Dark Wartortle · Team Rocket (RO) #46

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1. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   To disabuse myself of an old guess I had that this card might’ve been made with the knowledge that the Squirtle family would get access to Mirror Move in Pokémon Gold and Silver, the original name of the Mirror Shell attack is こうらがえし [𝐊𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐈], which doesn’t seem likely to be meant to be associated with the Mirror Coat attack [originally ミラーコート, and literally 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐀𝐓].

   And for the sake of due diligence – as far as double checking what the best translation for こうらがえし would be, eh, Mirror Shell is whatever. Some digging for other appearances of the term include an appearance in Dragon Quest Monsters¹, where the term got translated as Sheldodge². There, some fan wikis suggest “Shell Reversal” as a better translation³, which seems fine as well.

   Only vaguely possible is that 𝐊𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐈 is meant as a pun on 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐈 [枕返し]; “Makura-gaeshi are a kind of zashiki-warashi: a child ghost which haunts specific rooms of a house [and it] is known to hide in bedrooms, waiting until the occupants are asleep in bed, then steal the sleepers’ pillows from under their heads and replace them at their feet.”⁴ It doesn’t specifically go along with Dark Wartortle’s Pokédex entry per se, but the way this entry describes Dark Wartortle doesn’t make it sound very malevolently evil, just ill-tempered and annoyed. That the attacks might also suggest that being trained and owned by Team Rocket doesn’t so much build Pokémon up into dangerously vicious monsters, but instead reduces them to the temperament and behavior of low-ranking youkai, seems endearing.

   ¹ The idea a card might reference a DQ game mechanic sounds inserting, but Dragon Quest Monsters released in Japan in September 1998 and this card’s JP equivalent released in November 1997, so it’s impossible.
   ² Character limit issue, assume “Shell Dodge”.
   ³ https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/BugBlow
   ⁴ https://www.shindaiko.com/makuragaeshi/

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     TwylisAmbassador

     (2 years ago)

     That’s the impression I always got from most Dark Pokemon — the franchise has always been very insistent that pokemon can’t be truly evil, and are just very influenced by their trainers, so just being exceptionally grumpy makes a lot of sense for most of them. That aside, love it when pokemon have youkai parallels.

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