Pokémon in the Philippines

Pokémon in the Philippines
Flag of the Philippines
Languages	Filipino and Philippine English
Continent	Asia
Original animated series airdates
EP001	October 1, 1999
AG001	April 29, 2008
DP001	April 26, 2010
BW001	November 12, 2012
XY001	August 23, 2014 December 22, 2014 January 2015
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first arrived in the Republic of the Philippines around 1999, with the first broadcast of Pokémon - I Choose You! in English on GMA. It was then later carried over to Cartoon Network to air the entire anime.

Pokémon video games

All internationally released core series games have been available in the Philippines, beginning with Pokémon Red and Blue. Ever since Diamond and Pearl, the games have been released during the same day as their release in the United States. Like most video games sold in this country, they are from Region 1 (US, Canada, Mexico) due to most people owning US home and hand-held consoles.

All spin-off games that are released in the United States have been also released in the Philippines. These games are available within weeks after their American releases.

Many pirated copies of ROM hacks, as well as official games, are also sold in the Philippines. Examples of these pirated games include Shiny Gold, ChaosBlack, Darkcry and Naranja Versions. Pirated copies of official games come in a variety of ways. One would be in fan translations of the original Japanese game. For example, a copy of Pokémon Gold and Silver once sold only allowed Pokémon to have a maximum of five letters in their names (i.e. A Typhlosion is named Typhl.) due to certain limitations. The names of locations and people are also translated from Japanese, such as Azalea Town being called Hiwada Town and Jasmine being called Mikan. Pirated games may also just be the games placed in different cartridges and sold at a different price. These cartridges would just be black, not the color the official games' cartridges come in. These types of pirated games were prevalent for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. Nintendo DS games are usually sold legitimately, although pirated versions sold for the same price as official ones have been spotted.

Event Pokémon

To celebrate the premiere of Genesect and the Legend Awakened in Phillipine cinemas, a level 100 Mewtwo was distributed in Metro Manila at the SM Megamall between November 16 and 17, 2013.

Pokémon anime

The Pokémon anime is currently released into two different languages: the English dub and the Filipino dub. The Filipino dub of the anime is more aimed to Filipinos that naturally can't understand and/or speak in English.

English dub

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network's logo since October 1, 2011.

Cartoon Network is a Philippine cable and satellite channel that airs the English dub of the Pokémon anime in the Philippines. Up until now, Cartoon Network has aired fifteen seasons and twelve movies of the anime (including specials and shorts).

Original series

The first episode of the anime first aired on Philippine television on October 1, 1999. GMA aired the English dub every Friday nights to compete against another station which aired the Filipino dub of Digimon at the same time. They continuously aired episodes until the episode Charizard Chills when they suddenly stopped airing the anime.

Years later, Cartoon Network aired the English dub of the anime starting with the first episode on weekdays at 12 PM and 7:30 PM. It ended after they finished airing reruns of the fourth season on January 30, 2008.

Advanced Generation series

On April 29, 2008, the sixth season of the anime premiered after the final episode of the fifth season. However, the afternoon time slot was changed to 2 PM instead. They continually showed the anime until the final episode of the seventh season. Reruns of the fifth through the seventh season was shown again in early 2009.

In early 2009, Cartoon Network continued to air the anime with two new episodes starting with the eighth and ninth seasons, so schedule changed to 2-3 PM and 7:30-8:30 PM. The show was later replaced by Dinosaur King, which, coincidentally, had a main character who is voiced by Veronica Taylor, Ash's initial voice actress at the time.

The anime returned to Cartoon Network on January 29, 2010 with the airing of Address Unown! and Mother of All Battles. They will once again rerun the entire Advanced Generation series after they had finished airing the fifth season rerun.

Diamond & Pearl series

The tenth season of the anime premiered on April 26, 2010 with the episode Following A Maiden's Voyage!. On June 26, reruns of the tenth season are aired once again on weekend mornings. After airing the final episode of the tenth season on July 5, the show was then replaced by a mix of the original Japanese dub and the American dub of Metal Fight Beyblade two days later.

A few months later, the first episode of the eleventh season premiered on September 6, 2010. After a month, reruns of the sixth season began to air once more on weekend mornings.

The twelfth season of the anime premiered on April 29, 2011. Starting with the episode The Lonely Snover! instead of the episode Classroom Training!, unexpectedly, episodes are shown in letterbox format. Starting June 5, Cartoon Network aired reruns of the ninth season once again every Sunday with four episodes consecutively.

As part of Cartoon Network's major overhaul two days prior, the thirteenth season premiered on October 3, 2011 with new episodes aired on Mondays to Thursdays. It aired alongside with Power Rangers Samurai and Adventure Time on the same days.

Early on, Cartoon Network aired the episodes as they first aired in the United States, so mistakes, such as the title "Hooked on Onyx", are retained.

Best Wishes series

Cartoon Network premiered the fourteenth season of the anime on November 12, 2012 and ended on February 27, 2013. The fifteenth and sixteenth seasons of the anime did not premiere on Cartoon Network.

Pokémon the Series: XY logo

XY series

The seventeenth season will premiere on January 2015 at 7:00pm on Cartoon Network, though the first five episodes (XY001-XY005) were aired as a preview on December 22-26, 2014 at 6:00pm. Like 9TV, the season is promoted under the title Pokémon: XY.

PokéMania

PokéMania was a special segment created by Cartoon Network to air past seasons of the Pokémon anime every weekend mornings. The segment, however, did not air continuously. Every time the segment changes season, a number is added to the title that corresponds to that season number (e.g. PokéMania 5). The segment aired all of the anime's season up until the seventh. Later on, Cartoon Network aired the reruns of the eighth to twelfth season but not under the segment's name.

9TV

The seventeenth season premiered on August 23, 2014 as part of the 'Kids Weekend on 9TV' line-up of the newly rebranded network 9TV but under the title Pokémon: XY. The anime airs every weekends at 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM.

Home media

Pokémon episodes and movies are also sold unofficially on pirated DVDs in certain parts of the Philippines. The quality of these DVDs is below normal standards due to compression. For example, a whole season is fit onto one 7.4GB DVD.

Filipino dub

GMA-7

GMA Network's logo

The Pokémon anime is dubbed in the Philippines by Alta Productions and broadcasted on the GMA Network. Pokémon episodes are broadcasted on weekdays at 8:40 AM (originally, it was at 9:30 AM). Pokémon Specials, a collection of movies and Pikachu shorts, also air on weekends. Also, Pokémon that appeared in the anime retain their English voices with the exception of talking Pokémon such as Meowth.

Alta Productions' logo

Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened is the first Pokémon movie to premier in the Philippines this November 13, 2013 (although this was in English dub). Movies before this were aired on the GMA Network on Saturdays and Sundays, along with some Pikachu shorts.

The anime series did not continuously air and took several breaks until 2008, when GMA started airing the Filipino dub of the original series. In 2009, the channel finally aired the last episode of the Johto series, Hoenn Alone! last June 19, 2009 and began the next series, the Advanced Generation series, which ended after some time.

Since April 17, 2011, the series started airing only on Sunday mornings. However, last May 9, 2011, the series re-aired during weekday mornings as part of GMA's morning anime block but was later removed.

Cast and crew

The dub director, script writer and translator of the Pokémon anime is Arlene Bacay, who also voiced minor characters such as Tommy. She is also a dub director of the Slayers series and a voice actress of various characters in the Filipino dub of Doraemon.

Klariz Magboo

• Klariz Magboo voices Ash Ketchum

She also voices Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum and several other one-time characters, including Dr. Abby. She also dubs in other anime series, such as Tenma Tsukamoto in School Rumble and Yoko Nakagawa in Cardcaptor Sakura. Other than providing her voice, she is also a professional singer and a model.

Jefferson Utanes

• Jefferson Utanes voices the Narrator, and Professor Oak

He also gives voices to James, Giovanni, Professor Birch, Drew and also the Pokédex. He also dubbed supporting characters such as Harrison, Mr. Shellby, Anthony and Nicholai and the movie characters Entei and Professor Spencer Hale. Jefferson is a well-known voice actor, voicing numerous role in the Filipino anime including the main roles of Yami Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Red Alert in Transformers: Armada, and Son Goku in Dragon Ball. He lives with his wife and twin children.

• Charmaine Cordoviz voices Gary Oak, Jessie, and May

She also dubs Kanto Gym Leaders Erika, Lily, Sabrina and Lt. Surge, and the Elite Four Prima. She voiced the movie characters Maren and Lisa. Other characters Charmaine Cordoviz voiced are Lara Laramie, Giselle, Calista, Juliet, Ramona, Rebecca, Marissa, Wendy, Jeanette Fisher, Casey, Mariah, Sandra, Millie and Timmy Grimm.

Arlene Bacay

• Candice Arellano voices Misty, and Officer Jenny

She also voices several one-time characters, like Katrina. She is famous for voicing different major characters in the Sailor Moon series including Sailor Saturn, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Venus.

• Julius Figueroa voices Brock, and Meowth of Team Rocket.

In Advance Generation series, he started dubbing other characters such as Joshua. His most famous non-Pokémon role is in Doraemon as Nobita Nobi.

The couple voice actors, Jenny Bituin and Julius Figueroa

• Ahlee Reyes voices Nurse Joy

She also gave her voice to other characters such as Carol, Shelly and Princess Sara. Amongst her non-Pokémon role are Natsui Mahana in Bleach, Gundamusai in SD Gundam Force, and various characters in Powerpuff Girls Z and Doraemon.

• Ely Martin voices Tracey Sketchit, and Butch, Cassidy's partner and the rival of Jessie and James

He also gave voices to Lugia in The Power of One. In Advance Generation series, he voices Dewford Gym Leader Brawly, Shane, and Forrest and Forrester Franklin.

• Mailes Kanapi voices Cassidy, Butch's partner and the rival of Jessie and James

• Rona Aguilar voices Max, and Caroline, May's little brother, and mother

She also voices various one-time characters such as Alanna, Alyssa, Andi, Grace, Julie, Mary, Michelle, Mrs. Grimm, Natasha, Nicole, Rose and Shauna and also to two Hoenn Gym Leader Winona and Roxanne, and the female variation of the Pokédex's voice. Rona Aguilar's only known male character he dubbed is Max.

• Jenny Bituin voices the Lavaridge Gym Leader Flannery

She is also known to have replaced the dubbers of Officer Jenny and Caroline. Aside from them, she have also voiced minor characters like Anita, Janet, Natalie, Rita and Tommy. She also voiced Molly Hale in the Spell of the Unown. Other than lending her voice to the anime, she is also a teenage mother and Julius Figueroa's wife.

• Hazel Hernan

Her only known roles are as Domino and Melody. She has not voiced any character in the main series of the anime as of yet.

Two other dubbers started dubbing in the Advance Generation series are Mark Aspiras who voiced Elijah, Guy, Jimmy, Sullivan, Tommy Grimm, and Vito Winstrate and Rachel Cordoviz, Charmaine's relative, voices Eliza and Kelly.

Pokémon movies, shorts, and specials

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: List of Pokémon movies dubbed in Filipino and, if possible, their respective airdates

Cartoon Network do not normally air specials or movies but this changed with the premiere of Mewtwo Returns in the middle of 2009. Also, Pikachu Shorts, such as Gotta Dance, started to air, though not necessarily before or after their corresponding movie.

Last December 12, 2009, Jirachi: Wish Maker was the first Pokémon movie to premiere on Cartoon Network to commemorate the Christmas season. On the other hand, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew premiered on September 10.

A year after first showing the sixth Pokémon movie, Destiny Deoxys later premiered on December 25. Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was later premiered on February 11, 2011 followed by the premieres of The Rise of Darkrai on March 25 and Giratina and the Sky Warrior on April 22.

The twelfth movie, Arceus and the Jewel of Life, premiered on July 9, 2011, just in time for the final episode of the twelfth season on July 11.

On November 2013, it was announced that the sixteenth movie would receive a theatrical release accompanied by the Pikachu short Eevee & Friends in selected SM Cinemas nationwide, making it the first Pokémon movie to appear in Philippine cinemas.

It is still currently unknown when the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and the sixteenth Pokémon movies will receive their TV premieres.

Pokémon manga

Both Chuang Yi and VIZ Media distribute many of its Pokémon manga translations, including Pokémon Adventures, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, and several manga adaptations of the Pokémon movies, in the Philippines. However, copies from VIZ Media are comparatively more expensive than the ones from Chuang Yi. These Pokémon manga can be found at bookstores such as National Book Store and Fully Booked.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Many card sets of Pokémon Trading Card Game are sold in convenience stores, bookstores and variety stores, mainly in shopping malls, starting with the very first TCG set, Base Set. Neutral Grounds is a popular place to find Pokémon trading cards. Tournaments are held within the stores' locations.

Pokémon merchandise

Main article: Pokémon merchandise

Several Pokémon toys, plush toys, and collectibles are available in the Philippines. Toys and other merchandise can be found in many malls, National Bookstore, and at Comic Alley stores. The K-Zone magazine sometimes gives updates with news about the franchise. Occasionally, the magazine also comes with promotional items. McDonald's has also distributed Pokémon Happy Meals in the Philippines. These merchandises are licensed by Top Insight International Co., Ltd.

Trivia

The eyecatch

• Similar to Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny, Klariz Magboo voices Ash as well as his mother.
• On Cartoon Network, an eyecatch of Dawn throwing a Poké Ball during her Piplup fantasy in Following a Maiden's Voyage! and an eyecatch of Alan's Probopass were shown before the Diamond & Pearl series had premiered in the Philippines.
• A commercial on Cartoon Network for the earlier episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles, such as Hold the Phione!, mispronounces Buneary by pronouncing the first syllable as boo.

External links

• Cartoon Network Philippines
• Top-Insight International
• Anime News Network Encyclopedia (Original series cast)
• Anime News Network Encyclopedia (Advanced Generation series cast)
• Neutral Grounds Philippines
• PKMN-ph: Pokémon Philippines, an unofficial Pokémon site for the Philippines

References

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