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Week Six Box Office Report
August 28th, 2013

Dogasu @ 06:48 JST -- The numbers are in for The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo's sixth week in theaters.  I would have thought that the revelation that the "awakened Myuutwo" in this movie is really a "Mega Evolution" would have helped boost sales a bit (and I'm sure the marketing people probably thought the same), but I guess everyone who wants to see this movie has already done so by now.  As I've said before, the last movies in a series tend to do the worse than their predecessors, so this movie not doing so great isn't shocking.  There's also a tendency for the Pocket Monsters movies to kind of bounce back a bit at the end of August due to summer vacation ending, so here's hoping the same thing will happen again as we head into September.


I've also added a new title to the List of TV Episodes.  Last week it was revealed that the episode of Best Wishes! that's going to air on September 26th will be the last one, and since Pocket Monsters XY won't debut until October 17th that means we're going to have two weeks without any new episodes.  TV-Tokyo aired a Best Wishes! preview during this same period the last time around, so I wouldn't be surprised if we started getting word of a similar special for the XY series soon.  And don't forget that we also have Pocket Monsters The Origin coming out during that time.  I think we'll weather this upcoming dry spell without any problems.

Finally, Kotaku's added a second story about Nakagawa Shouko's book that covers material that neither their first article nor my write-up on the book went over, so it's definitely worth a look.

I'll be out of town until Sunday so I unfortunately won't be able to make any site updates until after then.  But I can say that I have a new Kanto episode comparison in the works for after I get back...!

Nakagawa Shouko "Pokemon Taught Me the Meaning of Life"
August 20th, 2013

Dogasu @ 22:59 JST -- A little over a month ago Nakagawa Shouko released an autobiographical account of her life that's focused on the ways the Pokemon franchise has affected it.  This book is called Nakagawa Shouko "Pokemon Taught Me the Meaning of Life," and today I take a look at this Japanese-only release.


This newest Feature offers an overview of the book and picks out the more interesting facts from it.  You'll find out just how much of a fan of the franchise Nakagawa Shouko really is and get a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that the book offers.  I hope you enjoy reading the write-up as much as I did compiling it!

Pocket Monsters The Origin
August 18th, 2013

Dogasu @ 19:02 JST -- One of the big pieces of news to come out of the Pokemon Game Show event that went on in Tokyo this weekend is the announcement that a new special will be airing on October 2nd called Pocket Monsters The Origin.


The special (well, that's what the official Pokemon site is calling it, anyway) will be completely independent of the current TV series starring Satoshi and his friends and will instead be based on the video games Pocket Monsters Red & Green.  You know, the ones from 1996.  I'm not really sure why they're doing a Red & Green special now, in 2013, especially since this is the sort of thing you'd expect them to do to celebrate an anniversary or something instead.  Oh well.

I do hope that when this gets dubbed into English. (I would be surprised if it wasn't brought over) that they don't change Green's name to Blue.  Because really, what Pokémon fan out there doesn't know that the original duo of games in Japan were Red & Green, not Red & Blue?  I mean, that's right up there with "the game we got in the U.S. as Super Mario Bros. 2 was really an unrelated game called Doki Doki Panic," "the games originally released in the U.S. as Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III were really IV and VI, respectively," and "Resident Evil is called Biohazard in Japan" in the "stuff every gamer has known forever" category.  Keeping his name Green in the English version would not be confusing at all, especially after LeafGreen was released in the U.S. without a name change.

And also, y'know, Green's shirt is green, just like Red's shirt is red.

Let's get back up to date
August 14th, 2013

Dogasu @ 19:12 JST -- Tons of small updates today!  Here they are, in no particular order:

I've updated the List of TV Episodes with the most recent Japanese and English episode titles.

Several manga covers have been added to the front page of the Manga Guide.  A few other things were rearranged there as well.

The CD Guide's been updated with a link to the Amazon listing for the Pocket Monsters X & Y soundtrack as well as a track listing for the DVD that comes with the first printing of the soundtrack to The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo.  The DVD just has a bunch of trailers on the movie, which seems like a complete waste considering how unlikely it is that those same trailers won't also show up on the DVD and Blu-ray release in December.

In other movie news, the Pocket Monsters The Movie series - the 16th film of which is currently in theaters - has passed the 70 billion yen mark.  Cinema Today, in a report posted on August 8th, says that in the first 25 days that The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo was out the film has grossed 1.97 billion yen.  Add that to the combined total of what all the other fifteen movies have grossed - 68,030,000,000 yen - and you get 70 billion yen.

Seventy billion yen is about US $718,340,000.

Yamadera Kou'ichi, a voice actor who's been in all sixteen movies (he was the Red Genosect in this year's film), had this to say:

"Once again we've broken another amazing record!  Congratulations!  I'm really happy that so many people have come out to the theaters over the years and also that I've been fortunate enough to be a part of each one.  Let's give a warm round of applause to all the people who have worked so diligently on Pokemon over all these years!" またまたスゴい記録を打ち立てたのですね！　おめでとうございます！　それだけたくさんの方々が劇場に足を運んでくださったということで、毎回出演させて いただいている僕も本当にうれしく思います。ポケモンに関わるたくさんの方々の、たゆまぬ努力と熱い思いに拍手！

Sticking with movies for a bit, the box office figures for this past week are in, and...things aren't looking good.  The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo has fallen to ninth place this week and has made a grand total of 2,232,853,200 yen.  More details can be found over on the section of this site dedicated to the movie.

Finally, I've updated the List of Pokemon with all the pokemon that have been revealed since the last time I updated that thing.  I had no idea I was so behind!  Here's where I think their names come from:

• The O in Ohrot (オーロット) might come from ookii (大きい), or "big"; ooku (オーク) which can mean either "orc" or "oak"; or oro-oro (おろおろ), or "to be flustered."  The rot there comes from either "rot," as in the English word meaning "to decay"; or esharotto (エシャロット), a plant related to garlic and leeks that we call shallot in English.
  
• Goronda (ゴロンダ) seems to combine the word panda (パンダ) with either gorotsuki (ごろつき), or "thug"; or goro-goro (ゴロゴロ), the sound of something rolling on the ground.
• Shushup (シュシュプ)'s name seems to come from shusshu (シュッシュッ), the onomatopoeia of water being splashed; and supurittsu (スプリッツ), or "spritz."
  
• Dedenne (デ デンネ) is most likely a combination of denki (電気), or "electricity"; antenna (アンテナ); and the "ne" from nezumi (ネズミ), or "mouse."  It's also possible that penne (ペンネ), as in the Italian pasta that Dedenne's whiskers kind of resemble, is a source as well.
• Peropuff (ペロッパフ) comes from pero-pero (ペロペロ), the onomatopoeia of someone licking something; and pafu (パフ), or "puff."  Given the pokemon's appearance, I'd say that the  word pero-pero kyandi (ペロペロキャンディ), or "lollipop," also plays a role here.
  
• Horubbi (ホ ルビー) seems to come from horu (掘る), "to dig"; and rabitto (ラビット), or "rabbit."
• When I first read the name Maa'iika (マーイーカ) I instantly saw the phrase maa, ii ka (まあ、いいか), which means "well, whatever" or "oh well."  Also, ika (イカ) is the Japanese word for "squid," so I think the pun here is pretty obvious.  There's also a type of squid that's called the maika (真イカ) in some dialects but is better known as surumeika (スルメイカ), the "Japanese flying squid."  Finally, it's possible to interpret the ma in its name as ma (魔), or "evil spirit," based on the fact that the pokemon is a Dark / Psychic-Type.
• Its evolved form, Calamanero (カラマネロ), seems to come from karamari (カラマリ), or calamari (the Italian word for "squid") and nero (ネロ), the Italian word for "black" (again, Dark / Psychic-Type).  Karamasu (絡ます), which means to "entangle," could also be in there as well.
  
• Mehkuru (メェー クル) seems to come from mee (メェー), the sound a goat makes.  The second half of its name could have a number of sources:  the -cle part in cycle (サイクル); kuruuzu (クルーズ), or "cruise"; or kuruma (車), or "car."
  

I've got a new Feature that I hope to be able to post in a day or two that includes info that I haven't seen anywhere else online.  Can't wait to share it with you guys!

I think this might be the last movie-related update I make for a while?
August 13th, 2013

Dogasu @ 12:35 JST -- I've been covering the new movie a lot lately and I'm pretty ready to move on, but there's something I wanted to get out of the way first.


The graphic novel of the manga adaptation came out on July 13th and includes an extra 24 page conclusion that was never printed in CoroCoro Comics, so I've written up a synopsis of that.

I've also made a page highlighting the differences between the manga and the movie on which it's based!

VS

There was one major-ish change (and even that's not such a huge deal) and then a bunch of smaller changes, but other than that I'd say the adaptation was pretty faithful. 

I've also made a number of updates to various other pages in the section for that manga (small things like changing "will be released" to "was released") and added a few extra images here and there.

Moving on!  This weekend details of the soundtrack to the video games Pocket Monsters X and Pocket Monsters Y were announced!


The four-disc Nintendo 3DS Pokémon X & Y Super Music Collection will contain 212 tracks and have over three and a half hours worth of music.  It will also come with a 28-page booklet that will contain liner notes from the games' composers similar to what was included in the B2W2 soundtrack.  The official site claims that the quality of the music on these discs will be higher than what you'll be able to hear in-game.  The CD set will go on sale November 13th, 2013 and cost 2,625 yen (about US $27).  The CD Guide has been updated accordingly.

One surprising announcement is that the soundtrack will be released in the U.S. via iTunes, a first for the country.  None of the other video game soundtracks have ever been made available in the U.S. of A., so that's a welcome announcement, though apparently not everybody feels that way.  I was browsing the official Pokemon Facebook page and while there were a few people who seemed excited for the soundtrack's release, most of the people seemed to not care?  Do people not realize that video game soundtracks are a thing that people actually buy, and have been for about two decades now?  And that, yes, there are reasons people would buy them instead of just listening to the music in-game?  And that maybe it's not super wise to announce that you're going to pirate the soundtrack on the official Facebook page for the franchise?

I'll continue to update throughout the week with more non-movie updates!!

"The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo" Cast Messages
August 11th, 2013

Dogasu @ 12:21 JST -- So sorry about the lack of updates, everyone.  My computer decided to just stop working the last week or so and it's taken me a while to get everything back to normal.  Fingers crossed that my computer troubles are over for now and I can start updating this site on a regular basis again.

So, first up:  Translations of the messages the cast and musical guests who worked on this year's movie, The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo, wrote for the pamphlet that's now on sale!   These messages contain some neat information / insight into what it's like to be in one of these movies, so definitely check them out!


I hope the Heisei Nobushi Kobushi blurbs make sense, by the way.  The original Japanese text was kind of all over the place and I did my best to make sense of everything, but there's only so much I can do with what I'm given.

I've also added the box office information for the movie's third and fourth weeks in theaters.

The top three in the Japanese box office remained the same for The Extreme Speed Genosect and the Awakening of Myuutwo's third week.  The movie has earned 1,462,090,650 yen since its debut. This year's Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! movie fell to sixth place at the end of its fourth week in theaters.  The movie has earned 1,881,870,350 yen since its debut.  The rest of the Top Five in Japan this week were The Wind Has Risen, Solving Riddles Comes After Dinner - The Movie, Monsters University, The Lone Ranger, and Kamen Rider Wizard In Magic Land - The Movie.  Two of the newcomers for this week feature Sakurai Shou (Solving Riddles Comes After Dinner - The Movie) and Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger), two stars that typically do very well in Japan.

This information's been added to the appropriate section.

I'm on summer vacation now, by the way, so I should hopefully be able to make a dent in my backlog over the next week or so.