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Nintendo DS Pokemon Black 2 / White 2 Super Music Complete
July 26th, 2012

Dogasu @ 22:14 JST --  So, this came out yesterday:


I've picked up my copy and added the final track listing to the CD Guide.  Spoilers for the game are in the track listings, for those of you who care!

The CD set also came with a booklet with all this great production artwork as well as some behind-the-scenes information from the Game Freak staff responsible for creating the games' music.  A lot of the comments made throughout the booklet don't really reveal anything - stuff like "This is an exciting part of the game, so this track was made to fire you up!", which doesn't really tell us a whole lot - but there are some gems throughout.  These include:

• Satou Hitomi talks about how surprised she is that they actually produced enough music to fill a whole other CD set.  Personally, I think she's right to be surprised; all the music in the first three discs in this set debuted in Black 2 & White 2. 
  
• According to Ichinose Gou, the voices of Homika and her drummer used in the most amazing song to ever be created for this franchise (Disc One, Track 13) were provided by members of the games' graphics and planning staff.  They don't give any names, however, so my stalking continues.
  
• Satou Hitomi wrote the story for the PokéWood movie Mahou no Kuni no Fushigi na Tobira (魔法の国の不思議な扉), which has the given title of "Die Pforten des Zauberreichs."
• Both of Achroma's themes ("Achroma's Theme," Disc One, Track 38 and "Achroma Battle!," Disc Three, Track 2) were purposely written to be all over the place, just like Achroma himself.
• Ichinose Gou says that the music used for Seigaiha City (Disc Two, Track 36) was originally written for Sangi Town.  The sound staff eventually changed its mind because they thought the vacation-y vibe of the song fit Seigaiha City better.
  
• The Dark Trinity's Theme (Disc Two, Track 34) was written to appeal to foreigners' idea of what a "ninja" is.
• The name of the ice cannon on the Plasma Frigate is known simply as the "Kyurem Cannon" (キュレム砲).
• The music for Route 23 (Disc Three, Track 9) was written to remind players of the music used for Route 26 in Pocket Monsters Gold & Silver (Nintendo DS Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver Music Super Complete, Disc Two, Track 1).  Both Isshu Route 23 and Kanto Route 26 connect to the Pokemon League Reception Gate in their respective games.
  
• The second half of N's Theme (Disc Three, Track 12) includes elements that are meant to remind players of the protagonists of the original Pocket Monsters Black & White.
• Adachi Minako states that "Pokemon Party!" (Disc Three, Track 33) was originally written for the TV series Pokemon Smash!. 
  

There aren't any long interviews in the booklet like there have been in the past, so that's one less thing for me to have to translate. 

Also!  I forgot to plug this because I'm a terrible webmaster, but have you guys seen my review of Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo that was posted on Bulbanews yet?  If not, check it out!  I'm not thrilled with the site editing my review so that it uses the English names instead of the Japanese ones, but I also understand that they have their own policies to keep things nice and consistent.  Anyway, let me know if you have any questions about the movie that weren't answered there!

"Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo" Second Weekened Box Office
July 26th, 2012

Dogasu @ 06:26 JST --  The box office results for the Kyurem movie's second weekend have been announced.  The movie dropped to third place - Brave Hearts - Umizaru remained in the top spot while newcomer The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki came in second - but has at least managed to surpass the 1 billion yen mark.  What surprised me to learn more than anything else, though, is that Pixar's Brave - which is being called Merida and the Horrible Forest (メリダとおそろしの森) over here - debuted at number five.  That's crazy to me.

I'll have the final track listing / other tidbits from the BW2 soundtrack that came out yesterday later on in the evening.

"Pocket Monsters B2 - W2 ~ A New Legend ~" - Chapter Three
July 22nd, 2012

Dogasu @ 15:31 JST --  Sorry for the delay on getting this up, but here's the summary for the third chapter of Pocket Monsters B2 - W2 ~ A New Legend ~!  In this month's installment, Arata goes up against the legendary pokemon Genosect!


Also, that Dr. Zeno guy had an awful mullet and is wearing a Scouter.  This amuses me for some reason.

I've also updated the Characters Bios page with information on Dr. Zeno and some additional information on the Plasma-Dan grunts.

"Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo" first week box office results
July 21st, 2012

Dogasu @ 21:41 JST --  So how did the newest Pocket Monsters film do in its opening weekend?

Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo came in at number two at the box office, making 75,376,100 yen over the three day weekend.  The movie was beaten by Brave Hearts - Umizaru, a movie I completely forgot about when I was looking at this movie's competition last month.  Turns out it's actually a really popular series in Japan and that previous installments had broken all kinds of records.  Whoops.  Third place went to The Amazing Spider-Man.

I've added this information to the page I have up for the movie.

So a Pocket Monsters movie debuts at second place for the fifth year in a row.  What do you guys think about that?

The manga adaptation of "Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman"
July 18th, 2012

Dogasu @ 07:33 JST --  Here's my summary for the second chapter of Inoue Momota's manga adaptation of Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo!  The manga adaptation is very close to the source material - a lot of the lines of dialogue in the former are lifted directly from the latter - so this update can sort of  double as a summary for the actual film itself.


The box office figures for the movie's first weekend still haven't come in yet.  Japan takes a lot longer to release this sort of information than the U.S. does, for whatever reasons, but we should be getting something soon.

"Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo"
July 17th, 2012

Dogasu @ 06:45 JST --  So this weekend was the debut of the 15th movie in the Pocket Monsters film franchise, Kyurem vs. The Sacred Swordsman Keldeo!


I've made a few related to the movie.  First, I've added the full voice cast list for both the main film and the Meloetta short on the movie's front page, as listed in the pamphlet that's on sale now in movie theaters across Japan.  Next, I've updated the Soundtracks page with a track listing for all 57 tracks on the movie's soundtrack, as recently revealed on the Japanese Amazon site.  Neither Memories nor Lookee Lookee ☆ Over Here! is on there (though Be An Arrow! is), so you're going to have to buy their respective CD singles if you want to add them to your collection.  Finally, I've updated the character bios for Malin (aka "most pointless character ever") and the pokemon in the movie.

Finally, I've made a page detailing what we know so far about next year's Genosect movie.


Also, I added the 40 tracks the Japanese Pokemon site revealed over the weekend for the Pocket Monsters Black 2 / White 2 soundtrack. 

I'll add the movie's box office information as soon as it becomes available.

"Pocket Monsters Black 2 / White 2" Special Movie
July 12th, 2012

Dogasu @ 23:27 JST --  Hey, remember that four minute promo movie that came out like two months ago?  Well, Dogasu's Backpack, aka the most up-to-date site ever, has posted a page all about it!


I've also posted a summary of the Pocket Monsters Special chapter that came out in last month's issue of CoroCoro Ichiban!.


Finally, the List of TV Episodes has been updated.

I'll post a lot of movie news over the weekend!