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Pokemon the Movie XY Week Two Box Office Figures
July 30th, 2014

Dogasu @ 14:45 JST -- The box office figures for The Cocoon of Destrucion and Diancie / Pikachu, What is This the Key To?'s second week have been announced!


Unfortunately, as expected, the movie dropped to third place in its second week in theaters.  So far the movie has grossed 908,933,900 yen (approximately US $8,903,216) so it should hopefully be passing the one billion yen mark soon.  First place went to the American Godzilla, which is only just now seeing a release in Japan (WTF!?), while Maleficent retains the number two spot.

Pocket Monsters Special - CoroCoro Ichiban!
July 24th, 2014

Dogasu @ 18:33 JST -- Sorry this is a few days late but here's a summary of the new chapter of Pocket Monsters Special that came out this past Monday:


Volume 51 comes out tomorrow and is set to conclude the Black & White arc.  I'll be posting summaries of the new content as soon as I can.

"The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie" Pamphlet
July 23rd, 2014

Dogasu @ 21:24 JST -- A pamphlet goes on sale every time a new movie comes out here in Japan.  In addition to things like screenshots, a plot summary, and a full cast and staff list, these pamphlets include messages written by the voice actors about their roles in this year's movie.  This year's pamphlet is no different.


Today I've translated those voice actor messages (as well as a message from the director!) and put them on a page here. 

Also!  The opening weekend box office numbers are in and Pokemon XY The Movie The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie / Pikachu, What is This the Key To? debuted at number one!  According to Cinema Today, the film was shown across 357 screens nationwide and was seen by 360,190 people, making 559,908,500 yen (approximately US $5,521,806) over the three day weekend.  The Cinema Today report goes on to say that this is the first time a Pocket Monsters movie has debuted at the number one spot in Japan since 2007's Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl The Movie Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai.


Rounding out the top three this past weekend was Maleficent at number two and Studio Ghibli's When Marnie was There at number three.

Finally, I picked up the graphic novel collection of the manga adaptation of the movie the day it came out but haven't had a chance to write anything up for this site yet.  In the meantime, however, it looks like the official CoroCoro website has the entire first chapter of the manga adaptation of the movie up for free!  You can check out the entire 42 page chapter here for the next month or so.  Hope that tides you over in the meantime!

Pocket Monsters Special
July 20th, 2014

Dogasu @ 22:11 JST -- Four updates in a single day!?!?

Yesterday the new issue of Pokemon Fan came out and, as always, it included a new chapter of Pocket Monsters Special.  I've added a summary of that chapter to my Pocket Monsters Special page.


The magazine also had a two page spread about Pocket Monsters XY The Space Debris, the planetarium show now showing here in Japan.  There's no new information in there but it does include an image of the scene showing Serena and Eureka imagining themselves as astronauts that I talked about in my write-up of the special so I scanned that in and have added it to the page.


I've still got a ton more stuff to go through related to yesterday's movie so check back tomorrow for more translations and information you can't find anywhere else!

Main Staff List
July 20th, 2014

Dogasu @ 17:52 JST -- I've now gone through and typed up a portion of the full staff list and added it to my page for The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie & Pikachu, What is This the Key To?  This isn't all the credits, of course, but I've picked out the big ones that I know people are most interested in.

Are there any other staff members you're interested in?

Full Voice Actor List
July 20th, 2014

Dogasu @ 15:29 JST -- I picked up the pamphlet that accompanied the newest Pocket Monsters movie, as I always do, and so I now have a full cast and staff list for the movie at my disposal.  It's been added to my page for The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie & Pikachu, What is This the Key To?

There are quite a few oddities in the cast list - Yveltal's conspicuously missing and Ayaka's inclusion is weird considering she doesn't actually say anything in the whole movie - but it is what it is.  The credits typed up in the pamphlet are the exact same ones that appear at the end of the actual movie so if they don't list a voice actor then all we can do now is guess.

"Pikachu, What is This the Key To?"
July 20th, 2014

Dogasu @ 11:53 JST -- Here's what happens in the Pikachu short Pikachu What is This the Key To?

• Like just every other Pikachu short, this one begins with Satoshi and his friends telling their pokemon to play (this time in a playground) and to be back in time for dinner.  This year's lineup is Pikachu, Dedenne, the three Kalos starters, and Luchabre.  Hinoyakoma and Horubbi do not appear in this short.
• Dedenne wanders off into a nearby building where it finds treasure chests filled with jewelry.  Pikachu follows it in.  When Dedenne pops out of one of the chests it notices that it has a strange key hanging off its tail!
• The mice pokemon go back outside where they're met by Cleffey.  At this point in the special it only has one key with it.  It takes the key Dedenne found and shows them a magical keyhole just sort of floating there in the sky.  Cleffey looks back and forth at the two keys it's collected, finds the one that fits the keyhole, and puts it in.  A gate to a new dimension opens up and Cleffey invites Pikachu and the others to come in.
• During all this Nyasu, Sonansu, and Maa'ika are watching.  Bakeccha's not there for some reason.  The Rocket pokemon all decide to follow Pikachu and the others into the new world.
• Everyone ends up in Cleffey's dimension, a world where many more magical keyholes can be seen floating in the sky.  Each keyhole has a unique shape and each one has a key made specifically for it.  There are mountains and mountains of keys in the world - keys that Cleffey's collected over time - and among them is a key with a unique "V" shape on it. 
  
• Pikachu and Dedenne seek out the appropriate keyhole and put it in.  The two of them are transported to the top of a flat-topped mountain high in the clouds!  Pikachu falls off the mountain but is relieved to find that the clouds below are soft.  Pikachu and Dedenne enjoy bouncing up and down on the clouds like a trampoline for a while until Pikachu bounces and...there aren't any more clouds left for it to land on!  Luckily, a Victini appears out of nowhere and rescues Pikachu from falling to its death.  It looks like this is Victini's world!
• Pikachu and Dedenne return to Cleffey's world and waste no time looking for another key.  This time they take the whole gang with them to an icy world with slides they can enjoy sliding down.  The pokemon are having fun playing on the ice when they come jumping off a slide and all land on the top of a Chigoras' head!  The dinosaur pokemon is joined by Amars, Shishiko, and Onbat and all start to fight with our heroes.
• Suddenly a big crack appears in the iceberg that everyone's standing on!  Everyone makes a run for it but when the iceberg breaks off Pikachu and Chigoras are still on it!  Chigoras can't jump high enough to reach everyone else so Pikachu jumps into its mouth and electrocutes it, startling it enough to make it jump up high!  Chigoras and the others become friends with Pikachu while a Jiraachi appears out from behind the ice.
  
• Elsewhere, Nyasu and the other Rocket pokemon wander into different worlds of their own.  First they head into Manaphy's world where they are blasted off on a stream of water shot out of a Whale'oh's blowhole.  Next they head into Darkrai's world but quickly run away when they see the nightmarish pokemon heading their way.
  
• Back in Jiraachi's ice world, all the pokemon are playing happily together.  During all this, Cleffey, who's been in its own world this whole time, notices that the keyholes are starting to close!  If the keyhole to a world you're in closes off while you're still in it then you won't be able to return home!  Cleffey travels to Jiraachi's world to relay this message to our heroes and tells them to hurry up and get out of there.  Unfortunately the keyhole is too high up so all the pokemon have to climb on each other and create a tower.  Chigoras, who's on the bottom, jumps up with all its power, propelling everyone up to the keyhole and out of Jiraachi's world.  Pikachu and its friends say goodbye to Chigoras and the others.
  
• When everyone returns to Cleffey's world, they notice that the keyhole leading back to their world is starting ot shrink too!  After almost losing the key (it falls into one of the mountains of keys and seems to be lost forever but Pikachu is able to fish it out) our heroes and the Rocket pokemon safely return to their world.
  
• The sun is setting in the real world so Pikachu and everyone else returns to their Trainers to eat dinner.  The end!
  
• A version of J Dee'z Peace Smile that's slightly longer than the TV version plays as the ending theme.
  

Something else about the special I noticed is that the soundtrack really stood out to me.  It reminded me of the Pikachu's Hide and Seek soundtrack a lot; lots of trumpets, lots of jazzy melodies, lots of memorable tunes. 

I wish the other pokemon had been given a chance to do something - Luchabre's pretty useless here - but it's still a pretty decent short regardless.

"The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie"
July 19th, 2014

Dogasu @ 13:58 JST -- The new movie opens in theaters today!  I got a chance to see it earlier this morning and would like to share what I think are notable.  I'll be updating this post throughout the day so keep checking back every so often:

• The manga adaptation follows the movie very closely so if you haven't read my summary of that then you should go ahead and do that now.  Everything below assumes you've already done so.
• During the "World of Pokemon" segment there's this group shot of our heroes with all their pokemon out...including Hinoyakoma.  Who's still a Yayakoma in the TV series at this point.  While movies have spoiled pokemon evolutions in the U.S. before (I remember Kids' WB!'s airing of "Destiny Deoxys" spoiling a bunch of evolutions / captures that hadn't happened yet) I think this is the first time something like this has happened in the Japanese version.
• The pokemon used in the battle between Carnet and Ganpi - a battle we first found out about through the movie's soundtrack - is Mega Sirnight and Mega Hassamu.  Carnet's pokemon wins.  Also, the music used - which will be Track 7 "Carnet vs. Ganpi" on said soundtrack - is actually just the Gym Battle music from Diamond & Pearl, of all things.  Weird.
• Ayaka, in addition to having a Mega Absol, also battles with a male Kaenjishi and a male Nyaonyx.  I also don't remember Ayaka actually having any speaking parts but I could be mistaken.
• Almost all our heroes' pokemon get to battle at one point or another in this movie.  Satoshi uses his Keromatsu a few times, his Luchabre during the battle against Ayaka (and then it's used a lot to help him fly at various points during the rest of the movie), Serena's Fokko and Citron's Harimaron battle against Riot's Gekkouga...even Eureka's Dedenne gets a chance to help.  The only pokemon who aren't used in this film are Satoshi's Hinoyakoma, Citron's Horubbi, and Musashi's Bakeccha.
  
• Throughout the first two thirds of the movie or so you can see the Steels' Hitotsuki hovering around in the background / foreground, watching our heroes.
• Satoshi, Serena, Citron, and Eureka all wear a change of clothes during a scene on a ferry.  Citron and Eureka have matching hoodies.
• Uschi is exactly as useless a character as you'd imagine.  He has only one line.
  
• In the shopping center, Serena and Eureka take Diancie shopping and try on a number of outfits.
• I don't think there's a single hand-drawn image of Xerneas in the entire movie.  Every time you see the deer pokemon it's rendered with CG and sometimes it looks really, really bad.  Oddly enough the same thing doesn't happen with Yveltal.
• I don't think Yveltal's signature attack "Death Wing" is named once in the movie.
  
• OK, now on to the part not covered by the manga adaptation that ran in CoroCoro Comics:
  
• Diancie Mega Evolves into Mega Diancie and creates a Sacred Diamond to use as a shield to protect her and the others from an oncoming Death Wing attack.  The diamond disintegrates from the force of the attack.  A shocked Yveltal is about to try again when Millis' and Algus' airship comes out of the clouds and fires a volley of missiles at the legendary pokemon!  Yveltal safely bursts out of the huge cloud of smoke caused by all the explosions and attacks the cockpit of the plane with its talons.  It then uses Death Wing on the duo, sending the plane crashing into the lake below.  Yveltal turns back to Satoshi and his friends and fires off another Death Wing attack, but this time a beam from the distance intercepts the attack!  It's Xerneas!
• So, the big showdown between Xerneas and Yveltal...doesn't happen.  Xerneas just sort of looks at Yveltal, soothes its heart with its powers, and convinces it to stop its rampage.  All without words.  Yveltal flies away, the end, most anti-climatic ending ever.
• Our heroes breathe a sigh of relief until they notice that Pikachu's starting to turn into stone just like the others!  Citron figures out that its tail must have brushed up against Yveltal's Death Wing at some point and that it's going to lose its life soon as well!  Satoshi and everyone else cries and it's this big dramatic thing but Xerneas steps in like two seconds after Pikachu turns and uses its Fairy Aura to bring it back to life.
• Next, Xerneas turns into a tree.  Everyone worries that it's dead, but Xerneas tells them not to think of this as its death; think of it as the "dawn of birth" and the "beginning of hope."  Xerneas then uses its power to restore the forest and all the living things in it back to life.
• When Riot and Marilyn turn back to normal, Marilyn kisses Riot on his cheek, much to his surprise.
• Later, we see Mega Diancie back at the Diamond Ore Kingdom making a new Sacred Diamond.  The kingdom is saved!  Diancie thanks Satoshi and everyone for all their help.  Eureka's Dedenne pops out of her pochet with the diamond that Diancie had given to Eureka earlier in the movie; it looks like it didn't disappear like all the others!  Our heroes return the diamond to Diancie, saying that it's a symbol of their friendship, and Diancie says she'll take good care of it.  The movie ends with the camera zooming into the diamond, revealing a Mega Evolution symbol.
• During the end credits we find out what happens to the thieves who were after Diancie.  Millis and Algus are working at a chocolatier (Algus has a problem eating the free samples!) while Marilyn works at a clothing store.  Riot shows up in the store with a nice suit and goes up to Marilyn, gets down on one knee, and presents her with an engagement ring.  Marilyn smiles.
  

So basically, Xerneas vs. Yveltal doesn't happen, Xerneas turns into a tree, Diancie basically created its own Mega Stone, and Riot and Marilyn are a thing now because reasons.  Still, it was an entertaining movie; it moves at a good enough pace without any of the scenes overstaying their welcome, everyone gets a chance to contribute to the plot (even the Rocket-Dan!), the scenery and music are top notch.  I think people are going to like this one even without a big climatic battle at the end. 

As for the teaser for next year's movie:

• We see Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre let out a roar before we see a splash of text announcing that the next XY movie will hit theaters summer 2015.

I've said this elsewhere but I'll say it here too; these teasers serve as a means to announce that a new movie is coming out, that's it.  There is absolutely no reason any of us should assume that the next movie is going to actually feature any of the pokemon in that appear in the teaser.

I'll be posting a summary of what happens in the Pikachu short later.

"Pocket Monsters XY The Space Debris"
July 16th, 2014

Dogasu @ 23:56 JST -- On Sunday I saw the planetarium special!  I got home, wrote about 80% of my impressions and then...came down with a terrible flu that kept me out of work for like two days.  Whee.  I'm feelilng a lot better now so let's get this thing out there!

Tonight I take a look at the planetarium special that just came out this past weekend Pocket Monsters XY The Space Debris.  I had a chance to go and see it Sunday afternoon and would like to share my experience with you all.  How was the show?  What was the story?  Was it any good?


I would like to see the show again when it opens up in Tokyo Skytree Town (the other Tokyo venue this thing's being shown at) to both see what I missed the first time around and to see if there are any differences in the way they present the show versus the way it was presented in Sunshine City.  That won't happen until after the Diancie movie comes out, however, but I'll do my best to make it happen soon.

As always, please let me know what you think through Facebook / Twitter / whatever. 

Miscellaneous Voice Actor Updates
July 7th, 2014

Dogasu @ 21:38 JST -- Something I neglected to cover in yesterday's update was news about one of the women who provide voices for the show.

Hayashi Saori, the voice actor who portrayed Millefeui in the XY episode "Peropuff and Peroream!!  Don't Sugarcoat the Sweet Battle!?" has stepped down from voice acting after posting a worrying blog post that makes it seem as if the young actress has been considering self harm. The original blog post, which has since been deleted, talked about how her former talent agency Atomic Monkey was "trying to kill me."  Here's a translation of the original blog post, according to AnimeNewsNetwork:

Atomic Monkey is going to kill me. I'm going to be killed by Atomic Monkey's employees. I'm tired. I'm tired of trying. Everyone, thank you for everything, and goodbye. I'm wishing for everyone's happiness from heaven. Dad, mom, I'm so sorry, but I've lived enough.

At this point we do not know if Ms. Hayashi will be replaced if the character ever returns to the series.

Here's hoping Ms. Hayashi is able to find whatever peace and help she may need.

This week's news
July 6th, 2014

Dogasu @ 21:38 JST -- A few updates have been made to the official website for The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie. 

First up, some changes in the character pages confirm that the pokemon the thieves had in the manga adaptation of the movie will be in the actual movie as well.  Pokemon owned by the characters-of-the-day in these movies tend to be one of the few things the manga adaptations fudges around with but it doesn't seem like this year's adaptation took any liberties on this front.  Good to know.


The website also shows us that these four pokemon will be appearing in the Pikachu short:


The characters page has been updated accordingly.

There's also been a page added about a special opening day screening of the movie and so I went and translated that.  The director of the movie and a bunch of the voice actors in the film will be present during this special opening day screening of the movie so I sent in an entry into the lottery in the hopes that I'll actually be able to attend this thing and give you guys a first-hand report.  There's no guarantee I'll be able to go but fingers crossed!


In CD news, you know that J☆Dee’Z CD coming out later this month, Let's Dance with Pokemon with J☆Dee'Z?  Well, Sony Music Japan's website has updated its site with a full track listing and holy shit look at track number three:


Suddenly my interest in this CD has skyrocketed.  I mean I was going to get it anyway because I buy pretty much every Pocket Monsters CD that's released in Japan but finding out that this will have a version of the opening theme sung by Matsumoto Rika!?  Ho-ly crap I cannot wait for this.  One of my main complaints with V (Volt) and its remix is that while they're both catchy songs the whole thing is dragged down by a lackluster performance by an artist who really doesn't have any business in front of a microphone.  But!  Matsumoto Rika can actually sing and she doesn't need any autotune to fix her voice the way other musicians do!  I'm kind of "meh" about J☆Dee’Z being a part of this (I mean it is on their debut CD so it's kind of unavoidable) but hopefully they'll just stick to the Pokemon Types rap at the beginning and end and then step aside to let Ms. Matsumoto do her thing.


The CD comes out July 23rd, 2014.  The CD Guide's been updated accordingly.