Pocket Monsters' remnants of Japanese culture

There have been some characters that reference to some Japanese culture such as celebrities and other forms of entertainment. Frontier's Heath was a reference to Japanese comedian Hard Gay or something like that.

More recently, Hamilton or Hiroki and his Croagunk alluded to an old cartoon character from Japan. Of course, these are more obvious ones so I'll try to find more.

Haruki Hanai said:

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Hey, they totally just copied and pasted the people over and over in that picture!! =D

But anyway, I haven't really noticed much Japanese culture in this show since I watch the dub...I think. In Ghosts of Maiden's Peak, Ash and Misty did that dance in kimonos in the end. Brock's always making...riceballs *coughdonutscough* and doesn't Pikachu sometimes wear a little mini kimono when May or Dawn's in a contest? And there were those Pokemon dolls Misty won.

But other than that and the aforementioned Pastoria city ep, I haven't seen that much culture...or maybe I'm blind.

Well, DP103 had a small cliche samurai showdown. In the same episode the was a theater like performance (the background music gives it away) like when TR did their motto in the Fuchsia Gym episode. Except this time without the costumes.

The second episode had a kid in a samurai outfit
Ash used chopstick to eat in the Pewter Gym episode
Janet Fisher during "Fourth Round Rumble", her outit, petals, background music
During the credits of Movie 6 the song "Chisakii Mono" is only dubbed half the other half was kept in Japanese.

Well...

They really want to make it seem like they have the entire world. So obviously not everything can be japanese culture and since they did so much of it in the first couple hundrd episodes im not surprised they it harldy evr is seen anymore.

In the Maid cafe episode, they had the setting in more of a fetish-esque place. I heard that these were common in Japan and that many "otaku" also participate in these events at cartoon conventions.

Lukespade said:

They really want to make it seem like they have the entire world. So obviously not everything can be japanese culture and since they did so much of it in the first couple hundrd episodes im not surprised they it harldy evr is seen anymore.

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Well, at the time, they weren't thinking of 4Kids and the rest of the world. Although, I think the removal of Japanese culture was more on 4Kids, as we've seen other animes leave it in (Sailor Moon, DBZ).

I recall the noodle shop one in AG, for that was the closest we had to a Japanese culture episode. At least, until D/P.

Unown_ said:

Well, DP103 had a small cliche samurai showdown. In the same episode the was a theater like performance (the background music gives it away) like when TR did their motto in the Fuchsia Gym episode. Except this time without the costumes.

The second episode had a kid in a samurai outfit
Ash used chopstick to eat in the Pewter Gym episode
Janet Fisher during "Fourth Round Rumble", her outit, petals, background music
During the credits of Movie 6 the song "Chisakii Mono" is only dubbed half the other half was kept in Japanese.

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Don't you mean the fourth episode (The samurai kid, I mean)?

Also, I'm not sure Chisakii Mono should count as Japanese culture as much as 4kids basically forgetting to translate half of it.

As for chopsticks, that's more of a general asian reference than a specific Japanese reference (remember, China also used chopsticks for eating [Like in "Mulan" for example])

Janet Fisher, well, you've got me there (Though the Music sounded more like something from star wars.)

weedle_mchairybug said:

Also, I'm not sure Chisakii Mono should count as Japanese culture as much as 4kids basically forgetting to translate half of it.

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It's Japanese culture on the show in Japan. So it really doesn't matter f it gets translated wrong, it's just to see if it's mentioned in the Japanese version.

weedle_mchairybug said:

Don't you mean the fourth episode (The samurai kid, I mean)?

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Yeah, my mistake. It should be the fourth episode.

Unown_ said:

Yeah, my mistake. It should be the fourth episode.

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Oh, don't feel too bad. There are so many disposable episodes; sometimes, I can't tell with them.

For your Thanksgiving pressie, there's an interesting line of thought Dogasu said on one of the early AG episodes (the Pelipper one).

--As far as the dub goes, it actually turned out pretty well, even if I'm upset by its effect on the episode. What am I talking about? Well, look at the sign announcing the world's strongest pokemon; if this episode was made a few years ago, that sign would have been written in Japanese, no question. But since 4Kids has this desire to make the show more "universally accessible," the Japanese producers are forced to use this made up Poké-language whenever they want to have any sort of text. While it's not the first time this language has appeared in the series, this episode shows it off the most blatantly of any other, making me yearn for the day when this show used to be allowed to be Japanese.

http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/houen/ep010.html

For an earlier treat, I remember the Kimono Sisters' episodes, as they were packed with Japanese culture.

I think most people overlook it because most people seem to watch other animes, but Pokemon does have some of the Japanese anime "actions" (I dunno what to call it). I mean, the mark on their head when they get angry, when their head goes huge, the sweat drop, the falling to the side awkwardly when someone says something stupid, the blue lines that appear when something happens they don't like, when the eyes have no pupils when they're really angry and pulling down the bottom of their eye and sticking out their tongue. I mean, that's not stuff you usually see in American cartoons usually so I presume it's Japanese stuff

Jorah said:

I think most people overlook it because most people seem to watch other animes, but Pokemon does have some of the Japanese anime "actions" (I dunno what to call it). I mean, the mark on their head when they get angry, when their head goes huge, the sweat drop, the falling to the side awkwardly when someone says something stupid, the blue lines that appear when something happens they don't like, when the eyes have no pupils when they're really angry and pulling down the bottom of their eye and sticking out their tongue. I mean, that's not stuff you usually see in American cartoons usually so I presume it's Japanese stuff

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O.O I don't see how any of those things constitute as Japanese culture. It's a possiblity that a Japanese person first animated that but I wouldn't count out other countries as well. There were cartoons in other countries that could've done this before Japan, maybe in Western countries.

It's about the way they express the scene. It's different. Perhaps not culture...or maybe it is. But it shows it hasn't been completly Americanised, that some small, tiny things still get through

But maybe in this case it may have been Japaneseized (I don't have a word). Like in the old days when they had cartoon characters become mad by turning red, some actually may have had that vein object. Or when they shouted at someone, they most certainly had a big head.

Jorah said:

I think most people overlook it because most people seem to watch other animes, but Pokemon does have some of the Japanese anime "actions" (I dunno what to call it). I mean, the mark on their head when they get angry, when their head goes huge, the sweat drop, the falling to the side awkwardly when someone says something stupid, the blue lines that appear when something happens they don't like, when the eyes have no pupils when they're really angry and pulling down the bottom of their eye and sticking out their tongue. I mean, that's not stuff you usually see in American cartoons usually so I presume it's Japanese stuff

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Excellent observation. I used to care about that, but I've since become blase to it. Anyhoo, the "bottom of the eye/stick tongue out" is called a bii-da.

--Right before Musashi calls her Arbok to fight Satoshi (after Professor Alden says "Hey! You guys give back those treasures!"), there's a scene of Musashi, Kojirou, and Nyasu doing the bii-da thing. That's when an anime character pulls one eyelid down and sticks out his tongue, and it's basically equivalent to sticking out your tongue in America.

Link: http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/houen/ep002.html

It's not so much culture, but I have noticed that the dub episodes have begun to leave more of the Japanese language in there. For example, this screenshot was taken from the dub of DP044 - Save the Stray Child Hipopotas!/Mass Hip-Po-Sis:

That's actually a made up language that Japan's been using for years and years so, back when 4Kids dubbed, 4Kids wouldn't edit it out :/ But they ended up editing out the fake language anyway. Although, I've noticed the fake language seems to be looking more like Japanese lately...but that might just be me. Yeah, any writing you see from around Johto and after is either English or a made up language
Hey, is that Light from Death Note in your avatar? I've just started watching it, it's amazing!

That's Norman, in Pokémon Special o_o

VulpixLover said:

That's Norman, in Pokémon Special o_o

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It was Yagami Raito yesterday, though. ;D

Aha, knew it was. I came in and saw someone said it was Norman...that would've made me look like an idiot XD