Pokémon in Indonesia

Pokémon in Indonesia
Flag of Indonesia
Language	Indonesian
Continent	Asia
Original anime airdates
EP001	March 3, 2001
AG001	April 27, 2008
DP001	February 7, 2010
BW001	April 7, 2013
XY001	April 12, 2015
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise, including the first Pokémon games, was first introduced to people in Indonesia around 1999, while the Pokémon anime was introduced officially through the broadcast of the first episode on March 3, 2001.

Pokémon video games

The first Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Blue, were released in Indonesia in limited numbers around 2000. The first truly well-known Pokémon game for Indonesia was Pokémon Yellow, which was released in 2001.

All internationally released core series games usually have been available in Indonesia. Spin-off Pokémon games that are available in English language such as Pokémon Pinball, the Pokémon Ranger, and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, have been released in Indonesia as well. Usually, these games are available within several months to one year after their English releases.

Many pirated copies of ROM hacks, as well as official games, are also sold in Indonesia, especially the infamous game ChaosBlack and Quartz, which at first were mistaken by people as official. Pirated copies of official games come in a variety of ways, such as the lack of license or the color difference of game cartridges.

Event Pokémon

The first and only event Pokémon distributed in Indonesia was Pokémon Hills Mewtwo, which was given out for English and Japanese language of Generation V games at showings of the movie Genesect and the Legend Awakened at the Blitzmegaplex Grand Indonesia in the Mall of Indonesia on November 2, 6, and 9, 2013.

Pokémon anime

TV series

SCTV

SCTV logo at the time

The first episode of the Pokémon anime was aired on March 3, 2001 every Saturday and Sunday at 19:00-19:30 WIB (UTC+7) by SCTV (Surya Citra Televisi), the Indonesian national TV station. According to SCTV, however, the first 26 episodes were temporarily to be aired. The first version on SCTV subtitled the first Japanese opening and ending themes.

After several months, the broadcast was moved to every Sunday morning at 10:00-10:30 WIB on July 8, 2001. Sometime in 2003, the show was moved once again at 08:30-09:00 WIB. Soon after the episodes around the Orange League season, the show was known to be stopped indefinitely in August 2003.

Indosiar

Indosiar

The anime series did not continuously air until December 26, 2004, when Indosiar took over and began their first broadcast from the episode around the beginning of the Johto saga on Sundays from 07:30-08:00 WIB (UTC+7). It is known that several episodes from the fourth season were airing for the second time before the airing of the fifth season.

After the last season of the original series was finished, Indosiar continuously aired the first episode of the Advanced Generation series (Pokémon AG) from April 27, 2008. This series had ever temporary started in one hour (two episodes) since January 2009 until several months, after the movie marathon were finished.

On February 7, 2010, Indosiar skipped half of Advanced Generation from not-yet-aired episodes of eighth season until the end of the Battle Frontier saga, and started airing the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series (Pokémon D&P). The anime series had been stopped for unknown reason from July 25, 2010 until November 21, 2010, in which were brought to reschedule to 08:00-08:30 WIB after the retirement, continuing from DP024 to DP025 on November 28, 2010.

The season that contains episodes from thirteenth season called Pokémon D&P Part II, was aired after the first 52 episodes (excluding to Japanese-exclusive episode). Due to this, most of episodes were skipped from DP053 to DP136 on June 12, 2011. This season consist of 52 episodes, which were brought to the episode removal from DP138 to DP141. Thus, DP142 was aired instead after DP137 on June 26, 2011.

For unknown reason, DP166 was aired twice on December 18 and 25, 2011. On January 1, 2012, DP169 was broadcast after DP167 on New Year's Day 2012, following the order in some countries. An episode featured Shaymin was aired on January 8, 2012; coincidentally, Giratina and the Sky Warrior was aired on the same date after a few blocks.

Start from DP179 on March 18, 2012, the show was moved at 08:30-09:00 WIB. The show was discontinued less than a year after the last episode of DP series was aired on June 10, 2012.

Indosiar announced that the first episode of BW series (Pokémon Best Wishes) premiered on April 7, 2013 at 08:00-08:30 WIB. Since on October 2013, the month before the release of Genesect and the Legend Awakened on theaters, the show also temporarily aired every Saturday in addition of the regular Sundays, which results the airing from BW027 to BW034. However, the show was discontinued at BW043 despite the fact that Indosiar already have the first 52 episodes of Best Wishes series.

MNC Media

MNCTV

MNC Kids

XY series made its debut in Indonesia on April 12, 2015, every Sunday at 09:30 WIB on MNCTV, one of national channel owned by Media Nusantara Citra, although it was intended to be aired on April 5, 2015 by its TV advertisements. Unlike the previous channels, MNCTV used English recording rather than its original Japanese version, as the series was titled as Pokémon the Series: XY that contains 49 episodes. On May 17, 2015, the anime was shown earlier as XY006 was aired at 08:00 WIB.

This series with the same version was also premiered on April 19, 2015 at 14:00 WIB on MNC Kids (via Indovision Ch. 42), a branch of cable television network owned by MNC Channels. Unlike MNCTV, the show was re-aired every Saturday at 19:30 WIB, and Sunday every 09:00 and 15:30.

Pokémon movies

With the exception of the first movie, most of Pokémon movies had premiered on Indosiar.

Movie marathon were aired from Celebi: A Timeless Encounter to Destiny Deoxys, replacing the regular episodes at the time. However, these movies were split up into several parts, only about thirty-minutes to one hour available for one part. This issue was no longer present when most of them were re-running without segmented scenes.

Movie	Date	Time (UTC+7)
Revelation Lugia	June 16, 2008 May 16, 2010	07:30 16:30
Lord of the Unknown Tower	June 17, 2008 June 2, 2010	07:30 07:30
Celebi: A Timeless Encounter	November 30 and December 7, 2008*	07:30
Pokémon Heroes: Latias and Latios	December 14 and 21, 2008* November 20, 2010	07:30 17:30
Jirachi: Wish Maker	December 28, 2008 and January 4, 2009* November 21, 2010	07:30 17:30
Destiny Deoxys	January 11, 18, and 25, 2009* November 27, 2010	07:30 17:30
Lucario and the Mystery of Mew	September 1, 2011* February 5, 2012	09:30 09:30
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea	September 2, 2011* February 12, 2012	09:30 09:30
The Rise of Darkrai	September 3, 2011* February 19, 2012	10:00 09:30
Giratina and the Sky Warrior	January 8, 2012 March 4, 2012	09:30 09:30
Arceus and the Jewel of Life	January 15, 2012 March 11, 2012	09:30 09:30
Zoroark: Master of Illusions	February 26, 2012	09:30

For the first time in Indonesia, Genesect and the Legend Awakened and Pikachu short Eevee & Friends were released in theaters by T-Joy from November 6 to 24, 2013 in Jakarta and the areas surrounding it. The pre-release event also reserved for media only on November 2, 2013 at the Blitzmegaplex Grand Indonesia. The ending theme in Indonesian dub is Mirai no Kajitsu - Buah Masa Depan, a song by JKT48, AKB48's sister idol group.

Special and OVA

Special side story episodes such as Pokémon Chronicles, as well as some Pikachu shorts were aired between AG series. Two Pikachu shorts for ANA flights, Pikachu's Summer Festival and Pikachu's Ghost Carnival, both premiered on July 13 and 20, 2008, respectively, and both were aired once again in 2010. Raikou - Legend of Thunder was premiered in two parts on November 16 and 23, 2008. Pikachu's Winter Vacations (2001 and 2002 versions) were aired on December 26, 2009 at 07:00-09:00 WIB. Mewtwo Returns also known had premiered on January 3, 2010 at 06:30-08:00 WIB before the usual series.

Dub and localization

Since SCTV, the Indonesian dub mainly based on the Japanese version; however, the proper names from the English version were used. The most known renamed main character Ash Ketchum, was given the dub name Ali, while the rest of them are based on their English name.

On Indosiar, the dub name Ali was left while his Japanese name, Satoshi was used instead. Unfortunately, the inconsistency began when the dub were using the mixture between the English and Japanese names for Pokémon and other things in some episodes cases, though this was not the case for the notable main characters; Satoshi, Kasumi, Takeshi, Musashi, Kojiro, Nyasu. However, the main characters that were introduced later such as May, Max, and Dawn were named in their English name instead of Japanese name. Since AG series, the Pokémon voices were also dubbed, notably including Ash's Pikachu, which probably the most controversial dub for the fans. Since a certain episode from DP series, the dub began to using the English version as localization (mostly for Pokémon names or characters of the day) and the Japanese script as the main translation, although this was not definite in some cases. The previous main characters were still retained in Japanese, possibly to avoid confusion for the audience.

In the movie theater Genesect and the Legend Awakened, the Japanese authority realized Ash's Indonesian dub name and decided to using the name alongside the retained English names for the rest characters. Although the voice actors was initially selected by audition, it was later decided that the dub will be following Indosiar version by using the voice actors from BW series.

As English recording was used on MNCTV for XY series, Ash's Pikachu's original voice was retained and English version were used for Pokémon names definitely. The dub also made its own version by using the literal Japanese pronunciation as name for main characters, for example: Citron is called Shitoron and Eureka is called Yurika.

Cast and crew

When Pokémon arrived on Indosiar, the dubbing process was worked at its own in-house dubbing studio. After the studio was disbanded around 2009, the progress was moved to the current location, Studio RCS (Reka Citra Suara). As for movie theater Genesect and the Legend Awakened, the dubbing process was handled by PT. Perdana IMMG Indonesia and worked by Fresto Production.

Ahmad Zulkifli Lubis, also known as Iphie Lubis, is notably one of the original voice actors of Pokémon since the first dub, who currently voiced the main role Ash Ketchum. His notable roles in other anime series are Conan Edogawa from Detective Conan, Keroro from Keroro Gunsō, and Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail.

Home video

Several Pokémon episodes and movies were also sold in DVDs and VCDs in some regions and major towns of Indonesia, although most of them are unofficial or pirate versions. Most of them are dubbed in English or Mandarin and subtitled in Indonesian.

Pokémon manga

Indonesia is one of the few countries that publishes a translation of Pokémon Pocket Monsters by Kosaku Anakubo, licensed by Elex Media Komputindo in 2001. The main character Red was given the same dubbed name for main character in the anime, Ali, while his Clefairy was renamed as Kleferi. The localization mostly following the English version. However, some Pokémon names were also changed into its Indonesian names in this manga, usually adapted from its English name, such as Charizard, which was altered as Karizar.

Pocket Monsters manga releases were stopped on April 21, 2003 when volume 12 was running in publish until March 3, 2010, where Elex published the volume 13. This series was ended by the last volume on April 2010. Since these two latest releases, Clefairy's name was reverted into its Japanese name, Pippi.

Magical Pokémon Journey and Pokémon Gotta Catch 'Em All, were also translated under the name Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure and Pokémon Petualangan Baru, respectively. They were licensed by m&c!, the manga and comic publisher owned by Kompas Gramedia Group. Both of them had their original Japanese titles, even their Japanese script was retained on the side of their covers. There were only 7 volumes for PiPiPi Adventure and 4 volumes for Gotta Catch 'Em All.

There is the complete volumes of The Electric Tale of Pikachu under the name Kisah Pikachu yang Menggetarkan, as well as another version of Magical Pokémon Journey volume 1 under the direct translated title Petualangan Ajaib Pokémon, both were published by Panda Books. These manga are based on Chuang Yi's releases, since they share the same cover theme.

• 

  Cover art for Pokémon Pocket Monsters in Indonesia

• 

  Kisah Pikachu yang Menggetarkan volume 1 cover artwork

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  Pokémon Petualangan Baru volume 1 cover artwork

• 

  Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure volume 1 cover artwork

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Before the Pokémon franchise, especially the Trading Card Game that was introduced officially, the Pokémon cards were introduced when they were imported by Sucianto, the founder of Planet Comics, the famous and the oldest Indonesian Comic Store.

Many card sets and theme decks of Pokémon TCG have been sold in the Indonesia's convenience stores and malls starting from the very first TCG set, Base Set, both in English and are uncommon for Japanese versions. Fake cards and booster packs can be found easily with very low prices.

After the popularity began to widespread, several unofficial tournaments are held within the stores' locations in several cities such as Jakarta and Bandung.

Pokémon merchandise

Indonesia is one of the 85 companies around the world who make officially licensed Pokémon products. The merchandise that available usually comes from North American and Japan releases, such as Trading Figure Game, Monster Collection and Zukan figures.

Pokémon Tazos

Pokémon Tazos Indonesia version

The quite popular collectible Pokémon Tazos were available, after the popularity of the anime series. These collectible toys can be found in three different snacks, Chiki, Cheetos, and JetZ. They were producted by Indofood Fritolay Makmur, an Indonesian snack food company—joint venture company with PepsiCo. All Pokémon were using English names in these merchandise, except for Growlithe and Arcanine, which using their Japanese names (Gardie and Windie). However, unlike the American releases, the types on the back were completely removed.

The first releases came with two different Tazos, namely Tazos Spin and Tazos Smash. Tazos Spin has several small incisions around the tip, which can be used to assemble and connect in many ways, while Tazos Smash is the flower-shaped Tazos with several crackable gaps. Not only featured 151 Pokémon species, but five human characters are also included: Ash, Brock, Misty, Joy, and Jenny.

The holographic Tazos called Tazos 3D also available, which are featured the first generation Pokémon with evolutionary stages. After the Johto saga were broadcasted, there were final releases called Pentazo, pentagonal Tazos that identical with Tazos Spin. These Tazos introduced the newly Generation II Pokémon. After several months, some Pentazos can be found outside the snack bags.

Pokémon toys

Pokémon BW toys as Happy Meal promotion was available in McDonald's Indonesia on February 22 to March 21, 2013.

KFC also made Pokémon BW toys as Chaki Kids Meal promotion in March 2014.

Pokémon anime novelization

Pokémon anime novelizations in Indonesian

There have been Indonesian translations of the Pokémon anime novelization series, which were mostly only published based on episodes from the original series. These novels were translated and published by Panda Books in 2000.

External links

• Liputan6.com - SCTV broadcast Pokémon series
• Indosiar - Pokémon
  • Revelation Lugia
  • Lord of the Unknown Tower
  • Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
  • Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
  • The Rise of Darkrai
  • Giratina and the Sky Warrior
  • Zoroark: Master of Illusions
• Elex Media Komputindo's official website
• m&c! - Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure (Archive)

References

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