10 Biggest Pokémon Controversies

Pokémon is a global phenomenon, with games, TV shows, manga, movies, trading cards, toys and more in its stable. While it has a kid-friendly image and simple charm, there’s also a tactical depth and nostalgic glow which keeps adults hooked too.

Because of this huge audience, it comes under more fire than most franchises. We know the primary audience is children, but so many adults are deeply immersed in the games, toys, cards and shows that nothing gets by unnoticed.

With big cultural differences between Japan and the USA (Pokémon and Nintendo’s two biggest markets), there’s a lot of stuff which was deemed okay for the local release, but was either preemptively changed or met with criticism in Western markets.

The world is significantly smaller with widespread internet access, so even things confined to Japan have made their way West and caused a bit of a fuss.

These things either caused a big controversy for The Pokémon Company’s image, or were changed knowing how controversial they’d be for Western audiences. Things like removing the Game Corner or the Tentacruel episode being pulled out of respect for 9/11 don’t qualify, as they’re not especially controversial on their own, but outside of that, there are plenty stories to tell.

Younger players may not be aware that Jynx’s current purple skin is actually a redesign, with her debuting with jet black skin. The big pink lips and wide eyes on a black face, looked like, well, blackface, and the design came under fire.

Jynx is believed to be based on Yama-uba (an icy ghost), and Brunhilde, the Valkyrie (an original opera lady who sings), which would explain the design, moveset and typing. However, there’s also the ganguro inspiration, a Japanese trend of using incredibly dark foundation to give women brown skin, which is certainly iffy on a global scale.

It probably didn’t help that humanoid Pokémon don’t tend to be very popular anyway. This, combined with the lingering ill will from its original design, means Jynx is many peoples' least favourite Pokémon ever.

Possibly wary of a similar reaction, Lenora was changed too. Though her in game and Japanese anime outfit shows her wearing an apron, this was shortened to become a blouse for the Western anime.

Despite the reasonable justification that Lenora was an archeologist, the apron (combined with the handkerchief and dark skin) was too reminiscent of the black mammy stereotype, and Pokémon decided to be better safe than sorry.