Characters

English names are given after the Japanese names in Western order (given name before surname), when possible. All Japanese names, unless otherwise noted, are romanized from katakana. For the sake of simplicity, English language names will be used in this and other articles in Wikipedia about Pokémon, unless explicitly referring to the Japanese version.

Main Characters

• Ash Ketchum / Satoshi (サトシ) - (see article for info)

• Pikachu (ピカチュウ Pikachū), a little yellow mouse-like creature with a lightning bolt tail and the ability to generate an electrical jolt from its cheeks.

• Misty / Kasumi (カスミ) - (see article for more information)

• Brock / Takeshi (タケシ) - (see article for more information)

• Tracey Sketchit / Kenji (ケンジ) - (see article for more information)

• May / Haruka (ハルカ) - (see article for more information)

• Max / Masato (マサト) - Younger brother of May. (see article for more information)

• Hikari - new character introduced in season ten.

Villains

• Team Rocket / Rokketo-Dan - an evil organization led by the evil Sakaki / Giovanni.
  • Jessie, James, and Meowth / Musashi, Kojirō, and Nyarth - (see article for more information)
  • Cassidy and Butch / Yamato and Kosaburō - (see article for more information)

Professors

• Professor Samuel Oak / Professor Yukinari Okido (オーキド・ユキナリ博士 Ōkido Yukinari-hakase) - a Pokémon researcher. He is often considered the leading Pokémon expert, often giving lectures to Pokémon academies and hosting a radio show in Goldenrod City. Alongside his research, he is also authorized by the Pokémon League to give new trainers one of the three Kanto starter Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. It was a special condition in which Ash obtained Pikachu from Professor Oak. (see Ash Ketchum article)

• Professor Felina Ivy / Dr. Uchikido - Professor Ivy is first heard of in the second season of the Pokémon Animé. Just after Ash Ketchum has competed in the Pokémon League, Professor Oak asks him to travel to the Orange Archipelago region and retrieve a strange Pokéball from local Pokémon expert Professor Ivy. Ash and his friends Misty and Brock make their way to Valencia Island and meet the Professor and her triplet assistants.

• Professor Elm / Professor Utsugi (ウツギ博士 Utsugi-hakase) - a Pokémon researcher and was one of Professor Oak's students. He is authorized by the Pokémon League to give new trainers one of the three Johto starter Pokémon: Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile.

• Professor Birch / Professor Odamaki (オダマキ博士 Odamaki-hakase) - a Pokémon researcher, known for his field work. He is authorized by the Pokémon League to give new trainers one of the three Hoenn starter Pokémon: Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip.

Recurring Cousins

• Officer Jenny /Junsā (ジュンサー) - a family of police officers (all of which are named Jenny; like Joy. Like the various Nurse Joys, it is difficult to tell one Officer Jenny from another. Also like the Joys, Brock has no difficulty telling them apart. Notably in the Orange Islands, the Jennys are dressed differently from the ones in the other regions. The Japanese name, junsā, means "police officer".

• Nurse Joy / Jōi (ジョーイ) - a family of Pokémon nurses (all of which are named Joy. Because of their identical appearance, it is often difficult to tell one Nurse Joy from another (with the exception of one tanned, muscular Joy in the Orange Islands, plus the Joys there are differntly dressed from the ones in the other regions). Brock, however, has no difficulty telling them apart. This is most likely a homage to the games which used the same nurse sprite for each Pokémon Center the player visited. There is one Joy who is not a nurse, but instead an agent of the Pokémon Inspection Agency (responsible for certifying Gyms); she appears in an episode of Pokémon Chronicles. The Japanese name, jōi, is from joi (女医) which means "female doctor".

Cast List

Recasting Change

On March 21, 2006, it was discovered that Pokémon USA was going to recast the voices for the English-language dub of the Pokémon anime, from season 9 onwards. The new voices were used in the special aired on April 29, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon. This caused a controversy in the Pokémon fan community as most fans opposed the recast. At the beginning of the year, 4Kids lost the merchandising rights to the franchise and dubbing was handed to TAJ Productions. The voice actors wound up being replaced with soundalikes of the old voices. Maddie Blaustein (Meowth), Eric Stuart Veronica Taylor [http://www.serebiiforums.com/showpost.php?p=2947679&postcount=1" target="_blank" >^** (Ash and May) confirmed the recast and urged the community to make itself heard.

Response

Response of the new direction the dub is going was mixed. Some fans criticised the new voice actors. In response to this controversy among fans, Bill Rogers, the new voice actor who plays Brock, had signed up on a popular Pokémon message board Serebii.net Forums to post on a thread informing the members the reason why TAJ Productions could not use the 4Kids voice actors, saying that they had signed an exclusive contract with 4Kids Entertainment that kept them bound and unable to work on the show outside the studios, and that he promises the new voice actors will do a better job. ^*

Rachael Lillis, the former voice actor of Misty and Jessie, became aware of this and had posted a response on her blog. Rachel counterpointed the idea of such "exclusive contact" keeping them bound, as the contacts could not prevent them from working on the show outside 4Kids.

Also, On June 9, 2006, at 3:19pm US Central Time, a TV.com member revealed that he had received a message from Maddie Blaustein stating that TAJ Productions was once again replacing the entire cast, the message he received was as follows:

Apparently I was in error about Veronica. Someone had sent me an e-mail that claimed to be from Veronica, and I fell for it. Hey, we're all human. PUSA has still never contacted any of us. I can tell you that the "Special" cast are being recast though, so apparently there is going to be yet another bunch of replacements. The story as I now understand it is that TAJ told PUSA that the original cast was unavailable, and that PUSA never bothered to check with 4Kids or the original cast on that. So now we have PUSA being less than happy with the "special" cast, and are going to recast with a new crew of sound-alikes.

It was reported on the Serebii.net forums by one "old guard truthseeker", who claims to be friendly with Pokemon crew member from both TA and 4Kids, that it would actually only be Ash who will be recieving a new VA; all others are reportedly the same from the special. It is unknown if this information is true or not.

So far, no word has came out of 4Kids Entertainment if they might have a word in this. Ironically, 4Kids was itself responsible for the infamous cast changes in both the Sonic the Hedgehog and Winx Club series, from the original voice actors who provided the roles to their own voice actors. It was revealed that 4Kids did have contracts for the old voice actors that they did not know about.

A new voice actor for Ash is underway, May's voice actor may be replaced, However, in April of 2006, Kids' WB, which will move to the merged The CW Network, did not pick up "Battle Frontier" based on the controversy. It was announced on June 14 on the pokémon.com web site the Cartoon Network will air the series starting in the fall.

The new voice cast will be part of a panel at San Diego's Comic Con on July 20, 2006.

Banned episodes

• On December 16, 1997, an episode titled "Dennō Senshi Porygon" ("Computer Soldier Porygon" or "Electric Soldier Porygon") broadcast in Japan caused several children to have epileptic seizures. A sequence in the show included a form of computer graphics which needed a certain anti-virus program in order to function properly. However, the software also caused a series of visual flashes to appear on the recording, so these were altered to make them appear computer-generated too (flashing around 10 times per second)! The resulting series of flashing lights and flickering colours inadvertently triggered the seizures in the children; Japan's Fire Defence Agency reported 685 affected people were admitted into hospitals of 30 prefectures by the following day. On March 30, 1998 TV Tokyo announced its intention to resume broadcasts.

• In the episode titled "Miniryū no densetsu" ("Legend of Miniryuu"), the Safari Zone ranger threatens Team Rocket and Ash with a loaded gun, which was considered inappropriate because it was set to air shortly after the massacre at Columbine High School. Also in one scene, Meowth shows up with a moustache similar to Adolf Hitler. The episode was not aired in North America or Europe, but was aired in parts of Asia
• In the episode titled "Aopulco no kyūjitsu" ("Holiday at Aopulco" (Aopulco)/"Beauty and the beach"), James uses fake breasts to enter a beauty contest. The episode was edited so that the entire bikini scene was utterly removed from the episode.
• The episode titled "Koori no dokutsu" ("The Ice Cave") predominantly features the Pokémon Jynx, which is regarded as a racist stereotype by some. As Jynx would have been impossible to remove from the episode without re-writing it, the episode was simply skipped. Some fans speculate that the episode was banned due to Brock falling ill; there was an outbreak of SARS at the time the episode was due to air in the US. There has been no indication on when - or if - it will air.
• The episode titled "Yureru shima no tatakai! Dojotchi vs Namazun" ("Shaking Island Battle! Dojotchi VS Namazun!!") in Advanced Generation was skipped over due to the content of the episode and its similarities with earthquakes in Niigata prefecture in October 23, 2004, becoming the first episode (after "Computer Soldier Porygon") to be banned within Japan. It now appears that the episode will never been shown anywhere in the world; an English version was also never produced, and the episode was skipped in the English language broadcast.
• There were many worries about May's final contest airing due to it featuring Jynx. However, as it was now purple, people were unsure what would happen. The first indications were that the episodes were airing as Kids WB aired a commercial with Jynx and the episodes aired in the UK. However, as the first episode was airing in Britain, it emerged that Kids WB would be skipping to Berry, Berry Interesting. It was disputed whether Kids WB have just illogically skipped these episodes or whether they are banned outright, until Kids WB finally aired the first two Pacifidlog contest episodes on April 1st, 2006, and the third on April 8th, 2006, before going into the Battle Frontier.
• Episode 24 (English episode 23), "The Tower of Terror" premiered in America on October 7, 1998, and ran normally three years. However, following the September 11th attacks, it was banned due to the nature of the title. More recently it has begun airing again, though rarely.
• Episode 19 (English episode 18), "Tentacool and Tentacruel" premiered in America on October 1, 1998, and ran normally three years. However, following the September 11th attacks, it was banned due to having towers being destroyed. Even though banned on Kids WB, this episode was aired on Cartoon Network.
• Episode 65, "Holiday Hi-Jynx" premiered in America on December 11, 1999, and continued to repeat for a few years (mostly during Christmas time). However the episode was eventually banned because Jynx's dark skin, large lips, and light hair was considered racist and sparked controversy, but is still shown in the UK also.
• The TV show is banned in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Most of the banned episodes were translated into English, with most of the English production completed, but were prevented from airing. Only one of them, "Beauty and the Beach", made its way around the ban, but was only aired twice, and the tape was never given to Cartoon Network.

Pokémon Media and release information

Music

Shinji Miyazaki is the composer and arranger of the original incidental music in the series, and he also arranges songs from the Pokémon Game Boy games (composed by Jun'ichi Masuda) for use in the anime. So far, two soundtrack albums from the series have been released in Japan - Pocket Monsters Sound Anime Collection, produced in 1998, and Genki!! Ippai!!, released in 2005, which includes picks of soundtracks from Pocket Monsters and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Many tracks recorded prior and later specifically for the series are missing. Shinji is also responsible for the background music for all the movies, some of which is later used in the series.

4Kids' adaptation of the series features a heavily edited soundtrack on the much later episodes near the Johto saga, often featuring a combination of Shinji Miyazaki's music and in-house produced music. In comparison to the original Japanese series, scenes featuring no background music are much less common. The only dubbed material known to retain the original incidental music so far happen to be the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th movies, along with the 3rd mini-movie. The original English first season, however, has Shinji Miyazaki's soundtrack mostly intact.

Broadcasters

America

• Brazil: Cartoon Network, Rede Record
• Canada: YTV, Télétoon showed it in French, although it was cancelled a few years ago.
• Latin America: Cartoon Network
• Mexico: Canal 5
• United States: Syndication (1998-99); Kids' WB (1999-2006); Cartoon Network (on and off since 2002, but will air full time in the fall of 2006).

Asia

• Hong Kong: TVB
• Iraq: Al Iraqiya
• Israel: Shesh
• Japan: TV Tokyo, Kids Station
• Korea: SBS
• Malaysia: ntv7
• Philippines: GMA Network, Cartoon Network
• Singapore: MediaCorp

Europe

• Belgium: VT4
• Czech Republic: TV Nova
• Denmark: TV2, Jetix Danmark
• Finland: MTV3
• France: TF1, Jetix France
• Germany: RTL II, Jetix Deutschland
• Hungary: RTL Klub
• Italy: Italia 1
• Netherlands: Jetix Nederland
• Norway: TV 2, Jetix Norge
• Poland: Polsat, TV4, Jetix Polska
• Portugal: SIC
• Spain: Telecinco, Jetix España
• Sweden: TV4, Jetix Sverige
• United Kingdom: Toonami, Sky Television, GMTV

Australia

• Australia: Ten Network, Cartoon Network

External links

United States

• Kids' WB Pokémon anime webpage
• Pokemon at TV.com
• Dogasu's Backpack
• Serebii.net
• Bulbagarden
• Psypoke

Japan

• TV Tokyo Pokémon anime webpage
• Pokemon Japanese website
• TV Tokyo Pokémon AG anime webpage
• Pokeani

See also

• List of Pokémon episodes
• List of Pokémon characters
• Pokémon Chronicles
• List of television shows based on video games

Pokémon anime | Shows on Toonami | Shows on Miguzi | Anime series | Japanese television series | Kids WB shows | Syndicated television series

Pokémon (Anime) | פוקימון (סדרת טלוויזיה) | ポケットモンスター (アニメ)