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Pokémon Adventures: Scarlet & Violet Chapter 10 Review - Backstories, Best Friends, and a Bombirdier’s Apron

With Miraidon at its full speed, the hunt for the Open Sky Titan begins! I have to say that I love every part of this chapter cover—especially Wooper sitting politely on Miraidon’s leg. Please take a moment to admire this distinguished little one.

Keep in mind, there will be spoilers in this review. If that’s a concern for you, please give the chapter a read before continuing.

The biggest surprise for me was the reveal that Scarlet is treasure hunting on behalf of someone else. We’ve known from the start that treasure hunting is her profession, but I’d always assumed she supported herself by directly selling the treasure she’d collected. I also liked thinking that she had a mysterious goal of her own that necessitated the collection of 999 Gimmighoul Coins or finding the treasures of ruin. It gave her a lot of agency and made her more of a character I wanted to know about. I will say, I’m curious about the one who’s hiring her. Nemona’s theory that Scarlet was hired after her enrollment in Uva Academy suggests that it could have been someone at the school. That also begs the question—what’s Scarlet doing at the academy in the first place? Did she know in advance that she would be hired to start her search there? That wouldn’t quite work with Nemona’s theory, so maybe something’s off.

Scarlet’s history as a treasure hunter really intrigues me. How does one get started in that career path? And how exactly does one develop a reputation that ensures no one will even think of betraying them? Scarlet’s already proven herself to be unforgiving toward troublemakers like those grunts from Team Star, so it’s not hard to imagine her doing something particularly scary to earn herself that reputation. I’m curious about whatever version of Scarlet existed before then. If there was one, would that mean her blunt personality is a result of an unstable childhood?

I like that during Violet’s quest for speed, he has now been gifted with too much speed. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the way Fuecoco’s Evolution was handled. It felt unceremonious to see it happen purely because of an accidental encounter. When Arven pointed out that this was merely a result of Miraidon continuously ramming into Pokémon, it sure didn’t make it feel any more special. While your first partner’s evolution being caused by an unintentional collision with a wild Pokémon feels like an accurate representation of the Scarlet & Violet experience, it doesn’t particularly make for interesting storytelling. Maybe if this moment was built up to by a series of accidental collisions, like what Arven was telling us about, it would feel a bit more satisfying. It’s not uncommon in this manga for Pokémon to evolve under uneventful circumstances, but I would have really liked the cause to feel more purposeful.

At long last, we get to understand how Violet became the Prince of Speed! I love Violet’s reaction to Arven finally asking him about that. He’s so needlessly emotional and I relate to him deeply. I’m interested in learning more about Violet’s grandfather. Is this truly someone he’s related to, or is this just a familiar term for the butler whose personality is installed in Rotojī? In the flashback, it seems that he’s the one who paved the way for Violet’s princely delusion to come into existence. We know Rotojī works hard to bring Violet out of that mindset, so I can imagine the two butting heads if they were around at the same time. I’ll gladly take all of the crumbs of detail we’re getting about both Scarlet and Violet’s pasts, but I can’t help but want to know more.

I was ecstatic to see Arven accept the highly important role of “best friend.” Violet’s story about his late grandfather must have hit close to home for him. We’ve seen before how he is able to relate to Violet’s upbringing, and it’s interesting how this is the point when he finally takes up the title. Maybe because it was their first conversation after their success with getting the Herba Mystica? This reminds me—we never saw Arven give a sandwich to Mabosstiff last chapter. I completely missed this in my review last time around. Wasn’t his whole point of getting Herba Mystica to heal Mabosstiff? Where did he go? Was this an oversight, or is this something that’s going to be cleared up later on? There’s a lot of focus on many different characters, so I can see how something like this could be forgotten, but it’s still a little weird given Mabosstiff’s health is Arven’s entire motivation to be on this journey.

I like that Giacomo is the one to guide them to the Titan. I’m glad we get to see more of him—his kind and level-headed characterization is really nice to see. I also have to comment on the two random hikers Arven and Violet find on the mountain. Satoshi Yamamoto really gave it his all for these two characters who likely will make very few appearances, if any, in the future. This is especially funny when we meet Keiko, whose design is clearly based on the Musician Trainer class from the games. While she looks fairly normal to anyone who’s played the game, one of the hikers is casually rocking an unusually detailed mullet.

It’s nice that Violet’s training from earlier was enough to master his control of Miraidon at its new speed. I found it clever of him to target Bombirdier’s apron rather than to try to directly attack it up in the sky. I especially like how he utilized Nymble’s ability to jump super high in their plan—something we only know from the Pokédex. It sets the scene for an exciting battle ahead.

What did you think of this chapter? What did you believe Scarlet was up to initially with her treasure hunt? And where is Mabosstiff?

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