User:Frozen Fennec/Lost Media in the Pokémon franchise
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Lost media is a category for media or merchandise that has become lost over time either due to the media or product never being released or due to poor preservation practices which would lead to the content becoming lost and unable to be found or recovered for some time or forever. This article is to note Lost media in the Pokémon franchise as a whole. Below are a list of some example pieces of media and how they may have become lost over time.
Video Games & Demos
This was a Picross game that was advertised for the Gameboy Color in various gaming magazines in 1999. After the announcements for the game, the game never came out. The game was posted in full online in September of 2020 showing the game had made it far into development before the release of the game was cancelled for unknown reasons. Jupiter Corporation would later go on to release Pokémon Picross for the Nintendo 3DS in December of 2015.
Approximately two months before the game was released in Japan, IGN called it by the English title "Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: Return of Team Rocket" and declared that an English release of the game was likely.[1] However, the game was never released outside of Japan. Whether an English release was ever planned or not is unknown.
This is a 2007 South Korea only game demo that was released on PC for a short period of time that covers the events of Blue Rescue Team up until the player meets Xatu at the Great Canyon. As the game required an internet connection and access to the host server, this game is no longer playable.
Episodes & Specials
This episode aired as a promotional episode in the US on September 7, 1998; and acted as a promo of sorts for the Pokémon anime coming to the US one day later. This episode featured different narration. After this aired, it never aired again elsewhere and never received a home media release. The episode was found on December 4, 2016 by LostMediaWiki member Squigglemclamesprite and uploaded to MEGA and Google Drive thus marking the episode as found.[2]
This episode only aired once in Japan and never aired again as the flashing visuals caused by Pikachu sent almost 700 children to the hospital and caused over 10,000 viewers to experience blurred vision, nausea, headaches, and dizziness in minor cases; and convulsions, loss of consciousness, blindness, and seizures in severe cases. An English dub of this episode has been long speculated due to Veronica Taylor (the English voice of Ash Ketchum) noting the episode was never dubbed whereas Maddie Blaustein (Meowth's English voice actor) and Eric Stuart (Brock and James' English voice actor) noted that they had dubbed and even seen the episode, although it is unknown how they would have seen the episode if Veronica Taylor says the episode was never dubbed.
This episode was meant to air between Solid as a Solrock and Vanity Affair but was canceled due to severe eartquakes in the Niigata prefecture nearly a week before Solid as a Solrock was meant to air. This event caused this episode to be skipped over completely everywhere and the moves Earthquake, Fissure, and Magnitude to never be seen in the anime again. This episode would have involved Ash and company traveling to Sootopolis City and getting caught up in Earthquakes on Jojo Island being caused by Whiscash. They would have met a trainer named Chōta and his Pokémon Barboach and helped them to get rid of the Whiscash.
These episodes were originally scheduled to air in Japan on March 17, and March 24, 2011, but were postponed indefinitely because of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. TV Tokyo said in 2011 that it would someday air, but this statement was never updated or clarified and was ultimately removed late in 2018. The script of these two unaired episodes surfaced in May 2023, detailing their contents.[3] Notably, the early script for these episodes revealed that their original titles The Evil Organizations Gather - The Desert Resort (Japanese: 悪の組織集結・リゾートデザート) and Rocket-dan VS. Plasma-dan (Japanese: ロケット団ＶＳプラズマ団) instead of the titles they were ultimately given.
References