As stated in the news article from yesterday, the new Pokemon could be a character from another manga in CoroCoro, since the magazine traditionally combines characters and content together from different works on the same pages. It turns out that this was the case. The "Pokemon" was actually a character named "Benkei" from a Duel Masters manga.

So, no new Pokemon image... yet. There is still a "New Pokemon A" and "New Pokemon B" to be revealed soon, though. Click the image to the right for a larger picture.

The best of both my animé worlds... Studio Ghibli and Pokemon. :D

The Ghibli Asemamire Broadcast is a weekly radio show that features key players from Studio Ghibli and guests they invite to the show. Studio Ghibli is the company responsible for movies like The Castle of Cagliostro (Lupin the III), Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Castle in the Sky: Laputa, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, etc. In Japan, they are considered one of, if not the greatest, animation companies; their movies are extremely high-quality, both plot-wise and animation-wise. If you have never heard of them or seen one of their movies, you should go rent one or wait for Cartoon Network to have another marathon featuring a few of them. Their next movie, which is created by Hayao Miyazaki, is Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea, and comes out in Japan on the same day as Giratina and the Bouquet from the Icy Sky, Shaymin.

GhibliWorld is a fan website that translates the radio broadcasts each week, and this week one of the guests was Kubo Masakazu, the executive producer of the Pokemon movies! There is quite an extensive dialog between he and Toshio Suzuki, the producer and president of Ghibli. You can read it below (for pictures and other information for this specific broadcast, visit GhibliWorld).

Suzuki, "Why did you set the releasing day on July 19th? That's the day we release Ponyo!".

Kubo, "NO! We set it long before you. Ponyo came later than Pokemon.".

Suzuki, "Hey, Fujimaki. Are you backing Pokemon? You are standing behind Kubo!"

Fujimaki, "Hehehe... I'm backing The Sky Crawlers (note: Oshii Mamoru's latest work, which is also to be released this summer)."

Suzuki, "When did we get to know each other?"

Kubo, "It was more than 20 years ago. I visited Miyazaki to ask him to make a sequel of Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro). He didn't accept it though and told me about his next movie plan eagerly. It was so interesting."

Sukuki, "Yes, like that. You had hair in those days. Then, were you a Miyazaki fan in those days?"

Kubo, "Yes. I liked Cagliostro so much."

Suzuki, "By the way, is Pokemon's character design being done by Kotabe (Kotabe Yaichi)?"

Kubo, "No, he is general animation supervisor. Ken Sugimori is designing the characters now. However, we did get a lot of influence from Kotabe."

Suzuki, "Kotabe is a colleague of Takahata and Miyazaki from Toei Doga and they made Heidi or Marco together. I think Pokemon has some Ghibli flavor because of him. I guess Kotabe tells the staffs to imitate Ghibli."

Kubo, "Oh! Why do you know this?"

Suzuki, "Aha?!? Was that true??" (laughing)

Kubo, "Of course. We must learn anything that's good from every movie there exists."

Fujimaki, "You don't need to make a counterargument. It's the same as Suzuki (laughing). By the way, I think Pokemon is such kind of movie: kids find out about it, spend some years and after that they leave. Instead of the common Ghibli pattern: people meet Ghibli and don't leave."

Suzuki, "Yes. We never let them go away."

Kubo, "Yes. Pokemon is quite different from Ghibli. Doraemon is as well (note: Doraemon is another Shougakukan and Toho character). Kids come and go through."

Suzuki, "Why do you make the same movie every year? We can't do that. Aren't you bored?"

Kubo, "No. It is interesting. The same characters, the same director. However, if you watch all of them, you can see it like a Space Odyssey in total. We won 1 time and lost 3 times to Ghibli in box office. Yamadas smashed to Pokemon 2nd."

Suzuki, "Is that so?" Fujimaki, "Was that the one that got top of US box office?"

Kubo, "No, it was the 1st."

Fujimaki, "Aha. Ghibli has never got the top in US box office. They did get Academy awarded though."

Suzuki, "I know Pokemon got slumping with their 3th, 4th and 5th film, but came alive again in the middle. It was great that you never gave up."

Kubo, "Yes. We made a full-change of it to link the version up of the Nintendo game."

I'm glad Kubo realizes Pokemon hit a slump during its movie history. Perhaps that is why The Rise of Darkrai saw a dramatic increase in animation quality? Of course, Pokemon could always use some advice from Studio Ghibli in terms of its movie plots and themes. ;)

A new Ultra-Pro Majestic Dawn binder is set for release in May, and features the theme deck art for Glaceon (on the front) and Leafeon (on the back). It will come in two sizes - a small size (holds 40 cards with ten 4-card pages) and a large size (holds 90 cards with ten 9-card pages). Each will retail for around $7.00 and $9.00, respectively. Click the thumbnail below for a larger image.

As with all sets, a three-pack blister package will also be available, packaged with a Lucario coin, one Great Encounters and two Majestic Dawn booster packs, and a Mime Jr. promo card (which is a reprint of Diamond and Pearl Mime Jr. (#90) with different artwork; it may be holo as well). It will probably retail for around $13.00 to $14.00. Click the thumbnail below to enlarge the blister package.

A product advertisement for movie 11 pens may have revealed the existence of an alternate form of Shaymin, though the evidence is based on correlation.

Giratina's pen, as shown in the advertisement to the right, is gray on top and red on the bottom, and features a picture of itself hanging from the actual pen. In contrast, its alternate form is featured on another pen with the same colors, but reversed.

Shaymin's pen is green on top and gray on bottom, while another pen, which is coincidentally placed right next to it, features the reverse coloring of Shaymin's pen (gray on top, green on bottom). Could this mean Shaymin will have an alternate form in the movie as well (perhaps as "New Pokemon A" or "New Pokemon B"), since the second pen has its colors reversed like Giratina's alternate form pen? Click the image to the right for a larger scan.

Could this be "New Pokemon A" or "New Pokemon B?" It was featured on one of the movie 11 manga pages from yesterday, but was given no special acknowledgment in the actual advertisement. It could just be some weird old man (make that very weird) who is in the story, someone's possible disguise or alternate form, or, if all else fails, a new Pokemon. It may even be from another manga advertised in the magazine, since the art style is not similar to the rest of the page, and CoroCoro often likes to combine their content together. Right now, the only thing we can do is speculate until the next CoroCoro issue is released, although it may just turn out to be nothing special.

For those of you using Internet Explorer 6 (or earlier), the image enlarging is not yet functioning for you. I have to find a workaround for it because IE6 has not been updated in over six years and doesn't support anything recent. Among just this website not functioning well with it, you are risking your security by just browsing the web, since IE6 is so severely outdated that it is extremely vulnerable to viruses, malware, spyware, etc. I highly suggest that you upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox if you can. If your version is even older than IE6 (like IE5), you should have upgraded over six years ago. ;)

A new Pokemon game will hit the shelves in Japan later this year, according to the May issue of CoroCoro. A checklist with past Pokemon games is presented on one of the pages, with the slot for 2008 suggesting a game will be released during the year (scan courtesy of blue skY).

1996 - Pocket Monsters Red / Green
1996 - Pocket Monsters Blue
1999 - Pocket Monsters Gold / Silver
2000 - Pocket Monsters Crystal
2002 - Pocket Monsters Ruby / Sapphire
2004 - Pocket Monsters Emerald
2006 - Pocket Monsters Diamond / Pearl
2008 - Pocket Monsters ?????

Quite obviously, 2008 will see the "remake" version of Diamond and Pearl, as remakes for past games are presented on the page and that is what it seems to be suggesting. The June issue of CoroCoro (which actually comes out in May, not June) should have more information on the game, and when it does, it will be posted here!

As for the two new Pokemon we posted about last week, CoroCoro has made it quite clear that they do exist. "New Pokemon A" and "New Pokemon B" are shown in both scans below as future products (scans from Filb.de). As with the new Pokemon game, more information on them (perhaps even silhouettes) should be in June's issue.

And now it's Leafeon's turn! Like Phione, Leafeon will actually be a holo when it is released in Majestic Dawn. Click the thumbnail below for a larger image. As of now, five Majestic Dawn card images have been revealed. During the week before the first prereleases, we will have a ton of early scans, so be sure to check back here!

The next Japanese episode title is Decisive Match! Dawn vs. May! It will air on May 15th in Japan as DP79, and is the fifth episode in the Wallace arc. Who will win?! Dawn has lost her confidence, as we learned from the previous episodes in this arc, and she is trying to regain it. That should be a good hint as to who will win (or who will share the win, in the case of a tie).

May's CoroCoro also expands on the plot of Giratina and the Bouquet from the Icy Sky, Shaymin, providing us with this summary:

Shaymin reveals itself to Ash and friends, but has become weak. Through telepathy, it tells them that Giratina is in a rage and has been pursuing it. Shaymin became accidentally involved in Giratina and Dialga's battle, but managed to use Seed Flare to defend itself and escape. Dialga also succeeded in escaping due to Seed Flare, and because of that, Giratina began to pursue Shaymin.

The first summary released revealed that because of the battle between Dialga and Palkia, the "Reverse World" becomes polluted. The Reverse World is like a mirror to our own world, but many rules of physics apparently do not apply. Giratina, angry at the pollution, lures Dialga into its realm and begins attacking it, while Shaymin appears to Ash and friends. A movie villain, his android, and a traveling scientist are also revealed, but their roles as of now are unknown.

The May issue of CoroCoro has revealed the movesets of Shaymin and Regigigas, who will each be downloadable as promotional Pokemon for the 11th movie, Giratina and the Bouquet from the Icy Sky, Shaymin. Both Pokemon come with a previously unobtainable berry. Shaymin can be downloaded in the actual movie theater, while Regigigas is available at stores where people purchase their pre-sale movie tickets.

Shaymin with Micle Berry
~Aromatherapy
~Seed Flare
~Substitute
~Energy Ball

Regigigas with Custap Berry
~Iron Head
~Icy Wind
~Rock Slide
~Crush Grip

Micle Berry raises the accuracy of a move for one turn when Shaymin is "in a pinch," while Custap Berry allows a Pokemon to go first for a turn when Regigigas is "in a pinch."

Regigigas cannot naturally learn Icy Wind and Rock Slide, so it is exclusive to this 11th movie promotion only.