Tsutaya "The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark" Navigate DVD

Dogasu's Backpack | Features | Tsutaya "The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark" Navigate DVD

On June 22nd, 2010, Tsutaya stores across Japan began offering a promotional DVD for the upcoming Pocket Monsters movie, Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl - The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark. The DVD has been made available to rent for free. The DVD is presented as a Pokemon Sunday-type program and features behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with the voice actors, information about the movie's theme song, a message from the director, and footage from the movie that had never been released before. In addition, the DVD features some new footage of the upcoming Nintendo DS games Pocket Monsters Black and Pocket Monsters White.

The program starts off with the members of the comedy trio Robert (ロバート) introducing themselves. The group's members are, from left to right, Yamamoto Hiroshi (山本博), Akiyama Ryuuji (秋山竜次), and Baba Hiroyuki (馬場裕之).

The trio does some comic banter for a bit. At one point, they talk about how there have been twelve movies up until now. Baba adds that if you watched one movie every month, it would take you one year to watch all the movies.

A brief rundown of all the movies is shown.

Eventually, the trio makes their way to OLM studios, the animation company responsible for producing the Pocket Monsters animation. Inside, they talk with background artist Takao Katsumi (高尾　克己) as he works on a shot of the roofs of Crown City. The DVD's narrator explains that the movie production team went location hunting in Holland and Belgium. Images of photos that were taken are compared to the artists' renderings in the movie.

Next, the members of Robert talk with CG Designer Ishida Naoto (石田　直人). Mr. Ishida is shown working on Kohdai's flying boat, making each piece individually as if he was putting together a plastic model. He explains that he wants the fact that this giant flying boat is made out of metal to be apparent. He also says that conveying the flying boat's massive weight was a particularly difficult challenge.

Next, the DVD takes a look at this movie's special guest voice actors. First up is Jin'nai Takanori (陣内孝則), who provides Kohdai's voice. Mr. Jin'nai says that providing a voice is a different challenge from being an actor on-screen, saying that expressing everything using only your voice has its own unique challenges. He also tells us that he was directed to make his voice sound the way it did twenty years before. Trying to recreate that voice, he says, brought back a lot of memories. He also recalls going out drinking with Robert member Baba Hiroyuki one night and how Baba called Jin'nai's mother an old hag.

Next up is Yamadera Kou'ichi (山寺宏一), who provides the voice of Goon. He tells us that he doesn't want people to dread hearing his voice in every single movie, so he's done his best to make sure that his performances are all different. After Yama-chan speaks, Kurt's voice actor, Tsukamoto Takashi (塚本高史) is interviewed. He tells us that this is his first time doing voice-over work and that he's happy to have participated in a movie that the whole family can enjoy. He also reminisces about eating ramen with Robert member Akiyama Ryuuji. Katou Natsuki (加藤夏希), who voices Rioka, is next. She tells us that she thinks Rioka is a really cool woman and that she tried to get that across when voicing her.

The final voice actor profiled is Pokemon Sunday's very own Nakagawa Shouko (中川翔子). She explains that her character, Proof, loves Coil, Rarecoil, and Jibacoil and that her outfit is adorned with the pokemon's images. Akiyama asks if Proof has a Notch Ear; she says that since Proof is a human, she does not. In a special message to the viewers, Ms. Nakagawa says that she's still an elementary school kid at heart in that she loves Pokemon very much.

The next portion of the program looks at the movie's theme song, Ice Cream Syndrome. A video of the song's recording, which took place in March 2010, is shown. Oohashi Takuya (大橋卓弥) asks fellow Sukima Switch (スキマスイッチ) member Tokita Shintarou (常田真太郎) what kind of song the ending theme is, and he replies by saying that it's a scat-type song that's very different from the type of stuff they usually do. He says it was a challenge to come up with a song that would fit with the movie but that he thinks that they've created a song that parents and children can listen to together. He also says the lyrics can be interpreted in many different ways.

For the last portion of the behind-the-scenes look at the movie, Robert pays a visit to the movie's director, Yuyama Kunihiko (湯山邦彦). Akiyama greets Mr. Yuyama with "Poke-morning," prompting the director to awkwardly repeat "Poke-morning" back to him. The director starts off by saying that Zorro'ark and Zorroa possess the ability to transform into other pokemon and that Zorro'ark is being controlled by someone to take the shape of the legendary pokemon Entei, Suicune, and Raikou. He then reveals that the real Entei, Suicune, and Raikou will come to Crown City and have a huge battle with Zorro'ark, adding that the legendary beasts have no idea that their opponent was being used by Kohdai. He concludes by saying that there is a lot packed into this movie that people can miss and that he hopes everyone goes to the theater multiple times to catch everything.

The narrator then walks us through how to get the movie's various event pokemon. The legendary beasts can be obtained up until August 30th, while Celebi can be gotten up until September 30th. It is then explained that bringing one of the legendary beasts over into Pocket Monsters Black or White will unlock a battle with Zorro'ark, while bringing over Celebi unlocks a battle with Zorroa.

Robert then decides to head to The Pokémon Company headquarters where they meet up with a member of the game's publicity planning department, Maeno Jonathan Kazushi (前野ジョナサン和志). After showing off the game's starter pokemon, he produces a special DVD containing footage that has never been seen before. The footage shows what looks like a present box opening before revealing the starter selection screen. The female protagonist is shown walking through the streets of Hiun City. When she enters a building, the camera moves around a bit. After going through the beehive level and a log in a forest, we see the start of a random encounter with Chiramii. Some miscellaneous battle screens are shown before the movie ends with a large rotating shot of a large bridge. After the Robert members gush about how it "doesn't look like a video game," Mr. Maeno tells them that Pocket Monsters Black and White is a completely new game.

A new trailer, exclusive to the DVD, is shown. The scenes in the trailer don't seem to contradict anything that's already been shown in the manga adaptation.

The DVD ends with the most recent trailer of the movie, as shown on the film's official website.

I've taken a lot of screencaps from the DVD and have divided them among three pages. You can view behind the scenes images here, new game images here, and new trailer images here.