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Drake's voice actor, Shozo Iizuka has passed away.
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At least he lived a long life. (And wow, dude was in his late eighties when he voiced Drake in Journeys!? Respect!) But still, R.I.P.Drake's voice actor, Shozo Iizuka has passed away.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. It does make it likely that the decision to replace Ash wasn't planned from the start of Journeys, or at least I don't get that impression that it was based on how the translation was worded, but it just feels like kind of an odd rationale for the decision too. Twenty five years is a long time, but that also just makes me wonder what's different about replacing Ash here as opposed to at the end of SM, DP or any of the other points fans have brought up replacing him over the years. Maybe I was just expecting a different kind of explanation, but it just feels kind of off to me, especially when replacing your iconic protagonist after twenty five years feels like a pretty huge risk and I'm still not sure how may payoff they can reasonably expect from doing so. It still wasn't made at the last minute since they would need to take a lot of time to get development with the new series off the ground, but if it wasn't decided on until they were wrapping up Ash and Goh's storylines, that could explain why it didn't feel like Journeys was building up to this moment for me despite the goal of the PWC in mind.So apparently, according to Kunihiko Yuyama (Executive Director of OS-SM/Creative Supvervisor of PM 2019) in the latest interview with Otomedia, Ash and Pikachu are being dropped as the protagonists basically because the staff thought that 25 years was a good run for the duo.
He didn't say anything like that.So according to Kunihiko Yuyama (Executive Director of OS-SM/Creative Supvervisor of PM 2019) in the latest interview with Otomedia, Ash and Pikachu are being dropped as the protagonists basically because the staff thought that 25 years was a good run for the duo.
And people are taking Yuyama's word as something 100% certain when to me, it seems more like a personal opinion from himYuyama’s comments read like empty platitudes rather than genuine answers. I suspect the key words are “I usually leave that up to management to decide”. I doubt it was his decision to retire Satoshi and Pikachu and I doubt very much that decision occurred as insinuated here - that he just felt their time was up at the end of PM19 and did the needful. I imagine it will be years (if ever) before we get some honest insight into this move.
https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/features/translations/animedia_june2020_daiki_tomiyasu.htmlAnimedia: Satoshi's added another dream, hasn't he? "I'm gonna battle Dande again!"
Daiki Tomiyasu: I had always thought that, personally, the whole "Pokémon Master" thing was really quite vague and so one day I went up to the show's supervisor, Mr. Kunihiko Yuyama, and asked him "So what does Satoshi's "I wanna be a Pokémon Master!" dream mean, exactly?" His response? "It's just the silly dream of a child. It's something for him to idolize."
They've been taking people down left and right for years, slowly getting worse with time. Feel so bad these guys, especially Raf.I didn't know where to put this. ShoPro chose violence today and gave ThePokeRaf a copyright strike on his YouTube channel despite the fact that he uses still images in his videos.
Pokeferlax also is going through the same thing. ShoPro, what are you doing?
(according to the interview translation):He didn't say anything like that.
Interviewer said:Pokémon: Aim to be a Pokémon Master is said to be the final chapter of Ash and Pikachu’s story. What discussions did the production team have when creating this series?
Kunihiko Yuyama said:As the story of Ash and Goh being research fellows concluded, I thought it was finally time to reevaluate Ash and Pikachu’s story, as Ash has been the main character for 25 years. The main concept of this story was to give Ash and Pikachu’s story a deserving conclusion.
YouTube's terms of Fair Use is basically nonexistent in Japan, so ShoPro's been abusing that loopholeI didn't know where to put this. ShoPro chose violence today and gave ThePokeRaf a copyright strike on his YouTube channel despite the fact that he uses still images in his videos.
Pokeferlax also is going through the same thing. ShoPro, what are you doing?