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Translation Tuesdays Week Seven: "Everyone's Story" Catch-Up Round One
May 30th, 2018

Dogasu @ 07:43 JST -- This week's Translation Tuesdays is me catching up with some of the Pocket Monsters The Movie "Everyone's Story" content that's been coming out the last few months. First up are the character bios and comments from the special guest voice actors that came out with the latest trailer]


The voice actor the movie seems to be promoting the most is Largo's, who's being portrayed by 13-year old Mana Ashida (芦田愛菜). She's a child actor whose been on TV since she was four. Fans in the West may recognize her as the little crying girl in Pacific Rim.

Lisa is going to be played by Rina Kawaei (川栄李奈), a former member of the girl's group AKB48 who has since gone on to star in TV dramas one after the other.

Kagachi is being played by Koji Ohkura (大倉孝二) and Torito by Gaku Hamada (濱田岳), both actors who have appeared in dozens of TV dramas, movies, and stage shows in Japan.

Hisui is being played by Masako Nozawa (野沢雅子), the legendary voice actor who most of us will know as the voice of Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Son Goten in the Dragon Ball series. She also voiced Masamune, Satoshi's rival in the Houen League, for a few episodes of Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation back in 2005.

Kouichi Yamadera and Shoko Nakagawa will of course also be in this movie as "uptight mayor" and "boy with broken leg" respectively.

I've also translated the new plot summary that came out last month.


For next week's Translation Tuesdays I'll be translating other tidbits about the movie here and there that I wasn't able to get around to for this update. And, while this isn't specifically Translation Tuesdays related, I'll also be busy working on a book review of that Satoshi Tajiri biography manga that came out a few weeks ago.

Pocket Monsters the Movie 2018 will be released on Friday, July 13th 2018 in Japan. An international release has not been announced at this time.


Translation Tuesdays Week Six: Masa'aki Iwane's Notable Works
May 22nd, 2018

Dogasu @ 23:57 JST -- A translation of the list of Masa'aki Iwane's Notable Works that was printed along with the interview I translated last week has now been added! How many of the series that he's worked on over the years have you seen?


Next week will be a big old Movie 21 catch up day. All those character bios, voice actor interviews, and social media posts by the movie's staff that have been coming out over the last few months will get translated. If there's anything related to the new movie that you want translated but hasn't been yet then hit me up via one of the links below and let me know!


Translation Tuesdays Wednesdays Week Five: Masa'aki Iwane Animage Interview
May 16th, 2018

Dogasu @ 23:30 JST -- This is probably my favorite translation I've ever done for this site: an interview with one of the god-tier animators of the franchise, Masa'aki Iwane, that was printed in the March 2015 issue of Animage.


The interview dives right into Pocket Monsters, talking in detail about the (then current) Mega Evolution specials from the XY days. There's also a lot of things in there about Mr. Iwane's background and how he got started in animation that, while not directly related to Pocket Monsters per se, does help paint a much broader picture of the man behind some of the best looking artwork in the series.

This was also probably the most time-consuming, complex translation I've ever done. I actually made an Excel sheet to help me keep track of everything! In all honesty I would love to spend more time massaging the translation (as I mentioned in my previous update, I love to over-edit) and going through all the series referenced in the interview and adding in gifs of those scenes but this interview is already late enough as it is that I don't dare delay it any longer.

So what's in store for next week? Well, there's a sidebar in this interview that lists out all of Masa'aki Iwane's credits and so I'm going to translate that list and then link to it from the interview. That probably doesn't sound like much but there are one hundred and eighteen series listed, and that's even with them truncating all the Pocket Monsters work he's done into one entry! So yeah, that counts as a TranslationTuesdays entry.


Translation Tuesdays Week Four: Screenwriters' Comments
May 1st, 2018

Dogasu @ 23:45 JST -- One of the problems I've been struggling with for years now is my tendency to over-edit. I'll sit there and spend hours and hours writing and then re-writing and then re-re-rewriting, and so on and so on forever, that my production ability moves at a snail's pace. The aphorism "perfect is the enemy of good" is 100% correct, y'all.

I bring this up because I look at the work I did for Translation Tuesdays, a collection of comments made by the five guys who wrote the Orange Islands episodes taken from that wonderful The Memorial Book of Orange Islands, and I want to take another pass or 20 at it. But I know that if I did that then it'd be July before I get this thing posted and so I'm just going to put it up as-is.


Anyway, there are some real gems buried in these comments so I hope you enjoy!

Next week the plan is to post an interview with Masa'aki Iwane that I've been working on for like three years at this point. The interview gets kind of rambly at points but it offers some great behind the scenes looks at the the production of the XY TV series. Until then!