Dr Lava

BREAKING NEWS: Pokemon Beta Leaker Speaks Out

Well, the source of all the recent leaks has been identified. In March 2018, an individual hacked into Nintendo servers, acquiring a truckload of prototype assets. This hack included Gold & Silver's 1997 demo, the Red & Green prototype back sprites, and Gen 4 beta sprites. Here's a link to the story about the Gen 4 beta sprite leak from earlier this week, in case you missed it: http://lavacutcontent.com/gen-4-beta-sprites-leak/

[Update] The leaker's statement and more information is contained in this new December 26 article: http://lavacutcontent.com/gen-4-beta-sprites-leak/

The new leak didn't include Shinies... but I got them.

Yesterday I made a Patreon post about the new Gen 4 beta sprite leak -- take a look if you haven't seen that yet. I got in touch with the leak-holder late last night (China time) and spoke for a bit. I say "leak-holder" because he's not the guy who leaked the sprites on 4chan -- basically, this was the guy in possession of the beta sprites when someone else leaked his collection. This leak-holder doesn't want to be identified by name -- he prefers to be called "550D5A658330C3598DEE08D09ADEF54E50BA86EA84958C11C3DB3C4F51D435484CA654A2F877." Lol yeah, I'm serious.

Anyway, if you've seen the leaked Gen 4 sprites, you might have noticed that Weavile was the only Pokemon whose Shiny was included. The leak-holder gave me 64 more Shinies that haven't been leaked yet, including the Absol pictured here. However, when the sprites were *ahem* acquired from Nintendo, the Shinies were ripped improperly. So the colors are off, and need to be indexed. I don't personally understand color indexing, but someone who does is helping me to fix the Shinies.

I'll admit, 64 Shiny versions of the leaked gendered sprites isn't super exciting -- it ain't no Spaceworld, to be sure. But as far as I can tell, only a few people outside the dev team have seen these sprites up until now: the person who *ahem* acquired them from Nintendo, the leak-holder, myself, and the person helping me index the colors. The leaker himself hasn't even seen them. You folks reading this are the only other people to see this Absol, and you'll be seeing all 64 fixed Shinies once they're fixed.

Once they're fixed, I'll include them all in a download link here for you, like I did with the other 700 or so leaked sprites in yesterday's Patreon post. I'll publish them afterwards, once I've gotten a chance to write a proper article about them.

Cheers guys. Lemme know if you have any questions. I know this might be somewhat confusing.

New Leak: Hundreds of Gen 4 Beta Sprites (download available)

About 36 hours ago, hundreds of never-before-seen Gen 4 beta sprites leaked. They're not 100% confirmed legit, but from what I've seen, and the sources I've spoken to, I'm pretty confident they're real. I've written up a lengthy article covering the who, what, where, and when: http://lavacutcontent.com/gen-4-beta-sprites-leak/

The leak has been pulled from the internet, but I've got them in a Google Drive document. I won't be spreading it around, but I'll provide you guys here on Patreon the link so you can see them all the beta sprites for yourself: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14fKFk1x1gQpt1X081pAUmYzA9DyWV5O9?usp=sharing

The file is pretty disorganized unfortunately. But read the article first, that'll let you know what you're looking at. Just about every Pokemon has 8 images associated with them -- beta male, beta female, release version male, and release version female sprites. There's also a back sprite for each one, totaling 8 sprites for each Pokemon. The release version sprites are there for comparison. Let me know if you have any questions. Y'all are the first to see this article, and I haven't seen the story covered anywhere else, so I hope you like it.

New Translation: Last 17 Gen 5 Origin Stories

I've just posted the translation of the last of Sugimori's Gen 5 origin stories. Here's the link: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-6/

My apologies this newest video is taking so long >_< It's about the creation of Lugia, and its source material is translations of dozens of Shudo blog posts, Spaceworld, and lots of other stuff, so it's really been a massive project. I wish I could make these kind of videos a lot quicker, but they take a lotta time.

I'll do my best to keep articles like this one rolling out between videos. Okay cheers guys, thanks as always for the support.

Patron-only Translation: Tao Trio Development

Hey guys, I've got a new translation for you guys to read. It's attached to this post as a PDF, you'll need to download it.

It's Sugimori, Masuda, and Ichinose discussing the development of the Tao Trio. This translation will be the basis for a YouTube video, so I won't be publishing it until after the video's finished. So please don't share it around -- the last thing I want is for another YouTuber to cover these translations before I get the chance to make my own video.

I've published three new developer interviews on my website as well this week: lavacutcontent.com

Cheers guys.

New articles posted on my website

Hey guys, I was having some problems with my internet this week. So I took the time to write a couple articles, which I've now posted to my website.

Gorochu article: http://lavacutcontent.com/gorochu-developer-interviews-leak/

July 2000 interview with all the Pokemon bigwigs: http://lavacutcontent.com/sugimori-hundreds-pokemon-cut/

I also updated some older articles. Cheers guys.

Patron-only Translation: Ending Ash's Story

I've attached a new translation to this post in PDF form. It's quite long -- including my commentary, it's about 5000 words. Probably about a 20-30 minute read.

It includes information about how Pokemon's head writer Takeshi Shudo wanted to end the series (it's pretty heavy), how he was hooked on alcohol and pills in his years as head writer, some info about Lugia's creation, and lots of other interesting details.

I'll publish this translation on my website lavacutcontent.com at some point in the future, but for now it's just for you guys. Please don't share this around -- I'm a little worried about some other YouTuber stealing my thunder like with previous translations. If you have any suggestions or questions about clarification, I'm all ears -- just leave a comment under this Patreon post.

Cheers guys :)

How your money's being spent

Hey guys -- first of all, just wanna say thanks as always for the support. I wanted to give y'all an update on where that money's been going.

Today I was able to find a Nintendo Dream magazine that I *believe* contains the last of the Gen 5 Pokemon origin stories as told by Ken Sugimori. It should cover about 40 more Pokemon. I got it on a Japanese auction site for about $75 and it's supposed to arrive in about two weeks. So I'll let you guys know when that arrives of course. 

So a few weeks ago I spent $70 on some Japanese magazines, but unfortunately they were kind of a bust. But luckily, over the past week I hit some gold. I've heard rumors that Takeshi Shudo -- who was head writer of the first 5 years of the anime as well as the first 3 Pokemon movies -- was the creator of Lugia. So I searched through all 225+ blog posts he wrote between 2003 (when he started) up until his death in 2010. Everything he ever said about Lugia during those 7 years I sent to a translator, totaling $125 in translation fees.

While I was digging around in his blog, I found two ideas he had for ending the Pokemon anime series -- which are both pretty heavy. So I had those translated as well. I'm currently writing the commentary for a lot of these translations, and I'll post them here on Patreon in the next few days. Eventually they'll be made publicly available on my website as well -- after the corresponding video has already been finished.

I expect translations and tracking down rare old Japanese magazine interviews is how I'll be uncovering most new information moving forward. The attached art was made for free by a fan named Austin Short by the way -- don't worry, I'm not spending your money on title cards :)

Okay, that's the update for now. Cheers guys, thanks again.

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.

Translation: Lugia's Origin

I've been kinda shopping around various Japanese interviews and such, seeing which ones are worth paying to have translated. Some have been duds, but this one is pretty interesting. It's a long blog post written by Takeshi Shudo, who was the chief writer of the anime as well as the first 3 movies. I'll soon have the full interview translated, but I wanted to give y'all a glimpse at what's inside.

Shudo talks about his anxiety of the Pokemon franchise losing its popularity in the long wait between generations 1 and 2. He also discusses Lugia -- also known as Pokemon X at the time -- which he created himself specifically for the second movie, and was surprised to see that it ended up being used *outside the movie.*

I should note, it's very strange for an anime writer to be creating Pokemon, especially a Legendary like Lugia. Here's a snippet of what the translator's given me so far:

"With a majority vote from the film distribution team and Game Freak counted at the big meeting, it was decided that the name of the Pokémon in the second movie would be Lugia as I had suggested earlier. Lugia, also known as X, is a Pokémon that I created myself specifically for use within this movie, and the fact that it was used in episodes of the anime released after the movie's release and even games surprised me greatly."

Submit your questions for Spaceworld interview

Last week I posted a bunch of stuff on my website that Team Spaceworld sent me: http://lavacutcontent.com/spaceworld-sprites-full-resolution/

The full story of the Spaceworld '97 leak has never been published, so later this week I'll be doing a podcast-style interview with Samuel Messner, the guy who personally extracted all the sprites of the leaked 1997 demo. I've got some questions of my own lined up, but I wanted to check with you guys and see if there are any questions you might want to add to the list.

Just leave them as comments below and there's a good chance they'll get used. The interview will be posted to my YT channel in the near future, and depending on how it goes, might get adapted into a traditional episode at some points.

Cheers guys.

Development of a Typical Gen 1 Pokemon

Made a shorter version of this to post on Twitter, thought I'd post the longer version here:

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Development of a Typical Gen 1 Pokemon:

1. The Pokemon's beta sprite is hand-drawn.

2. The beta prite is revised and programmed into Red & Green. Some Pokemon are programmed directly into the game as sprites without ever having been hand-drawn.

3. Finally, Sugimori interprets and revises R&G sprite into the officially released artwork.

This whole process often took several years' time. Artwork was usually the LAST step. So when you see weird old sprites, it's not that they're poor representations of the artwork. The artwork was made AFTERWARDS, and is an improvement and revision of the design seen in the sprite.

Wanted y'all to see this first. So clean :)

I'll post these on my website later, but I thought I'd post them here first. It's all 1004 Spaceworld '97 demo sprites with a nice clean background. These have only ever been published with a gray background, which really doesn't give the same viewing experience. Over about 6 hours I inspected and corrected every sprite -- it's not just the background that's white, but all empty space even within the sprites.

The white background makes it easier to read some of the smaller details within the sprites. And it's just so much nicer to look at -- which is nice if you really want give it a good study. Considering how important these leaked 1997 sprites are, I thought taking the afternoon to clean up these sprite sheets was a task worth taking on.

Cheers guys.

How your money is being spent

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you an idea where your Patreon pledges are going this month. I've purchased a couple Japanese art books for about $60, commissioned a new translation for $85, and am about to purchase three more volumes of Nintendo Dream magazine for about $70.

Since so many large websites and YouTubers snaked the earlier translations, I'll be sharing most future translations only with you guys here on Patreon. At least initially -- once the videos based on the interviews are finished, the translations will likely be published on my website. This is mostly to prevent having my thunder stolen while I'm in the editing room.

Anyway, I thought y'all would like to know how your money's being spent. Cheers guys, thanks again for making all this possible.

New stuff added to secondary YouTube channel

Hey I just wanted to let you guys know I added some things to my second YouTube channel recently: the full Oha Suta trailer for Black & White (the one that shows beta Excadrill), a recent podcast interview I did with PUCL, and there were some other additions over the past month like an enhanced version of that Meiji University Black & White concept art slideshow.

I reckon some of you guys didn't know there was a second channel, so I thought I'd let y'all know and provide the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE3RHINjW3vjyfGhKgXCYnw

Cheers guys.

Hundreds of Alola art scans

Hey guys, sorry this newest video is taking so long. Getting closer. A new "lost Pokemon" article is also in the works -- both should be finished in the next week or two. But here's something y'all might like in the meantime: several hundred scans from the Japan-exclusive "Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon Alola Art Book." In total, this comprises all the artwork for every Alola location, as well as every Pokemon introduced in Gen 7 -- including Alola forms of older Pokemon. Some of this art has been published in English localization collectors' guides, but some has not.

I've put them in two google docs folders. You should be able to access them just by clicking the link -- no signing up or anything like that is necessary.

Alola Pokemon: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16XGu6fxoOfqV_WPVDxpsfr-bZ7bdmFdL?usp=sharing

Alola Locations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CWnt385CB8Xq7w2M3-PM-yOR-S_47zmd?usp=sharing

1990 Pokemon Concept Art by Ken Sugimori, enhanced

I had to buy a new mic, so I'm waiting a few days for it to arrive. With the down-time, today I started digging around for Pokemon concept art. I found this 1990 concept art showing an early Capumon version of Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower. I only found 2 low quality copies of this art, so I enhanced it. Thought I'd share it with you guys.

Psst, this is just between the 32 of us

Y'all already know all about the Sugimori interviews, which will make up the bulk of the betamon covered in my next two YouTube videos. But I've also got some very early concept art for Sawsbuck that I've analyzed (not what's pictured above) -- which it appears no one's ever really done before. So that concept art and analysis will also be in episode 21. I only mention this to you guys, because I don't want anyone stealing my thunder on this, like what's happened with the Sugimori interviews.

In order to recreate the Sawsbuck concept art, I've enlisted the help of Grace Kraft -- an artist for Cartoon Network and Disney who does art and writing for shows like PowerPuff Girls and Steven Universe. She usually charges about $250 for 3 pieces of art like this, but in my case she made an exception and did a skill trade -- I'll be editing a demo reel for her in exchange. So just know that y'all's Patreon contributions won't be going towards incredibly expensive art.

The sketches pictured above are from Grace -- still in revision (the stage 2 and 3 horns don't match the concept art), but I just wanted to give y'all a quick look. Rachel Briggs (aka RacieBeep) from Helix Chamber has also done some original artwork for these next 2 YouTube videos. She charged me $20 a pop, but I think it's worth it, given how historic these interview translations are, and how important it is to recreate these lost Pokemon with the highest level of quality.

So yeah, I'm pretty excited about what I'll be posting over the next month.

Cheers guys, thanks again for all your support.

Pokemon Historia: Part 4, Characters

I've just posted the newest Sugimori translation to my site, but I won't be announcing or publishing it anywhere just yet. My translator still needs to have one last look-through before I go tweeting about it, etc. So I've quietly posted it so that he can give it one more look-over it in its final form, and also so that you 29 Patrons can have an early look as well. My translator Kenji and I have been going back and forth on this for two weeks, so I'm pretty confident about the translation details -- many aspects were triple- and quadruple-checked, especially the important parts.

If there ARE any alterations that need to be made, they'll be very minor -- for instance, where he said "freighter," I changed it to "cargo plane," because although his translation was correct, some readers may have understood "freighter" as a boat. So for all intents and purposes, the version I'm linking you to now should be completely accurate.

Y'all are all thanked by name in the translation's conclusion. Thanks for the support you guys, without it this kind of project wouldn't be happening. Cheers.

(Newly Enhanced) Rare Gen 5 Concept Art Slideshow

 ~Enhanced footage of rare Gen 5 concept art, 120 pieces~: This slideshow  of Gen 5 concept was originally displayed in 2010 at Meiji University  in Tokyo, then was never shown again (or at least recorded). Much of the  artwork included was never displayed anywhere else, including unused location concept art. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ3ko5HtNFw 

This is the same 2010 slideshow I posted last week on my second channel, but yesterday I spent about 4 hours enhancing the raw footage. I thought  such a historically significant piece recording deserved a face-lift. And I was feeling a bit worn out editing my upcoming betamon episode, so  I took a break by working on this mini-project.

The original recording had these edits made: brightness, contrast,  swivel, tilt, rotation readjusted 26 times, scale adjusted 43 times,  position adjusted 62 times. About 4 hours of video editing work in  total. Some of the art I'll analyze later in videos or on my website,  but most of it I'll never have time to focus on -- there's just too  much, so I'll only be analyzing the most important bits. 

Original concept art for Ghetsis (2012 Japan fan event)

Masuda's original design for Gen 5's N

Helix Chamber artist joins the project

Happy to announce that Helix Chamber’s Rachel Briggs will be doing some art for the translations / videos about the translations. She’s a bit pricey, but I think it’s worth it. The attached art is her interpretation of the lost Petil evolution. Btw, I now believe this lost evolution to have been the middle stage of the Petilil family, and I’ll explain why in the upcoming video.

Cheers guys.

Episode 21 script

This script is being published here for y'all to get an early look at, as well as for my proofreaders to look over. Episode 22's script is finished except for the (much shorter) intro and outro, so that'll be posted here soon as well.

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Hey folks, Dr Lava here. Well, last time I talked about Generation 5's scrapped special event centered around the Lock Capsule, and this time I'll be reporting on scrapped monster designs that ended up going unused in Pokemon Black and White. In total, I'll be covering 18 unused monster designs -- about half of them in today's episode, and the other half next time in episode 22. In order to uncover all these lost designs, I commissioned translations of a series of Japanese interviews in which lead Pokemon designer Ken Sugimori details the origins of every monster that was introduced in Generation 5. These interviews come from several 2011 issues of Nintendo Dream magazine, and before I embarked on this project, none of them had ever been fully translated into English. As a part of these origin stories, Sugimori provides page-after-page of information on Black and White's development, including early designs for lots of monsters that did make it into Black and White, as well as details on a few monsters that were scrapped entirely. Presently, I've only managed to locate and translate interviews covering 104 of the 156 Pokemon added in Generation 5 -- the remaining issues of Nintendo Dream I'm still trying to track down from whatever rock they're hiding under somewhere in Japan. You can read these interview translations in full on my website, but in this episode I'll just be covering the highlights, as well as reporting on some beta designs that were revealed outside those historic interviews. A few monsters do have official concept art, but for most of them, all we have are Ken Sugimori's descriptions -- so the majority of the artwork you'll be seeing will be artists' interpretations of the revelations contained in this series of 2011 interviews. Once I've located and translated the origin stories of the remaining 52 Unovadex Pokemon, I'll come back later this year and produce a third betamon episode covering those revelations as well. But for now, let's go ahead dive into an analysis of the information at hand, and take a look at 8 monster designs that never made their way into Pokemon Black and White version.

In Nintendo Dream volume 205, Sugimori reveals that Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon were initially a family of tank dragons. Sugimori doesn't say this explicitly, but it seems likely that the family's original typing was half Dragon and half Steel, a typing that as of this video's publication has only ever been exhibited by one Pokemon: Generation 4's Dialga. But Sugimori tell us that Game Freak wasn't satisfied with the Hydreigon line, so the tank dragon designs were put on ice. But then later in development, orders came down from the games' planners requesting a powerful three-stage dragon family, so the Hydreigon family was resurrected and revised. Sugimori explains that while developing Hydreigon, the designers drew inspiration from Yamata no Orochi, a mythical 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon, and that during the revision process, there was a point where Hydreigon also possessed 8 heads. But the design team was displeased with how it turned out, so they revised Hydreigon again and ultimately decided on the design that we know today, whose silhouette still retains the apperance of an 8-headed dragon. Interestingly, Sugimori points out that the purple tread-marks on the bellies of the dragons' final designs are leftovers from the days when the family still exhibited their early tank motif.

In volume 204's interview, Sugimori tells us that the original concept for the Litwick family was a flame that evolved into a candle, then into a lamp. But ultimately, the idea that a flame would evolve into a candle just wasn't working for them, so the design team threw out the family's initial flame stage, and they added a chandelier at the end of the evolutionary line in order to maintain the family's three-stage concept. Presumably, artwork for this lost Flame Pokemon is still collecting dust in one of the vaults at Game Freak headquarters, but given the developer's track record, it seems unlikely that we'll ever get a chance to see it -- or any of these lost Pokemon designs for that matter.

In volume 201, Sugimori only briefly touches on the Deerling family, explaining that even though their final designs were shaped around the concept of seasons, Sawsbuck was originally created before seasons even existed. As far as I can tell, early concept art depicting that early Sawsbuck design was never exhibited in the West, but it was once displayed for exactly 4 seconds at a school festival in Tokyo, Japan in late 2010. More specifically, it was shown on a TV screen at Meiji University along with some location and character artwork for Black and White, some of which has been exhibited elsewhere, like at the 2011 Pokemon TCG World Championships in San Diego, California, as well as in several volumes of Nintendo Dream magazine. Unfortunately, the video resolution isn't good enough to decipher the Japanese writing, but by analyzing the sketches we can get an idea what Beta Sawsbuck might have been like. First, we can see the date of the sketch, meaning the original Sawsbuck concept is at least as old as January 19, 2009, almost two years before Black and White first released in Japan. We can also make out seeds that gradually grow into leaves, and ultimately into saplings, which act as Beta Sawsbuck's horns. And the sketch also shows us that the fur on Beta Sawsbuck's torso is actually a root system, which appears to grow larger as the Pokemon grows older. So presumably, these features, as well as the creature's size, would have matured over the course of 2 or 3 stages, resulting in a deer family that probably would have looked something like this. But at some point later in development, Game Freak decided to implement the concept of seasons into Generation 5, and as a result, we ended up with the Sawsbuck family that we know today.

In volume 204's interview, Sugimori reveals that Stunfisk's design was originally blue and based on a deep-sea goosefish. A goosefish is a type of angler that can live at depths over 3000 feet, camouflaging themselves in the mud and the sand on the ocean's floor, and growing up to 5 feet in length. Stunfisk designer Mana Ibe's initial concept was to create the world's flattest Pokemon, so a bottom-dweller like a goosefish would have made perfect sense. But during the games' balancing phase, Stunfisk ended up getting revised into a brown flounder, and his Water and Electric typing was changed into Ground and Electric.

In late June 2010, the very first pre-release trailer for Pokemon Black and White aired on a Japanese TV show for children called Oha Suta, which in English means "Good Morning." The Oha Suta trailer gave fans their first sneak peak at several Unovadex Pokemon, including Excadrill. But unlike all the other Pokemon in the trailer, Excadrill's beta sprite bears some notable differences compared to the sprite that appeared in the game's release version. Specifically, Beta Excadrill's body is purple instead of brown, his belly pattern is hot pink rather than red, and the belly pattern is also mirrored left-to-right. But some misinformation regarding the Oha Suta trailer has proliferated over the years, with claims that low resolution or discoloration of the video file itself are the cause of Beta Excadrill's apparent differences in color. However, after analyzing several recordings of the trailer, as well as photos published at the time of its release, I can say with certainty that Beta Excadrill's appearance was not distorted by quality issues, and that he did in fact exhibit notable differences compared to the final design that made its way into Black and White's release versions.

In volume 205, while describing the design origins of Heatmor and Durant, Sugimori reveals a monster idea his team has long-wanted to make into a Pokemon, but to this day still hasn't gotten the chance to make into a canonical monster. While Stunfisk was originally meant as the flattest Pokemon, apparently Sugimori's team has long wanted to create an ant that could serve as the world's smallest Pokemon. While that's certainly an interesting concept, it's pretty clear why that concept still hasn't become a reality. It just doesn't make intuitive sense for something as small as an ant to engage in battle against even an average-sized Pokemon like Pikachu, let alone winning in such a battle. And if that indeed is the issue that's been stopping them all these years, the design team's idea for the world's smallest Pokemon will mostly likely remain as nothing more than just an idea.

Okay, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss episode 22 featuring even more unused monster designs. In addition to the Sugimori interviews I've been talking about in this episode, there are lots more interview translations and cut content articles that you can check out on my website, lavacutcontent.com. I'd like to give a big thanks to my Patreon supporters -- this video wouldn't have been possible without their support, which helped pay for translators and original artwork by Nick Kron and Helix Chamber's Rachel Briggs. So if you wanna see more high-quality, research-heavy content, I ask that you please consider signing up to support my channel for a few bucks a month -- it helps to make sure that I can continue producing more interview translations as well as videos just like this one. If this episode contained any factual errors, I'll leave corrections and clarifications in this video's description, as well as a list of all my sources. Okay that wraps things up for this episode -- thanks for watchin folks, see ya next time.

7 Minutes of Rare Gen 5 Concept Art (Read Description)

I've uploaded an extremely rare recording to my second channel: a slideshow exhibited at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan in late 2010. It includes some art that was displayed or published elsewhere -- like several issues of Nintendo Dream Magazine and the 2011 TCG World Championships -- but it appears some was never presented anywhere else. I believe this to be the only recording of that slideshow to ever be made public.

Just between the 29 of us, what made me go searching for this rare recording is the beta Sawsbuck concept art shown at 4:44. But don't tell anyone, it's a bit of a secret for now. I'm currently having original artwork curated to reflect the messages conveyed by this particular piece of artwork, and it will be included in episode 21, which will cover lots of Gen 5 beta designs.

This recording was originally uploaded to YouTube in early 2011, but as its title and description were in Japanese, I figured no one outside of Japan would ever see it. Indeed, despite the fact this is the only public record of some of this artwork, the video had only garnered 22k views over the past 8.5 years. So I don't think the JP video description was very descriptive. I honestly don't believe the original uploader knew the rarity or significance of what they'd recorded -- their channel only has 6 subscribers, and the only other video on the channel is a 30 second clip of basically nothing. It seemed wise to re-upload their video not only for English-speakers, but also for general archival purposes, and it's very possible the original uploader could delete their YouTube account at some point in the future, and this recording would be lost. Here's a link to the original upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8t-jF3R9NY

Normally, I would never just straight-up reupload someone else's video, but in this particular instance it seemed like the right thing to do.

Kenji the Intern joins the battle!

I’ll be announcing this on Twitter and in the channel Community tab in a few days, but wanted to let y’all know first. A Tokyo-based translator JP translator has come on board — as something of a Robin to my Batman — which will allow the website to publish even more translations.

Since he’s in Japan, he’ll also be able to receive in-country shipments of magazines, as well as locate interviews of his own volition. So this’ll really help with anything Japan-related.

He’ll be given the monicker “Kenji the Intern,” as well as an avatar similar to Dr Lava’s (the image seem above will be photoshopped). He won’t appear on the YT channel much, but he’ll be an integral part of obtaining information from the Land of the Rising Sun, which will appear on the website, and the information itself will be used in upcoming videos.

Cheers guys.

Read Sugimori interview #3 right now

I'm publishing Sugimori interview #3 on my website right now so y'all can be the first to read it. It's now publicly available, but I won't be announcing its publication on YouTube/twitter/etc for a few days -- very few people visit my site unless they've been sent there.

Here's the link: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-3/

Episode 20 is FINISHED!

All I gotta do is make the video thumbnail and its ready to roll. You can expect it to go live in a few hours.

Sneak Peak at Sugimori Interview #3

I won't be publishing this full interview for about another week, but I wanted to give y'all a look at one of the more interesting Pokemon origin stories found in the interview. Cheers guys.

Be the first to read the new Sugimori interview, link below

Wanted y'all to get a chance to read this first: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/