Twin Monsters in Hoenn

The Logo used for both eras

Twin Monsters in the Hoenn Region refers to the English translations of Twin Monsters intended for audiences in the Hoenn Region. When the series was first licensed for distribution there were quite a number of changes to the anime, but beginning in 2014, a more faithful and better quality version was released by its original creator for Hoenn Region distribution. Because these two "eras" were so different for the English-speaking fans, they are treated separately in this article.

The Saban/TCPi-SPTV TV Dub Era

History

In 2011, Super Pokémon Television, the creators of the Twin Monsters anime chose two companies, Saban Brands, and The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) because of their handling of the Digimon anime Series and Pokémon anime series, respectively. The series was a 65-episode package, with three episodes cut for reasons unknown. The series did very good in syndication, after the run had completed, Super Pokémon Television found out about the changes made to their anime from fans of the original Japanese language series and were not happy with them, these changes include, but were not limited to, Altering characters, changing plotlines, and removing important plot points.

In 2012, Super Pokémon Television took the rights away from Saban Brands and TPCi, and dubbed the remaining seven episodes over the course of two months, in June 2012, Super Pokémon Television announced that they would dub every other season of Twin Monsters, excluding the first two seasons, this worked to their advantage as the series would now air on a week-by-week basis instead of a syndicated schedule. This would happen for Twinmon RG (called Twin Monsters RB in Hoenn) and Twinmon RSE.

Super Pokémon Television had indicated that the sixth season, Twin Monster Masters would never air on television because they believed it would be found objectionable in Hoenn; this included even Master's second season.

The first English dub of Twin Monsters was also aired abroad, such as in the Johto Region, Orange Islands, Unova, and Fiore. It was due to air on CBBC in late 2016, with the date for America being TBD due to Saban and TPCi being headquartered there; however, due to the lawsuit, these plans were shuttered and replaced with other programs.

Censorships, Cuts, and Changes

There were many changes in the Saban/TPCi dub. Most of the main characters' names were changed (due to the names already being official) and major plot elements were removed or altered.

In the first season, some of the content from episodes 34 and 35 was added on to the first episode as an introduction, thus revealing many plot elements that were kept secret in the original. Tai, Kari, and Apocalymon were removed and replaced with Wanson, Lighton, and Gemini, respectively, and the dialogue was altered to add significant amounts of slang. As usual, the term "Chosen Child" was changed to "DigiDestined", even if the Chosen in question was a Pokémon trainer (see Episode 34), the terms "Chosen Pokémon" and "Pokémon Knight" were changed to "Wildwood Warrior".

Five episodes were cut entirely from the season, and footage was also cut from the episodes themselves. The final two episodes had so much footage removed that they were merged into one episode. The deaths of the Pokémon Knights were explained away as them having been "kidnapped" by the DigiVerse, something which confused fans who had never seen the original.

The second season received much the same treatment, but with the episodes becoming part of the First Hoenn season, the story was also changed in that the primary villains were also from the DigiVerse instead of the Pokémon Planet's past. The main villains were also changed in this season as well, but to a slightly lesser degree, as the dub claimed that the Malamar (Calamanero) were Digimon instead of Pokémon.

The third season also received the same treatment. However, no episodes were cut, and it was forced to become the Hoenn Region's second season. The story was also changed in that the primary villains were also from the DigiVerse, but claimed that the World of Darkness ("Dark Ocean" in the Saban/TPCi Dub, "Dark World" in the Super Pokémon television dub) was part of it.

• The title card sequence was always cut from the beginning of each episode, and the English title of the episode would instead be shown in the very first scene, like in Saban's dub of Digimon Adventure, even the font was the same (the font changed during Super Pokémon Television's remaining seven episodes). When Super Pokémon Television dubbed RG and RSE, this practice stopped. In the DVD Episodes of the first two (three in Kanto) seasons, the Title Card sequences are restored (albeit merged), but use the same font as the TV versions of the episodes.

Changes made in both the first two seasons included the elimination of any hint of violence and the elimination of body lines in the transformation sequences; certain scenes were played twice (once forwards and once reversed) to avoid objectionable parts without losing time. There was also a "Priceman Says" segment after every episode, extolling a moral virtue of that particular episode. Also, many attempts were made to hide, cut, or erase any trace of writing originally visible in various scenes.

After Super Pokémon Television started dubbing the series there were fewer cuts, and many fans satisfied with the results. Because of the week-by-week schedule, Super Pokémon Television chose not to change the score. The scripts were more faithful to the original, however, possibly due to the fact that they had the original Japanese scripts. However, depending on the writer (a total of 12 people worked on the English dub scripts; however, the writers never got advanced info on episodes they didn't get), episodes still had many mistakes and inconsistencies (such as Fuhrer 5000 being called "The Grand Darkness" in episode 102, but called "Master 5000" in the next episode (Ep. 103)).

Some of these mistakes included characters having different names from past seasons, and attack and transformation names changing from episode to episode. In addition to these inconsistencies, Super Pokémon Television was asked by the Hoenn Region government to "hide" Roman Shirotanko and Julia Shirotanko's incestual relationship by aging them to legal age (which is 21 in Hoenn) and declaring them non-blood related. Ironically the incestual relationship was in response to, and a parody of, a dub change in Cloverway's version of Sailor Moon "hiding" Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou's lesbian relationship by calling them cousins.

Late 2014 and Beyond

Super Pokémon Television announced on September 5, 2014, three years to the day the first English dubbed episode of Twin Monsters aired in the Hoenn region, that they would begin an uncut and unedited dub of the first three series of Twin Monsters, utilizing the same voice cast as the old English dub, announcing that there would be two separate English tracks, one for the dub names, and one for the original Japanese names. (I.e., one track would go "Daniri, No!" whole the other would go "Hikaichita!", this example is due to the number of lip flaps in the animation.) The first series is due to arrive on Blu-Ray when the Ginga TV dub concludes, the uncut English dub is also scheduled to air in Britain, on BBC2 instead, it is rumored that the first episode could air following the upcoming Sailor Q Movie, but neither the BBC nor Super Pokémon Television have commented on these rumors.

It was announced that a dub for the first two episodes of Twin Monster Masters would take place on December 12, 2015 as a sneak peek to garner interest for the dub on television. The remaining four episodes of the Akumania arc aired on TV in the following weeks, with interest at an all-time high. It was decided to make two dubs, one for the DVDs and one for TV. The DVD uncut dub would use dialogue consistent with the original Kanto version while the TV dub would have dialogue that is consistent with, and has full of callbacks to, the original Hoenn dub of seasons one and two. The TV dub aired on June 4, 2016 only to be taken down one month later due to the Toei, TPCi, & Michael Penders Vs. Super Pokémon Television Lawsuit.