Video Games Hangouts
EtcetEra Hangouts
Trending

First episode of Pokemon banned in the US since the original series.

Busaiku

Busaiku

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,005
https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/SM064

The 64th episode of the Sun and Moon series, 1003rd overall, has been banned in the US.
This episode was banned due to Ash dressing up as a Passimian, and the makeup resembling Blackface.

This will be the first episode since the original series, back in 2002, to be banned in the US.


Here's a pic (not directly presenting it due to the subject manner).
 
Lukar

Lukar

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,900
Bizarre. I’m pretty sure it could have been avoided by just removing the dark facepaint.
 
Deepwater

Deepwater

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,538
I can see why they did it, it could easily be perceived as tone deaf. Might as well just skip it and not even chance it. Good on whomever caught it in the localization
 
BassForever

BassForever

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,604
CT
Makes sense better to he safe then sorry. It’s crazy that we still have black face characters in 2018... in kid’s shows no less.
 
KHarvey16

KHarvey16

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,241
Isn’t “banning” kind of a weird word here? The company that produces it just isn’t showing it.
 
CrocM

CrocM

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,805
Wasn't the other episode previously banned because it gave kids seizures?

This is way lamer
 
Mona

Mona

Member
Oct 30, 2017
23,986
i was unsure at first, but then i saw the monkey like things in the background, and i realized its getting preeeetty close to the line
 
Silfer

Silfer

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
22,264
Oh I remember thinking about what would happen with this episode when I was catching up with Sun and Moon earlier this year. It makes sense. Would it be feasible to for them to edit Ash's face throughout the episode or is that too hard to do?
 
okayfrog

okayfrog

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,968
That's silly, but in today's climate, probably better not to chance it.
KHarvey16 said:
Isn’t “banning” kind of a weird word here? The company that produces it just isn’t showing it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, but it's so much more fun to have "banned" episodes of shows rather than "episodes the localization teams thought would not be appropriate for certain countries."
 
Pop-O-Matic

Pop-O-Matic

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,846
Couldn't they just digitally edit this to restore Ash's face back to it's proper skin tone? Like when they used to edit over Japanese signs to replace them with English signs or replace rice balls with sandwiches.
 
rjinaz

rjinaz

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
17,474
Phoenix
The Southpark kids have all aged like 1 year in 20 years. From 8 to 9 I think.

As for the actual topic. Eh. Probably fine, but yeah I can see why they pulled it.
 
Kain-Nosgoth

Kain-Nosgoth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,269
Switzerland
Well i don't mind really, each company decides what's best for their products.... but honestly this is a bit ridiculous!

blackface is bad and is a real issue... but come one this is not that at all here, he's cosplaying a pokemon...
 
Xita

Xita

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
8,083
Don’t really see it honestly, not even close to a Jynx scenario. Also don’t see why they couldn’t have edited his face.

Also inb4 censorship cries when the company itself just decided not to air it
 
sdp

sdp

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,974
Really dumb but I understand they're just taking precautions, this would've made all the blog rounds and likely a thread on this forum about it. Still dumb banning based on senseless pressure just like the original series episodes that were banned (sans Porygon).

KHarvey16 said:
Isn’t “banning” kind of a weird word here? The company that produces it just isn’t showing it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not a weird word since it's literally the definition of ban: To officially exclude
 
KHarvey16

KHarvey16

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,241
sdp said:
Really dumb but I understand they're just taking precautions, this would've made all the blog rounds and likely a thread on this forum about it. Still dumb banning based on senseless pressure just like the original series episodes that were banned (sans Porygon).


It's not a weird word since it's literally the definition of ban: To officially exclude
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Is a video game not localized for or released in Russia banned in Russia? I don’t really think most would consider it to be.
 
VorpalNonsense

VorpalNonsense

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,192
I mean I guess they wanted to be safe but I can't really imagine any reasonable person being legitimately personally offended by Ash wearing an imaginary lemur costume. Apologies to the imaginary lemur community.
 
PantherLotus

PantherLotus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,767
luv 2 C geniuses in here pretend not to know how it could be perceived as blackface, even if unintended
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,325
The company that dubs Pokémon is hella cheap or they want to feel like they are actually affecting the show they stopped licensing/using the real music for the show and now it’s just a bunch of royalty free stock music. It wouldn’t surprise me if they saw this and went it’s cheaper to just not show it.

I do like that Pokémon has several banned episodes even a banned/not shown Japanese episode we will never see.

KHarvey16 said:
Isn’t “banning” kind of a weird word here? The company that produces it just isn’t showing it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not really it’s a common term when speaking about tv seems to happen alot with animated shows
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,971
I'm more shocked to see that this didn't trip any of the checks during production, considering how global Pokemon is. While this looks to be a tamer case of naive tone-deafness, I'm also curious why they couldn't just have the anime company render a pass with normal face skin tone. It's digital coloring after all, this would be the equivalent of a "retake" in TV animation when an error needs to be fixed. The cost of such a fix is a drop in the bucket to the lost ad profits of airing an amended version of the episode would have produced.
 

Deleted member 873

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,463
It's a good episode, btw, if dub people want to check it out.

Personally, I immediately felt like it was blurring the lines a bit (even though it's just him painting his face to mix up with the Pokémon). This is nothing to be stressed over, IMO. Avoid things that are bad for your current social moment. They have skipped episodes in Japan due to earthquakes and boats crashing.
 
SliceSabre

SliceSabre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,556
While I think blackface is gross, I don't see it in this case. He dressed up to look like a pokemon who happens to have dark skin. Heck at the very least I would think the animators could have at least just altered the face a bit to remove it and leave it like normal if they were that concerned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.