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Oh yeah, there's a Pikachu short coming out this year as well
April 29th, 2013

Dogasu @ 09:50 JST -- So you know how a lot of people (and I'm guilty of this as well) have been talking about the new Genosect / Myuutwo movie lately and completely ignoring the Pikachu short that'll be airing along with it?  Well, let's fix that today by talking about the Pikachu short that'll be airing along with it.


First, the official site was updated some time ago with character bios for each of the pokemon who are set to star in the short.  Every Eevee evolution got their own bio, written by Nyasu, so I translated them and put them all up on their own page here.  These bios tell us that Nyasu is going to get electrocuted / burned / otherwise maimed quite a bit in this short, but I guess that's to be expected, right?  We also get hints of the genders of the different Eevee in this short, for what that's worth.

I've also updated the main page for this year's movie with some additional credit information that you can find, for example, here.  I still have no idea how the hell to romanize 福永 晋's name, though.


It's also been revealed that the ending theme to this year's Pikachu short will be Te o Tsunagou (手をつなごう), or "Let's Join Hands."  It's currently being used as the ending theme to Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 Decolora Adventures so most of you should already know the song by now.  I've updated the page for The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo with this information and have added the lyrics to the song to the Lyrics Archive.


The CD single for the song is coming out on June 5th on the same CD that'll have Sakura-Go-Round on it, so I've added information about all of those to the CD Guide.


(And speaking of the CD Guide, I've added the track listing to the Nyasu CD and the cover art to the "Rare Pilot" CD that were released on Friday.  I've also updated my page for Pokemon Radio Show!  The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire with the titles of the dramas as seen on this CD release)

I'm working on a secret project that I hope to have ready for you guys on I'm not going to say because whenever I set a deadline for myself I almost never actually meet it as soon as I can.  It's sorta-kinda comparison related, though!

The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Not Ichimura Masachika Myuutwo
April 21st, 2013

Dogasu @ 23:23 JST -- So the Movie 16 news just keeps coming with the release of a new trailer and corresponding updates to the official site last week.


So let's get the major news stories out of the way first:

Earlier last week, it was announced that the ending theme to the movie will be Egao (笑顔), or "Smile" (not to be confused with Sumairu (スマイル), or Smile, the third ending theme to Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation),  performed by Ikimono Gakari.  Which is actually a pretty major get for the franchise since Ikimono Gakari has been one of the mainstays of Japanese popular music for quite a while now.


Yoshioka Kiyoe (center) is performing the vocals, Mizuno Yoshiki (left) is responsible for the lyrics and composition, and Kameda Seiji (not pictured) is responsible for editing the song.  There hasn't been any announcement made as to what Yamashita Hotaka, the third member of Ikimono Gakari (pictured on the right), will be doing.  Here's what the group had to say about doing the theme song on the official website:

■水野良樹さん 夏休みにこの映画をご家族でご覧になられる方がたくさん いると思います。 だれかが笑ってくれたり、喜んでくれたりすることに、バカみたいに一生懸命になってしまうことの素晴らしさがあると思っていて、そこにつながればいいなと。そう思って書きました。ぜひお聴きください。 Mr. Mizuno Yoshiki I think a lot of families will go and watch this movie together during their summer vacation.  When I was writing the song, I thought about how this is a fantastic series where anyone can laugh, become overjoyed, and really give it everything they've got, and how it would be good to try to tie all of that together in a song.  Please listen to it. ■吉岡聖恵さん 日本中で愛されているポケットモンスターの作品に関わら せて頂けること、とても光栄に思っています。その世界観、愛らしく も勇敢なキャラクター達と共に、「笑顔」という曲が聴いてくださる 皆さんの元へと届いてくれることを願っています。 Ms. Yoshioka Kiyoe I'm so honored to be a part of Pocket Monsters, a series that's so well-loved here in Japan.  I hope everyone will get to listen to Egao and that it'll reach out to everyone just like the beloved and courageous characters of the movie. ■山下穂尊さん 世界的な人気を獲得しているアニメ映画（ゲーム）に主題楽曲が採用されたことをとても光栄なことに思います。 Mr. Yamashita Hotaka I'm very honored to be asked to provide the theme song for this animated series and video game series that's so well known throughout the world.

The song will be the group's 26th single and the CD release with the song will go on sale July 10th, 2013.  First printings of the single will come with an exclusive Pokemon Tretta puck, for some reason.  The CD Guide's been updated accordingly.

On the voice actor side of things,  the special guest voice actors for this year's movie have been announced.  Myuutwo will be performed by Takashima Reiko (who I mistakenly romanized on Takajima Reiko elsewhere...sorry!) and not Ichimura Masachika like it was in the first movie and the TV special.  So I guess this is confirmation that the Myuutwo in this movie isn't the same Myuutwo from the first movie, as much as that goes against the established continuity as it does?  While I'm tempted to say "yes," the staff of the movie is still being very coy on the subject in the various interviews posted on the movie's official website (interviews that I do intend to translate and post on here at some point, by the way), so we can't really say with 100% certainty one way or the other.


The Red Genosect is going to be voiced by Yamadera Kou'ichi.  It was of course expected for him to be in this movie because he's been in every Pocket Monsters movie to date, but it's nice to get confirmation of who he'll be doing.

The comedy duo Heisei Nobushi Kobushi, comprised of members Yoshimura Takashi (left) and Tokui Kenta (right), will be voicing Eric and Ishitsubute respectively.  Eric is the new human character who we saw in the manga adaptation while the Ishitsubute is probably just a random pokemon at Pokemon Hills created to give the other half of the comedy duo someone to voice.  It's like how the members of the comedy trio Robert were given characters to voice in the Darkrai movie; Akiyama and Yamamoto got to voice Pokemon Trainers while Baba had to settle for voicing...Katsumi's Daidotoise.


Finally, it was announced that the narrator of the Pikachu short will be Maeda Atsuko, ex-AKB member turned actor.


In the news story on the official site announcing the guest VAs, Maeda Atsuko had this to say about her involvement in the film:

(短編のナレーションを担当することになると知って) ビックリしました！小さい頃からポケモンの映画は見てい たのでポケモンの世界に自分の声が入るなんて信じられない！って思いました。すごく嬉しいです！映画を観る子供たちに、「ポケモンかわいいー！」って言っ てもれえるように、そしてポケモンの世界は楽しそうだなと思ってもらえるように、がんばりたいと思います。 (On finding out that you got the role of narrator in the Pikachu short) I was so surprised!  I thought about how I used to watch the Pokemon movies when I was little and how I can't believe my voice will actually enter into the world of Pokemon!  I'm so happy!  I really want the children who come out to see this movie to say "pokemon are so cute~!" and to walk away feeling like the pokemon world is a fun place to be, so I'll do my best and give it my all.

A bunch of other information has been added to my page for The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo, so check it out!

The manga adaptation of "The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo"
April 18th, 2013

Dogasu @ 00:30 JST -- Want to know what happens in the first 30 minutes or so of The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo?  Then look no further than my summary of the manga adaptation that was printed in Monday's issue of CoroCoro Comics!


Have any questions about this first chapter?  Ask me on either Facebook or Twitter and I'll do my best to answer them!  Here's some questions I've already been asked / am anticipating being asked:

• Are there any references made to the events of the first movie?  None at all.  No mention of the Rocket-Dan and Sakaki, no mention of Fuji-Hakase, Myuutwo doesn't make any indication that it remembers who Satoshi is, the events on New Island and the clone pokemon aren't brought up, nothing.
• Does Satoshi recognize Myuutwo?  We don't know.  After seeing Myuutwo for the first time, he says omae wa... (おまえは．．．), or "You're..."  Myuutwo then says Watashi wa Myuutsuu (わたしはミュウツー), or "I'm Myuutwo."  Later, Satoshi is shocked to learn that Myuutwo was created by humans.
  
• What about Myuu?  Myuu appears in a single panel during a flashback to Myuutwo's past but is not mentioned by name.
• If this is a black and white manga, then how can you tell which Genosect is red and which ones are purple?  The Red Genosect is a darker shade of grey than the other four.
• What about Genosect?  Does it use Extreme Speed?  Not yet it hasn't.  Which is kind of weird; for a movie that's been promoting Genosect's speed so much, you'd think its ability to move fast would play some kind of role, but so far it hasn't.
• Does Genosect actually speak?  Yes, it speaks in katakana Japanese, which is commonly used to denote robotic speech.

The 80-page chapter of Inoue Momota's adaptation most likely plays out exactly the same as the actual movie itself, but we of course won't know about any changes made between it and the final film until July 13th.

Catching up on news and releases
April 13th, 2013

Dogasu @ 23:56 JST -- So!  I don't think I said anything about it here, but I recently moved to a new apartment.  Which meant the usual week of packing / week of unpacking, plus no Internet access for about a week because Japanese ISPs take their sweet time getting the Internet connected.

Things are more or less back to normal now, so let's get started with some news.

First thing's first:  I've added the titles to all the new episodes that were revealed since the last update to the List of Episodes.

Next, the opening theme for the upcoming Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 Decorora Adventure! (which has also been romanized as Decolora Adventure!) has been announced!  The song will be called Natsumeku Sakamichi (夏めく坂道), or "Summerly Slope," and will be sung by Daisuke.  You can check out some of Daisuke's other works on Sony Music Japan's YouTube page to get an idea of what kind of music he does and what we might be able to expect from the new Pocket Monsters theme song when it debuts on April 25th.


In movie news, Nakagawa Shouko has announced that she's finished recording Nymphia's voice for this year's Pikachu short on her blog.


She continues by thanking the film's director Yuyama Kunihiko and the sound director Mima Masafumi for all their help. 

By the way, I'll update the page for The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo more on Monday when I'm able to pick up the new issue of CoroCoro Comics.

Finally, I've updated the DVD Guide with a listing for the Kyurem movie (which is already out) and the fourth Black & White box set (which comes out next month.


Soooo, Viz...you know that they're releasing the movies on Blu-ray over here in Japan, right?  And that they come with the Pikachu shorts?  Shouldn't you, I dunno, try to emulate that for your customers over in the U.S.?

Also, looks like I was wrong about the fourth Black & White set having the Rocket trio on the cover.  Oh well.

Pokemon Radio Show!  The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire Volume Two - Kojirou Version
April 1st, 2013

Dogasu @ 23:50 JST -- The track listing for Pokemon Radio Show!  The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire Volume Two - Kojirou Version has been added to the CD Guide!


I've also added the names of the opening dramas whose titles were revealed by this CD to my page on Pokemon Radio Show!  The Rocket-Dan's Secret Empire.

There's also been a CD release announced for Sakura-Go-Round, the current ending theme to Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 Episode N.  It's been added to the CD Guide.