The Banned Pokémon That Continues to Stir Controversy

Summary

Jynx, a controversial Pokémon with a design resembling racial stereotypes, caused several episodes of the anime to be banned.

Jynx's initial design sparked racism allegations, which prompted alterations to its appearance. Nevertheless, numerous episodes featuring Jynx were censored prior to these changes being implemented.

Over time, the controversy surrounding Jynx ultimately led to its gradual removal from the anime, with only sporadic appearances in subsequent episodes.

Fans of the Pokémon anime are well aware that there are several episodes that have been deemed "banned" and are therefore not officially accessible. The primary reason behind these banned episodes is directly associated with a certain Pokémon character called Jynx, who has sparked controversy due to its controversial design.

Jynx, belonging to the first generation of Pokémon, is a humanoid creature that resembles a woman with long blond hair and a dress. Originally, Jynx had jet-black skin, which, when combined with its exaggerated facial features, unintentionally resembled racial stereotypes of black individuals from the early 20th century. The fact that Jynx, like other Pokémon, can be captured and forced to battle only intensified the outrage. Consequently, Jynx's design was eventually altered, giving it purple skin and toning down the facial features to address the concerns. However, it was not until 2005 that Jynx's new design became the standard in the anime. Consequently, any episode featuring Jynx prior to that year was banned.

Jynx Got More Episodes Banned Than Any Other Pokémon

The episode that introduced Jynx, called "Holiday Hi-Jynx," initially aired in the US but was later pulled due to public complaints about perceived racism. The English dub of the episode was never shown in America again. Jynx's controversial image led to the banning of two later episodes, "Stage Fight!" and "The Mandarin Island Miss-Match," which featured minor appearances by Jynx. This controversy extended into the Johto era, where the episode "The Ice Cave" was completely skipped during dubbing due to Jynx's significant role in it. In the Advanced Generation, Jynx began to be edited out of smaller roles, as seen in the episode "All Things Bright and Beautifly," instead of censoring the entire episode.

Jynx did make a return to the anime during the Hoenn era, appearing with purple skin in a few episodes. However, Jynx never played a significant role in the anime again after that. Similar to Porygon, which was blamed for the seizure incident and the subsequent banning of an episode, it became clear that Jynx's appearance, even after the alteration, was still deemed too controversial for the anime. To prevent any further episode removals, Jynx was no longer featured. However, even with this change, the Pokémon anime was still not entirely spared from racial controversy. The latest banned episode, in 2018, involved Ash disguising himself as a Pokémon resembling a monkey in a manner reminiscent of blackface.

Content was changed: It's ironic that despite being banned, footage of Jynx from these episodes still made it into the Pokérap, resulting in Jynx making small cameo appearances in 1 out of every 5 episodes of the original series. Fortunately, Jynx has not been removed from the games, although it is unlikely to make any further appearances in the anime other than brief cameos. The redesign of Jynx seems to have effectively addressed accusations of racism, and the fear of reigniting controversy even influenced the designs of other Pokémon, such as Bellossom, which was originally planned to have a darker-colored body. Pokémon has learned from its mistake with Jynx, but it is regrettable that so many episodes had to be banned before the issue was rectified.