Pokémon in South Korea: Difference between revisions

The [[Pokémon]] franchise first reached '''{{wp|South Korea}}''' in 1999, with the first airing of ''[[EP001|Pikachu, I Choose You!]]'' on the {{wp|Seoul Broadcasting System}}. Since none of the [[Generation I|first generation]] Pokémon games were released in South Korea, it wasn't until the release of {{game|Gold and Silver|s}} in 2002 that Pokémon games were released in South Korean stores.

Due to the rocky history between {{wp|Japan–Korea_relations|Japan and (South) Korea}}, Japanese cultural imports—such as manga, anime, video games, music and movies—had been banned by the South Korean government since the end of World War 2, and this ban was still in effect during the time of Pokémon's release in Japan in 1996. As such, most Pokémon-related media of its time never made its way into South Korea, particularly the [[Generation I|first generation]] games. Likewise, most video game systems in this period, such as the NES/Famicom and the Game Boy would not be released by their official Japanese developer (like Nintendo), but by Korean companies (such as Hyundai) which had licensed the hardware designs for sale in Korea. Furthermore, the Korean systems would actually be based on their American counterparts rather than their Japanese ones.

Fortunately, South Korean and Japanese relations had warmed up to the point where the South Korean government's ban on Japanese cultural imports was [http://www.jei.org/Restricted/JEIR00/0026w3.html partially lifted] in October 1998. This in turn helped pave the way for the release of some Pokémon titles into South Korea. In particular, the Pokémon anime would be first aired in July 1999, while the Pokémon manga series, [[Pokémon Adventures]] (포켓몬스터 스페셜ㅍ ''Pokémon Special''), would hit bookshelves in August 1999. The first main series game, however, would be [[Pokémon Gold and Silver]] (포켓몬스터 금·은 ''Pocket Monsters Gum·Eun''), which saw a release in April 2002; however, it could only be played on Hyundai's "Mini Comboy" system (a Game Boy clone which was licensed to Hyundai), and not on hardware officially released by Nintendo themselves. The Third Generation games, however, would not see a release in South Korea, most likely due to the difficulty of including the Korean language writing system in the games (seeing as it took about three years for Gold and Silver to be released), as well as the lack of Game Boy Advance hardware in South Korea at the time.

It wasn't until January 2004 when the South Korean government [http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/28/world/fg-japanculture28 completely lift its ban] on Japanese cultural imports. This in turn allowed Nintendo to officially operate in South Korea as ''[http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/03/nintendo-of-korea-opens-july-7th/ Nintendo of Korea]'' starting on July 2006, with ''[http://www.pokemon.co.jp/corporate/en/history/ Pokémon Korea, Inc.]'' beginning its operations a month later. [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]] (known as ''Pocket Monsters DP - Dialga • Palkia'') would finally be released in February 2008, finally playable on official Nintendo hardware (the Nintendo DS lite, which was released in January 2007).

As none of the [[Generation I|first generation]] or [[Generation III|third generation]] were released in South Korea, it wasn't until April 24, 2002 when {{game|Gold and Silver|s}} were released for the [[Game Boy Color]] in South Korean stores. Unlike previous localizations of Pokémon Gold and Silver, these versions are not playable on the original [[Game Boy]] at all, and display an incompatibility message if inserted into an original Game Boy, like [[Pokémon Crystal]]. <ref>[http://mgaver.tistory.com/122 Hangeru Team (Korean Pokémon blog)]</ref> For unknown reasons Pokémon Crystal was never released in the Korean language, although it may be of note that the Game Boy Color's lifespan overseas had almost finished.

<!--The Korean dub of the [[Pokémon anime]] is recorded and produced by ''' '''.-->The Korean dub was first aired in July 1999, and is mainly based on the original Japanese version. Most characters are renamed in the dub.

The special episodes such as ''[[SS019|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate]]'' and ''[[SS020|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness]]'' has been dubbed as well.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was officially released in South Korea, printing cards until {{TCG|EX Power Keepers}}. Recently the TCG has been released again with starting with '''모험의 시작''' ''Start of the Adventure'' and its recent expansion, '''암흑의 초승달''' ''Darkness of Crescent''. Currently, the distributor is Pokémon Korea, Inc.  

Unlike the North American set, the booster packs are called Extension Packs, the decks are called Random Decks and the promotional pack is called a Special Set. The borders, colors and layout is the based on the current English cards.

[[Platinum (TCG)|Platinum]],and [[HeartGold & SoulSilver (TCG)|HeartGold & SoulSilver]] were released in South Korea with text in Korean language.  As of March, 2011, there are ten series (with 40 or 60 cards each), eight theme decks (with 30 cards each) and 22 black star promotional cards, containing cards selected from a variety of expansion sets.  A complete list in English of the Korean cards with reference to the original cards is available at the [http://www.poisonpie.com/toys/korean/index.html Korean Pokémon Card Database in English].  Listings of the cards in Korean on the official Korean language Pokémon TCG site are [http://www.pokemoncard.co.kr/product/extend_pack.asp here].