As someone who grew up on Pokemon, the anime was one of the ways I was introduced to the franchise, And all I knew growing up was the English dub of the anime.

 

Until I watched Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japanese.

 

It was SO MUCH BETTER than the English Dub. By a longshot. Unlike the contradictory message of "fighting is wrong" present in the dub, the Japanese version sends a message of existentialism and the meaning of life, clearly shown as Mewtwo questions his existence. The Japanese version doesn't show him as a true villain, but a lost Pokemon clone who thinks his life has no meaning, and therefore tries to prove he deserves to exist, and tries to get revenge on humanity for creating him. And when the Pokemon and their clones are fighting at the climax, instead of saying "fighting is wrong", they realize whether they were created in a test tube or born naturally, they are all living beings who deserve to live. Even Mewtwo. And so when Ash runs into Mew and Mewtwo's attacks and turns to stone, he's not doing it to stop the fighting: he's doing it to show Mewtwo HE MATTERS.

 

Now, here comes the issue: As of July 21st, 2025, Nobody in America can stream the Japanese versions of the Pokemon anime with Subtitles, be it the Movies, Specials, Spinoffs, or the regular episodes of the Pokemon anime. Even services like Crunchyroll don't have the Japanese episodes in their catalogue, despite having the Japanese versions of other popular anime on their service. For many Americans, the only way to currently watch the Japanese Pokemon Anime is through places like torrent websites, really sketchy video websites with adult ads on the site, or buying Japanese Language DVDs, which don't even have subtitles 90% of the time, and the ones that do are just Dubtitles, which are just Closed Captions for the English Dub of the Movie. Therefore, they are just copied and pasted text of the English Language movie lines.

 

Honestly, for people in America (and the rest of the world outside of Japan), this makes it very difficult for us to watch the Japanese version of the Pokemon anime. If there is no way to stream it, It's very likely that nobody will be able to watch it here in any capacity.

 

So, I need to say right now, I propose we have the Pokemon Company allow Crunchyroll to make the Japanese Dub of the Entire Pokemon anime available to watch with proper English Subtitles. And by all of it, I MEAN ALL OF IT, Including but not limited to:

-All the original seasons of the anime, from the Indigo Plateau to Pokemon Horizons

-All 23 animated Movies, From Mewtwo Strikes Back to Koko (aka Secrets of the Jungle)

-All of the Animated Specials, Including Mewtwo Returns, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon, Raikou Legend of Thunder, Mewtwo: Prologue to the Awakening, The Pokemon Chronicles, and Any and all Japanese Exclusives, Like Slowking's Day, plus anything else not mentioned

-All of the Pikachu Shorts, Including Pikachu's Vacation, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, Pikachu and Pichu, and any others

-All spinoffs, Like Pokemon Origins, Pokemon Generations, Pokemon Evolutions, and anything else not mentioned

 

If we can get this to happen, not only can we finally watch it with ease, but future Pokemon fans will be able to see the anime in both English and Japanese!

 

So, Let's do this!