Pokémon in South Asia

Pokémon in South Asia
Flags of Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
Language	Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English
Continent	Asia
Original anime airdates
EP001	April 1, 2003
AG001	May 9, 2006
DP001	November 9, 2009 November 16, 2009
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first arrived in the South Asian region in 2003, with the first broadcast of Pokémon - I Choose You! in English and Hindi on Cartoon Network India. In Devanagari script, Pokémon is written as पोकीमोन.

Pokémon anime

The Pokémon anime is available in most south Asian countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Original series

The first episode of Pokémon debuted on April 1, 2003 on Cartoon Network India as it was the most famous channel among children in South Asia. The show began airing on the Toonami block at 5:00 PM (IST) in both Hindi and English. It has become one of the most popular shows on Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network India aired the first two seasons of Pokémon straight but then suddenly stopped airing new episodes after the second season, probably due to the on-going dubbing process. They repeated the initial two seasons for a few months. After a year, Cartoon Network started airing the third season of Pokémon and then repeated it respectively. In 2004, Cartoon Network India started a separate feed for Pakistani viewers named Cartoon Network Pakistan, which is also available in Bangladesh. Both channels were in sync in airing the anime. Within a few months, Cartoon Network India started to air Pokémon in two new dubbing languages, Tamil and Telugu. In mid-2005, Cartoon Network completed airing the entire original series of Pokémon. After the completion of the first series on both channels in 2005, they began airing repeats of the original series once again and then finished its repeat telecast in 2006.

Advanced Generation

The first season of Pokémon Advanced Generation series was aired in 2006 on both channels at the same time. AG001 debuted on May 9, 2006 on Cartoon Network India as well as on Cartoon Network Pakistan. Pokémon Advanced was available in two different languages (English and Hindi) on Cartoon Network Pakistan and it was available in four different languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English) on Cartoon Network India.

The first season of the Advanced Generation series ended in July 2006, resulting in repeats airing on both Cartoon Network channels. After four months, both Cartoon Network channels began to air new episodes of Pokémon and through this Pokémon: Advanced Challenge debuted on November 6, 2006 as well as trailers of the seventh season appearing in Indian theaters. The seventh season ended in mid-January 2007. After the seventh season, Cartoon Network Pakistan and Cartoon Network India took a long break of almost one full year and only aired repeat episodes of Pokémon. Finally, in early 2008, Cartoon Network began to air the eighth season of Pokémon and the third season of Advanced Generation series, Pokémon: Advanced Battle. This series lasted until about halfway through the year.

Four months later, Cartoon Network aired the final season of the Advanced Generation series. Pokémon Battle Frontier debuted in the month of November in 2008. Initially, it only aired on Cartoon Network India, but began to air on Cartoon Network Pakistan two weeks after its Indian debut.

After the completion of the Advanced Generation series, both Cartoon Network channels have began the repeat telecast of old Pokémon episodes. These reruns lasted for ten months and ended with the debut of Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl.

Diamond & Pearl

The first season of the Diamond & Pearl series first aired in Pakistan on November 9, 2009 and in India on November 16, 2009. It was supposed to end on January 18, 2010 on Cartoon Network Pakistan but they ended the entire season within 35 days by skipping almost 23 episodes, from O'er the Rampardos We Watched! to A Stand-Up Sit-Down! due to unknown reasons. However, this problem was fixed in the re-runs of the season. Currently, Cartoon Network Pakistan is airing re-runs of the 10th season and Cartoon Network India is airing re-runs of the 11th season, Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension.

Pokémon merchandise

English-translated Pokémon manga is distributed in India by Chuang Yi.

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