Pokémon is an Internation franchise, it’s recognized almost anywhere in the world. One of the troubles of being international is having to handle all the different cultures. What might be deemed acceptable in one culture isn’t always the case in another. Beyond simply dealing with different cultures you also have to deal with individuals who might bring controversy to your franchise. Needless to say, Pokémon hasn’t been immune to such controversy.
The following cards have had artwork changes done to their international release that make them different from their original Japanese release:
- Jynx from Base
- Jynx from Base Set 2
- Grimer from Team Rocket
- Gengar from Gym Heroes
- Jynx from Gym Heroes
- Sabrina’s Gaze from Gym Heroes
- Jynx from Gym Challenge
- Koga’s Ninja Trick from Gym Challenge
- Misty’s Tears from Gym Challenge
- Arcade Game from Neo Genesis
- Card-Flip Game from Neo Genesis
- Moo-Moo Milk from Neo Genesis
- Jynx from Legendary Collection
- Magmortar from Dragons Exalted
- While the artwork was never censored, Kadabra hasn’t had a Pokémon card made of it since 2003
In this guide, I’ll go over exactly what the changes were and why the change was needed, even if it’s quite obvious.
The Censorship of Jynx
While my list shows five different Jynx cards have been censored two of those cards are reprints. The reason for the censorship is Jynx itself. The original design of Jynx has been called, well I’ll just quote Carole Boston Weatherford here:
Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a racist stereotype from a children’s book long ago purged from libraries.
Carole Boston Weatherford
Carole isn’t the reason the first release of Jynx was altered, where Jynx’s face and body have been recolored purple. The recoloring of Jynx for Base Set was done before Carole’s comments were public on January 9th, 1999. Wizards of the Coast, the company responsible for the international release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, had the foresight to change the image of Jynx before any controversy broke out. This is why Carole refers to the ‘TV cartoon’ when she makes her criticism that was written on January 5th, 2000.
Nevertheless, five Jynx cards received censored artwork.
The more interesting note on Jynx isn’t that Base, Base 2, Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, and Legendary Collection were censored, it’s that a latter card from the Neo Revelations set features an uncensored artwork Jynx.
Jynx would start getting the purple face treatment on Japanese cards starting with the Expedition Set released December 1st, 2001
Grimer Being Grimy
When you look at the eyes of Grimer in the original compared to the international release you’ll notice some changes.
Ms. Himeno, the artist for Grimer from Team Rocket Set, claims that Grimer is simply looking out from the manhole in the original artwork. If you wish to believe the artist you may, but I trust another person who was heavily involved with Pokémon in the early era.
I’m sure the artist intended for it to look like Grimer was staring up the girl’s skirt. The girl in the picture has “loose” socks, an indication that she is supposed to be a kogaru, or “slutty” schoolgirl. A few years ago there were legions of such schoolgirls, many of whom openly admitted (for tabloid TV shows and magazines) that they wore no underwear under their skirts. The artist is obviously making light of this Japanese cultural phenomenon.
Glenn from Japanime.com
To me, it’s obvious that Kogemoru Himeno wouldn’t admit to her actual intentions, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.
Gengar Cross Out
In the original Japanese version, there are clearly some crosses in the background placing Gengar in a graveyard. With the international release, those crosses were removed.
What’s interesting is that Wizards of the Coast didn’t change the background artwork completely. Instead, they just opted to clear out the crosses, as we’ll see later in this guide, the majority of controversial artwork just get completely different artwork. Perhaps, because the card was a holographic foil, they decided it didn’t need a different background and could work with a minimalistic design.
Sabrina’s Gaze (and Finger)
In the original artwork, someone thought Sabrina was giving them the bird, and with that look on her face she might have been. This is our first instance of completely new artwork.
While this one isn’t overly noticeable as to what the controversy might have been, it’s important to remember the audience for these cards are children and parents buying them. While there clearly isn’t a middle finger being shown in the first artwork, it was decided it was close enough to warrant a change.
Koga’s Ninja Trick with Unwanted Symbolism
This is actually an artwork that not only got censored for the international release but actually got an altered image in the Japanese release too. The original artwork has a swastika near the top right.
Now it was never intended to be a swastika. It’s actually a Buddhist symbol, called manji. In fact, there are a few differences between the manji and a swastika. First, they are orientated in the opposite direction of each other, the manji has dots inside the corners, and the manji isn’t turned to its side.
With the confusion, changes were made and every print of Koga’s Ninja Trick used the new artwork.
Misty’s Tears
Naked bodies in cartoons aren’t a big deal in Japan, and really a lot of the world would agree. However, in the United States, it’s a taboo.
With Misty being completely naked this card was doomed from the beginning to receive the alternative art treatment.
Gambling to Gaming
Two cards that got censored due to their gambling nature are Arcade Game and Card-Flip Game from Neo Genesis. For Arcade Game, even the name was changed スロットゲーム translates to slot game while アーケードゲーム would be arcade game translation.
Obviously, Wizard decided they didn’t want gambling to be promoted through the game. This censorship also made it to video games. The re-releases of FireRed and LeafGreen, Gambler character sprites were removed from the European releases.
Moo-Moo Milk Culture Shock
Apparently, a Sentret suckling on a synthetic udder isn’t appropriate for the rest of the world, and maybe not even in Japan either. The original Moo-Moo Milk artwork was banned for international audiences.
When the reprint was created for the Vs set in Japan the censored artwork was chosen.
Magmortar Shots Fired
While the other artworks were banned all the way back in 2000, Magmortar was censored in 2012. This is the latest of the cards to be censored. The artwork resembled a bit too much like a smoking gun, which caused the change.
This isn’t the only time Pokémon has censored their work due to gun appearances. Episode 035 of the Pokémon anime never got released outside of Japan due to the Safari Zone Warden pointing and using a gun in the episode.
Kadaba’s Banning
That might be all the cards that have had their artwork changed to avoid controversy, but the biggest Pokémon TCG controversy of them all is Team Rocket’s Dark Kadabra. Uri Geller file a lawsuit against Nintendo for this card. According to the lawsuit Kadabra is an unauthorized appropriation of his identity. The case is pretty strong as Uri Geller is known for his spoon bending trick, which Kadabra carries around and uses for its attacks.
The bigger case is Uri’s and Kadabra’s katakana names are ユンゲラー and ユリゲラー. Much like Hitmonchan and Hitmonchan are clear name appropriations for Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, the same is the case for Uri Geller.
Now Kadabra was printed a few times without issue, however with Dark Kadabra that all changed. In Japan, dark Pokémon weren’t considered dark, they were evil. Uri wasn’t flattered by being an evil character and the lawsuit was produced. Since the lawsuit, there has never been a Kadabra card produced.
Pokémon Logo Change to Avoid Association with Prostitution
If you’ve ever seen a Pokémon product made for Hong Kong audiences the logo isn’t yellow, it’s red. This is because yellow neon advertising boxes were used to advertise sexual services to such an extent that yellow became synonymous with prostitution. There are also red logo Pokémon products produced for English products, but the yellow logo never got introduced in Chinese products.
Thank You
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