Pokémon in Indonesia: Difference between revisions

Pokémon in Indonesia
Flag of Indonesia
Language	Indonesian
Continent	Asia
Original anime airdates
EP001	March 3, 2001
AG001	April 27, 2008
DP001	February 7, 2010
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise, including the first Pokémon games, was first introduced officially in Indonesia around 2000, while the Pokémon anime were introduced through the broadcast of the first episode on March 3, 2001.

Pokémon video games

The first Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Blue, were released in Indonesia in limited numbers around 2000. The first truly well-known Pokémon game for Indonesia was Pokémon Yellow, which was released in 2001.

All internationally released main series games until Pokémon Black and White have been available in Indonesia. Spin-off Pokémon games that are available in English language such as Pokémon Pinball, the Ranger and the Mystery Dungeon series, have been released in Indonesia as well. Usually, these games are available within several months to one year after their North American releases.

Many pirated copies of hack games, as well as official games, are also sold in Indonesia, especially the infamous game ChaosBlack and Quartz, which at first were mistaken by people as official. Pirated copies of official games come in a variety of ways, such as the lack of license or the color difference of game cartridges.

Pokémon anime

TV series

The first episode of the Pokémon anime was aired on March 3, 2001 every Saturday and Sunday at 19.00 - 19.30 WIB (GMT +7) by Surya Citra Televisi Indonesia (better known as SCTV), the second Indonesian commercial TV station owned by Bimantara Citra. According to SCTV, however, the first 26 episodes were temporarily to be aired.^[1] After several months, the broadcast was moved to every Sunday at 10.00 - 10.30 on July 8, 2001. Sometime in 2003, the show was moved once again at 08.30 AM.^[2]

The Indonesian dub was mainly based on the Japanese version; however, proper names from the English version were used. The most known renamed main character Ash Ketchum, who was given the dub name Ali, while the rest of them are based on their English name. In a short period of time, Pokémon became well-known amongst children and young people. Soon after the episodes around the Orange League season, the show was stopped indefinitely in 2003.

The anime series did not continuously air until December 26, 2004, when Indosiar Visual Mandiri, took over and began their first broadcast from the episode around the beginning of the Johto saga on Sundays from 7.30 AM - 8.00 AM (GMT +7). Unfortunately, the inconsistency began when the dub were using the mixture between the English and Japanese names for Pokémon and other things in some episodes cases, though it was not the case for the main characters (Satoshi, Kasumi, Takeshi, Musashi, Kojiro). These were the most controversial for the Indonesian fans. Despite this, many fans still support this positive effort for retaining the main character's Japanese names.

After the last season of the original series was finished, Indosiar continuously aired the first episode of the Advanced Generation series (Pokémon AG) from April 27, 2008. The special series Pokémon Chronicles, as well as the Pikachu shorts were aired around July 2008 between the season. The Legend of Thunder!, another part of the special anime series, was also aired on November 16 and 23, 2008.

On February 7, 2010, Indosiar skipped half of the Advanced Generation (until the end of the Battle Frontier saga) and started airing the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series (Pokémon D&P). This issue was a response to fans who gave request to Indosiar to broadcast the recent saga immediately, due to the fact that the time difference of episodes compared with Japan was very far—about 5 years.^[3] Though at first the dub has no difference than before, they began to using the English localization as the main dub, while the main characters were still retained.

Pokémon anime had been stopped from July 25, 2010 until November 21, 2010, in which were brought to reschedule to 8.00 - 8.30 after the retirement, continuing from Showdown! Satoshi VS Pikachu?! to The Gifted Roserade and the Flower Legend!.^[4]

Recently, Indosiar broadcast the Diamond & Pearl season called Pokémon D&P Part II, possibly for the reason of the skipping episode lately from Chimchar's Tears! to Mt. Coronet Ruins! Team Galactic Conspiracy!! on June 12, 2011.^[5] This season will consist of 52 episodes, which were brought to the episode removal from DP138 - DP141. Thus, The Worst Togepi Ever! was aired after Marill, Piplup, Elekid!! on June 26, 2011.

Movie

In Indonesia, no Pokémon movies have premiered in any theaters. Instead, several Pokémon movies were aired on TV. As the SCTV era, only the first Pokémon movie was aired. As Indosiar took over, they aired several movies from Revelation - Lugia and Lord of the Unknown Tower on consecutive days, June 16 and 17, 2008. Celebi: A Timeless Encounter and The Guardians of Altomare were also broadcast on November 30 & December 7 and December 14 & 21, respectively.

Two Advanced Generation movies Wishing Star of the Seven Nights: Jirachi was aired on December 28, 2008 and January 4, 2009, while Sky-Splitting Visitor: Deoxys premiered on January 11, 18, and 25, 2009. These movies were broadcast to celebrate New Year's Day.

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea were aired in Indonesia on September 1 and 2, 2011, at 09.30 AM, while The Rise of Darkrai will be premiered on September 3 at 10.00 AM. The following three movies were premiered to commemorate Idul Fitri.

Home video

Several Pokémon episodes and movies were also sold in DVDs and CDs in some regions and major towns of Indonesia, although most of them are not exactly official or are being pirates. Most of them are dubbed in English or Mandarin and subtitled in Indonesian.

Pokémon manga

Indonesia is one of the few countries that publishes a translation of Pokémon Pocket Monsters by Kosaku Anakubo, licensed by Elex Media Komputindo. The main character Isamu Akai was given the same dubbed name for main character in the anime, Ali, while his Clefairy was renamed as Kleferi. The localization mostly following the English version. However, some Pokémon names were also changed into its Indonesian names in this manga, usually adapted from its English name, such as Charizard, which was altered as Karizar.

Pocket Monsters manga releases were stopped on April 21, 2003 when volume 12 was running in publish until August 8, 2008, where Elex published the volume 14. However, volume 13 was running in publish on March 3, 2010. Since these latest releases, Clefairy's name was reverted into its Japanese name, Pippi.

Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure and Pokémon Get da ze! (changed into Pokémon Petualangan Baru), were also translated and licensed under m&c!, the manga and comic publisher owned by Kompas-Gramedia Group. Both of their original title, even their Japanese script were retained on the side of their cover. There were only 7 volumes for PiPiPi Adventures and 4 volumes for Get da ze!.

There is also a translation of complete volumes of Electric Tale of Pikachu, under the dubbed name Kisah Pikachu yang Menggetarkan; however, translated by an unknown publisher.

English version of PiPiPi Adventure, Magical Pokémon Journey, were also available to be translated by different publisher Panda Books, under the direct translated title Petualangan Ajaib Pokémon, although only the first volume had been released, possibly due to the license problems.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Before the Pokémon franchise, especially the Trading Card Game that was introduced officially, the Pokémon cards were introduced when they were imported by Sucianto, the founder of Planet Comics, the famous and the oldest Indonesian Comic Store.^[6]

Many card sets and theme decks of Pokémon TCG have been sold in the Indonesia's convenience stores and malls starting from the very first TCG set, Base Set, until the recent Undaunted, both in English and are uncommon for Japanese versions. Most of these cards were known to be found in Indonesia's Toys "R" Us franchises.

After the popularity began to widespread, several unofficial tournaments are held within the stores' locations in several cities such as Jakarta and Bandung.

Pokémon merchandise

Indonesia is one of the 85 companies around the world who make officially licensed Pokémon products. The merchandise that available usually comes from USA and Japan releases, such as Trading Figure Game, Monster Collection and Zukan figures.

Pokémon Tazos

Pokémon Tazos Indonesia version

The quite popular collectible Pokémon Tazos were available, after the popularity of the anime series. These collectible toys can be found in three different snacks, Chiki, Cheetos, and JetZ. They were producted by Indofood Fritolay Makmur, an Indonesian snack food company—joint venture company with PepsiCo. All Pokémon were using English names in these merchandise. However, unlike the American releases, the elemental types on the back were completely removed.

The first releases came with two different Tazos, namely Tazos Spin and Tazos Smash. Tazos Spin has several small incisions around the tip, which can be used to asssemble and connect in many ways, while Tazos Smash is the flower-shaped Tazos with several crackable gaps. Not only featured 151 Pokémon species, but five human characters are also included: Ash, Brock, Misty, Joy, and Jenny.

The holografical Tazos called Tazos 3D also available, which are featured the first generation Pokémon with evolutionary stages. After the Johto saga were broadcasted, there were final releases called Pentazo, pentagonal Tazos that identical with Tazos Spin. These Tazos introduced the newly Generation II Pokémon. In some time around 2005, Pentazos can be found outside the snack bags.

Pokémon anime novelization

Pokémon anime novelizations in Indonesian

There have been Indonesian translations of the Pokémon anime novelization series, which were mostly only published based on episodes from the original series. These novels were translated and published by Panda Books in 2000.

External links

• Liputan6.com - SCTV broadcast Pokémon series
• Indosiar - Pokémon
  • Revelation Lugia
  • Lord of the Unknown Tower
  • Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
  • Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
  • The Rise of Darkrai
• Elex Media Komputindo's official website
• m&c! - Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure (Archive)

References

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.