Dub

From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.

Adub ofPokémon animation is a version which has voices recorded in a different language than the original Japanese. By some definitions of the word, the original Japanese recording can also be considered a dub, but fans almost exclusively use the word to refer to recordings in other languages, and may refer to the Japanese recording as "the original" version.

The English dub

Production

The English dub was produced by4Kids Entertainment andTAJ Productions from seasonsone throughfive.

Seasonssix,seven, andeight were produced solely by 4Kids Entertainment. After this, 4Kids lost dubbing rights, and seasonsnine andten were produced byPokémon USA and TAJ Productions. From seasonseleven throughtwenty-two, the dub was produced by Pokémon USA (now The Pokémon Company International) with DuArt Film & Video (nowDuArt Media Services). Since the beginning of thetwenty-third season, the dub is produced by The Pokémon Company International withIyuno (formerly known as Iyuno Media Group).

Criticisms

The dub has been the target of criticism andcontroversies throughout its history. Despite these criticisms, most of the English dub is well-received, and has many viewers, some even preferring it over the original Japanese animation.

During the early years of the dub, new episodes aired a year or more after their original Japanese airing, with 4Kids' long season breaks tending to cause the dub to fall far behind the original.Get the Show on the Road! andRuin with a View, for instance, were first aired in March 2003 to commemorate the English release ofPokémon Ruby and Sapphire, as they were in Japan for the Japanese release; however, in the dub prior to that point, Ash had only just gotten his seventhJohto Badge, and he would remain in Johto until that November, when the Advanced Generation episodes would finally begin to be aired in order. When Pokémon USA took the helm, episodes initially aired with the same delay as they had been; however, the impending release of the English versions ofPokémon Diamond and Pearl forced them to compress the airing of the ninth season in order to be able to startPokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl at the same time without skipping episodes. As a result, the gap between episodes was reduced from nearly a year to closer to six months. Through subsequent seasons and series, the gap further reduced, withPokémon the Series: Sun & Moon maintaining an average gap of 73 days.

However, inthe United States, the gap increased dramatically in the next series,Pokémon Journeys. This is because it released in 12 (later 15) episode batches on Netflix, with new batches releasing about every 5 months. At its greatest extent, the gap reached almost 300 days, comparable to the 4Kids era; this reignited complaints from fans, especially during theMasters Eight, as Ash winning the tournament inPartners in Time! was spoiled on Pokémon's English social media outlets (and even some news sites) on the day the episode premiered in Japan, when the dubbed episode wouldn't air for another 7 months, and in the United States in particular for 2 months after that. In addition, the epilogue seriesTo Be a Pokémon Master concluded airing in Japan in March 2023, and wouldn't release on Netflix in America until September, 6 months later. Notably, said batch of episodes also includedDistant Blue Sky!, which premiered in December 2022, resulting in a 9 month gap for 1 episode.