Monday, 30 November 2015

Sneak Preview 3 - The Pokémon 20th anniversary special BIG act of Cultural Vandalism

This is sneak preview number 3 of my Pokémon 20th anniversary special that is still under construction and is scheduled for completion in February 2016.

Haven't decided let when to release the next one let.


After Ash nearly gave away Pikachu in the touching episode 'Pikachu's Goodbye', a number of things happened before Ash finally competed in his first league tournament. These included...
Oh, and that incident on New Island - the site of Ash's encounter of that Pokémon that beat Gary in the Viridian City Gym - Mewtwo
We all know the story that Mewtwo is a clone of Mew commissioned by the (initially) orange-suited power-hungry Svengali figure that is Giovanni and created with the cloning skills of Dr FugiBut how many of you know of the real reason how Dr Fugi got involved in this project? Are you aware of the extra 10-minute short that was added to the start of the first movie after it's first release? Like me, you may have already seen the first few minutes of it as an added extra on the film's first VHS/DVD release in late-2000, the scene where the scientists find the Mew fossil in Guyana. What happened in the remaining seven minutes is (SPOILER ALERT) tragic. Dr Fugi's main motive to work on this project was to aid his personal project to clone his dead daughter. It was like what happened to Shou Tucker in the 2003 version of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. He had successfully made a copy of her conciousness (in the form of a holographic cloud) inside a tube (I think he planned to make her body after working out the kinks in the making of Mewtwo.). The interesting thing is that in the lab Amber (the dead daughter) and Mewtwo (in an infant stage) communicated telepathically. During their correspondence Amber showed Mewtwo the outside world through her (child-like) memories. But during so her concious in a tube began to die in the lab. As she began to fade from Mewtwo's mind Mewtwo started to cry. Been the first time he ever cried he was puzzled by the liquid coming out of his eyes. Amber said they were called tears and said....
"They say living beings only cry when their bodies are in pain. Humans are the only ones who let out tears when their sad. ... Thank you. Thank you for your tears. But please don't cry. You're living! Stay alive okay? I'm sure it'll be fun." 
Then she disappeared. But Mewtwo couldn't stop crying.
"The tears aren't stopping! What should I do? Answer me Amber!"
That that was when his brainwaves spiked alerting the scientists. Because it was too early for him to be awake, they induce deep sleep through a tranquillizer. And during that sleep his memories of Amber were "forgotten."  But were they? During their first communication Mewtwo wondered if he were a human or a Pokémon. Amber's comment about him crying adds fuel to this question of his identity. So by the time he finally woke up he was already confused about his purpose in life. But as the scientists treated him as a "final product" of a long R&D session in fossil genetic cloning, Mewtwo went ballistic and blew up the lab. Seeing the destruction, Giovanni saw all he needed to see to know if his project was a success. Very soon after the destruction of the lab he offers Mewtwo the chance to learn ow to focus his power. He agreed and spent some time in a suit of armour (as he did when he battled Gary). After a few weeks of this Mewtwo still questioned his purpose in life, but Giovanni made the mistake of coming clean and telling him that he was a "tool" made for his selfish means. Mewtwo went ballistic again and ran away back to New Island and vowed to take his revenge on humankind for his slavery and the supposed slavery of all Pokémon. Then the opening titles roll.

Most of us who saw the first movie when it first came out, we only saw from the part I made bold above. In fact, (according to Takeshi Shudō) the original plan was not to reveal Mewtwo until Ash reaches the island. The prologue was not planned, but the hiatus of the TV series caused by the exploding missiles incident forced the animators to make them, as they originally planned to hint Mewtwo's existence in these three episodes, which only finally aired after the film premièred (ouch). Although the original film was a good "fate of the world in the balance" story for kids, I feel that the additional ten minutes added more maturity and not-subtle foreshadowing in the story. Maybe the idea of a reviving a dead child may have been considered "scary" for kids in the late-1990s (years before the pandemic of superhero movies forced the creation of the 12A/PG-12 rating). Despite the fact that (SPOILER ALERT) in the finale of the film, Ash "dies" in the crossfire in the battle between Mew and Mewtwo... and then is revived by the tears of all the Pokémon present (clone and original). Did Mewtwo really "forget" about Amber's words? There's something to think about.
With its plot featuring a very powerful Pokémon and a fate of the world in the balance premise involving it (with some deep exploration of humanity's relationship with nature and the environment), Mewtwo Strikes Back set the template for all future feature films.

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Sneak Preview 2 - The Pokémon 20th anniversary special BIG act of Cultural Vandalism

Here's something I have discovered during my research for my 20th anniversary special. 
It's too good to hold back until February. It has to be told now....

According to the anime novelization by the show's main writer at the time Takeshi Shudō, Gary Oak in the anime is not only Prof Oak's grandson but also the grandnephew of the mayor of Pallet Town. His cheerleaders are in fact electoral staff. So the next time you'll see Gary in this first series (the cheerleaders disappear during the Orange Islands arc) or see a "Gary F*&%in Oak" meme online, picture Freddy Quimby from The Simpsons (another cartoon mayor's nephew). 

Here's a visual aid I made to help you....


Friday, 13 November 2015

Sneak Preview - The Pokémon 20th anniversary special BIG act of Cultural Vandalism

Last night I heard of interesting news. Nintendo is releasing Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow in the 3DS Virtual Console on the franchise's 20th anniversary. On hearing this news I thought this is a good time to finally do this - to give you readers a sneak preview of a project I have been doing since February - My 20th anniversary BIG act of Cultural Vandalism on the subject of.... Pokémon.

Currently it is in a state of near completion, but their is still stuff left to do on it. So until then here's an extract I have just completed.

Is the Pokémon World Our World?

So that's the Pokémon themselves explained and out the way, but what about the non-Pokémon stuff in the Pokémon World. In fact, what about the Pokémon World in general? How could I describe it to someone who hasn't see it before? Well, judging by the anime, the Pokémon World is kind of like the world as seen in the British TV comedy series The Goodies. Its generally nice, friendly, full of crazy stuff (such as pokeballs, potions and various forms of crazy eyewear) and situations that can result in an half-hour episode in a family-friendly sitcom. In fact, you could do a direct comparison by watching side-by-side the Pokémon episode "Caterpie's Big Dilemma" and The Goodies episode "Kitten Kong." 
(You can do this legally. The Pokémon episode can be downloaded from iTunes, while The Goodies episode is on DVD.)

But if you take time to listen and observe, you'll find a lot of things in this world that references our world, from place names to historical figures. Bulbapedia has a page listing these references, but of all of them, my personafavourite is this...

Parody to the MGM logo from episode "An Epic Defense Force!" (2012)
featuring a Zorua as Leo the Lion
Admit it - its awesome, isn't it.

But with so many references to our world, a question occurs...
Is the Pokémon world actually our world

Junichi Masuda, co-founder of Game Freak (the creators of Pokémon) and big creative contributor to the games and anime (with his biggest contribution been the Hoenn region), has this to say about this question.
"We actually don't think of the world of Pokémon as Earth. If we were to do that, we would kind of be limited by what we could do. By thinking about how physical objects work on Earth and how various elements work on Earth, we would kind of be limited to that if we thought of it as Earth. We think of it as a place that is really similar to Earth, but is a different planet of its own with people in it who may be similar to people on Earth, but they have different values so they care about different things. It's the type of place, the Pokémon world, where problems we face on Earth just wouldn't happen. There wouldn't be global warming, water shortages, or anything like that. It's a world where the people in it really want to work together with each other. Their value system is such where they would prefer to work together and eliminate these problems rather than feud." - Junichi Masuda
Short official answer, no.

But don't despair, because I have a thought...

By thinking about what Masuda has said and looking at how Pokémon came to be (which I'll explain in detail in the next part), I have concluded that, on the subject of the Pokémon world's similarities with our own, that the world that we see depicted in the franchise that is Pokémon is not our present world.... 
It is our (possible) future......

A future where the relationship between humans and nature is much better. A future were we have finally got rid of the ridiculous notion that we humans are "separate from nature." The idea that is the heart of the notion that we humans are "superior" over the rest of nature, leading to a lot of arrogance against nature. The idea (I think) that has truly done more damage to Earth than any other manmade invention.
A world where we are much more careful about the environment and the organisms that call it home due to more awareness of their interconnectedness to it (an their dependence of it for life and substance).In such a world it is possible that (eventually) wild animals will no longer fear humans (like Pokémon do in their world, which ties in with my "semi-domestication" theory).

Unlike many futures depicted in kids media, this is a future that can be achieved without the need of the development of fancy technology. You don't need to develop hoverboards or quantum squeezing technology to make the Pokémon World a reality. The heart of it is a way of thinking... and some genetic tweaking (if you really want your own Pikachu). Its a way of thinking that can be traced back to the 19th century England when the industrial revolution was in the mist of transforming the country (not always for the better). It came in the form of Romanticism and (later) took form as the Arts and Crafts movement. But it didn't find its modern voice until the 1960s with the creation of the environmental movement... and when astronaut William Anders took this photo from Apollo 8....

Earthrise (1968)

You may have seen this image many times before, so it is very easy to forget the massive cultural impact the first photograph of Earth from the viewpoint of another celestial body (in this case the Moon) had on the world. For the first time humanity truly saw their true place in the universe - a species living on a small rock in a massive universe. Any major conflict on its surface for land, resources and influence becomes insignificant and irrelevant from this viewpoint.The only thing you could make out on the surface is that it is full of water and a lot of the land is covered with patches of green (the only indicator of the existence of life). With life (as far as we know) only existing on this rock, humankind really began to realise that they couldn't afford to destroy nature for the sake of material gain (and because they can, because their top of the food chain). Like on a spacecraft with limited resources, Earth has limits and (until humans begin to develop pan-planetary travel that'll allow them to spread on and exploit other planets) humankind has to be careful with its resources if we are to survive.

Its worth referencing Earthrise at the end of this introduction to Pokémon, because most of you may not have realized that Pokémon is a product of the environmental movement. In fact Pokémon references Earthrise in the end of the movie Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias.

For those who haven't seen this film, this is a SPOILER ALERT! In one of the most tearful moments in the anime's history, Latios sacrifices himself to save Alto Mare form disaster and becomes the Soul Dew (watch the film. I'm not going to tell you everything.). But just before that happened he shares what he sees with his sibling Latias, who then shares it with Ash and friends. What they see is the "Earth" slowly zooming out until fading into black.
"The Earth is so pretty. So blue." - Misty (from the English dub of the scene)
 "Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty." - William Anders at the moment he took Earthrise
Although officially the Pokémon world isn't our world, at the end of the day the parallels are hard to ignore. The planet Ash and Pikachu inhabit is blue, full of water, and exists in the "goldilocks zone" of the sun it orbits. It is Earth. An ideal world created to show what can be achieved if we really learned to recognise how finite our planet is.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

A Facebook Revelation


Just today I watched this video.

It turns out that Facebook has been stealing your seeing time from YouTube videos.

Because it takes three seconds for a playing video to register a view (and most of us take less than that to scan a post on Facebook) the viewing statistics of many videos have been skewed.

This may not sound horrifying to you, but to a broadcaster it is disastrous.

For a commercial TV channel, knowing which show brings in the viewers is vital when deciding how much to charge advertisers to have their ads during which show. This is why American businesses invest a lot into their commercials that are shown during the Super Bowl.

The same is true online.
Why would an advertiser waste time putting their ad on a video that gets very few views?

Although I am the few who actually doesn't care about viewing figures, many do.
But even I get  a bit excited when I see a spike in viewers on my blog's statistics page.

And that's the thing. 

We all want to be popular, and today their is no other indicator than how many views you video gets.

But if there was a a cheat that robbed you from many views, you'll be mad, right?

Exactly.

What is happening when someone posts a link to a video on YouTube on Facebook is that video gets robbed of views. Probably a high number of views that could have turned it into the next Gangnam Style. Its no surprise that video makers are considering it piracy - committed by a multi-billion dollar business. (don't blame the users, blame the high-ups for the shambles it had created.)

So the next time you see a nice video on YouTube and want to share it with others, 
think twice before posting it on Facebook. 
Is it a product from an established broadcaster its ok, 
but if its one that was made by an indie with little resources don't.

Looking back on my Facebook history I have committed this crime in the past, 
so for now on I'll stop doing it.... unless its too good not to share.