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Real-life references in the Pokemon universe

A

Angela

more like tangela
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No, I'm not talking about the Something Awful/leetspeak references in D/P.

What I mean is, real life places, dates and things in the series. Off the top of my head I can think of a reference to Indian elephants in a Pokedex entry, a man in Pewter's Museum referencing the moon landing, and of course Lt. Surge being an American (I always wondered why this reference wasn't removed in the English versions, it's unneccessary). So how do these work in the Pokemon universe?

Oh yeah, there's the issue of real animals in this world too but that's probably been covered loads of times. They were shown in the anime and card art so I believe they exist in the games too.
 
There's a BP article on this subject you may be interested in. It only deals with locations, though. It is interesting to look at the relationships between a real and a fictional world.
 
Hmm. Yeah, I knew there were similarities between the two Kantos and Sinnoh/Hokkaido, but there are also enough differences between them that I think that the design was just inspired. Maybe that's right, though.

Also, I knew I forgot the references to China, South America, Paris... especially Mew's backstory, that stood out.

(btw, the GTS center opens up a whole can of worms, I guess it should be ignored)
 
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Most pokémon are known as 'small bird' or 'small mouse' pokémon. Birds and mouses are real animals, and as far as I know animals are only seen in the first season of the anime.

Ofcourse the countries, fon't forget Frence as Fantina is from Frence.

But Angela, the reference is not useless in the English version.
1: The games are set in another country
2: The games (American version) are also sold in the UK and some other countries in Europe (The Netherlands and Belgium, maybe more).
 
iTeruri said:
1: The games are set in another country
2: The games (American version) are also sold in the UK and some other countries in Europe (The Netherlands and Belgium, maybe more).
Click to expand...

I know they're released in Europe in many different languages, and they're obviously set in another country, just that it isn't a novelty in the US version and just raises the question of the Pokemon world's relation to reality more than any other since it's so prominent.
 
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Didn't Ash once refer to the Minnesota Vikings football team once?
 
Ayers rock is mentioned in Ponyta's pokedex entry in G/S/C IIRC.

"Ponyta can jump over Ayers rock in one leap" or something like that.
 
PokemonLegacy said:
Didn't Ash once refer to the Minnesota Vikings football team once?
Click to expand...

Brock: I didn't know Vikings still existed.
Ash Ketchum: They mostly live in Minnesota.

From the first movie. Anyone have what they said in Japanese during that part?
 
ShinyAeon said:
So Pokemon is has an A/U Europe...? Because in this universe, Frence is known as "France."

:p

(sorry, couldn't resist)
Click to expand...

Oh but where I live (The Netherlands) is known as Frankrijk, so don't go mad at me for getting one character wrong! I'm not a walking encyclopedia, you know.


Also didn't Deoxys crash or land into the North Pole? Also in one episode there was a remote that looked like a Wii Remote. I'm not sure if that one counts. xD
 
I figured something like that, but like I said...I couldn't resist.

Granted, I didn't try very HARD to resist, but eh... :-D
 
OMG that's kinda freaky there...

There are animals in Pokemon.

There were worms in Pidgeotto's debut episode.
There are REAL fish swimming around when the gang are trapped in the S.S. Anne...

Weird.
 
Umm...this isn't IN the GTS, but when you stand in the building, don't they show a globe of the real world!
 
Yeah they do.....and in the Diamond and Pearl introduction you see Starly flying in a V pattern
 
When starting as e female character in FRLG, when you watch the TV downstairs in your house, it talks about a girl in pigtails walking on a brick road. Possibly a reference to Wizard of Oz. I can't remember the name of the movie that was referenced for the boy character.
 
I think the Pokemon world is Earth. Unless logic doesn't exist in the Pokemon world.
 
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