Pokemon‘s anime has been through several iterations over its tenure, and fans are all too aware of all the smaller differences between its original Japanese language release and its official English language dubs. But while fans had assumed that the series would have a different kind of edit considering how public anime production is these days, it seems that fans have taken note of a few edits that have made it into the recent Sun and Moon release of the anime.
Videos by ComicBook.com
As noted by @worldofkevinc on Twitter, the English dub of Episode 118 of the series changed the shuriken Ash was throwing and made them look more toy like. They even changed the sound to go with the added suction cups they were made to look like. Check out the clip shared by @worldofkevinc below.
There was censorship in today’s episode.
The dub of SM118 paints the shurikens pink and adds a ring around them.
When they hit the targets, they changed the sound effect to make it sound less sharp.Considering the nature of the edit, this was done by OLM themselves.#anipoke pic.twitter.com/BHy9eK2CC4
— The World of Kevin C! (@worldofkevinc) August 24, 2019
As @worldofkevinc notes, this edit seems to have been done by OLM — the production studio behind the Pokemon anime series — themselves considering how detailed the edit has been. Fans of the anime will also note that shuriken have been shown in previous iterations of the series, but it all seems to have changed with the newest iteration.
Perhaps now it’s a bit inappropriate to have Ash throw real Shuriken, even if it’s in a safe space and fashion. But there’s no real detail as to why this edit was made. But fans of the series aren’t too thrown off by the shuriken edit, considering that it’s not interfering with too many of the episode’s actual events. If you haven’t kept up with the current run of the anime, the much anticipated Alolan League arc is now in full swing. Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon is described as such:
“What starts as a summer vacation in the tropical Alola region turns into the next exciting chapter in Ash Ketchum’s quest to become a Pokémon Master! There’s plenty for Ash and Pikachu to explore in this sunny new region, with exciting new Pokémon to discover and interesting people to learn from along the way—including the cool Professor Kukui and the fun-loving Samson Oak.
More new faces will help guide Ash’s Alolan adventure, in the form of a group of skilled Trainers—Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles—and a mysterious research assistant called Lillie. Frequent foes Team Rocket have also made the trip to Alola, looking to swipe some high-powered new Pokémon. But they have some heavy competition on the villainy front: the ruffians of Team Skull, who delight in causing chaos and may have more sinister intentions…”
