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 animated series 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, each season is released over the course of a year.
- Initially, the English dub was aired in syndication or on Kids' WB. Similar to most American shows, each season started between August and September, and aired new episodes for the following nine months, with three months (usually during the summer) taken off to begin production for the next season, during which reruns air.
- Starting with season 9, the English dub was aired on Cartoon Network or Disney XD. Each season started between January and June, and aired new episodes regularly over the course of the following year. Between seasons, there was either no break or a break of up to three months long.
- Starting with season 23, the English dub has been released on Netflix in quarterly batches of roughly 12 episodes.
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 in the Pokémon animated series, 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) |
HZ045 From So Far Away |
45 |
|
This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
