January 2010

Dogasu's Backpack | Old Updates Archive | January 2010

"Where No Togepi Has Gone Before!"
January 31st, 2010

Dogasu @ 13:18 JST -- I wanted to get this in real quickly: "Where No Togepi Has Gone Before!"

I'll post some tenth anniversary stuff later on today since it's not January 31st yet in the U.S.

Old Updates Archive now more...archive-y
January 28th, 2010

Dogasu @ 07:18 JST -- You remember how none of the links on that Old Updates Archive page didn't work? Well, I've fixed that now. This site's ten year anniversary is coming up on Sunday, so I thought it'd be appropriate to finally get that fixed so you can see just how much this site has changed since January 2001.

Also, I have to thank the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine for helping me grab that image of my website, circa 2002.

I've also updated the List of Anime Episodes with a new dub title. I've also updated the Video Games section to add some Pokemon Ranger and the Tracks of Light information. I loved Battnage and thought it was vastly superior to Diamond & Pearl in almost every way, so I'm excited to get my hands on this new game. Japanese Wii systems are currently featuring a downloadable demo through their みんなのニンテンドー Channel (Minna no Nintendo, the channel we know as "Nintendo Channel" in the U.S.), but it really isn't much of anything. All it is is a tutorial and then a battle with Myuu.

Finally, it looks like Pokeani is updating again. Hooray.

My next update will be a self-indulgent "I'm so awesome for being on the Internet for ten years!" update, but after that I'll start working on the Arceus and the Jewel of Life comparison.

"Challenging a Towering Figure!"
January 25th, 2010

Dogasu @ 00:35 JST -- Remember when I used to do comparisons of new Diamond & Pearl comparisons the weekend they premiered on American TV?

Well, I've decided that I want to go back to doing that. So, here's "Challenging a Towering Figure!"

This is actually only the second Galactic Battles episode I've ever seen ever. This is also the first time I'm hearing Barry's voice in the dub. By this point, I'm so familiar with the Japanese cast of Diamond & Pearl that watching the dub after being away from it for so long is really jarring.

Next week's episode has wine glasses and an untranslatable pun, so it'll be interesting to see how that one turns out.

Also, this doesn't mean I'm taking a break from doing those Kanto comparisons. So no worries there. With that said, however, I'm going to work on the full "Arceus and the Jewel of Life" comparison before I start work on "The Kangaskhan Kid."

"The Flame Pokémon-athon!"
January 20th. 2010

Dogasu @ 00:18 JST -- Here are the updates I had planned for yesterday.

First up...the comparison for "The Flame Pokémon-athon!"

I feel like this comparison was somehow finished in no time and painfully dragged out at the same time. There are a lot more paint edits than I had anticipated, but on the flip side, the script wasn't riddled with Japanese puns that take forever and a day to look up / translate / explain.

I also feel the need to apologize for the quality of the English screenshots. Those Viz DVD sets have pretty terrible video quality throughout, but there's always at least one episode per disc that looks so much worse than all the others. "The Flame Pokémon-athon!" is one such episode. When my bootleg taken-from-a-TV-broadcast copy looks better than an official DVD release, you know you've got problems.

I also went through and added some cover art for the Saikoh Everyday! CDs. In other disc-related media, I've added the covers for the last two volumes in that "I still can't believe they keep pumping these out" Pokémon Elements DVD line. Still no word on what episodes are going to be included on that yet. I also realized that I hadn't added the covers for the batch of "Best Collection" DVDs that came out in Japan this past November, so I went ahead and added those as well.

I've also updated the Recycled Characters page with two new sitings; baseball cap guy from "Dig Those Diglett" and V-neck boy from "The Flame Pokémon-athon!"

Finally, the List of Anime Episodes has also been updated.

I'll add some Ranger 3 information (aka "a game I'm about 1,000,000 times more excited about than HG/SS) in a later update.

Gouri Daisuke, 1952 - 2010
January 18th, 2010

Dogasu @ 21:38 JST -- Yesterday, voice actor Gouri Daisuke passed away. Anime News Network reports:

The Tokyo Shimbun paper reports that Daisuke Gouri, the voice actor best known for playing Robin Mask in the Kinnikuman television anime series as well as Umigame and Mr. Satan in the Dragon Ball franchise, has passed away in Tokyo on Sunday. He was 57.

The newspaper reports that Gouri was discovered, with blood dripping from his arm, by a passerby on a street in Nakano ward. Police officers at Nakano station are investigating his death as a possible suicide. According to the authorities, Gouri apparently collapsed face-down onto the street at about 3:00 p.m. The newspaper adds that a knife or similar object was found nearby along with a last will.

Mr. Gouri's impressive resumé includes Mikio, the character-of-the-day in the Pocket Monsters episode "Here's an Urimoo! Search for the Hot Springs!!" ("Spring Fever" in the dub) who helped find hot springs with the help of his Urimoo. He didn't seem to have any other involvement with the franchise, but his death is still tragic regardless of the volume of work he did for the series.

I didn't want anything else to distract from this, so the updates I had had planned for tonight will be uploaded tomorrow night instead.

Housecleaning
January 13th, 2010

Dogasu @ 17:20 JST -- I dare you to play that Munch lax game on the Pokemon.com site and walk away from it without having that Super Mario Bros. 3 rip-off music stuck in your head. It can't be done.

Anyway, this is one of my "finally getting around to addressing things brought up in various e-mails" updates:

Remember how I told you guys about the Jouto episodes being streamed on Nintendo Wii systems in Japan, via its "Wii no Ma" service? Well, I went ahead and created a page for it over in the Features section, so check it out if you have any questions about what it is and how it works.
I had completely forgotten that "The Ninja Poké-Showdown!" was the first episode to feature Maddie Blaustein as Meowth ("Beauty and the Beach" wouldn't be dubbed for another year or so), so I made a note of that in the comparison. And by "note," I mean "immaturely make fun of the fandom from almost four years ago."
The List of Anime Episode has been updated with the newest batch.
Apparently, the DP Galactic Battles episode "The Lonely Snover" recently aired in Canada, uncropped. So at least one country in North America gets to watch the show in the proper aspect ratio. I've added a note in the comparison of this episode to reflect this.
I've updated the CD listing for the Dotchi ~ Nyo? CD to say "instrumental version" rather than "instant version."
It was pointed out to me that I had accidentally translated Dokonjou Gaeru - the show that the character in "A Croagunk Crop!" was modeled after - as "The Gusty Frog" rather than "The Gutsy Frog." In other minor proofreading issues, I corrected a spelling error - this time, in Japanese - on my page giving my impressions of "Pikachu's Big Seabed Adventure."
I've updated the General Edits page to (finally) include information about the second version of Season 12's opening theme.
The covers for the "Kaze no Message" CD have been corrected. Originally, I had two different covers up - one for the version that came with a DVD, and one for the version that didn't - because the Japanese Amazon site had two different covers. Well, after being tipped off that the covers might actually be the same, I went around to some local CD stores to check first-hand. And, sure enough, the version that has the DVD has the exact same cover as the one that doesn't. I've fixed the images used in the CD Guide accordingly.
I've had a blurb on the page for Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green for a while stating that Miyamoto Shigeru suggested they make seven games in Generation I - one for each color of the rainbow - instead of the two that we ended up getting. I was asked where I got this information from, and to be honest...I don't know. I'm sure I had a reliable source at the time (I don't just make up things for the hell of it), but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. So, I'm removing the blurb until I can track that down.

Aaaand that should just about cover it, for now. A big thank you to everyone who's ever taken the time to e-mail me about the site - if you see anything else, let me know! It make take me a while to address the things you write me, but I promise to eventually get to them.

Before I finish this update, I wanted to give you guys some news. The New York Times is reporting that Nintendo Wii systems will add Netflix service for streaming video this coming spring. Now the Wii is not able to play DVDs (without Homebrew, anyway), so users will have to stream the content online with the help of a special Netflix disc inserted in the system. Of course, Wii owners won't be able to use their system to play HD content, and the Wii's paltry 512 MB of memory is a cause for concern, but hey - being able to access just about any Region 1 Pokémon DVD whenever you like for $9 a month ain't too bad.

I hope to have another update for you guys before the end of the week, but I'm not going to promise anything right now.

"The Best Everyday" and "The Ninja Poké-Showdown!"
January 10th, 2010

Dogasu @ 16:39 JST -- I have the lyrics - with a translation - for the newest opening theme, Saikou Everyday!, up now.

I've also got a new comparison for "The Ninja Poké-Showdown!"

Oh, random web powers that are brought up once and then never mentioned again. How I miss you.

I'm really excited about the next few episodes. I hadn't seen "The Flame Pokémon-athon" in years, so that will be fun, and "The Kangaskhan Kid" has some naughty parts that were censored that I can't wait to talk about. And then there's "The Legend of Miniryuu," which will basically be one big essay explaining why the episode couldn't have been aired on American TV. After that, I'll hit a few episodes that I had never done comparisons for on this site. Exciting stuff.

Also, random question: Do you guys know what the first episode was to feature 4Kids' Pokédex music?

You mean there are other Pocket Monsters websites out there?
January 6th, 2010

Dogasu @ 13:39 JST -- Gah, I'm still not used to typing "2010" yet.

So a few months ago, I decided to get organized and make a list of website updates I wanted to make. The idea was to get my shit together and remind myself to finally sit down and do a lot of the updates I've been meaning to do for years now. Among these are things like "fix the images in the Destiny Deoxys comparison," "re-compare those first three DP episodes," "beef up the Pokemon World Atlas / List of Techniques / List of Items sections," and a ton of other stuff.

One of the updates I have listed is "update the Links section." At first, I thought it would be a simple task - something that would only take a half an hour, tops - but it ended up taking a lot longer. Almost every link on that page was broken, and a lot of the descriptions I had for the sites were poorly written. So, I've more or less had to redo that area.

So, go check it out! And don't be offended if your site didn't get listed; I only listed the ones I check on a regular basis. Sorry.

One thing I've noticed is that websites don't really seem to be doing Links section anymore. Are Links sections obsolete in this day and age? A relic of a bygone era? Are they still relevant? Or do you still find them useful? It doesn't matter because I'm keeping mine anyway, but I'm still a little curious about what others think.

And while I'm talking about other websites, it looks like Pokeani is on a hiatus and therefore won't be updating again anytime soon. The announcement posted on the site says that it's going down because of personal issues but that it should re-open once everything's calmed down. Now we don't have any sort of timeframe for this, so all we can do is be patient and wait. The announcement goes on to say that other sections of the site, like the message board and the voting polls, are being taken down as well since there won't be anyone around to moderate things in their absense.

I've got a few days left to my winter vacation, so I'll try to update again before the weekend.

Arceus Soundtrack Listing, CD Guide 2008
January 2nd, 2010

Dogasu @ 23:55 JST -- You guys won't complain if I keep the updates coming, will you?

I've updated the CD Guide to include the track listing for the soundtrack to Arceus - To the Conquering of Spacetime. Sorry it took me so long to get that up; I don't actually own the CD yet, and finding the track listing online was a little tricky.

I also went and put up a page for the CDs that came out in 2008. As you can see, I'm slowly but surely trying to get that section looking respectable. One neat thing I noticed was that there's a difference between the covers for the Kaze no Message CD that comes with a DVD and the one that does not. Can you spot the difference?

A look back at 2009
January 1st, 2010

Dogasu @ 21:00 JST -- Hey, it's the new year.

To celebrate, I'll do what I did last year and take a look back at the predictions I made for 2009. For those fo you who don't remember, I made these predictions in my write-up for the site's ninth anniversary. I find it fun to see what I got right and what I got wrong, so here goes:

I think that in the TV series, Satoshi will get the rest of his badges and Hikari will get the rest of her Contest ribbons. I don't think we'll see the Grand Festival or the Shin'ou League just yet, but I do think we'll see the Ginga-Dan storyline wrapped up.

Satoshi and Hikari have seven badges and four ribbons respectively, so that part was off the mark. Though really, who could have predicted that we'd only get one Gym Battle the entire year?

Still, we at least got to see the Ginga-Dan stuff wrapped up. So that's something.

Satoshi's Hikozaru will probably evolve, and I think the rest of his pokemon that can evolve won't do so until the DP Battle Frontier saga that will inevitably follow.

As far as we know, this has happened. There are hints that Moukazaru may evolve before the next saga, but at this point, we don't know for sure.

I think Hikari's Manmoo will learn to obey her as well. I don't think any of her other pokemon will evolve, though.

Eh...Manmoo is getting better. It doesn't seem to be outright disobeying her anymore, but it still manages to lose itself in the moment from time to time.

Hikari didn't get any evolutions on her team, so it looks like I wasn't too far off the mark there.

Even though I predicted that Takeshi's Pinpuku will evolve last year, I'm going to go ahead and say that it'll evolve in 2009 instead. Because really, two years without any team changes at all is just too cruel, even for him.

Well, I guess the TV show just likes being cruel to him. No new captures, no evolutions, nothing.

But hey, at least he got to do something during the big Ginga-Dan finale.

I don't think Viz will release any DVD boxsets for the Johto seasons. I think the only reason they released the Kanto and Orange Island sets were because those could be marketed toward the nostalgia nuts. Early Johto? Not so much.

The popular assumption was that Viz would just continue churning out box sets after their release of the Orange Islands collection, but, as we've seen, this hasn't been the case.

I think it's likely we'll get some boxsets after HeartGold and SoulSilver come out in the U.S. - y'know, as some kind of cross-promotion thing - but not before then.

Either way, it doesn't matter to me because I have the Australian box sets which are vastly superior to the stuff Viz puts out :P

The ANA Pokemon shorts will continue to be ignored by PUSA.

I think this was a pretty easy prediction to make. I never really figured out why they keep being ignored, though, since TPCI dubs just about everything else.

As far as the video games go, we already know that a third Mysterious Dungeon game is coming out in Japan while Platinum is coming out in America. I'm assuming we'll be getting that Mysterious Dungeon game in the U.S. before the year's end as well.

Yes and yes. I wish I had predicted those GS remakes coming out in 2009 as well, but you can't win them all.

I also predict that the North American Wii Virtual Console will get Super Smash Bros on April 27th, 2009. There's actually a reason for me choosing that date.

The reason for that date was that it was the Monday closest to the game's ten year anniversary in North America. That didn't end up happening, though, and Nintendo instead decided to wait until they could release it as the Virtual Console's 500th game.

I think the DSi will see a crappy Pokemon-related mini game release for the DSi Ware that'll still get a gajillion downloads anyway.

We didn't get any DSi Ware games, but we sure did get a crapton of WiiWare games.

Viz will continue releasing Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Adventure!.

I don't know why I made this prediction since it was super obvious that this was happening. It's like "predicting" that the TV series will continue airing on Thursday nights on TV-Tokyo.

I also think they'll eventually pick up Pokemon 7 and release that stateside as well.

Unfortunately, this didn't happen. And with Satoshi and his friends leaving the Shin'ou region soon-ish, the chances of them getting around to translating this seem to be getting slimmer and slimmer.

Viz will release a few volumes (let's say...four) of Pokemon Adventures, but fans will still complain about these releases because of some minor translation thing that doesn't affect anything.

I'm pretty shocked that I was so on the mark with this one. Viz released exactly four volumes last year. As for the fan complaining? Volume 03 shirt edit, anyone?

I'll make a fresh batch of predictions in the write-up for my site's tenth birthday on January 31st, 2010.

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