Lessened Japanese references/Contrast to older episodes...

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vee2x_paradox

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Compared to much older episodes, Pokemon had tons of references to the Japanese culture just as many anime titles would.

-The festivals
-Riceballs/Onigiri/WTFDONUTS
-Temples/Traditional Japanese buildings
-Kimonos/National outfits
-...and etc.

However after episode after episode, these references lessened and we seem to be getting more..."neutral" things and only a small Asian reference depending on a certain episode (Kimono Sisters introduction for an example).

Like right now, Brock doesn't seem to make riceballs anymore but something like sandwiches and stew. Not many towns have those traditional/style buildings anymore. And the list goes on...

I think the most recent thing is Pikachu's cheering male kimono outfit and the "PokeCenter" of the Joy family in the Drifloon episode of the D/P season. And the Cosplay episode is one thing, but I'm referring to the traditional and custom stuff. So why the drop of these things? Did they want to be more neutral after the worldwide success? Or is it more complex. just a way of showing that Japan isn't as traditional as thought up to be, and is modernized as the Western world is? Or maybe I'm looking too deep into this and the writers were just sick of showcasing things from their own country.

Now on another note...

Obviously, Pokemon has improved compared to most episodes in the past due to many flaws and mistakes then.

But let's note on how they seem to focus more on the Pokemon features now than interaction with humans compared to before. There were tons of interesting (and maybe over-the-top) characters-of-the-day and most of the time Pokemon were the sidelines within the episode just to help the humans: the main characters. I mean look back: Ash did not really battle for Gym Badges in the first episodes, he solved a problem involving the people involved and won it that way. Now he obviously has to put his own effort WITH POKEMON to earn it right. So in total, most of the past episodes involved more of the human problems than the issues with Pokemon. And here we are in the recent season, with episodes showing lots of battle and contests and the various events from the video game series itself.

I didn't really come up with a question for that part...just wanted to point out something...
 
I remember that Dogasu used to say that the Japanese influence in Pokemon was toned down because 4kids was getting tired of edited out all the signs and erasing the Japanese culture. Apparenly 4kids was able to influence the Japanese writers, which is why most of this stuff started to disappear once we got into Orange and Johto.

Basically, once Pokemon became a global hit, 4kids no longer wanted the show to seem "too Japanese" for American audiences, so they had some way of toning down the writers from making it "too foreign."

I have no idea if this is true or not, but hey, it was the theory Dogasu and several others were throwing around at the time.
 
Hm...well, that part about focusing more on Pokemon now is very true; like the english intro for D/P says, it's all about the battle...>.< bleh, i had to use that...

but about the Japanese influence thing...maybe they're trying to make the regions seem slightly culturally different from each other? Like, Kanto could be more of the Japanese, while Sinnoh could be something else entirely...*shrugs* honestly, I'm not really sure. maybe they want to add variety to their world this way; if every region were exactly the same, why would we continue to watch the show?
 
I think the show's been far more battle-centric for the last couple of years now. Back in the early seasons Ash was a newbie and his team reflected that, Charizard didn't respect him and he used mostly unevolved Pokemon. This...continued into Johto, where again, he used mostly unevolved Pokemon.

The big shift started in AG, where Ash's team started to move toward power rather than anything else. We saw Treecko's lust for strength and power as it evolved into Grovyle and finally Sceptile. We saw Swellow become Ash's first flying type that was actually a powerhouse in battle. Corphish was a powerhouse despite being unevolved, and then of course there's Torkoal who nearly took down Registeel, and the power-centric Glalie and Donphan. Every single Pokemon Ash had in AG made it to its final evolved stage aside from Corphish, presumedly because the writers didn't want Ash to have a Dark type.

And then of course when Contests were introduced, we got double the battles in each season. Since each Contest is essentially a tournament, they're filled with battles after the appeal stage and we watch May/Dawn have their own shoujo-ish storylines while also having battles in tournaments at the same time.

Heck after Hoenn ended the whole Battle Frontier saga was practically one Frontier Brain and Contest after the other with very little filler. D/P is slightly more plot-based than previous seasons, so again, there's far more focus on battles due to Paul being around now and Dawn's Contests starting sooner than May's did.

The whole show has taken a massive shift from the early days, there's a far greater emphasis on not only Pokemon but of course the roles of the female characters and rivals.
 
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I think the lessened Japanese stuff is actually good, because it gives it more of a "this isn't Earth" feel. If it was really supposed to take place in Japan, that would be one thing, but they have areas based on places all over the world. So thereby it only makes sense to give it a more global feel.

And even if it was 4Kids' idea, the Japanese directors apparently liked it.
 
Blackjack Palazzo said:
And even if it was 4Kids' idea, the Japanese directors apparently liked it.
Click to expand...

Or maybe they were receiving too much pressure from Nintendo as well?

There are still Japanese elements snuck into the show though, remember Morrison? The whole guy was based on a Japanese stereotype.
 
Well yeah. I'm not saying to get rid of *all* of them. That would just be wrong. But having more influences from the rest of the world, as well as stuff that's just made up, that's the feel I like.
 
Scott85 said:
D/P is slightly more plot-based than previous seasons, so again, there's far more focus on battles due to Paul being around now and Dawn's Contests starting sooner than May's did.
Click to expand...

Only slighty? We've had plots that've basically been going on for the entirety of D/P besides gyms and contests. Things that we didn't really know about. There are problems that aren't getting resolved 3 episodes after they've been introduced.

This is really the best saga story wise. To say it's only slightly more plot-based is a bit ignorant. I could see where you would be coming from, but, I mean, c'mon. This is so exciting! The writers are amazing now, I love it.
 
True, the writers are amazing, but I'm just waiting for the point where they fall short. everything's going really well so far; any bets on when things start to fall apart?

anyway, i actually wish they had a little more Japanese influence in the show, just a little. it'd be pretty cool to see. ^^
 
Scott85 said:
I remember that Dogasu used to say that the Japanese influence in Pokemon was toned down because 4kids was getting tired of edited out all the signs and erasing the Japanese culture. Apparenly 4kids was able to influence the Japanese writers, which is why most of this stuff started to disappear once we got into Orange and Johto.
Click to expand...

That's my theory, anyway. We know that 4Kids has close ties to the Japanese production staff...you can look at the added scenes to the Celebi movie and the all-new made-for-America fourth opening for proof of that.

Honestly, I think "Princess vs. Princess" was the straw that broke the camel's back. That episode had an insane number of paint edits.

Blackjack Palazzo said:
I think the lessened Japanese stuff is actually good, because it gives it more of a "this isn't Earth" feel. If it was really supposed to take place in Japan, that would be one thing, but they have areas based on places all over the world. So thereby it only makes sense to give it a more global feel.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. The regions of the games are clearly based on various areas of Japan. Also, the way Satoshi-tachi acts, with their desire to eat Japanese food and Kasumi's desire to win the Himawari contest and the origin of the Rocket-Dan's pokemon all make it pretty clear that these kids are supposed to be Japanese. Sure, they have other non-Japanese locations, but...so does Japan. Hollywood, for example, was probably meant to be be a Hollywood-themed area in Japan (they do exist, y'know), not the actual region of California, USA.

It wouldn't be so bad if the kids had the international feel from the beginning. But, they didn't. The kids went from being Japanese kids who read Japanese signs to...non-descript kids who can apparently read this new, made-up language. It doesn't make sense, continuity-wise.

And even if it was 4Kids' idea, the Japanese directors apparently liked it.
Click to expand...

Eh...I think that's unlikely. As I've said before...I think 4Kids probably went to the Japanese staff and was like "Look guys...we're spending all this money to make this show accessible to audiences not just in the US, but all over the world (remember, 4Kids once held the license for the franchise in EVERY non-Asian country). If you guys keep having Japanese signs in the show, we won't be able to release the episodes as quickly as we'd be able to if you would just tone it down a bit."

Remember, 4Kids (and now PUSA) are the eyes and ears for OLM in the US. If they say that certain changes need to be made in order to make the show work for an international audience, who are they to argue?
 
But then you have Venice, Las Vegas (twice!), Spain, and a host of other places, all in what's supposedly "Japan". It's international from the get-go, so why not reflect that?

And wait. "Origin of the Rocket-dan's pokemon"? How does getting them as gifts equal Japanese?
 
Blackjack Palazzo said:
But then you have Venice, Las Vegas (twice!), Spain, and a host of other places, all in what's supposedly "Japan". It's international from the get-go, so why not reflect that?
Click to expand...

They're not Venice, Las Vegas and Spain, they're cities resembling Venice, Las Vegas and... what was it, Barcelona? The thing is, I doubt the Pokemon World is only made up of the regions Ash travels in. There are plenty of real-life places mentioned in the show, right? The most logical conclusion, as far as I'm concerned, is that Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and the Orange Archipelago are roughly equivalent to our world's Japan. Except a lot bigger.

And wait. "Origin of the Rocket-dan's pokemon"? How does getting them as gifts equal Japanese?
Click to expand...

Well, it was mentioned that Rocket-dan's Pokemon were mid-year and year-end gifts from Sakaki in It's A White Tomorrow... here's the relevant footnote from the translation I have of the CD drama:

"The mid-year (ochuugen) and end-year (oseibo) gifts are ceremonial gifts given at the end of summer and right before New Year's to those who have helped you a lot during the year."
 
i think Vegas might've been that episode where they went to the city where no one sleeps, and they got Jigglypuff to sing for them 'cause they thought the people would listen all the way through, and everyone ended up falling asleep.
 
No. The city in Destiny Deoxys---LaRousse City---was based on Vancouver.

Let me see if I can recall correctly here....

Movie 2: Italian-influenced (the angels on the ceiling of Lawrence III's ship are a reference to the Sistine Chapel)

Movie 5: Venice

Movie 7: Vancouver

Movie 8: Germany

Movie 9: Rome and Naples

Movie 10: Barcelona

Movie 11: Denmark and Norway (at least)

So from what I recall offhand, it seems the biggest influence in the movies at least has been Italy, appearing in Movies 2, 5 and 9.
 
Besides the Sistine Chapel in the ship, Movie 2 isn't like Italy at all.

It didn't seem till Movie 5 did they based off specific places.

Well, I think 6 was based off something...but I forgot.
 
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