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Banned episodes are episodes of the anime which have been deemed unsuitable for airing or reairing in a specific country.

Banned episodes internationally

There have been five confirmed episodes of Pokémon that have either aired once or never in Japan, nor the rest of the world.

List of banned episodes

EP038 Known as the "seizure episode", this episode has been banned worldwide after airing only once in Japan. One particular scene of this episode had a series of flashing lights, which caused a total of approximately 685 Japanese children (375 girls and 310 boys) to be sent to the hospital with symptoms of epilepsy. The show went on hiatus for four months, delayed Holiday Hi-Jynx and Snow Way Out!, and cancelled the airing of the New Year's Eve special. The episode also forced the producers to go back through the previous episodes and dim the lighting on them so as not to cause an accident of this magnitude again. As a result of this episode, Porygon and its evolutions, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z, have not made any appearances in the anime since EP038 except in brief cameos.

List of unaired episodes

Banned episodes in the English dub

Seven episodes have been banned in the United States. EP035, EP250, and SM064 are also banned in every other country outside of Asia as they have never been dubbed, due to most dubs being based on the English dub. EP018 was initially not dubbed, so it was never given to other countries to dub.

List of banned episodes

Note: the reasons given below may not have been corroborated officially.

Banned episodes in Japan

Pikachu & Pichu The Japanese narrator of the short, Sakai Noriko, was arrested in 2009 and later convicted of possession and abuse of drugs. Because of this, the short was "banned" in Japan, and it hasn't been rerun or released on home video or VOD in Japan since then. As such, it was the only theatrical Pikachu short to be excluded from the Pikachu The Movie Premium Box: 1998-2010.

Banned episodes in South Korea

These episodes were banned from airing in South Korea, causing South Korean continuity errors in the anime's run. Generally the banned episodes contained overt references to Japanese culture; however, the last banned episodes occurred during Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire. Furthermore, episodes EP260 to EP274 simply were never aired.

List of banned episodes

Banned episodes in other countries

Occasionally there are episodes that are not banned in Japanese or English, but are banned in another country.

The Song of Jigglypuff This episode was skipped in Turkey. Though the reason for this has never been officially revealed, it's likely due to the gambling scenes. This creates a continuity error, since the main characters first encounter Jigglypuff in this episode. The Bicker the Better This episode has been banned in several countries, including France, Ireland, and Aruba. It has been alleged that the "battle of the sexes" format of the episode has caused those countries to ban the episode. However, in France's Pokémon.com, the episode is available.

Postponed episodes and temporary bans

Some episodes were pulled off the air for a period of time for various reasons but were aired on a later date.

Temporarily banned episodes in the United States

Postponed episodes in Japan

BW037 This episode, originally meant to be the 26th episode of Best Wishes, was originally scheduled to air in Japan on April 7, 2011, but it was postponed because of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It later aired on June 23, 2011 with a slightly altered storyline to make it seem like it took place between BW036 and BW038 rather than BW023 and BW024. All of the references of the episode taking place in Castelia City were removed, including a portion of the original Japanese title, and the ending of the episode was reanimated to have Bianca leave the group instead of traveling with them in the original episode's plot. This creates a continuity error in BW024, where Bianca is revealed to have joined the group off-screen. JN023–JN029 These episodes were temporarily postponed in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but have all aired since.

See also

Regular broadcasting clip-shows, three clip show episodes which aired in Japan as part of the regular anime, but were skipped in the dub.

DPS01, DPS02, BWS01, BWS02, and XYS06; special episodes which aired in Japan as part of the regular anime, but were skipped in the dub.

References



