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Remembering the U.S. Censorship of Electric Tales of Pikachu Over 20 Years Later
posted on by Kim Morrissy
In 1998, Viz first published Toshihiro Ono's Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga in English. The artwork was flipped and featured numerous edits toning down the sexual elements.
Over 20 years later, Japanese media critic Kimi Rito (author of The History of Hentai Manga) humorously highlighted the changes for Japanese speakers in a series of popular tweets. "When foreigners found out about this, it was funny how they made comments like, 'They were pulling the wool over our eyes!' But the funniest comments were, 'When you evolve, your boobs get bigger!' Only Pokémon... (laughs)"
【翻訳漫画修正史】
— 稀見理都＠「エロマンガ表現史」発売中！ (@kimirito) May 13, 2021
「ポケモン」の漫画が翻訳出版され、巨乳が貧乳化された例（スカートも長くなってる）。
この真実を知った外国の人が、「俺は騙されていたのか〜」とかコメントしているのが面白い。でも一番面白かったのは「進化したら巨乳になるんだな！」だったポケモンだけに…（笑） pic.twitter.com/pUb5kHSJLB
They also commented: "In America, children's manga can't have big boobs, but adult media can't have flat chests... What's the politically correct boob size?"
子供漫画に巨乳は許さないが、大人メディアには貧乳を許さないアメリカ… 政治的に正しい巨乳とは？ pic.twitter.com/DShS889762
— 稀見理都＠「エロマンガ表現史」発売中！ (@kimirito) May 17, 2021
Toshihiro Ono first serialized Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu in CoroCoro Comic from April 1997 to December 1999. The series was compiled into four volumes, which were published by Shogakukan. The story is loosely based on the Pokémon anime.
From 1998 to 2000, Viz issued an edited version of the manga as individual single comic book issues. The first collected volume was released on September 5, 1999.
