Why was it named Green in Japan and not the Japanese word for Blue?

Question

Is Articuno green in Japan's Green game?

I mean, I assume the Japanese versions of the games aren't titled in English. Why does Japan have Green, instead of Blue, if the legendary birds are the mascot Pokemon? Articuno is clearly blue. Why is it called Green in the Japanese games, aka Red, Green, Yellow.

(Please forgive me if this is wrong, I just assumed because of LG, and other things.)

Comments

Wait, is there a fourth game in the Japanese version called Green, please explain.

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Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are definitely NOT the mascot Pokemon for the first generation games.  In Japan it was originally Red and Green, featuring Charizard and Venasaur, respectively.  The US versions were Red and Blue, featuring Charizard and Blastoise, respectively.  Then as a follow-up Yellow was developed, playing off the anime with Ash and Pikachu, with Pikachu as the player's partner in an analogous relationship to Ash and Pikachu.

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Okay, thanks, I didn't know, I just assumed they where the mascots, seeing as how they are the respective US names, sorry, and thanks for clearing that up, Does Gen 1 not have mascot legendaries?

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Not a full answer, but if I read this correctly, this video might help you: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_PBehkjoJI&t=274s

Edit: After rereading this, I think I was wrong, however it’s still an interesting video.

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If articuno is the mascot legendary of Pokémon Green then I might have a solution. Basically once I read that the Japanese word for the color green and the word for blue are the same. This is the same reason the traffic lights in Japan are blue instead of green.

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That’s what the video I linked was talking about

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Cool..

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Sorry, I'm not very good with Gen I knowledge.

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Is there anything I could do to make whoever put them's downvotes go away, or was it downvoted simply for being a bad question, I know it's probably the latter, but just in case...

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I edited the title to make it less of a mouthful, and to fix some spelling. I put the articuno part in the description. Feel free to change it back if you want the articuno part in the title (personally I think it’ll help with the downvotes)

Answer 1

Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are not the mascot legendaries of the games. In fact, there are no mascot legendaries. The only mascots are Charizard (red) Venusaur (green), Blastoise (blue), and Pikachu (yellow).

Also, a bit of trivia for you: Pokémon Blue existed in Japan before it was released internationally. It was an enhanced version of the two games, with nothing new but different sprites and slightly different encounters.

Comments

https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/130161/articuno-moltres-zapdos-related-winter-spring-summer-wheres

This the quote you wanted?

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Thanks so much.

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Thanks, Assault!

And no problem :)

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As mentioned, I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to Gen I, I only ever played to the first or second gym.

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That poem was completely fan-made. There's no real evidence that the 3 birds are based on seasons, or that they rest during fall.

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Oh anytime Steph!

Answer 2

I feel like, as someone who can read Japanese, I can add a bit to here.

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I mean, I assume the Japanese versions of the games aren't titled in English.

The original games, Red and Green, are titled "Aka" and "Midori" in Japanese, but in their Kanji form, 赤 and 緑. They mean literally, and respectively, Red and Green. Pokemon Yellow wasn't titled "Yellow" in Japanese, but rather ピカチュウ, which literally is pronounced as Pikachu. Source

Why does Japan have Green (instead of Blue)

Like Steph said, Japan does have Blue. Blue/青 was the "upper-version" to Red and Green, similarly to how we have Platinum for Gen 4. Source If you think about it, we don't have a fixed gen 1; we just have Pikachu edition.

if the legendary birds are the mascot Pokemon (at least I think they are), and Articuno is clearly blue.

Box legendries didn't become a thing until Gen 2. The mascots are the starter Pokemon.

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I don't know why Steph's answer says blue and green are interchangeable; this is false. Blue in Japanese is Ao/Aoi, while Green is Midori. Midori can also mean forest, though. You can't really get those mixed up, even if you tried.

In conclusion, the games have nothing to do with the birds, and they're translated to Red and Green because the Japanese they used in particular reads, specially in terms of colours, Red and Green.

It's presumed they changed Red and Green to Red and Blue to appeal to Americans

Comments

Hm, interesting.

…as per Wikipedia:
“The Japanese word ao (青, n., aoi (青い, adj.)), the same kanji character as the Chinese qīng, can refer to either blue or green depending on the situation. Modern Japanese has a word for green (緑, midori), but it is a relatively recent usage.[citation needed] Ancient Japanese did not have this distinction: the word midori came into use only in the Heian period, and at that time (and for a long time thereafter) midori was still considered a shade of ao.[citation needed] Educational materials distinguishing green and blue came into use only after World War II;[16] thus, even though most Japanese consider them to be green, the word ao is still used to describe certain vegetables, apples, and vegetation. Ao is also the word used to refer to the color on a traffic light that signals one to "go". However, most other objects—a green car, a green sweater, and so forth—will generally be called midori.”
Sauce: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue–green_distinction_in_language#Japanese

Nevertheless, I will edit that out of my answer as this is a different distinction than I assumed it was at the time of writing