Nob Ogasawara

Nob Ogasawara

Nobuyuki "Nob" Ogasawara (Japanese: 小笠原伸幸 Ogasawara Nobuyuki; born February 27, 1962 in Yokohama, Japan) is a freelance translator. He is most famous for translating the text of every Pokémon game in the core series up until Pokémon Platinum.

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• (Return to top)
• Early life and career
• Work with Pokémon
• Pokémon game credits
  • Text Translation
  • Other
• Personal life
• Trivia
• Notes
• References
• External links

Contents

Early life and career

Nob Ogasawara's ancestors were the Ogasawara clan, which used to rule over the Shinano Province (now Nagano Prefecture) — according to Ogasawara, he would have been the fourteenth generation leader of the clan. In 1968, when Ogasawara was six years old, he and his family emigrated from Japan to Canada.

After earning a bachelor degree in economics and graduating from university in 1985, Ogasawara moved back to Japan and worked at a translator agency for two years before going freelance. In 1988, during a stay on a ski trip, Ogasawara played Super Mario Bros. for the first time, which inspired him to take on jobs as a Tokyo correspondent for video game magazines, namely Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1989, and GamePro from 1995 to 1997.

During the Shoshinkai 1995 trade show (which revealed the Nintendo 64), Ogasawara met and interviewed then-executive vice president of Nintendo of America, Peter Main. After the show, and a happenstance discussion with GamePro's chief editor Wes Nihei, Main hired Ogasawara for Nintendo of America, where he was given his first video game translation job on Terranigma.

Work with Pokémon

For the translation of the core series Pokémon games, Ogasawara was responsible for translating the running text or "small text" (Pokédex entries, character dialogues, etc.), as opposed to translating the text variables or the "all caps text" (names of Pokémon, characters, places, moves, categories, etc.), which was largely handled by Nintendo of America staff. By the time of Generation III, Ogasawara was allowed more input on the text variables of the games.

• According to Ogasawara, he first saw the term Eeveelution "on AGNP (alt.games.nintendo.pokemon; a Usenet group) or a spin-off AIM chatroom", and decided to adopt it for his translations because he deemed it useful. Also according to Ogasawara, the Pokémon English localization team adopted the ^P_K^M_N abbreviation for "Pokémon" from a Chinese bootleg copy of Pokémon Red.
• A house in Viridian City has a Spearow nicknamed "Speary" (Japanese: オニチャン Oni-chan). Ogasawara originally wanted to translate the Japanese name as "Britney", after American singer Britney Spears, but it was rejected by Nintendo of America.
• According to Ogasawara, he was the one who suggested that Nintendo of America keep Gyarados's Japanese name unchanged, after the original English name of "Skulkraken" was rejected by the company's legal department.
• Ogasawara coined the English names for the Pokémon Hoppip, Skiploom, Jumpluff, Staravia, Staraptor, and Mismagius. He had also suggested the names "Scaribou" for Stantler and "Phantomb" for Spiritomb, although neither of them were accepted.
• Ogasawara came up with the pre-battle text from Generation IV onwards, "You are challenged by [Trainer]!". Ogasawara intended to replace the previous generation's battle text, "[Trainer] would like to battle!", which was suggested by Nintendo of America despite Ogasawara's hesitance, as he thought it didn't match the intensity of a Pokémon battle.
• The English names of the Old Chateau and Old Gateau were coined by Ogasawara, intending to preserve the pun in the original Japanese text.

Although Ogasawara was not directly involved in all aspects of translating, he has expressed his personal opinions regarding Pokémon translations on various interviews and social media accounts:

• Ogasawara had expressed apprehension over Mr. Mime's English name. The name was chosen by Nintendo of America staff during the localization work for Pokémon Red and Blue, and Ogasawara stated that he was worried that the name would cause trouble if gender mechanics were to be introduced later down the line.
• Ogasawara had also expressed displeasure towards Pokémon category names such as "Poison Pin" for the Nidoran family, "Shellfish" for Blastoise, and "Hermit Crab" for Slowbro; as well as item names such as Rage Candy Bar.

After 2009, Ogasawara was no longer in charge of translating Pokémon games to English; according to him, this was due to The Pokémon Company wanting future game translations to be done in-house. His final Pokémon translation work is Pokémon Platinum. Ogasawara had stated that he wrote Looker's farewell dialogue in Pokémon Platinum with his departure from the Pokémon franchise in mind, which reads:

"I, also, will take my leave. 'The more wonderful the meeting, the sadder the parting.' That is a quote I heard many years ago in a foreign land. Its meaning... I understand it better now. Farewell, <player>, my friend! Long may you cherish Pokémon!"

Pokémon game credits

Text Translation

• Pokémon Red and Blue
• Pokémon Yellow
• Pokémon Gold and Silver
• Pokémon Crystal
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
• Pokémon Channel
• Pokémon Colosseum
• Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
• Pokémon Emerald
• Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
• Pokémon Trozei!
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team
• Pokémon Ranger
• Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness (uncredited in European release)
• Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
• Pokémon Platinum
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (uncredited in European release)

Other

• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorer's Guide (uncredited)
• Pokémon Gold and Silver Spaceworld '97 demo (unofficial Did You Know Gaming? Pokémon names translation)

Personal life

Nob Ogasawara married his wife, Takako, on June 24, 1988. They had three children, and remained married until Takako's death on February 26, 2024.

On February 8, 2024, Ogasawara announced on his Twitter and Bluesky accounts that he had fully retired.

Trivia

• Nob Ogasawara's birthdate, February 27, is the same date on which Pokémon Red and Green were first released in Japan.
• In Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire, there are Black Belts named Nob. Additionally, in FireRed and LeafGreen and Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, there is a Hiker named Nob on Route 25. Ogasawara confirmed via Twitter that his name was assigned to NPC trainers not by him, but by Nintendo of America staff as a reference to him.
• While credited in the North American release of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky for his prior work on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, Nob Ogasawara did not contribute to translating any text new to this version, which was instead assigned to Eve Eschenbacher.
• Ogasawara is a known member of the Something Awful forums with the username of Douglas Dinsdale. He also uses the alias Douglas Dinsdale or Doug Dinsdale on other social media. The alias is derived from the names of Monty Python characters Doug and Dinsdale Piranha.
• The Game Boy Pocket used by Nob Ogasawara was auctioned off in a charity auction for TheSpeedGamers's June 2014 Pokémon marathon. The auction was won by Bulbagarden webmaster Archaic.

External links

• Nob Ogasawara's Bluesky
• Nob Ogasawara's Substack
• Nob Ogasawara's Twitter