A beloved Gen 4 Pokemon had a surprising debut in the TCG with card artwork that probably wouldn’t fly today.
ThePokemon franchise has faced a lot of censorshipover the years, and the TCG is no exception. This tends to be more about removing religious imagery and risque content over violence or bloodshed.
Nowadays, it’s almost unheard of for Pokemon cards to be censored, as The Pokemon Company is an international entity, so efforts are made to ensure nothing inappropriate or offensive to any specific culture slips through.
However, some elements of the Pokemon TCG haven’t aged well. Case in point: the original Bonsly card, which was the only one for the Pokemon for many years outside of Japan.
Fans online have discussedhow the pose, the tears, and certain elements of Bonsly’s design make the image come off far more disturbing than intended.
Those whoonly play the Pokemon video gamesmight not be aware that Bonsly has a hole in the bottom, which is meant to evoke a plant pot (as it’s based on a Bonsai tree). This is more obvious in the anime, as Brock used a Bonsly during the Gen 4 era, so it had a prominent role during his time as Ash’s companion.
“It was a different time,” one user wrote, while another said, “And that is how Seedots are made.” We can’t really quote anyone else in the thread, not if we want to keep things PG.
It’s also amusing that this was only the Bonsly card outside of Japan for the longest time, so those who wanted to use it had to whip out the creepy crying card in games. Luckily, Sudowoodo has always been a Basic Pokemon in the TCG, so Bonsly was never needed for an evolution.
Related:
Scott Baird is a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in Pokemon, Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, and Magic The Gathering, and Nintendo games. He also has bylines at Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, Screen Rant, The Gamer, and TopTenz.
