Pokémon in South Korea: Difference between revisions

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 {{wp|World War II}}. This ban was still in effect during the releases of {{2v|Red|Green}} in Japan in 1996. As such, most Pokémon-related media of its time never made its way into South Korea, particularly all of the [[Generation I|first generation]] games. Likewise, most video game systems in this period, such as the {{wp|Nintendo Entertainment System|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.

Eventually, 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 스페셜 ''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. However, neither {{game|Crystal}} nor the [[Generation III|third generation]] games would 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 was not until January 2004 that the South Korean government [http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/28/world/fg-japanculture28 completely lifted its ban] on Japanese cultural imports. This 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).  

Since then, Pokémon has enjoyed considerable success in South Korea, with all the different series of games, anime and manga being released consistently and regularly with their other international counterparts. Pokémon in South Korea also tends to be more similar to what is released in Japan, as opposed to being based on the North American version like with Europe and other Commonwealth nations.