Today's Diamond and Pearl episode just ended in Japan, and at the end of it, a preview for September's Black and White anime aired: it is to be called Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes. During the video, it shows a silhouette of a new girl and boy. This same girl was in a character sheet that was being passed around the Internet earlier this week - a character sheet that contains pictures of new Pokemon! Since the girl is now real, this means the Pokemon shown in it are real - we thus have four new Pokemon! You can watch the video of the preview as well as see the character sheet with the new Pokemon below. The girl is named Iris and will be joining Ash in his journeys though Isshu, while the bat Pokemon above her is named Coromori. You can also see Tsutaaja's and Mijumaru's evolutions. The other Pokemon's names are too hard to read.

A new commercial for Clash at the Summit just aired during today's episode of Pokemon. You can watch it below. It reveals Deoxys & Rayquaza LEGEND's artwork, which was previously unseen.

After today's episode of Pokemon, there's going to be some news on the Black and White anime as well as a new TCG commerical for Clash at the Summit. I'll record them and post them as soon as I can (if the server doesn't die).

On the last episode of Pokemon Sunday, a brief clip was shown of a new The Ruler of Illusions: Zoroark trailer. In it, we can see a shiny Entei, Suicune, and Raikou being attacked by Zoroark. Since she is attacking them, they can't be her illusions, so could they be illusions from another Pokemon (Zorua?) or something else perhaps? We'll find out next week when the movie premieres in Japan! Heerosferret and I will be seeing the first showing and will post a summary right after, so be sure to check back!

Every time a new generation comes out, many fans complain that the Pokemon introduced don't look like Pokemon or don't mesh well with previous generations. A lot of the time this can simply be attributed to the fact that we're just not used to them yet, but what many people do not know is that the Pokemon are created by different groups of people each generation (I didn't really know that myself!). The following post from Azure Dragon on BMGf sheds some light on who creates Pokemon.

There's a team of people that is in charge of monster design. They're listed under "Pokemon Design." They come up with the ideas. They decide which ones are the best and refine them. Then, Ken Sugimori draws those designs. In the first generation, it was a group of four people (Sugimori being one of them), and Satoshi Tajiri's role (the creator of Pokemon) in creating the monsters was basically to approve them and suggest changes after the basic ideas were being designed. He's the only one under "Director" and "Game Design" for the first generation which means that he was in charge of pulling everything together and the overall experience of playing the game.

Nowadays... well, the truth is that in Ruby and Sapphire, Junichi Masuda took over. Ever since R/S/E, Satoshi Tajiri has not been working on the games at all. He's listed as "Executive Director" in most games. What does this mean? "Executive Director" is a fancy way of saying "this is the original creator, he approved this game but was not an active part of development." Occasionally he's listed as an "Executive Producer," which, from what I can gather, means he funded it but was still not an active member in developing it. Finally, in Pokemon Rumble (surprisingly enough), only Sugimori and Masuda are listed in the credits as "advisers" for the spin-off game. Tajiri is not listed at all.

So, Satoshi Tajiri is not really putting his mind into the monsters anymore. However, there is another part of why the monsters look different. The "Pokemon Design" of D/P/Pt was held by thirteen people. Ten of these people did not work on the first generation's Pokemon; Shigeki Morimoto (he's the guy who put Mew into the game) also stopped doing monster design during D/P/Pt. What does this mean? The people coming up with the Pokemon ideas are, mostly, different people each generation. R/S hired a ton of people, and that's why the third generation's style was so different. Black and White has also hired more people.

Thus, the main reason why the Black and White Pokemon look weird is because the design team has new people on it. Also, Satoshi Tajiri hasn't worked on the games for a looooong time (since the Gold and Silver days), thus the reason why Gen III and Gen IV looked so different from Gen I and Gen II. And now Gen V could look very different as well.

Starting July 15th, players in Japan will be able to download Ash's Pikachu through DS Zones at McDonalds and via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The Pikachu is the video game rendition of Ash's Pikachu from the animé. You can see the event's ad below (from 2ch). I looked at nine McDonalds in three different parts of Tokyo over the past three days but could not find the ad anywhere. Perhaps it was leaked early?

According to rumors floating around on 2ch, the Pikachu is male, is holding a Light Ball, knows Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, and Volt Tackle, and its OT is Satoshi (Ash). We will confirm or deny this information on July 15th.

Update #2 - Okay, NOW the video should be working. Sorry for the craziness. There was a server problem apparently. | Update: Looks like the server died while I was trying to upload the video, but it should work now. I had the video ready to upload a minute after the show aired, but alas... :(

My second Pokemon assignment in Japan! Oha Suta, a Japanese variety showed, just showed an extended version of the Black and White trailer that aired on yesterday's Pokemon Sunday episode. In it, they revealed eight new Pokemon. The video of the advertisement is below, which I recorded myself on my camera. :D Screenshots of the new Pokemon are below the video as well.

• The first four new Pokemon revealed (from left to right) are Ononokusu (オノノクス), Doryuuzu (ドリュウズ), Desukaan (デスカーン), and Denchura (デンチュラ); they are in the first screenshot below. Doryuuzu's name derives from "mole," Desukaan's comes from "death" and "coffin," and Denchura's name contains the words "electric" and "tarantula." Guess it's an Electric tarantula. We're not sure about Ononokusu's name, though it seems to derive from "fear."
• Three unnamed Pokemon were also revealed, shown in the second screenshot below.
• Moguryuu (モグリュー), whose back we see in the third screenshot on the farthest right, is the pre-evolution of the mole Pokemon Doryuuzu.
• The video reveals that Black and White will feature triple battles, as the rumors we posted a while ago stated. First double, now triple!
• New attacks are "Grass Mixer," which Tsutaaja used against Mijumaru in yesterday's video, and "Drill Liner," which Doryuuzu uses.
• In addition to "Fight," "Run," and "Pokemon," there is a new menu option called "Shooter." We don't know what this is yet (do we get guns now? :D). Oddly, "Bag" is missing in the clip they show.
• "White High-Link" is some sort of link to the Internet where you can change your Trainer's avatar. Before the scene in the video is shown, there is a gathering of other Trainers, so it may have to do with online or wireless multiplaying.
• The "Pokemon Global Link" is the service that allows you to connect Black and White to your computer to upload the save file.

Update (8:30 PM) - Famitsu.com, the online website for Famitsu magazine, has posted a couple of new B/W screenshots. They don't reveal anything new.

It was so hot and humid here today... wet butt cracks galore! It's actually Monday night now, but back in California it's Sunday morning. Since the site is setup to use California's time, the news posts will not display what time I posted these stories while in Japan.

My first Pokemon assignment on this trip! I heard there was a free DVD for rent at Tsutaya stores, Japan's version of Blockbuster, which contains new footage from Black and White and The Ruler of Illusions: Zoroark. I went on the hunt for the store today and found it right away; all I had to do was ask for "Pokemon Zoroark DVD," present my passport, setup an account, and I was out of the store within minutes. Since it's a free DVD and a special Pokemon Sunday episode (which is basically just an advertisement for Pokemon), I assume the Pokemon Company doesn't mind me posting a portion of it (unless they hate free advertising / money / pleasing their fans). Both the game footage and movie 13 trailer are below; they're large in size, so you might want to hit play, hit pause, let them download to your computer, then hit play again once they're finished so they don't play and stop continuously.

Reporting live from Japan! Pokemon Sunday just revealed two seconds ago that Black and White's release date is set for September 18th in Japan! Twelve more weeks until the fifth generation!

Update (5:15 PM): Our friends at Filb.de have posted a video of the announcement. I have taken four screenshots and posted them below. We apparently see three new characters: a blond guy in the first and third screenshots, a possible villain in the second screenshot, and a woman named Cheren in the fourth screenshot. Click the thumbnails below for larger images. Could the woman be a Gym Leader? Could the second guy be a villain disguising himself as the character in the first and third screenshots? We'll find out soon!

Update #2 (5:30 PM): The character in the third screenshot says "I will be better than the champion." Could he be the rival?

Card images of "Kyogre & Groudon LEGEND" (87/90 and 88/90) and "Espeon (Prime)" (81/90) from HS - Undaunted have been revealed! The LEGEND cards will be in the Japanese Clash at the Summit set, which will be released on July 8th in Japan; since they have not been revealed in Japanese yet, this marks one of the few times English cards have spoiled upcoming Japanese cards. Espeon (Prime) is originally an ultra-rare Japanese promo along with Umbreon, which will also be in the set. Click the thumbnails below to enlarge the card images. HS - Undaunted will be released in America on August 18th.

Kyogre & Groudon LEGEND - Water / Fighting - HP150
Legendary Pokemon

[W][W][C][C] Mega Tidal Wave: Discard the top five cards from your opponent's deck. This attack does 30 damage times the amount of Energy cards you discarded to each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)
[F][F][C][C] Massive Eruption: Discard the top five cards from your deck. This attack does 100 damage times the amount of Energy cards you discarded.

Weakness: Lightning and Grass x2
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

We have received confirmation that a new set block will start in September with the release of the Black and White games - the new block will be named "Pokemon Card Game BW." While we currently have no details about the block's first set, we do know that three promo collections will be released before the set hits stores: Journey Partner Tsutaaja, Journey Partner Pokabu, and Journey Partner Mijumaru. Each three-card collection will feature holo promos of one of the Black and White starters as well as their Stage 1 and Stage 2 evolutions. The collections will be released in September and cost 380 yen each.