The Pokémon Anime Really Needs an Official Sub

You might have heard that Ash and Pikachu’s Pokémon journey is coming to an end soon. It’s a bittersweet moment for the duo — after 25 years on television screens across the world, the boy and his partner Pokémon will finally take their final steps into the unknown. It’s sure to bring a tear to any Pokémon fan’s eyes, provided they’re not spoiled before they watch it this September on Netflix.

The problem, though, is that spoilers are out there. Hell, The Pokémon Company itself has tweeted some. When Ash won the World Champion title in the anime, it was tweeted from the official English Twitter account for Pokémon almost immediately after airing in Japan. The episode in which that happened wouldn’t air in English until 6 months later.

There’s always been a bit of a lag between episodes in English after they’ve aired in Japan. It was worse in the early days of the anime, with some episodes coming a year or two after they first aired, and got slightly better in recent years. At the best of times, there was a three-month delay, which was a little more manageable, but still required some artful dodging of spoilers.

The reasons for this are obvious. It takes time to translate, localize, and edit a script, and that’s before you get to recording that script with voice actors. This has to take place for multiple languages, although some countries like Korea do actually get the episodes a little earlier than English-speaking countries. Generally, though, English and all the other European languages typically come at around the same time for the Pokémon anime.

It comes at a cost, too. Anyone who’s watched Pokémon in Japanese knows that the music is absolutely incredible. You hop over to the English side of things, and it’s a whole other story. While the music in the English dub of Pokémon isn’t exactly bad, it’s a far cry from the original Japanese, and it takes a little bit of the magic away from some incredible moments.

So with the release of Pokémon Horizons in Japan, which stars two new protagonists, Roy and Liko, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of waiting for an official release, which could be months (or even longer) away, I decided to watch a subtitled fan translation every week, as the episodes air in Japan. It’s not official, in fact it’s very much bordering on copyright infringement, but it’s pretty much the only way to watch these episodes outside of actually being in Japan.

It’s been a blast. Every week, I settle in and watch the adventures of Liko and Roy as they journey through the Pokémon world on a mission to uncover secrets and solve mysteries. It’s a slower series than Ash’s journeys, much more serialized and much more character-focused, but it’s got incredibly cozy vibes, and I have genuinely loved every moment of it.

It’s not a perfect translation though. Pokémon and characters are still called by their Japanese names, even in the subtitles. That means Fuecoco is called Hogator (something I’ve since come to start calling him), Magneton is called Rarecoil, and Fidough is called Puppymocchi. It’s actually pretty fun learning what these Pokémon are called in Japan, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t wish it had the official English names.

So here’s my proposal, to any higher-up at The Pokémon Company that happens to chance upon this feature: if you promise to release an official subtitled version of the Japanese release of Pokémon Horizons, I promise to pay for it. I’ll gladly pay $10 a month for it — hell, even more if it means the episodes drop day and date alongside the Japanese versions. I know I’m not the only one who will, either.

It’s not like it’s unprecedented. One Piece is a huge, long-running anime, just like Pokémon, and through Crunchyroll’s simulcast program, episodes are released on the same day as episodes air in Japan. If Crunchyroll and Toei can do it, then surely Pokémon – the highest-grossing media franchise in the world – can do it too. It’s not like the dubs have to go away, One Piece still has its dub and there will always be an audience for it, but for the sake of global conversation and the shared experience, there’s a chance to do things differently.

There’s a real opportunity here for The Pokémon Company to capitalize on its hot new thing, otherwise it’ll be left to fans to subtitle and release instead. People are already watching it, there’s no way to put that genie back in its bottle, the least you could do is give people a way to do so without dodgy websites, copyright infringement, and unofficial translations.