Pokémon in Finland

Pokémon in Finland
Flag of Finland
Language	Finnish, Swedish
Continent	Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001	November 6, 1999
AG001	September 5, 2004
DP001	June 2, 2008* September 26, 2008*
BW001	April 22, 2011* August 13, 2011*
XY001	May 4, 2014
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Finland on October 21, 1999 in the form of the first English Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Blue Versions. The Pokémon anime followed shortly after with the first broadcast of Pokémon! Minä valitsen sinut! in Finnish on MTV3 on November 6, 1999. Finland was the first Nordic country to air the Pokémon anime. Denmark, Norway and Sweden followed after in spring 2000.

Pokémon games

All internationally released games have been available in Finland, the first ones being Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, which arrived in Finnish stores on October 21, 1999. Shortly after, Pokémon Yellow Version was released on July 7, 2000. Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions followed and were released on April 6, 2001, with Pokémon Crystal Version being released later within the same year.

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions were released on July 25, 2003. A year later, in 2004, the first Pokémon game remakes, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions were released. In 2005, Pokémon Emerald Version was released.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions were released on July 27, 2007, Pokémon Platinum Version, arrived in stores on May 22, 2009 and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions were released in May 26, 2010.

Pokémon Black and White Versions were released on March 4, 2011 and Pokémon Black and White Versions 2 were released on October 12, 2012.

Pokémon X and Y were released on October 12, 2013.

All spin-off games have been released in Finland as well, with Pokémon Trozei! renamed as Pokémon Link!.

Unlike the anime, all Pokémon games sold in Finland are in English. They have been released at the same time with rest of Europe, except for Pokémon Platinum. All games have their instruction booklet translated into both Finnish and Swedish.

Stores known for distributing Pokémon events in Finland are GameStop, Anttila, Prisma, Stockmann and Pelimies.

Pokémon anime

The current logo of the TV channel MTV3

Generally, episodes of the Pokémon anime air on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings on MTV3, a Finnish commercial TV channel.

Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension has aired in Finnish on Jetix. When Jetix was replaced by Disney XD, Disney XD began to show reruns of Battle Dimension as well. Disney XD has also aired the tenth, eleventh and twelfth movies.

MTV3's net-TV known as Katsomo started to upload the 11th season beginning on 11 May 2010 and finished the season in July 2010. New episodes were downloaded Mon-Fri by 18:00.

The 12th season started to be broadcast by MTV3 in September 2010, and finished on August 6th 2011. Katsomo started to upload the 13th season since 18 April 2011 and finished on August 11th 2011. New episodes were uploaded Mondays and Thursdays by 18:00.

Like some other European channels, MTV3 showed the first two episodes of Black and White as a "sneak peek" before the seasons actual airing. These episodes were shown on 22nd and 25 April, respectively. The season officially started airing on August 13, 2011.

MTV3 Juniori has started to return the first ten seasons of the series since the 12th of April 2010. Currently it's broadcasting the reruns of Pokémon: Advanced season.

The current logo of the TV channel MTV3 Juniori

Many episodes were not shown in Finland for unknown reasons. The last episode of the first season and the entire second season were skipped and only about a half of the Johto Journeys, Johto League Champions, and the last 12 episodes of Master Quest were shown. This happened also to Pokémon Advanced, as only the first 26 episodes were shown.

This changed during the Advanced Challenge season, as it was the first ever season to be shown completely in Finland. Every season after that have been broadcast in their entirety as well.

Dubbing

The aired episodes were originally dubbed in Finnish by Oy PVP-Voice Ab, a dubbing company known of its numerous dubbings on different cartoons. Suomi Sun Studio has dubbed the series since Pokémon: Battle Frontier season, though some episodes are dubbed by Dubberman.

A unique feature of the Finnish dub (and other Nordic dubs) is that the names of Pokémon moves have been left in English. This hasn't always been the case, but this came into effect when the seasons 9 and 10 were aired in Finland. The reasons behind the change are a bit hazy, but it has been assumed that this is because the Pokémon games and TCG are published in English in Finland as well. At the same time, it has been inconsistent whether Abilities are translated or not. Until season 8, the names of the moves were said in Finnish.

Cast and Crew

In the Finnish dub, several different voice actors have appeared. Sari Moilanen was the original voice actress for Ash Ketchum in first and third seasons and the first four movies, though now he is voiced by Hanna Leino. Kiti Kokkonen is the most recent voice actress of Misty, and also Jessie's voice actress in some seasons before season eleven, though both of these characters have had a few other voice actresses in some point: Misty has also been voiced by Outi Alanen, Marjut Heikkinen and Pauliina Virta, while Jessie has been voiced by Mari Laari, Karolina Blom and Susa Saukko. Kiti Kokkonen has, though, also been the first of Misty's voice actresses. Brock was originally voiced by Juha Paananen and later by Jari Salo.

Velimatti Ranta is James's original voice actor. Other voice actors for James are Anssi Känsälä, Antti Jaakola, Saku Mäkynen and Peter Pihlström, who is his current voice actor. Meowth has been voiced by Pauli Virta and currently, Arto Nieminen.

May has been voiced by Aksa Korttila, while Elise Langenoja has voiced Max. Mirjami Heikkinen is the voice actress for Dawn, while Iris's voice actress is Saara Aalto. Cilan is voiced by Petrus Kähkönen, who has voiced minor characters before. Gary Oak has been voiced by Pasi Ruohonen, among other voice actors. Pasi Ruohonen had also voiced the narrator for many years, but in season 18 the narrator is voiced by Markus Bäckman. For some time at the beginning of the series, Gary shared the same voice actor with his grandfather Professor Oak. Serena is voiced by Alina Tomnikov, Clemont is voiced by Henri Piispanen, and Bonnie is voiced by Henni-Liisa Stam, who had also voiced May in seasons 9 and 11.

Also, the Eleven to Fourteen bracket winner in Pokémon Trading Card Game 2006 World Championships, Miska Saari, has voiced Shane, the character of the day in the episode That's Just Swellow.^[1]

The theme songs have been sung in Finnish by following singers:

• Anssi Känsälä (Pokémon Theme, Pokémon World (movie version only), Born to Be a Winner)
• Mika Turunen (Pokémon Johto)
• Jari Salo (Believe in Me, I Wanna Be a Hero, This Dream, Unbeatable)
• Antti Matikainen (Battle Frontier, Diamond and Pearl, We Will Be Heroes, We Will Carry On!, Black and White, Rival Destinies)
• Marika Tuhkala (Battle Cry - (Stand Up!))
• Raili Raitala (Black and White, Rival Destinies)
• Saara Aalto & Petrus Kähkönen (It's Always You and Me)
• Samuel Harjanne (Pokémon Theme (Version XY))

Pokémon movies

All the movies up to the sixteenth movie (excluding Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea), as well as the anime specials Mewtwo Returns and The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon have been dubbed in Finnish. The fifth, sixth and seventh movie were dubbed by a completely different dubbing group, this also happened in the Netherlands.

Shorts and special episodes

Out of all the Pikachu shorts, Pikachu's Vacation, Christmas Night, Kanga Games, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, Winter Games, Stantler's Little Helpers and Pikachu & Pichu have been dubbed in Finnish, as well as the special episode Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!.

Pokémon manga

Pokémon Adventures: Red, Blue & Green volume 1 in Finnish

Some series, published by VIZ Media, are sold in English by Fantasiapelit, a company that also has other Pokémon merchandise, such as TCG cards, in their product range.

On July 25, 2014, Finnish publisher Pauna Media started publishing the Red, Green & Blue arc and the Yellow arc of Pokémon Adventures under the combined title Pokémon Adventures: Red, Blue & Green. The first volume was published on July 25, 2014. There are plans to release the entire series. Three movie adaptations, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, Giratina and the Sky Warrior and Zoroark: Master of Illusions have been licensed by another publisher, Sangatsu Manga. The first two titles, respectively titled Pokémon Ranger ja meren temppeli and Giratina ja sky warrior, were published on January 13 and March 11, 2016, respectively. The third one, titled Zoroark – illuusioiden mestari is expected to be published on May 6, 2016.

No Pokémon manga has been translated into Swedish, the other national language.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Many card sets of Pokémon Trading Card Game, starting with Base Set, have been sold in Finland in many different kiosks and convenience stores. Lehtipiste stores, the most common being R-Kioski, are known as one of the most reliable places to find Pokémon Trading Cards. Theme Decks are also sold in Finland.

The cards sold in Finland are in English, and the price of one booster pack is typically around five or six Euros.

At least one Masters division World Champion, Tom Roos, is from Finland. Roos's deck was later printed in promotional form and named Legendary Ascent.

Related articles

• List of Finnish Pokémon themes

External links

• The official Finnish Pokémon website (minisite)
• The official Finnish forum

References

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.