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The End of a Journey, Yet the Start of Another!

Yesterday, Cartoon Network aired the first episode of Pokémon Battle Frontier, as well as the Pokémon Myster Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate special, both of which I thought were quite good. If you didn't get a chance to see them, you can head to PokéBeach for a limited time and get an idea of what this new season is going to be like.

Don't hate me for saying this, but by the end of Fear Factor Phony, I become so used to the new voices that I almost forgot they were ever different. It's still a little difficult to tell who's who when you just get little sounds or grunts, but that will come with time.

The once voice actor I'm concerned about is the one who plays James. It's not a voice I can take seriously, and today's new episode Sweet Baby James was a very emotional one in Japanese. I think it's too much for the voice actor to handle.

Of course, the Mystery Dungeon episode was as cute as could be, even if they did mistranslate a Pokémon name and the voices sounded as little like the Pokémon's "human-heard" voices as possible.
 
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Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Don't tell me you get Cartoon Network. We could never receive it on any of our dishes x.x

Can't really download anything on dial-up, so I'll just have to wait a week and hope that I can locate the downloads somewhere. I really want to know what these new dubbers sound like. It seems everyone has heard them but me XP

At least I'll get the chance to see the Mastermind special in a few weeks when the 8th movie is released.
 

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
I have no idea what #PocketMonsters are doing with the new dub - as no-one appears to have capped it this week but I'll download these eps at some point.

Personally, the voice change never bothered me at all - and in the clips I've heard of Fear Factor Phoney already, they sound fine enough to me. I don't care that they're different, it'd only bother me if they were actually BAD as well.

What was the mistranslation in the Special?
 
Well so far Ytv has shown no new pokemon eps yet. Jeez I hope they do soon, I want to here their new voices ^_^ 0.o wait a second QuagsireQuing can get cartoonnetwork on his satellite but how? I thought Canadians couldn't get that channel.
 
I could easily if I had a sateilite. I just downloaded the episodes from the website listed in my first post. They have a watermark and the resolution is tiny, but they're the only site at which I could find them for the time being.

And the mistake made in the special was...

Gengar (to Ekans): "Go, Arbok!"
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
lol... Man, that's nothing. After rewatching the second half of Master Quest, I can't believe I forgot how many mistakes some of those episodes were filled with x.X

But my favourite will always be (to Growlithe):
"Arcanine, Flamethrower!"
"ARRRRRCCCC!" ^_^
 
im lucky i have cable yay! so i can get cartoon network. and i thought the voices were pretty different. ash sounds more like a girl and brock sounds stupid. but ill adjust.i miss misty she was cool. :'(
 
I thought the new VA's did a fairly decent job. I even think they've improved since I heard them on that remake of the mirage pokemon intro. However, James lacks the spunk he had before and May sounds like she's 30. The other voices are still a bit off but I have my hopes up (especially for Brock. I think they got closest to the original there). I really liked the mystery dungeon special too, but I feel it would have been better if they spent more time showing the kid adjust to being a squirtle and living the life of a Pokémon. They sorta skipped that, and it's kinda what I looked forward to mostly.

I am however a bit confused about something. It might just be my imagination, but did they switch the artists? I re-watched season one while waiting for season 9 to start, so it might just be the shock of coming back to the "modern" Pokémon, but it seemes like everything was kinda... off. In some of the scenes the characters just looked wrong for some reason and I'm almost certain that the background artists are diffrent (compare the clouds from this season and previous ones, for example).

So am I insane or what? :p
 
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Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Different animation teams do different episodes. The episodes from Master Quest onwards also done digitally, while the rest were done in traditional cel-animation.

I watched the Mystery Dungeon special - still waiting on the new eps themselves - and it seemed for the most part fine. As fine as it could be for being such a sappy, kid-aimed 30 minute advert for the games (I'm sure my brothers will love it though). The only voice I REALLY had a problem with was Pichu's. Which annoyed the ever-loving shit out of me.

The special itself also annoyed me a bit for just not really making much sense. But that's the fault of humanising characters still existing in a world populated by animal-based creatures that still act like said animals more than anything.

Also, Gengar was Prof. Namba. ^^
 
Anyone else notice the "To Be Continued..." at the end of the Mystery Dungeon special? Think they just left that in there out of habit, or are they going to do more of these specials?
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Fun ^__^

Although, can't really get excited over that information until I actually see the special for myself :p I assume I'll like it either way, even if, as Oakster put it in the chat, it's just one big long ad to get people to buy the games and toys.
 

Sem

The Last of the Snowmen
Former Administrator
Bah, didn't watch Mystery Dungeon. I will eventually though. Boomerang has recently begun to air the first season of Pokemon. I watched half of the first episode today. Man, how it brings back those memories.

Anyway, talking about all those mistakes through out the series: I saw one recently in a Hoenn re-run.

Ash: "Trainers, which one of these pokemon evolves into Seviper?"

I forgot all but one of the three choices... >-> Anyway. *After commercial break*

Ash: "If you chose Arbok, you were right!"

Made me laugh.
 
I just saw "Sweet Baby James," and I have finally been put to rest about these actors. James was portrayed VERY well, FAR better than he was in The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon and Fear Factor Phony. The big poignant scene (you'll know it when you get there) was spoiled only a little by a poor choice in dubbed English music, instead of the touching song played during the Japanese version, but the acting was enough to finally put me at ease.
 
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I just saw it the other day as well. I agree with you almost to 100% The voices are getting really good, and I imagine they'll be even better soon. The only voice I have a problem with is Ash's voice. I feel as if Ash's voice isn't really that close to the original. Right now I think Ash is the character with the most deviation from the original, and as the main character I feel he should be the one with the least amount of difference.
 
i agree with that but i have a huge problem with may sounding like a whiny 30

other wise there not all that bad i wish they still had misty tho
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Yay. It's nice being back on highspeed ^^

Anyways, out of the new dub work I've only had the chance to see the Mystery Dungeon special. Overall impression is that it was okay... Not bad, but not really great either. I'm trying to be positive, but too many of those voices got on my nerves. Especially Squirtle's. I have a long history of HATING that particular dub voice. It's the standard 'whiny kid voice' for me, even if some of the characters who've been plagued with it weren't meant to be annoying at all.

Even so, I loved hearing the Mystery Dungeon music revamped for the show. I really like a lot of the tunes from those games. If there is a mini-series made out of that special, I'd watch it solely for the music... and a bit to see how they handle the plot.
 
I hadn't watched much of the new dub before two days ago (I saw the Dungeon special and five minutes of Fear Factor Phony), but from what I saw in their little mini-marathon, I'd say it was okay-ish.

Ash was the dubbed Luffy. That made me twitch. -_-;;

May's voice was weird, and Max's lacked emotion. Jesse and James were okay, but I think they could be better. Brock's was good, though.

However, I think I could get used to them eventually, and I think they'll improve. They've only dubbed a few episodes, so I think they haven't fully gotten into their character yet. I'm optimistic that it will be very good in the end. ^_^

The Dungeon special was cute, and I laughed at the Arbok mistake. But Gengar...was...the dubbed...MARUO from Narue no Sekai...heheh. I laughed at that, too. I loved Pikachu's voice, though...so deep...@_@
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Heh. The narrator for the Mirage Pokemon special was the same as the usual one. Gotta love the voice man ^^

So, I finally got my first real dose of the new VAs... and they're not that bad. I went into it with an understanding that, yes, they're different and I'd just need to adjust, and by the end of the special I more or less had. James' VA could use a bit of work, and some of the emotion could've been stronger, but that should all come with time. Even the dubbing of the very first Pokemon episodes could be considered weak when compared to later work.
 
OMG YAY FOR THE VOICE MAN! O_O *really had to say that*

Does anybody know if they (namely, Cartoon Network) is going to keep showing two new episodes per week? I can't exactly watch them (toooooo eeeearly -_- ), but I kinda want to know...I'd like to see the new VAs tackle Shinou (and NOW, cuz it would mean that DP would be out here as well ^_^;; ). Plus, we can hear Hikari without anybody to compare her to...
 
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