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 The Pokémon Company International, 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 North America; this included even Master's Second season.
The English dub of Twin Monsters was also aired abroad, such as in the Johto Region, Orange Islands, Unova, and Fiore.
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 received much the same treatment, but with no Episodes cut, and being 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, 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.
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, episodes still had many mistakes and inconsistencies.
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 with "hiding" Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou's lesbian relationship by calling them cousins.
