Pokémon in New Zealand

Pokémon in New Zealand
Flag of New Zealand
Language	English
Continent	Oceania
Original animated series airdates
EP001	September 1998
AG001	May 2004
DP001	August 2007
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached New Zealand in late 1998 with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions and the airing of the anime.

Pokémon video games

All Pokémon games that have been released in the United States have also been released in New Zealand, with the exception of the Pokémon mini. The country of origin for each game tends to differ depending on retailer availability; some games are imported from the US, but others are from the Australian release. The New Zealand release dates tend to be on or around the Australian release dates.

Games that are imported from the US are naturally inconsistent with New Zealand spelling rules. For example, spelling variations such as color and center are not changed to colour and centre for the New Zealand releases. Games sourced from Australia do not have this problem, as New Zealand English and Australian English are largely identical in terms of spelling rules.

Event Pokémon have been released in New Zealand sporadically. The recent introduction of Wi-Fi events has allowed New Zealand players access to many previously unavailable event Pokémon. Prior to this, very few event Pokémon were made available to New Zealand players, and when events at malls and other stores were held, many parts of the country were overlooked.

Pokémon anime

TV2's current logo

The English dub of the original series was first screened on TV2, a free-to-air television channel, in an early morning timeslot in 1998. It was shown on a daily basis. In 2000, it moved to an afternoon timeslot on rival station TV3, which aired reruns of Ash's first journey through the Kanto region and showed the first screenings of Pokémon: The Adventures in the Orange Islands. Broadcasting on TV3 ended with the final episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions.

In 2003, Pokémon returned to TV2. The remainder of the Johto-based episodes were aired in the same after-school timeslot, with episodes five times a week. In 2005, Pokémon Chronicles was aired in an early morning timeslot on Sundays. This was followed by Pokémon: Advanced Challenge in the same weekly timeslot. Pokémon: Advanced Battle was then skipped with Pokémon: Battle Frontier aired in its place. After a brief period off the air, Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl was aired in the Sunday morning timeslot. In 2010, Pokémon: Battle Frontier was repeated on TV2 on weekday mornings with Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl now repeating in its place.

Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension has yet to show on free-to-air television in New Zealand, but is shown on a daily basis on Cartoon Network, which is broadcast on Sky Network Television, a pay-per-view network. Cartoon Network has shown episodes from every series of the anime.

Pokémon videos and DVDs have been available for several years.

Mewtwo Strikes Back, The Power of One and Spell of the Unown were screened in theatres, while Celebi: Voice of the Forest and Pokémon Heroes were released straight to video. Jirachi: Wish Maker and Destiny Deoxys have not been released in New Zealand, however Destiny Deoxys was aired on TV2 in April 2010. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, The Rise of Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior have all been released on DVD.

Pokémon merchandise

New Zealand received most of the same Pokémon merchandise that is available in the United States, such as plush toys which were released in major department chains and given away in some fast food restaurants. Due to its decline in popularity, merchandise can be difficult to find in New Zealand stores, but can still be purchased online.

Pokémon DVDs and books (such as the Pokémon anime novelization series) have been widely available. Pokémon manga titles translated by Chuang Yi are distributed in New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. Pokémon manga is somewhat hard to find in New Zealand, but can be obtained in specialist shops.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game, although declining in popularity, is still being sold throughout New Zealand.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

When first released, the Pokémon Trading Card Game was very popular with New Zealand children. It was eventually banned in most schools, because of "classroom distraction". Conflict between students regarding Trading Cards as well as perceived gambling issues resulted in the cards being banned from some schools. Its popularity faded out as it was replaced by other popular crazes such as Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

References

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