original pokemon game, and were in the anime too but were able to travel with Ash due to different circumstances).

The other two series continue to follow the adventures of Ash and his friends. However, starting with the Advanced Generation series a new main character named May (Haruka in Japan) travels with Ash, Brock and also her little brother Max (Masato in Japan) through the Hoenn region replacing Misty, and competes in Pokémon Contests, which are set up in a similar manner to Pokémon Gyms (many throughout the region, and ending with a large tournament), although immensely different.

Throughout the run of the show the subject matter changes. In the original series, the show is more comical and whimsical (light and airy). It uses “goofy” humor (or “cute” humor when it comes to Pikachu, who does wacky things in between important scenes). In the Advanced Generation series as Ash becomes more of a mature and leader-type character, the main course of the show becomes more serious, as it deals with love and death, and its previous comical nature (for the most part) changes into comic relief, attributed mostly to Team Rocket and Brock’s love of girls, though the Diamond and Pearl series seems to have returned to using the original comical nature (mostly Ash being the straight man to his Pokémon’s antics and Dawn taking the role of the naive beginner).

The main character of this manga is Hanamichi Sakuragi, who started out as an outcast who fights as a method to gain power and publicity, becoming the leader of a gang. Hanamichi, being very unpopular with girls, has been rejected by them fifty times. Yet, he finds out that Haruko Akagi is the girl of his dreams, and is happy when she’s not scared of him like all the other girls he has asked out.

Haruko Akagi, who recognizes Hanamichi’s athleticism, introduces him to the Shohoku basketball team. Hanamichi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was a game for losers (also because the fiftieth girl rejected him for a basketball player). Sakuragi, despite his immaturity and hot temper, proves to be a natural athlete with potential and joins the team in order to impress Haruko and prove that he is worthy of her. Kaede Rukawa – Sakuragi’s bitter rival (both on the basketball court and love, even when Rukawa doesn’t acknowledge Haruko’s crush on him), the star rookie and a “girl magnet” – joins the team at the same time. Hisashi Mitsui, an ex-junior high school MVP, and Ryota Miyagi , a short but fast player, both also rejoin the team and together these four struggle to complete team captain Takenori Akagi’s dream of making Shohoku the national champion. Together, these misfits gain publicity and the once little known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star contender in Japan.