BW Media Spotlight

I hope we’re out of entries because I ran out of Pokemon.

For those of you who haven’t been with us this week, Did You Know Gaming? found a lost official Pokémon guidebook that was never released outside of Japan, got one of the original game’s localizers to translate it, and is now bringing us the highlights. Apparently there was a lot to discover. Along the way trivia about the creation of some Pokémon and speculation of how this book covered it also came into play.

Now it’s time for part three, the last video in the series as of this writing. Is this finally all of it or will we be looking at more videos in future weeks? Let’s tune in and find out. Note that if you only watch the show and don’t really pay attention to the Pokédex entries and trading card flavor text this is a darker world than you realize. In this version real animals exist yet people eat Pokémon as well as Pokémon eating each other. We’ve seen experimentation, dissection, and just some horrible stuff…and yes, it’s about to get worse.

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Picture from my Pokédex review. Click the image to check the review out over at The Clutter Reports.

For those of you who missed yesterday’s posts, thanks to weather and doctors appointments messing with my schedule I’m posting a trio of videos by Did You Know Gaming? about a lost Japanese Pokédex book that was never brought over and localized. Finding a copy they got one of the game’s original localizers to translate the book.

Last time we saw some of the first 73 Pokémon, and some of the changes between the game’s creation, release, and current generations of the game. We even got to learn about the real-world and folklore inspirations for the Pocket Monsters and that it originally took place in a variation of our world…and that people ate Pokémon while also doing some questionable experiments. The translation was so long that it needed a second video, so let’s see what other changes and dark moments take place in this early version of the Pokémon world.

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I may not be that big into Pokémon but I do know the world is much weirder than the running gag about how they’re animals fighting to the death. (Actually, they battle for fun, like roughhousing MMA fighter that spit lightning.) I mean, it gets pretty dark, with cute critters who eat dreams. And haven’t you wondered what they sell in seafood restaurants when there doesn’t seem to be normal animals in the Pokémon World? Enjoy your filet of Magikarp before it becomes a sea monster and has filet of you.

However, as lore evolves certain items in the first generation (a good enough term in this case) changes or…no pun intended…evolves. This makes early official books whose lore wasn’t stated in the proper source material kind of quaint in comparison. In Japan a book was created called simply Pokédex, the same name as the Pocket Monster data collecting device you use in the game. This book contained further information of Poké-lore, setting the series in something closer to our world and somehow making evolution even more confusing than it already was. It also comes with it’s own form of dark backstory.

The staff at Did You Know Gaming? managed to track down a copy of this lost book and get it translated by one of the original localizers of Pokémon Red/Blue. In a three-part video they highlight some of the interesting facts of this world, not all of which really survives currently while others appeared not in the game but the show. With my schedule this week being up in the air and each video being around a half-hour long I’ll present these videos over the next three days. Hey, it’s more fun that last week’s theme.

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