The Cartoon Network has announced the acquisition of the new Pokemon anime series Pokemon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the popular kids' anime series.  When the Kids' WB announced that its fall 2006 schedule would not include Pokemon, fans wondered what would happen to the Pokemon series, which remains popular in Japan ten years after the series began.  Pokemon's new home on the Cartoon Network makes perfect sense since the Pokemon anime currently appears on the afternoon Miguzi block and the Pokemon Chronicles series debuted on Saturdays earlier this month (see 'Pokemon Chronicles on Cartoon Network').

Although it is not the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon that it once was, Pokemon remains a strong license -- Pokemon hand-held video games are among the most popular and the most recent ICv2 Retailers Guide to Games ranked the Pokemon Collectible Card Game as the #3 CCG in the country.  The fact that the new Pokemon anime series in which Ash and Pikachu return to the Kanto region to complete the seven ultimate tests that make up the 'Battle Frontier' will air on the Cartoon Network, which reaches 110 million homes, can only mean good things for all varieties of Pokemon merchandise.