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Pokémon TV Anime Brings Back Dawn, Her Piplup After 9 Years for Summer Special Episodes

The character Dawn (Hikari in Japanese) and her partner Pokémon Piplup (Pochama) will return to the Pokémon television anime for the first time in nine years when they appear in this summer's special episodes on July 23 and 30. Megumi Toyoguchi is reprising her Dawn/Hikari role in the episodes, which also features the Pokémon Darkrai and Cresselia. The current Pokémon: Master Journeys: The Series season (known simply as the second Pocket Monsters season in Japan) previews these episodes set in the Sinnoh region with a promotional video and a new visual:

Pokémon Journeys: The Series premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in Japan in November 2019, two days after the Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield games shipped worldwide. The first 12 episodes of the anime debuted in the United States on Netflix in June 2020, and the service adds new episodes quarterly. The anime also premiered on the Canadian television channel Teletoon in May 2020.

Netflix confirmed in February that the new batch of episodes that it began streaming on March 5 would be the Pokémon Journey series' final episodes.

Netflix will premiere the 24th season of the Pokémon franchise's anime titled Pokémon: Master Journeys: The Series "as early as summer" in select markets, with more premieres coming to additional markets this year.

Pokémon Journeys: The Series had delayed airing new episodes in April 2020 due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but resumed airing new episodes last June. Pokémon: Twilight Wings (Hakumei no Tsubasa) also delayed its fifth episode from May to June 2020 due to the effects of COVID-19 on the show's production. Gekijōban Pocket Monster Koko, the 23rd anime film in the franchise, was delayed from its planned July 10 opening to December 25 due to the spread of COVID-19. The film will open in the West in 2021 under the title Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle.

Source: Comic Natalie