Dub Absence, Again

I hinted in my previous post that I hadn't been viewing the Pokémon anime on my TV recently, which specifically concerns the local Sun & Moon dub on a national TV channel that premiered almost a year ago. The reason is simple: it has practically disappeared. After having been accustomed to its presence within that time, it suddenly left the airwaves again, leaving another "dub absence" for those who become its fans. It is especially disappointing as the dub has never been free of issues, including this one.

Over most of the course of its airing, it had maintained pretty much a regular schedule, as described in the earlier post. It aired on Friday nights with two episodes, a rerun from last week and a new one. There were still a few unexpected exceptional happenings, one of them being the first week, which showed two new episodes, and another some weeks later with three episodes aired in a row, one old and two new. Aside from that and early or late timings, there was nothing too far out of the ordinary... until about two months ago, when it suddenly left its regular schedule. A bit of searching revealed that it moved to Thursday and Friday afternoons still with double episodes. I continued to tune in, but this did not last long; it left that time again, and this time was for good, as its presence could no longer be confirmed.

Again as noted, the local dub of the Pokémon anime has had a spotty history. Despite a regularity of schedules as with this one and previous airings, some things continued to be off even for the latest dub. One of them at least for some people is the absence of Team Rocket reciting their motto, though for others this might be passable. Another is that the opening and ending are not shown between consecutive episodes; they are only shown for the first and the last respectively, although this has the side benefit of ensuring that viewers stay tuned in until it's "really over". A third is that the commercial breaks, whether they occur within or between episodes, are extremely long, around 10 minutes; older dubs have also suffered from this, which means this is a continued issue, and yet it's also regular for the channel in question for even other shows. Other than that, the episodes seemed fine, unlike in the past, which sometimes were cut off unexplainably.

I and a friend, who had been eager for the airing of this dub, expected that this dub would not disappoint and approach completion. However, with the sudden disappearance, this expectation seems to be fruitless. As well, there were other viewers who called for the anime to be returned instead of airing a new series of another show, which was exactly what happened for its last scheduled time. Overall, the quality of this last dub is satisfactory - some parts could be better, but it was pleasant enough to follow through - and it even had reruns, something not done in the past. However, the sudden disappearance of this dub continues the pattern of incompleteness that had plagued previous dubs. I and others can only hope that there would be a reconsideration to continue and air the dub somehow.

Even with all the things that have happened with the local dub of the Pokémon anime, I and likely others will continue to be a fan of it, especially with the proper treatment for it. That would also include the assurance that the episodes would be shown more or less completely through to the end. With the current disappearance and subsequent absence, this has proven to be untrue. It seems that fans will have to endure this "dub absence" again until something great happens, which they can only hope for.

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