Trivia / Pokémon the Series: Black & White

• Creator Backlash:
  • The Executive Meddling and real life tragedies that changed the series' trajectory appear to have taken their toll on the head writer, Atsuhiro Tomioka. After the big Operation Tempest two-parter that marked the end of the show's second year, Tomioka only scripted four episodes in its third and final year (Charizard's return, the Episode N arc's finale, Professor Oak's appearance in the Decolore arc, and the final episode leading directly into the following XY series), a far cry from how much work he put in on other series during their last stretches.
  • Megumi Hayashibara, Shin-ichiro Miki and Inuko Inuyama have been very vocal on how much they hated the Team Rocket trio's serious characterization that lasted the majority of this series. They also were disappointed in their characters no longer appearing in every episode, a complaint that would last for the remainder of their run in the entire anime.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Reportedly, the show's executives forced the writers to alter several of their long-term plans for the series in order to accommodate the marketing of Black 2/White 2, games that were full-fledged sequels rather than the Updated Re Release everyone had expected.
  • The X and Y games receiving a worldwide release also had a negative impact on the show, as the writers were made to rush out of Unova and to a filler region (the Decolore Islands) where they could market characters and Pokémon from the new games, so that these episodes could be broadcast internationally in October 2013, at the exact same time the games released and their corresponding anime series was debuting in Japan.
• Missing Episode:
  • The two special episodes focusing on Dawn ("Dawn - A New Journey!") and Brock ("The Greatest Crisis in Pewter Gym's History!") were never dubbed.
  • The 2-parter "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" was pulled before air due to the 2011 Fukushima earthquake happening less than a week prior. Due to the development of Black 2/White 2, the episodes were simply scrapped entirely and recycled into the Meloetta and Episode N arcs. According to Tom Wayland the episodes were sent to TPCi but never got dubbed.
• Recast as a Regular:
  • Eileen Stevens had played recurring characters such as Lyra and Juniper during the Diamond and Pearl series, well as several minor characters as well. In this series, she is cast as Iris.
  • Jason Griffith had been involved with the anime since the Hoenn seasons and played multiple and minor characters. Here, he provides the voice for Cilan.
• Release Date Change: The episode "A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!" was supposed to air a few months earlier, but because of the changes that had to be done after the Team Plasma two-parter was scrapped, it went from being Episode 26 to Episode 37.
• Troubled Production: Between the real-life tragedy that transpired on March 11 of 2011 and the Executive Meddling centered around the marketing of games that were different from prior releases (full-fledged sequels to Gen V's core games and a worldwide release for Gen VI's core games respectively), this series did not have the smoothest production.
• What Could Have Been: The scripts for the "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter reveal not only the events of the episodes but what the originally intended Myth Arc for the series was meant to be, which was based off the story of the Black and White games with allusions made to N's antagonistic role and Team Plasma's desire for Pokémon liberation. Giovanni and Team Rocket would also have retained a significant role in it going forward.