Heeeeeeee’s back! I had a very busy weekend and then took some time off work where I tried to have a big mental reset. That meant little to no studying, but the passion still burns so hopefully I can get everything typed up before I go to the pub!
Plot:
Red says goodbye to the kids and proceeds to walk in the other direction. Red starts to ponder that maybe this Dr Orchid might be all he’s cracked up to be…as he’s lost in his own thoughts, Red bumps into a strangely dressed man, who proceeds to chastise Red for being clumsy.
Vocab:
小僧 - boy/child, used in a disparaging/chastising way. (the strange man shouts ‘BE CAREFUL KID’)
あんな - kind of. I’m guessing this is related to こんな (あんな = that kind of, こんな = this kind of?)
Grammar:
ら - used as a plural, I think. context in the interesting sentence.
Interesting Sentence:
？あんな奴らこの町にいたかな。
My Translation - “I wonder what these guys are doing in town”.
Spoiled for choice this page, there’s basically only one sentence of note.
I’m guessing the ら after 奴 turns it into a plural?
Page 10
Plot:
Red hides in the grass nearby and spies on the strange men, and spots a bunch of モンスターボール - monster balls/pokeballs on their belts. We then see my favourite panel in the comic so far.
Red continues to spy on the strange men and we see a R on their uniform. The ‘leader’ seems to be talking about a pokemon that went missing in the area, a 幻のポケモン - phantom/illusion pokemon! They haven’t yet checked the forest to the west, so they’re gonna check it out tonight…
Vocab:
こいつら - these guys (another way of saying it!)
逃げる - to escape, to flee
間違いない - “I have no doubt”/“I’m sure” - set phrase, literally “no mistake”
なんだそりゃ - “what’s that?”, set phrase
徹底 - thorough (used in 徹底調査, coincidentally I learned 調査 a day or too ago on WK! who said WK was rubbish for vocab!
Grammar:
逃げこんだ - so this is a mix of 逃げる and こんだ (込んだ), which is understand is to change the first verb ‘inward’. Instead of just getting lost generally, the pokemon got lost in this area
Interesting Sentence:
まださがしてない場所は西側の森か！
My translation - [We] haven’t checked the forest to the west yet!
Yet - searched - not - place that is west - forest Feels good to read sentences this long, not sure where I picked up さがす before but I managed to read this hear (maybe just the context?)
I literally translated as “these guys were in town? I wonder” いた just being the past conjugation of いる。And then just made it sound more natural in English.
Plot:
Red realises he’s inadvertantly heard some exciting information and runs off while claiming he’s gonna be the first person to catch the phantom Pokemon.
Later at night, Red is sneaking through the west forest, carrying a massive handful of Pokeballs (he’s taking no risks it seems). Pleased that the mysterious men haven’t showed up yet, Red wonders where the phantom pokemon could be. As he picks up a dropped ball, something catches his eye…
Vocab:
とやら - “or something”/“so called” are similar phrases in English, you’re passing on second hand information
しめしめ - “alright!”/“I’ve got it”, basically a little cheer at something going your way
さあーて/さあて - “now then”/“well”, sentence connector, stating what the next thing in the plan is
Grammar:
ちゃう - I believe this is the casual/short form of しまう, added to verbs to state it’s to completion or by accident. It’s in Genki 2 so I’ll quickly review that chapter before bed. Used twice on this page
Interesting Sentence:
さあーて、幻のポケモンちゃんはドコかなあ～？
My translation - “Now then, where’s that phantom Pokemon?..” Pretty straight forward sentence but Red uses katakana for a lot of words. Two instances on this page. ドコ in this sentence and in panel 3 "イタダイちゃう” in place of “いただいちゃう”.
さあて, sounds like a really useful phrase. I think studying a list of connecting words is probably a useful thing to do soon, it’ll help my currently stale/wooden production of sentences.
I like how Red is getting playful around catching this new Pokemon, calling it chan.
I used to play the Gen 1 games fervently and a couple of years back read a bit of the Pokemon Adventures manga. From what I know the manga aligns with the Red edition where you have Red (Ash) and Blue (Gary). The anime is loosely based on Pokemon Yellow I believe. (Wikipedia article: Pokémon (TV series) - Wikipedia)
Here I might be off, but I do believe you can catch Polywag early on in Pokemon Red and evolve it into Polywhirl (level 25) or even catch an underleveled Polywhirl in the wild.
Slight correction here: Japan had Red/Green first (which were really buggy), then later had a special Blue edition (which fixed many bugs, had all new sprites/graphics, and a redesigned Cerulean Cave).
For the western release, they took Blue’s codebase and graphics, and took the distribution of Pokemon (wild Pokemon, in-game trade Pokemon, game center prize Pokemon) from Red/Green, and made those into Red and Blue.
(This resulted in an issue where you trade someone a Raichu in Red/Green, but you send them a trade-evolve Pokemon in Blue. In the English version, you trade this person a Raichu, and he says the Pokemon evolved after the trade. Oops.)
Yellow fixed even more bugs, added calls to the anime, new graphics, new Cerulean Cave, etc.
Along these lines, Green (Gary) and Blue in this manga series had their names swapped for the western release to be Blue (Gary) and Green.
I have become fluent overnight and managed to read 4 pages today. It’s nothing to do with the fact these are action pages and probably have about 5 words each on them, no sir.
Plot:
Red seens another boy in the forest. He’s facing off against a shining, floating Pokemon. The boy then sends out his own Pokemon to battle, a ヒトカゲ - Charmander! Red is suprised to see the boy is a pokemon trainer, as Charmander attacks with a flame attack!
Vocab:
ヒトカゲ - Charmander, the first Pokepun I’ve got. ヒト = heat, カゲ = shadow, shape
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
夕方のあいつらの仲間かな、クソ！
My translation - Couldn’t parse this. I knew all the words but the use of の twice kinda confused me.
Evening’s guys’ companion ? Damn!
I got some nice help on the forums though and we established it means “A companion from the guys this evening? Damn!” Red is annoyed that the mysterious men from earlier had gotten there before him.
Page 13
Plot:
Charmander and the other Pokemon get into an epic battle, while Red stares in disbelief. Red can name the Charmander but has no idea what the shining Pokemon is…(Red should have read the title of this chapter)
Vocab:
あっち - over there, I think I came across this doing a 2k deck, but it’s the first time reading it so it alluded me
Grammar:
I’ll address the grammar point I have in the Interesting Sentence bit
Interesting Sentence:
こんな戦い方、見たことないぜ。
今まで見たことがないぞ。
My Translation(s) - “I’ve never seen a battle like this” - Red is in awe watching Charmander and the other Pokemon fight
“I’ve never seen before” - Red points out the other guy is using a Charmander, but wonders what that shining thing over there is.
Cheating today and picking two sentences as they both refer not seeing something before but use different grammar. I think I’ll ask about this in the grammar thread and get back with the results. I have a feeling it’s just casual chatter omitting particles…
Page 14
Plot:
The other trainer calls his Charmander back. Red jumps out of the bushes and starts to chastise him. “If it looks like you can win, you don’t quit”.
Vocab:
ちまう - another form of てしまう
Grammar:
[な]のに - even though/in spite of, another one of those grammar points I’ve done in Genki but never really come across in the wild. XのにY, it is Y despite X.
Interesting Sentence:
勝てそうなのに、なんでやめちまうんだようーーーー!!
My Translation - “You don’t quit if it looks like you’re winning”, literally translation “You are quitting even though you look like winning”. I guess the literal and the translated are both quite similar and look natural. Basically the only sentence of note on the page, but it brings up a good and useful grammar point.
Page 15
Plot:
Red sends out his Polywhirl to fight the shining Pokemon. Polwhirl can barely charge up his watergun before getting KO’d! Red stares in disbelief of the power of the mystery Pokemon as it flies off into the night sky.
Vocab:
No new vocab, there’s a few onomatopoeia and not much else of note.
Grammar:
There’s no sentence longer than a word on this page.
Interesting Sentence:
ニョロズ⁉
My Translation - “POLWHIRL?!” I always had a softspot for Water Pokemon in Gen 1, poor Polywhirl, your avarice got him hurt Red!
I think you got the first part of the sentence correct (note that there is no “if” in the sentence).
勝てそうなのに - even though you’re about to win / even though you’re winning
なんでやめちまうんだよう - why are you stopping?
The sentence has no question mark, but the question word なんで turns it into a question.
“Even though you’re about to win - why are you stopping?”
“Why are you stopping?? You’re winning!”
Something like that
Plot:
Red is consoling his hurt Polywhirl. The other trainer offers Red some words of advice. He knew the mysterious Pokemon was too strong, so withdrew Charmander. If you over estimate your abilities, you’ll end up self destructing.
Vocab:
しっかりしろ - "Hold on!
あまえ - you
攻撃 - attack
差 - difference
手を引く - to withdraw
実力以上 - beyond one’s ability
自滅 - self destruct
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
オレは2回の攻撃でレベルの差を見切った。
Another sentence I struggled to make sense of but in essence it’s “I saw the difference in power after that second attack”. After being shown how it breaks down, it’s pretty simple but I had some kind of block when I saw this in the book.
I (topic) (with/at the second attack) (the difference in level) (clearly perceived)
Page 17
Plot:
The mysterious Pokemon flies off into the night, as the strange men from earlier swarm the forest. They see Red and one begins to chastise Red before being reminded that finding the Pokemon (apparently called Mew) is their mission.
Vocab:
焼け野原 - burnt field
放っておけ - leave [him] alone
それより - more importantly
ミュウ - Mew
了解 - roger/understood
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
放っておけ！それよりもミュウだ！
My translation - “Leave him alone! Mew is more important!”
Page 18
Plot:
Forlorn, Red heads towards the lab of Dr Orchid. Showing some humility after his defeat, he realises that maybe this cranky old man could teach him a thing or two…
Vocab:
カンゴ - stubborn/obstinate, Red is insulting Dr Orchid here
くやしい - frustrated (because of a defeat/inconvenience)
