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Salon Roquet
Latest news!
Updated: 27th August 2000
Look Who it
Is?? - About 2 minutes before I was about to give up and get
off the net, I finally found something newsworthy!! The latest
episode to air in Japan is "The Pokémon Zodiac!! A Fiery
Battle!!" And just for you, I've decided to put the episode
synopsis here. Why?? Read on and see!!
Arriving in Kogane, Ash is looking for the gym leader. However, Misty spots some kids looking at a book, and demands to see what it is. It's a Pokémon horoscope guide, but the kids won't give Misty a chance to see... She's told to go and buy one from the shop. She does so, getting one from a nice old man and lady, and the characters all gather round to see who's what. Ash is a Bellsprout, Brock is an Onix, and Misty is a Gyarados. She gets stressed out about that, and Ash tells Brock that this must be her Dragon Rage attack. Team Rocket appear, and Misty, incensed with rage, hurls the book at them, blasting them off fairly quickly. Picking themselves up, they too have a look at the book. Jesse is an Eevee, and James is a Moltres!! Jesse declares that James is NOTHING like a Moltres, but James, obviously a believer, states that if he's a Moltres, then he's going to act like one, and changes his name to "Moltres James".
He storms into the breeding center, declaiming that Pokémon near and far are now the property of Moltres James, but the old lady hurls him against the wall. Jesse and Meowth are shocked, and the old couple remove their disguises to reveal... Butch and Cassidy!! They lock the Rockets in the storeroom, but James is having none of it, and shoulder barges the door. Meowth and Jesse are stunned, and Moltres James picks them up and carries them off, impatient to stop Butch and Cassidy who are now back in the breeding center in Rocket garb. Misty bursts in, with the others in tow, still angry at the zodiac reading. They find Butch and Cassidy among the Pokémon and phony fortune telling books. A fight begins, with Totodile and Staryu against Raticate and Primeape, who start out looking like the better team. Totodile and Staryu look to be in bad shape, when Moltres James storms in, telling the kids to get out of the way. He sends out Victreebel, and it tries to eat him - but fails as James kicks it hard, telling it he'll take no more. Victreebel agrees shakily, and starts kicking Butch and Cassidy's butts. He laughs, telling them that no one can defeat Moltres James.
Butch and Cassidy exchange glances, then Butch tells him it's all fake. James is instantly deflated, and Victreebel and Team Rocket get blasted off again. The twerps finish off Butch and Cassidy however, and they're carted off to jail once more.
YAYA so Butch and Cassidy are back for a third episode. And many more to come, I hope.
More Random
Episodes - Nothing much else of any real relevance to update
you with this week, but I do have more confirmation on upcoming
episode air dates...
As below, except...
9th Septmeber - 7:30am Misty Meets her Match (ep. 103), 9:00am
Pokémon Double Trouble (ep. 108)
Both of these are Orange League Gym Matches, and sandwiched between a few others, including Pikachu Re-volts, which if you've haven seen, I sincerely suggest you do for pure Butch/Cassidy entertainment value. : D 10:00am, if you want to watch it.
Still no sign of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys though, even up to the 23rd September (my birthday, incidentally ^_^)... a new series _is_ premiering then though, "Static Shock" at 9:30am, right after Pokémon, and replacing "Generation O!". Could that be it?? I know nothing about the majority of US programming, being a Brit myself, so this is where I concede defeat. I can probably tell you more about when TJJ will air in the news update two weeks from this one though. As for the UK, I do have some news - turns out it might not be Sky that shows Season 3 first, as somehow CITV has apparently now got the rights to broadcast more on terrestrial TV in September. They got to "In the Pink" if I remember rightly, which leaves about 15 or so episodes before Season 3... what "new episodes" means then, is somewhat unclear. They may just show those 14, in which case we'll just have to wait for Sky who are currently half way through rerunning every episode for the billionth time this Summer. But since Sky tend to air new episodes daily rather than weekly as on WB!, the UK might be ahead again for the Johto Journeys. Ah well, time shall tell.
Oh, and look what I found... Salon Rocket. It's not really covering anything we do here, so go take a look - it's quite inventive...
Til next time. -Jam
Updated 20th August 2000
New
Episodes and the Insanity that is Kids WB! - There wasn't a
whole lot to report on this time, as it has been a pretty slow
week or two Pokémon wise, but for some reason this ended up
being an unusually long update. Go figure. The major news is that
new episodes are being aired in the States again. Kids WB! who
deals with it all over there has made something of a pigs ear
with it, however, having neglected to finish Season 2 before
starting the third season. But here's the listings anyway. Note
the wonderful episode order.
19th August - Pokémon Food Fight
(ep. 107)
26th August - Pokémon Water War (ep. 106)
2nd September - Charizard Chills (ep. 105)
9th September - (Bound for Trouble??) (ep. 104)
New lineup for week beginning the 11th...
15th September - 4pm (Misty Meets
her Match??) (ep. 103)
16th September - 8.30am ??? and 9.30 am ??? (ep. 117 most likely,
since this is the predicted start of Pokémon G/S (probably now
called "Pokémon: the Johto Journeys") but who knows
for sure?? Ahvel - When I do, so will you.)
They've already pushed the new lineup back one week, and filled the gap with a horrendous overflow of Pokémon (10 episodes over the 9th/10th September - about 70% of Kids WB!s total slot, with just four other 20 minute shows during that period). There are two episodes every other week day too, so no wonder the parents are sick to death of the show over there... They're getting around 8 hours or so of it per week. This is a bit much, ne??
Some sites have a vague reference to what goes on in the new episodes, but Salon Roquet has a more detailed report, plus some notes on other episodes soon to air, which can be accessed if you click here to go to the relevant episode guide page.
Team Rockets Meowth - Yup, Team
Rockets Meowth finally has his own Card in the trading game. It
was released as a promo for the Gym Heroes doobries which are to
be out around about now in the States. $3.49 a pack, by the way.
The attack is "Miraculous Comeback" (uhh, are we sure
on this one??), and for each Pokémon out in play, you flick a
coin. The number of heads x 10 is damage to the opponent, and
number of tails x 10 is damage to Meowth.
While we're on the theme of Pokémon cash cows, five of the top
ten Gameboy games are Pokémon related... #1 - 4 are Pokémon
Yellow, TCG, Red, and Blue, and #10 is Pokémon Pinball. So
perhaps once Gold and Silver are released mid October, along with
the couple of other Pokémon spin-offs due for release later this
year, they can try to eschew all other games out of existence...
It's the end of the GameBoy and Pokémon will be all that can
remain... You have been warned.
On the subject
of an amazing revelation - Okay, to prove how dopey I can be,
I've only just noticed the incredibly obvious outlaw names
featured among Team Rocket members. Don't read this if you want
to work them out yourself (the hardest part is learning they
exist though)...
Jesse and James - Jesse James, a famous bank and train robber.
Butch and Cassidy - Butch Cassidy
Billy - Well, Billy the Kid, since Mondo's the youngest Team Rocket
member. They should have just called him Sundance... (Yep, Billy
is Mondo's apparent dub name, should he ever show up)
Giovanni - Don Giovanni, famous Mafia chappy.
Don't look at me like that - I just didn't notice okay?! And it proves it's "Jesse" and not "Jessie".
New Anime
- Also, in more general news, some new anime series are now
airing in the US in the shape of Escaflowne and Card Captor
Sakura. The first isn't an especially brilliant dub by most
accounts - they've tried to turn it into a boys show (the
Japanese original was much more like Sailor Moon in that it
actually focused on girls as the target audience) and most really
don't think it works especially well in the dub. There's cutting
on a Dragonball-Z scale, and its a real shame because Escaflowne
is a really excellent anime. Get the subbed version on tape if
you can, and then see what people mean about the butchering.
Slightly better is Card Captor Sakura; a Pokémon clone in some respects. It's based around Sakura, a card collecting cheerleader with the hound of hell as her pet. The Clow cards themselves which are the Pokémon of the show are not so much monsters, but each has its own special ability, such as fire, float or time, and she can use cards she's caught with her baton to try and trap the others. Tomoyo, Sakura's best friend, films her using a Fly card at night, and she becomes her sidekick-come-fashion advisor and camera girl, insistent that everything should be taped for posterity. She provides new clothes for every battle, and comes from a rich family; often surrounded by bodyguards. Sakura's brother, Touya, teases her relentlessly but in reality cares deeply for her. Although he knows nothing of the Clow cards, he keeps seeing the spirit of their dead mother, Nadeshiko. His best friend is Yukito, 17, who Sakura has a crush on. He's always kind to Sakura, but he doesn't seem to feel the same way. However, as only Touya knows, there's more to Yukito than there appears to be.
The Gary of the show is a guy named Li Xiaolang, and he's also after the cards, and (some might say) Sakura herself. :o) His fiancée, (even though they're ten), called Lei Meiling, transfers to their school and sees Sakura as a rival for Xiolang's affections, so decides to help him capture all the cards first. Although unable to use the cards directly, she helps him out with her impressive martial art skills. Li himself is also in love with Yukito in the jap version, but that'll be censored somehow in the dub, á la Zoisite/Malachite in Sailor Moon.
Cerberus, the dog of hell, is Sakura's pet, and probably most equatable to Pikachu in Pokémon terms. As evil as the hell hound sounds, he's actually a cute lil teddy bear with wings (although, when imbued with suitable energy, he assures her that he's "much more studly" in his proper form). Weird thing.
So overall it's a pretty good anime if you like that sort of thing, so look out for it. For UK peoples like RC and myself, there's also Orguss 2 on Monday evening on the Sci-Fi Channel - plus other anime movies such as the excellent Wings of Honneamise all next week. Have a look at your listings!!
Bye for now!! -Jam
Updated: 27th July 2000
PMT -
Hiya!! Tis Jam with quite a bit of news for y'all... Pokémon the
Movie 2000 (what did you THINK that acronym meant?? : P ) has
been released in the US, and by most accounts its pretty good,
(check the message boards...) although the pre-release rumours I
heard were to the contrary. Still, the opinions of one or two
cynical reviewers who didn't like it seem to be in the minority,
with people who'd actually care whether they saw it or not
finding it quite engaging. (Although the fairly extensive
arabesque-left, pirouette-right, repeat-until-audience-is-dead
routine by Bellosom wasn't so well received). Punters picked up
either an Ancient Mew trading card (which CAN be used in
competitions, dispite what some sites have said - you need it in
an opaque sleeve though), or a Zapdos, Articuno or Moltres card,
depending on whether or not the cinema screwed up and gave out
the wrong promos for this week (as seems to have happened in
several places). Still, the main reason for this post is to give
you the following two snippits of dialog from the good guys Team
Rocket...!! (Yeah, you're not hallucinating, they save Ash. MORE
THAN ONCE. I was totally disgusted too!! Teaching kids morals...
sigh). James was apparently pretty funny throughout.
James: [regarding the opposite sex] That's the kinda trouble I stay out of!!
I've lost my actual copy of this
quote, so if someone might like to tell me who actually said
what...
Jesse: So I guess we're the good guys now...
James: That's good!!
Meowth: But we have no money!!
James: That's bad!!
Meowth: But we can steal some!!
James: That's good!!
Lost
Episode - Rachael Lillis pointed out that there was an option
to dub another one of the "lost episodes" in her online
chat, which would either be "Legend of Dratini" or
"Electric Soldier Porygon"... She didn't know which one
it was, but as far as I know, the lady who voices (I think) Ash,
refused to even consider dubbing ESP because of the seizures. So
I'm guessing it must be "Legend of Dratini". I'm also
pretty sure it's a confirmed thing (although when and where I
don't know). That episode features Ash catching wave after wave
of Tauros in the Safari Zone (in case you ever wondered where
they all came from) and should you be interested in knowing WHY
it was banned, please click here and scroll to the bottom!!
G/S Spoiler - I've just found out
something amusing about this little guy on the left here... but
first an introduction for those who haven't yet heard of him...
Musashi (Japanese Jesse) is now the proud owner of this
constipated beaver known as "Sounansu" (no US name yet
GRR), which she accidentally exchanges for Lickitung, and so
naturally our British/American Jess will be following suit and
getting hers when "Sounansu and the Pokémon Exchange"
airs around about January or February here. Now, this info has
been about a bit, so why mention it now?? Well, it's just come to
my attention that Sounansu roughly translates as
"Accident" in English, and considering its expression,
I'd say that's pretty much the first thing on its mind. But the
main thing that's worth note is about one of its compatible
breeding partners. (For those unfamiliar with Pokémon Gold and
Silver - you can now pair off your Pokémon into happy fuzzy
couples who spawn eggs and eventually new arrivals for you to
battle away with. Let's hope your Pokémon can get jobs then...)
Anyways, imagine the humour that could ensue if Sounansu were to
get it on with the apparently Oh-So-Compatible... Weezing!!
Indeed, it's not just Jesse and James that might be getting up to
some, uh, dirty-business (and I mean that in a purely
Team-Rocket-stealing-Pikachu sense of course ;D ), as their
Pokémon could be whiling away a few secret midnight rendezvous'
as well. I can see it now...
[Note from RC: I've edited a bit here... We have to remain an age-friendly site, Jam!! LOL!!]
Heh heh heh. Having a little "Accident". That'll slide right by RC. Uhm, or maybe I'll just leave the dirty puns alone, and the rest to your imagination before I get fired... :o) Cheerio..
Updated: 23rd July 2000
Rachel Lillis
covered many topics in an online chat from anime.scifi.com. She
discussed the Pokemon movie and noted how she was very pleased
with the final product, saying how it surpasses the first by way
of animation and content. She also reveals how she believes Jesse
and James should get married!! Go to the Library to find the
transcript, or just click here.
There was an official opening ceremony when
the new Team Rocket cards went on sale and to mark the occasion,
a real life Team Rocket hot air balloon was unveiled! Check it
out!
The latest series
of Pokemon will be called simply "G/S" or "Pokemon
G/S". Check back for future updates for spoilers and
information about what Jesse, James and Meowth will be up to in
the new series!
Please click here to find the
results of the last poll. The question was: What is your opinion
of Butch & Cassidy?
Where do you want to go?
