Pokémon in Ukraine

Pokémon in Ukraine
Flag of Ukraine
Language	Ukrainian
Continent	Europe
Original animated series airdates
EP001	February 7, 2005
AG001	Never aired
DP001	Never aired
BW001	Never aired
XY001	Never aired
SM001	Never aired
JN001	December 17, 2021
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Ukraine with the first broadcast of Покемон, я обираю тебе! in February 7, 2005. In Cyrillic script, Pokémon is written as Покемон and its plural is Покемони Pokemony and is fully inflected.

Old logo

Pokémon video games

The Pokémon video games are released in Ukraine in English. In mid-2000s, Nintendo products were sold officialy through few resellers, this was mostly Wii with DS and in smaller copies also GC with GBA SP, but in early 2010s Nintendo withdrew from market. From 2014, it was possible to purchase games for 3DS and Wii U digitally through YooMoney (formerly known as Yandex.Money), which is the official distributor of Nintendo, but Yandex was banned in Ukraine in 2017, most likely because of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. From October 2021, Nintendo Switch is distributed by ERC.

Pokémon animation

The first four seasons of the Pokémon animated series aired on television on the Ukrainian TV channel NTN beginning in 2005. Their intros were left in English, though were shown with subtitles and were voice-overed, as well as the episodes, the Pikachu's Jukebox and some insert songs.

Disney Channel Ukraine aired Pokémon DP: Galactic Battles in 2010. The English dub was initially shown before switching to the Russian dub. It's uncertain whether other seasons until Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon were ever broadcast.

A Ukrainian dub of Pokémon Journeys: The Series was released on Netflix as Покемон: Серіал. Мандри on December 17, 2021. Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series and Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series were subsequently released in batches as Netflix Original Series.

In Ukraine, the animated series is available on Netflix. Secrets of the Jungle and Pokémon Journeys: The Series are the only dubbed material on the platform; Indigo League is available with subtitles. Netflix is not available in the Russian-occupied territory of Crimea, due to U.S. sanctions prohibiting Netflix from operating there.

Pokémon movies

The first four movies were released as a voice-over:

• Mewtwo Strikes Back was released as М'юту завдає удару у вiдповiдь.
• The Power of One's Ukrainian title is Покемон Фільм 2000: Сила Обраного
• Spell of the Unown: Entei's dub is entitled Покемон 3: Фільм - Закляття Аноуна
• Celebi: The Voice of the Forest was released under the title Покемон назавжди: Селебі - Голос лісу.
• Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias was released entitled Покемон Герої: Латіос та Латіас.

None of the main movies had been broadcast since then, until on October 8, 2021, an actual dub of Secrets of the Jungle was released on Netflix, under the title of Покемон. Фільм: Секрети Джунглів. It marked the first time that a product of the Pokémon animated series was dubbed into Ukrainian, rather than voice-overed.

Also, a Ukrainian version of POKÉMON Detective Pikachu was also shown in theaters on May 9, 2019, entitled Покемон Детектив Пікачу.

Cast and crew

Pilot Studio

Pilot Studio was responsible for producing the first four seasons and five movies of the animated series in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ash Ketchum was voiced by Анна Лещенко; Тетяна Зіновенко dubbed both Misty and Jessie. Анатолій Зіновенко was the voice actor for James, Professor Oak, Giovanni, and the narrator. Дмитро Завадський dubbed Gary Oak, Meowth, Brock, and Tracey.

Le Doyen

Starting from S23, the anime is dubbed by Le Doyen, and a whole new cast is used. Ash is now dubbed by Тимофій Марченко, and his mother, Delia Ketchum, by Людмила Ардельян. Goh is voiced by Дмитро Зленко, who also voiced Koko in M23. Chloe's role is taken by Єлизавета Кучеренко; The Team Rocket trio, Jessie, James and Meowth, is now dubbed by Олена Борозенець, Олександр Погребняк and Павло Скороходько, respectively; В'ячеслав Дудко gives his voice to Professor Cerise, and Андрій Альохін to Professor Oak; Leon's voice is provided by Ярослав Сидоренко, Ren's by Дмитро Тварковський and Chrysa's by Анна Соболєва. The episodes are narrated by Максим Кондратюк.

M23 was dubbed at the same studio, therefore season 23's cast was retained. In addition, Dada was voiced by Михайло Кришталь, Sharon by Вікторія Бакун, Dr. Zed by Юрій Сосков, the Elder Zarude by Костянтин Лінартович and Milyfa Town mayor by Владислав Пупков.

Trivia

• Pilot Studio also dubbed the Pokémon anime in Russian with the same voice actors for the first 105 episodes.

Related articles

• List of Ukrainian Pokémon themes

References

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.