Pokémon in the Arab world: Difference between revisions

Pokémon in the Arab world
Flag of the Arab league
Language	Arabic
Continent	Asia and Africa
Original anime airdates
EP001
AG001
DP001
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Arab world in late 2000, with the first broadcast of EP001 in Arabic language on MBC Channel.

The word Pokémon is written as بوكيمون in Arabic script. In Arabic, a plural form of Pokémon is بوكيمونات (Pokémonat), as used in Anime. Pokémon are always referred to as either male or female.

While all characters, Pokémon, and locations have kept their English names in the Arabic version, some objects in the franchise received Arabic names. The Poké Ball, for example, has been dubbed as كرة البوكي (Kurt Al-Poké), and the PokéFlute received the name مزمار البوكي (Mizmar Al-Poké) and so on. The only Arabic name that is different from the English dub is Team Rocket, which has been translated as: عصابة الرداء الأبيض 'isabat Ar-Redda Al-Abiadh.

Controversy

In 2001, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, who is the highest religious authority is the kingdom, issued a fatwā banning the Pokémon franchise, claiming it encourages gambling and promotes Zionism. High Muslim authorities in Qatar and Egypt then joined the ban. As this happened during the second Intifada, a Jordanian newspaper printed a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sitting in a tank and laughing at an Arab man chasing a Pokémon. This is meant to convey that Arabs are distracted from their conflict with the Israelis by popular franchises, with Pokémon as an example of such "distractions."

Despite the initial banning, which quickly wiped away Pokémon merchandise, especially the card game, from markets in Saudi Arabia, Pokémon video games quickly returned to be sold normally, but under much less demand from local consumers. Some Pokémon merchandise, such as the Expedition Base Set reappeared in certain stores a few years later, but newer sets were never brought. Generation III and Generation IV games seem completely unaffected by the ban.

Pokémon anime

Pokémon airs or has aired in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, and Yemen.

Dubbing

The Pokémon anime was originally dubbed to Arabic by Venus Company (مركز الزهرة Markaz Az-Zuhra), but they stopped due to the controversy in 2001.After that Super M Productions continued dubbing the anime. The anime was aired exclusively in the MBC Channel in the first year, but after the end of the first season, it spread rapidly in many channels. It was aired mainly in MBC, Spacetoon, TRT and New TV. The total number of Arabic episodes so far is 366 episodes.

Cast and crew

Venus Company

Ash Ketchum was voiced by Buthaina Shia (بثينة شيا), Misty was voiced by Majd Zaza (مجد ظاظا), and Rafat Pazo (رأفت بازو) provides the voice of Brock.

For Team Rocket, James has been voiced by Ziad Ar-Rifa'i (زياد الرفاعي), and Jessie has been voiced by Fatima Sa'ad (فاطمة سعد), and finally Meowth was voised by 'Adel Abu Hassoun (عادل أبو حسون).

Professor Oak is voiced by Marwan Farhat (مروان فرحات). Other notable voice actors in the Arabic dub include Amaal Sa'ad Ad-Din (امال سعد الدين) as Nurse Joy and Fadwa Suleiman (فدوى سليمان) as Officer Jenny.

Super M Productions

Pokémon merchandise

After the Pokemon anime started airing in Arabic, it became the most popular anime series in the Arab world. Therefore, the demand for Pokémon-related merchandise among Arabian children was high. Thus, most of the game centers began to sell many of the Pokémon merchandise, and making huge profits. Also, many restaurants offered promotional toys with their meals, such as Burger King in 2000. But it did not stay for a long time, alot of the merchandises was confiscated from the main centers due to the controversy in 2001.

This controversy began disappearing gradually in several months, and people revealed that the controversy was nothing but a rumor was propagated by haters of this Anime. And now, the game stores sell those goods without any problem, despite that there are a few people are still affected by that rumor untill now.

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