Pokémon season 23: Journeys — the season where Ash stops exploring a single region

Season 23 breaks the formula the series had followed since 1997. Gone are the single-region journey, the eight badges and the League at the end of the road: Ash settles into a lab in Kanto, teams up with a partner named Goh, and sets out to explore the whole world, one mission at a time. The first season of cycle 7, Pokémon Journeys also launches the World Coronation Series, the competition that will shape the rest of the Trainer's path.

Contents

• A New Season, a New Cycle, a New Format
• Broadcast: Japan, Netflix and France
• The Cerise Laboratory, Goh and a New Starting Point
• The World Coronation Series, Engine of the Whole Cycle
• Ash's and Goh's Teams
• The Return of the Standalone Episode
• The Darkest Day: The Galar Arc
• Team Rocket and Galar's Key Figures
• French Titles, the Movie and Broadcast Milestones
• What Season 23 Changes for Good
• Season 23 at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A New Season, a New Cycle, a New Format

Season 23 opens cycle 7, the Journeys cycle, which spans three seasons: season 23, known in English as Pokémon Journeys, season 24, Master Journeys, and season 25, Ultimate Journeys. The French wiki Poképédia lists the season under its full title, the equivalent of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, while French-language Wikipedia sticks to the short form, Pokémon Journeys.

This cycle is adapted from the eighth-generation games, the ones set in the Galar region. But the adaptation is partial and comes late: the series doesn't follow a Trainer's journey through Galar; it drops in regularly and only truly settles there for the season's final arc. The article on Pokémon Sword and Shield details what the series borrowed from the games.

The change of format is the key point. Ash no longer explores a single region: the season takes him in turn to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola and Galar, with his home base at Professor Cerise's laboratory in Vermilion City. There are no more badges to collect, no regional League to prepare for, and no companions met along the road.

The season comprises 48 episodes, numbered JN001 to JN048. As always, this season split is a Western one: in Japan, the series aired continuously, with no concept of seasons, and Japanese dates can never be inferred from French ones. The season's French theme song is the French version of The Journey Starts Today.

Broadcast: Japan, Netflix and France

The season 23 episodes first aired in Japan from November 17, 2019, with episode JN001, to December 4, 2020, with episode JN048. The series changed time slots along the way: first broadcast on Sundays at 6 p.m., it moved to Fridays at 6:55 p.m. starting October 9, 2020.

In the United States, the change was a big one: the season didn't air on a TV channel but on Netflix, in quarterly batches of twelve episodes. The first batch arrived on June 12, 2020, and the last on March 5, 2021. Canada had already seen it from May 9, 2020, on Teletoon, and the United Kingdom from September 1, 2020, on POP.

📺 In the United States, Netflix didn't release the season week by week but in batches of twelve episodes, forty-eight in all from JN001 to JN048, and our Pokémon duvet covers dress the bed where you binge an entire batch.

In France, the broadcast ran from July 18, 2020, with the episode Enter Pikachu!, to April 25, 2021, with A Close Call... Practically!. Belgium followed very closely, and Quebec a few weeks later, with the first Quebec broadcast on September 5, 2020.

An outside event left its mark on production: the Covid-19 pandemic halted the Japanese broadcast after episode JN022, for seven weeks, since the voice actors could no longer go into the studio. It was only the second interruption of its kind in the history of the series, after the one in season 1 caused by the Porygon episode.

The Cerise Laboratory, Goh and a New Starting Point

The season opens with two prologues. The first tells the story of Pikachu's childhood, when it was still a Pichu living wild and alone, taken in by a Kangaskhan and then leaving its adoptive family the night it evolves. The second shows six-year-old Goh and Chloe catching sight of Mew during Professor Oak's summer camp.

In the present day, Ash heads to Vermilion City for the opening of Professor Cerise's laboratory. A Legendary Pokémon flies over the city — a Lugia — so Ash climbs onto its back, where he finds a boy who had exactly the same idea: Goh. The two become friends on the spot, and the professor offers them both a place as research fellows at his laboratory.

The setup is new for the series. Ash and Goh live at the lab and head out from it every day on a mission, equipped with their Rotom Phones, smartphones inhabited by a Rotom. This fixed base explains why Ash leaves his Pokémon at the lab and only calls them in when needed, something the series had never done before.

The two boys' motivations are nothing alike, and that's what makes the duo work. Goh wants to catch every Pokémon he can to get closer to Mew, while Ash is looking for opponents to beat. Chloe, Professor Cerise's daughter, is often around the lab with her Yamper but doesn't have a Pokémon of her own yet.

The World Coronation Series, Engine of the Whole Cycle

The big invention of cycle 7 is called the World Coronation Series. It's a permanent world ranking, open to every Trainer from every region, where you move up by challenging other entrants in your own class. Episode JN018 states that the current edition has at least 10,808 participants.

The system reads like a four-tier pyramid: the Normal Class groups Trainers ranked beyond 1,000th place, the Great Class those ranked 100th to 999th, the Ultra Class 9th to 99th, and the Master Class the top eight in the world. Those eight, the "Masters Eight," battle it out at the end of the season for the title of Monarch, in other words, world champion.

Ash discovers the competition by watching its final in Wyndon, in the Galar region. There, Leon defeats Lance and becomes Monarch. Right afterward, an incident reveals that Ash's Pikachu can Gigantamax; Leon gives him a Dynamax Band and agrees to a friendly battle — which Ash loses. That's when he decides to enter the World Coronation Series so he can face Leon on official terms.

His rise drives the entire season. Ash starts out in the Normal Class, climbs to the Great Class after a hard-fought win over Korrina at a Battle Festival in Kalos, suffers his first World Coronation Series loss against Bea, drops back down, then climbs again and earns a draw in their rematch. The article on Ash and the Pokémon anime tells the rest of this climb.

Ash's and Goh's Teams

Ash starts the season with Pikachu and nothing else. It takes him ten episodes to catch his second Pokémon, which, according to Poképédia, makes this the cycle opener in which he takes the longest to build up his team. This second partner is a Dragonite that had only just evolved, caught after she befriended him.

Three more recruits follow. The first had been haunting the Cerise Laboratory for weeks: it's a Gengar, which eventually lets itself be caught. A Riolu then hatches from an Egg entrusted to Ash by Nurse Joy, and a Farfetch’d in its Galarian form joins the team after being defeated. Riolu will become Lucario in the final arc.

👶 Ash's Riolu is never caught: it hatches from an Egg entrusted to him by Nurse Joy, and our Pokémon baby bodysuits dress the little one in your home long before their first Poké Ball.

Goh, for his part, plays a different game. His first catch is a little fire rabbit he meets in the wild in Galar — a Scorbunny that grows attached to him and convinces him not to wait for Mew before getting started. It evolves into Raboot in episode JN017, then distances itself from its Trainer, makes up with him, and finally evolves into Cinderace during the final showdown.

The rest of his collection is dizzying. Goh owns 68 Pokémon by the end of the season, caught by the dozen, including a Flygon, an Aerodactyl revived from a fossil, and a Sobble that he keeps with him at all times. A bit of trivia fans enjoy: it's the only season of the series in which one of the three starters of the matching generation, Grookey, belongs to no one in the group.

The Return of the Standalone Episode

The new format has a happy side effect: the series can once again tell complete stories in twenty minutes, without having to move a badge quest forward. Each destination becomes the setup for a situation, and the duo heads back to the lab that same evening. It's a deliberate return to the episodic storytelling of the very first years.

The season gets some real gems out of it. In Hoenn, Ash wins the Flute Cup, a tournament held at the Battle Frontier, and takes home a set of flutes as his prize. That's also the day Goh fights his very first Trainer battle — and loses it, which immediately establishes the gap in skill between the two boys.

Some episodes play on viewers' memories. A trip to Johto brings back Ho-Oh, the Legendary Pokémon Ash glimpsed in the very first episode of the series, though neither boy sees it this time. The season also introduces Raid Battles, imported from Pokémon GO, which the group takes on in Unova.

The rest of the time, Goh's collection sets the pace. He clears an entire forest of its Bug-type Pokémon in a single episode, catches a female Pikachu that evolves into Raichu right away, and trades a second Pinsir for a Heracross. The contrast with Ash's four catches over the whole season is deliberately comic.

The Darkest Day: The Galar Arc

The last third of the season shifts into long-form storytelling. Ash's Dynamax Band starts glowing on its own, which leads the group to Galar to consult Professor Magnolia. There, Ash and Goh split up and each follow a lead: Ash joins Leon to bring forcibly Dynamaxed Pokémon under control, while Goh goes with Sonia to look into the legend of Galar's hero.

That legend has a name: the Darkest Day. It tells how two Pokémon once saved the region, and Goh finds traces of it behind a mural, in the form of statues of Zacian and Zamazenta. Along the way, Sonia makes him his own Dynamax Band, crafted from a Wishing Star.

The disaster breaks out at the stadium in Hammerlocke, where Eternatus awakens. The Legendary Pokémon brings on a new Darkest Day, and the group uncovers Chairman Rose's role in the events. Ash faces Rose himself, Goh takes on his assistant Oleana, and the two boys then meet up at the top of the tower to confront Eternatus in its Eternamax form.

With help from Zacian and Zamazenta, they defeat the Legendary Pokémon, and it's Goh who manages to catch it, before its Poké Ball is sealed away. Shortly before the season ends comes a more personal moment: Ash and Goh run into Mewtwo, challenge it, lose, and leave with its encouragement.

Team Rocket and Galar's Key Figures

The Team Rocket trio starts from scratch too. Jessie, James and Meowth set up a secret base in Vermilion City and receive from Giovanni a vending machine that dispenses Pokémon trained by the organization, supplying them with partners as needed. It's an elegant way to refresh their arsenal without inventing captures for them.

The trio also follows the heroes to Galar and gets a Rotom Phone of its own. One of their capture attempts turns into a disaster: the targeted Pokémon Gigantamaxes and attacks Wyndon Stadium right after the World Coronation Series final, which indirectly sets up the meeting between Ash and Leon.

Around them, the season sets up Galar's cast of characters. Leon is the Monarch and the Champion of the Galar League, Raihan is his rival and a Gym Leader, Bea is a Gym Leader with a martial-arts style who hands Ash his first World Coronation Series loss, Sonia is an assistant who becomes a Pokémon Professor by the end of the season, and Chairman Rose is the one whose energy ambitions trigger the catastrophe.

French Titles, the Movie and Broadcast Milestones

As always, the French titles are not translations of the English ones. The opening episode is called Un Pichu solitaire! in French, meaning "A Lonely Pichu!", whereas the Japanese title literally announces the birth of Pikachu, and the Hoenn tournament episode becomes Pour conquérir la Coupe Flûte!. Each version has its own clever touches.

The feature film released alongside the season is the twenty-third movie, Secrets of the Jungle, released in Japan on December 25, 2020, and in France on October 8, 2021. It isn't an episode of the season: the movies are standalone stories, as explained in the article on the Pokémon movies.

One last word on vocabulary, because that's where the confusion starts. The World Coronation Series is not a regional League, and Ash's victory in the Alola League, won at the end of cycle 6, has nothing to do with the world title at stake in this tournament. Season 23 merely launches the competition; the crowning moment comes much later, in season 25.

You also shouldn't confuse this cycle with the series that follows it. "Pokémon Horizons" is a separate series, with new protagonists and episode numbering that starts over at 1: calling it "season 26" is a common counting mistake.

What Season 23 Changes for Good

Season 23 is a complete reboot. In twenty-two seasons, the series had strayed from its usual engine — one region, badges, a League — only once, during the Battle Frontier arc, when Ash collected Frontier Symbols instead of badges. By dropping all three at once, it gives itself the freedom to go anywhere, revisit any setting, and bring back faces from every era.

The choice of a duo is just as fundamental. Goh isn't a traveling companion but a teammate, with his own goal and his own arc of progress. Where earlier companions tagged along with Ash, Goh shares top billing, and a good share of the episodes unfold from his point of view.

Finally, the season sets up the stakes that will carry everything that follows. The World Coronation Series gives Ash a measurable goal, a visible one, and above all a clearly identified rival in Leon. After eight regions traveled, including the only regional victory of his career in Alola, it's the first time the series has given him a goal on a worldwide scale.

👟 Eight regions covered in a single season, with badges and League left behind along the way: that wears out some soles, and our Pokémon shoes take care of the kilometers you rack up on your end.

To place the eight regions visited in this single season, the article on the regions of the Pokémon world provides the overall map. And to understand the giant phenomenon that runs through the entire Galar arc, the one on Dynamax and Gigantamax explains the mechanic carried over from the games.

Season 23 at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the French title of season 23?
  In French, season 23 is titled Les voyages, and Poképédia lists it under the long form La série: Pokémon, les voyages; in English, it is Pokémon Journeys: The Series. It is the first of the three seasons of cycle 7, followed by Master Journeys and Ultimate Journeys.
• Why doesn't Ash stick to a single region in this season?
  Because the format changes completely. Ash becomes a research fellow at Professor Cerise's laboratory in Vermilion City and heads out on missions with Goh every day. Season 23 thus takes him to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola and Galar in turn, with no badges to collect and no regional League to prepare for.
• Who travels with Ash in season 23?
  His main teammate is Goh, a boy who wants to catch as many Pokémon as possible to get closer to Mew. Chloe, Professor Cerise's daughter, is also a main character, but she doesn't always travel with them and doesn't catch any Pokémon of her own during this season: she only has her family's Yamper.
• What is the World Coronation Series?
  It's a permanent world ranking, open to all Trainers from every region, introduced in season 23. Participants are divided into four classes: Normal Class beyond 1,000th place, Great Class from 100th to 999th, Ultra Class from 9th to 99th, and Master Class for the top eight in the world. These eight Trainers, known as the Masters Eight, compete at the end of the season for the title of Monarch, in other words, world champion.
• Does Ash win the World Coronation Series in season 23?
  No. He only enters it and starts climbing the rankings: he moves up from the Normal Class to the Great Class after a win over Korrina, suffers his first loss against Bea, drops back down, then climbs again. The title of Monarch goes to Leon at the start of the season, and Ash won't win the competition until season 25.
• Which Pokémon do Ash and Goh have at the end of the season?
  Ash has Pikachu, a Dragonite, a Gengar, a Lucario that evolved from a Riolu, and a Galarian Farfetch’d. Goh has 68 Pokémon by the end of the season, including his Cinderace, which evolved from the Scorbunny that was his very first catch, and a Sobble he keeps with him at all times.
• Why was the season's broadcast interrupted?
  Because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the Japanese voice actors unable to go into the studio, production stopped and the Japanese broadcast was suspended for seven weeks after episode JN022. It was the second interruption of its kind in the history of the series, after the one in season 1 caused by the Porygon episode.

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