Booze, Tranquilizers, Seizures — Lugia Origin Story is Fascinating and Bizarre

As I mentioned last week, I spent about $80 having a blog post translated. The blog post was written by the chief script writer for the early years of the anime, as well as the chief writer for the Pokemon movies.

I’m still confirming some key words, so I’ll have the full translation ready for you guys soon. But it’s really interesting. The author talks about writing the film script under the influence of booze and tranquilizers, and initially going out of his way not to include Ash, Team Rocket, or any of the series’ regular characters. He was largely left on his own to work on the movie, because much of the rest of the staff was distracted by the recent episode of the anime that gave a bunch of Japanese kids seizures. He ended up creating Lugia specifically for the movie, and didn’t expect it to ever end up in the games. In a way, you might say that Lugia might not have been created if not for that whole seizure incident.

He also talks about his anxiety about the delay of Gold and Silver, and how Ash in the anime is just kind of killing time in the Orange Islands until The Pokemon Company can get their shit sorted out. He fears the series is just treading water, and that there’s no growth or progression. But the merchandise just keeps selling, to his surprise. He lays out his own hopes for the future of the series — the title of this long blog post is “The Next 10 Years of Pokemon.” He ended up passing away just a little more than 10 years after writing this. It seems most of his dreams for the series were never realized. He comes across as a very troubled writer — relying on booze and tranquilizers against his doctor’s wishes.

It’s all very interesting and not at all what I would have expected to hear from Pokémon’s chief anime writer. Anyway, I’ll get you the full translation soon, then in a month or so I’ll post a video on the subject. At that time I’ll post the blog translation publicly on my site.

Just wanted to give you guys an update as I’m reading this bizarre blog from almost 20 years ago. Cheers guys.