Pokémon in Russia
| Pokémon in Russia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Language | Russian | |||
| Continent | Europe | |||
| Original anime airdates | ||||
| EP001 | December 18, 2000 | |||
| AG001 | Never aired | |||
| DP001 | September 20, 2008 | |||
| BW001 | ||||
| XY001 | ||||
| SM001 | ||||
| JN001 | ||||
| HZ001 | ||||
The Pokémon franchise first reached Russia in December of 2000. Unlike many other countries, the Pokémon anime premiered on ORT (now called Channel One) before the games were released. In Cyrillic script, Pokémon is written as Покемон and its plural is Покемоны pokemony.
Pokémon anime
First wave of Pokémon in Russia
Pokémon was originally brought over to Russia by Sargona Ltd., which sold English-language cards from the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The Pokémon anime was first shown on ORT (now known as Channel One), which is the main television station in Russia.
The rights to the series were purchased in early 2000 and episodes began to appear by December of the same year. The Russian translation of the anime, which was conducted by the Kievan Pilot Studio, is based on the English dub. The Russian version of the anime retains all of the English character names to match the Pokémon TCG cards that had been already released.
While the translation quality of the Russian dub is considered to be high by most fans, a few changes had been made. For example, some locations had slightly different names, such as Dark City being retitled Мрачный Город. The lyrics of the opening theme were changed considerably from the English dub as well, with a mention of things such as the protection of the Earth. However, the lyrics to Pokémon Theme were later changed (for example, the parts about saving the world were removed) and were used in the last episodes of Indigo League. Any episodes of the anime which were banned in the United States were also banned in Russia.
Many of the voice actors had noticeable Ukrainian accents.
In an interview with "Afisha" magazine, the management director of children's programming on ORT, Sergey Suponev, assured viewers in the harmlessness of Pokémon:
«То, что мы хотим его показать, может быть, это можно назвать неким поступком. Шуму вокруг этого сериала было много по всему миру. На самом деле довольно безобидная вещь. Милая история, как мальчик спасает зверушек, учит их воевать за добро и справедливость. И есть плохие ребята, которые отправляют за большие деньги в зоопарк, — все, что в этом фильме скандального.».
Within a day of the anime's television premiere, the management of public relations of ORT had invited journalists and children from an Otradnoye shelter to a Rolan cinema for a presentation of the series. The children received the presentation well, and then took a quiz organized by ORT.
From December 18, 2000 to January 25, 2001, the anime was broadcasted by ORT. In February 5, 2001 they began to show the series again until August 2001. The last episode to air on ORT was Charizard Chills. 104 episodes were shown.
After this, the Pokémon anime was not aired in Russia for seven years. Many fans wrote to TV channels asking them to air the anime, but the only appearance of Pokémon on Russian TV was the airing of The Power of One and Pokémon 4Ever on ORT at 6:00 am.
Many rumors have circulated in speculation of why ORT stopped airing the anime, including:
- A Japanese channel may have shown an offensive video about Russia. This has been unproven.
- Some believe that ORT canceled the show because Sergey Suponev, the director of children's programming of ORT, died in a snowmobile accident, and the new director supposedly did not like Pokémon.
- Others believe that Russian newspapers and the yellow press pressured the station to cancel the show. Some reported that Pokémon was causing epileptic seizures, others wrote that Pokémon "brainwashes children" with subliminal stimuli. ORT didn't want its reputation to fall, so they stopped airing Pokémon.
- ORT and the Japanese creators of the anime couldn't make an agreement on the price of licensing the anime.
The return of Pokémon
On September 20, 2008 TNT, another Russian channel, premiered the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series. The tenth season was shown fully.
Pokémon has also recently aired on Jetix. Unlike TNT, both the tenth season and Battle Dimension have been aired fully.
On August 10, 2010, when Jetix-Russia was replaced by the Disney Channel, the airing of Pokémon was finished for the second time. However, the Russian version of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles is being broadcasted on Disney Channel Ukraine.
On February 3, 2012, Russian version of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles started on TNT.
Cast and crew
Pilot Studio dub
Анатолий Зиновенко Anatolii Zinovenko is the voice of James and Professor Oak. Дмитрий Завацкий Dmitrii Zavatskii is the voice of Gary Oak, Meowth, Brock and Tracey.
Pokémon games
Since Nintendo handheld consoles are not popular in Russia, Pokémon games are rarely found in shops. Usually games become available with great delay after the European release. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver in fact will never be sold officially, since Nintendo's official distributor, Новый диск, has declined to import them.[1] All Pokémon video games are sold in English, however, there have been fan translations of the games circulating among Russian fans. The games have been translated and sold by pirates as well, although these translations contain notoriously poor grammar.
Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon Trading Card Game was released in Russia, and obtained "the same cult status" as it did in Britain.[2] The Russian government attempted to ban or, in the least, censor the game in late 2001-2002, but it seems that this was not carried through.
The Trading Card Game was evidently released in English, as the government wanted the cards to be translated into Russian as part of the censorship.
Trivia
- Some episodes dubbed by Pilot Studio were based on the Polish version instead of the English dub. This is why Pallet Town and Viridian City are called "Alabastia" and "Vertania". Also, there was a dub error in EP003 where Polish words can be heard.[3]
- The actress who voiced Dawn is registered at the Russian Pokémon League. [4]
- Pilot Studio also dubbed the Pokémon anime in Ukrainian with the same actors.
External links
- Pokemon.ru - The site is dead and redirects to pokemon.com (Internet Archive)
- Покемон.рф - Site in newly registered .рф domain. Redirects to nintendo-europe.com
- Русская Лига Покемонов (Russian Pokémon League) - Since there is no official Pokémon site in Russia, it is the most popular Russian fan Pokémon site.
- Sargona official site
- Pilot studio official site
References
- ↑ New Disk's announcement
- ↑ Barbie is banned from Russia, without love | World news | The Observer (retrieved May 5, 2010)
- ↑ Third Episode in Russian (retrieved May 5, 2010)
- ↑ http://pokeliga.com/index.phtml?comments=518 (retrieved May 5, 2010)
| The Pokémon franchise around the world | |
|---|---|
| Africa: | South Africa |
| The Americas: | Brazil • Canada • Latin America • United States |
| Asia: | Greater China • Indonesia • Japan • Malaysia • Philippines • Singapore • South Asia • South Korea • Thailand • Vietnam |
| Europe: | Albania • Belgium • Bulgaria • Croatia • Czech Republic • Denmark • Finland • France • Germany • Greece Hungary • Iceland • Ireland • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Netherlands • North Macedonia • Norway • Poland Portugal • Romania • Russia • Serbia • Slovakia • Spain • Sweden • Ukraine • United Kingdom |
| Middle East: | Arab world • Israel • Turkey |
| Oceania: | Australia • New Zealand |
|
This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world. |
