Twitch is bringing the Pokémon anime back to their platform in a big way with an upcoming, multi-months long marathon. Starting August 27th beginning at 10 AM, Twitch Presents will broadcast the long-running TV anime up including the first 932 episodes up to season 19 and 15 of the first 19 movies.
"Gotta Catch 'Em All!" they said. So we did.
19 seasons & 16 movie parties worth of 'em.
The Twitch Pokémon Marathon starts August 27 at 10AM PT: https://t.co/6znI1sAHIW pic.twitter.com/g48mwzi5dZ
— Twitch (@Twitch) August 23, 2018
TV episodes and movies will alternate in broadcast, with the TV anime airing eight hours Monday through Thursday, while the movies will run on Sundays at 1 PM (re-runs of past episodes will take over Saturdays). To pass the time, Twitch members can run Twitch extensions to collect Badges via filling out Pokémon bios as they appear in real-time. A worldwide leaderboard will give the marathonal add-on a competitive element of sorts.
Four of the anime’s movie entries, Pokémon 4Ever, Pokémon Heroes, Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker, and Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys, are excluded due to licensing issues with their US distributor Miramax.
The timing on this livestream is fitting as September 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Pokémon anime’s dubbed debut in the States, where the 15th episode Battle Aboard The St. Anne first aired on September 7th 1998, followed by the actual first episode the following day. Since then, the Pokémon anime has been around the block on both network and cable TV, two different dubbing companies, and all its many storylines, characters, and Pokémon.
The last time Twitch livestreamed Pokémon anime content was Twitch Watches Pokémon for the franchise’s 20th anniversary in 2016. On February 27th, a majority of the Pokémon movies, Pokémon Generations, and Pokémon Chronicles aired over 24 hours. Twitch proclaims this new marathon of episodes and movies is their longest media broadcast to date.
