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The English dub is being released too slowly to be an effective promotional tool in 2020

The first few episodes of 2019 should be ready to start airing from March 14 so there should be no need for disney xd to take any stupid breaks between sun/moon and 2019
 
Except that was 2011-2015. Lisa Ortiz is the voice director now and things could've obviously changed in the way they did production.

The dub starting production later than it did half a decade ago isn't a good thing though...?

They quite literally were working their butts off during the Thanksgiving week trying to finish up the Kukui arc and the last episodes of SM.

OK. The gap between the Japanese version and an official English release is still too large though.

Also, It kinda seems you're using this as another chance to throw TPCi under the bus, and not all the companies involved, including Japan.

I don't care whose "fault" it is. If people want to put all the blame on Japan the fine, go wild. They're certainly not blameless in all this. But the point of this thread is to highlight a problem and discuss possible solutions.
 
Is there a reason for disney to take any possible breaks beteeen sun/moon and 2019 when the first few episodes of 2019 is in the can ready to air
 
Is there a reason for disney to take any possible breaks beteeen sun/moon and 2019 when the first few episodes of 2019 is in the can ready to air
For each of the past three seasons, Disney XD has "saved up" eight new episodes to air one-a-day during the first week, hence why they've started later than say, Teletoon in Canada, which consistently airs only one a week. It also aligns with Spring Break for some U.S. school districts.
 
For each of the past three seasons, Disney XD has "saved up" eight new episodes to air one-a-day during the first week, hence why they've started later than say, Teletoon in Canada, which consistently airs only one a week. It also aligns with Spring Break for some U.S. school districts.
What day does Pokemon air? If it airs on the weekends, surely breaks wouldn't be too much of an issue?
 
What day does Pokemon air? If it airs on the weekends, surely breaks wouldn't be too much of an issue?
It normally airs on Saturdays. The idea is that kids stuck at home will want to watch new episodes every day while at home during the break. CITV, for example, for the most part only airs new episodes on weekdays during English school holidays.

(...Though since school calendars are decided at a local level in the U.S., each school district can have a different week for spring break.)
 
I feel that so many people here don't even watch the dub anyways so I don't get the sudden concern about how TPCI is handling the dub. Sorry but alot of the same people who have been constantly shitting on the dub for the past 15+ years don't have a right to suddenly tell the rest of us how we should feel about the English release.

Stick to the Japanese version as usual and all will be well.
 
This is an interesting topic, and I do agree with it. I'm very curious to see how the new series is handled in terms of the dub. I (and I think many of us) were expecting the customary preview that never came. The movie was pushed off to go to Netflix. My guess is the dub will continue to air weekly on Disney XD (maybe a week long premiere of new episodes as they've done in the past) but it doesn't appear as obvious as it did in the past. I don't know how much more they could shorten the gap between airings, and I understand why it's there, but I would definitely love to get new dub episodes sooner. The concept of a simuldub is interesting, but I can see why it wouldn't really work for Pokemon.

Either way, I do get a little impatient waiting for the new dub episodes. I don't mind watching subs, but I only do it for episodes I'm really excited about, largely because of the "there's no official sub" issue, which is honestly kind of wild that such a thing still exists in 2020. I do wish there was an official sub for Pokemon. I don't know if you can even argue that kids nowadays wouldn't watch it, what with all of the access to technology they have now. If an official sub was available, and Pokemon advertised it, I'm sure you'd get kids to watch it. I also know a lot of older fans would be really into it, and with the emergence of media like Pokemon Go and Detective Pikachu, they're getting a lot less shy about sharing their love for the franchise. It could only help to market to them as well (which I've noticed the Pokemon social media accounts have started to do...a lot).
 
Except that was 2011-2015. Lisa Ortiz is the voice director now and things could've obviously changed in the way they did production.

If they can do it in 2011 they can certainly do it now. There's no legitimate reason why the dub should be more complicated to produce than it was a decade ago. A common argument in favor of the dub using a replacement score is it allows them to collect revenue once used in other foreign language dubs. But if it's helping to increase the gap between Japanese and English airings of the show, is it still as beneficial to the company?

The more edits made to the show that are not absolutely necessary for broadcast release on English television (BGM replacement, JCC "punching up" the script) the more the production for the dub is needlessly lengthened. And as pointed out earlier in the thread, we know that at least at some point in the dub's production they were receiving episodes before broadcast in Japan.

Basically it's not impossible for a competent dub to be made without a four-month gap-- it's creative choices being made that are, at least in part, contributing to the delay. I'm not arguing which version of the show is better here, what I'm saying is that there are plenty of edits to the show TPCI makes that aren't necessary to get the show on the air. Arguing that there much be such a delay to account for the edits is admitting that TPCI is shooting themselves in the foot.

I feel that so many people here don't even watch the dub anyways so I don't get the sudden concern about how TPCI is handling the dub. Sorry but alot of the same people who have been constantly shitting on the dub for the past 15+ years don't have a right to suddenly tell the rest of us how we should feel about the English release.

Stick to the Japanese version as usual and all will be well.

If I could wake up on Sunday and find a legal version of the Japanese version with reliable subtitles without risking my computer get a virus or half the screen blocked with a filter/the audio distorted I'd be so, so much happier.

And you don't "have the right" to control what others say about the matter- especially when this thread isn't even about the quality of the dub. Why does disliking creative decisions the dub consistently makes prevent people from wanting an official release of the Japanese version?
 
A common argument in favor of the dub using a replacement score is it allows them to collect revenue once used in other foreign language dubs. But if it's helping to increase the gap between Japanese and English airings of the show, is it still as beneficial to the company?

The more edits made to the show that are not absolutely necessary for broadcast release on English television (BGM replacement, JCC "punching up" the script) the more the production for the dub is needlessly lengthened. And as pointed out earlier in the thread, we know that at least at some point in the dub's production they were receiving episodes before broadcast in Japan.
Well, I watch the Japanese subs myself and don’t care much about the English dub, but selling royalties to dub music and stuff actually adds to their income. Would reducing the gap between episodes add enough income to justify the loss of the royalties? I don’t think so.
 
I taught a 3rd grade class (ages 8-9) for a few months and there were some kids in it talking about "Ash travelling the world with some new guy"- the target audience already knows about the new series, even without the dub's usual sneak preview!

Ohh, this makes me so nostalgic!

I remember when I was little and read about the Japanese episodes ahead of time in a magazine. Me and my classmates were so hyped about the upcoming episodes, got emotional about the spoilers regarding Butterfree being released and laughed when we read about Satoshi dressing as a girl...

I remember wanting to watch the Japanese episodes so badly as a kid even before they were translated. I didn't get to do that until I was around 12-13 years old because I didn't have easy access to the Internet.
 
Is the anime that big a promotion tool outside Japan? It's clear that the games don't rely on the anime and merchandise is limited in the west. I don't think that the anime has ever tried to promote the TCG, either.
 
Is the anime that big a promotion tool outside Japan?

It literally can't be because of the huge (by 2020 standards) gap between game events and the release of an English version of the show. That's the entire problem.

I don't think that the anime has ever tried to promote the TCG, either

It tried to in the very beginning but 4Kids had to keep editing the cards out due to the Children's Television Act of 1990. And so Japan just kind of stopped.
 
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It's odd that having several month gaps is a problem in 2020 without production issues being the sole factor. Even in Digimon's heyday, the dub-raw gap was actually closing towards the end of multiple seasons. Adventure, 02, Tamers had 4-5 month gaps before closing out to 3 months give or take. These were the days where shipping tapes across an ocean were a thing.

I would blame the network, but Pokemon has had this problem consistently ever since the CN days. Even my young nieces know who Gou is and argued whether he was a boy or girl around the time he was first revealed.
 
Either way, *something* needs to be done because the current way things are being done just isn't working anymore. Does anyone have any other ideas of how to fix this problem?
Well, first of all I doubt that anything will change even if we rack our brains over this question because I think the writers/producers will neither care about what a couple of fans are speculating about here nor will they ever read it...unfortunately.

As for your question, I've got a simple yet promising suggestion: How about releasing the latest Japanese epsiodes (subbed!) right after they've aired in Japan on a paid subscription basis? Netflix and Amazon Prime are highly successful and demonstrate how this model can work. Also, I'm convinced many fans (me included) would be willing to pay a small amount of money if they got their favorite series with subtitles and, above all, in time. However, this should have been done much earlier because as long as you get the latest subbed episode on the internet that easily, I doubt people will be willing to pay all of a sudden.

Plus, some international versions have got some terrible voice actors that I'm sure most fans wouldn't bother if they got the Japanese version as long as it it's subtitled
 
Is the anime that big a promotion tool outside Japan? It's clear that the games don't rely on the anime and merchandise is limited in the west. I don't think that the anime has ever tried to promote the TCG, either.

It's a promotional tool for the entire franchise because it shows you all the new Pokemon and characters you can encounter in the games and buy merchandise of.

But by the time an episode is released in the west, whatever it's supposed to be advertising is old news.
 
Which obviously doesn't matter for the games since they sell so well, anyway. SM sold better in the US than in Japan. Could a faster anime localization make the games even more successful? I am not convinced. XY marked the beginning of simultaneous releases, but they also started much more efficient online promotional trends that have nothing to do with the anime. And uh, the current anime series is hardly focused on SwSh to begin with.

As for merchandise, it might exist in the west but nowhere near to the same extent as in Japan. A 4-month delay is not the issue in this department, especially as the merchandise and TCG are delayed, too.
 
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