- 26
- 2
The regions in Pokemon are currently equal to the size of the real-world counterparts they're based on in the calculations here (i.e., the Kanto Region is considered to be the same size as the real world Kanto area of Japan).
According to the Anime (1), traversing the Kanto Region for the league challenge takes about a year. But if Kanto is the same size as the Kanto Region in Japan, this seems like an absurdly long amount of time to me.
The IRL Kanto Region is about the same size as Maryland (~12,500 miles squared). A healthy adult can walk clear across the continental United States (longways) in less than a third of the stated 1-year traveling time (3). Even accounting for the fact that the player character is a ten year old, and there's some back tracking, an entire year to essentially circumnavigate Maryland seems ridiculous.
What I will do is figure out a logical size for the Kanto Region, assuming a one year journey. I will be using the journey in Pokemon Red and Blue for this; The path doubles back on itself several times, and this will help account for obstacles a trainer might face (such as Team Rocket). I will be measuring the path the game takes from your first step out of Pallet Town, until you reach Viridian on the return trip, ready to take on the 8th Gym, and setting this to a 1 year journey.
First off, let's set a schedule for our trainer. Out of a 24 hour day, let's have 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour to set up camp, 1 hour to pack your equipment back up in the morning, and 1 hour for each meal; 13 hours total, for survival. Add on two hours for battling/training every day, and an hour for breaks (this may also serve to account for hiccups in the schedule, such as waking up late). This leaves us for 8 hours of hiking each day.
This being said, one would expect that said trainer will want longer breaks when they reach a town, to rest and see the sites. Let's say three days when in town; We won't count Pallet in the beginning, as our departure is when the clock starts. The journey takes you from Pallet, to Viridian -> Pewter -> Cerulean -> Bill's Lighthouse -> Cerulean -> Vermilion -> Cerulean -> Lavender -> Celadon -> Saffron -> Lavender -> Fuchsia -> Cinnabar -> Pallet -> Viridian, and that's the journey. That would be 15 stops, for a total of 45 days. 365-45 would leave us with 320 days hiking, at 8 hours per day.
Now that we have an idea of our schedule, how fast are we moving? The average human has a natural walking pace of 3.1 mph. Younger people tend to move at a brisker pace, while the elderly move more slowly (3). However, the brisker pace will be cancelled out due to fatigue later on, and with other obstacles (terrain, distractions, etc.), we'll be moving pretty slowly. While the trainers tend to be fit, they are still only ten year olds. Let's set a walking pace of 2.8 mph.
After doing some math (4), I determined that our trainer has walked 5,152 miles. Not bad! However, this is the distance of the paths traveled. This path takes us over Route 1, 2, 3, 4, 24, 25, 25 (again), 24 (again), 5, 6, 6 (again), 5 (again), 9, 10, 8, 7, 7 (again), 8 (again), 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, and then finally Route 1 once again.
Now, it's time to break out the map of the Kanto Region! I've take pixel measurements of the Routes based on the map from G/S/C (the distances are proportional, so it works; This will come in handy for determining the size of Johto later on, as I realize some speed feats (beast trio) are based on the distances of some Routes in Johto). The map (5) shows the pixel numbers for each Route; all that's left to do is add the number of pixels, according to the path taken. After adding them up, the total distance covers 459 pixels. 5,152 miles / 459 pixels = 11.22 miles per pixel length. Since the pixels are square, one can assume this is also 11.22 mi2 per pixel. Now, all I have to do is determine how many pixels the Kanto Region is!
To do this, I only took the Kanto section of the map, and blacked out the landmass, while turning the non-land portions of the map white. Then, I counted the number of pixels to determine the total number of pixels in Kanto. Kanto is 11,461 pixels. 11,461 x 11.22 = 128,592.42 square miles. Of course, the map is pretty pixelated, but it still gives the general idea. I used the quickest Route possible (no Diglett's Cave, no going back around Routes 16, 17, and 18), so this is a high estimate.
Now, if you want to include Routes 16, 17, and 18, you'd wind up going across the Routes twice, or back down Routes 7/8/6/11/13/14/15 or 7/8/12/13/14/15. This would give you a distance of 601 pixels, 651 pixels, or 651 pixels, respectively. Since 651 is the longer Route, we'll use this, as it will give us a smaller total landmass for Kanto (thus, the smallest Low End measurement). Now, to determine Diglett's Cave. Luckily for us, Diglett were kind enough to basically go in a straight line from Pewter to Vermillion. I mapped out the path, then used some geometry to figure out the distance (6). It came out to 62 pixels. Add this to the 651 pixels from earlier, and you get 713 pixels.5,152 miles / 713 pixels = 7.23 miles per pixel. 11,461 x 7.23 = 82,863.03 suqare miles as our low end estimate.
Either one would be significantly larger than the real-world Kanto that Pokemon's Kanto is based on.
Low End: 82,863 mi2 (214,614 km2)
High End: 128,592 mi2 (333,052 km2)
Annotations:
1) "I can't believe it's been a whole year since we were here [Viridian City]!" - Ash Ketchum, S01EP063 The Battle for the Badge | The original Japanese script simply said "a while," and was translated to "a whole year." However, the English dub is an official translation, which should mean this still stands. In addition, in the Pikachu and Pichu short (part of the Third Movie), Ash mentions the anniversary of the day he and Pikachu met (not a dub edit). This short takes place sometime during the Johto League; As Ash would have had to travel from Viridian to the Indigo League, through the Orange Islands, then to Johto, it would make sense that this would be the 2nd anniversary. Overall, a year-long journey on average for a journey through a single Region.
2) 2,680 miles @ 3.1 mph for 8 hours a day (alloting time for meals, sleep, and pitching/striking camp) = ~108 days of walking.
3) "Specific studies have found pedestrian walking speeds ranging from 4.51 kilometres per hour (2.80 mph) to 4.75 kilometres per hour (2.95 mph) for older individuals and from 5.32 kilometres per hour (3.31 mph) to 5.43 kilometres per hour (3.37 mph) for younger individuals..." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking#Difference_from_running
4) 320 x 8 = 1,840 hours walked. 1,840 x 2.8 = 5,152 miles walked.
5) Map with 1 pixel = 1 pixel: http://i.imgur.com/E0HNAWm.png | Enlarged map showing number values for pixels: http://i.imgur.com/GFEgoqj.png | Note: It is safe to assume that the thickness of the Routes are not to scale, but the length is.
6) Blackout Map of Kanto: http://i.imgur.com/xcwpjad.png
7) Map showing Diglett's Cave: http://i.imgur.com/dAcdYfB.png
According to the Anime (1), traversing the Kanto Region for the league challenge takes about a year. But if Kanto is the same size as the Kanto Region in Japan, this seems like an absurdly long amount of time to me.
The IRL Kanto Region is about the same size as Maryland (~12,500 miles squared). A healthy adult can walk clear across the continental United States (longways) in less than a third of the stated 1-year traveling time (3). Even accounting for the fact that the player character is a ten year old, and there's some back tracking, an entire year to essentially circumnavigate Maryland seems ridiculous.
What I will do is figure out a logical size for the Kanto Region, assuming a one year journey. I will be using the journey in Pokemon Red and Blue for this; The path doubles back on itself several times, and this will help account for obstacles a trainer might face (such as Team Rocket). I will be measuring the path the game takes from your first step out of Pallet Town, until you reach Viridian on the return trip, ready to take on the 8th Gym, and setting this to a 1 year journey.
First off, let's set a schedule for our trainer. Out of a 24 hour day, let's have 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour to set up camp, 1 hour to pack your equipment back up in the morning, and 1 hour for each meal; 13 hours total, for survival. Add on two hours for battling/training every day, and an hour for breaks (this may also serve to account for hiccups in the schedule, such as waking up late). This leaves us for 8 hours of hiking each day.
This being said, one would expect that said trainer will want longer breaks when they reach a town, to rest and see the sites. Let's say three days when in town; We won't count Pallet in the beginning, as our departure is when the clock starts. The journey takes you from Pallet, to Viridian -> Pewter -> Cerulean -> Bill's Lighthouse -> Cerulean -> Vermilion -> Cerulean -> Lavender -> Celadon -> Saffron -> Lavender -> Fuchsia -> Cinnabar -> Pallet -> Viridian, and that's the journey. That would be 15 stops, for a total of 45 days. 365-45 would leave us with 320 days hiking, at 8 hours per day.
Now that we have an idea of our schedule, how fast are we moving? The average human has a natural walking pace of 3.1 mph. Younger people tend to move at a brisker pace, while the elderly move more slowly (3). However, the brisker pace will be cancelled out due to fatigue later on, and with other obstacles (terrain, distractions, etc.), we'll be moving pretty slowly. While the trainers tend to be fit, they are still only ten year olds. Let's set a walking pace of 2.8 mph.
After doing some math (4), I determined that our trainer has walked 5,152 miles. Not bad! However, this is the distance of the paths traveled. This path takes us over Route 1, 2, 3, 4, 24, 25, 25 (again), 24 (again), 5, 6, 6 (again), 5 (again), 9, 10, 8, 7, 7 (again), 8 (again), 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, and then finally Route 1 once again.
Now, it's time to break out the map of the Kanto Region! I've take pixel measurements of the Routes based on the map from G/S/C (the distances are proportional, so it works; This will come in handy for determining the size of Johto later on, as I realize some speed feats (beast trio) are based on the distances of some Routes in Johto). The map (5) shows the pixel numbers for each Route; all that's left to do is add the number of pixels, according to the path taken. After adding them up, the total distance covers 459 pixels. 5,152 miles / 459 pixels = 11.22 miles per pixel length. Since the pixels are square, one can assume this is also 11.22 mi2 per pixel. Now, all I have to do is determine how many pixels the Kanto Region is!
To do this, I only took the Kanto section of the map, and blacked out the landmass, while turning the non-land portions of the map white. Then, I counted the number of pixels to determine the total number of pixels in Kanto. Kanto is 11,461 pixels. 11,461 x 11.22 = 128,592.42 square miles. Of course, the map is pretty pixelated, but it still gives the general idea. I used the quickest Route possible (no Diglett's Cave, no going back around Routes 16, 17, and 18), so this is a high estimate.
Now, if you want to include Routes 16, 17, and 18, you'd wind up going across the Routes twice, or back down Routes 7/8/6/11/13/14/15 or 7/8/12/13/14/15. This would give you a distance of 601 pixels, 651 pixels, or 651 pixels, respectively. Since 651 is the longer Route, we'll use this, as it will give us a smaller total landmass for Kanto (thus, the smallest Low End measurement). Now, to determine Diglett's Cave. Luckily for us, Diglett were kind enough to basically go in a straight line from Pewter to Vermillion. I mapped out the path, then used some geometry to figure out the distance (6). It came out to 62 pixels. Add this to the 651 pixels from earlier, and you get 713 pixels.5,152 miles / 713 pixels = 7.23 miles per pixel. 11,461 x 7.23 = 82,863.03 suqare miles as our low end estimate.
Either one would be significantly larger than the real-world Kanto that Pokemon's Kanto is based on.
Low End: 82,863 mi2 (214,614 km2)
High End: 128,592 mi2 (333,052 km2)
Annotations:
1) "I can't believe it's been a whole year since we were here [Viridian City]!" - Ash Ketchum, S01EP063 The Battle for the Badge | The original Japanese script simply said "a while," and was translated to "a whole year." However, the English dub is an official translation, which should mean this still stands. In addition, in the Pikachu and Pichu short (part of the Third Movie), Ash mentions the anniversary of the day he and Pikachu met (not a dub edit). This short takes place sometime during the Johto League; As Ash would have had to travel from Viridian to the Indigo League, through the Orange Islands, then to Johto, it would make sense that this would be the 2nd anniversary. Overall, a year-long journey on average for a journey through a single Region.
2) 2,680 miles @ 3.1 mph for 8 hours a day (alloting time for meals, sleep, and pitching/striking camp) = ~108 days of walking.
3) "Specific studies have found pedestrian walking speeds ranging from 4.51 kilometres per hour (2.80 mph) to 4.75 kilometres per hour (2.95 mph) for older individuals and from 5.32 kilometres per hour (3.31 mph) to 5.43 kilometres per hour (3.37 mph) for younger individuals..." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking#Difference_from_running
4) 320 x 8 = 1,840 hours walked. 1,840 x 2.8 = 5,152 miles walked.
5) Map with 1 pixel = 1 pixel: http://i.imgur.com/E0HNAWm.png | Enlarged map showing number values for pixels: http://i.imgur.com/GFEgoqj.png | Note: It is safe to assume that the thickness of the Routes are not to scale, but the length is.
6) Blackout Map of Kanto: http://i.imgur.com/xcwpjad.png
7) Map showing Diglett's Cave: http://i.imgur.com/dAcdYfB.png
