M Charizard-EX · Evolutions (EVO) #101

3 comments

1. 

   Richard Rich

   (3 years ago)

   This was the last of the * sixteen * Charizard ex cards ever made. Still fewer than Mewtwo ex though…
   https://pkmncards.com/?s=charizard+ex

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     AnonymousAzraelRichard Rich

     (2 years ago)

     Such a cool card but so disappointing at the same time. We should’ve had the full Art for both for Flashfire for Charizard X and Y and then a Evolution as an remix. Also for Mega Charizard in the Generations set. This applies for all of the Kanto starters.

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2. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   Japanese print of this card [ https://archive.ph/8PBde ], like almost all other Mega Pokémon EX of Generation 6;
   Attack on card text: printed in Japanese, i.e. グレンダイブ
   Attack on card art: printed in English, i.e. “GUREN DIVE”

   Note that グレンダイブ is literally read as “Guren Dive”. For Japanese players, card acts as a sort of Rosetta Stone for picking up not just some English words phonetically, but some English characters as well. What a wonderful way to celebrate the international success of the franchise and learning opportunity at the same time!

   English print of this card;
   Attack on card text: Crimson Dive
   Attack on card art: グレンダイブ (..still “GUREN DIVE”)

   I don’t want to put words in TPCI’s mouth and say they themselves decided that North Americans wouldn’t know or care to learn a foreign language. I know I’ve seen many fans (if I’m forced to call them that) insinuate they don’t care that Pokémon is a Japanese franchise, and they expect things to be as ‘Americanized’ as possible. But I don’t want to put words in the mouths of any fans, either.

   Growing up, playing (the translated English) Pokémon games helped me advance my English vocabulary (a stated goal of Nob Ogasawara, one of the translators that worked on the earlier Pokémon games) and I understand now that many Japanese players had a similar experience, with Japanese players learning several characters and words from the Japanese games. So there’s a shared experience there, that grinds to a complete halt when it comes to the card game, because while many Japanese Pokémon cards have attacks that are basically English words spelled out phonetically in Japanese characters, acting as a great way for Japanese players to learn English, there are, uh, how many attacks in the English edition that are romanized Japanese words?

   Like, why couldn’t they leave Guren Dive alone? English players don’t know what ‘Guren’ means? They can’t pronounce it? No kidding, Japanese players didn’t know what ‘Dive’ meant, and I’m sure some cards with English words cause trouble in their younger divisions. But how do you think they learned? Why can’t that opportunity be afforded here? Again, I hesitate to really go all out and put words in anyone’s mouths – there’s no point in kicking up a fuss for a passing comment on this site, but it’s really been starting to baffle me how often the JP attack names and EN attack names are still at odds, in 2022 – even when the JP attack names are already phonetically English!! – and the fact that the XY era tried to make a point of a common language for at least some attacks, and TPCI rebuffed (or felt obliged to rebuff) this… I think it’s very miserable.

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