TV Tokyo's website has revealed that the two-part special involving Team Rocket, a Kanto-native villainous organization, battling against the Unova-native villainous Team Plasma, will be skipped over, with Satoshi's ("Ash"'s) Gym Battle against Castelia City Gym Leader Arti ("Burgh") to be aired in it's place. This may be due to the damage and destruction caused to Castelia City during the episodes, as shown in the previously released preview, which would be both controversial and insensitive to the current circumstances of Japan and it's populace after the Sendai Earthquake. The exact date when these two episodes will end up being aired is, as of yet, unannounced.

I mean, I can tell from the preview, the damage done looks pretty similiar to an earthquake, but come on people, if you seriously want to take offense over an episode of Pokemon that has nothing to do with an earthquake...

Wow... Team Rocket really changed! Seriously, that episode looked thrilling. I hope they reshow it later on.

I don't get how this episode might be offensive to some people, but I respect the decision made. I would've loved to watch the original episode, though.

I hope they come back and show these later on, since they look so awesome. But, they know the times, so I suppose a few month's wait couldn't hurt.

Aww.... when I saw this episode on the "Next in Japan" area on Serebii, I actually thought this would be a good chance for me to actually watch the anime. Well, I can't blame them. The last thing the Japanese need is another look on destruction of a great city. It would be even worse if Victini was affected and released all of his radioactive power accidentally, and made people terribly sick.... just sayin'

I'm guessing the move Surf, Whirlpool, and Explosion will never be in the anime again either while they're at it.

This episode seem like it would have been good if they didn't cancel it.

Smart move. Last thing kids in Japan need to see in a cartoon is a city being destroyed. At least it'll be aired later, rather than being completely skipped like the Whiscash episode.
Everything will probably air in order once the dub comes.

I really hope they meant it when they said it was being moved and not entirely cancelled- this episode really interests me. For a minute I thought it was the same thing that happened with the Zoroark movie having ten minutes cut off of it; that was close. Best wishes for Japan in recovering from this quake.

I hope they still decide to release it here, as there's nothing offensive to us. I don't get who this is supposed to offend, you'd think they'd be more concerned about recovering after the earthquake than censoring media, and clearly this was not made with the earthquake in mind. It's just stupid.

*enjoys ending credits music at :21*

There were also Tentacool & Tentacruel and The Tower of Terror, which were removed from the normal rotation in the US from the September 11 attacks until Cartoon Network took over.

It's a shame that the episode won't be on air, but I hope it will air in the future after Japan recover from the earthquake. If you think about it, watching a city getting destroy after experience and relating the destruction of your city from the earthquake may cause younger kids and some adults who went through it some unpleasant feelings.

Just wondering... wasn't this on PokeBeach?

This might be really strange to bump up a news article from two years ago, but these episodes still have not aired. Heck, these two episodes, a previously mentioned Advanced Generation episode that was postponed because of another earthquake and eventually forgotten, and a New Year's Eve special have been the only four episodes ever skipped and not returned to in Japan. Any guesses for when or how they might eventually be restored into the anime, turned into a special, or unintentionally banned?

Considering the fact that Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma was situated around the Castelia Gym battle, and Ash has already beaten the Unova gym league (from what I've seen,) I would say it's unofficially banned. Bulbapedia says it was postponed indefinitely, so it might just sit there until they completely forget about, just like the previous earthquake-incident episode. But with the new Episode N it has a slim chance of being revisited. If not, it's probably lost.

This article pretty much sums everything up pretty nicely.

http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/compar...vs_plasma.html

These episodes a clearly banned for good now though since we now have a new series coming out this month, although it might air but strongly different from the original plan.

Keep in mind they even reused animation from this special into the latest one with the Kami Trio.

TV Tokyo still has a page saying the episodes will air someday.

http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/program/de...103171900.html

Yet another bump for this aging thread. The two episodes in the first post have definitely been fully skipped, but a something odd happened with a Pokémon XY episode a few days ago. Intended to air back in April, it was postponed due to a ferry sinking in South Korea. When it finally debuted, it aired first in South Korea, and it hasn't yet aired anywhere else (including Japan).

Japan also prempted a tv screening of Titanic after the incident.

I find all of this very strange since Japan really hates Korea.

Why do they ban so many episodes for pokemon? This is like the only show that i know of that bans or skips episodes so much. Iike come on its cartoon. (I can understand the banning of the original porygon one)

I like how polarized television is these days.

On the one hand: Family Guy is allowed to parody the Boston Marathon Bombing.
On the other hand: Ban a Pokémon episode because of an unrelated coincidence in a country halfway around the planet.

I know that, but having a similar event take place after the episode was created in no way, shape, form or drunken misconception makes the episode a parody.

But that's my point. There's no point in worrying about a conflict that would not exist unless they make it so.