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Poke Regions In The Real World

Defiant

Pokemon Gotta Catch ... Some Of Em ???
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So when Pokemon create their regions they are often based on real world regions.
The first 4 are obvious,
Kanto - Kanto, Japan
Johto - Kansai, Japan
Hoenn - Kyushu, Japan
Sinnoh - Hokkaido, Japan

Then also fairly obvious we have
Kalos - North France, France
Alola - Hawaii, America

Now there's some confusion whether Galar is England or Great Britain (England + Scotland), which got me looking into the fact there doesn't ever seem to be an official statement on what region is where, it's just sort of "obvious".

Now most commonly people say Unova is based off New York City, which to me seems odd as NYC is a city whereas all other regions have been regions. Paris was turned into Lumiose city, not a region of its own.
Plus when I look at Unova, I just don't see New York?
1200px-Unova_B2W2_alt.png
nyc-boroughs-map.jpg

I just can't see it at all, even when turning the map on the side as for Hoenn and Galar.
To me it looks way more like Hong Kong
hong-kong-island-map-full.jpg

Which would make more sense as HK is a Special Administrative Region of China, and it was the games before they added Chinese.
Also Black and White, Reshiram and Zekrom etc seem to me to be based on Ying-Yang.

So is there any actually anything official confirming Unova is NYC, not HK?

Also Orre always seemed more like Israel to me than Arizona. A high tech metropolis in the dessert with ports in the ocean. Whereas Arizona is landlocked.
 
About Orre: It was confirmed in an interview that it was based on Phoenix, Arizona: 「新しいことをしよう」でスペシャリストたちがぞくぞく集結

The interview was released during Colosseum's time, so it's possible that it was the original intention, at least until XD came out and gave it a port area.

Unova was also confirmed to be based on the New York metropolitan area in a blog post by Masuda: HIDDEN POWER of masuda

...and also in an interview with the Official Nintendo Magazine (issue 65, pg. 30):

Junichi Masuda said:
This new region was inspired by New York's Manhattan. I visited New York when Diamond and Pearl launched and I had the chance to wander around the town. When I walked through the streets, I saw a lot of different people having festivals and community events—Italian people, French people—they're coming from different countries and coexisting in one community
 
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Orre is also not that obvious thanks to XD, since the Colosseum map doesn't have a coast, although I doubt they would base a region on Israel for obvious reasons.
Currently a bit of a yikes region, but I'm also not really seeing it in Orre?

I'm not super familiar with Orre btw and I'll admit I was only considering main games regions. The Ranger games also aren't super obvious, but Bulbapedia connects them to various prefectures in Japan
 
Currently a bit of a yikes region, but I'm also not really seeing it in Orre?

I'm not super familiar with Orre btw and I'll admit I was only considering main games regions. The Ranger games also aren't super obvious, but Bulbapedia connects them to various prefectures in Japan
I was making a reference to the first post, where Defiant says it looks more like Israel than Phoenix.
 
Yeah to me the reason why I thought Orre was Israel was because it was this desert region with these green lush mountains in the north and the river/sea to the side. The reliance on shipping and importing, as well as the technological advancement, this hi tech area in a desert.

I don't really see Arizona in Orre apart from the old steamtrain that acts as a Pokemart being sort of American/western
 
I personally don't agree with Kanto being the actual Kantō, Japan, they look much different, but I could be wrong.
 
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