Pokemon: The Series Confirms Ash’s Return to Hoenn, Battle Frontier

Pokemon’s newest anime has been a huge hit with fans thus far as it’s been showcasing both new and older elements thus far. With Ash heading back to Pallet Town before moving onto the next phase of his journey, the anime has taken its time to introduce new ideas and Pokemon alongside fan-favorites. There’s been a greater hype for this series too as it’s been promised that Ash will be exploring previous regions of the franchise rather than just limit his travels to the new region of Galar. And this region exploring will be taking him to Hoenn fairly soon.

A new title for Episode 7 has surfaced online (thanks to @_TASOfficial_ on Twitter), and it teases both a return to Hoenn and the Battle Frontier, “Fierce Fight in the Hoenn Region! Challenging the Battle Frontier!!” Although this title doesn’t have a confirmed English translation just yet, fans will see for themselves what it means soon.

Episode 7 of the series will be debuting December 29th in Japan, and fans are hoping this return to the Battle Frontier yields some cameos from familiar faces. Not only are they wanting some appearance from the Frontier Brains of the region, but there’s a greater desire for Serena to return. Serena was Ash’s companion during the X and Y phase of the anime, and the two eventually formed a romantic bond that fans have been clamoring to see more of.

Serena was previously teased to be travelling in the Hoenn region, so while this isn’t a confirmation by any means, fans are hoping that a return to Hoenn also yields an unexpected reunion. This might be a bit too early for such a major reunion, but it’s not exactly off the table either. Especially considering how strange time seems to flow in this anime so far.

Pokemon: The Series, is now airing new episodes weekly in Japan, but unfortunately is still not officially licensed for an English language release as of this writing. Staff confirmed for the new series include Daiki Tomiyasu serving as chief director for OLM, Maki Odaira as series director, Kunihiko Yuyama as creative supervisor, Shoji Yonemura overseeing series construction, Shuhei Yasuda serving as character designer, Masafumi Mima as sound director, Yuki Hayashi as series composer. Voice cast members include Daiki Yamashita as Go, Yuichi Nakamura as Professor Sakuragi, Kana Hanazawa as Koharu, Megumi Hayashibara as Jessie, Shinichiro Miki as James, and Inuko Inuyama as Meowth.