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| Welcome to Dogasu's Backpack, a fansite for the Japanese franchise Pocket Monsters! For 25 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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Manga Guide Updates: September/October 2025
November 3rd, 2025
Dogasu @ 12:23 JST -- Apologies for the lack of updates this last month; October was an incredibly busy time for me at work. Things have calmed down a little bit, so let me catch up on all the Manga Guide updates I missed from the end of September up until today.
First up, the issues of CoroCoro Ichiban! of Pokémon Fan that came out in the end of September gave us new chapters of the usual:
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Pokémon Card Game Yarouze~!, the "Pokémon tries its hand at a Yu-Gi-Oh! type manga" series. In this month's chapter Retto and Letto try out the new "MEGA Starter Set: Mega Gangar ex" and "MEGA Starter Set: Mega Diancie ex" expansions. Can Letto and his Mega Gangar ex break through Mega Diancie ex and its "Diamond Coat" defense?
Pokémon Frienda Oshiete! Friender-Man, the comic based on the current Pokémon arcade game Pokémon Frienda. In this month's chapter a new player, Mamo Arino, is introduced to the basics of the Pokémon Frienda arcade game while also trying out a Koraidon Support Pokémon Ticket.
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Pokémon 4-Koma Gakuen, the series of Pokémon related comic strips that runs in CoroCoro Ichiban! In this month's collection the Pokémon start tending a garden.
Pokémon 4-Koma Daihyakka, that other collection of four panel gag comics, though this one runs in the magazine Pokémon Fan. In this newest collection the Pokémon enjoy holding a music concert.
There are two other comic series running in Pokémon Fan but I'm not really covering them at the moment.
The first one is Pokémon Chou Dajare Club (ポケモン超だじゃれクラブ), or "The Pokémon Super Pun Club," by TAK.BR / Santa Harukaze (TAK.BR/春風邪三太). It's yet another four-panel comic strip series, only this time its punchlines are all centered around untranslatable Japanese puns that make coverage of the series take way, way more time and effort than it's probably worth.
The other series is Pokémon Quiz Puzzle Land Pikachu no Takara Sagashi (ポケモンクイズパズルランド ピカチュウの宝さがし), or "Pokémon Quiz Puzzle Land: Pikachu's Treasure Hunt," with the comic portion being done by Kemon Kawamoto (河本けもん) and the puzzles by Hiroshi Takase (嵩瀬 ひろし). In the current iteration of this series, Pikachu and the Paldea starters help whatever Pokémon needs help that issue, with the twist being that every page has a quiz or puzzle that readers are invited to solve. So the comic will be something like "Let's try looking under this rock...oh look! A Pokémon themed word search!" And then half that page will taken up by a word search, or a maze, or a rebus, etc. And this repeats over and over for like nine pages. Covering a series like this would require me to translate and/or post all the puzzles, something that, again, takes more time and effort than it's probably worth.
Now let's move into October:
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Kousaku Anakubo's Pocket Monsters series is, unfortunately, still on the hiatus that started back in June. I check in on this series about once a month to see if there are any updates but unfortunately there aren't any at this time.
Pocket Monsters Special Scarlet & Violet Chapter 25: In last month's chapter, Peper and Violet go up against a pair of Paradox Pokémon in the Roast Desert! Meanwhile, Nemo's asked to share details about her friend Scarlet.
And with that, I'm now up-to-date! I'd also like to take this time to point out that I have now been officially covering the latest Pokémon related manga releases on a monthly basis for a whole year at this point. The comics are a part of the franchise that is so often overlooked and so if I'm able to help shine a spotlight on a bunch of series that would otherwise fall completely under the radar then I'm happy to do so.
Episode Comparison: "A Tent Situation"
October 3rd, 2025
Dogasu @ 21:07 JST -- Now that I've got the whole "why did Takeshi leave the show" thing out of the way, it's time to cover the episode featuring the character's return to the show! Today let's take a look at the differences between the Japanese version and the English dub of the penultimate episode of the Orange Islands arc, "A Tent Situation."
How did 4Kids do with Brock being upset about what happened back on the islands? Did they really have Ash give his trophy away to his mom? Why is food like "fried chicken" and "spaghetti" all of a sudden taboo now? All this and more in the newest Episode Comparison!
Rumor Guide: "Brock left the show because of fears of him being seen as a racist stereotype"
September 26th, 2025
Dogasu @ 21:44 JST -- In preparing the comparison for the next episode, "A Tent Situation," I thought now'd be as good time as ever to finally sit down and work on a Rumor Guide entry I've had rattling around in my head for a while now, and so today I present a look at the rumor that "Brock left the show because of fears of him being seen as a racist stereotype."
This newest addition to the Rumor Guide provides a timeline of when the decision to replace him would have been made, what fans in the West think the reasoning is, and what the evidence we have available to us actually says. There's also some discussion on the wider topic of race in Japanese animation, so it's actually quite a jam-packed article!
The Memorial Book of Orange Islands
September 23rd, 2025
Dogasu @ 23:33 JST -- I was working on another site update recently when I realized that I never really made a page dedicated to The Memorial Book of Orange Islands, the absolutely fantastic guide book I've been referencing off and on the past five years or so. I've translated bits and pieces and posted them to the site before, sure, but I never actually created a page for the book itself. And so today I'm fixing that!
The new page I have for the book has the usual section-by-section breakdown as well as links to all the material I've already translated, all in once place. As a recap, that includes:
- Making of Pokémon: Short comments from each of the screenwriters about the episodes they wrote. The page has been cleaned up and the translations tweaked a bit.
- Special Interview with Chouji Yoshikawa: An interview with the associate producer of the Pocket Monsters (1997) animated series.
- What it Takes to Make the Pokémon
Cartoon: A five-page comic that shows how cel-to-film
animation was created in the late 1990s. The scanslation's been cleaned
up and a few typesetting corrections have been made.
Manga Guide: Pocket Monsters Special & Let's Protect Nature! Pokémon Ranger
September 6th, 2025
Dogasu @ 23:56 JST -- A new Pocket Monsters Special chapter came out yesterday so that means it's time for the first Manga Guide update of the month.
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Pocket Monsters Special Scarlet & Violet Chapter 24: In this month's chapter, Violet and Peper face off against not one, but two Paradox Pokémon! Can they use their teamwork to overcome their powerful foes? Meanwhile, Scarlet concocts a plan to get back into the academy...
Let's Protect Nature! Pokémon Ranger: It has come to my attention that Hidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamoto, the duo behind Pocket Monsters Special, have also just released a new 16-page one-shot called Let's Protect Nature! Pokémon Ranger. There isn't much about this promotional manga online so information is pretty scarce, but I did try to gather what little there is out there so there's at least some record of this manga having existed. I've been scouring various auction sites to see if anyone is putting these up for sale -- they're currently only available in a select few places in Japan -- but so far no luck. I'll keep trying, though, and will update the page if I ever get my hands on a copy.
September's going to continue being another big month for the Manga Guide -- we've got new issues of both CoroCoro Ichiban! and Pokémon Fan coming out in a few weeks -- so there's no shortage of Pokémon related comics to cover in the near future!
Episode Comparison: "The Underground Round-Up"
August 31st, 2025
Dogasu @ 11:00 JST -- The next Episode Comparison's here! Let's take a look at the episode "The Underground Round-Up" to see just how different 4Kids' version is from the Japanese original.
This episode features a ton of text edits (more than any other of the season so far!), as well as the usual collection of baffling rewrites and story changes, so there's definitely a lot to talk about here! This is also a somewhat momentous Episode Comparison for the site because "The Underground Round-Up" happens to be the last episode to take place in the actual Orange Islands itself! We'll be in Kanto again starting from the episode I'll be writing about next month, and then Johto in the ones later on, making this the last time I'll be comparing an episode set in this filler region. It's a bit bittersweet, actually!
Takaya Hashi, 1952 - 2025
August 29th, 2025
Dogasu @ 22:19 JST -- Earlier today it was announced that voice actor Takaya Hashi (土師孝也), most well known to Pocket Monsters fans as the voice of Takeshi's father Munoh, has passed away. He was 72 years old.
Apte Pro, the voice acting agency for which Mr. Hashi served as the President and CEO, broke the news:
| Our company's President and CEO, Mr.
Takaya Kato (aka Takaya Hashi) passed away suddenly at the age of 72 on
the morning of August 27th, 2025 due to a myocardial infarction. |
In Pocket Monsters, Mr. Hashi played Takeshi's father Munoh, from his very first appearance in Pocket Monsters (1997) all the way up to his most recent appearance at the end of Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl.
Mr. Hashi is a veteran voice actor who has also voiced Toki in Fist of the North Star, Jubei Mitsuyoshi Yagyu in Yaiba (1993), John Bacchus in Future Diary, Shido Yurizaki in Dimension W, Mordin Orjes Gyunei in Dances with the Dragons, Venturi Leroy in Space Battleship Tiramisu, Vearn in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (2020), Slava Korovin in Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, Phoenix in The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch, and many, many more.
Condolences to Mr. Hashi's family and friends. May he rest in peace.
Weekly Shonen Jump x Pokémon
August 22nd, 2025
Dogasu @ 09:58 JST -- At the end of July it was announced that Weekly Shonen Jump, the world famous manga anthology magazine, would be having a special collaboration with Pokémon. And while this isn't really Pokémon manga, per se, it does kind of fall into the realm of "original Pokémon artwork done by manga artists," and so today I've updated the Manga Guide with a break down of the Weekly Shonen Jump x Pokémon Collaboration.
There are a total of 20 pieces of original artwork created for this celebration and so I go through each piece, one by one, and do my best to provide you with everything you need to enjoy them. Who are the artists? What are these manga series about? Who are the human characters featured? Why were they paired up with this particular Pokémon? etc. I haven't seen anyone break down each piece of art in as much detail as I go into here (either in Japanese or English) and so I hope this is a resource you'll all find useful.
Tomo Sakurai, 1971 - 2025
August 16th, 2025
Dogasu @ 23:19 JST -- Earlier today it was announced that voice actor Tomo Sakurai (櫻井 智), most well known to Pocket Monsters fans as the voice of Shirona, the Champion of the Sinnoh Region, has passed away. She was 53 years old.
The actor's official X (Twitter) page posted the news:
| Notice of Tomo Sakurai Passing Ms. Tomo Sakurai has been getting treatment for multi-organ cancer for a long time, but her symptoms suddenly got worse and so on August 4th she was admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately her symptoms did not improve, and we regret to inform you that on August 13th she passed away. We would like to sincerely thank everyone for all their messages of support and sympathy received throughout her lifetime. Tomo Sakurai had always worked with the goal of making a complete recovery from this disease and had always approached her treatment with optimism, and so we are both deeply frustrated and incredibly heartbroken by this outcome. We would like to thank everyone for all their support during this time. A funeral service will be held exclusively for her close friends and family, and so we ask to please refrain from making any inquiries about the arrangements or requests for interviews at this time. We are considering possibly holding a farewell party with fans at a later date, though nothing's been confirmed yet. Tomo Sakurai Agency, Feathered Co., Ltd. |
While most well known for playing Shirona, Ms. Sakurai also provided the voices of Yoshino, Koharu's mother, from Pocket Monsters (2019). She also provided the voice of a minor character Kimi from the Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation episode 151 "The Day Care Worker and the Pokémon's Egg!"
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| Shirona in one of her final appearances in
Pocket Monsters (2019) |
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| Yoshino, Koharu's mother, in
Pocket Monsters (2019) |
Fellow Pocket Monsters voice actors shared their condolences on social media.
Voice actor Rica Matsumoto (Satoshi):
| 智ちゃんが音響監督に沢山だめ出しされて、シ
ロナさんの役で悩んでいた時、 「大丈夫、ちゃんとシロナになってるし、どう転んでも智ちゃんしかやれない役なんだから、これが私！ってけつまくって堂々やっちゃえ」と背中おしたつもり で言ったのが 最後になってしまった。 また会えると信じていたのに… |
One
time Tomo-chan kept getting asked to do a bunch of retakes by the sound
director, and she started worrying if she could still had it in her to
do Shirona-san. And so I said to her "Don't worry, you'll become
Shirona you know you can be, and no matter how many times you fall
remember that this is
a role only you can play,
Tomo-chan. So get in there, tell the world 'This is me!,' and show
them what you've got!" And...that was the last time I saw her. I
really did believe we'd meet each other again... |
Voice actor Mayumi Iizuka (Kasumi):
| 櫻井智さん。 声優としてお仕事させていただいて 間もない頃、 ご一緒させていただいた時の 煌びやかな立ち振る舞いや存在感。 いつも背中を見て憧れの存在でした。 久しぶりにスタジオでお逢いした時も 優しい笑顔をありがとうございます。 またご一緒したかったです。 ご冥福をお祈りいたします。 |
Ms. Tomo Sakurai It was shortly after I had become a voice actor that I got to experience your dazzling demeanor and presence. You were someone I always looked up to. Thank you for your kind style that time we met in the studio again after a long while. I wish we could have worked together again. May you rest in peace. |
Voice actor Mika Kanai, who'se voiced various Pokémon over the years:
| 智、長いお付き合いでしたね。 中学生の時に出会い、いろいろな話しをしたね。 近々美顔器あげる約束してたのに渡せずだったね。 可愛くて頑張り屋さんだった智。 また会える日まで、ご冥福をお祈りします。 #櫻井智 |
Tomo, you and I have known each other a long time. We met
when we were in middle school and have talked about
all sorts of things over all these years. Guess I won't be able to give
you
that facial therapy machine I promised you after all, huh? Oh, my cute,
hard-working Tomo. Until we meet again, rest in peace. #TomoSakurai |
Outside Pocket Monsters, Ms. Sakurai played Mylene Flare Jenius in Macross 7, Meimi Haneoka in Saint Tail, and Licca-chan in Super Doll Licca-chan, among many others.
Condolences to Ms. Sakurai's family and friends. May she rest in peace.
Manga Guide: Pocket Monsters Special, Pokémon 4-Koma Daihyakka
August 15th, 2025
Dogasu @ 11:18 JST -- I've fallen a bit behind on posting summaries to the Manga Guide of the newest chapters -- a week long business trip will do that to ya -- and so today I'm playing catch up.
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Pocket Monsters Special, aka "Pokémon Adventures" in the West. In this month's chapter Scarlet warps up her match with the Team Tsih base leader while Violet and Peper look for the next Gym Leader.
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Pokémon 4-Koma Daihyakka, that other collection of four panel gag comics that runs in the magazine Pokémon Fan. In this newest collection the Pokémon enjoy a day at the beach.
There are two other comic series running in Pokémon Fan but I'm not really covering them at the moment.
The first one is Pokémon Chou Dajare Club (ポケモン超だじゃれクラブ), or "The Pokémon Super Pun Club," by TAK.BR / Santa Harukaze (TAK.BR/春風邪三太). It's yet another four-panel comic strip series, only this time its punchlines are all centered around untranslatable Japanese puns that make coverage of the series take way, way more time and effort than it's probably worth.
The other series is Pokémon Quiz Puzzle Land Pikachu no Takara Sagashi (ポケモンクイズパズルランド ピカチュウの宝さがし), or "Pokémon Quiz Puzzle Land: Pikachu's Treasure Hunt," with the comic portion being done by Kemon Kawamoto (河本けもん) and the puzzles by Hiroshi Takase (嵩瀬 ひろし). In the current iteration of this series, Pikachu and the Paldea starters help whatever Pokémon needs help that issue, with the twist being that every page has a quiz or puzzle that readers are invited to solve. So the comic will be something like "Let's try looking under this rock...oh look! A Pokémon themed word search!" And then half that page will taken up by a word search, or a maze, or a rebus, etc. And this repeats over and over for like nine pages. Covering a series like this would require me to translate and/or post all the puzzles, something that, again, takes more time and effort than it's probably worth.
The next issue of Pokémon Fan (and therefore, the next chapter of Pokémon 4-Koma Daihyakka) is scheduled to come out September 30th, 2025.
Found an error or omission? Please help me keep this page current and error-free by e-mailing me with a description of the issue.
