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"Gotta Get a Gible!"
May 31st, 2010

Dogasu @ 21:55 JST -- It took me a little longer than I thought it would, but here's the comparison for the last episode of Season 12, "Gotta Get a Gible!"


There are quite a few dialogue edits in this one, so there was more for me to talk about than in the previous comparison.

While I was working on that, I realized that I had never really gotten around to translating the Rocket-Dan's motto for this site.  Crazy, huh?  Well, I'm not ready to post a translation of the regular version just yet, but I did go and add the special Rocket-Dan mottos used in "Muma and Yamikarasu and the Dark Stone!" and "Fukamaru and Meteoric Swarm!!"

Also, some information about Black & White that every other website's already posted.  Yay.

Like I said in the previous update, my goal is to have "Electric Soldier Porygon" up before the Season 13 premiere this Saturday.  One, because it's about damn time, and two, because I'll want to have that out of the way so I can do the prep work for the comparison for the Sinnoh League Victors opening.  You guys seemed to like the way I did the comparison for the Season One opening, so I'm thinking I'll do the comparison for the Season Thirteen opening the same way.

Finally, I wanted to let you guys know that I have my scanner and will be using it for some updates very shortly.

"A Meteoric Rise to Excellence!"
May 28th, 2010

Dogasu @ 08:31 JST -- Let's keep this train rolling.  Here's the comparison for "A Meteoric Rise to Excellence!"


There's not a whole lot to say about this episode, edit-wise, so it's a little brief.

In site-related news, I ordered a printer / scanner combo last night.  It should hopefully be arriving in the mail in 1-3 business days.  After that, I'll finally be able to scan some of the manga / magazines / miscellaneous other stuff I've been meaning to scan ever since I came to Japan. 

I don't anticipate "Gotta Get a Gible!" taking more than a day or two to finish, but you never know.  I'll then try to get the comparison for "Electric Soldier Porygon" out before the start of Season 13.

"Double-Time Battle Training!," a billion other little updates
May 27th, 2010

Dogasu @ 07:38 JST -- Sorry for the absense; been a bit under the weather lately. 

It's long overdue, but here's the comparison for "Double-Time Battle Training!"


This was my first time hearing Candice and Abomasnow in the dub.  It was also my first time hearing Zoey in the dub in about a good year or so.  It was certainly...jarring, to say the least, but I tried to look past that when writing the comparison.  I'll certainly have a lot to say about Candice when I get to her debut episode roughly 20 years from now.

On to releases!

First of all, I've updated the DVD Guide with a listing for the first Pokémon Elements DVD boxset.  Because, you know, God forbid they actually get around to releasing something we want.  Like, say, DP Galactic Battles, Arceus and the Jewel of Life (it's been over six months since it aired on Cartoon Network!), or a Johto Journies DVD boxset.  The boxset will contain the first five volumes of Pokémon Elements, so I'm assuming there will be a second boxset that will have Volumes 06-10.

In CD news, the Japanese Amazon site uploaded the cover art for Ice Cream Syndrome, the theme song for the upcoming The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark film.  They also added a listing for the movie's soundtrack, due out August 4th.  I've updated the CD Guide accordingly.


Speaking of that movie, I was walking around the other day when I spotted a poster advertising the Japanese theatrical release of Toy Story 3.  That movie's due out on July 10th, same as the Zorro'ark movie, so it got me to wondering what else is coming out that day.  One quick Internet search later revealed what films The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark will be competing with on its opening day:

• Hisshi Ken Torisashi (Torisashi, the Sword of Certain Death), an adaptation of a historical samurai short story.
• Kyoufu (Fear), the newest horror movie by the writer of The Ring and Juon.
• Toy Story 3, the second sequel to Pixar's Toy Story.  Duh.
  
• Predators, the sequel to Predator and Predator 2.
• The Bounty Hunter, a comedy starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston.
• Sore Ike!  Anpanman Burakku Noozu to Mahou no Uta (Go, Anpanman!  Black Nose and the Magical Song), the 22nd Anpanman film.
• Toruso (Torso), a movie about a woman who keeps a male mannequin that doesn't have a head, arms, or legs as her boyfriend.

I'm thinking the newest Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl movie doesn't stand a chance against Toy Story 3. What surprises me is the fact that they chose to put this Pocket Monsters movie out on the busiest release day of the summer when they could have just waited a week and not have to worry about the competition being so stiff.

The comparison for "A Meteoric Rise to Excellence!" will be up in a few days, I hope.

Manga Guide Front Page Overhaul, Various other updates
May 21st, 2010

Dogasu @ 08:00 JST -- Let's get those "few other little things" out of the way.

Today's big update is an overhaul of that front Manga Guide page.  Those of you who visited the page in the past few months were greeted with a disorganized, incomplete mess.  That's all been fixed now.  The front page now lists each series, sorted by type and then release date, and contains every series I can think of that's every been collected in a graphic novel.  I didn't really touch the contents of the pages themselves because I just don't have the time, but all the links there and all the images there should be working now.  After I finish the comparison for the Porygon episode, I'll revisit the manga section and make a new page or two.

Of course, I still need to fill in the series that haven't been collected in graphic novel format, but I'll get that done at a later date.  If I had tried to sort all that out now, this update wouldn't have been posted for another week.

Also, thanks to the people the Facebook page for giving me ideas for what image to use for the main page.

I've also updated the List of Anime Episodes with two more Japanese titles.  Also, an error that several of you pointed out in my more recent DP Galactic Battles comparisons regarding the name of Hikari's next Contest town has been corrected.

The next update will be the long overdue comparison for "Double-Time Battle Training!"  Then, like I've said before, I'll do the comparisons for "A Meteoric Rise to Excellence!" and "Gotta Get a Gible!"  After that, "Electric Soldier Porygon."

"The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark" Synopsis - Part Two.  Also, lots of other stuff.
May 19th, 2010

Dogasu @ 07:38 JST -- Here's another update that started out as a small(ish) update and eventually turned into something much bigger.

First up is a summary of the second chapter of the manga adaptation of The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark.  Like the first chapter, take any spoilers you read with a grain of salt; there is still that chance that the final movie could end up playing out very differently from the manga version.


While I was at it, I also made a page on the differences between the movie and the comic.  Yeah, it's a bit early for that, but I figured I can at least get a start on it.

I also went into the main page for The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark and made a few tweaks here and there.

The CD Guide has been updated with information about the CD singles for the movie's theme song, Ice Cream Syndrome.  There will be three releases:

• A regular version.
• A special limited edition "pokemon version," which will have a special cover featuring Satoshi and Pikachu.
• A special limited edition that will be printed on a Blu-spec CD.  It'll also come with a DVD featuring the promotional video for the song.

All signs seem to point to all three versions having the same track listing, so if you're going to pick one of these up, you might as well pay the extra 700 yen or so and get the version that comes with a DVD.

The single will be out on June 30th, amazingly enough.  The last three movie ending themes have been released a mere three days before the movie's release, so seeing the single to the new movie coming out so much sooner is certainly unexpected.  I'll be sure to post lyrics to the theme song, as well as an English translation, shortly after its release.

There are actually a few other little things I want to do here and there before I jump back into the DP Galactic Battles comparisons, but I'm still planning to at least start posting them before the end of the week.

"The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark" Synopsis - Part One
May 16th, 2010

Dogasu @ 20:28 JST -- This has been a pretty big weekend for this franchise, huh?  The news about Black & White just keeps coming, giving fans plenty of things to dissect and talk about for hours on end.  While I'm still standing by my decision to wait until the inevitable third version of the games before taking my first steps into the Isshu Region, I have to say that the stuff that's out now is surpassing what my (admittedly low) expectations.

With all this BW stuff going on, it's easy to forget that there's a lot of other things going on at the same time.  Like the Zorro'ark movie coming out this summer.  The May 2010 issue of CoroCoro Comics started running a manga adaptation of the film, so I went and typed up a summary of the first 80-page installment.  The manga is being done by Inoue Momota, a woman who's never done anything for this franchise before, so we don't have any precedence to determine how close this adaptation is to the source material.  Will it be similar to the Arceus adaptation, or will it be more like the Deoxys one?  There's really no way to know until the movie actually comes out on the tenth of July, so until then, take any revelations present in the summary with a grain of salt.

I'm about halfway through with the summary of the second part of the adaptation, the one that was printed in the June 2010 issue of CoroCoro.  With any luck, I'll have that up for you guys tomorrow.  I know yaminokame has already posted summaries of the chapters, but I still like to post my own summaries up anyway.  Having multiple sources is never a bad thing, y'know?

Speaking of adaptations...I found this Youtube video featuring scans from the manga.  The thing is...none of the images shown in that video are in either of the chapters that have been released so far.  Granted, it was posted on April 1st, but the art style is too close to the art style of the actual manga for me to think it's a fake.  So what is this?  Was this from some preview that was posted in a previous CoroCoro?  Did someone get their hands on the third chapter way, waaaaay early? 
Like I said in my previous update, I plan to do those last three Galactic Battles comparisons after I finish this manga summary.  Once those are finished, I'll start work on the "Electric Soldier Porygon" comparison. 

Nyasu no Uta, Pocket ni Fantasy, general Lyrics Archive overhaul
May 14th, 2010

Dogasu @ 08:05 JST -- This update has a strange history.

So I take a look at "Electric Soldier Porygon" and notice that the ending theme changes, from Nyasu no Uta to Pocket ni Fantasy.  Well, the existing versions of those pages were pretty awful, so I went and redid the lyrics pages similar to the way I redid the Kaze to Issho ni page a little over a week ago.  You know...higher quality image, Japanese lyrics, redone romanizations, English translations, credits...the whole nine yards.


After I did those, I remembered that I changed the filename for the Kaze to Issho ni page and had neglected to update the link on the main Pocket Monsters lyrics page.  Well, when I went to update that link, I saw that the page was looking pretty awful, so I decided to overhaul that, too.  I cleaned the page up significantly, added the Japanese titles, added in a bunch of songs I had neglected to list until now, and rearranged everything in a more logical manner. 

Suddenly, my "add a few lyrics" update turned into a nearly full-scale Lyrics Archive overhaul.

I've also updated the List of Anime Episodes and have updated the List of Pokemon with the Black & White starters.

The May 2010 issue of CoroCoro Comics had the first part of a comic adaptation of the Zorro'ark movie coming out this summer, and the June 2010 issue will have the second part.  I'll try to get summaries of both parts posted before the end of the weekend.  After that, I'll finish up the last few of the DP Galactic Battles comparisons, and then resume work on the "Electric Soldier Porygon" comparison.

"Ditto's Mysterious Mansion"
May 8th, 2010

Dogasu @ 10:51 JST -- My quest to find a way to write a comparison without starting every other sentence with the phrases "In the Japanese version..." or "Originally, ..." continues with "Ditto's Mysterious Mansion."


This one didn't take that long to do because a) there wasn't that much that was edited in the first place, and b) I was able to salvage a surprisingly large amount of material from the previous version of the comparison.  It also didn't have any paint edits for me to take screenshots of, so that helped.

The next episode is, of course, the infamous Porygon episode.  Expect another "The Legend of Miniryuu" - style essay that goes into why the episode was banned, how it affected Japanese TV in general, and the likelihood of ever seeing it in a language other than Japanese (spoiler alert:  there's zero chance of that happening). 

And I guess, at some point in between, I should go and do a comparison for last week's DP Galactic Battles episode.

"The Bridge Bike Gang"
May 5th, 2010

Dogasu @ 12:51 JST -- I finally jump back into the Kanto region with "The Bridge Bike Gang."


I actually hadn't seen the English version of this episode in over a decade, so it felt a little strange watching the dubbed version of it again.  As I had mentioned earlier, this episode is one that I hadn't compared before, so the stuff in here is all new even for long time visitors of the site.

While I was at it, I went into the main page for each saga and made a number of changes in an effort to make everything more consistent.  I redid the numbering used for the English language episodes (Episode 001 is now listed as Episode 101, for example) to match what TPCI and the TV networks use and have added short descriptions of each season.

I've also added some new English titles to the List of Anime Episodes.