And imagine how much more trauma inducing this would be on the English dub if they do that idiotic 'talks by saying its name' schtick and then just cut to the screaming

They talk by saying their name over-and-over in the Japanese version too. I mean, there are sundry and sometimes a little more severe changes made in the transition from Japanese to English, but the basic concept of POKEMON speech is the same in both languages, just apparently they can also scream in extreme circumstances.

I heard an interview with one of the translators for Pokemon once. The biggest problem they have is that, when translated literally from Japanese, most of the "humor" is based on puns between Japanese and Chinese, which has no English analog. So, this guy being interviewed said his job was to basically make the animation make sense by coming up with new (and even lamer) jokes for the characters to be laughing about.

What I don't get is why, since most speech animation is just two repeated cels, can't they spend a few extra bucks and re-use digitally captured cels so they can make the spoken lines as long, short, or different as they need. I mean, kids do this shit all the time to lip sync their damn AMVs on YouTube, and it's not like the Pokemon franchise isn't a proven money-maker.

A LOT of Asian humor is based on puns and wordplay. It's not really looked down on there the way it is here.

Mostly because the languages in that part of the world are structured in such a way that it can actually support some very clever puns.

Pokemon is the greatest and most complex satire of the 20th century, is what I'm getting at here.

They don't re-synch the animation to match a script that flows more naturally in English because writing the English dialogue to match the lip-flap is much cheaper. It's the way they've dubbed anime since the days of ASTRO BOY, SPEED RACER and KIMBA half a century ago, so they're set in their ways. All anime dubs no matter how well done (i.e. COWBOY BEBOP) sound a bit stilted to my ears because of that.

Of course, you know the number one reason they always cut things from any POKEMON episode when dubbed for American television? Just to make more time for commercials. Japanese commercials on kids shows are usually only 15 seconds each, so an entire commercial break is usually just a minute long, while commercial breaks on American kids TV are usually around three minutes long (not only is the average American commercial twice as long as the average Japanese commercial, but there are more commercials per commercial break).

Either way the dub will ruin it with some schmoe halfass yelling to save his voice for 'when he makes it big'

@Xeno: I didn't say puns were looked down on, especially in a kids' show. From what I understand, these puns would be like an American cartoon using the word "roger" with the understanding that the audience has a passing familiarity with the use of the word as a verb for sex in Britain.

As for my lip sync comment, I DID note that a series like this which is going to make scads of cash COULD improve things with such a simple technique and still have money left over to burn.

What you suggest is probably easy to accomplish for when characters are static with just their mouths moving (admittedly a good percentage of shots in POKEMON) but a lot harder when characters are talking while moving.

Aside from creating problems with pacing and music, editing the animation also crosses a line when it comes to the whole idea pf translation. Once you're adjusting the actual visual presentation of a film or TV show to suit your script, you may as well change the plot turns, the character roles, and anything else you deem unconvincing.

But this is Pokemon, so it hardly matters either way.

VIZ did the slowdown-speedup thing for some stuff (notably Ranma 1/2) - it was called the Wordfit system. From seeing a rare sub of it, it was probably a good thing too - much of the comedic timing was lost in subtitles. Maybe there's a patent out there somewhere stopping others, maybe it's just too time consuming/expensive, or maybe that show let them get away with abusing it more than others.

I'm still trying to get over James with boobs in a bikini contest.

How come Rocky the Flying Squirrel never bit Boris and gave him rabies?

She/he did, and had to be put down. Really depressing episode.

Why didn't Breaking Bad just start biting all of his enemies.

The Nick TMNT revival is already more ninja-oriented than previous TMNT series, so I actually see biting happening. Anything to keep your enemies off-balance.

Charmander was asking for it.

You might not be too far off the mark. This might be based on the common theory that in-universe, pokemon returns are ALWAYS voluntary.

http://tinyurl.com/nv5rkex

This comic is real as fuck

This comic is amazing

why can't all 'fan-art' be this sick? it gets a little too heavy-handed at times and the english isn't very good but holy shit, this is all 12-year-old me could have ever wanted.

Awesome!

My two cents:

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/148/1/8/realistic_pokem on_season_1_by_arvalis-d66xl8c.jpg

Also, retitled to the same.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (6)

THAT'S the tag to go for