Pokemon Episodes Delayed – Anime On Indefinite Hiatus Due To COVID-19 Coronavirus Concerns

On 9th April, Rica Matsumoto, the voice behind Pocket Monsters’ Ash Ketchum, Tweetedthat her voice recordings had been delayed due to social distancing measures in light of COVID-19.

This meant that sooner or later, the anime would stop putting out new episodes, but it wasn’t clear how soon that would be.

It now looks like Pokemon episodes are stopping for the time being as @anipoke_PR, the official Twitter account for Pokemon’s anime, announced the temporary halting of episode production. Instead of new Pokemon episodes, reruns of older episodes will be broadcast for the time being.

＜番組からのお知らせ＞
新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大にともなう「緊急事態宣言」の発出を受け、
安全に十分配慮した上での番組制作を行うため、
一時的に、一部の制作作業を見合わせることにいたしました。
これに伴い、来週以降の「ポケットモンスター」は再放送となります。

— アニメ「ポケットモンスター」公式 (@anipoke_PR) April 19, 2020

<Notice from the program>

Received the “Emergency Situation Declaration” due to the spread of new coronavirus infection,

In order to produce programs with due consideration to safety,

We decided to temporarily suspend some production work.

Along with this, “Pocket Monster” will be rebroadcast from next week.

Fans of the show understood that there was no way around this if social distancing is to be implemented. However, some fans requested that famous episodes be broadcasted to keep things interesting!

それは仕方ないけどせっかくなら過去の名エピソードを再放送してください！ pic.twitter.com/Exz5Lusvix

— 解凍されたポケ愛好家 (@noboribetunoyu) April 19, 2020

It can’t be helped, but if you can do it, please rebroadcast past famous episodes!

Fans, however, are upset at the unfortunate timing of the production shut down as Ash recently got a Riolu for the first time ever!

Pokemon released episode 22, titled “Goodbye, Rabbifuto!” on 19th April 2020. It seems like this will be the last Pokemon episode till this pandemic settles down.

About Pokemon

Pokemon, first released in 1996, is set up in a world where humans catch monsters and store them in pocket-sized poke-balls, thus the name Pocket Monsters or Pokemon.

They are creatures with an affinity to certain elements and some superhuman abilities related to that particular element.

Revolving around a teenage boy Ash Ketchum, it takes us through his journey to becoming the most accomplished Pokemon trainer the world has ever seen.