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| Welcome to Dogasu's Backpack, a fansite for the Japanese franchise Pocket Monsters! For 22 years this website has been your guide for the Japanese version of Pokémon and contains content you can't find anywhere else. Stuff like detailed comparisons between the Japanese version and the English version of the animated series, interview translations, information on Japan-only manga, a lyrics database, a home video guide, and much more! So whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newbie just getting into Pocket Monsters, this site has something for every fan to enjoy. | ||
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Episode Comparison: "Meowth Rules!"
August 6th, 2022
Dogasu @ 20:39 JST -- I just did an episode comparison not all that long ago, right? That's what I had assumed when I went to update the "Next Episode" link in the last comparison I did but it turns out I haven't posted a new one since May!? And it's now August!?
So without further ado, here's a comparison between the Japanese and English versions of the Orange Islands episode "Meowth Rules!"
The episode has a lot of rewrites and so it actually ended up taking quite a bit longer to do than your average comparison. It's also one of my favorite episodes of the saga so I may have been a little overzealous in documenting all the changes that took place...? Either way, I hope you enjoy this deep dive into one of the more famous episodes of the show's second year on the air.
I'll try to pick up the pace and aim to get the next comparison out before the end of the month.
The 25th Anniversary Pokémon Film Festival Results
July 21st, 2022
Dogasu @ 00:06 JST -- This past Friday the results of the voting that took place to decide which three of the older Pocket Monsters films will return to theaters here in Japan were announced.
The three films you see above will rotate in and out of theaters throughout the month of August. Here's the schedule that's been announced.
| Pocket Monsters The Movie "Latias and Latios, The Guardian Deities of the Water Capital" & "The Glittering Starlit Camp" |
Thursday,
August 11th - Thursday, August 18th |
| Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation The
Movie "The Seven Night Wishing Star, Jirachi" & "The Dancing Pokémon Secret Base" |
Friday,
August 19th - Thursday, August 25th |
| Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl The
Movie "Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai" |
Friday,
August 26th - Thursday, September 1st |
| All three movies
rotate |
Friday,
September 2nd - Thursday, September 8th |
The first Diamond & Pearl movie made a brief return to theaters back in 2020 as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2020 (alongside Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation") but I'm pretty sure this is the first time Movies 5 & 6 have been in theaters since their original releases in 2002 and 2003.
Based on Toho's theater listings it seems as though these three films are getting wide releases; the site lists them as being shown in 307 theaters throughout Japan. I've translated that list here. For comparison's sake, Pocket Monsters The Movie "Koko" was in 375 theaters. Looking at release calendars for the month of August we can see that these Pokémon films will be going up against movies like One Piece Film Red, Tang, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (yes, Japan's only just now getting the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie...) and so it'll be interesting to see how they stack up to the competition.
I've compiled a bunch of other information, including which Pokémon will be given away at the door as a bonus, in my new section for the festival.
"Pocket Monsters" The Animated Series Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 Credits
July 12th, 2022
Dogasu @ 00:06 JST -- It's been a little over two weeks since "Pocket Monsters" The Animated Series Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 went on sale and so I wanted to start documenting what's in the booklet that came with the physical release of the soundtrack. Today I'm starting off with translations of the full staff behind the TV series' original soundtrack!
The TV series usually only ever just credits Yuki Hayashi as the person who provides the music for the show and then calls it a day but the booklet that came with this soundtrack actually lists out every musician whose performance you hear in the show. I did the same thing for Vol. 1 of the soundtrack and so tonight's update is really just a continuation of that.
The soundtrack release also includes liner notes where Mr. Hayashi talks about the making of each song but translations of those comments will have to come another day.
Pokémon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire -- Vol. 5
July 5th, 2022
Dogasu @ 22:39 JST -- We may have just passed the tenth anniversary of the first episode of Pokémon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere done with it! Today let's continue going down memory lane with my write-up on Episode 5.
The fifth episode of the Rocket trio's radio show features a skit parodying a popular Japanese TV show, an interview with Mr. Kou'ichi Yamadera, the Rocket trio checking out some instant rice packets, and more. As always there are plenty of footnotes and other little tidbits sprinkled throughout to ensure that you walk away from the write-up knowing as much as you possibly can about this ten-year-old episode of a Japanese radio show.
The next episode is going to be an exciting one because it features one of the few interviews to never be released on CD as well as a segment featuring the Rocket trio doing something other than eating food on-air!
The 25th Anniversary Pokémon Film Festival
June 25th, 2022
Dogasu @ 10:40 JST -- The official Pokémon movie website was recently updated for the first time in nearly a year to announce The 25th Anniversary Pokémon Film Festival (25 周年ポケモン映画祭).
The film festival, which will be held during the 25th anniversary of the animated TV series (the quarter century mark for the Pokémon movie series itself won't be until next year), refers to a campaign here in Japan where three of the older Pocket Monsters movies will return to theaters for a limited time. Here's what the timeline will look like for this summer's film festival:
| Friday, June
17th ~ Friday, July 1st at 23:59 JST |
Voting for which
of the 24 (if you count the two Vicitini movies separately) Pocket Monsters movies fans would
like to see return to theaters in Japan takes place. Fans are only able
to vote for one movie. |
| Friday, July
15th 18:55 JST ~ |
The three movies
with the highest number of votes are announced during the broadcast of
that night's episode of Pocket
Monsters (2019) |
| Thursday,
August 11th ~ Thursday, September 8th |
The
three movies are shown in theaters throughout Japan for about a month. |
The voting form consists of you clicking on the poster of the movie you want to see return to theaters, selecting your age and gender from a drop-down menu, and then hitting send.
There's no word yet as to whether or not the films featured in this festival will be the original theatrical cuts (like the rescreening of Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" from last year) or if they'll be the edited versions that were later released on DVD / Blu-ray. The posters of the movies on the voting form all include their respective Pikachu shorts (yes, even the third one), implying that those will also return to theaters if the main feature they're paired with is chosen.
Though the writing's been on the wall for quite a while now I'd say the fact that we're getting a film festival this summer is the final proof we need to say that there's not going to be a new movie coming out in 2022. Maybe we'll get something in 2023...?
Indigo Footprints in the Snow -- Episode 03 Full Cast, Staff Credits
June 24th, 2022
Dogasu @ 09:22 JST -- The third and final episode of the Indigo Footprints in the Snow web series premiered on YouTube earlier this week and so I've updated my section of the site with the episode's full cast and staff credits!
That's about all I think I'm going to do with this series here on Dogasu's Backpack unless we ever get a home video release or interviews with the cast and crew.
Translation: Nico Nico News Original interview with Kensho Ono
June 20th, 2022
Dogasu @ 12:25 JST -- Last Friday morning the entertainment website Nico Nico News Original posted an interview with Mr. Kensho Ono, the voice actor who played Alan in the Pocket Monsters XY and Pocket Monsters XY&Z TV series, to commemorate his character's return to the current Pocket Monsters (2019) series later that night. It's a pretty fascinating interview so I spent the weekend writing up and English translation of it.
The interview goes into topics like how Mr. Ono got into Pokémon in the first place, his thoughts on Alan being paired up with Lizardon, his memories of the Kalos League Finals from six years ago, conversations he has with his wife about his character's chances of winning the Masters Eight Tournament, and much, much more! So take a break from the endless character bashing going on over on social media right now to read a bit about Alan, from his voice actor's point of view. Who knows -- you might even develop a new found appreciation for the guy!
Pocket Monsters "The Arceus Who is Known as a God" is getting a DVD release
June 13th, 2022
Dogasu @ 23:47 JST -- Pocket Monsters "The Arceus Who is Known as a God," the four episode special that came out this past January exclusively on Amazon Prime Japan, is getting a DVD release this summer.
The DVD release, scheduled for August 3rd, 2022, will have all four episodes as well as creditless opening and ending animations. Not much else is known about the release other than that, for the time being at least, this DVD is only being sold on Amazon Japan. The "Pre-Sale Exclusive" (先行販売) in Amazon's listing for the DVD, however, implies that this is just a timed exclusive and that other retailers may get to start selling it at some point, though nothing to that effect has been confirmed just yet.
No Blu-ray release has been announced as of this writing. Twilight Wings only ever got a DVD release so it's likely these Arceus episodes may, unfortunately, share the same fate.
I've added a Home Video release page to the Pocket Monsters "The Arceus Who is Known as a God," section of the site.
Event Report: Pokémon Fossil Museum
June 9th, 2022
Dogasu @ 22:32 JST -- If you've been following any sort of Japanese Pokémon social media account the last half a year or so you may have come across something called "Pokémon Fossil Museum," a real world museum exhibit traveling around Japan at the moment that invites visitors to compare Fossil Pokémon (think Kabuto, Omnite, Ptera, etc.) with their real world counterparts. I managed to make a trip to the Tokyo version of the exhibit last month and made a write-up on it:
My Pokémon Fossil Museum Event Report features some background information on what this exhibit is followed by dozens and dozens of photos I took myself. Japan's borders are still closed at the moment, for all intents and purposes, and so I did my best to document as much as I could since I know a lot of fans aren't going to be able to make the trip themselves. If you had a look at my Daniel Arsham "A Ripple in Time" Art Exhibit feature from earlier this year then you should have a pretty good idea of what this one's all about.
The Pokémon Fossil Museum exhibit will continue going from city to city all across Japan at least until 2023.
Indigo Footprints in the Snow -- Episode 02 Full Cast, Staff Credits
June 8th, 2022
Dogasu @ 23:47 JST -- The second episode of the Indigo Footprints in the Snow premiered on YouTube earlier tonight and so I've updated my section of the site with the episode's full cast and staff credits!
The third and final episode of the series is scheduled to come out Wednesday, June 22nd.
List of Pokémon: Generation 9
June 3rd, 2022
Dogasu @ 10:00 JST -- It's been about a day or so since the Pokémon Presents came out that introduced us to a bunch of brand new Generation 9 Pokémon and so I've added those new species to the site's List of Pokémon page.
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The meat and potatoes of this is, of course, the part where I attempt to figure out the etymology of each Pokémon's name. We almost never get "official" confirmation of the name origins one way or the other and so these are all just educated guesses but I'm pretty confident I got at least some of these right.
If you can think of any other possible name origins for these, or any other Pokémon, then please let me know!
Episode Comparison: "A Shipful of Shivers"
May 22nd, 2022
Dogasu @ 00:40 JST -- It's once again time to take a look at the differences between the Japanese versions and English versions of an old Orange Islands episode of the original Pocket Monsters series! This month's episode is "A Shipful of Shivers."
How does an episode that intrinsically deals with ghosts and dead people fare when aired on kids' TV in the early 2000s? Click on the link above to find out!
"Pocket Monsters" The Animated Series Original Soundtrack Vol. 2
May 22nd, 2022
Dogasu @ 00:40 JST -- A second CD collection of Yuki Hayashi's background music from the Pocket Monsters (2019) animated series, "Pocket Monsters" The Animated Series Original Soundtrack Vol. 2, was recently announced for a June 22nd, 2022 release date.
Here is what composer Yuki Hayashi had to say about this release on the special website created for the CD:
| Filling up this release with a bunch of
different music was, just like the last time, reminiscent of dumping
out the contents of a toy box! I really gave it my all to make this
second batch of music even more energetic and even more epic than
before. I hope the soundtrack to our heroes' adventures can someday
become the soundtrack to its listeners' adventures as well. And even
though this will be the last one I was honored to be able to do my own
arrangements of some fantastic game music this time as well! |
The CD's full track list has been added to the CD Guide.
Indigo Footprints in the Snow -- Episode 01 Full Cast, Staff Credits
May 19th, 2022
Dogasu @ 23:45 JST -- The first episode of the new animated mini-series based on Pokémon Legends Arceus, a series that I'm currently choosing to translate as Indigo Footprints in the Snow, premiered on YouTube last night and so I've updated my section of the site with the episode's full cast and staff credits!
The fact that the English dubbed upload of the episode included romanized credits right there at the end of the episode itself (instead of, say, a Twilight Wings-type situation where I had to end up relying on the Korean version of all things) were a huge, huge help.
The next episode of the series is scheduled to come out Wednesday, June 8th.
Pokémon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire -- Vol. 4
May 9th, 2022
Dogasu @ 09:15 JST -- This is coming out a bit later than I would have liked but here's my write-up for the July 22nd, 2012 episode of Pokémon Radio Show! The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire.
The main attraction here is the interview with Yuuji Ueda, the man behind the voices of characters like Takeshi, the Rocket-Dan's Sonansu, and many others!
Part of this reason this write-up is so late is because of real world commitments (I started a new job in April and have been very busy with that) and part of it is because there was even more content to cover this time around compared to the previous episodes. You see, the way I usually do these write-ups is I'll listen to the radio version of the episodes first, do my first draft based on that, and then listen to the CD version to double check that there aren't any significant differences between the two. Up until now there haven't really been any but this time around the CD versions of both the special guest interview and the Double-Q merchandise segment had additional content! So truth be told the episode's write-up probably would have been late even if I hadn't been logging in so much overtime at work lately.
Anyway, hope you enjoy!
New information on the upcoming Pokémon Legends Arceus web series
April 27th, 2022
Dogasu @ 1:00 JST -- The first substantial details about the upcoming Studio Wit animated web specials based on the Pokémon Legends Arceus video game -- this is the one first teased during the Pokémon Direct that came out on Pokémon Day -- were made public last night and so I've compiled it all in a new page dedicated to the mini series.
The series, which I'm currently calling Indigo Footprints in the Snow (this may change if I come up with a better way to render the series' nearly impossible-to-translate title) will begin streaming on YouTube starting May 18th at 22:00 JST. Translations of the plot synopsis, character bios, and cast & staff list from the series' official site have all been archived on the page linked to above.
More information will be posted as it becomes available.
Translation: Oricon News Interview with Mariya Ise
April 3rd, 2022
Dogasu @ 12:38 JST -- On March 13th the entertainment website Oricon News posted an interview with Ms. Mariya Ise, the voice actor who played Eureka in the Pocket Monsters XY and Pocket Monsters XY&Z TV series, to commemorate her character's return in the Pocket Monsters (2019) TV series. I somehow missed the interview when it was first posted but saw it after it got retweeted a few days ago and so I went ahead and translated it.
In this conversation we learn about Ms. Ise's history with the franchise, how she feels about Eureka's Dedenne, and what it's like raising a child as a Pokémon voice actor. I don't believe we've gotten many interviews with Ms. Ise in regards to her roles in Pocket Monsters before so this is actually something of a rare treat!
Found an error? Spot an omission? Please help me keep this page current and error-free by e-mailing me with a description of the error or omission.
