Dr Lava

BREAKING NEWS: Pokemon Beta Leaker Speaks Out

Well, the source of all the recent leaks has been identified. In March 2018, an individual hacked into Nintendo servers, acquiring a truckload of prototype assets. This hack included Gold & Silver's 1997 demo, the Red & Green prototype back sprites, and Gen 4 beta sprites. Here's a link to the story about the Gen 4 beta sprite leak from earlier this week, in case you missed it: http://lavacutcontent...

The new leak didn't include Shinies... but I got them.

Yesterday I made a Patreon post about the new Gen 4 beta sprite leak -- take a look if you haven't seen that yet. I got in touch with the leak-holder late last night (China time) and spoke for a bit. I say "leak-holder" because he's not the guy who leaked the sprites on 4chan -- basically, this was the guy in possession of the beta sprites when someone else leaked his collection. This leak-holder doesn't want to be identified by name -- he prefers to be called "550D5A658330C3598DEE08D09ADEF54...

New Leak: Hundreds of Gen 4 Beta Sprites (download available)

About 36 hours ago, hundreds of never-before-seen Gen 4 beta sprites leaked. They're not 100% confirmed legit, but from what I've seen, and the sources I've spoken to, I'm pretty confident they're real. I've written up a lengthy article covering the who, what, where, and when: http://lavacutcontent.com/gen-4-beta-sprites-leak/

The leak has been pulled from the internet, but I've got them in a Goog...

New Translation: Last 17 Gen 5 Origin Stories

I've just posted the translation of the last of Sugimori's Gen 5 origin stories. Here's the link: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-6/

My apologies this newest video is taking so long >_< It's about the creation of Lugia, and its source material is translations of dozens of Shudo blog posts, Spaceworld, and lots of other stuff, so it's really been a massi...

Patron-only Translation: Tao Trio Development

Hey guys, I've got a new translation for you guys to read. It's attached to this post as a PDF, you'll need to download it.

It's Sugimori, Masuda, and Ichinose discussing the development of the Tao Trio. This translation will be the basis for a YouTube video, so I won't be publishing it until after the video's finished. So please don't share it around -- the last thing I want is for another YouTuber to cover these translations before I get the chance to make my own video.

I've pub...

New articles posted on my website

Hey guys, I was having some problems with my internet this week. So I took the time to write a couple articles, which I've now posted to my website.

Gorochu article: http://lavacutcontent.com/gorochu-developer-interviews-leak/

July 2000 interview with all the Pokemon bigwigs: http://lavacut...

Patron-only Translation: Ending Ash's Story

I've attached a new translation to this post in PDF form. It's quite long -- including my commentary, it's about 5000 words. Probably about a 20-30 minute read.

It includes information about how Pokemon's head writer Takeshi Shudo wanted to end the series (it's pretty heavy), how he was hooked on alcohol and pills in his years as head writer, some info about Lugia's creation, and lots of other interesting details.

I'll publish this translation on my website lavacutcontent.com at s...

How your money's being spent

Hey guys -- first of all, just wanna say thanks as always for the support. I wanted to give y'all an update on where that money's been going.

Today I was able to find a Nintendo Dream magazine that I *believe* contains the last of the Gen 5 Pokemon origin stories as told by Ken Sugimori. It should cover about 40 more Pokemon. I got it on a Japanese auction site for about $75 and it's supposed to arrive in about two weeks. So I'll let you guys know when that arrives of cours...

Booze, Tranquilizers, Seizures — Lugia Origin Story is Fascinating and Bizarre

As I mentioned last week, I spent about $80 having a blog post translated. The blog post was written by the chief script writer for the early years of the anime, as well as the chief writer for the Pokemon movies.

I’m still confirming some key words, so I’ll have the full translation ready for you guys soon. But it’s really interesting. The author talks about writing the film script under the influence of booze and tranquilizers, and initially going out of his way not t...

Translation: Lugia's Origin

I've been kinda shopping around various Japanese interviews and such, seeing which ones are worth paying to have translated. Some have been duds, but this one is pretty interesting. It's a long blog post written by Takeshi Shudo, who was the chief writer of the anime as well as the first 3 movies. I'll soon have the full interview translated, but I wanted to give y'all a glimpse at what's inside.

Shudo talks about his anxiety of the Pokemon franchise losing its popularity in the long wa...

Submit your questions for Spaceworld interview

Last week I posted a bunch of stuff on my website that Team Spaceworld sent me: http://lavacutcontent.com/spaceworld-sprites-full-resolution/

The full story of the Spaceworld '97 leak has never been published, so later this week I'll be doing a podcast-style interview with Samuel Messner, the guy who personally extracted all the sprites of the leaked 1997 demo. I've got some ...

Development of a Typical Gen 1 Pokemon

Made a shorter version of this to post on Twitter, thought I'd post the longer version here:

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Development of a Typical Gen 1 Pokemon:

1. The Pokemon's beta sprite is hand-drawn.

2. The beta prite is revised and programmed into Red & Green. Some Pokemon are programmed directly into the game as sprites without ever having been hand-drawn.

3. Finally, Sugimori interprets and revises R&G sprite into the officially released artwor...

Wanted y'all to see this first. So clean :)

I'll post these on my website later, but I thought I'd post them here first. It's all 1004 Spaceworld '97 demo sprites with a nice clean background. These have only ever been published with a gray background, which really doesn't give the same viewing experience. Over about 6 hours I inspected and corrected every sprite -- it's not just the background that's white, but all empty space even within the sprites.

The white background makes it easier to read some of the smaller details withi...

How your money is being spent

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you an idea where your Patreon pledges are going this month. I've purchased a couple Japanese art books for about $60, commissioned a new translation for $85, and am about to purchase three more volumes of Nintendo Dream magazine for about $70.

Since so many large websites and YouTubers snaked the earlier translations, I'll be sharing most future translations only with you guys here on Patreon. At least initially -- once the videos based on the interviews...

New stuff added to secondary YouTube channel

Hey I just wanted to let you guys know I added some things to my second YouTube channel recently: the full Oha Suta trailer for Black & White (the one that shows beta Excadrill), a recent podcast interview I did with PUCL, and there were some other additions over the past month like an enhanced version of that Meiji University Black & White concept art slideshow.

I reckon some of you guys didn't know there was a second channel, so I thought I'd let y'all know and provide the lin...

Hundreds of Alola art scans

Hey guys, sorry this newest video is taking so long. Getting closer. A new "lost Pokemon" article is also in the works -- both should be finished in the next week or two. But here's something y'all might like in the meantime: several hundred scans from the Japan-exclusive "Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon Alola Art Book." In total, this comprises all the artwork for every Alola location, as well as every Pokemon introduced in Gen 7 -- including Alola forms of older Pokemon. Some of th...

1990 Pokemon Concept Art by Ken Sugimori, enhanced

I had to buy a new mic, so I'm waiting a few days for it to arrive. With the down-time, today I started digging around for Pokemon concept art. I found this 1990 concept art showing an early Capumon version of Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower. I only found 2 low quality copies of this art, so I enhanced it. Thought I'd share it with you guys.

Psst, this is just between the 32 of us

Y'all already know all about the Sugimori interviews, which will make up the bulk of the betamon covered in my next two YouTube videos. But I've also got some very early concept art for Sawsbuck that I've analyzed (not what's pictured above) -- which it appears no one's ever really done before. So that concept art and analysis will also be in episode 21. I only mention this to you guys, because I don't want anyone stealing my thunder on this, like what's happened with the Sugimori interviews....

Pokemon Historia: Part 4, Characters

I've just posted the newest Sugimori translation to my site, but I won't be announcing or publishing it anywhere just yet. My translator still needs to have one last look-through before I go tweeting about it, etc. So I've quietly posted it so that he can give it one more look-over it in its final form, and also so that you 29 Patrons can have an early look as well. My translator Kenji and I have been going back and forth on this for two weeks, so I'm pretty confident about the translation de...

(Newly Enhanced) Rare Gen 5 Concept Art Slideshow

 ~Enhanced footage of rare Gen 5 concept art, 120 pieces~: This slideshow  of Gen 5 concept was originally displayed in 2010 at Meiji University  in Tokyo, then was never shown again (or at least recorded). Much of the  artwork included was never displayed anywhere else, including unused location concept art. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ3ko5HtNFw 

This is the same 201...

Original concept art for Ghetsis (2012 Japan fan event)

Masuda's original design for Gen 5's N

Helix Chamber artist joins the project

Happy to announce that Helix Chamber’s Rachel Briggs will be doing some art for the translations / videos about the translations. She’s a bit pricey, but I think it’s worth it. The attached art is her interpretation of the lost Petil evolution. Btw, I now believe this lost evolution to have been the middle stage of the Petilil family, and I’ll explain why in the upcoming video.

Cheers guys.

Episode 21 script

This script is being published here for y'all to get an early look at, as well as for my proofreaders to look over. Episode 22's script is finished except for the (much shorter) intro and outro, so that'll be posted here soon as well.

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Hey folks, Dr Lava here. Well, last time I talked about Generation 5's scrapped special event centered around the Lock Capsule, and this time I'll be reporting on scrapped monster designs that ended up going unused in Pokemon ...

7 Minutes of Rare Gen 5 Concept Art (Read Description)

I've uploaded an extremely rare recording to my second channel: a slideshow exhibited at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan in late 2010. It includes some art that was displayed or published elsewhere -- like several issues of Nintendo Dream Magazine and the 2011 TCG World Championships -- but it appears some was never presented anywhere else. I believe this to be the only recording of that slideshow to ever be made public.

Just between the 29 of us, what made me go searching for this rar...

Kenji the Intern joins the battle!

I’ll be announcing this on Twitter and in the channel Community tab in a few days, but wanted to let y’all know first. A Tokyo-based translator JP translator has come on board — as something of a Robin to my Batman — which will allow the website to publish even more translations.

Since he’s in Japan, he’ll also be able to receive in-country shipments of magazines, as well as locate interviews of his own volition. So this’ll really help with anything Japan-related.

He...

Read Sugimori interview #3 right now

I'm publishing Sugimori interview #3 on my website right now so y'all can be the first to read it. It's now publicly available, but I won't be announcing its publication on YouTube/twitter/etc for a few days -- very few people visit my site unless they've been sent there.

Here's the link: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-3/

Episode 20 is FINISHED!

All I gotta do is make the video thumbnail and its ready to roll. You can expect it to go live in a few hours.

Sneak Peak at Sugimori Interview #3

I won't be publishing this full interview for about another week, but I wanted to give y'all a look at one of the more interesting Pokemon origin stories found in the interview. Cheers guys.

Be the first to read the new Sugimori interview, link below

Wanted y'all to get a chance to read this first: http://lavacutcontent.com/ken-sugimori-nintendo-dream-2/