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Goriky and Kairiky have been hiding a secret all this time...
November 29th, 2015

Dogasu @ 10:15 JST -- On Friday the Pokemon Daisuki Club website opened up Kairiky Gym, a special website dedicated to the Kairiky line of pokemon, for some reason.  In an article on the site called "Kairiky's Secrets," a shocking bombshell was released:


Here's a translation:

"People think Goriky and Kairiky are wearing underwear but the truth is that they're not wearing anything at all. The part of its body that looks like underwear are really just markings. And besides, pokemon don't normally wear clothes in the first place.   "They're not wearing anything!!""

After this information became public Harada Katsuhiro, the producer of the arcade fighting game Pokkén Tournament, went to Twitter to share a story:

"When development started on Pokkén I hadn't ever touched the world of Pokemon so The Pokémon Company sat me down and told me that "Those parts that look like Kairiky's belt and tights aren't clothing or accessories. It's completely naked."  The amount of awkwardness I felt after hearing that explanation...it was pretty big."

Oh, and if that's not enough nightmare fuel for ya there's also a page on the site that implies that women in Kanto go to cafes staffed by Kairiky so they can perv on them. 

If you excuse me I think I'm going to curl up into a ball and cry now.


The "Pocket Monsters" the Animated Series Character Song Project
November 20th, 2015

Dogasu @ 07:47 JST -- A new initiative known as the "Pocket Monsters" the Animated Series Character Song Project has just been announced!
The project, as the name implies, is a collection of songs performed by various characters from the Pocket Monsters XY&Z TV series.  The project's producer is Sakou Tomohisa (佐香智久), the guy who performed the show's previous opening theme Getta Ban-Ban.

The first three songs announced as being part of the project are:


XY&Z, the current opening theme to the TV series sung by Satoshi (as performed by Matsumoto Rika).  The TV-sized version of the song went up on the Japanese iTunes store on October 29th.


Puni-chan no Uta (プニちゃんのうた), or "Puni-chan's Song," is the current ending theme to the TV series and is sung by Eureka (as performed by Ise Mariya).  The TV-sized version of the song went up on the Japanese iTunes store on November 5th.


Rocket-Dan Danka (ロケット団団歌), or "Team Rocket's Team Song" (I didn't want to use their English name but it's the best way to get the wordplay in the song's title to work in English), isn't being used in the TV series at this point but has been heavily promoted on Mima Masafumi's Twitter page over the last few months.  The song will be made available on January 20th, 2016.

The project's site teases three more songs are also in the works.  I'm guessing this means a Serena song, a Citron song, and...? A Flare-Dan song? An Alan song? A Shouta song? An Orchid-Hakase song? Who knows!

A CD is being released on January 20th that contains the first three songs of the project.  The CD will be called Pocket Monsters XY&Z the Animated Series Character Song Project Collection Volume 1  (アニメ「ポケットモンスター XY & Z」キャラソンプロジェクト集vol.1) and will contain the following tracks:

Track	Song Title	Performer(s)
M1	XY&Z XY&Z	Satoshi (Matsumoto Rika) サトシCV松本梨香
M2	Puni-chan's Song プニちゃんのうた	Eureka (Ise Mariya) ユリーカ CV伊瀬茉莉也
M3	Team Rocket's Team Song ロケット団 団 歌	Rocket-Dan ロケット団
M4	XY&Z ~Off Vocal~ 「XY&Z」～Off Vocal～	N/A

There will be two versions of the CD; a special first-print version that'll include a DVD featuring textless versions of the opening and ending animation and a special Pokemon Tretta puck, and a regular edition that just comes with the CD. The first print version will be 1,600 yen while the regular version will be 1,300 yen.

Special thanks to Bulbagarden user ii kanji for the heads up!


Pokémon the movie XY 2015 Home Release Details
November 12th, 2015

Dogasu @ 06:51 JST -- Details on the Japanese home release for this year's Pokémon the movie XY "The Archdjinn of the Rings Hoopa" and "Pikachu and the Pokemon Band" have been released.


Disc One will contain the main feature The Archdjinn of the Rings Hoopa and Disc Two will contain the Pikachu short Pikachu and the Pokemon Band.  On-disc extras will include Appear, the Small Djinn Hoopa, the direct-to-DVD special released back in June; all six Hoopa's Great "Appear~!" Operation!! shorts; creditless opening and ending; a character model sheet gallery; a concept art gallery; a promotional art gallery; trailers for the movie; and a teaser for next year's film (which is probably just this).  First pressings of the DVD / Blu-ray will also include a set of Pikachu stickers.

Both the DVD and the Blu-ray are coming out Wednesday, December 16th.  The Blu-ray will retail for 4,980 yen while the DVD retails for 3,980 yen.  The movie is currently available at the following retailers:

Amazon Japan	Blu-ray	3,979 yen	CD Japan	Blu-ray	4,980 yen
	DVD	3,180 yen		DVD	3,980 yen
YesAsia	Blu-ray	US $47.02	Play-Asia	Blu-ray	US $49.99
	DVD	US $36.57		DVD	US $39.99

Japanese DVDs are Region 2 and cannot be played in most standard DVD players in the U.S. (though it's the year 2015 so there are like a milloin workarounds out there) but Japanese Blu-rays share the same region as American discs and therefore can be played in American Blu-ray players.


Matsuki Miyu, 1977 - 2015
November 2nd, 2015

Dogasu @ 00:47 JST -- Last week we lost another voice actor when Matsuki Miyu (松来未祐) passed away at the age of 38.


Anime News Network reports:

Talent agency 81 Produce announced on Monday that voice actress and singer Miyu Matsuki passed away on October 27 due to an illness. She was 38. Matsuki had announced in July that she would be taking a break from her work to focus on treating her pneumonia. She said at the time that she had a fever since the start of the year that wouldn't recede, and then found out she had acute pneumonia after repeatedly going to the hospital for check-ups.

In Pocket Monsters she was the voice of Yaoki, one of Takeshi's brothers, in the Side Story episode "Takeshi! Save the Nibi Gym!" (he's the one holding the toys in the image below). Strangely enough she was actually the second person to voice the character; every other time he had appeared up until that point he was voiced by Inuyama Inuko instead.  Ms. Matsuki would later go on to voice the Isshu Champion Cattleya in Best Wishes Season 2.


Death sucks in general but to die at such a young age (she's only a few years older than I am) from something as common as pneumonia?  Tragic.

Condolences to Ms. Matsuki's family and friends.  May she rest in peace.