Pokemon isn't going anywhere. I think that's a safe assumption that everybody needs to get on board with. With every new game comes a new Anime series and so on, and the world keeps spinning and everybody's happy. That's been the case for years, and everything was fine and dandy for a bit, but now its 2018, and we're backed to seeing episodes of the
Pokemon Anime announced as banned in the United States.
The episodes banned in the United States in the past weren't a ton, but there were enough to be notable.
Beauty and the Beach was banned in U.S. for James' useage of fake breasts,
Tentacool & Tentacruel and
The Tower of Terror were removed and banned due to 9/11 attacks,
Cyber Soldier Porygon was banned globally for the massive amount of seizures it caused,
The Legend of Dratini never received an English Dub due to it's extreme gun violence against kids, and there were also four Jynx episodes which didn't make it to the states due to their racism (and from which no one seemed to learn any lessons, if this latest banned episode is any indication). Those would be
Holiday Hi-Jynx, The Ice Cave! Stage Fight!, and The Mandarin Island Miss Match. Since then there have only been two unaired episodes, both globally, and that was because they both had to do with earthquakes during a time in which Japan was suffering and it would have been devastating to air them. Those were titled
Battle of the Shaking Island! Barboach vs. Whiscash! and
Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma Parts 1 & 2 each respectively.
While fans may have felt like they had seen the last of the racism bans back when Jynx was popular, no one had anticipated there to be more blackface stereotype.
Yes, really. The episode in question,
Ash and Passimian! Friendly Touchdown, was initially set to air an English Dub here in the states at the end of July or early August having originally aired in Japan in March. It's airing saw Ash use dark face paint in what looks like the blackface stereotype to imitate a -you guessed it- monkey. Luckily, this didn't air. It's the 1,003rd episode in the series, or the 64th episode of
Pokemon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Adventures, and with the popularity of the
Pokemon game franchise, we can probably expect to keep getting more adventures with Ash for the forseeable future, but only time will tell how many of those will make it to the states.
What do you think? Is racism worth banning Anime from the U.S.? Check out the trailer for
Pokemon: Ultra Sun and
Pokemon: Ultra Moon below!
Encounter new Ultra Beasts and travel through Ultra Wormholes to explore worlds beyond Alola in Pokemon: Ultra Sun and Pokemon: Ultra Moon, now available on the 3DS!