Is the English dub on its last legs?

[Digifiend]

Yeah, even the BBC and CNN reported it. The news went so mainstream you couldn't avoid being spoiled. That wouldn't have happened if Ash won the Kanto league, or even Unova.

 

[Galactic_V]

In the early to mid 2000s news were spread completely different than nowadays. I remember first seeing Satoshi and Takeshi's AG designs and two other characters I've never seen before (Haruka and Masato) in the cover of a magazine. I'm not sure how long it took for AG to debut after it but I don't think it was that short of a time.

In those days all you need to do is browse the internet to find all information lol

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I can see a "direct-to-Netflix" approach, similar to how they done it in my country.

 

[Momentum]

With no word on Movie 22's dub being released anytime soon along with the fact that we haven't been notified of any SS dub sneak peak (something both XY and SM have done), I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled. Maybe the ratings have just gone so low that they're producing it at a loss. Only thing that keeps me from fully believing that is Viz Media steadily re-releasing all the Seasons on DVD (We recently got Season 10 - DP) and even got Season 21 on DVD as well as Blu-ray.

I hope I'm proven wrong and we start getting updates surrounding the dub in the coming weeks, but it does look pretty grim right now. Maybe since Disney broadcasts the new episodes, Season 23 onwards could be offered through Disney+. You can already stream all the seasons on Disney Go.

 

[Poke Trey]

I'm just wondering what's going to happen to Disney XD. Channel barely gets ratings, a lot of content is now being brought over to + and really the fact we've been given nothing regarding the movie nor preview Dub, leads me to believe that the switch to streaming could be coming faster than we think.

 

[pokefan2000]

the lack of dub trailer for the mewtwo remake does make me wonder usually at this point we gotten one, the idea of pokemon being an uncompelting dub just seems strange to me.

 

[Hidden Mew]

With no word on Movie 22's dub being released anytime soon along with the fact that we haven't been notified of any SS dub sneak peak (something both XY and SM have done), I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled. Maybe the ratings have just gone so low that they're producing it at a loss. Only thing that keeps me from fully believing that is Viz Media steadily re-releasing all the Seasons on DVD (We recently got Season 10 - DP) and even got Season 21 on DVD as well as Blu-ray.

I hope I'm proven wrong and we start getting updates surrounding the dub in the coming weeks, but it does look pretty grim right now. Maybe since Disney broadcasts the new episodes, Season 23 onwards could be offered through Disney+. You can already stream all the seasons on Disney Go.

I really doubt that the dub is going to be cancelled. I don't think that the ratings would matter that much to TPCI when the anime is designed to promote the games and other merchandise. No word on Movie 22's dub and no dub sneak peak thus far are both strange and questionable decisions, but that doesn't make me think that they'll cancel the dub. Worse comes to worse, I could see the dub moving to a streaming service like Disney+ or Netflix. That wouldn't be the ideal solution, but I think that's more likely to happen than TPCI choosing to just stop dubbing the series.

 

[Nicolas721]

With no word on Movie 22's dub being released anytime soon along with the fact that we haven't been notified of any SS dub sneak peak (something both XY and SM have done), I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled.

Both dubs are already confirmed to be in production by Ed Goldfarb and others, so they'll air someday.

The new series not having a sneak peek probably has more to do with the series not having enough SWSH content to justify doing castings, a script and the voice recording much faster than usual.

Maybe the ratings have just gone so low that they're producing it at a loss.

Actually, you could argue that it's already been produced at a loss since the moment they started streaming it for free on the site and the Pokemon TV app.

 

[Momentum]

Both dubs are already confirmed to be in production by Ed Goldfarb and others, so they'll air someday.

It's not guaranteed as of yet. For example, ADV secured the rights to Mermaid Melody back in 2004, adapted all the episodes into English, but was ultimately dropped due to no networks wanting to pick it up. While I think Pokémon has a good chance of continuing, I still find it concerning we haven't heard any news regarding Movie 22's release or SS's sneak peak (if we are even getting one).

Just look at Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. Despite Konami now up to Season 2 for English adaption, there is no way to legally watch the English Dub in the US. It's only available in Canada and Australia. Personally, I think it will be a miracle if VRAINS has Season 3 adapted considering GX and 5D's had their final seasons cut short all the while still being on American airwaves.

Sure, Pokémon is faring a lot better by being on Disney XD, but I'm still seeing red flags. Movie 22 could have been released November 12, the 20th anniversary of Movie 1 in North America and a few days before the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, yet they passed this perfect opportunity up. How I see it, they are saving it for the month of December, the end of Season 22's broadcast, or simply shelving it. Again, I hope I'm wrong here but I'm not 100% confident anymore.

 

[Daenerys]

I mean of course people prefer the sub over the dub these days; Carter Cathcart (aka the man who secretly joined this forum and praised his own vocal performance of James while bashing 4Kids) can't write a decent dub script to save his life and Ed Goldfarb can't compose good dub music. It doesn't help that a lot of viewers still don't have easy access to Disney XD either, so the move from CN to XD kinda sabotaged what little the English dub had going for it to begin with.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

If they took the time to have the VAs actually sound like they care about their characters, and fixed the music, the dub would be at least tolerable, but it's been nigh-unwatchable since Best Wishes with its direction and cast choice

 

[RileyXY1]

I mean of course people prefer the sub over the dub these days; Carter Cathcart (aka the man who secretly joined this forum and praised his own vocal performance of James while bashing 4Kids) can't write a decent dub script to save his life and Ed Goldfarb can't compose good dub music. It doesn't help that a lot of viewers still don't have easy access to Disney XD either, so the move from CN to XD kinda sabotaged what little the English dub had going for it to begin with.

I don't think that the dub would have better off sticking on CN especially considering how CN treated it during XY's run.

 

[Daenerys]

I don't think that the dub would have better off sticking on CN especially considering how CN treated it during XY's run.

I mean in terms of quality it would've been the same, but considering that the dub apparently had more viewers when it aired on CN, I don't see how it changing networks could be considered a good thing when it came at the price of a drop in viewership.

 

[RileyXY1]

I mean in terms of quality it would've been the same, but considering that the dub apparently had more viewers when it aired on CN, I don't see how it changing networks could be considered a good thing when it came at the price of a drop in viewership.

It was that XD promoted the show a lot more than CN did.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Actually, you could argue that it's already been produced at a loss since the moment they started streaming it for free on the site and the Pokemon TV app.

I think that they are a couple of weeks or so behind the Disney XD airings, but that still could potentially weaken viewership. I always assumed that they started doing that to make up for Disney XD not being as widely accessible compared to Cartoon Network.

It's not guaranteed as of yet. For example, ADV secured the rights to Mermaid Melody back in 2004, adapted all the episodes into English, but was ultimately dropped due to no networks wanting to pick it up. While I think Pokémon has a good chance of continuing, I still find it concerning we haven't heard any news regarding Movie 22's release or SS's sneak peak (if we are even getting one).

That is a bit of a different situation considering that Pokemon is still a pretty huge franchise and even if Disney XD suddenly didn't want to air it anymore, I don't think it would be too difficult for them to make the anime available on either another channel or a streaming service. I doubt that really applies to series like Mermaid Melody.

Just look at Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. Despite Konami now up to Season 2 for English adaption, there is no way to legally watch the English Dub in the US. It's only available in Canada and Australia. Personally, I think it will be a miracle if VRAINS has Season 3 adapted considering GX and 5D's had their final seasons cut short all the while still being on American airwaves.

That's another pretty different situation. The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime has been struggling on U.S. networks for years. Cartoon Network stopped airing it after the first fifty two episodes of 5D's, the franchise was stuck on CW Saturday morning blocks for a few years before moving to Nicktoons and Nicktoons never aired all of Zexal or Arc V. None of the spin-offs have been successful in the U.S. and I imagine that after years moving around to networks with little success to show for it, no other U.S. channels were interested in picking up Vrains. It probably also doesn't help that unlike Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! doesn't have a lot of merchandise outside of the cards and even video games were practically a rarity until a few years ago. Pokemon doesn't have that kind of problem. While none of the following series after the original one have been that hugely popular, they seem to do well enough for themselves. Even with moving around to different channels, they usually air it consistently and they don't skip entire seasons or leave episodes unaired aside from any banned ones.

Whenever I see people complaining about the length of the gap between the Pokemon dub and its original version, I always think of how long the gap is for the Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs. At least TPCI isn't over a year behind and they're seemingly unable to make SM available legally online like Konami Cross Media is with the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. They do have most of the series legally subbed on Crunchyroll, which is an edge over TPCI in that department, but with the Vrains dub in mind, I really wonder if it's even worthwhile to dub Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore, or at least in the way that they do it.

The Pokemon dub is doing fine compared to the Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs. Maybe not exactly thriving, but I don't think that they're in that kind of tight spot just yet. On a side note, I'm pretty sure that they'll keep dubbing Vrains. GX and 5D's had incomplete dubs due to 4Kids not being able to financially handle two Yu-Gi-Oh! series at once, especially when they were being sued near the end of the 5D's dub. Since Konami Cross Media doesn't have that problem, I don't think that will happen again. Although, they probably could rework the season two finale into an attempt at a series finale like what happened with the 5D's dub relatively easily if they really needed to.

Sure, Pokémon is faring a lot better by being on Disney XD, but I'm still seeing red flags. Movie 22 could have been released November 12, the 20th anniversary of Movie 1 in North America and a few days before the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, yet they passed this perfect opportunity up. How I see it, they are saving it for the month of December, the end of Season 22's broadcast, or simply shelving it. Again, I hope I'm wrong here but I'm not 100% confident anymore.

To be fair, it's possible that they couldn't get a limited release for the movie. It's still a strange and questionable decision since a remake of the first Pokemon movie most likely would have attracted enough attention, but there could have been other factors involved that we don't know about. Not having a sneak peek at the new series is also quite disappointing, but it's also possible that they don't think that there is enough direct promotion to Sword/Shield to justify getting the first two episodes ready to air that fast like what has happened with the other series.

 

[Yankees4life]

Nah...the dub is still kicking but I have since abandoned ship on it. Natochenny is a bad fit for Ash and I can say most of the VAs are brutal to the ears. The dialogue may be a bit closer to the original but it doesn't matter since the voice acting is terrawful

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Carter Cathcart (aka the man who secretly joined this forum and praised his own vocal performance of James while bashing 4Kids

What? Is it a theory or we have confirmation it actually happened?

 

[ii kanji]

What? Is it a theory or we have confirmation it actually happened?

I can’t remember all the details (if someone who has more time to find the posts can then please do) but this guy claimed to be a ‘friend’ of his and have inside info from the guy. The way he posted was highly suggestive that it was him himself, although no we don’t have confirmation that that is the case.

 

[Flynn]

Here it is:

Can anyone do a James?

It seems nobody is any good at doing this guy. So is there a guy or girl out there who can do a good impersonation of James? And possibly record it? I'd like a PUSA style voice.

forums.bulbagarden.net

I checked his Serebii account and he made a post praising his script writing skills lmao.

 

[Dogasu]

The English dub is, by design, too ingrained in Western fans' minds to ever be cancelled outright but I do think its crown as the one and only way to watch the show in the West is being taken away. More and more people are keeping up with the Japanese version as it airs than they were even five years ago, and Japan putting up non-geoblocked episodes of the new series is going to make doing so even easier moving forward.

As for Sun & Moon, everybody already knows the outcome of the Alola League (TPCI spoiled it themselves on social media!) so only the most diehard of dub fans are going to bother watching those months old episodes. Especially given the quality of the dub's writing, voice acting, music, and visual edits these days.

And then there's Movie 22. Unless TPCI makes a surprise announcement within the next few weeks (which is possible, slim as those chances are) their version of the film's not going to come out until after the Japanese home video release. And then by that point it'll be too late. A lot of people are just going to bootleg the Japanese version in December and then move on, never bothering to watch the English dub like they would have if the movie had come out on time.

People other than the most die-hard fans watch the English dub because it's the easier version of the show to watch but when you introduce fans to a better version of the show that (in some ways) is just as easy to watch then the incentive to stick with the English dub just plummets. People don't want to be left out of the conversation, after all.

The English dub has been and will continue to be an important part of the franchise in the West but it actually has competition now. It'll be interesting to see what it does to adapt.