By Dogasu
Posted January 31st, 2018


Dogasu's Backpack turns eighteen years old today, a number that is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. If this website was a person living in the U.S. then it'd be old enough to buy cigarettes, and vote, and get a tattoo, and serve in the military! This site is older than a significant portion of its audience and is older than most of the other Pokémon websites in existence! I was only seventeen years old when I started this thing, meaning that my site is now older than I was when it first started. Like, holy shit you guys.

Some of the years were admittedly kind of meh *cough 2004 cough* but 2017 was definitely not one of them. And it's obviously all because of Kanto2017. Dogasu's Backpack is, for better or for worse, "that Pokémon comparisons website," yet in recent years the site has admittedly not been living up to that reputation. I only did like nine comparisons in 2015, and six back in 2014? This site was living off the coattails of its past accomplishments for quite a while there, wasn't it?

But in 2017 I did thirty-nine comparisons. Thirty nine long-form, incredibly detailed, fully researched comparisons. I honestly don't know how I could make them any better. Now I'm not going to lie; keeping up that weekly schedule as an adult in my mid-30s is tough. It sucked feeling guilty whenever I spent my free time not working on my website because there was always this voice in the back of my head nagging me to devote every second I wasn't at work to Dogasu's Backpack. "You don't have time for socializing or Breath of the Wild; you have Episode Comparisons to do!"

But! I actually really do love episode comparisons. They're a lot of fun, they teach me more about the series I love so much, and they give me a chance to spread knowledge about a version of the show that is still so severely under-represented outside Japan. And, judging by how many more Facebook / Twitter followers I've gained after doing Kanto2017, it seems that a lot of you guys feel the same. So yeah, Episode Comparisons are tiring and time consuming and kill my ability to do anything else for the site. But I can't wait to do more.

I feel like a lot of people are taking Orange2018 as something that's just a given, and while I'm not ready to shoot that idea down completely (I'm kind of 50/50 about it now) I will say that there's other stuff I want to do with my 2018 as well. I very much want to tackle the giant stack of magazines and start translating all the interviews inside and I also want to revamp this site's sections on the Celebi and Latios / Latias movies. And the DVD / CD Guides are in desperate need of being dusted off. So we'll see. Whatever I end up doing, though, I hope you all enjoy it and continue to be the awesome fans that you are.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to end my anniversary write-up with my predictions for the following year:

Video Games

• I don't think we'll see Generation 8 this year. I mean sure, Game Freak's been pretty unpredictable lately (I didn't think we'd get our Alola rehash game in 2017, after all), and it does seem that Game Freak is moving toward having shorter generations that what we had in the past. But I don't this year being the time for Generation 8 just yet.
• Instead, I predict...a third trip back to Alola on the Nintendo Switch. I dunno, Pocket Monsters Ultra Sun / Moon for Nintendo Switch or something like that? Game Freak has never done a sequel to a sequel before, but then again they've also never released a "third version" the year after the first two, nor have they ever released new pokemon in a main series game mid-Generation before. So sure, why the hell not? The new game will have enhanced graphics, new Alolan forms (hopefully to balance out the huge number of Dark-Types), aa few new Ultra Beasts, and a new post-game Battle Frontier-like area with a bunch of old Gym Leaders.
  
• Accordingly, I think we will see the Nintendo Switch version of Pokémon Bank. The idea here is that we, the consumers, will basically be used to beta test the compatibility between the Switch and the Nintendo 3DS to make sure that the two devices are ready to talk to each other by the time Generation 8 comes around. Nintendo will also release Pocket Monsters Ruby & Sapphire on the Nintendo Switch's upcoming Virtual Console.
• Detective Pikachu will do alright but it won't set the world on fire or anything. A Nintendo Switch port will be announced later in 2018 for an early 2019 release.
  
• Generation 4 for Pokémon GO coming out in 2018 is a pretty safe bet so I'd start saving up your candies for all the new evos that will come with it. I also think we'll get either trading or battling this year, but not both.
• Pokkén Tournament will get another Fire/Fighting starter as a playable character. My money's on Gaogaen even though I would much rather see Goukazaru take that spot instead.
  

Animation

• For the TV series, we'll get the Ultra Guardian arc that will take us through the spring, followed by some light filler for during the summer, and then a Skull-Dan / rest of Alola for the autumn. I see the Alola League beginning in December.
• As much as I would love to see it I don't think we'll ever see a Rainbow Rocket-Dan arc in the TV series.
• I do, however, see Sun & Moon as being the final series to feature the Rocket trio and I think in 2018 more and more people will start to become convinced of that. I hate, hate, hate that idea but I'm kind of bracing for it.
  
• The new movie will not feature Souji and Makoto from I Choose You! and will instead feature two brand new companions. The film will do alright in the box office but it won't bring in as much money as its predecessor.
• I think Lugia will be in the 21st movie but it won't be the same Lugia as the one from Revelation Lugia.
• This year will be the 20th anniversary of Mewtwo Strikes Back so I think Media Factory will finally release the movie on a standalone Blu-ray. Up until now the only way to get an HD version of the first twelve movies in Japan is to buy that massive 30,000 yen Blu-ray set that hasn't been in print since 2012.
  
• The English dub will celebrate its 20th year of existence in September but I don't see there being much celebration going on...there might be a marathon on Disney XD but that's probably about it. I would predict that TPCI will commission OLM to create a new TV special for them not unlike what was done for The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon for the series' tenth anniversary but that seems more like a 4Kids move, really.
  

Miscellaneous

• I think the Detective Pikachu movie will get pushed back from its current May 2019 release date to sometime later in the year (maybe September?), if not 2020 altogether. A teaser trailer will be shown at Comic Con and it will be polarizing as all hell.
• 2018 has to be the year we get the coveted Best Wishes! ~ Sun & Moon OST we've been waiting for all these years for, right...?
• I haven't read the manga in over a year (I keep buying the magazines / graphic novels but none of them have been touched...) so I'm not really in the position to make a prediction about it. So, as a personal prediction for me, 2018 will be the year I catch up with the Pocket Monsters Special manga.
  

And that's about it! How much of what I said above will come true? I can't wait to find out.