Friday, January 12, 2024 saw Netflix begin streaming a new English-dubbed trailer for the Pokémon Horizons anime series, revealing the series’ platform premiere in late-Winter 2024. This highly exciting and anticipated release date announcement comes following a delay for the series, which saw the original February 23, 2024 release date pushed back.
While the full list of English voice actors for the dubbed version of Pokémon Horizons was seemingly not shared in this initial batch of news, that information is expected to be revealed in the coming weeks. However, the English-dubbed trailer does feature the English voices Liko and Roy (the new dual protagonists for the series), as well as other characters.
The Pokémon Horizons anime series originally premiered in Japan during the Spring 2023 broadcast season, and has been wildly popular domestically since its premiere. While this popularity isn’t entirely surprising, the series’ status as the first in the franchise without Ash Ketchum as its protagonist did beg the question of its potential success.
Pokémon Horizons anime’s English-dubbed version premieres on Netflix on Thursday, March 7, 2024
The latest
As mentioned above, the Pokémon Horizons anime’s English-dubbed trailer officially confirmed its Netflix premiere date of Thursday, March 7, 2024. While this isn’t a significant delay from the original February 23 release date, it does suggest that there was some issue in production which arose that forced the delay. This could be related to why the cast list for the anime’s English-dubbed version is seemingly unavailable at the time of this article’s writing.
The series follows completely new dual protagonists Roy and Liko, who are replacing Ash Ketchum in the first anime for the franchise without the legendary main character. While Ash is absent, new characters Friede and Captain Pikachu, a professor and Pokémon duo who battle alongside Liko and Roy, ensure that the franchise’s yellow mascot is still adequately represented in the series.
The anime also features Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, who are the starter Pokémon from the latest ninth-generation video games, Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet. The series will also feature the Shiny form of the Legendary Pokémon Rayquaza, who originally appeared in the franchise’s third-generation video games.
Saori Den is directing the anime series, with Daiki Tomiyasu serving as the creative director. Dai Sato is overseeing the series scripts, while Tetsuo Yajima is credited as the action director. Rei Yamazaki is the character designer, with Kyoko Ito serving as the sub-character designer. Masafumi Mima is the sound director for the anime, with Conisch composing its music.
The series first premiered in Japan in April 2023 with a one-hour first-episode special. The anime airs regularly on Fridays at 6:55 PM Japanese Standard Time, or 4:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time. The story’s second arc, “Terapagos no Kagayaki” (The Brilliance of Terapagos) began in October 27 with the 29th episode overall.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2024 progresses.