‘Pokemon Sun’ And ‘Moon’: Alola’s Four Island Names Revealed On Pokemon’s Official Site?

Over the weekend, Nintendo Inquirer writer Jaxson Tapp discovered a huge hint buried deep in a short, Japanese-only trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon. The trailer, available only on the Japanese versions of Pokemon’s official site and the Pokemon YouTube channel, points to the names of the four islands that make up Alola, the Hawaii-inspired region in which Pokemon Sun and Moon will take place.

The aforementioned trailer is meant to showcase Pokemon Sun and Moon’s new Rotom-infused Pokedex, which is shown in the trailer to talk to you, guide you with a GPS-like real time mapping application, and, most importantly, show the player which Pokemon they have encountered.

At one point in the trailer, when the Pokemon Sun and Moon “player” is going into the pokedex to view their list of discovered pokemon, the viewer can see that there are two different lists available and three blank spots for three more unlockable lists after those two.

The text is in Japanese, but a rough translation shows that the top list, the icon for which is displayed in red, is titled “Alola Pokedex” and the next list down, which is orange, is entitled “MeleMele Pokedex.”

Pokemon fans will know from watching the American trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon that the Alola region consists of four islands. It is reasonable, then, to assume that the MeleMele Pokedex and each of the three locked lists beneath it corresponds with one of the four islands of the Alola region, whereas the Alola Pokedex is an aggregation of all four island Pokedexes.

The theory, besides being entirely logical, is consistent with what is shown in the trailer. It looks like the “player” has already obtained one pokemon, his starter companion, on the first island — let’s call it MeleMele. He has already encountered three — the three starter pokemon. The Alola Pokedex takes that information into account and, since MeleMele is the only island Pokedex unlocked at that point, displays the same caught pokemon/encountered pokemon information.

Discover the tropical islands of the Alola Region, teeming w/ adventure in #PokemonSunMoon! https://t.co/7dcOyI6bkG pic.twitter.com/m74peary2f

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 2, 2016

This is where things really get interesting.

If you go to a Hawaiian-to-English translator and plug in “MeleMele,” you will find that it has three meanings. One of them is “the name of a star,” which fits into the celestial theme of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and one is “a mythical land,” which goes with the idea of it being a new island in a never-before-seen Pokemon region. The third meaning may be the most interesting, as it reads “yellow.”

Pokemon fans — or practically anyone who was alive in 1998 — will recognize that Pokemon Yellow was one of the four titles released during the first generation of Pokemon video games. Also released were Pokemon Red, Blue, and Green, although Pokemon Green was exclusive to Japan. Just like the Hawaiian translation of “yellow” is the name given to the first island, could the translations of the three other colors included in first-generation Pokemon game titles correspond to the other three islands? What with all the generation one homages that Pokemon has been slipping into its games and trailers as of late, it would certainly make sense.

Here's Pokemon Red Green Yellow & Blue in one set! http://t.co/lQBDuL32 That should hold you over for awhile ^_^ pic.twitter.com/7BtTWzyf

— Japanese Retro Game Center (@JapanRetroGames) January 20, 2012

Assuming this theory is correct — and it does not seem unlikely — the names of the other three Pokemon Sun and Moon islands would be UlaUla (Hawaiian for “red”), Polu (“blue”), and OmaOma (“green”).

And if you are thinking that this thought process is too much of a stretch to be anything other than a crazy Pokemon fan theory, think again. As the Inquisitr previously noted, Pokemon trailers are often rife with extremely subtle hints that only sharp eyes and creative minds are able to divine.

So assuming MeleMele, UlaUla, Polu, and OmaOma do turn out to be the names of Alola’s four islands, do you think they will have any impact on the way Pokemon Sun and Moon’s story plays out? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

[Image via Pokemon Company]