Why were the names "P1" and "P2" chosen?

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Penguin-keeper

Penguin-keeper

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I've noticed that the online Tamagotchi community refers to the two 1996/1997 variants of the original Tamagotchi as the "P1" and the "P2". I've been curious about this for a while, because back in the day, at least in my local circle, before public internet access was particularly widespread, we would always refer to those as "version 1" and "version 2" of the Tamagotchi.

Obviously, I know that the online fandom seems to be more centred around the later Tamagotchi Connexion line, which officially uses version numbering, so I can see the need for things not to clash, but I was wondering how the terms "P1" and "P2" actually came about.

Does anybody know the etymology of these terms, please? I'm particularly curious as to what the "P" part stands for, and where they came from or why they were chosen.

 
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I'm not sure either now as I thought the "p" stood for a Japanese word that was a translation of "generation", as some older websites called them G1 and G2. I tried the several translations of "generation" in Google Translate and read the romaji, but none of them started with a "p". I then tried "version" and "edition" but nothing matched. I do have a hunch that P1 and P2 may have something to do with a Japanese way of referring to them, but it has probably been buried by the passage of time. After all, G1 and G2 are more descriptive that one wouldn't give up the label unless to be more authentic, such as the preference of "Morino Tamagotch" over "Tamagotchi Forest/Forestgotchi". As Tamagotchis are a Japanese product, I can't help but feeling the community would act similar to animanga enthusiasts, of whom are fonder of using romanized names over the direct English equivalent or the English version (example: The manga "Kuroshitsuji" ["i" is pronounced "ee"] had its name directly translated to "Black Butler" for the English release, but fans still prefer the Japanese names; "Pokemon Special" is called "Pokemon Adventures" in the English release but some people still call it by the Japanese name).

 
Knighttchi's Ballad said:
I'm not sure either now as I thought the "p" stood for a Japanese word that was a translation of "generation", as some older websites called them G1 and G2. I tried the several translations of "generation" in Google Translate and read the romaji, but none of them started with a "p". I then tried "version" and "edition" but nothing matched. I do have a hunch that P1 and P2 may have something to do with a Japanese way of referring to them, but it has probably been buried by the passage of time. After all, G1 and G2 are more descriptive that one wouldn't give up the label unless to be more authentic, such as the preference of "Morino Tamagotch" over "Tamagotchi Forest/Forestgotchi". As Tamagotchis are a Japanese product, I can't help but feeling the community would act similar to animanga enthusiasts, of whom are fonder of using romanized names over the direct English equivalent or the English version (example: The manga "Kuroshitsuji" ["i" is pronounced "ee"] had its name directly translated to "Black Butler" for the English release, but fans still prefer the Japanese names; "Pokemon Special" is called "Pokemon Adventures" in the English release but some people still call it by the Japanese name).
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I reckon you're onto something, here.

Expanding on this, I've been wondering if it was derived from "Part 1" and "Part 2", as, although I can't seem to bring any examples to mind right now, I have this recollection of some things in Japanese pop-culture sometimes being referred to in that way, using those English terms.

 
I'm not sure about those terms in particular but I do know that English is often used in Japan for stylistic purposes such as in product names. One rather hilarious example is for "Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS", the Japanese title is the exact same as the English one except with the Japanese way of saying it. Also, I've observed that if there is another language used in anime it will often be English. One anime (and also manga) I'm quite fond of, Kyoukai no Rinne (the English version is simply called Rin-ne, but the Japanese name is probably preferred), is quite Japanese-oriented by all of its mythology but yet uses English so frequently I've stopped recording it (more for labels and not sentences, though). I remember at one point there was a character advertising a product and the name was completely in sensible English and furthermore pronounced in a Japanese way.

 
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