Season
- If you were looking for the game mechanic in Generation V, see Season (game mechanic). For the Pokémon GO mechanic, see Season (GO).
- If you were looking for the six-week-long divisions known as League Seasons, see Play! Pokémon.
A season is a type of ordered collection of dubbed episodes of the Pokémon anime based on how the dub is aired. They usually share an opening, and are often 52 or fewer episodes long. They do not necessarily align with any particular story arc.
In the United States, new seasons start to air between August and September (Seasons 1-9) or between January and June (Seasons 10-present), continuing to air regularly over the course of the following year. Previously, the English dub was aired on a schedule similar to most American shows, where each season is typically aired new for nine months out of the year, with three months (usually during the summer) taken off to begin production for the next season, during which reruns air. The Japanese release schedule, with an episode airing nearly every week, was eventually adopted by Pokémon USA (now known as The Pokémon Company International) after 4Kids Entertainment lost dubbing rights.
Seasons are used by all dubs based on the English dub. Seasons are also used in some capacity in Asia, although the exact definitions used by these dubs vary. In Japan, there is no concept of seasons of the Pokémon anime, where new episodes air nearly every week.
In contrast to seasons, series are multi-year runs of episodes with significant story, character, and even art style differences. Whereas dub seasons are mostly annual, series usually correspond to generations of the Pokémon franchise. Unlike seasons, series exist in both the Japanese version and dubs.
List of seasons
There are three distinct definitions of a season used in official media: the televised airings, home video releases, and digital releases. Since season 7, these definitions have coincided.
- The television definition used by Region 4 home video releases and formerly on Pokémon TV, Toonami Jetstream, and Cartoon Network Video, corresponding to groups of episodes that aired regularly over the course of a year with a break taken in between.
- The digital release definition is used by DisneyNOW, digital home video releases, and currently used by Pokémon TV, matching the TV definition except between the second and third season and the fifth and sixth season, where it splits the seasons by series or arc.
- The home video definition is used by most Region 1 home video releases, in particular those produced by VIZ Media, corresponding to groups of episodes that share the same opening and are part of the same series or arc.
Pokémon the Series
Pokémon Horizons: The Series
| Logo | Season name | Medium | Debut episode | Final episode | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pokémon Horizons: The Series |
All | HZ001 The Pendant That Starts It All (Part One) |
Ongoing | 45 |
|
This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
