Tag Archives: pokemon

Cool Down, You Damn Environmentalist Otaku! Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl & Platinum: Giratina and the Sky Bouquet

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If you can believe it, we’re already at 11 Pokemon movies.

In a unique twist, the events of the previous movie have a direct effect on this one, and it looks to be setting up at least a trilogy. In Pokemon Trainer Satoshi’s previous 90-minute adventure, he was caught in the middle of a battle between Dialga, the Pokemon that controls time, and Palkia, the Pokemon that controls space. Unbeknownst to even these titans, their cataclysmic continuum clash (call me Stan Lee) had an unforeseen side effect.

There is a world connected to the real world, and actions in one effect the other. This Reversed World is the domain of the ghost/dragon pokemon Giratina. Just as Dialga rules time and Palkia rules space, Giratina is lord of the Reversed World, a disorienting dimension where is up is down 50% of the time  and crystals are windows into the real world. Also,  Giratina is pissed. Giratina, knowing full well that Dialga and Palkia are responsible for the extensive damage to its world, is looking for a fight. Giratina finds Dialga and drags the steel/dragon into the Reversed World for a one-on-one. Dialga, being the Time-ruling Pokemon that it is, creates a time loop which disables Giratina’s ability to travel freely between worlds. And through all this, the two pulled along an innocent bystander, the Pokemon Shaymin, who ends up escaping the Reversed World but is now very far from home.

Shaymin along with Manaphy (star of Movie 9) are like the Mews of this generation. Shaymin needs to get home, but unfortunately has a sense of direction on par with Yotsuba. Giratina wants Shaymin for unknown reasons (though Shaymin believes Giratina’s looking for a Shaymin Sandwich), and is still itching for a fight with Dialga. Satoshi and pals want to help Shaymin along. And also there’s a crazy scientist guy named Zero who has taken a page out of Gelarden’s handbook from Revelation Lugia and constructed a giant airship for the purpose of capturing Giratina. Also, the ship comes with a holographic girlfriend.

Man, otaku.

At some point the Pokemon franchise settled upon a rough formula for its movies, and this one is really no exception. I personally feel that this is one of the less good movies, certainly worse than its predecessor Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai. The villain’s motivations are vague, a lot of time is spent just promoting these new Pokemon and telling you to buy their toys, and I think about the only things I really enjoyed about the movie (other than its animation which is always solid) was that it leads into the 12th movie and part 3 of this series, some cameos by the male heroes of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and Diamond/Pearl/Platinum whom we rarely see, and the appearance of a certain other “Canadian” Pokemon.

I am fully aware of how dumb it sounds for me to be complaining about merchandising in a kids’ movie, especially a Pokemon movie of all things, but I’m not really taking issue with the merchandising aspect, more that it feels like they didn’t try to come up with a good plot or characters to go along with it. I also don’t like how the movie didn’t really do a good job of conveying Giratina’s power. Giratina is supposed to be on par with Dialga and Palkia yet never really does anything big. The power disparity isn’t as apparent as it was with Mewtwo vs Everything Else, and Giratina even ends up being captured by Zero.

It’s not a bad movie really, it’s just that I’ve seen the Pokemon franchise realize its potential before. Mewtwo Strikes Back had a deeply conflicted antagonist in Mewtwo, and Lord of the “Unknown” Tower didn’t even really have a villain and instead focused on a lonely little girl. Writers are capable of creating Pokemon stories that are greater than cash grabs (while still being cash grabs), and I’d just like to see that return to form.

If you haven’t seen the preview for the next movie, go see it. Titled Towards the Dimension Beyond*looks like we’re finally going to see the Pokemon who is God, and I for one cannot wait.

*This is what I’m calling the twelfth movie because Towards the Overcome’s Space-Time for 『超克の時空へ』 is a terrible translation.

PS I changed my translation once just because the original one wasn’t sitting right with me. Towards the Dimension Beyond is less literal but conveys the idea better.

Observations Concerning Dub Openings

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I’ve recently become interested in examining modern (mid-90s – present) dub anime openings to see how they correlate to the notion that children have very short attention spans that are gradually decreasing as time passes.

Note: If you’re looking for a point or thesis, there really isn’t any. All I present here is possible evidence.

I began by comparing dub openings to their original Japanese counterparts. This has nothing to do with quality of music (or lack thereof), so you won’t find me making any comments regarding the actual themes.

YOHOHO HE TOOK A BITE OF GUM GUM.

Okay, last one. I promise.

Aside from the difference in length (the common 1 minute, 30 seconds in Japanese openings is hardly ever reached), the biggest difference I’ve seen is in the rate at which imagery will flash on and off the screen. In the English openings, there tends to be a much higher rate of changing imagery.

I give as an example a Yu-Gi-Oh opening in English, and one in Japanese. They are both the “second” openings, but keep in mind the English dub has fewer openings overall. To keep from having the different songs influence you, I suggest turning down the sound.

English

Japanese

As you can see, the dub opening is just a lot more frenetic, eager to keep your attention with rapidly changing colors.

I next focused my attention on Pokemon, as it is perhaps the most famous of all dubbed anime for children. Interestingly, the English opening is actually not that much faster-paced than the Japanese one in terms of imagery. It’s certainly slower than the Yu-Gi-Oh opening and both of these shows are 4Kids shows (or at least Pokemon was back then).

English

Japanese

But what about the idea that children’s attention spans are getting shorter? I took a look at every dub opening of Pokemon, and I noticed that over the years the Pokemon openings have actually gotten shorter.

The first few openings were 1 minute long.

Then it dropped down to 45 seconds per opening.

Now, the most recent openings have been 30 seconds apiece.

I know the examples I provided were primarily from 4kids, but keep in mind that the most recent Pokemon openings were dubbed by the Pokemon Company itself, so it’s not something exclusive to them. There’s also the realization that a lot of kids watching Pokemon today were not even alive when the series began airing in America. Just what has spurred this diminishing of time devoted to Pokemon openings? The Yu-Gi-Oh openings (including GX) are 1 minute long. Is it because the show is meant for a slightly older audience?

Many questions indeed.

Even Mewtwo Understands the Principles of Good T-Shirt Design

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Nintendo has announced plans to release Pokemon t-shirts for adults under its “Pokemon 151” line. This means not only larger sizes, but also designs catering to older audiences as well. And I for one welcome this desire to match actual aesthetics with anime/video game t-shirts.

Anime t-shirts and wearable merchandise in general tend to suffer from the recurring dilemma of simply Not Looking Good. This is especially a problem with any sort of non-Japanese t-shirt release, as the design usually just ends up being a stock image pasted onto the front of the shirt with no regards for the overall look. It’s like delivering a punchline with no setup.

This is why I was so pleased with the Eureka Seven t-shirts that came with the DVDs. It’s like someone understood the importance of subtlety (and in some cases when NOT to be suble) when designing them.

So yes, anime t-shirt makers, please learn from Pokemon 151.

Except for COSPA and Uniqlo. You guys are swell. Most of the time at least.

An anime by any other name…

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Today I thought about what is one of my favorite instances of the Pokemon anime: the sequel to Mewtwo Strikes Back. I don’t mean the second movie, I mean the special released in America as “Mewtwo Returns.” However, when I talk about it, I usually refer to it by the English name given in its Japanese release, “Mewtwo Lives.” Further still, the actual Japanese title is “Mewtwo! Ware wa Koko ni Ari” or literally “Mewtwo! I Am Here.”

That’s three titles for the same work. This happens pretty often with Pokemon too, such as in the aforementioned second movie (Lugia Bakutan, Revelation-Lugia, and The Power of One) and in the case of To Terra/Toward the Terra/Terra E, though that’s a somewhat unusual case. Usually I follow a hierarchy of English Name Given By Japanese followed by Japanese Name and possibly the American-given name if it makes it easier to understand. In that respect, I still say “Erementar Gerade” instead of the more sensible “Elemental Gelade.”

It can get kind of confusing though, and I wonder at what points exactly should I conform to convention for the sake of others. Do I from now on refer to Mousou Shoujo Otakukei as “Fujoshi Rumi?” I know that when writing reviews or academic papers, the American release title takes priority over everything else, which makes perfect sense, though I find myself somewhat resistant to using it.

Though I am thinking of referring to “Muteki Choujin Zambot 3” as “The Invincible Zambot 3” rather than the literal translation of “Invincible Superman Zambot 3.” I know it’s based on the Italian title of “L’Invincible Zambot 3,” but I think it has a nice ring to it and isn’t as awkward as using “Superman” in the title. This also goes for “The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3.”

“The Invincible Zambot 3.”

We’ll see.

PS: Zambot 3 really isn’t invincible at all.

It’s over 400: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl: Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai

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So the 10th Pokemon movie is about

VS

VS

This is the first Pokemon movie for the Diamond and Pearl series, which brings the total number of known Pokemon to almost 500.

Dialga is called the “Time-ruling Pokemon” and Palkia the “Space-ruling Pokemon.”  Normally they’re never supposed to meet, so when they encounter each other in a dimensional rift, they naturally end up fighting one other.  Their powers are so tremendous that it affects our dimension as well, though in such a way that is unfathomable to humans.  Darkrai is another powerful Pokemon who lives in the city Satoshi and friends travel to, and its defining trait is that it induces nightmares in any being it meets.  The people blame Darkrai for their problems, but it turns out Darkrai is actually trying to save the city, and thanks to everyone, the city is saved from being forever disintegrated by space and time destroying one another.  In the end, the most important lesson is understanding one another.

It’s everything you’d expect out of a Pokemon movie.  I’ve seen every single one prior to it, and I’d rank it somewhere in the same placing as the 9th movie, Pokemon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea Manaphy.  I still consider the first movie to be the best one, though I know I can’t exactly fairly judge this movie because I’m not quite into Pokemon the way I was back when I first saw Mewtwo Strikes Back.  Still, I feel like Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkria did not have quite as much substance as Mewtwo Strikes Back, or even something like Lord of the “Unknown” Tower.  Still, I have no doubts any kid who is a Pokemon fan would enjoy this movie, and more often than not, it is quite well-animated.

It also features Lickilicky (Japanese name Beroberuto), one of my favorite Pokemon of the new generation, so it wins points for that.