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Pokémon USA president to resign: Chiba to be succeded by VP Okubo

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Pokémon USA president to resign: Chiba to be succeded by VP Okubo

Pokémon USA has announced that its president, Akira Chiba, who has lead the company since 2002, will resign Jan. 1 to pursue other opportunities. Vice Pres. Kenji Okubo will assume the position.

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I was wondering when Bulbanews would have an article on this.

Misty said:
Does anyone know anything about these people? It'd be nice to get an idea of what kind of changes this might bring.
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From what I've seen across the web, Mr Okubo was not only the Vice President of Pokemon USA, but also head of it's office in the Seattle branch. Additionally, he was the project coordinator for the first movie.

As far as changes, my wild guess is that there'll some degree of change with this new leadership, but it won't be too monumental. Though I'm sure we'll learn more in the coming months ahead.
 
I kinda feel sorry for him taking over a position at a highly controversial company at this point.
 
Highly controversial my ass. There are about 50 people in the entire world that actually could consider PUSA to be "controversial" - and that's over something really stupid and long since done. The rest of the world just stands by and gawps at how much money they're pulling in and how well the Pokemon 'phenomenon' is on some rise again since Diamond and Pearl were released.
 
But the thing is Doctor Oak, that the more successful you are as a company, the more adversity you have to endure. Obviously, this new president will have a lot on his plate to handle, and hopefully, he'll be up to the challenges that lie ahead for the franchise.
 
mogoldmember said:
But the thing is Doctor Oak, that the more successful you are as a company, the more adversity you have to endure. Obviously, this new president will have a lot on his plate to handle, and hopefully, he'll be up to the challenges that lie ahead for the franchise.
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Considering that he was vice president before this, I'm pretty sure he can handle it without anything happening.

I don't see what the big fat deal is.
 
mogoldmember said:
But the thing is Doctor Oak, that the more successful you are as a company, the more adversity you have to endure. Obviously, this new president will have a lot on his plate to handle, and hopefully, he'll be up to the challenges that lie ahead for the franchise.
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The problem with your hypothesis is that Pokemon has long since peaked - the "adversity" is pretty much nonexistent at this point, because the only people who really take note of Pokemon these days are the people who like it. The annoyances (i.e. religious groups) have moved on to other stuff (i.e. Harry Potter). So really, it's a fairly cushy job, I think.
 
Eh, I guess I wasn't really as clear as I could have been with my last post. I was merely making a general statement in response to what Doctor Oak posted. I am well aware that Pokemon has long since passed its fad stage. Although, the franchise appears to have rebounded somewhat since the 10th anniversary and the release of Daimond & Pearl (at least that's what the hype tells me).

As to my other point, yes, I'm also confident that Okubo can handle his new job. Although nothing is set in stone yet, and as Misty hinted at earlier, we still don't know for sure what kind of changes (if any) this will bring about to the franchise as of yet.
 
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Generally speaking, I'm confident now that just about anything can happen for the Pokemon franchise.

And hopefully, if the new vice president makes any changes, they will be good changes. ^^


I'd very much like to see some GREAT things happen. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
 
The only thing that worries me though is the P and VP may have already had a discussion about SOVA and the VA switch so I'm not 100% sure that things would be different anyway. But anything is possible. I'd really like to know the real reason why the current president stepped down.
 
Brian said:
The only thing that worries me though is the P and VP may have already had a discussion about SOVA and the VA switch so I'm not 100% sure that things would be different anyway. But anything is possible. I'd really like to know the real reason why the current president stepped down.
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I'm pretty sure the VA thing has long since been discussed and closed in the boardroom lol


Also, does anyone find it odd that the senior management of Pokemon "USA" are Japanese?
 
Misty said:
I'm pretty sure the VA thing has long since been discussed and closed in the boardroom lol


Also, does anyone find it odd that the senior management of Pokemon "USA" are Japanese?
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Not really. Pokemon is, after all, a Japanese product. It makes sense that they would have Japanese people running it's regional departments like PUSA.
 
Pokémon USA is the US branch of The Pokémon Company in Japan.
So it's really not odd that the management is Japanese. Nintendo of America was the same way up until Reggie.
 
I'd really like to know the real reason why the current president stepped down.
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I really doubt it's for any VA related reason if that's what you're going for.
 
Not really, especially as that article plainly indicates they're doing good.
 
It's because he's going to another company 'cos he'll make more money. Dur.
 
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