Twelfth Pokemon Movie Trailer

And here's the trailer for the twelfth Pokemon movie out for release this July 18 in Japan. Enjoy!

Sugimori's Arceus Finally Revealed!

After years of waiting, fans finally have the official Pokemon art of Arceus, drawn by Ken Sugimori himself. And this blog will be among the very first to release this artwork to the public.

Arceus will appear and star in the 12th movie, tentatively titled, To the Conquering of Space-Time. The twelfth Pokemon movie will also be the third in the trilogy that began with The Rise of Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior. In the movie, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina will all make their appearance as well as a notch-eared female Pichu who will have a significant role in the film and the three Johto starters (Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile). It is said certain areas in Greece will be used for the backdrop of this movie. The director note visiting places like Meteora and the Parthenon.

The first teaser showed the dragon trio of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina meeting to battle over at a lake. Ash, Brock and Dawn see the three attack a shape of light which resulted to a blast resembling a nuclear explosion. As part of the trilogy, the three will face off each other in a final showdown.

The presence of the three Johto starters have led some to speculate that Nintendo has intentions to revive its Gold/Silver franchise for the Nintendo DS. This is to follow the tradition of resurrecting the old Red/Blue Pokemon games for the Gameboy Advanced. Nintendo has not yet released an official statement about this.

The Japanese premiere will be held on July 18 this year, and that means American fans will have to wait a while before the English version will be released.

More information available from http://www.pokemon.co.jp/ and http://www.pokemon-movie.jp/.

Arceus, the God of All Pokémon

While searching Pokémon websites this week, I stumbled upon this fanart of Arceus, the God and creator of all Pokémon. The artwork is based on the sprite of the legendary pokémon that appears in the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games. While Ken Sugimori has yet to come up with an official artwork, the picture looks very well made and will suffice for the meantime, while all Pokémon fans await.

Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai

I have recently watched the 10th Pokémon movie, The Rise of Darkrai. Just like the previous Pokémon movies, the film features legendary pokémon Darkrai, Dialga and Palkia of the fourth generation. The movie also features Dawn who stars opposite Ash, Brock and Pikachu.

Although I felt the movie to be quite short, the plot and substance outweigh its length and overall, I give it 3.5 stars.

Pokémon Walkthroughs

A friend of mine requested to post walkthroughs for all Pokémon games. Request granted.

Right-click on the links and select Open in New Tab (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 7.0) or Open in New Window (Internet Explorer 6.0) so you may continue reading my highly-entertaining blog and enjoy the other articles posted here! :)

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Pokémon Gold and Silver

Pokémon Red and Blue

Many thanks to the people at gamefaqs for posting these walkthroughs!

Pokémon Animated Series

Taken from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia

Pokémon (abbreviated from Pocket Monsters in Japan) is a Japanese anime series, which has since been adapted for the North American television market. It is somewhat based on the Pokémon video game series and a part of the Pokémon franchise.

In the United States, Pokémon is the fifth longest running animated TV show time wise, only beaten by The Simpsons, Arthur, King of the Hill, and South Park. Pokémon, however, has more episodes than any of these shows and is the longest running and most successful television show based on a video game series. However, one factor in this multiple episode record is due to the fact that the Japan television season has a longer duration than the American television season, and Pokemon has aired many episodes throughout their ten seasons as well.

Originally a single series, Pokémon, it has since been spun off to three: Pokémon: Advanced Generation, and subsequently Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, continue the story of Pokémon, while Pokémon Chronicles or known in Japan, Pokémon Sunday (formerly Shūkan Pokémon Hōsōkyoku) is a series of stories revolving around some of the recurring characters.

Airing and production

The English adaptation of the series was produced by 4Kids Entertainment and video distribution of the series was handled by Viz Media for the TV series for the younger generation as well as the eighth movie forward, Warner Bros. and Nintendo for the first three movies and the first special, Miramax Films, and Buena Vista Home Entertainment for the fourth movie through the seventh. The series and all feature films are directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, with English adaptations originally written by Norman J. Grossfeld and Michael Haigney for the first eight seasons. However, starting with the ninth season, the American branch of The Pokémon Company, Pokémon USA, and TAJ Productions, who worked with 4Kids on the show before taking leave after Season 5, replaced 4Kids as the show's non-Japanese producers and distributors. Most of the original voice cast was also replaced, causing controversy among fans who admired the original voice actors. TAJ was replaced by DuArt Film and Video for the tenth movie and Season 11 of the anime series.

The show (as of September 28, 2006 in Japan and June 4, 2007 in the United States) started its first season of Diamond and Pearl. An English version of Shūkan Pokémon Hōsōkyoku has now been made, titled Pokémon Chronicles which premiered in the UK on Toonami on May 11, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. ET, and is currently airing the 10th season on YTV in Canada. Each season also brings forth a Pokémon feature-length film, and each film up until the seventh is preceded by a Pokémon animated short. Pokémon CD's have been released in conjunction with the anime. The tracks feature songs that have been shown in the English dubbed version of the anime. However, some CDs have been released to promote and profit the anime.

In Japan, both series are shown on TV Tokyo, with Diamond and Pearl airing on Thursday nights (previously Monday) and Pokémon Sunday on Sunday mornings. In the United States, Advanced Generation could previously be seen on the air on the Kids’ WB! cartoon block on Saturdays, but in April 2006, Kids WB!, which continues on the CW Network, announced the fall schedule and Pokémon was nowhere to be seen, replaced by the WB-created series Legion of Super-Heroes. The rights for Battle Frontier were picked up by TimeWarner’s corporate sibling Cartoon Network instead, and aired on CN starting September 9, 2006 at 9 a.m. US ET/PT, with a special prime-time episode having been aired the night before (September 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, following the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon special. The fourth season of the Advanced Generation series, titled Battle Frontier has been airing in the United Kingdom from February 5, 2007, the show also airs in Canada.

Cartoon Network’s India service, along with their Toonami UK service, also carries Pokémon episodes. As of October 9, 2006, Cartoon Network’s online service, Toonami Jetstream, featured Pokémon episodes starting at the Orange League episode “The Pokémon Water War”.

The newest series of Pokémon began airing in Japan on September 28, 2006 with a three-episode arc introducing the new series' main female character Dawn (known as Hikari in Japan), based on the playable female player in the games. The new series aired with a sneak preview on April 20, 2007 in the USA. The sneak preview aired on May 5 in Canada. A dubbed version of the 90-minute preview done in Japan, takes place in the Sinnoh region, based on the new Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games. The new series aired in prime time on Cartoon Network starting June 4 at 7:30 PM ET/PT as part of the Cartoon Network Summer 2007 programming promotion. Currently, it airs on Saturday mornings with newer episodes airing at 9:30 AM ET/PT. The summer run was confirmed in the Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea DVD released on April 2 of 2007. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl has also been airing on YTV in Canada since September 8, 2007. It airs Saturdays at 12:00pm. Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Team Rocket have all returned, Misty, will be returning soon in a later episode of the new series, as confirmed by her Japanese actress. May will appear in the 76th episode for Wallace's contest. Max's status is still unknown. Dawn is taking their place, while a new rival for Ash, Paul, is also featured along with new villains such as Hunter J and Team Galactic.

The Pokémon series

The first series tells the story of Ash Ketchum (Known as Satoshi in the Japanese version, he is named after Pokémon's creator, Satoshi Tajiri) and his quest to become a Pokémon Master. However, unlike in the video games, he is given a Pikachu as his first Pokémon under unusual circumstances. Much of the series focuses on the friendship between Ash, Pikachu, and the various Pokémon and Trainers along the way.

The other two series continues to follow the adventures of Ash. However, starting with the Advanced Generation series, he is no longer a main character, but rather a co-star. He shares his starring role with a female protagonist, May. This character travels with Ash, Max, and Brock through whichever region that they are in, and competes in Pokemon Contests, which are set up in a similar manner to Pokemon Gyms (many throughout the region, and ending with a large tournament), although immensely different. However, due to Ash being on the show for much longer, continued emphasis on Ash in advertising (mostly seen outside of Japan), and May's departure at the end of the Advanced Generation series, many assume that this character holds a supporting role, such as the role that characters like Misty and Brock hold. This role was covered by May throughout this series, and was replaced by Dawn in the Diamond and Pearl series.

Throughout the run of the show the subject matter changes. In the original series, the show is more comical and whimsical (light and airy). It uses “goofy” humor (or “cute” humor when it comes to Pikachu, who does wacky things in between important scenes). In the Advanced Generation series as Ash becomes more of a mature and leader-type character, the main course of the show becomes more serious, as it deals with love and death, and its previous comical nature (for the most part) changes into comic relief, attributed mostly to Team Rocket and Brock's love of girls, though the Diamond and Pearl series seems to have returned to using the original comical nature (mostly Ash being the straight man to his Pokémon's antics and Dawn taking the role of the naive beginner).

Pokémon

The original Pokémon games were Japanese RPGs with an element of strategy, and were created by Satoshi Tajiri for the Game Boy. These role-playing games, and their sequels, remakes, and English language translations, are still considered the "main" Pokémon games, and the games which most fans of the series are referring to when they use the term "Pokémon games". All of the licensed Pokémon properties overseen by The Pokémon Company are divided roughly by generation. These generations are roughly chronological divisions by release; every several years, when an official sequel in the main RPG series is released that features new Pokémon, characters, and gameplay concepts, that sequel is considered the start of a new generation of the franchise. The main games and their spin-offs, the anime, the manga, and the trading card game are all updated with the new Pokémon properties each time a new generation begins. The franchise is in its fourth generation.



The Pokémon franchise started off in its first generation with its initial release of Pocket Monsters Aka and Midori ("Red" and "Green", respectively) for the Game Boy in Japan. When these games proved extremely popular, an enhanced Ao ("Blue") version was released sometime after, and the Ao version was reprogrammed as Pokémon Red and Blue for international release. The games launched in the United States on September 30, 1998. The original Aka and Midori versions were never released outside of Japan. Afterwards, a further enhanced remake titled Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition was released to partially take advantage of the color palette of the Game Boy Color, as well as to feature more elements from the popular Pokémon anime. This first generation of games introduced the original 151 species of Pokémon (in National Pokédex order, encompassing all Pokémon from Bulbasaur to Mew), as well as the basic game concepts of capturing, training, battling, and trading Pokémon with both computer and human players. These versions of the games take place within the fictional Kanto region, though the name "Kanto" was not used until the second generation.



The second generation of Pokémon began in 2000 with the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver for Game Boy Color. Like the previous generation, an enhanced remake titled Pokémon Crystal was later released. It introduced 100 new species of Pokémon (starting with Chikorita and ending with Celebi), for a total of 251 Pokémon to collect, train, and battle. The Pokémon mini was a handheld game console released in December 2001 in Japan and then later in 2002 in Europe and North America.



Pokémon entered its third generation with the 2003 release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for Game Boy Advance and continued with the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, and an enhanced remake of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire titled Pokémon Emerald. The third generation introduced 135 new Pokémon (starting with Treecko and ending with Deoxys) for a total of 386 species. However, this generation also garnered some criticism for leaving out several gameplay features, including the day-and-night system introduced in the previous generation, and it was also the first installment that encouraged the player to collect merely a selected assortment of the total number of Pokémon rather than every existing species (202 out of 386 species are catchable in the Ruby and Sapphire versions).



In 2006, Japan began the fourth generation of the franchise with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for Nintendo DS. The fourth generation introduces another 107 new species of Pokémon (starting with Turtwig and ending with Arceus), bringing the total of Pokémon species to 493. The Nintendo DS "touch screen" allows new features to the game such as cooking poffins with the stylus and using the "Pokétch". New gameplay concepts include a restructured move-classification system, online multiplayer trading and battling via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the return (and expansion) of the second generation's day-and-night system, the expansion of the third generation's Pokémon Contests into "Super Contests", and the new region of Sinnoh, which has an underground component for multiplayer gameplay in addition to the main overworld. Spin-off titles in the fourth generation include the Pokémon Stadium follow-up Pokémon Battle Revolution for Wii, which has Wi-Fi connectivity as well.

Sugimori's Shaymin, finally out!

After a long wait, official Sugimori art for Shaymin has been released.

In the March issue of Coro Coro Comics, the 492nd pokémon makes its debut appearance together with Giratina, as they both star in the eleventh Pokémon movie, Giratina and the Sky's Bouquet: Shaymin. The white and green grass pokémon is shown in Coro Coro with its signature move, Seed Flare. Giratina's "origin" form together with additional information about the movie are also featured in the magazine.

And for those anticipating for the evolution of Ash's Turtwig and Chimchar, well the story on the magazine confirms that the two will remain unevolved, at least until the movie's timeline.

For more information, please visit:

PokeBeach.com

Bulbanews.com

Serebii.net