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"Familiarity Breeds Strategy!," final update of the year
December 22nd, 2010

Dogasu @ 09:05 JST -- Sorry this is late, but I was out all day yesterday and the day before with a nasty stomach virus thing.  Not fun!  It seems to have worked itself out, though, so I'm ready to start updating again.

The first part of today's update is the comparison for Saturday's episode, "Familiarity Breeds Strategy!"


TPCI gives me plenty to write about by not using Japanese music and by ignoring character development, so those of you who like the longer comparisons will have plenty to read through.

Kazamatsuri, one of the regulars over at Bulbagarden, has posted a nice blog entry involving TPCI's handling of the music in this and pretty much every other episode the company's dubbed.  Check it out if you have a chance.

In movie news, details about the English version of The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark have been revealed.  Accordingly, I've updated my page on the movie and the placeholder comparison I made for it earlier this month.  Be sure to check out the next to last paragraph for my thoughts on when this thing is airing in relation to the rest of the TV series.

You may remember me talking about a trip to America a few updates ago.  Well, that trip starts later today, actually, so from now until January 9th, I will be unable to update this website.  In the meantime, check out the contest I'm having!  The prize will be three episode comparisons of your choosing, so head over to the contest page and send over your submissions!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Watabe Takeshi passes away
December 19th, 2010

Dogasu @ 20:16 JST -- 81 Produce, the voice talent management company that provides the majority of the voice actors for the Pocket Monsters TV series, recently announced the passing of voice actor Watabe Takeshi (渡部猛).  According to the announcement, Mr. Watabe passed away due to pneumonia while undergoing treatment for lung cancer.  He was 74 years old.


Watabe Takeshi provided the voices of two characters for the Pocket Monsters animated series.  In the 41st episode of the original series, "Wake Up!  Kabigon!," he played the village elder who tells Satoshi and his friends about the river drying up.  His second role was that of Shakuzii-Hakase in the 65th episode of Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation, "The Great Gokurin-Repelling Operation!"  Coincidentally, both roles involved him playing older men troubled by pokemon who threaten the food supplies of the towns in which they live.

The voice actor's Wikipedia page has a listing of some of the non-Pocket Monsters roles he portrayed.  The Japanese page, for those of you who can read it, has a much more extensive listing.

I hope you'll join me in wishing that Mr. Watabe rest in peace.  My condolences go out to his family and friends.

Oh, DVDs are coming out again
December 18th, 2010

Dogasu @ 14:17 JST -- The The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark DVD came out yesterday!  Have you gotten your copy yet?  If you haven't ordered it already, you can pick it up from either CD Japan or Play-Asia.

In other DVD news, Amazon now has listings for the first batch of Pokémon DP Galactic Battles DVDs.  Like with the previous DP releases, Viz will be releasing three products on that day; two single discs and a box set that collects the two singles.  I don't know why anyone would choose the singles over the box set, but I guess there must be a market for them or something if Viz keeps releasing them.


RightStuf has a listing for the box set that includes a product description, presumably from Viz.  And I must say, the sentence "But Aura won't help Pikachu and Piplup when they wind up lost on a deserted island!" is one of the most hilariously awkward segues I've read in a long time.  Thanks for the smile, Viz!

In other Amazon news, they've posted the cover art for the English translation of Mizobuchi Makoto's adaptation of the Arceus movie.  I've added the new cover art to Arceus - To the Conquering of Spacetime section.

Finally, the official website for Victini and the Dark Hero has been given an overhaul.  Information about the movie's location hunting and some small plot details have been added to my page for the movie.


I've already done the prep work for this week's comparison of "Familiarity Breeds Strategy!," like writing out the plot synopsis and all that, so I should hopefully be able to get the comparison finished before the end of the weekend.

"Pocket Monsters BW Version" Chapter Four
December 16th, 2010

Dogasu @ 23:34 JST -- The January 2011 issue of CoroCoro Comics is out now, so I've typed up a summary of the Pocket Monsters BW Version chapter that appears in the issue.  In this chapter, Red meets N, a man capable of communicating with pokemon.  Will Pippi be able to find a way to profit from this amazing ability?  And how will he deal with N when he demands royalties for his work?


I think it's also important to remind everyone that in this series, pokemon only speaking "pokemon language" like they do in the TV show is very rare.  Pippi can speak human language without any problems, and so can almost every other pokemon who shows up in this series.  Pikachu, however, cannot.  So keep that in mind while reading the summary.

There was no Master!! Pokemon Black & White chapter in the issue, but an advertisement for the February 2011 issue of CoroCoro Special confirms that a chapter will appear in that issue. 

At the end of the CoroCoro Comics issue, a new series, Pocket Monsters BW The Hero of Thunder and Fire ( ポケットモンスターB・W　雷炎の英雄) was announced.  It will start running in the aforementioned February 2011 issue of CoroCoro Special and will apparently be more than just a one shot like Pocket Monsters Legendary Encounters was.  An image was shown with the announcement, but nothing else is really known about it


In a completely unrelated update, I was alerted to the fact that the first time "Aerial Ace" was used by a non flying-type pokemon in the TV series wasn't in the episode "League Unleashed!"  That honor goes to the Season Nine episode "Tactics Theatrics!", so I moved my little rant about the technique's Japanese name from the comparison for the Diamond & Pearl episode to the comparison for the Advanced Generation episode.  Thanks goes to Geodude for pointing this out to me.

I've also corrected an error in the comparison for "Working on a Right Move!"  Thanks for this one goes to Thingamajig.

The List of TV Episodes has also been updated with the first new Best Wishes! title of 2011.  I've also updated my page for Victini and the Dark Hero with the movie's release date.  Finally, the link to CD Japan's listing for TV Animation Pocket Monsters Original Soundtrack Best 1997 - 2010 Vol. 2 has been added to the disc's listing in the CD Guide.

More information about "TV Animation Pocket Monsters Original Soundtrack Best 1997 - 2010 Vol. 2"
December 14th, 2010

Dogasu @ 20:43 JST -- The Japanese Amazon site now has a listing for the recently announced soundtrack and has revealed some information about the upcoming set.

• The first "TV Animation Pocket Monsters Original Soundtrack Best 1997 - 2010" apparently broke sales records.  The site doesn't make it clear if it means "broke sales records for music in general" or of it just means "broke sales records for a Pocket Monsters release."
  
• The listing confirms that this second set will focus on the stuff Miyazaki Shinji composed specifically for the TV series.
• The set will be composed of two discs and have more than 100 tracks.  The previous set, for comparison's sake, had 88 tracks.  The tracks will be digitally remastered just like the tracks in the first set.
• I might be wrong on this, but it seems like the listing is saying that if you take all the tracks from Vol 1 and Vol 2, you'll have all the music that's been used from the beginning of the original Pocket Monsters series all the way up to Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl.
• The booklet that comes with the set will contain an interview with Miyazaki Shinji, director Yuyama Kunihiko, and others who have worked on the animated series.
• The first printings will have special packaging.
  

February can't get here soon enough.  The CD Guide has been updated accordingly.

"Working on a Right Move!"
December 14th, 2010

Dogasu @ 06:47 JST -- Here's this week's episode comparison, "Working on a Right Move!"


You know what's funny about this picture?  If it was a picture of two humans doing the exact same thing, it would have been considered pornographic and not suitable to post on a site devoted to a kids' franchise.  Oh, context.

After next week's episode, I'll be heading to America for a few weeks and won't be able to update this site during that time.  Luckily for me, Cartoon Network isn't airing a new episode on the 25th, so that'll be at least one less episode I'll be behind on when I get back to Japan on the 9th.  Kind of sucks for dub viewers to have the battle between Ash and Paul dragged out like that, but this might be better in the long run because it'll make the inevitable break between the end of Diamond & Pearl and the beginning of Best Wishes! at least a little more bearable.

The January 2011 issue of CoroCoro Comics comes out tomorrow and I just happen to have the day off, so I'll get to work posting summaries of the Pocket Monsters-related manga chapters that appear in the magazine.

This deserves its own update
December 12th, 2010

Dogasu @ 17:50 JST -- YES PLEASE!!!

Special thanks to #pocketmonsters for bringing this to my attention!

Miscellaneous Updates, Round Two
December 11th, 2010

Dogasu @ 18:50 JST -- This is one of those updates that ended up being a lot bigger than I had intended it to be.  I initially set out to just do the lyrics for Mezase Pokemon Master 2001 since it's used as an insert song in the Japanese version of the episode debuting in America this weekend.  But when I did that, it got me looking at the page for Celebi A Timeless Encounter and at how awful it was.  So, I went in there and fixed everything up to make it less ugly.  The page now has a complete cast list, correct spelling, and no longer has romanizations I don't use anymore like "Serebii" or "Ookido-Hakase."  I then went into the comparisons for the movie and the Pikachu short and did the same sort of cleanup.  I'm not really happy with either comparison, but at least they'll be a little better looking from now until the time I get around to redoing them.

I've also added the lyrics, with translation, to the full version of Kokoro no Fanfare.


Finally, 1up.com has posted a translation of an interview with Sakurai Masahiro reflecting on the development of the GameCube title The Big Fray - Smash Brothers Deluxe (released in the U.S. as Super Smash Brothers Melee).  Apparenly, developing the only fighting game to feature Myuutwo as a playable character wasn't all that fun to make.

I want to have the new comparison up before the end of the weekend, but I make no guarantees that I'll actually be able to pull that off.

Miscellaneous Updates
December 10th, 2010

Dogasu @ 08:34 JST -- I don't have any comparisons to do, and I don't have any manga summaries to work on.  Well, I mean sure, there's the massive backlog, but when it comes to current stuff, I'm up to date.  So, it's time to take care of the rest of the site for a change.

The Features section got a number of updates.  First of all, I went and gave the information I posted about Shudou Takeshi's life and death its own page.  The page is called Shudou Takeshi 1949 - 2010 and contains the news posts I made on this site on October 28th and 29th of this year.

I've also updated the Wii no Ma page.  The service, which is still only available for Japanese Wii systems, has recently added some of the Pocket Monsters movies for streaming.  As of this writing, both Myuutwo Strikes Back (Perfect Version) and Myuu and the Wave-Guiding Hero, Lucario can be "rented" for two days for 300 Nintendo Points, while Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai can be "rented" for the same amount of time for 400 Nintendo Points.  I have no idea how long these videos will remain online or if any of the others will be added, but I'll make sure to update that page if I find anything else out.


Finally, I've added a translation to the full version of Best Wishes! and have corrected some errors made with the Japanese lyrics.  I'll get around to posting the lyrics to the full version of Kokoro no Fanfare sometime over the weekend.

I wanted to close this post by promoting the site's Facebook and Twitter pages.  If you haven't subscribed to either one of them, please give them a look and give it some consideration.  Aside from offering yet another way to give feedback to the site, the pages allow you to view content that I don't post on this site for one reason or another.  Definitely check them out!

"The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark" and "Casting a Paul on Barry!"
December 7th, 2010

Dogasu @ 23:51 JST -- The fourth Diamond & Pearl movie premiered between the Satoshi vs. Naoshi episode and the Shinji vs. Jun episode, so here's a placeholder comparison for "The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark."


The only official word we've heard of an English language release of this movie is that it'll be coming out sometime in 2011, so I'm thinking it's likely that TPCI will release this sometime during the gap between Season 13 and Season 14.  When the English version eventually comes out, I'll go back to that page and fill in all the edits.

Speaking of the titular pokemon, the official website for Pokémon Black Version & Pokémon White Version has revealed the English names for both of the movie's Generation V pokemon.  And, as expected, we get Zoroark and Zorua.  I'm disappointed they're going with the official (and incorrect) romanization for Zorroa, but I can't say I'm surprised.  The List of Pokemon has been updated with the new names.

Next, here's the comparison for Saturday's episode, "Casting a Paul on Barry!"


The script in this episode has a lot of changes, so there was a lot for me to have to write.  *sigh*  Hope you enjoy!!

I've also updated the List of TV Episodes with the English title for the first part of the battle between Satoshi and Shinji.

I've also updated the Victini and the Dark Hero page with the movie posters that were posted on the official Japanese site a few days ago.

I'm free pretty much every night this week, so I'll try to fix up another update in the next day or two.

"Pocket Monsters Legendary Encounters"
December 3rd, 2010

Dogasu @ 07:49 JST -- So here's that manga updated I promised earlier this week!  Here's all the information I could think to post about the manga story printed in the most recent issue of CoroCoro G, Pocket Monsters Legendary Encounters.


I haven't played Black & White, so I don't know how much this comic takes from the games it's based on.  I enjoyed it, however, and wish it wasn't just a one-shot that has zero chance of ever being released in a collected volume for others to enjoy.  Another thing I noticed about this comic is how nice the art is.  It's done by the same lady who did the adaptation of The Illusionary Conqueror, Zorro'ark, but her style has improved considerably in the few months between that comic and this one.  I'm kind of excited to see how her art will contine to evolve in future projects.

In addition, I also made a few corrections to this old comparison, as well as to the List of Pokemon.  Unless you remember what the old pages looked like, I doubt you'll be able to see what was changed, but the errors were worth correcting nonetheless.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to message me!

I'll actually be in town this weekend, for a change, so I should be able to get this week's DP Sinnoh League Victors episode compared before Sunday.