Pokemon is celebrating its 30th anniversary in a big way, and Malaysia looks to have been pretty fortunate in being part of the celebrations. First, it was the pop-up store at Ombak KLCC and the accompanying PokeXiting! event at KLCC Park. Today, it’s Astro announcing a dedicated Pokemon Pop-Up Channel. Like the pop-up store, the pop-up channel will be sticking around until the year ends, but it will only be available starting tomorrow. Also available starting tomorrow are Mango TV and U Panda TV, but these are permanent channels instead.
For the duration of its stay, the Pokemon Pop-Up Channel will be inhabiting channel 121, and will be freely accessible to all Astro, NJOI and Sooka subscribers. It will feature over 600 episodes in the series, covering Ash’s journey through the Indigo League, The Johto Journeys, The Series: XY, The Series: Sun & Moon, and Ultimate Journeys: The Series. If you’re wondering, yes, that’s just about half of Ash’s story, but these episodes will otherwise air in chronological order, with eight new episodes every weekday.
For better or worse, episodes on the channel will only be available in the English dub. That being said, those who are already subscribed can access the Malay dub, but this is limited to the 24th season, Pokemon Master Journeys: The Series, which currently airs every Thursday and Friday at 3PM.
Moving on to the permanent channels, these are both primarily channels featuring a wide range of shows from China. Astro described Mango TV as having more “popular dramas, original variety shows, reality programmes and movies from Hunan TV and Mango TV”. Then there’s U Panda TV, which has “a rich selection of family and factual entertainment, spanning history, culture, travel, nature, food and lifestyle”. These take up channels 336 and 337 respectively, and are available 24 hours a day with Chinese, Malay and English subtitles.
