The most popular and financially successful anime of all time is Pokémon. A franchise that has dominated the video game, anime, films, and trading card market for years, everyone and their mother is familiar with some aspect of the show. The most iconic character is Pikachu, the mascot for the franchise and a globally recognized character. Licensed Pikachu merchandise is one of the main reasons for Pokémon's commercial success.
That being said, despite being beloved around the world, the franchise has had its fair share of controversy. Whether something insignificant like getting rid of a loveable character, all the way to real-world lawsuits, Pokémon has a plagued history it would rather forget.
10 Animal Cruelty
While not technically a mistake made by the franchise, this has been a thorn in the side of Pokémon since its inception. Animal rights groups have been vocally opposed to the anime, saying that it glorifies things like dogfighting and that Pokéballs are akin to circus elephants being chained up for people's amusement. Nintendo has tried multiple times to satiate the outrage by these animal rights groups, but to no avail.
9 Ash's Sun & Moon Art Style
There's a famous saying that goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and Nintendo learned this lesson the hard way. During the Sun & Moon arc of the anime, they decided to go with a younger design for Ash, perhaps to appeal to a younger audience. Fans were outraged by the design, saying that it was a step in the wrong direction for the show and made it more ridiculous. Fortunately, the changes were updated in Journeys.
8 All Of 4Kids' Westernized Editing
While attempting to dub anime shows to appeal to a local audience is something to applaud, the way 4Kids went about doing it has left their hilarious edits in infamy. All the drastic changes during the golden age of anime eventually led to the company's failure.
They were in charge of dubbing favorites like Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece. In Pokémon, they changed all the Japanese food. Rice balls turned into donuts and giant rice balls became sandwiches. The most unforgivable act, though, were the changes they made to the entire first Pokémon movie.
7 Lavender Town Legend
This myth still plagues the franchise to this day, and was one of the original creepypastas of the internet. Anyone who played the original Pokémon games, Red and Blue, is eerily familiar with the ghost town of Lavender Town. It was the location of the tower with the haunted ghost, and the most memorable part was the creepy music that played while in the town. A rumor that still persists to this day is that the melody and the town itself led to a spate of child suicides in Japan. While certain wavelengths can cause a physiological reaction, this was never the case with Lavender Town.
6 Racist Undertones
Having diversity and representation in anime is always a glorious thing, but only when done tastefully and with respect. This was completely the opposite case with the now-banned episode that introduces Jynx. The original art style of Jynx had to be changed entirely, as it resembled certain historical racialized stereotypes.
As if Pokémon didn't learn their lesson, a similar issue arose with Pokemon Black & White and the gym leader Lenora. In the original anime, she was depicted wearing an apron, which some people said alluded to a Mammy stereotype.
5 Connection To Satanism
Along with fame comes the inevitable criticisms and farfetched controversies. Similar to the struggles Harry Potter had to go through, Pokémon was also hit with allegations of Satanical undertones aimed at children. Groups attempted to connect capturing and releasing Pokémon to summoning demons, saying that they could only be controlled by magic talismans (gym badges), and players had to concoct potions to give to their "demons." It really is as ludicrous as it sounds.
4 Kadabra's Lawsuit
To understand the issue here it needs to be known that Kadabra's Japanese name is Yungerer. In the anime and when the Kadabra Pokémon card was released, it was shown holding a spoon. This, along with its Japanese name, lead to Israeli-British magician and psychic Uri Geller suing them for his name and spoon-bending image. Thanks to this controversy, Pokémon Company removed all Kadabra cards from the Trading Card Game.
3 Sexualized Content
Growing pains are an understandable part of any anime trying to find its footing, but fans are still completely baffled by the 18th episode of the original Pokémon series over 20 years later. In this episode, James from Team Rocket enters an all-female beauty contest wearing a pair of inflatable breasts, which he also fondles during the contest.
4Kids finally did something right by skipping over this episode during the Western run of the show, and it has also been omitted from any DVD releases of the original series.
2 Nazi Allegories
One of the biggest and most insensitive mistakes made by Pokémon are the allegories, whether direct or indirect, towards fascism. One example is the way Team Rocket grunts salute during meetings, using an eerily familiar gesture.
What's worse, and far more blatant, is the controversy when a Golbat Trading Card had a Swastika added to the design. How that managed to go through multiple quality checks is beyond comprehension.
1 The Infamous Seizure Episode
Anyone who is a fan of Pokémon is aware of this infamous episode. It is still the greatest mistake the anime has ever made, thanks to its real-world consequences. In the 38th episode, titled "Cyber Soldier Porygon," there were hundreds of instances of children in Japan having epileptic seizures thanks to the flashing lights of the episodes. Nintendo shares dropped, and over 650 children had to be taken to hospital. Since then the company has tried everything in its power to scrub the episode from memory and Porygon has never appeared in the anime since.
