Pokemon is one of the most successful anime series of all time, with many fans of the huge multimedia empire often choosing sides when it comes to preferring the series, the games, or the similarly unique manga adaptation. Netflix recently announced that it has acquired the rights to exclusively stream Pokemon Journeys, the latest season of the anime, in English, starting on June 12, 2020.
Fans of the series that have been wondering who will be portraying Ash Ketchum's new co-protagonist Goh in the English dub got their answer Thursday, when Zeno Robinson posted to Twitter that he is "BEYOND BLESSED" to join the Pokemon family as the voice of Goh. Ash and Goh spend the season traveling between different Regions, rather than just sticking to the newest Galar Region as has been the case in every previous arc that begins following a new mainline Pokemon game release.
Robinson has had a fairly active career in voice acting since 2009 according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), from video game characters like Nicholas in Metal Gear Survive to other anime characters like Deidoro Sakaki in My Hero Academia. His IMDb page currently lists Robinson as the voice of Goh in 12 episodes, which is about as far as the current season has gotten before the Pokemon anime went on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The addition of Goh and shaking up the anime's typical formula by having its protagonists travel the world seems to have fostered an increase in the series' popularity, as Pokemon like Riolu have wound up trending on Twitter multiple times in the last few months when they appear in the episodes released in Japan. The shift from a weekly cable release to being on Netflix may just help extend that popularity even further in the West.
That being said, Pokemon has always been an incredibly popular franchise in all its iterations. Not only have its most recent mainline video game titles Sword and Shield done huge numbers on the Nintendo Switch, but the series can be ubiquitously found on just about every object imaginable — even Pokemon lingerie in Japan.
With this increased visibility, Robinson has a huge role to play in making the new season of the Pokemon anime a success. There's no doubt he'll be able to hit that mark given his experience, and with Netflix thriving during the coronavirus pandemic he'll have a great platform to jump off of too.
Pokemon Journeys will be available to stream through Netflix on June 12, 2020.