The Pokémon series is no stranger to censorship and localization changes over in the West,
and even episodes being completely pulled from English TV over fear of causing offense.
You may recall how various episodes involving the Pokémon Jynx, for instance, are not available
in English due to controversy over their appearance resembling racist iconography.
Now it's just been revealed that an episode of the latest Pokémon series, Sun & Moon,
will be skipping an episode over in the West for similar reasons.
Episode 64 of Pokémon Sun & Moon, which originally aired in Japan March 1st 2018, will not be
broadcast in English and the schedule will instead jump straight to the next episode.
The decision has been made due to a large part of the episode revolving around Ash wearing
dark face paint to disguise himself as a Passimian.
Like Jynx, it appears that there was some concern that this could invoke racist imagery
and so English fans will no longer be able to see this episode.
This marks the first time for an episode to not be dubbed in English in nearly 9 years,
with all other Japanese dubbed main episodes making their way Westward.
But, this isn't the first time for changes to be made to the English show due to Western
sensibilities and, with that in mind, today we'll be taking a look at some of the other
ways Pokémon Sun & Moon has been altered in the West.
Currently there have been 60 episodes of the show broadcast in English and so far a big
source for 1) being put in some really unlucky situations and 2) having to have some elements
changed in the West, is Team Rocket's Meowth.
Meowth actually nearly died as early as the 3rd episode, with him getting into a rough
encounter with Mimikyu that knocks him unconscious and promptly sends him to a heaven-like realm.
Jessie and James manage to bring him back by throwing water on him, but similar events
will happen again in later episodes - except this time, they would be toned down in the
West to reduce the resemblance to death.
In episode 12, Meowth sees that Mimikyu has gone missing and then notices him in the water
without its clothes.
Over in Japan the next shot then shows him nearly drowning...
The English version, on the other hand, removes the shot showing Meowth face down in the water
and also him on land when his soul returns to his body...
Meowth yet again nearly dies as a result of Mimikyu in episode 38 and is seen walking
along a dark tunnel towards a bright light, and then reappearing in a flowery meadow full
of sunshine.
The English version on the right however, then cuts out a shot showing Meowth's lifeless
body fading into view.
A little later and another scene showing Meowth's soul returning to his body is changed too...
In the English release, you can no longer see his soul returning to his body, but if
you listen closely, you'll notice that they didn't remove the soul's sound effect to go
along with it...
The appearance of souls have also been removed in other parts of the show.
Episode 52 shows Bewear carrying Team Rocket and their Wobbuffet away, gripping them tighter
and tighter.
As you can see, in the Japanese version on the left, the pain causes Wobbuffet's soul
to be seen coming out of its mouth.
In the English version on the right though, the soul was removed.
Another source for changes so far in the show is the appearance of drinks that could resemble
alcohol.
This can be seen in episode 42, where in Japan everybody can be seen drinking a dark orange
substance.
The English version interestingly only changed the drinks for the characters on the right
side of the screen, by turning the liquid green.
This is likely due to the difference in mugs that the characters are holding and the characters
on the right's more closely resembling beer mugs.
Episode 55, which aired in the US only a month and a half ago, also removed alcohol similarities
- this time to the glasses that that Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet are drinking from.
Due to resembling wine glasses, the Western version changed them to regular glasses and
also made the liquid inside look more like orange juice.
And finally, for another change that's been made so far to the show, episode 6 had a rather
strange change to a scene showing Ash and Pikachu eating a meal that Ash had prepared,
despite not knowing how to cook, which makes him sick...
The English version for some reason removed being able to see the glittery vomit shooting
from Ash's mouth...
It's not known why this change was made, and whether it was for any supposed moral reasons
or perhaps something else, but it was felt as important to mention due to the general
lack of visual changes that the show normally receives, which makes the removal of this
little bit of slight crude humour stand out even more.
However, as mentioned, so far only 60 episodes have been broadcast in the West and there
will be many more on the way coming soon.
If any future changes are made then you'll be able to find it reported on the channel,
so please consider subscribing if you're interesting in staying up-to-date on the changes made
to the Pokémon anime in the West, as well as other shows and video games.
Until next time, thank you for watching.