Thread by @Roltas01

Since my original thread about Typhlosion's tale has reached the English fandom, I've translated it so there won't be any need for relying on Twitter's machine translation.

This is what truly happened with Typhlosion's leak and the identity of its alleged author, Yuu Nakatsui 👇

I know this thread may come off as veryredundant, but do try to understand that not everyone is familiar with this kind of folklore, and they might've fallen for the misinformation

Thanks @/LonFuneon , @/Dark_Kudoh and @/Loudkuyuki for your help with translating the tale

The 4Chan leaks were machine-translated as soon as they got their hands on the files. This hasty job resulted in some crutial info being lost in translation, as Japanese is a very hard language to read, such as the identity of the author of those infamous tales, Yuu Nakatsui

Someone who played a role big enough in Pokémon for them to be able to take part in the writing should be easy to find on the Internet, yet the only reference to Yuu Nakatsui is this one screenshot that it's been shared ad nauseam on Twitter, but where does this come from?

Not quite what I'd expect from such a 'reliable' source, but despite my best efforts to find Yuu, I've only found a Bulbapedia article citing this very information. Why there isn't any info about this woman?

It's quite simple, actually: Yuu Nakatsui does not exist

Do try to keep in mind that a machine would have a hard time at reading kanji, so it misread the true name of the author: PokéWood and Dex entries lore writer Suguru Nakatsui, who is ALSO credited for Yuu's work. Suguru's name is mistakenly displayed as some sort of 'Birth Name'

The kanji for both names is the very same, but displaying different possible readings, hence the 'Birth Name' confusion while he's still credited as 'Suguru' in SV. Nobody fact-checked this, so the Internet made up a woman and then got angry at her for 'ruining their childhood'

Suguru's stories allegedly display very dark undertones featuring rape, pedophilia and kidnap, but this misunderstanding happened because the machine-translation, while keeping the setting mostly intact, glossed over some crutial details about the plot and characters

I reached out to some professional JP to ES translators who got the translation fact-checked, and cleared out the details: Typhlosion didn't kidnap any child to assault them; but rather, disguised as a hermit, saved a young woman during a snowfall and brought her to his home

Japanese mithology is very vague about the age of their characters, but we can safely assume that the bride would be around 16-20, which still comes off as weird, but it's definetely not a toddler and is more in line with the age of 'adult' women displayed in folklore back then

Heck, even our own tales in the West used to display very young women falling in love with older men. Typhlosion's story isn't any weirder than the original tale of Beauty and the Beast. It's just the way folklore used to be, and Nakatsui was being faithful to the original tale

Because Typhlosion in this story is just a stand-in for the Mujina; badger-looking shapeshifter yokai that would disguise themselves as humans, similar to foxes and racoons. It's not the actual Pokémon we're talking about, but the allegory for a real world mythical creature

This is most likely what'd inspire Game Freak later down the line to design Hisuian Typhlosion as a Ghost Type, since this tale supposedly originated in the old Sinnoh, which would still be Hisui at the time and does line up with the Meiji inspiration for Decidueye and Samurott

In the tale, the woman stayed with Typhlosion, disguised as an hermit, with the only condition of never look him while he sleeps (as the illusion'd wear out). The story does mention some sort of strange yawn preventing her from worrying about her family, but...

While it may come off as the Thyplosion actively hypnotizing and taking advantage of the young woman; people forgetting about their life after interacting with the yokai is just a recurring trope in Japanese folklore. You may find this in more media inspired by Meiji mithology

It doesn't help that they get married shortly after, but marriage in Japanese folklore is just an allegory for two souls to be linked. The woman giving birth to Typhlosion's child is just another classic trope too, the very same displayed in Slaking's tale with the Slakoth child

Giving birth to a monster and a human's child is just a way to represent that the woman may never be human and go live with her folks ever again, since her blood is now related to the spiritual world and can't go back. It's a point of no return simbolized by the birth of new life

Not only this showcase that humans shouldn't mix up with the gods, but also demonstrates that humans and monsters aren't all that different, since the former is usually shown hurting the latter or disrespecting Nature, like the humans killing Slakoth for fun in Slaking's story

In Typhlosion's tale, this ends up with the Pokémon being murdered, and her bride and child being outcasted in their village, despite still being humans. Mother and son wear the pelt of their newfound kin, accepting they no longer belong, and run off transforming into Typhlosion

As you may have noticed, there isn't any explicit sex or disturbing imagery, as the birth happens from one day to another. It isn't any more erotic than any old tale you'd find in the Bible. The machine-translation made it look like it was about rape, and the word just got out

This actually could be linked to the Sinnoh Folk Stories displayed in Canalave City. The second story mentions a shapeshifting Pokémon that would shed off its pelt to sleep as a human. This is quite literally how Typhlosion disguises himself back in the tale

To sump this whole fiasco up:

-The leaks won't be 100% reliable until we can properly translate them

-Typhlosion isn't any more guilty than old folklore characters around the world, and did not groom any child

-We shouldn't prioritize content farming over fact-checking

@ISISraeI @AshtonMonitor @sabosaitam53606 So please, I beg all of you to not get worked up if someone is reading the tale either way, as long as they're not being malicious about it, because at the end of the day it's just an imitation of a real myth that could be read in different ways too

@bolt_crank @deth39 If you were to take everything in the most literal sense, you'd have to come to the conclusion that Jotaro raped Kakyoin too, you see what I'm trying to get at?

@Umekopyon Can't argue about the age, since it sounded vague-enough, but the point is that while it still comes off in a weird way, it's implied that the girl was in age that would've been considered more adult-like in the time that the tale'd take place

Quick correction (ironic, I know)

The snowfall bit is a slip on my regard because while writing down the thread I somehow mixed getting lost at night and hibernating together

The bride could be 17ish, since that’d be considered ‘adult’ in Feudal Japan

https://x.com/Umekopyon/status/1846692537811272152

I’ll have this sort of pinned down so it doesn’t get any more confusing. Do feel free to correct me if anyone else notices something doesn’t quite add up and I’ll add it to the thread. While this doesn’t affect the core story, it’d be hypocritical of me to not point it out

So that’s where the blizzard slip up came from, by bad. The Typhlosion did save her, but the first encounter happened because she got lost and it was too late and dark for her to safely return to her village

https://x.com/shirokuroyoru/status/1846722175870406822

While Yuu Nakatsui’s existence has come into question again, and the possibility that they do work for Pokémon is open for further inquiry; 4Chan leakers have admitted that Suguru Nakatsui IS the guy related to the leaks and his name got mistranslated

According to some users, Yuu appears to be some sort of pseudonym, probably playing on the different kanji reading idea

I’ll delete the info regarding this topic, as it is scarce enough on the Internet already. They’re the same man and wrote this, this is the point that’ll stand

https://twitter.com/ThevipeZ/status/1846864487367803032

@ThevipeZ me keeping* gosh I’m so tired…

@ThevipeZ @Shad0wluigi I’ve seen more people misread it that way, so I’ll take my blame on this one, but I must ask you to not write it off in a way that someone could think I purposedly fabricated the whole thing, which is not the case