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Sorry in advance for posting my bullshit but since there's some Special posts in here already guess this is a manga thread now. Pokespe reread thoughts:
RGB arc is definitely at its least interesting any time there's a mob of interchangeable NPCs in a chapter who just exist to react to stuff; I've started to notice that almost every early chapter I disliked (or more like, found difficult to hold my attention since at least the art style makes up for it) has this feature. They're drawn cute, like the Gen 1 NPC sprites with slightly more detail, but they almost take away from the vibe/appeal of the story.
I think in Gen 1, and maybe the game series in general, part of the appeal is almost the isolation, like you're on a journey with just your team and many people you encounter are hostile or just so unimportant to your mission as to make no difference. And Special is good when it leans into this with Red and/or focuses on the major game characters I think people are most interested in-- the gym leaders/villains, rivals, Oak, etc. Basically the characters you feel you have experience with if you've you've actually fought them in the games. There's just none of that when it comes to the background NPCs, especially when a chapter like pic related involves Red kinda standing in the BG with them for part of it.
Relatedly is the use of characters who aren't background NPCs but are just less interesting than the major characters-- ex. Bill, Pokemon Fan Club chairman, etc. There's just like entire chapters focused on them over Red, and they're not OCs since they're originally from the games, but sometimes it feels pretty close with someone as minor as the chairman. Like:
>chapter starts with Red about to sneak onto St. Annu
>gets thrown off, meets chairman, chairman + fanclub NPC antics ensue for like 10 pages as Red just stands around
>Red realizes their stolen Pokemon are on St. Annu so sneaks on once again
It's hard for the fanclub stuff to not feel like literal filler
