Dogasu's Backpack Discussion

[Daenerys]

Tbh, I'm shocked that that manga panel even made it past the magazine's editors. I don't have an opinion about Genghis Khan though, so I'm neutral about the backlash.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I was mainly surprised that Genghis Khan is held in such high regards in his home country. I've never heard anything good about him, but that obviously is due to cultural differences. It just surprised me more than anything else about this backlash. The contest itself does sound rather ridiculous regardless though.

 

[SammyW27]

One culture's hero is another culture's villain. Many may see him (or her) as bad, but there are those who think their actions were good, depending on how their deeds are seen.

In this case, Ghenkis may be seen as a barbaric thug by the rest of the world, but Mongolia really DID prosper and gain much under his rule. Even if was through violent, brutal means.

 

[MizuTaipu]

That Orange Islands book seems interesting so I'm excited to read more from it as your new series goes on. Why did they choose an island region to pad time before the johto games came out instead of more adventures in Kanto?Like maybe making the Rocket-dan a credible threat post-mewtwo? Iirc, the grunts only appeared in the first St. Anne episode and that was their debut.

 

[Galactic_V]

For me Orange Islands is one of the weakest arcs (losing only to Decolora, which also takes place in an archipelago). There're some great episodes, of course, but it's a region I could care less, all in all. I tend to skip it entirely when going through episodes.
Now it's incredible how it introduced region variants nearly nearly 20 years before GF. Although it was just color differences back then, I think it's something to bring on. Idk, always pictured that Crystal Iwark as part Ice-type for eg.

 

[Nicolas721]

You've done it again, no one expected you to start a new project on April Fools.

It's very clear that Orange Islands is where the concept of making episodes about a Pokemon's powers flourished, and it's somethind that lasted for most of Johto. It's not a bad concept, but sometimes it came at the expense of the human-focused slapstick that made Kanto famous.

 

[SammyW27]

BEHOLD!!

The First Shiny Pokemon!

 

[kantoskies]

I *almost* really liked the Orange Islands, it still kind of had that Kanto flair and overall was just really charming with lots of fun episodes. Plus I would argue the dub-- specifically its handling of the Rocket trio-- was at its peak. But Kenji....boy does that guy get on my nerves. He's just so lame he's like a charisma black hole, he sucks the joy out of the rest of the show.

Also, that whole "we're gonna have one Rocket trio episode every ten episodes or so" thing really hurts now, considering how infrequently they appear in Sun&Moon...

 

[ii kanji]

Also, that whole "we're gonna have one Rocket trio episode every ten episodes or so" thing really hurts now, considering how infrequently they appear in Sun&Moon...

Ironically enough, they have actually been having an episode every ten episodes or so in SM despite this...

 

[Galactic_V]

Orange saga introduced 2 concepts used nowadays, other than the region difference there's also the Double Battle. I doubt GF didn't take the idea from this episode, or use it as an inspiration. It's funny that the concept had to be explained all over again in an AG episode, with Satoshi completely clueless, even after participating in one.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Almost every new new concept GF put to the games is something already done by the anime.

 

[Galactic_V]

Great entry on translating the "how the anime is done" strips, Dogasu. As an animation student, it's so interesting getting to know and understanding why Japan does things so different from Westerners in this department.

I still don't get why voice acting is done after the animation process. Like, doesn't it make things harder? It means the mouth movements have to be done before the recording instead of later, and isn't that troublesome? Not mentioning the lip synching VAs are required to do as in any international dubs there is. Idk, for us it might look a bit of a pain, but there must be a reason they do things like that.

 

[Nicolas721]

Very cool update! I assume 50%-60% of the process has changed in 20 years but it's still cool to see how the things were done then.And I loved how you give the comic the Pokemon Special font!

About the movie, I have a question. Do you think Dragon Ball's popularity has risen in Japan during the last year, and do you think that's the reason why she was hired for the movie (aside of being an amazing actress)?

 

[ii kanji]

Fantastic bit of content Dogasu, thank you so much for taking the trouble to share it with us!

The picture of that round-table discussion on p1 is a priceless treasure. I think it's (clockwise from front) Kunihiko Yuyama, Junki Takegami, Choji Yoshikawa, unknown young man in glasses (anyone know who?), Atsuhiro Tomioka and Takeshi Shudo

 

[SammyW27]

It's especially bad when you think about all the times Ash stopped by Pallet Town between story arcs and he could've thought "Oh yeah, I should get my Pidgeot while I'm close to it." (The Battle Frontier springs to mind).

Though really, she was his worst or 2nd worst Flying-type (depending on how you look at the Isshu bird) and one of his worst Pokemon in general.
Besides, each region afterward had a new bird line to show off, so...

Also, this episode had one of the TRio's all time best moments as they dropped bombs on partygoers. 　 ("Giovanni is the greatest!")
I should've known 4Kids took away from it. 　

 

[MizuTaipu]

Ha, I remember being confused by that pronoun mistake when I watched the dub when I was younger.

I remember you saying that this was the last episode to feature Japanese writing ever on the show until the Whirl Islands a few years later and was hoping you'd make a note of that.

 

[Duke Spubber]

One of the biggest qualms about the Orange Islands, IMO, is the color palette. Ash's jacket, Lapras, the clear sky, and the ocean are all varying shades of blue, which is a bit much. Not helping matters is so many episodes opening and ending on the gang riding Lapras out in the ocean, which gets old after a while, plus two of the four Gym Leaders having their challenges take place at or near the water. And with the arc taking place out at sea, that also means lots and lots of Water-type Pokémon, most of which are also colored blue. Kenji ain't helping with his turquoise shirt, either.

Another thing was the Gym Battles, at least the first two, being something other than battles. The animation staff just didn't have the ability to make them as interesting back then as they would be now, which I think they got the picture since they changed back to battling (albeit just not themed to a specific type) halfway through the arc.

I will give this show this, they made Drake's Dragonite believably tough. It wouldn't be until, what, Sinnoh?, when Ash would need more than 2 Pokémon to take out a single opponent?

BTW, as for the MSB music discussion, as much as I adore the Japanese version, that music choice was really, really bad. It's one of the rare times I prefer the dub score for that scene, even though I don't much care for the dub MSB score at all.

 

[Zakichio]

Frankly, I see no difference in how the Pidgeot goodbye scene is worded between the languages. It sounds like he made that promise in Japanese just as much as he did in English.

But unfortunately the English dub is so ingrained in people's consciousness at this point in the show's history that I feel like we'll have to be explaining this 20 years from now.

Is it really so bad that people have the English dub ingrained in their consciousness? You say you don't care what version people watch. You say you condescend to the dub itself but not its fans. Yet you say this, which contradicts those charitable things you said about the dub fandom. It really does seem like you require people to like it in Japanese only.

 

[kantoskies]

Here's hoping a comparison for EP086 is not too far off

Also I feel like the Japanese version also kind of has the implication that Satoshi will be returning for his Pokemon? Maybe it has a different connotation in Japanese but the phrase "we'll be back as soon as ___"--to me at least-- implies that he'll be back for Pigeot soon. The whole "good luck"/"see you soon" thing comes off to me as pretty similar as well. Again, maybe there are implications in the original that I'm not picking up on but to me both versions seem similarly vague.

 

[Gabo2oo]

Hm. I honestly don't see much difference. "For a while" is vague and "see you soon" is a stock farewell dialogue that never means anything. What really makes the difference here is "we'll be back as soon as [we finish our errand / we get Oak's Pokéball]. It's just pretty direct and deceiving.

Sorry, but I'm putting most of the blame on the original script here. It's like the Japanese version implies very strongly that they'll be back for Pidgeot, while the English dub implies it very strongly plus a little bit more.

All in all, Satoshi doesn't make an actual promise in any version. Nor does he explicitly says he'll take Pidgeot back with him (as opposed to, like, just come visit it). So if you say he didn't make a promise in the Japanese version, you can say he didn't in the dub either.