Pokémon in Russia: Difference between revisions

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The [[Pokémon]] franchise first reached '''{{wp|Russia}}''' in December of 2000, when [[EP001|''Покемон! Я выбираю тебя!'']] premiered. In Cyrillic script, Pokémon is written as '''Покемон''' and its plural is '''Покемоны''' ''Pokemony'' and is [[#Pokémon and grammar|fully inflected]].

===First wave of Pokémon in Russia===

The Pokémon anime was originally brought over to Russia by Sargona Ltd., which sold English-language cards from the [[Pokémon Trading Card Game]]. The anime was first shown on ORT (now known as Channel One), which is the main television station in Russia.  

[[File:EP105.png‎|thumb|right|The last episode shown on ORT: ''Charizard Chills'']]

Aside for the anime series, the movies were translated too, but they were dubbed by different studios. ''[[M01|Mewtwo Strikes Back]]'', ''[[M02|The Power of One]]'', ''[[M03|The Spell of Unown: Entei]]'', as well as their respective [[Pikachu short]]s were dubbed; later, dubs were made of ''[[M04|Celebi: The Voice of the Forest]]'', ''[[M06|Jirachi: Wish Maker]]'', and ''[[M07|Destiny Deoxys]]''. All those movies were officially released on {{wp|DVD}} and {{wp|VHS}}.

''[[M11|Giratina and the Sky Warrior]]'' was aired on Jetix. The Russian dub of ''[[M13|Zoroark: Master of Illusions]]'' was released on the {{pmin|Poland|Polish}} DVD release of the movie. <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130701124658/http://www.timfilmstudio.com.pl/katalog-produktow/produkt,2755,pokemon-zoroark-mistrz-iluzji.html Katalog produktów - Film studio (Internet Archive)]</ref>  

''{{mov|Detective Pikachu}}'' was shown in cinemas on May 16, 2019.

In the early 2000s, Game Boy Color was the most popular portable console in Russia.<ref>http://segadreamcast.ru/samye-rasprostranennye-pristavki-na-rossijskom-rynke-do-nachala-2000h/</ref> Despite this handheld consoles were not very popular and Pokémon games were rarely found in shops. The market was full of piracy then, which also affects Game Boy consoles. The original games were distributed by "Noviy Disc". Nintendo signed with this company in 2000 a contract for the sale of games<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20010603230049/http://www.nd.ru:80/about/index.shtml</ref> for 6 years. Cooperation went so well that in 2006 it was decided to extend the contract for the next 6 years.Games would usually become available long after the European release and at a more substantial cost. This situation changed when Nintendo of Europe opened its office in Russia in 2012; they stopped working with "Noviy Disk" and began working with a new distributor named "OCS", and Nintendo opened their own online store. 3DS games were then available for sale on the official store '''[https://mir.nintendo.ru/ Mir Nintendo]''', though they may also be found elsewhere. {{g|X and Y}} were the first Pokémon games to be released in Russia at the same time as the rest of the world due to the introduction of the Nintendo online store. Pokémon video games are not localized in Russian; however, there have been a few fan translations of the GBA games circulating among Russian fans. Some companies such as New Game sell illegal Russian translations of GBA games.

[[Pokémon Trading Card Game Online]] is the only Pokémon game translated to Russian so far, with only some older and some cards not yet released in Russia being left in English.

The [[Pokémon Trading Card Game]] was released in Russia, and obtained "the same cult status" as it did in Britain.<ref name="guardian">[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/russia.nickpatonwalsh Barbie is banned from Russia, without love | World news | The Observer] (retrieved May 5, 2010)</ref> The Russian government attempted to ban or, in the least, censor the game in late 2001-2002, but it seems that this was not carried through.

The TCG has since been translated under the name Покемон {{tt|ККИ|Коллекционная карточная игра}} ''Pokémon KKI'', though released later then in the west.

On September 3, 2018, Nintendo Russia CEO Yasha Haddaji created a post in the official group "Мир Pokémon", that stated the end of TCG's distribution in Russia. The reasoning is that increased tariffs due to trade disputes involving the US and Europe made it no longer profitable to sell Pokémon cards in Russia. <ref name="nintendosoup">[https://nintendosoup.com/pokemon-tcg-discontinued-in-russia-prices-set-to-increase-in-europe/#:~:text=This%20is%20due%20to%20the,with%20all%20upcoming%20tournaments%20cancelled. Pokémon TCG Discontinued in Russia]</ref>

The word покемон ''Pokémon'' as well as the names for each Pokémon are fully inflected in Russian. Покемон is written in lowercase when referring to the species and is written in uppercase or uses Pokémon when referring to the series as a whole. Individual Pokémon and character names are often the English name transcribed into the [[wikipedia:Cyrillic script|Cyrillic alphabet]] or derived closely from their English name; for example, {{p|Bulbasaur}} becomes Бульбазавр ''Bul'bazavr''.

There is a lot of Pokémon merchandise, which used to be especially popular during the airing of the anime on ORT. Toys, {{wp|Playing card|playing cards}} (not Trading Card Game ones), official magazines, {{wp|pogs}}, {{pkmn|clothing|clothes}}, and other merchandise found a quick sale. In 2001, {{wp|PepsiCo}} had released its drinks with {{wp|Stereoscopy|stereoscopic}} screenshots of the anime placed on the bottles' caps — these caps are highly valued as collectibles among Russian fans. ''[[The Official Pokémon Handbook]]'' and the ''[[The Official Pokémon Handbook 2]]'' by [[Maria Barbo]] were translated and released under the name "{{tt|The Manual of the Pokémon Champion|Справочник чемпиона покемонов spravochnik chempiona pokemonov}}" and "{{tt|The Manual of the Pokémon Champion II|Справочник чемпиона покемонов II spravochnik chempiona pokemonov dva}}" respectively.

* Some episodes dubbed by Pilot Studio were based on the {{pmin|Poland|Polish}} version instead of the English dub. This is why [[Pallet Town]] and [[Viridian City]] are called "Alabastia" and "Vertania". Also, there was a dub error in [[EP003]] where Polish words can be heard.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX9JukkUQuI Third Episode in Russian] (retrieved May 4, 2017)</ref>

* [https://mir.nintendo.ru/ Mir Nintendo] - Official Online Store of Nintendo in Russia with all available Pokemon games DS and 3DS

* [http://www.nintendo.ru/ Nintendo.ru] - Official website of Nintendo in Russia

==Related articles==

<!--*[[List of Russian Pokémon names]]-->