December 2007

Dogasu's Backpack | Old Updates Archive | December 2007

Well, THAT didn't quite work out now did it?
December 27th, 2007

Sorry about that. I guess I was a little more burnt out on comparisons than I thought and wasn't able to get the last three Battle Frontier comparisons done after all.

Plus, I still don't have a copy of "Once More with Reeling." So there's that, too.

I do have "Pace - The Final Frontier!" finished, though.

This will be the last update in 2007. As you may remember, some of my friends from the States are coming up to visit, so I'm going to be busy hosting them for the next twelve days or so. I won't be updating the site at all, and I very seriously doubt I'll even be able to visit any message boards, either.

2007 was a pretty good year as far as the site goes. I posted a whopping eighty-nine comparisons and managed to revamp the Video Games and Episode Lists sections, so all in all I'd say it was a productive year. My goals in 2008 are to finish off the episodes in that first Kanto box set, revamp the Seiyuu page, and get rid of the sections that I don't plan to update anymore (TV Schedule and Pokemon's Bios, I'm looking at you).

See you in 2008.

Still trying
December 23rd, 2007

You'll remember how, a few weeks ago, I said I wanted to finish all the Battle Frontier comparisons by the 25th? Well, I still intend to do that, and today's update should be a big step in achieving that goal.

That's because I have three comparisons for you today. "The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing!," "Pinch Healing!," and "Gathering The Gang Of Four!" are up for you guys. If I can do three comparisons tomorrow, I'll still be on-track.

The only problem is that I don't seem to have a copy of "Once More With Reeling!" Hopefully I can fix that before tomorrow.

I've also updated the Episode Lists with new titles.

Two new ones
December 19th, 2007

I've got two new comparisons today in an effort to get back on track with my one-a-day comparisons. The first one is for "Duels of the Jungle!" while the second one is for "Overjoyed!" I'll try to do the same thing tomorrow, but with two Diamond & Pearl episodes airing tonight as well as a number of errands I have to run, I may not get the chance.

"A Stand-Up Sit-Down!"
December 18th, 2007

Ugh...I know this is late. Sorry. I'll try to make up for it later in the week.

Here's the "A Stand-Up Sit-Down" comparison.

In other news, a movie entitled マリと子犬の物語 (English given title "A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies") was released on the 8th of this month in Japan. It's a story of a girl named Aya who finds a stray dog, names it Mari, and takes care of it against her father's wishes. After the dog has three puppies, the 2004 Chuuetsu earthquake strikes, forcing Aya and her family to leave the town behind. The movie apparently shows how Mari and her puppies survive and how Aya can find a way to reunite with the animals she had fallen in love with.

Now why would I post information about this on a Pocket Monsters website, you might ask? Well, that earthquake in 2004 caused the Advanced Generation episode "The Battle of the Shaking Island! Dojotchi vs. Namazun!!" to be banned in Japan and the rest of the world due to a fear of stirring up bad memories after such a horrible tragedy.

I know that whenever a new message board thread pops up about the banned episodes, the posters in the thread come to the conclusion that, as far as that Dojotchi episode is concerned, Japan should just stop being a big baby about it and air the damn thing already. Yet the fact that this movie is being made and mentions the real-world event in all its trailers tells me that the earthquake is still fresh enough in people's minds. Simply "getting over it" doesn't seem to be a realistic expectation here, and expecting the victims and the victims' families to forget about the tragedy so that a bunch of whiny Westerners can watch an episode of a children's anime is pretty selfish.

"Comedy Tomorrow - Strategy Tonight!"
December 16th, 2007

I did it! I finished the comparison for "Comedy Tomorrow - Strategy Tonight!" Thank GOD.

A bit of warning, though - the second, third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs under the "Thoughts" section of that page is basically a long rant about how much I hate the episode. So if you just want to know what was changed, skip that part. It's not that I'm in a bad mood or anything (in fact, life is pretty great right now)...it's just that I really really hate that episode. Watching it the two times required for the sake of the comparison was almost unbearable, but I managed to get through it. Everything from here on out should be a piece of cake in comparison.

Building on yesterday's news, Darkrai's silhouette has started showing up on the official Pokémon website. So I guess an announcement of the English version of the first Diamond & Pearl movie is just around the corner, huh?

Tomorrow I'll try to post the comparison for "A Stand-Up Sit Down!"

"Aipom And Circumstance!"
December 15th, 2007

The comparison for "Aipom And Circumstance!" is now up. This one's significant because it confirms Aipom's gender in the Japanese version, something that the dub just kind of glosses over.

The next comparison will be the one for "Comedy Tomorrow - Strategy Tonight!" Also known as my least favorite episode of the entire series. *sigh* Hopefully I'll be able to survive it.

Today's news (even though it's a few days old) is that the president of Pokémon USA is resigning. What kind of changes will this mean for the company? It's hard to say, but the fact that the current vice president will be taking Mr. Chiba's place, I don't think there will be any earth shattering changes being made. The new president will take over in January 2008.

I've also added the newly revealed Japanese episode title to the Episode List. Can we just get to the third gym already, Japan? Please?

"Channeling The Battle Zone!"
December 14th, 2007

Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday. I had a full schedule at work, so I was pretty tired by the time I got home. Plus, Thursday nights are busy for me anyway due to that being the night Diamond & Pearl comes on TV-Tokyo, so there's that, too.

Here's the comparison for "Channeling The Battle Zone!" I'll try to double up sometime this weekend to get back on track. I've only got nine episodes of Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation to compare before I finish the entire series, so I'm pretty excited to get the rest of these finished.

As for the news...it looks like listings for some new paperback books have popped up on Amazon.com. The first book, a novelization of the tenth movie (Japanese title Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai) is due to come out in April 2008. So that means the dub for that movie will be coming out at around that time, right? Well, another listing, this one for a Pokémon: Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai paperback, has an August 2008 release date. So maybe the movie will come out sometime between April 2008 and August 2008 then? This second book is being put out by Viz and is the same price as their other graphic novels, so I think it's pretty safe to say that this'll be a translation of this manga. It also seems to confirm the English title of the movie.

Finally, a Movie 9 manga is being released by Viz on June 3, 2008. It's about a year late, but whatever. It'll retail for $7.99.

Thanks goes to Pokeyug over on the Bulbagarden forums for finding this information.

"Thinning The Hoard!"
December 12th, 2007

The comparison for "Thinning The Hoard!" has been uploaded. Only one more Grand Festival episode to go! I'm actually surprised that I've been able to keep up with this whole "once-a-day" update schedule for as long as I have ^^;;

I've also corrected an error I made way back in the comparison for "Hail to the Chef!" Manyula is not the pre-evolved form of Nyula, but, for some reason, that's exactly what I wrote. Whoops. Thanks to Sam May for pointing it out to me.

I've also added the newest dub title and the newest Japanese episode title to the Episode List.

Anyway, today's news update kind of builds on yesterday's quote from the State of the Anime Industry. This one, from the ICv2 Conference of Anime and Manga, touched on the same issues about illegal downloads and pumping out anime faster. This quote caught my interest:

Lawrence Neves, the Editorial Director of Pokemon

USA

, who has the luxury of dealing with a property that skews to a younger audience where downloading is less of a threat, stated that it would be difficult to produce American versions of Pokemon episodes in less than a six month period.

Um...Mr. Neves? The episode that just aired on Cartoon Network this past Saturday is less than five months old. It may be difficult, but it's apparently not that difficult. And shoot, with all the vacations the Japanese version is taking (i.e. there are no new episodes airing on December 27th or January 3rd), the dub is only going to get closer and closer.

By the way...if the name "ICv2 Conference of Anime and Manga" sounds familiar to you, it's probably because that's the convention, last year, where Al Kahn famously said that "the kids today don't read." Well, he had some more stuff to say at this year's convention, so I've added them to the Kahn's Krazy Kuotables page.

Thanks to mitchell kaufman for link to the report on the convention.

"May We Harley Drew'd Ya!"
December 11th, 2007

Here's "May We Harley Drew'd Ya!" I also fixed an unfinished sentence in the comparison for "Grating Spaces!"

Also, I was looking at Toon Zone's coverage of the New York Anime Festival 2007 and found two things of interest. First, from the Viz panel:

On the one-year anniversary of Toonami Jetstream, Shimamura said that the next year would expand the catalog of available shows. She noted that the site is averaging 1.7 million unique users per month, with the top 3 properties being Naruto, Pokemon, and MÄR. Naruto alone has been streamed 27 million times since its Jetstream debut, with Pokemon coming behind at 22 million streams and MÄR falling just short of 20 million. Next week should see the debut of Eyeshield 21 on Jetstream.

Not too shabby, Pokémon. Especially since the episodes up on Jetstream are Johto episodes.

This next part leapt out at me because I've seen a few message board threads where people hypothesize that the dub will be catching up with the Japanese version soon. Seems possible, right? After all, PUSA's dub, as of this writing, is only eighteen episodes behind.

Not quite, says the panelists at the convention's State of the Anime Industry 2007 panel. Chris Macdonald is the editor-in-chief of Anime News Network, Adam Sheehan represents FUNimation, Ken Iyadomi represents Bandai, John O'Donnel represents Central Park Media, Keisuke Inoue represents a new anime licensor, THINK Corporation, and Chris Oarr represents ADV Films:

The topic of illegal online downloads has been a perennial thorn in anime distributors' collective sides, and Macdonald asked how much of an effect the delay between the Japanese release and the North American release had on their business, and what was being done to minimize that delay. Sheehan stated that the effect was definitely bigger on the smaller shows, saying it was very hard to compete when a subtitled version of a show is on the INternet for free 24 hours after the Japanese broadcast. He said that reducing the delay between the Japanese and American releases was important, but that here's no solid way to do that yet. Iyadomi said that people are seriously talking about releases without delays, but this was a sensitive issue, often because Japanese television stations demand at least a 3 month delay before any home video release, and they are often working on very tight schedules to get a TV series on the air in Japan at all. There is also a translation issue, since very few shows can be translated and dubbed within a month. Iyadomi felt that international simultaneous releases may be tried, but it will not become regular practice very soon. Oarr added that the complexity of doing a true worldwide release is still too daunting to attempt on a regular basis. ADV has attempted to reduce the delay in getting new titles on the market, but have had mixed results so far with no obvious benefits. O'Donnell pointed out that it took Hollywood 100 years to figure out how to do a global release for a movie, but that a vast amount of technical, cultural, and financial problems must be solved before that can happen for anime. Citing the movie example again, he said it might require a generational change before it's possible. Inoue said that his company tries to ensure they coproduce and to try for simultaneous releases simultaneously, but only for short content, not TV series.

So it looks like all you people who want a nearly simultaneous release of the series in Japan and the U.S. aren't going to get your wish. Eighteen episodes is still a ridiculously small number of episodes to be behind, and there really isn't any need to be any closer than that anyways. Just be patient, young ones.

"Grating Spaces!"
December 10th, 2007

The comparison for "Grating Spaces!" is now up. Since I already did the comparisons for "Battling the Enemy Within!" and "Slaking Kong!" back in February, I can skip those two and start on the Kanto Grande Festibol (sic) tomorrow.

"The Ole' Berate And Switch!"
December 9th, 2007

Haven't done a two-in-one-day update in a while!

Focusing back on Battle Frontier, here's "The Ole' Berate And Switch!" It's the one where Yamato and Kosaburou make their second Battle Frontier appearance and it includes some interesting dialogue changes.

Next up: "Grating Spaces!"

"Top-Down Training!"
December 9th, 2007

Sorry for the late update. I meant to have this up before the end of the day, but I didn't quite make it.

In any case, here's the comparison for "Top-Down Training!"

"Steamboat Willies!"
December 7th, 2007

The comparison for "Steamboat Willies!" is up. Here's a preview: Hikari doesn't really confirm anyone's gender in this episode the way Dawn does.

I'll try to update the Giratina movie page for the next update.

"One Big Happiny Family"
December 6th, 2007

It's been December 7th in Japan for over thirteen hours now, but it's still the 6th back where I'm from, so this update isn't late :P

Anyways, here's "One Big Happiny Family" for you guys. Tomorrow I'll do the comparison for "Steamboat Willies!" and, if all goes well, will have the Shirona episode's comparison up on Sunday.

I've also, like every other site out there, have updated the page on the second Diamond & Pearl movie with the movie's title. Here's Giratina's page on Bulbapedia, so enjoy looking through that and speculating.

The title was revealed on a program called Oha Star, a morning kids program. The show comes on Monday through Friday as I get ready to go to work, so I've caught it every now and then. And let me tell you - it is the most mind numbingly bad kids' show I've seen in a long while. Basically, Yamadera Kou'ichi hosts this show where they talk about the newest toys and video games that have come out and then tells kids to buy them. No joke. It is basically a 22-minute advertisement, and not in the way that the Pocket Monsters anime are 22-minute advertisements, either. Like, they will seriously spend five minutes talking about a new Yu-Gi-Oh! card or something. Plus, the hosts (which sometimes includes Becky and some guy who looks like a Japanese version of Tom Delonge) talk in a sickenly cheerful tone not unlike the preschool shows we have back in the States.

Here's the big reveal:

Hopefully this won't be taken down before you guy get a chance to see it.

"Going For Choke!"
December 5th, 2007

Here's the comparison for "Going For Choke!", the episode where May gets her final Kanto Contest ribbon.

Now as many of you know, the Writer's Guid of America went on strike last month. It's something I meant to address weeks ago but didn't (for a variety of reasons). One question I see that keeps popping up is one that asks if Pokèmon's going to be affected. Here's an excerpt of what Reuters had to say about it back in November:

Most animated shows are covered by a different union from the Writers Guild and are unaffected by the WGA strike. In addition, the WGA has withdrawn objections to its members working in animation.

Some 12,000 WGA members went on strike against film and television studios on Monday, jeopardizing America's hit TV shows including some animated programs like "The Simpsons," which are covered under WGA contracts.

But many other animated films and TV shows are covered by a separate union whose members remain on the job, said Steven Hulett of the Animation Guild Local 839, part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

Basically, that means that shows like Pokémon are safe. The only animated shows affected by this are the prime time shows - The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, etc. The only Cartoon Network show I know being affected is Out of Jimmy's Head, but that's because it's live action and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the Writer's Guild.

It's just something I wanted to clear up but never got around to doing.

"New Plot, Odd Lot!", Smash Bros. News, New DVD's in Japan
December 4th, 2007

Here's the comparison for "New Plot, Odd Lot!"

Also, the official Smash Brothers site revealed a lot of the pokemon who will be returning from the previous games. I really wish Nintendo would stop using those old models from the N64 days. They all look terrible when placed in what's supposed to be a next-gen game.

Finally, I figured I might as well post this news item that I posted on Bulbagarden a few days ago. PokeAni gets credit for this story:

Starting March 18th, Seven Eleven stores and certain hobby stores in Japan will be offering Diamond & Pearl DVD's with the purchase of a Ramune drink. When you purchase the drink (which is this weird lemon-flavored soda), you can purchase a DVD for 378 yen. There will be eight discs in total, and each disc contains one episode apiece.

You can also buy all eight discs for 3,024 yen.

The episodes being put on DVD were chosen because they showcase a pokemon being caught. The discs are:

Volume One: DP 001 "Setting Off! From Futaba Town to Masago Town!" (Hikari catches Potchama)
Volume Two: DP 002 "Search for Pikachu! Route 202!" (Satoshi catches Mukkuru)
Volume Three: DP 005 "Naetle! I Got One!" (Satoshi catches Naetle)
Volume Four: DP 008 "Gureggru of the Mysterious Gym!" (Takeshi catches Gureggru)
Volume Five: DP 009 "Let's Play with Mimirol!?" (Hikari catches Mimirol)
Volume Six: DP 019 "I'm Gonna Get this Pachirisu...Is That OK!?" (Hikari catches Pachirisu)
Volume Seven: DP 034 "Buoysel! The Road to Being the Strongest!!" (Hikari catches Buoysel)
Volume Eight: DP 038 "Explosive Birth! Cycling Road!!" (Takeshi catches Pinpuku)

I'll definitely try to pick those up, especially since there's a Seven-Eleven that's literally a 30 second walk from my apartment. Hopefully, these won't be copy protected like the Jouto DVD's so I can get screencaps from them.

"All That Glitters Is Not Golden!," Lyrics, DVD news
December 3rd, 2007

Sorry for the long gap between updates. Lots of crazy real-life stuff going on.

But! I finally have real Internet! So now that I'm actually connected all the time now, I can't use the "I couldn't get a good connection" excuse anymore. This should make updating this site much easier.

Today's update is a comparison for "All That Glitters Is Not Golden!" I also went ahead and typed up the lyrics for I Won't Lose ~Haruka's Theme~ since I just realized that I never got around to putting those up. Whoops. Finally, I've posted the most recently revealed dub episode titles up on the Episode List page.

My plans for the immediate future are to get the two Diamond & Pearl comparisons that I'm missing up this week. I'm also going to continue to work on Battle Frontier comparisons, trying to get all of them done before the end of the year. I've got seventeen of those left to do, so if I do them at a rate of one a day and keep up-to-date with the new Diamond & Pearl episodes, I can be finished by Christmas Day.

After that, three of my friends from back home will be coming here to Japan to visit me. They'll be here for two weeks, so for that time, I won't be updating this site. Because if your friends spend all the money to visit you on the other side of the world, the last thing you want to do is be antisocial and work on an anime fansite.

So tomorrow, I'll have either "One Big Happiny Family" or "New Plot, Odd Lot" up for you guys.

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