Pocket Monsters: The Animation - Table of Contents

[2bamaster]

Hey there! Here on this blog, I plan to provide translations of the obscure "Pocket Monsters: The Animation" novels, written by Takeshi Shudo, head writer of the original Pokémon TV series. Anyway, I hope you please enjoy these novels and feel free to provide feedback in the comments sections.


Pocket Monsters: The Animation
Volume 1: Departure


Writer: Takeshi Shudo
A resident of Kanagawa prefecture. Despite being a terrible writer made his screenwriting debut at the age of 19. Has done various work since. Eventually worked on anime, novels, plays, etc. Notable works include “Warring States Demon GoShogun” and “Magical Princess Minky Momo” among others. Further details may be divulged at a later opportunity.

Illustrator: Sayuri Ichiishi
From Kanagawa prefecture. Character designer and lead animation director on anime including “Pocket Monsters” and “Wedding Peach DX”. She's a water loving animator whose hobbies include body boarding. Works for OLM, inc.

Translator: Amanda R. Sato
Not from Kanagawa prefecture. Began watching the Pokémon anime when she was around Ash's age and is now closer in age to Delia. Enjoys translation as a hobby and would one day like to make a profession of it. Other translations she currently has publicly posted include some “Ace Attorney” novels and the PSP game “The Reminiscences of Haruhi Suzumiya”.

Japanese Terminology
Prologue
Chapter 1: Departure in Pajamas
Chapter 2: An Electrifying Meeting With Pikachu...
Chapter 3: Onisuzume on the Day of Departure
Chapter 4: Nyarth Attack
Chapter 5: Getting Through the Forest...
Chapter 6: Butterfree Soars!

English Terminology
Full book in PDF format

Prologue
Chapter 1: Departure in Pajamas
Chapter 2: An Electrifying Meeting With Pikachu...
Chapter 3: Spearow on the Day of Departure
Chapter 4: Meowth Attack
Chapter 5: Getting Through the Forest...
Chapter 6: Butterfree Soars!



Pocket Monsters: The Animation
Volume 2: Friends


Writer: Takeshi Shudo
A resident of Kanagawa prefecture. Despite being a terrible writer made his screenwriting debut at the age of 19. Has done various work since. Eventually worked on anime, novels, plays, etc. Notable works include “Warring States Demon GoShogun” and “Magical Princess Minky Momo” among others.

Illustrator: Sayuri Ichiishi
From Kanagawa prefecture. Character designer and lead animation director on anime including “Pocket Monsters” and “Wedding Peach DX”. She's a water loving animator whose hobbies include body boarding. Works for OLM, inc.

Japanese Terminology
Prologue... The Start of Volume 2
Chapter 1: The Iwark of Nibi City
Chapter 2: Get the Grey Badge
Chapter 3: The Four Sisters of Hanada City
Chapter 4: Showdown at Kuchiba Gym

English Terminology
Prologue... The Start of Volume 2
Chapter 1: The Onix of Pewter City
Chapter 2: Get the Boulder Badge
Chapter 3: The Four Sisters of Cerulean City
Chapter 4: Showdown at Vermilion Gym

Comments

My loud thoughts.....

[pokefan]

> If it was a Bulbasaur, then Sauron.

Hahaha, I see Ash is a fan of the Tolkien world....

> In order to force Pikachu, who refused to walk a single step, to come with him, Ash had no option but to create a leash using his washing line.

I wondered where you got that rope from, in the anime I dont think they explained where he got the rope from and so I figured he must have pulled it out from thin air....

> Ekans was stiff like a pole. And finally, the gas leaking from Koffing ignited.

Interesting, who would have guessed that poison gas is actually explosive....?

> “Catercatercater.”
Caterpie had said something to Pikachu.
“Pika?”
Pikachu replied.
Neither of them were able to fully understand what the other was saying.
But Pikachu felt that it was easier to understand what the caught Caterpie was saying than the wild Pikachu.
“Catercatercater.”
Caterpie was doing his best to articulate himself.
“Pikapikapika.”
Pikachu also did his best to give a reply.

Hmmm, interesting that even communication between pokemon is hard to comprehend.

> When they left the Pokémon Center, he had sneakily taken five empty Poké Balls with him.

Hahaha, I had no idea Ash was such a thief!

> But a Pokémon battle was simply a Pokémon battle. Winning a Pokémon battle did not entitle you to the loser's Pokémon. If you try to take your opponent's Pokémon... either by catching or stealing it, your Pokémon Trainer's license would be permanently revoked.

What if you battle to a bet? Could you you still be able to win your oppenent's pokemon without breaking a rule and thus forfeiting your trainer license?

> You were also allowed to buy Pokémon from a Pokémon shop.

Huh, wasn't aware there were shops that sell pokemon....interesting...

The story does flesh out what was going in the mind of bug catcher boy, in the anime, it looked like he was an idiot and straight up threw out medapod without thinking and reckon it'll win. Here they explain that the boy was actually *thinking* and didn't want to shame his pinsir once more after a fifth lost, assuming Ash would beat him, and so he thought Ash must have got a plan with his own metapod to somehow win the battle....unfortunately for bug catcher boy, he was all wrong....and *technically* he lost the battle because he withdrew his pokemon before Ash did which means Ash won that battle! hahahaha

It's interesting to know Misty has her own pokedex...

> In addition to being Pokémon hospitals, Pokémon Centers also acted as hotels for aspiring Pokémon Trainers on their journeys.If you show your Pokédex in place of your ID, you can stay free of charge.

This is also an interesting piece of information....

> “Ｓｃｒａｍｂｌｅｄ　ｅｇｇｓ.　Ａｎｄ　ｃａｆｅ　ａｕ　ｌａｉｔ...　Ｓｕｇａｒｌｅｓｓ.”

Hm, interesting, this implies they have chickens in the pokemon world or something that lays eggs to eat.

> At that point the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture began to officially license gyms and dojos allowing only one per area with a population of 10,000 children.

Oh that's interesting, and the fact that gyms are funded by the government. It's also interesting to note that after four consecutive losses that the gym leader must step down and tranfer his title to someone else in their family or a complete stranger. In this case, Brock lost to Ash and Forest, his older brother at 15, took up his title.

I like how chapter 2 of volume 2 went into detail of *how* pikachu won that battle against onix; in the anime, it just simply showed pikachu overpowering and overwhelming onix with a mass of electricity and fainted it that way which was an obvious logic flaw since onix is a dualtype ground and rock, electricity should have ZERO effect on it no matter how powerful it is. Here, they explain how pikachu remembered its time taking out the swarm of spearows with his thundershock that was helped by a boost from a lightning strike and the rain water which he uses to take out onix with, except the rainwater would be the sprinkler system and that pikachu would have to make up the bulk of his electricity power to make the same effect as if boosted by a lightning strike.

> “I only use as much power as necessary against any given Gym challenger. This is to provide minimum injuries to the challenger’s Pokémon. But I wouldn’t call your Pikachu a challenger. It won’t listen to its trainer and is on a rampage. A Pokémon on a dangerous rampage must be stopped by any means necessary.”

So this confirms what the adventure manga series states about gym leaders having different difficulty settings for different trainers depending on how good they are.

> “Pikachu, full power! Thunderbolt!”

Wait, I thought the narration told us that Ash hasn't even lifted a finger battling of his pokemon......how is it that his pikachu learnt thunderbolt.....? Unless he already knew thunderbolt from before or after battling brock's onix......in which case that might be what the large array of sparks and currents were desccribed as...

> Looking at the guidelines in the Team Rocket handbook, they preferred “Don’t let failure aggravate you. Team Rocket never gives up.” over “Don’t revisit failed plans.”

Now we know why Team Rocket trio still lusts after Ash and his pikachu even to this day in sun and moon....

> For example, long ago, there were creatures called dogs. They originated from creatures called wolves, which humans domesticated and called dogs.Dogs that escaped from humans and became feral were known as stray dogs.

So....it would appear that some of our real world animals are extinct in this pokemon world....would have been nice to find out which ones they were.....

> Suddenly, from the water, a spout of water shot like a fountain aimed at Butterfree. It was literally a Water Gun. And not like one of the toys. The water was shot with force stronger than a fire engine’s hose.

I knew it - a water gun from a pokemon has a significant amount of pressure behind it, but didn't know the pressure was even stronger than that of which came out of a fire hydrant or firetruck.

> • The mention of there being a Joy at “Cerulean Gym” as opposed to “Cerulean City” is an error on the part of the original text, not the translation.

Hah, I didn't even notice that....

> • Instead of describing Misty and Brock in English as “little lady” and “young man”, Surge actually uses the English phrases “mini lady” and “middle young” in the original Japanese text. No actual English speaker would ever use that phrasing, so I changed it.

I don't even know why the author bothered to make surge speak in english when the author himself is not fluent in it or have someone who can make it look good in a story....

> “Meowth, you can understand what other Pokémon are saying?” Jessie asked.“I’ve learned a thing or two. I’m certainly not like any other Meowth.” Meowth murmured, looking off into the distance.

HMmm, it looks like Meowth is an exception to that rule......being able to fluently understand any pokemon of any species, including his own...

> Some of the towns they visited had Pokémon Gyms, but given their areas of expertise, he hadn’t challenged any of them.
> “There’s a Pokémon Gym in there...”He wanted to challenge the gym.

Oh so *noooowwwwww* Ash decides he wants to challenge a gym, after passing the many gyms that were present in the other towns that exist, apparently, between cerulean city and vermillion city....

> Ever since this country lost the war (This country lost a war with foreign nations, after which it went through a period of foreign occupation) the city has often housed foreign battleships and military personnel.

Hmmm, insteresting backstory, so the war is probably akin to our world war 2 history......except....with an added twist, they had pokemon battle in it....? And Japan or this area of the pokemon world (Kanto) anyways(Who happens to revolve around japanese writing, reading and talking), lost in the world war.

All this was a good read within my two days free on the weekends. Thanks translator for making almost perfect english translation of the text! Are you like an english teacher or something? or had to look up a dictionary for an equivalent english vocabulary word?

Wish they released volume 3....I would have picked it up right after finishing volume 2....maybe he had some unpublish notes or drafts in his house somewhere? hahahaha I would still read his drafts for volume 3.....once its translated of course, since I can't read japanese....