'Pokémon Horizons' Unexpectedly Delays U.S. Netflix Release

We wanna be the very best, but patience is running thin

Well, it sucks for us Americans. The official Pokémon socials announced that Pokémon Horizons: The Series’s English dub will not be arriving on Netflix on the previously announced February 23, 2024 date. It will now drop nearly 2 weeks later, on March 7. They also rereleased the dub trailer a second time to reflect the date change.

No reason was given, but they did write “Hello, Trainers! Pokémon Horizons: The Series will now premiere on March 7th on Netflix, just a short time later than previously announced. We know fans around the world are looking forward to local debuts of the highly-anticipated, new animated Pokémon series - and it's almost here! Get ready for adventure with Liko, Sprigatito and friends in the world of Pokémon.”

While two weeks isn’t so terrible, the fact is that the main anime is supposed to have quarterly releases. The Ash Ketchum era of the anime wrapped up on September 8. Which means the show had already intended to miss the Q4 2023 drop with the February premiere, practically positioning the Pokémon Concierge series to stand in with its December 28 premiere. The thing is, this is not a production issue, because the Horizons English dub already premiered with its first six episodes on BBC iPlayer days after the U.S. got its initial February date. Allegedly the next batch of six will land there on January 22.

Toward the end of the anime’s XY series and tenure at Cartoon Network, the gaps between Japanese and US premiere was just over 2 months. At the end of the Sun & Moon series, which aired on Disney XD, the gap was about 4 months. When the first batch of Horizons episodes drop on March 7, it’ll be just about 11 months since Horizons premiered in April 2023 in Japan. It may close the gap by a few months but they will be regained in the wait to the next batch. These are gaps we haven’t seen in 20 years. These are Advanced and Advanced Challenge level gaps. Advanced Battle got worse before it got better. In terms of episodes, episode 35 premiered in Japan on Friday, meaning on a base 12 drop, as Journeys was so easily able to do for that entire first season, that’s going to be around 30 episodes behind, and it’s going to remain an issue until something is done.

The cast that American viewers are waiting on bated breath to watch legally includes Alejandra Reynoso as the voice of Liko and Anjali Kunapaneni as the voice of Roy. Daman Mills awaits as the voice Dot (Nidothing)’s Quaxly and Explorers admin Amethio. Faye Mata voices Dot, Kira Buckland takes on Liko’s Sprigatito, and Zeno Robinson, who starred as Goh in Journeys voices Roy’s Fuecoco. And then there’s Friede, who is prolific voice actor Crispin Freeman’s first role in the entire Pokémon franchise. If you want to see the trailer again, since the previous posting is private, here it is.

Source: Pokémon