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So why exactly wasn’t “the kiss” shown?

Kuzehiko

That moment I found a lifetime treasure
Plausible denalibity but you don't have kiss be done off-screen if it's for the cheek. Everyone knows what a Kissing Discretion Shot is meant to be.
>call me out on being on denial
>taking tv tropes source as legit proof
Lol.

There is no proof it was a on the lips. There is neither proof it was on the cheek. As I said above it could be any as didn't get to see it. It was stated in an interview that in the script of that episode they didn't specify where did Serena kiss him and that it was up to the viewers' imagination. If not shown we have no idea where did she kiss him, it could have even been a forehead kiss. As I said, it could be lips, cheek forehead or whatever you like, it's up to your interpretation.

Edit:


My bad. I misrecalled. I re-read the interview and they confirmed it was a kiss on the lips. Don't mind what I stated above.

 
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Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
I mean, Yajima said it was a stretch for them to even get away with what they did to begin with in his interview, so it pretty much tells you right then and there that it had to do with age group and censorship. Not really any other meaning. Don't even know why it's still a question now, three years after the interview...

Yajima also seemed incredibly unsure if he was allowed to even confirm it was a kiss on the mouth in that interview, made for a publication for adults, and was kinda dancing around the answer until the producer cuts him off and confirms it was. You can see this all the times they reference this scene in clips shows and specials and promo videos and what not - they're only allowed to heavily hint at what happened, but not outright confirm it.

So yeah, it wasn't shown because they weren't allowed to. Same reason they didn't show Kukui and Burnet's kiss a year later either. This really isn't some great mystery.
 

Shadao

Aim to be a Pokémon Master
>call me out on being on denial
>taking tv tropes source as legit proof
Lol.

There is no proof it was a on the lips. There is neither proof it was on the cheek. As I said above it could be any as didn't get to see it. It was stated in an interview that in the script of that episode they didn't specify where did Serena kiss him and that it was up to the viewers' imagination. If not shown we have no idea where did she kiss him, it could have even been a forehead kiss. As I said, it could be lips, cheek forehead or whatever you like, it's up to your interpretation.

Edit:


My bad. I misrecalled. I re-read the interview and they confirmed it was a kiss on the lips. Don't mind what I stated above.

It's plausible deniability for the censors. One has to remember how Legend of Korra confirms that Korra and Asami have become a romantic couple without explicitly stating it to get by the network censors.
 

Shadao

Aim to be a Pokémon Master
Censorship over a kiss is kinda ridiculous. It's just funny to me that apparently kissing on screen is too much for Pokemon even though this is the same show that used to air 30 minutes before Naruto Shippuden on the same channel, and there was a lot of kissing in that anime.

Naruto is more violent and aimed for an older audience than Pokémon. Although we call Pokémon a shōnen show, it is technically kodomo-muke (aimed for children 3-10). And not just the anime, the entire franchise is considered to be kodomo-muke, including Pokémon Special.

Thus, something like a lip kiss is very risky to do in a Pokémon show.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Let it be known that this same series showed multiple suicide attempts, kinapping and deaths including a parents
I never put any thought into why the kiss wasn't shown, and frankly I hardly have an opinion about the kiss in general. I don't think that the kiss being shown entirely would've changed much other than satisfy fans who liked Serena's crush on Satoshi, but looking back I probably would've felt a little uncomfortable seeing Serena plant a kiss on Satoshi.
Agreed. I would of cringed if that was actually shown and kudos to the writers for doing that and giving Ash the most ambiguous/stale expression to that kiss since it was good enough for Serena fans but just ambiguous enough for us who aren't interesting in Amour
 

J Bouken

Active Member
Let it be known that this same series showed multiple suicide attempts, kinapping and deaths including a parents

Most of this can be considered cartoon or benign depictions of violence. As for deaths, there's no reason for those to be censored unless there is a murderous act involved, which there never is.

I won't attempt to equivocate these things to kissing, but I can kinda see the logic for censoring it. A young audience (say, anyone under 10) is less likely to be able to separate fantasy from reality, and have little impulse control. Kids mimic what they watch in cartoons all the time, so there's probably a fear that, if they saw two characters they liked kissing on screen, it'd encourage to go out and do the same. It sounds ludicrous but I remember copying Ash and my other favourite characters when I was a kid, so it's not totally out there.

It's different with violence because more often than not, violence is a bad thing so it's easy to explain to a child that it's something they shouldn't do. Whereas with romantic gestures such as kissing, there's a nuance to it they won't necessarily understand. Hence the rules around this sort of things tends to be a lot stricter.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Most of this can be considered cartoon or benign depictions of violence. As for deaths, there's no reason for those to be censored unless there is a murderous act involved, which there never is.

I won't attempt to equivocate these things to kissing, but I can kinda see the logic for censoring it. A young audience (say, anyone under 10) is less likely to be able to separate fantasy from reality, and have little impulse control. Kids mimic what they watch in cartoons all the time, so there's probably a fear that, if they saw two characters they liked kissing on screen, it'd encourage to go out and do the same. It sounds ludicrous but I remember copying Ash and my other favourite characters when I was a kid, so it's not totally out there.

It's different with violence because more often than not, violence is a bad thing so it's easy to explain to a child that it's something they shouldn't do. Whereas with romantic gestures such as kissing, there's a nuance to it they won't necessarily understand. Hence the rules around this sort of things tends to be a lot stricter.
If somebody wanted to make a reach you could say the Lake Guardians killed Hunter J thus murdering her. I personally find the "what about the kids" thing a lame excuse since if they were so concerned with children being exposed to it, they never would of did the scene anyway. Highkey implying something happen and the going on numerous occasions to confirm it did happen isn't sedulity at all. They literally wanted everyone to know Serena kissed Ash on the mouth even going as far to make her tip toe to imply isn't wasn't a check kiss. I'm not getting what was the point of all the extra stuff "for the kids" when they might as well have just shown the scene anyway.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Dephender said:
Yajima also seemed incredibly unsure if he was allowed to even confirm it was a kiss on the mouth in that interview, made for a publication for adults, and was kinda dancing around the answer until the producer cuts him off and confirms it was. You can see this all the times they reference this scene in clips shows and specials and promo videos and what not - they're only allowed to heavily hint at what happened, but not outright confirm it.

So yeah, it wasn't shown because they weren't allowed to. Same reason they didn't show Kukui and Burnet's kiss a year later either. This really isn't some great mystery.

That's rather strange given that these sort of interviews are usually candid, so I'm surprised that Mr. Yajima was reluctant to speak about the kiss. Although it's possible that he was just uncomfortable talking about children kissing, which is understandable because I'm the same way.
 

Dephender

Gizakawayusu
Staff member
Moderator
That's rather strange given that these sort of interviews are usually candid, so I'm surprised that Mr. Yajima was reluctant to speak about the kiss. Although it's possible that he was just uncomfortable talking about children kissing, which is understandable because I'm the same way.

It was pretty clear from the context that he was just unsure if the "do not confirm it was a kiss" rule applied to this interview as well. This was a scene that was VERY heavily pushing the borders of what they were allowed to do, and it's clear that "never outright confirm what happened" was part of how they got away with it. EVERY goddamn time they reference this scene they're always going "we don't know if it was a kiss... I mean, it obviously WAS, but it might have been something else... it obviously wasn't, but it COULD have been", constantly stopping themselves just short of confirming the obvious.
 
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Moonlight Starlight

Well-Known Member
I still think a kiss on the cheek was the best they could've done for Ash and Serena.

At least they somehow managed to mate.
Just like in Pokemon movie 2000 they have Melody kiss Ash on the side of the cheek same thing with Latios in the other movie taking a form of Bianca kiss Ash on the side of the cheek. That's fine to shown than not on the lips. I rather not have two 10 years old kids kissing on the lip be appropriate shown on TV.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Censorship over a kiss is kinda ridiculous. It's just funny to me that apparently kissing on screen is too much for Pokemon even though this is the same show that used to air 30 minutes before Naruto Shippuden on the same channel, and there was a lot of kissing in that anime.

I wouldn't compare naruto to pokemon, that series spills blood like water.
 

Ubermuk

Sticky & Sweet
I wouldn't compare naruto to pokemon, that series spills blood like water.

Way to miss my whole point. I was just pointing out how weird it is to me that the two anime aired right next to each other only 30 minutes apart at one point a few years ago even though Pokemon shies away from violence and kisses while Naruto didn't. The stark contrast is what I was trying to point out.
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Way to miss my whole point. I was just pointing out how weird it is to me that the two anime aired right next to each other only 30 minutes apart at one point a few years ago even though Pokemon shies away from violence and kisses while Naruto didn't. The stark contrast is what I was trying to point out.
Ed: Japanese are weird!
 
Obvious agenda is obvious lol

Edit: Here's the specific context for people who don't want to search things up
- From the interview

----

The kiss scene is indeed meant to be Serena kissing Satoshi, and his reaction to it is surprised awe, any ambiguity the scene has is so they could get it on TV in the first place.*

Interviewer:
“I didn’t watch the final episode, so this might be a dumb question, but what happened to Serena’s love, did she and Satoshi become a couple in the end?".

Tetsuo Yajima: “They didn’t become a couple in the episode itself, but the way I ended it is meant to make you understand that they’re probably going to become one later. Serena tells Satoshi that she’s going to improve herself and then come back to him. And then she does something absolutely incredible when she leaves (laughs). She’s meant to be kissing him in that scene, but since I couldn’t just have them kissing on screen, I had Serena’s feet “float” upwards instead.".

----

Really, the interview is full of so much great content and cool little nuggets of trivia
 
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Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
I think its still interesting they did it, I never expected it tbh

Same.

I remember back in the day, I saw a coment on a news site speculating how they'd show a hypothetical kiss and thinking "man, people still think we are getting this on Pokémon?"

A few months later, the final XY&Z aired and it blew me away.

Not everyone keeps up with Japanese interviews: even I didn't know that he had said anything despite me actually living there. Although I do question why they even wrote that romance subplot throughout XY in the first place if they were worried that censorship might hinder it.

It was an interview Yajima gave in the AnimeStyle (volume 10) magazine.
 
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