I'm surprised that we haven't gotten an official subbed version of the anime yet.

[09Murphym]

I know that there are quite a few fan subs, but so far there has yet to be an official subbed release of the Japanese version in America.

 

[AznKei]

I know that there are quite a few fan subs, but so far there has yet to be an official subbed release of the Japanese version in America.

Maybe because they understood that fans would rather have dub releases in America so they don't have to read the subs to understand what's going on?

 

[Jangobadass]

Sorry bro, but there's just not as much demands for a subbed version like there is with other anime.

Like it or not, we stuck with the English version and I don't think there's anything (officially/legitimately) we can do about it.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I'm not surprised. Pokémon is, for all intents and purposes, a children's show and the amount of people interested on watching official subs probably doesn't make it worthy investing on.

On a side note, what surprises me is that while other countries releases DVD sets, Japan doesn't. The closest we have are rental DVDs but those aren't meant to be sold (yet you can find them on auctions lol)

 

[Lord Starfish]

I mean, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh! have official subtitled releases, and I'm pretty sure both of those are significantly more niche than Pokémon. So even though the whole "Very few people actually care" thing could very well be true, it is frustrating how they're not even giving us the option, when similar, less popular series get it.

...Although if an official subtitled release ever happens, I sure hope it'd be better translated than Digimon is... And that they wouldn't use dub-terms because frankly, when watching the show in Japanese, I don't want to see "Ash Ketchum". Or have the guy in Team Rocket be called "James" when there's an entirely different character in the show with that name in Japanese. (Lilie's butler, for the record.)

 

[Apslup]

This is a really touchy subject for me and a lot of Pokemon Anime fans, since I prefer watching Pokemon in Japanese (not saying that the English Dub is terrible, it's pretty decent, but I just prefer the Japanese version more), but it does come back to the fact that it's too niche.

It's comes down to the fact that Pokemon's target audience is primary children and young teenagers who want to watch the show in English since they don't want to read subtitles. This will mean that if The Pokemon Company releases the Japanese version of the show on DVD/Blu Ray, they will probably make a loss since the only people who will buy these releases are older fans like us (people in their mid-teens to adults), since casual fans will pick the dub and non-fans will pick the English versions since they don't want to read subtitles and nostalgia. But, at the end of the day TPC is a business and a businesses main goal is too make as much profit as possible, so if they predict that something will make a loss (like with a hypothetical release of the Japanese Version of Pokemon), they won't go through with it. Since they would want to have as many episodes available as possible, it will take a lot of human resources and production costs to bring this idea to life.

I think that The Pokemon Company should make a deal with Crunchyroll in order to have simulcasts of the anime on their service, along with all of the past episodes on there in order to please fans since I predict that a release like this will be successful. I use Crunchyroll for basically all of my anime watching and Pokemon is the one show that I watch on Pirate Anime Sites since it's the only way to watch new episodes (along with the very few older episodes that are available) and I feel very guilty since I know in the back of my head that the people who made this episode won't be getting paid for my viewing, which makes me a little bit sad.

Going back to the Crunchyroll part, I know Netflix has the entire XY/XYZ series, the 3 XY Movies, SM up to the Kanto Arc (up to Episode 43) and the first 52 episodes on the Kanto anime dubbed (this is on Netflix UK, not sure about other countries). They seem to be pretty popular and I've only put this last bit in to prove that my Crunchyroll idea could work, since the dub is doing well on Netflix, a family orientated service, while Crunchyroll is more aimed towards Teenagers and Adults who watched subbed anime anyway, so I feel that it will also be successful.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

It's too bad. DP and XY especially are far better in Japanese. What bothers me the most is the replacement of all the Japanese music. Scenes that were epic or touching in Japanese just fall flat in the dub. Watch any major Gym, Contest battle, Ash Greninja, character moment, etc....from DP or XY in Japanese, it blows the dub out of the water.

That's because we don't have to hear Team Rocket's English vas lol.
Yeah, the music replacing is getting ridiculous. I just wish for half of the Japanese bgm to be used at the very least

 

[Leonhart]

I wish we did have an official subbed version of the anime, especially of OS since there were several episodes back then that didn't get dubbed and even a few which were removed from the official DVD releases. So I think fans deserve a legal way of watching what they missed.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

I have seen this series in 3 languages, and i feel english VA's especially the new ones are very harshly criticized, the only issue i have with english dub is that they foolishly replace the music of the scene which in turn reduce the epicness of that scene.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Well, I can definitely say I prefer Dub Meowth over Sub Meowth.

I'll watch either really. Just depends on which one I can find quicker.

 

[Apslup]

It's too bad. DP and XY especially are far better in Japanese. What bothers me the most is the replacement of all the Japanese music. Scenes that were epic or touching in Japanese just fall flat in the dub. Watch any major Gym, Contest battle, Ash Greninja, character moment, etc....from DP or XY in Japanese, it blows the dub out of the water.

I know right! The Japanese soundtrack is absolutely amazing! I don't know what happened, since the earlier seasons of the anime kept the Japanese music.

I wish we did have an official subbed version of the anime, especially of OS since there were several episodes back then that didn't get dubbed and even a few which were removed from the official DVD releases.

I know that Pocket Monsters Fansubs have subbed up to Episode 46 of the OS (The Fossil Episode with Gary where Ash's Charmeleon evolves into Charizard) so that includes the "Legend of Dratini" and "Cyber Soldier Porygon" episodes (which were banned).

Hope that helps.

Well, I can definitely say I prefer Dub Meowth over Sub Meowth.

Yeah, Meowth's Dub voice is Purr-fect!

 

[Apslup]

Yeah, nowadays I only stick with the dub to about the end of AG. I did watch all of DP dubbed when I was younger, and I liked the english voices for Dawn/Paul, etc...but even then they replaced way too much of the Japanese music. Sometimes they'd remove Dawn's theme from her eps or contest moments, and the dub track would be a subpar tune.

I've also wanted to watch AG, or at least the important eps, in Japanese for awhile now. 4kids was still replacing too much music by the time we got to Hoenn.

I usually watch OS, AG and DP dubbed since it's very hard to come by subbed episodes from those series. Basically everything after BW is subbed though, which is good. I've I also watched the hell out of DP dub (and the end of AG) as the kid, so I do have that attachment to the dub, but from the clips of DP subbed I have seen, it does look better than the dub by far (especially Japanese Paul. Man the VA nails the asshole factor of Paul!)

 

[satopi]

Just my personal take on this but it's not just because Pokémon is primarily aimed at children and people aren't that interested in seeing it subbed. Honestly, I feel like more people watch it subbed online now than ever before. I think it has to do with Pokémon in general. Pokémon has been on air for 2 decades and since each Pokémon and character has different names, people who haven't seen Pokémon in Japanese would be utterly confused on why Ash is called Satoshi, what the name of this Pokémon is, and why it sounds so different from it's English version (BGM wise) as opposed to Dragon Ball whose names and most of the technical details were remain in tact. Unlike those other series you guys mentioned like Digimon and Yugi Oh, Pokémon has had the same character(s) for decades and it would come off as strange if they start subbing say, XY and onwards and not the entire series unlike those 2 shows who had separate series that aren't very connected. Yokai Watch doesn't have an official subbed version and I doubt it ever will, but I'm sure they're aware of how popular the original version is online.

It's just easier to watch it online. As much as I'd wish for an official subbed version, it's unlikely we'll get it. Can't be too low in demand when Shogakukan takes down Youtube videos quickly.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I imagine doing a subbed release will cost more than the dubbed release, even if TPCi only hires one person to be in charge of the subtitles (which I think was more acceptable in smaller companies back in the day, and those companies have had some poor saps sub some shit from the accounts I've come across--somewhat NSFW). There's not much of a demand as much as everyone on here expresses a desire for it, and even so, they'd have to make a decision on how far back to go to do the subtitles. There's over 1,000 episodes of Pokémon now. If they're going to start that project, they're going to have to commit because people will complain about it going unfinished. It's safer for them to continue releasing the dub, which is already popular and iconic enough as is in the States, than to potentially lose money.

Also, Pokémon is marketed towards children. I don't know too many kids who are willing to sit and read words off a screen when it comes to the Pokémon anime. Those who have the captions on who don't need them are already kind of a bunch of weirdos anyway. (Referring to myself and my family, but I honestly don't know many kids who willingly put on captions.)

There's also the issue of getting the raws from Japan. The raws 4KIDS got have to be unusable, in all honesty, if they even still exist. OLM may still have a backlog of the original series to be able to ship copies out to countries that need them, but there's probably a pretty penny that needs to be spent for that. And from what I've heard, TPCi are a bunch of cheap bastards so I don't see them willing to cough up the money without assuring they can turn a profit off of it. If they were get enough of a demand for it, I think TPCi would be better off testing it on the movies if they want to try to dip their toes in the water of subtitles before they touch the TV series.

So I don't know why OP's so surprised by this when we've survived 20 years without the subtitled version. I feel like when they started putting Pokémon on iTunes, they had that opportunity to officially release a sub alongside it, but they didn't because they don't feel there's a need for it.

I mean, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh! have official subtitled releases

Wait, what? Where? When? Tri doesn't just count.

 

[Lord Starfish]

Wait, what? Where? When? Tri doesn't just count.

How exactly does Tri not count? Anyway, I know at least 02 and Tamers used to be available on Hulu and Netflix for a time in Japanese... They aren't anymore, but they have been. I think CR might have it too, but due to region blocking I can't confirm if their uploads are indeed the Japanese version... but I would assume so because CR doesn't typically stream dubs.

EDIT: Wait, I retract that last one. Looking at people's angry comments, it seems what CR has (for Adventure at least) is in fact the dub.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

If I recall correctly, Amazon Prime Japn did have the episodes.

Why not try the same for the japanese RAWs?

An alternative is doing what Tsubaraya does with Ultraman: they upload episodes on their youtube channel and allow users to put their subtitles (at least I heard they did that back then they did region lock the episodes).

 

[Leonhart]

I have seen this series in 3 languages, and i feel english VA's especially the new ones are very harshly criticized, the only issue i have with english dub is that they foolishly replace the music of the scene which in turn reduce the epicness of that scene.

Music edits are annoying, but some of us also have issues with 4Kids editing whole scenes from the earlier sagas, which is why some viewers would prefer watching the anime subbed.

 

[blizzardblaze]

some music themes are really underwhelming like ash-gren's theme in the dub, and some of the battle music sounds way too calm sometimes.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

Music edits are annoying, but some of us also have issues with 4Kids editing whole scenes from the earlier sagas, which is why some viewers would prefer watching the anime subbed.

I don't mind 4Kids ditching scenes. What pisses me off about their work is they changing the original script and characterization for the sake of selling what they want the characters' dynamic to be.

 

[AznKei]

some music themes are really underwhelming like ash-gren's theme in the dub, and some of the battle music sounds way too calm sometimes.

Yeah, while in the sub & raw, you're constantly hearing IKUZE!!!