We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: it’s tough out there for a Pokémon anime completionist. Tracking down every episode across all 26 seasons makes nabbing the franchise’s many colorful critters seem downright easy by comparison. And the kicker? Even if you do technically “catch ‘em all,” there are still a handful of Pokémon episodes that are tricky — if not outright impossible — to watch. Why? Because these suckers were banned.
We don’t mean they never aired (meaning nobody saw them), or were postponed, or were briefly yanked from circulation. The banned Pokémon episodes we’re talking about were pulled following public outcry and haven’t been seen in their original form — or any form, in some cases — since. We’ve rounded all of them up below, complete with a full rundown of the reasons they were banned, from offensive stereotypes to public safety concerns.
“The Beauty and the Beach”
A lot of what made it onto TV in the late 90s wouldn’t fly today, but even so, Pokémon season 1, episode 18, “Beauty and the Beach,” was an obvious non-starter. It boasts a frankly astonishing amount of sexually-charged material, including multiple people — Ash and Brock among them — ogling Misty in a bikini. Oh, and Team Rocket’s James struts around with a pair of blow-up breasts and body shames Misty, just for good measure. It’s got “moral panic” written all over it, which is why original Pokémon licensor 4Kids Entertainment didn’t bother producing an English dub of “Beauty and the Beach.” Kids’ WB later aired an edited version of the episode (with James’ faux-cleavage excised) twice in 2000, before banning it altogether.
“The Legend of Miniryu”
Pokémon is not a violent property — not really. Sure, Pokémon tournaments are a key aspect of the franchise’s lore, but Squirtle’s final form sprouts a water cannon, not a howitzer, if you catch my meaning. As such, it’s incredibly unsettling when Safari Zone warden Kaiser starts waving around a realistic-looking revolver in Pokémon season 1, episode 25, “The Legend of Miniryu.” In fairness, these scenes are mostly played for laughs and nobody actually gets shot. Still, the sight of Ash Ketchum being held at gunpoint probably wouldn’t have gone down well with international audiences. 4Kids Entertainment certainly thought so, considering they — like pretty much every other international rightsholder — preemptively banned “The Legend of Miniryu.” Unlike “Beauty and the Beach,” Kids’ WB didn’t bother taking a crack at this one, so there isn’t even a bootleg English dub floating around the internet.
“Electric Soldier Porygon”
If there’s a poster child for banned Pokémon episodes, it’s “Electric Soldier Porygon.” If you grew up in the mid-late ‘90s, you’ll remember the global hubbub this one caused after it sent hundreds of Japanese children to the hospital with epileptic seizures. The in-episode culprit? Franchise mascot Pikachu, whose flickering red-and-blue “Thunderbolt” move proved too intense for many viewers (aside from seizures, there were reports of kids vomiting, temporarily going blind, and more besides).
In response, TV Tokyo immediately removed “Electric Soldier Porygon” from syndication — permanently. The Pokémon anime also went on a four-month hiatus, while its creative team and a bunch of medical experts tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Once they zeroed in on the flashing lights, animation studio OLM tweaked season 1’s other strobe effect-heavy sequences to avoid another kid-centric health crisis. The Porygon Pokémon also found itself forever relegated to the sidelines, despite being blameless in the whole affair.
The lasting impact of “Electric Soldier Porygon” extends beyond the Pokémon anime itself. Japanese broadcast regulations changed and the wider anime industry overhauled the way it handles excessively bright, fast-paced sequences in TV shows. Today, popular action series such as My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen employ “dimming” and “ghosting” techniques — lowering the brightness and smooshing animation frames together — to minimize the possibility of triggering seizures.
Unsurprisingly, no international network has (or likely ever will) broadcast the episode since, making it the only Pokémon episode banned the world over.
“Holiday Hi-Jynx,” “Stage Fight,” “The Mandarin Island Miss Match,” “The Ice Cave!” and “Satoshi and Nagetukesaru! A Touchdown of Friendship!!”
We’ve grouped the final five banned Pokémon episodes together because they were all spiked for the same reason: blackface. “Holiday Hi-Jynx,” “Stage Fight,” “The Mandarin Island Miss Match,” and “The Ice Cave!” all prominently feature Jynx — a Pokémon whose initial dark-skinned, full red-lipped design bore an uncomfortable resemblance to minstrel show make-up. While OLM eventually recolored Jynx purple in the original Japanese versions, The Pokémon Company quietly pulled the English dubs from streaming services, home media, and the like (except for “The Ice Cave!,” which never got an English dub to begin with).
What about the fifth episode? Here, Jynx isn’t the culprit — Ash is. The OG Pokémon protagonist gets paint smeared on his face in “Satoshi and Nagetukesaru! A Touchdown of Friendship!!” to pass as a black-and-white Passimian, and it’s not a great look. Admittedly, the blackface overtones are almost certainly unintentional — available stills make it clear Ash’s face paint forms part of what’s essentially a lemur costume (although that could itself be considered offensive) — but The Pokémon Company wasn’t risking another scandal. To this day, no English dub of “Satoshi and Nagetukesaru! A Touchdown of Friendship!!” exists, in another instance of a Pokémon episode getting pre-banned.
The post Every banned Pokémon episode and why they were pulled from TV appeared first on Polygon.
