2020 Anime might not see an English dub...

[TapLover]

From what I've made out, the official English Pokemon twitter pretty much hyped out Ash's Alola League victory when the dubbed version was finally going to air through "test your League knowledge" posts, so I guess they saw that (+ the following events, including Ash fleeing his Alola team) as a fitting "finale" to the anime and were willing not to dub the reboot for various reasons? (one being the first episode, which begins with Ash befriending a wild Pikachu that just evolved from a Pichu)

Also, I previously made a joke about TPCI seeing Twilight Wings as the Galar anime, so I guess I might not be wrong despite being a simuldubbed mini-web series.

 

[Daren]

The 2019 series is not a reboot. Ash does not befriend a newly evolved Pikachu--there's a timeskip.
In the next episode we see Ash's Alola League trophy and other momentos of his adventures in his room.

 

[ShinyOotachi]

I really don't think the 2020 anime is a reboot, I'm pretty sure there has been a degree of continuity with references to Ash winning the Alola League and wanting to participate in a Champions League of sorts.

I really can't see them not dubbing it, it would be pointless for them not to in my opinion. Twilight Wings is pretty clearly a side series, similar to Generations or the Mega Evolution specials. Whether they tie in to the main series remains to be seen. Regardless, Twilight Wings is definitely not a replacement dub, as you suggest, and I personally think it has been dubbed simultaneously because of the wait for the main series dub.

I think the only reason we haven't seen the new series dub is because the Sun and Moon series still hasn't finished. We'll probably see the new series in Spring or early Summer and it will still be relevant because A) it's not reliant on any one game to promote it and B) with the SwSh DLC coming in Summer, I think they'll definitely want to continue the standard anime promotion.

 

[Daenerys]

2020 Anime might not see an English dub...

Literally like 5% of the posters here even keep up with the dub, so it's no real loss.

 

[BigDocFan]

Decided to speak to Lisa Ortiz to see if she can confirm or deny this

Seems very unlikely it won't be dubbed

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Why would the new series not be dubbed whatsoever?

It’s more likely that rather than not being dubbed at all, the dub will just go on a hiatus once Sun & Moon ends then things will go back on track as normal once an announcement is made.

 

[Poke Trey]

It's going to get dubbed. We're just waiting for an announcement, possibly on Pokemon Day if not later.

 

[Hidden Mew]

It's still mind boggling that people think that PM is a reboot. The first episode is about Pikachu's origin as a Pichu and then in the following episode, they show the Alola League trophy in Ash's room. There is absolutely no reason to consider this new series a reboot, but that still comes up.

As for the dub, it's going to happen. I don't see any reason for them to skip over it. It may not be a huge way to advertise the games, but I think having the anime air new episodes pretty consistently helps to keep the franchise within the public consciousness. We just haven't had an official announcement for it yet. I suspect that they'll have some official announcement for the series shortly before or after SM wraps up in a couple of weeks.

 

[TheGoldenToon]

Yeah, I don't know why some people keep calling it a reboot.

Anyway, I don't watch the dub of newer episodes anymore, but I would find it very unfair for people, especially some of my friends here on the forums who I know do still watch it not getting it. Not everyone wants to watch the original version online, but in their native language, that's fine, and that doesn't make them any less important just because then the rest of us that prefer the Japanese version. Just thought I throw that out there because I'm sick of this Sub vs Dub famdom crap honestly.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

It's going to get dubbed. We're just waiting for an announcement, possibly on Pokemon Day if not later.

I seem to remember very poor ratings reports for the Sun and Moon episodes in recent months so I wouldn't be that confident that TPCi would keep dubbing the series if it isn't going to be financially viable.

 

[Silktree]

Killing the dub would be a bad look for the franchise.

 

[Poke Trey]

Look, I know the Dub doesn't wow much people if not anyone these days but, saying that it's dead is just not true. I know plenty of people and even a few of my friends who still watch it every week. It's not gone, we're just in a odd spot now. Especially since this new series isn't entirely about Galar, how they'll advertise will be something I'm pretty sure even the crew wouldn't have expected.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I seem to remember very poor ratings reports for the Sun and Moon episodes in recent months so I wouldn't be that confident that TPCi would keep dubbing the series if it isn't going to be financially viable.

I don't understand why people put so much stock in ratings, especially for a toyetic franchise like Pokemon. Why would TPCI care about ratings? Ratings don't necessarily mean that a show is unsuccessful, especially in this age of streaming. The people who bring up the ratings for SM also tend to ignore or forget that it is airing on Disney XD. It is not as widely available as Cartoon Network is, so of course that's going to have some impact on the ratings. Not to mention the episodes are put online before they premiere on TV. Even the official Pokemon website has most of the episodes from this current season available for people to watch. It's also kind of strange to use ratings as a sign that the dub possibly isn't financially viable. The dub airs in other countries too. Even if the ratings are poor, that doesn't mean the dub isn't financially worthwhile to continue.

I think people are just jumping to a pretty huge conclusion simply because we don't have any actual information about the new series. To be fair, it is a different situation than what normally happens with a new series. We always got a sneak peak at the newest series a couple of months before it properly premieres, but since that didn't happen this time and we don't have any official word on it despite the SM dub only having a couple of episodes left, I think that people are assuming the worst. I think it would be a much bigger red flag if we don't have any news about the dub by around late spring or early summer. A part of me wouldn't be surprised if they do announce something about the next series on Pokemon Day, but they might save that for after SM ends instead since they already have a bunch of other announcements planned for Pokemon Day.

 

[Islander Princess]

Ash never met Pikachu as a wild Pokemon in the first episode...? It was literally a flashback to when Pikachu was a Pichu, and Ash and Gou were still children back then. They even re-animated the entire scene where Ash gets Pikachu from Professor Oak. The new series isn't a reboot anyway, but your summary of the first episode is completely off.

Also, every mention of "the dub is dead" and "the ratings are bad" is just beating a dead horse over and over again. It's been established that plenty of people still watch the dub. Most kids are watching the dub. It's fine if you don't want to watch the dub, or aren't interested in it, but it's unfair and incorrect to say that no one watches the dub and no one would miss it. Ratings are also almost useless in this day and age, but especially when it comes to a show like Pokemon that airs on Disney XD. Not every household gets Disney XD, so those shows really don't get renewed or cancelled based on ratings. It's crazy to me that people put so much stock into the ratings of an anime series. Pokemon isn't a prime time show airing on a major cable network; this is an entirely different category.

The new series is definitely going to be dubbed. It's going to be announced eventually. Look how long it took them to announce the dub of M22. People were speculating that it wasn't going to be dubbed because it was "so bad" and "no one would watch it" which, again, doesn't speak for everyone. It was eventually announced. The same thing is going to happen for the new series.

 

[VetProf]

Unless if we're given a legal way to watch the show subbed (official subs, not fansubs), there's absolutely no chance of the English dub being discontinued.

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

It's still mind boggling that people think that PM is a reboot. The first episode is about Pikachu's origin as a Pichu and then in the following episode, they show the Alola League trophy in Ash's room. There is absolutely no reason to consider this new series a reboot, but that still comes up.

It's the same reason why people believe BW is a reboot or SM is a reboot while people believe XY is the true continuation of DP. This is the result of believing that fans own the anime and can simply declare anything they don't like non-canon. Star Wars fans were the pioneers of this mentality in today's world, but it has bled into other fandoms.

 

[Pulsaro23]

It's the same reason why people believe BW is a reboot or SM is a reboot while people believe XY is the true continuation of DP. This is the result of believing that fans own the anime and can simply declare anything they don't like non-canon. Star Wars fans were the pioneers of this mentality in today's world, but it has bled into other fandoms.

Well, to be fair to Star Wars and its fans, Disney Canon is a reboot of Star Wars, since they discarded all of the EU works that came before and rebranded them as the non-canon Legends, while replacing them with their own materials and saying that everything made by them is actually canon. As for the recent... debacles regarding Star Wars, it's not so much a case of them being canon or that they shouldn't be canon (though them discontinuing the EU does play a role in it), it's that they're so terrible and poorly thought out that they manage to ruin Star Wars as a whole. It's not people believing that they "own" the franchise (though, since fans are the ones supporting it by buying stuff related to it, you'd think that the people owning it would at least hear them out instead of calling them all kinds of names, but that's a whole 'nother discussion (which is also apparently controversial?, for whatever reason)), it's more so people recognizing quality/lack of quality in the writing department of a piece of media and them being so displeased with it to the point of hyperbolically believing that it shouldn't have been made. Which is what happened with both the BW and SM series (though the latter to a somewhat lesser extent), since they both have poor writing and inconsistencies with the rest of the anime in bulks.

Anyways, from the looks of it, the op's claim that this is a reboot sterns more so from a misconception rather than a sense of entitlement (as you claim) or because the series suffers from very flawed writing and it ignores the preestablished rules/events in the other series. So no, it's not the same.

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

Well, to be fair to Star Wars and its fans, Disney Canon is a reboot of Star Wars, since they discarded all of the EU works that came before and rebranded them as the non-canon Legends, while replacing them with their own materials and saying that everything made by them is actually canon.

I agree. What my post was referring to was the Prequel Trilogy conundrum where fans at the time tried to nullify the canonicity of the Prequel Trilogy by playing with semantics i.e. Palpatine saying that the Republic stood for 1000 years in the PT while Obi-wan says the Jedi Order protected the Republic for 1000 generations in the OT.

 

[Pulsaro23]

I agree. What my post was referring to was the Prequel Trilogy conundrum where fans at the time tried to nullify the canonicity of the Prequel Trilogy by playing with semantics i.e. Palpatine saying that the Republic stood for 1000 years in the PT while Obi-wan says the Jedi Order protected the Republic for 1000 generations in the OT.

Well, to be fair once again, as much as I love the prequels and games/comics/novels/TV shows that they spawned, those movies are very flawed (especially the first two), their writing can be pretty shallow and idiotic at times and some of the things they establish do contradict previous material (like the thing you just quoted or Obi-Wan not recognizing R2 despite having been saved by him multiple times or him being unaware of Leia being a force-sensitive Skywalker despite having witnessed their birth), so people being... displeased with them is understandable (still, denying their canonicity would be pretty stupid). Though, now that we have the sequels, the prequels' issues do seem far less severe (though they're still there).

 

[Daenerys]

People comparing Star Wars prequels to Pokemon reboots

Star Wars sweetie I'm so sorry.

I seem to remember very poor ratings reports for the Sun and Moon episodes in recent months so I wouldn't be that confident that TPCi would keep dubbing the series if it isn't going to be financially viable.

This. SuMo was/is dying a slow and agonizing death on Disney XD and my suggestion is that a move to streaming would be better for the show, because at least then the anime might survive as a niche series so that the remaining ~10,000 fans who still follow the dub for god knows what reason could keep supporting it.