"Detective Pikachu" Trailer Collection

Dogasu's Backpack | Features | Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

Let's take a look at the various trailers being released in Japan to promote Detective Pikachu.

November 29th, 2018: Trailer 1

The Japanese version of the first teaser was published online on November 29th, 2018. The trailer is the same as the first English trailer trailer with Japanese subtitles.

The Mr. Mime scene at the end of the trailer showcases how the Japanese subtitles tackle a tricky localization moment:

Original English Dialogue	Japanese Subtitles (Japanese)	Japanese Localization (English)
Pikachu: "Listen up. We got ways to make you talk...or mime."	痛い目を見たくなければ― Itaime wo mitaku nakerba-	Pikachu: "If you don't want us to get rough with ya..."
Tim: "Yeah."	N/A	N/A
Pikachu: "So tell us what we wanna know. "Pipe"...yes, OK..."a can" ... "shoving" ..."pushing" ..."my problem is that I push people away and then hate them for leaving"?"	全部　話すんだ。パイプ…”缶”？押す…押すのか？”缶で押す”って？ Zenbu hanasun da. Paipu..."kan"? Osu...Osu no ka? "Kan de osu" tte?	Pikachu: "Tell us everything you know. "Pipe"..."(tin) can"? Shove...is it shove? What does "shove the can" mean?"
Tim: "He's saying you can shove it."	” カン違い野郎”だ "Kan-chigai yarou" da	Tim: "It's saying you can shove it"
Pikachu: "What? "I can shove it?" OK that's it, no. We're switching roles. I'm bad cop, you're good cop."	俺のことか？もうガマンできない。これでも食らえ！ Ore no koto ka? Mou gaman dekinai. Kore de mo kurae!	Pikachu: "You're talking about me? Alright, that's it. Take this!"
Tim: "No no no we're not cops."	やめろって！ Yamero tte!	Tim: "No wait, stop!"

What you see above happens quite commonly with subtitled Hollywood films in Japan; a lot of the information crammed in the original English dialogue gets greatly condensed (or removed altogether) to help the Japanese subtitles flow more naturally. It is said that the typical viewer can read about four Japanese characters per one second and so subtitles are often made to be as brief and simple as possible. Here, Pikachu's "my problem is that I push people away..." gag is cut altogether because accurately translating Ryan Reynold's rapid paced dialogue into Japanese would be verbose, confusing, and require the subtitles to flash by at a much faster rate. Same thing with Pikachu's "...or mime" and "bad cop / good cop" gags.

We're also given a 90 second version of the trailer.

...as well as a 30 second version.

March 20th, 2019: Trailer 2

Additional trailers were posted on March 20th, 2019.

Here's the long web promo:

Here's the 90 second version of that trailer:

And the 30 second version:

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