More Shudo blog notes. Reflecting on "Island of the Giant Pokemon," he says that it was a popular episode in Japan, but doesn't know anything about the foreign reaction. Shudo even states that he was surprised it aired over here, since certain episodes that didn't fit foreign sensibilities were cut (obviously for content, not translation problems). My impression has been that people over here really liked "Island of the Giant Pokemon," but that may be me projecting.
The more interesting part is that he starts talking about how communication between Pokemon and humans was going to play into his idea for the ending (although in 2008, he noted that Pokemon seemed like it was becoming Doraemon or Sazae-san, and wouldn't end; thank god Shudo was wrong for a change). From his point of view, no matter what else was involved, the fundamental bond between Pokemon and humans was battling, in a "proxy-war" that the Trainer was never himself involved in, and thus kept doing it over and over.
>Even if you can show the result of the battle to save the world in any way, the main character doesn't realize the proxy war nature of the battle, and is absorbed in the battle endlessly, and it continues every time. In a way, he is like Peter Pan, who doesn't want to grow up and loves to fight.Writing subtitles for Pokemon speech though made Shudo reflect more on the Pokemon's intentions. Because Pokemon don't speak human language, it's impossible to tell what their intentions are.
Other interesting tidbits: The producers had other ideas similar to this episode. One where Bulbasaur of different nationalities met up and needed translators because they all spoke different languages (inspired by the fact that Bulbasaur's name was translated in the dubs). Another wanted to follow a Slowpoke for an episode, where it did little. Shudo however wanted to write something with romance in it, so he wrote "Ghost of Maiden's Peak" next.
Blog:
http://www.style.fm/as/05_column/shudo152.shtml 