Happy Anniversary! (Year Ten)

Dogasu's Backpack | Rants | Happy Anniversary! (Year Ten)

By Dogasu
Posted 01-31-2010

Ten years ago, a little website popped up on the then-infant Internet called "Dogasu's English-Japanese Pokémon Page." After waiting for my 56K modem to connect me to the Internet, I'd head on over to the Geocities page, log in, and upload updates pertaining to the often overlooked Japanese version of the franchise. Visitors would hop over to my website - whether it was on Geocities, Envy.nu, or Terrashare - and read poorly constructed comparisons between third and fourth generation copies of VHS tapes.

It's crazy what a difference a decade makes.

It's also crazy to think that I can now use the term "decade" to tell people how long my website has been on the Internet. I certainly never thought I'd still be updating after all these years, and I never thought that I'd still be around for the ride. While many people find their fandom waning as the years go on, I've, somehow, become more attached to this franchise than ever before.

I think part of the reason I'm still enjoying this franchise as much as I am is because of how not serious I am about this franchise. Pocket Monsters is not my life. I don't play the games much after beating the main story, and I don't think about it constantly. There are large chunks of the TV series that I haven't seen. I don't have e-drama with other webmasters. Most of my real world friends don't have any idea that I'm even a fan this franchise. Yet, I think the fact that my whole life doesn't revolve around this franchise has helped keep my interest in it all these years. I'm not going to get burned out by Pokémon, and I'm not going to get tired of it. To me, Pocket Monsters is a fun diversion; nothing more, nothing less.

Regardless, reaching ten years gives me a lot of conflicting emotions. Should I be proud of all the information I've posted online, of all the rumors I've helped dispel? Or should I be ashamed that I've spent ten years of my youth in front of a computer monitor and doing enough to make me "Internet famous?" Or can I do both? How completely different would my life have been if I hadn't spent the hundreds and hundreds of hours working on this website?

Gun to my head, I'd say my time was well spent. I've had a lot of fun working on this thing, and I'm continuing to have fun working on this. I feel like I'm finally getting things straightened out, and I'm really excited about some of the updates I have coming up in the future. At the risk of sounding horribly cliched, "the best is yet to come."

I'm not, however, going to sit here and promise that I'll be doing this for another ten years. I have no idea how long I'll be doing this site for. Never have, really. Hopefully, no matter what ends up happening to this site and to me, you guys will be able to enjoy the ride.

Now, I need to shift the focus over to 2009 and give it its due. It was a big year, and a lot happened.

So, a brief recap. The TV series, despite only giving us one Gym Battle, still managed to pack a lot of content. We saw a grand total of nine video game releases this year, an all-time high. We got those Gold and Silver remakes. Viz started re-releasing Pokémon Adventures while continuing to put out DP Adventures. Both the Cartoon Network and the official Pokémon websites started streaming the series online, for free. Cartoon Network moved the show to a 7:00am Saturday morning death slot. The DP movie trilogy came to a close with Arceus - To the Conquering of Spacetime. We learned about the effed-up English pronunciation of "Arceus." The Game Boy turned twenty.

Website-wise, I continued working on Kanto comparisons, translated my first interview, put out a podcast, started revamping the CD Guide, put up a bunch of information about the Arceus movie, and started a Facebook page.

It was one of the bigger years for this franchise, without a doubt. Pokémon, dead? Pfft.

I want to continue my tradition of making predictions for the new year. I'm going to avoid the really obvious ones this time and instead try to focus on some of the smaller stuff:

Generation V will come out (duh) and will feature a new type or two, a region based on Tohoku, and more touchscreen functionality. Maybe we'll finally get diagonal movement this time around?

The English version of the fourth Diamond & Pearl movie will be released in the U.S. by the end of the year.

Viz still won't get around to releasing any Johto DVD box sets despite HeartGold and SoulSilver coming out in the U.S. this year.

We already have four volumes of Viz's Pokémon Adventures confirmed for 2010, so I'm going to go ahead and guess that we'll get at least two more than that. So, in addition the the ones we already know about, Volumes Nine and Ten will come out in 2010.

I predict that Viz will also finish up DP Adventure this year.

I predict we'll see six CDs released this year; the two The Best Everyday CDs, a soundtrack for the Phantom Ruler movie, two CDs for the movie's ending theme (one with a DVD, one without), a soundtrack for the Generation V games, a single combining a new opening theme and ending theme.

The dub will reach finish out its twelfth season, officially marking four years since TPCI took over. That's half of what 4Kids did. Fans will start discussing the VA switch again.

I can't wait to see which of these predictions, if any, will come true.

I feel like 2010 will be another big year for this site. I only did eleven new Kanto comparisons in 2009 - a pretty pathetic number, if you ask me - so I'm gonna work harder to get more of those done. That CD Guide revamp will be finished this year, as well.

See you in 2011!