Tetsuo Yajima sees Pokémon The Movie: The Power of Us
November 27th, 2018

Dogasu @ 23:40 JST -- Tetsuo Yajima (矢嶋哲生), the director of this year's Pocket Monsters The Movie "Everyone's Story," was recently in the U.S. to watch the English dub of the film. The 33-year old director chronicled his trip in a number of tweets:

He starts off by announcing that he saw the English dub in Los Angeles:

November 26th, 14:23 JST

帰っ てきて26日になってしまったけど、昨日24日ロサンゼルス『Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us』を見に行って来ました！！ 場所はLA LIVEの映画館です！ ゲリラ的にこっそりはいってロスの人たちの反応を伺っていました（笑）

It was already the 26th when I got back to Japan but "yesterday" was the 24th and so I went to go see Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us in Los Angeles!! I saw it at the LA Live theater. I surreptitiously went around and asked the people of LA what they thought of the film, red carpet style (laughs)

November 26th, 14:26 JST

ジャ ジャーン！ 1番上、見てください！！

Ta-da~! Look at what's at the top there!

November 26th, 14:36 JST

今 回映画を見るにあたってLA LIVEのイベンターさんにお願いして、観た人とお話し出来る時間を作って頂きました！！ イベントでも何でもないのに約40人の方とお話し出来ました！！ 一人一人に感想をお願いして、快く話してくれました。

When I went to see the movie this time I was able to get the event organizers to set aside some time for me to talk to the people who saw the film!! Even though this wasn't a scheduled event or anything like that I was still able to talk to around 40 people!! I asked them what they thought of the movie, one by one, and had really nice chats with them.

November 26th, 14:44 JST

感 想を話してくれてる時にみんな目を輝かせて話してくれて、中には泣きそうになりながら答えてくれる方もいて、ポケモンが好きなのが凄く伝わって来ました。 お礼にこんな事しか出来ませんがサインだけ書かせて頂いて一人一人に渡すことが出来ました！！

As I asked them how they felt about the film everyone's eyes lit up, and some of them even started to tear up a little as they gave their answers, and so I could really feel just how much they all love Pokemon. The only way I could repay them at that time was to give them each my autograph!!

November 26th, 14:51 JST

国 境を越えて全世界で愛される作品に携われて本当に幸せです。 今回のように、喜んでもらえる限り作品を作り続けていき、また喜んでもらえるように努力したいと思います。 このような機会を作っていただき本当にありがとうございました。

I'm really happy to be connected to a project that crosses borders and is loved by people all over the world. I would be happy to continue creating works that make people happy, just like this time. Thank you all so, so much for giving me this chance.

It seems like he was done until one fan tweeted him:

November 26th, 14:54 JST


Here's what the fan said:

監 督！お早うございます！ ｢みんもの｣ブルーレイが待ちきれずアメリカ版観てきました！ タイトルは2000年ルギアの｢The Power Of One｣をもじって｢The Power Of Us｣ 本日から全米で4日間の限定上映です！こちらの役者の演技も素晴らしいのでDVDは是非！ サンフランシスコより！

Mr. director! Good morning! I couldn't wait for the Blu-ray of "MinaMono" so I went and saw the American version! "The Power of Us," whose title is taken from the 2000 Lugia movie "The Power of One," is starting a limited four day theatrical run throughout the U.S.! The actors in this (English) version are fantastic so I'll definitely be getting the DVD! From San Francisco!

"MinaMono" is an abbreviation for Minna no Monogatari; "Everyone's Story."

And here's his reply:

な んとサンフランシスコ！！ アメリカ版僕も観ました！ 吹き替え良かったですよね^_^

From San Francisco!! I also saw the American version!! The dub was really good ^_^

Finally, at 15:02 JST:

ち なみになんでロサンゼルスなのかと言うと、丁度1年前の今頃ロケハンに行ったんですが… それがロサンゼルスとサンフランシスコだったんですね！！ それとその時案内してくれた方と一緒に見ることが出来たのでとても良かったです。 サンフランシスコでも観たかったですが…

By the way, if you're wondering why I was in Los Angeles, it's because it was right around this time last year when I was doing location scouting...in Los Angeles and San Francisco!! And I'm very happy I was able to see this movie with the person who showed me around last time. I wish I could have also seen it in San Francisco...

Mr. Yajima is back in Japan now. Whether or not he's working on anything else Pocket Monsters related at the moment is currently unknown.

Pocket Monsters The Movie "Everyone's Story" was released in theaters on July 13th, 2018 in Japan. The home video release of the Japanese version is scheduled to come out on December 19th. The English language dub is currently in theaters in the U.S. until December 1st under the title "The Power of Us."



Pokémon The Movie: The Power of Us Ticket Giveaway
November 21st, 2018

Dogasu @ 00:00 JST -- If you follow me on social media you may have noticed me promoting the upcoming release of the English dub of Pocket Monsters The Movie "Everyone's Story"? Which is super weird, right? Why is Dogasu, of all people, promoting the release of The Power of Us? Is everything OK?


Actually things are great! What's going on here is that the good people at Fathom Events reached out to me recently and asked if I would help promote this new film for them. They also offered to give me 5 free tickets for the trouble. I have no use for these tickets, of course, but I thought it'd be a nice giveaway for you all so I agreed to do it.

So here's what I'm going to do: the theme of this movie is how everyone has their story. So if you want a ticket I want you to tell me a story about how you worked together with someone to achieve something Pokémon-related that you couldn't have done all by yourself. Maybe a friend gave you a ride to some event somewhere, or someone at a covention helped you complete your Kanto Pokédex in Pokémon GO, or a friend took the time to teach you how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game...the choice is yours. The winning entries will be shared on this site at a later date.

You have three ways of entering:

• Send the story in a tweet using the hashtag #EveryonesStory. Multiple tweet stories are fine but please be sure to include the hashtag in each tweet; tweets without the hashtag in them will be ignored.
  
• Send the story to me in an e-mail to [email protected]. Please include the words "Everyone's Story" in the subject line of the e-mail
• Post your story to this post on the Dogasu's Backpack Facebook page.
  

Word of warning: the tickets I have to give away are only valid for AMC and Regal locations in the U.S. so those of you outside the U.S. will unfortunately not be able to enter.

Since the first showings of this movie are on December 24th I'm going to go ahead and set the deadline for this to Thursday, November 22nd at 11:59 pm EST.