The Gold, Silver & Crystal arc (Japanese: 金・銀・クリスタル編Gold, Silver, & Crystal arc or 金・銀・水晶編Gold, Silver, & Crystal arc), also referred to as The Third Chapter (Japanese: 第三章The Third Chapter), is the third story arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga, consisting of seven volumes with ninety chapters, which makes it the longest completed arc of the series. It began serialization in December 1999, and ended in December 2002.
This arc features the journeys of Gold through Johto as he at first tries to search for the ones who stole his backpack and uncovers that the ones who stole it are planning something. Two other new Trainers come into the plot of the story; Silver, whose life is tied in with the villains of this series; and Crystal, an average Pokémon Trainer with a staggering talent in catching Pokémon, a talent that attracts the attention of Professor Oak, who hires her to help to complete his Pokédex. Along with these three, the original three Pokédex holders come back to help, along with Yellow. With their aid, the heroes of Johto set out to stop the resurrected Team Rocket and their enigmatic leader, the devastatingly powerful Masked Man.
No Gym Leaders are challenged. Instead, to gain entrance into the Pokémon League, Silver stole all eight Johto Badges while the Gym Leaders were gone. All were taken prior to PS160.
Trivia
This arc was originally published as two separate arcs: the Gold & Silver arc (Japanese: 金 ・ 銀編Gold & Silver chapter) and the Crystal arc (Japanese: クリスタル編Crystal chapter), with the split occurring after Satoshi Yamamoto took over as the main illustrator.[1]
