By TokoyamiTheDark
Everyone should remember when the 2nd Generation was officially announced, and that new Pokemon were revealed over time. 3 of them made their debut in the Anime in the 1st Movie and are : Snubbull, Marill and Donphan. Some people, however, unable to read the Japanese symbols, decided to give non-canon names to those Pokemon. Snubbull got the name « Bruno », Donphan got called « Dumbo » (hell yes, they gave it that name until Topps.inc revealed the real name of Donphan) while Marill got called « Pikablu » because people thought it was related to Pikachu and Raichu. These three Pokemon were considered as ‘PokeGods’ and were rumored to be obtainable only via GameShark.
According to the rumors, PokeGods were un-defeatable and very powerful. Snubbull’s japanese name was revealed to be « Buru » so people started referincing Snubbull as « Buru » rather than « Bruno », since « Buru » was the official Japanese name. But neither Donphan or marill’s names were revealed, so people continued with the silly names « Dumbo » and « Pikablu ».
However, in November 1997, a pack of cards revealed the elephant-like Pokemon’s true name ; Donphan (if you were lucky enough to get the card with Donphan in it) The pack also mentioned Buru’s American name, but they misspelled it as « Snubble », just like in the Pikachu Short’s novelisation and subtitles of the 1st Movie DVD. Finally, « Pikablu » was revealed to be « Marril », which dissapointed a lot of fans, thinking it was related to Pikachu while it wasn’t.
More Pokemon got revealed with the time, some didn’t had English names yet, but people rushed in to make rumors about their supposed English names. Some examples are : Neitotem(Xatu), Remanta(Mantine), Elechild(Elekid) Magkid(Magby) and tons of other names that got in the ‘PokeLost box’ and got forgotten over the time. A quebecer magasine soon revealed all 2nd Gen Pokemon with their Ken Sugimori images and how to catch them. Even Celebi was revealed, but the artwork was very much different and was supposed to ba a Ghost/Dark type.
However, it got scrapped, probably due to the fact that it had no Weakness, and became a Grass/Psychic Pokemon. Until Nintendo Power, people refered the 2nd Gen Pokemon by their Japanese names exept the ones that were revealed earlier, like Togepi or Marill. The big games were announced to be released on october 2000, but before that, the second Pokemon Movie came out, revealing Ledyba, Elekid, Bellossom, Slowking and Lugia to American audiences. Even after the watching the movie, I still prefered Ho-Oh over Lugia, so I went to make my Christmas wish list and got the Gold Version for Christmas while my brother got the Silver Version. In 2002, I finally managed to get all 250 Pokemon (excluding Celebi, but including Mew due to a glitch in the Red and Blue versions) However, when I caught the PokeRus, my saved file got messed up, so I had to start everything over.
In simple words, Gold and Silver were breaking news among the Pokemon craze in America, and I was following every news about the pokemon 2nd Generation to make sure I didn’t missed anything. I remember searching Sudowoodo in tall grass in Route 36 without knowing it was the wiggling tree blocking the path between 3 cities. I enjoyes these games a lot, and I’ve recently started to play the Crystal version out of boredom, and to remind me of those sweet memories I has when I was a young child.