A Localized Journey Through Pokemon Red - Part 1

[@Ackermin]

So I just realized that the Pokémon descriptions from the English Red version are those from the Japanese Blue. There is still some localization done but not as much as I said in the video so basically just disregard that stuff. My bad.

[@ACESchultz]

Still weird that they decided to switch that up.

[@jendorei]

@@ACESchultz There is a big reason, you see. Western R&B were actually based on Japanese Blue, with only a few elements coming from Red&Green. R&G came before Blue in Japan, and they are considered even more buggy. Pokemon sprites were also changed for Blue.

[@lpfan4491]

Yeah, the first few Pokemon games did not really "deal with JP to english-localization". First was Red and Green(JP), then Blue(JP), after which they combined aspects of both to create Red and Blue(West). The first mainline Pokemon game that was released as such in Japan and was then localized to english and beyond was Yellow.(Which, interesstingly, the original JP version was still Black and White, while the localized version got full color support) This weird mismatch is why the game claims that a Raichu evolves, lol.

[@kit6024]

Interesting note on this: apparently, Nintendo expected Pokemon to do badly in America because kids hated reading. Personally, I think a lot of the changes are less to do with trying to baby things down for kids, and more to do with either simplifying or shortening text to make it more digestible for a young US audience. Hard to know how much that was warranted, but it does sound like at the time Nintendo was very dubious about whether the title could succeed at all - so it's no small wonder they pushed for overzealousness. (In other cases, such as words that would be repeated several times, I wonder if text was made shorter just to save characters/space. For example, Monsterball is much longer than Pokeball, and Pokemart is much shorter than Friendly Shop, though I agree that Pokeshop would probably have done the job fine.)

[@weridplusho]

Hmm... yup, I'm gonna be watching the rest of this. This is great. Almost no one touches on the localization difference beyond the names. 25:45 OHH, so THAT'S why PokeSpe has Blue's Purin puff up like a balloon! Very clever, Kusaka...

[@needleice8246]

This is such a great idea for a series! Brings back great memories of playing Green version for reading practice as I was taking Japanese courses in college. Anyway, I love how meticulously detailed your analysis is and I eagerly await the next installment. You deserve so many more subscribers!

[@Ackermin]

Thanks so much! Playing Japanese games was one of the ways I used to practice Japanese too. It made studying much more fun and relatable in my opinion. It’s great hear you enjoyed part 1 as well! Part 2 should probably be out pretty soon depending on how much I cover.

[@t.funkthecoolmunk5472]

Pocket Monsters got shorten to Pokémon not just to “hide” the fact that they were monsters but at the time the United States already had a toy line called Monster in my Pocket where you collect toy monsters, so they changed it for copyright reasons

[@Addition2]

This is very interesting. While my first experience with Pokemon is from the 1st Movie in English, but for the series, it is the Cantonese version, which luckily also has the Japanese dub, and the whole anime didn't change a thing. So when people grew up with "I want to be, the very best....", to me it is "Pokemon, Gettotose!", and it is FAR SUPERIOR. Now for the Cantonese version of the Pokemon names, they are very close in meaning. Charmander is called "Xiu Fo Long" which literally means "Small Fire Dragon", Squirtle is called "Che Le Guai" which I am not really sure what is the meaning and I checked again and found it has changed to "Jie Ni Gui" which is pretty much the same as in Japanese, and then Bulbasaur is called "Kei Yi Zhong Zi", which is also means "Mysterious Seed". The names for Jesse and James, of course used the same as in the Japanese, Musashi and Kojiro, except pronounced in Cantonese.

[@belstar1128]

Yea i watched the cartoons in dutch but dutch games are rare .video games in general don't get localised into many languages compared to books or movies

[@zolbieab8294]

Oh cool, someone else doing something like this! I have a similar series on my channel, although mine is more of a traditional Let's Play format with less cuts and I go on tangents about other stuff as well and it's more ranty and opinionated, not so much about comparing each individual line and name. The "Famicom" already looks like a Super Famicom in the JP version, and there is another one later in the game where they reference the Super Famicom game "Wario's Woods", so I think they just use the term 'Famicom' as short-hand. Supposedly the title change from Pocket Monsters to Pokémon was done to avoid copyright issues with a franchise called Monster In My Pocket. It's true that they seem to hush around the word 'monster' a lot, though. The name Fushigidane is actually a pun meaning both "mysterious seed" and "Isn't it mysterious?" Zenigame also has a double meaning as 'zeni' is also an old-fashioned term for money. This is referenced in Black & White's PokeQuiz. (I didn't know this when I made my video either). I'm pretty sure Diglett's name wasn't changed because of any copyright concerns, because it was changed back to Digda in the German version. Takeshi's line about his "hard rocks" is another pun, where "ishi" can mean both "rock" and "will" or "determination". I think this was translated pretty well as "rock-hard determination". The change to the first guy on Route 3 creates a plothole in the remakes where all the trainers have names, but this guy's name isn't the same as anyone in Tokiwa Forest, where you supposedly fought him before.

[@EdwardSnortin]

Thanks for making these videos, I watched the entire playlist 🙏

[@joeyphilpott]

How do you not have more subscribers?? Instant sub, keep up the great content.

[@Ackermin]

Thanks, that means a lot!

[@sunshineyon00]

My first game was Green. I later moved to the US and got used to the localized version of the franchise. this video is a blast from the past for me. Also, the video is... so thorough. great job and great channel.

[@Ackermin]

Thanks! It’s really cool to get a perspective from someone who played the original Green first before the localized versions.

[@NoraNoita]

So since I didn't play the english version but the german one, and I actually didn't know Pellet Town was Pellet Town, I'll note a few things here from what I remember: - Pellet Town is called Alabastia in german. - Professor Oak is called Eich, the german word of Oak (Eiche) - Charmander is called Glumander (Glut - (Char) + Salamander) - Squirtle is called Schiggy (the Schi part cuz Turtle is called Schildkröte the iggy part probably because localizers found it phonetically the best) - Bulbasaur is called Bisasam (From the word Bizarr and Samen, odd/strange and Seed) - German edition also has Poke Dollar - Pidgey is called Taubsi (from the german word for Dove Taube) - Caterpie is called Raupi(from Raupe) Weedle is Hornliu (because it has a Horn I guess) - Now that you mentioned the Shop, for the German version it says MRKT for Pokemon Markt - in English you call it Kakuna in german it's called Kokuna (Kokon means cocoon) - Pewter City is called Marmoria City (from the word Marmor english Marble) - Pippi/Clefairy is called Piepi in German, so much closer to the Japanese in this case - Diglett is called Digda in german like the Japanese - Sandshrew is called Sandan basically the same as japense just a different phonetic ending instead of Do it's Dan - Geodude is called Kleinstein (from the word Klein (small) and Stein (stone)) - Jigglypuff it's called Pummeluff in german (Pummel derived from the word 'pummelig' which is kind of a word to describe puffy or jiggly objects and uff comes from 'fluffig' which is the word for fluffy) So a few names seem to be in a way inspired by the english ones, but others are just kept or more faithful to what the Japanese been so far. Oh forgot to mention above that Brock's called Rocko in german, I assume it still carries the stone theme but is a more commonly understood name than Brock would be maybe. I can't possibly know the dialogue because I only played the Blue(Blaue Edition) version of the game, well and yellow, and I don't quite remember all of that.

[@Ackermin]

This is super interesting! I always like learning about games in languages I can’t read myself. Thanks!

[@belstar1128]

Germans and a lot of other european groups don't like foreign words in their language unlike the Japanese where they use non japanese words because they think it looks fancy. i was chatting to someone online in german but i didn't know one word so i said it in English and they got mad. i have not chatted much to japanese people online but when i chat in certain other asian languages like hindi nobody minds it when i use an english word.

[@lpfan4491]

@@belstar1128 Which is ironic, because german borrows from english just as much as english borrows from german. Infact, we legit do not have german words for certain things or if we do, they are rarely seeing use anymore compared to the english word.

[@belstar1128]

@@lpfan4491 yea but i mean compared to Japanese at least. and German has a common ancestor language with English from 3000 years ago. and Germany is so close to the uk even in the middle ages it was a short trip.

[@lanthelancer]

This video should have more views, it is very interesting.

[@vongolajames]

Fantastic! Just found your channel and I am super stoked for this series 😊

[@Ackermin]

Thanks! I’ll do my best to make it worth watching!

[@Caspicum]

damn bro this was incredibly thorough, and a solid vocab buffer. cheers.

[@ACESchultz]

Great video, I can’t wait for the rest in the series! It’s impressive how meticulously you went through this. Also I appreciate the “drying pan” in your logo 😂

[@Ackermin]

Thanks kid! I’m looking forward to continuing this one!

[@dudeguy07]

your localization videos are great, make more of them

[@Ackermin]

Thanks, I’m working on just that!

[@dudeguy07]

@@Ackermin I've been looking for a channel like yours for a while, happy to have found you.

[@Ackermin]

That’s really cool to hear. I’m glad my super specific localization stuff has an actual audience.

[@dudeguy07]

@@slopernafti902 no

[@davidscottheath]

Great series! Subscribed

[@GizmoTheGreen]

I contemplated the parcel line recently. as a Kid I didn't know what the heck "PARCEL" is, I think I even pronounced it par-sel my best guess is they tried to go down in character count? for some reason? or maybe they were british. I was a swedish kid learning mostly american english as I grew up. more or less bilingual but not quite. and this had me stumped.

[@spacepope8495]

Awesome vid this is a cool idea for a series

[@Ackermin]

That’s a pretty big relief to hear lol

[@facedure]

Man 283 subscribers ? Wtf, you deserve so much more. Your work is amazing, it really helps for my research, thank you. Maybe at the end of the series you could try to contact Nob Ogasawara for explanations on some localization choices

[@Ackermin]

Thanks, that really means a lot! I’ve thought about trying to get into contact with Nob but I’m not sure it’d work out very well. I guess we’ll see.

[@facedure]

@@Ackermin Hope you'll manage to do it ! Personally, I contacted Tim O'Leary to ask him some questions, and I hope he could tell me some infos to let me know eventually why Koopa, Peach, Kinopio etc got their names changed in SMB, while The Legend of Zelda got almost no change at all. (I know TO wasn't at Nintendo back then but no one knows who localized those games and that's what I'm trying to find)

[@zolbieab8294]

Don't bother contacting Nob, he calls people who don't want their translations messed with the "localization taliban". (Is it weird that I feel a bit of pride that he blocked me on Twitter?)

[@thelegendaryhunter0]

ironiclly that kid is right only sleep helps you catch pokemon in gen 1

[@Girkirbythesecond]

I'll be honest I largely disagree with "poke" being in front of common words as a negative given that the Pokemon world is wholly fictional so it would make sense they would have their own words for things like currency. I feel it better establishes itself as a fictional world with its own lore than just Japan with cute monsters running around, especially once we get to later games in the series where regions have their inspirations in other countries

[@Ackermin]

Mainly when I criticize something in these videos I’m not talking about whether the actual end result is good or not. Many of the localization changes in Pokémon Red end up sounding and working fine from a purely English reader perspective. It’s the actual decision to change something like adding in poke prefixes that I’m criticizing mostly.