Animated Isshu/Unova in Relation to America

[Sweet Veil]

I thought it'd be a fun idea to discuss. How are America and Unova/Isshu so far similar?

I caught a few.
1.Fushide infested Hiun reminds me of New York.
2.Don George
3.Typical Tourist Shuuti
4.That huge PokeMart reminded me of "The Mall of America"

 

[Garren]

The upcoming Elgyem episode features what appears to be a rather Nevada-esque location featuring a drive-in diner, but apart from that, I don't really get a sense of America from Unova, in the show OR the games, outside of perhaps the general shape of the landmass and the fact some of the characters resemble things stereotypically associated with America.

 

[Sweet Veil]

The upcoming Elgyem episode features what appears to be a rather Nevada-esque location featuring a drive-in diner, but apart from that, I don't really get a sense of America from Unova, in the show OR the games, outside of perhaps the general shape of the landmass and the fact some of the characters resemble things stereotypically associated with America.

Good one.

Those Wood Cabin PokeCenters gave me a country feel. Team Plasma are like some crazy animal rights group.

Plasma
Peta

 

[Karamazov]

The upcoming Elgyem episode features what appears to be a rather Nevada-esque location featuring a drive-in diner.

The whole Elgyem thing reminds me Pine Bush, New York, personally.

 

[DracoMan]

Castelia City is supposed to be based on Lower Manhattan, with SkyArrow Bridge representing Brooklyn Bridge.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Isn't there like a statue of Gardevoir holding a torch?

 

[foxy_porpoise]

The upcoming Elgyem episode features what appears to be a rather Nevada-esque location featuring a drive-in diner, but apart from that, I don't really get a sense of America from Unova, in the show OR the games, outside of perhaps the general shape of the landmass and the fact some of the characters resemble things stereotypically associated with America.

When you consider it, none of the other regions really resemble Japan much at all (Ercuteak doesn't count). Pokemon has a way of drawing from source material only wisps of reality, simplifying them to their root basics, then building on top of them.

 

[Sweet Veil]

The fact we havent seen any Rice Balls or Noodles is making me think there trying to drive home the whole "We aint in Japan" anymore thing.

Iris is suppose to be African American I'm thinking. The American name and the hair is making me think that.

 

[Eitarou]

The fact we havent seen any Rice Balls or Noodles is making me think there trying to drive home the whole "We aint in Japan" anymore thing.

Iris is suppose to be African American I'm thinking. The American name and the hair is making me think that.

Actually Iris is only named such because of the Japanese Gym Leader/E4/Frontier Brain theme naming...

 

[Yabukuron]

Isn't there like a statue of Gardevoir holding a torch?

No. Liberty Island is the counterpart to where the Statue should be, and where the statue would be, there's the tower that Victini is held in.

Trust me, I've been to the island, and I know that Liberty Island in the games reminds me a lot of where the Statue is.

 

[63cohen]

The upcoming Elgyem episode features what appears to be a rather Nevada-esque location featuring a drive-in diner, but apart from that, I don't really get a sense of America from Unova, in the show OR the games, outside of perhaps the general shape of the landmass and the fact some of the characters resemble things stereotypically associated with America.

The sense of diversity in the games shows a more American look. Japan by contrast, is almost all Japanese. In Unova, two of the gym leaders are black. In all of the others, they look more notably Japanese white.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Actually Iris is only named such because of the Japanese Gym Leader/E4/Frontier Brain theme naming...

Her skin color, name, and hair still make me believe that's what the creator intended.

What's the theme naming? You mean puns? Since Iris is associated with Dragons? Yeah I know what'cha you mean. It seems strange leaders like Pod, Corn, and Dent got those English names ya know?

 

[Eitarou]

Her skin color, name, and hair still make me believe that's what the creator intended.

What's the theme naming? You mean puns? Since Iris is associated with Dragons? Yeah I know what'cha you mean. It seems strange leaders like Pod, Corn, and Dent got those English names ya know?

In the Japanese version, all Gym Leaders/E4/etc...

are named after plants....The Straiton brothers are all named after types of corn

Except Cress who is simply Corn in the Japanese version (how subtle, Gamefreak)

 

[Saloma]

The show and games were never like Japan, and right now it's not like America. The whole "Unova is really far away, seriously!" thing they tried to do was extremely half-assed that way.

Her skin color, name, and hair still make me believe that's what the creator intended.

Cause everyone that's dark is automatically African American, right?

 

[Sweet Veil]

Cause everyone that's dark is automatically African American, right?

No reason to get nasty with sarcastic comments. I just said given Iris' hair, skin tone, Unova/Isshu being America based, and name. That GameFreaks may have been going for a African American character. If that's a shot at Takeshi he was obviously Japanese along with Satoshi, Hikari, Haruka, Masato, Shigeru, Shuu, and Kasumi.

@#63cohen What's Japanese White? Almost all gym leaders and main character have been Japanese before Isshu.

 

[Zeta]

Iris seems to obviously be intended to be multi-racial as the final message about accepting others/tolerance. Her African features when compared to Lenora, the Breakdancr and Hoopster trainer classes are noticeably muted.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Iris seems to obviously be intended to be multi-racial as the final message about accepting others/tolerance. Her African features when compared to Lenora, the Breakdancr and Hoopster trainer classes are noticeably muted.

Multi-Racial why do you think that?

What do you mean by muted? Aren't the sprites just sprites?

Aloe is a pretty bad example since Black people don't have skin that dark to be begin with. She looks more like a native African given that skin tone. Iris' hair reminds me so much of African American female's hair. I remember when her character was released she was criticized mostly cause' of her hair. My friend told me that "straight hair" is thought of being better then "nappy" hair in America today. That outfit just screams "African-American" for some reason. Her skin tone according to my friend is linked to being skin of "A Lovely Lady" kinda what ever that means. I've seen little African American girls that could pass for her in a heartbeat.

 

[Saloma]

Iris seems to obviously be intended to be multi-racial as the final message about accepting others/tolerance. Her African features when compared to Lenora, the Breakdancr and Hoopster trainer classes are noticeably muted.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. If you changed her skin color to white, she would look completely normal, not so with Lenora and the other black trainers. Of course, there's always the possibility that whoever designed her just isn't very good at drawing not-white people, and she ended up looking different from what they intended.

It's really ambiguous, but I prefer to think it wasn't just a fuckup.

Aloe is a pretty bad example since Black people don't have skin that dark to be begin with. She looks more like a native African given that skin tone.

Uhhhhhhhhh...

 

[Sweet Veil]

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. If you changed her skin color to white, she would look completely normal, not so with Lenora and the other black trainers. Of course, there's always the possibility that whoever designed her just isn't very good at drawing not-white people, and she ended up looking different from what they intended.

It's really ambiguous, but I prefer to think it wasn't just a fuckup.



Uhhhhhhhhh...

It would be a bit weird seeing a person with a skin tone of white with hair like that ya/know? What'cha mean by normal?

What makes you think it was a mess up?

 

[Lupin Fiasco]

Anyone ever think Iris could be Native American? The region is based on America, her skin tone reminds me of a Native American more than a black person, & she is very close with nature (trying so hard not to stereotype).

The hair does make a lot of sense though... I could see Iris being a mix of black & Native American.