Dogasu's Backpack Discussion

[Nicolas721]

Thank you for bringing up the summary for the planetarium special. As expected, it was just a "filler in space". However, I was surprised about they using openings, endings and reused footage, a really lazy move on their part. "A logo with a space background" and "credits with space background and BGM" would have been much more fitting.

I don't think that kids would have been that disappointed, it's a planetarium after all.

 

[MizuTaipu]

It's so annoying when people take 4Kids' "canon" as fact; there's a Youtube video about someone speculating about Satoshi's age (something that is useless to discuss about, IMO) that has thousands of views and it uses that one year line as "evidence." It's like people forget that a Japanese version exists and that 4Kids sucked at their jobs.

I barely remember the last half of Kanto except a few episodes so I think I should rewatch the part of the series once you get there.

 

[JacobYBM]

Yay, my suggestion got through! I had not paid attention to how this Myuutwo arc had been affected by the seizures, so to learn about the addition to the first film was quite interesting. Sonoda Hideki wrote this episode. I have to wonder what Shudou, Yuyama and Hidaka Masamitsu were thinking in only having this be a one episode affair. Did the producer from TV Toukyou at the time only want to air one episode about the arc Tokiwa Gym during the time this was scheduled to be released with the film? That seems like a big waste.

Speaking of Shudou, we need to get some better translations of his blog posts. There's probably a lot we can decrypt with regards to why storylines happened the way they did there.

 

[Adamant]

Aaaactually...

 

[JacobYBM]

Aaaactually...

View attachment 96113

So in the continuity of a episode summary of an unrelated episode the gang have indeed been together for a year! :lol:

 

[Adamant]

Aaaactually...

View attachment 96113

So in the continuity of a episode summary of an unrelated episode the gang have indeed been together for a year! :lol:

Well, it's an episode that aired two weeks before this one.
That tidbit isn't mentioned anywhere in the episode itself though, just in the summary.

 

[Dogasu]

One of the guide books for Mewtwo Strikes Back also mentions that Mewtwo inviting all those Trainers to New Island happens one year after it destroys the Rocket-Dan's headquarters. Which doesn't make any sense if you really think about it.

Did the producer from TV Toukyou at the time only want to air one episode about the arc Tokiwa Gym during the time this was scheduled to be released with the film?

I'm not sure but, as I state in the comparison, they had time to air this.

According to my calculations:

"Tokiwa Gym! The Final Badge!" (June 16th, 1998)
"The Barriered of the Pokemon Circus" (June 23rd, 1998)
"Rival Showdown! The Orchid Laboratory" (June 30th, 1998)
"When Yadon Becomes Yadoran" (July 7th, 1998)
"The Legend of the Surfing Pikachu" (July 14th, 1998)
"Mewtwo Strikes Back" (July 18th, 1998)

Unless there were any planned breaks we don't know about (there was no "previous year's movie" to air back the week before back in 1998 so I doubt the show went on break for that) then they would have had plenty of time to add another episode to this arc.

 

[JacobYBM]

Yeah, especially given how possible it is to create an episode on the quick. Even if Yuyama, Hidaka, and Shudou were still trying to pull things together in the midst of those chaotic four months there ought to have been at least enough time for somebody to stop and ask "why is the last gym badge only a single episode?" This might have merely been a consequence of Yuyama and Hidaka's philosophy regarding the series. The over reliance an episodic nature to feed a casual, lowest-common-denominator that need not put much effort into following a serial series seems like it would be the misguided philosophy of a children's franchise. Then again, just a few episodes prior we had a two episode affair for the seventh badge. I have to wonder if the sentiment from either TV Toukyou or Yuyama and Hidaka was "this is a sort of dark storyline, let's only keep this to one episode" or "we don't want to resolve the Rocket Gang in any way, so let's lower expectations so we never have to commit either way." Satoshi missing out on an actual confrontation with Sakaki might have appeared at the time to be teasing for an eventual confrontation, but hindsight is beginning to tell us otherwise.

I also have to wonder how the scheduling of the story was affected by the decision to have the cartoon last more than six cours. I don't think the Tokiwa Gym! The Final Badge would have been finished early enough for having a climax with Sakaki be in mind, but then scrapped. Other than tidying up the tie-ins to the upcoming movie I get the sneaking suspicion this was where it was decided to wrap up Sakaki as being a semi-imminent threat.

 

[Adamant]

One of the guide books for Mewtwo Strikes Back also mentions that Mewtwo inviting all those Trainers to New Island happens one year after it destroys the Rocket-Dan's headquarters. Which doesn't make any sense if you really think about it.

And if you want something that really hurts the brain... the official summary for the Nassy episode mentions that it takes place during Golden Week. I think it's sort of possible to juggle the episodes around enough to make that work (there's nothing in the Doll Festival episode that necessitates it has to take place after the Nassy episode, and you can sort of squeeze the rest of the pre-Children's Day episodes into few enough days), but yeah. The episode aired May 7th, so this was definitely something someone added to the summary long after the episode was done.

 

[kenisu3000]

Dogasu,

About why there's so little information on the alleged Korean airing of the skipped episode... apparently Korea has some insanely strict laws involving piracy. They've also recently started airing the international version of DragonBall Kai: Boo Arc in Korea, and as the international version contains different edits, music placement, and different opening and ending themes (accompanied by animation that's half-different from the Japanese airing), fans on the Kanzenshuu forums were chomping at the bit a short while ago to get just a few decent recordings of the different/new stuff. All we were reasonably able to get were a precious few off-screen recordings by a Korean fan who preferred to pass them on to a Japanese fan and have him upload them to HIS account, and even then the videos were made private.

 

[Dogasu]

Japan also has some insanely strict laws involving piracy.

And piracy laws or no piracy laws, that doesn't explain the absence of text summaries or lists of why no one's come forward to talk about which pokemon are in it. Or why the episode is not listed on the official Korean site. Or why we should trust random Twitter users with bare bones accounts who don't really have any sort of posting history before this story broke. Etc. etc.

Like I've said before, I'm not convinced and will need more proof before I'll believe that this episode aired.

 

[Silktree]

The box office figures for Movie 17 can be found on Box Office Mojo. The "random" comment you found about 2.5 billion yen earnings as of August 28th was accurate, and the final figure as of September 14th is 2.89 billion yen. This is indeed a step down from Movie 16 (3.06 billion), with only Movie 5 holding a lower figure.

 

[MizuTaipu]

Wouldn't it be easier for DVD people to take the new purple-skinned version "Rougela's Christmas" and slap the English dub audio on it?

 

[JacobYBM]

Wouldn't it be easier for DVD people to take the new purple-skinned version "Rougela's Christmas" and slap the English dub audio on it?

Not if said materials and rights are not in the possession of Viz Media and their licensor.

 

[Dogasu]

Yeah, Viz Media doesn't just magically have anything and everything with the "Pokemon" name on it.

 

[PockyAddict]

Japan also has some insanely strict laws involving piracy.

And piracy laws or no piracy laws, that doesn't explain the absence of text summaries or lists of why no one's come forward to talk about which pokemon are in it. Or why the episode is not listed on the official Korean site. Or why we should trust random Twitter users with bare bones accounts who don't really have any sort of posting history before this story broke. Etc. etc.

Like I've said before, I'm not convinced and will need more proof before I'll believe that this episode aired.

Yep I agree with you. The episode prob never did air. I'm starting to doubt it too.

ETA: Whoops, I posted this before I knew that it was gonna air next month. Anyway, since unlike that cancelled best wishes 2 parter, this seems to be a filler episode that they can maybe fit into the current anime with some editing.

 

[Shadao]

Was there a Dengeki Pikachu manga that acts as some kind of prequel to Mewtwo Strikes Back? I stumbled upon this on the Internet:
Kokowa Dokoda: DenGeki Pikachuu

According to this site, it's a very rare 52-manga created for CoroCoro Comic Magazine in 1998 for the theatrical release of Myutsuu no Gyakushuu. What interests me about this is that the backstory of Mewtwo here is very different. Dr. Fuji actually found Mew and created Mewtwo when Mew left him. Fuji did not die in this manga, rather he became some sort of trainer and father for Mewtwo. After learning about the Sakaki's intent to create an army of Mewtwo, Fuji rebelled against the Rocket Gang and convinces Mewtwo to destroy the lab before he is taken away by the guards. Mewtwo naturally destroys the lab and escapes. The manga ends with Satoshi and friends at the ferry dock.

I have not heard of this manga before, and I want clarification about this.

 

[Dogasu]

It was released in the summer of 1998 to promote the movie. Here's what he said about the adaptation in an interview with Animerica:

ANIMERICA: You did a manga adaptation of POKéMON: THE FIRST MOVIE. Were you working on this before the movie came out?

Ono: That movie came out in July of '98, and I received the scripts and continuity in April. I wrote the manga at the end of May.

ANIMERICA: How does your manga version compare to the finished film?

Ono: At first I was told to draw Mewtwo's birth, which wasn't included in the movie, so I made a manga out of the first half of the movie (until the part where Ash heads to Mewtwo's island). But after that the anime staff wrote an original "Birth of Mewtwo" episode that was produced, so there's not much connection between the manga and the movie.

The manga adaptation was never collected into a graphic novel and has never been translated into English.

 

[Shadao]

Thanks for that! It's quite interesting to see an alternative backstory to Mewtwo. I remember your Battle of the Badge episode comparison review, and you mention how Mewtwo was given completely new introduction scenes to explain to audience as to who he is after the unfortunate Seizure Shock. I had wonder what was the original premise (and backstory) of the movie would have been had things gone according to plan. Would it still have the same Team Rocket backstory depicted in the movie or would it be a different Team Rocket backstory altogether? If it's the former, I wonder why the manga is so different from the movie. If it's the later, that just makes me speculate on the movie production even more.

 

[PockyAddict]

Interview with the original English voice of Mewtwo - Behind The Voice Actors

Apparently Phillip Bartlett, the original English dub Mewtwo is'nt dead. It seems to happen all the time with people who drop of the earth or change their stage name after a role they did, and cause of thier absence, people think they died.