Philippine media company GMA Network has announced last week that Pokémon the Series: XYZ will make its free-to-air premiere on their flagship free-to-air channel this Monday.
The anime series will start on May 27, which airs every Monday to Friday at 08:00am, right after the network’s morning show Unang Hirit.
The media company also revealed that in commemoration of the franchise’s 20th anniversary in the Philippines, the lead characters of the upcoming series will now be dubbed by celebrity voice actors.
Will Ashley de Leon, who has played different roles in GMA-7 teledramas such as Alyas Robin Hood and Contessa, will voice the lead character “Ash” (Satoshi), and Sofia Pablo, who recently acted in the teledrama show “TODA One I Love”, will voice Ash’s companion “Serena”.
They will also be joined in the series by fellow GMA-7 talents Althea Ablan and Bruce Roeland.
Pokémon the Series: XYZ is the 19th season of the long-running Pokémon anime series, which has started in 1997. The series also served as a continuation of the “XY series”.
The previous staff of the series, including chief director Kunihiko Yuyama, director Tetsuo Yajima, scriptwriter Atsuhiro Tomioka and character designer Toshihiro Hirooka, returned to work on the series, which was produced by OLM.
The first Pokémon anime series was first aired in the Philippines through GMA Network in October 1999 as a part of its primetime anime block, which was initially aired in its official English version.
The English version has since been aired on several television channels, including Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and Disney XD.
The Filipino-dubbed version of the series started airing in late 2009, starting with the first season.
