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lolli4587 · 1 year

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Pokemon Horizons is breath of fresh air!!

Review episodes 1 and 2

Pokemon Horizons has one of the best introductions I have seen in a long time. The last time I saw something captivating was back in the Pokemon XY era. That was years ago. My Pokemon history hasn’t been the greatest. I’ve been watching the series since when Ash started his journey. I had this cycle going. I stopped watching it and then pick it up again when something was captivating to me. I was thinking of quitting the series after Ash departed from the series. I didn’t want to keep up with the anime weekly. But my friends convinced me to give Pokemon Horizons a shot and here I am with the review.

The two episodes that have aired, it is setting a tone that is different from the previous series, and it was something that needed to be done years ago! Pokemon Horizons is doing its own thing. They are not tied to the game’s plot which was standard up to Journeys. All the characters are original to the anime. What we don’t know is if this world is an alternate universe from Ash Ketchum. Right now it’s too early to tell.

To summarize what has happened so far, we get introduced to a girl named Liko. She is quiet and a shy girl. She traveled from Paldea to attend a boarding school in Kanto. While in school, she meets her roommate Anne and the two do hit it off immediately. While school was in session, she was given her starter Sprigatito.

The two don’t get along at first, but as time passes by, they slowly started to understand each other. One night, Liko opens a box that has the pendant that was given by her grandmother. Anne sees Liko with the pendant and tells her she should wear it with pride. The plot thickens once when the school goes on a small break and Liko stays behind. A strange man who goes by the name Amethio was looking for Liko.

At first, Liko became suspicious that Amethio was asking for her pendant and handed over a letter written by her grandmother. Without hesitation, they run off. Amethio alerts his teammates to keep a lookout for her. Liko was quickly found and cornered. Before she surrendered, a man with a Charizard came flying down.

Just like Amethio, he was looking for Liko and her pendant. Both men duked it out in battle. While they were distracted, Liko escaped. Amethio uses a ceruledge against the Charizard’s trainer. He orders a Psycho Cutter which misses charizard but goes straight to Liko and Sprigatito. Liko’s pendant reacts and makes a barrier to protect against the attack.

In the following episode, it was revealed it was a brand-new Pokemon that hasn’t been discovered yet. Online sources speculate it is the preform of Terapagos. The turtle-like pokemon reverts to the pendant and Liko falls again before being rescued by the Charizard’s trainer.

He brings Liko back to his ship’s headquarters which is named “The Brave Asagi.” Liko couldn’t compose herself to ask any questions and soon arrived. Not far behind, Amethio and his team were in pursuit. The group lands on the ship’s battlefield and two unidentified individuals part of the ship’s crew circled the pair.

They scold him for not telling Liko their identity. From the arguing, the Charizard’s trainer was named Friede. The rest of the crew introduces themselves as Molly and Murdock. Murdock introduces his partner Rockruff who becomes fast friends with Sprigatito. Not long after, their alarms went off alerting them that Amethio was nearby. Liko sticks with Molly while Friede and Murdock go back into the ship. We do get introduced to another member of Friede’s crew. A girl named Orio, who works in the engine room to power the ship.

Liko wanted to ask Molly questions, but the ship went into a blackout. Molly checks the telescope and identifies Amethio’s group as “the Explorers.” Friede gets to the driving area where his Pikachu was introduced as “Captain Pikachu.” Friede takes over the steering wheel and steers toward the upcoming storm. The explorers made it to the ship and started attacking the protective barrier. Molly alerts through the rotom phone and had to head to the Wing Deck to retract the battlefield, leaving Liko alone. Concerned, Freide leaves the driver’s seat to Murdock and headed back to the chaos.

The Explorers managed to break in and confronted Liko. Sprigatito tries to defend Liko but was caught by one of the Explorers. Not wanting to cause any more trouble, she complies with Amethio. Soon after, Friede jumps in. Friede and Amethio introduced each other. Friede introduced themselves as the “Rising Volt Tacklers” and he was their leader. Since they both wanted Liko, they decided to battle each other. Friede chooses Captain Pikachu and Amethio chooses ceruledge.

The battle raged on until Ceruledge’s Psycho Cutter was causing damage to the ship and nearby Pokemon. Liko not wanting any more fighting steps in and stops the fight. She tells Amethio that she will comply with his demands. Sprigatito not feeling the same sentiments jumps out of Liko’s arms and convinces her not to give up.

She gets the confidence she needed and orders a Leafage. Many leaves pour out of sprigatito and were able to hit ceruledge and break the battle barrier. This caused chaos and everyone was doing their best to shield themselves from the strong winds! Sprigatito gets blown away. Unfortunately, Amethio’s corviknight catches it and kidnaps poor sprigatito. This is where the episode ends.

Thoughts

The first two episodes really delivered. I didn’t think they would be so enjoyable. It has a story, it is action-packed, and a mystery element that I longed wanted for some time now! The series so far is darker than its predecessor. Kids getting kidnapped isn’t a common theme in Pokemon. They did a great job introducing Liko who is one of the new protagonists. The heroes and villains of the series are the Rising Volt Tacklers and Explorers. Both teams were after Liko for her pendant. Her pendant is going to be one of the driving forces of a mystery that needs to be solved and we as an audience will learn as the show goes on.

I felt Pokemon needed this. After 25 years of reusing Ash and Pikachu, it was very obvious from the writing staff they lost that spark. Keeping Ash at 10 years old was detrimental to his character since they couldn’t explore milestones that would happen if Ash was aging. Ash did mature as time went on. He did mellow out and was a happy-and-go-lucky kid. They kept reusing Ash and stuck with the same formula of him obtaining the badges and winning the Pokemon League, it was getting tiring. It was growing more unrealistic that he can explore 8 regions in months and stuck him on a floating timeline. There were attempts to change the formula in the last 7 years to keep the story fresh. But fan reactions have been mixed at best, so it made sense to retire Ash. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on.

Liko did have a great first impression from what she was shown in the first two episodes. She is this shy, timid girl who was unsure of herself. She constantly would talk to herself and do monologues in her mind. She does often worry about the safety of others and does her best to protect which is one of her admirable traits. I did love that she kept a diary and sketches her adventures. I hope that trait of hers continues.

One of the funny moments I did enjoy was she was realizing why everyone was after her and her pendant. She even freaks out that she is viewed as a heroine in her own story. The lightning bolt cemented that fact.

Another major moment was when Liko was finally able to stand up to the explorers and yelled with passion for Sprigatito’s Leafege. I loved how she owned that moment!!

Her Pokemon Sprigaitito was so adorable. It acted like an actual cat, not wanting to do as Liko asks for. While their relationship was rocky at the start, Liko started to take notes and learn about her Pokemon by exploring its habits and understanding its traits better. The only skill she hasn’t mastered as much was battling. Although as of now, we are not sure what kind of trainer Liko wants to be, so I am hoping more will be developed down the line.

Another character that stuck out for me was Friede and his Pikachu, Captain Pikachu. Boy, Friede knows how to make an entrance. Friede embodies Ash’s spirit to the tee. He does remind me of Ash since he is very impulsive and does things without thinking. Friede doesn’t even tell Liko who he is when they first met. Liko has to find out his name from Molly. He may be reckless, but he is very tactical.

While at first, he drove the ship to the freaking storm, wreckless at first sight, there was a reason to do so. It gave more field advantage to his pikachu. As there was a moment where Captain uses the lightning to power up. He is the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers and named its ship The Brave Asagi. We still don’t know what the Rising Volt Tacklers do, so I hope to learn more about them in near future. He is likely the adult supervising Liko and Roy.

His pikachu on the other hand stole the show for me. I didn’t think I would love this Pikachu so much. Captain Pikachu was introduced in his chair, standing on his tail which his arms crossed. I love how that is Capatin’s signature pose and it did make me squeal in excitement.

For one, this Pikachu does not miss his Tail Day workout! It does give a nod back to the original series from episode 14. When Pikachu stands on its tail dodging Raichu’s thunderbolt. So I am happy it making homage to one of my favorite episodes. Cap does put on a serious demeanor and does have the battle skills to back it up. I was so happy to see Volt Tackle again! Oh, how I miss that move so much. He also rocks Double Team and Thunder Punch, which is a more physical moveset compared to Ash’s Pikachu.

I do have a small request and it would cement Captain all the way to the top. I want this pikachu gets anal if he sees a scratch, does a close-up, and goes after the person or Pokemon that made that scratch. That would put Captain Pikachu in legendary status for me.

Liko’s roommate Anne is such a riot! She is messy, unorganized, and outgoing character. I love her design, and they gave her an Arboliva hairstyle and her little fangs are so cute. She became fast friends with Liko and was interested in learning more about her. She insisted to have Liko wear her pendant and wear it proudly. She like Liko gets her first Pokemon. She chose Oshawott and the two bonded faster compared to Liko and Sprigatito. She did have a funny moment where she said she had never been outside of Kanto. I hope this isn’t the last time that we see her. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again!

The rest of the Volt Tacklers, Molly, Murdock, and Orio seemed to be an interesting bunch. I love how each member had an important role. Molly seemed to be the caretaker for the Pokemon on the ship. Murdock is like a chef and feeds everyone. Orio is in charge of keeping the ship going. She works with the fire Pokemon that helps power the ship. There is an elderly gentleman who is also on the ship, but his name hasn’t been revealed yet. So hopefully, we keep learning more about them.

Finally the antagonists, the Explorers. Wow, they do not mess around. Amethio came into the picture and was going to do anything to get his hands on that pendant. This is a welcome change for serious villains. He had no problems trying to adduct Liko and Sprigatito. While they are seen as a threat at the moment, not much about their organization is known. My question is how does Amethio know Liko’s grandma? Has he been pursuing Liko’s family for a while? I hope these questions get answered.

Amethio did crack me up a bit when he battled Friede. Friede decided to do Pikachu, and Amethio thought that the match-up was like a joke. Hearing that comment, made me wonder if this is an alternative universe from Ash’s world. Amethio not taking Pikachu seriously makes me wonder if he was not familiar with Ash’s Pikachu. So this line did make me chuckle. Plus, Captain Pikachu shined in that battle!

Judging from the first two episodes, Pokemon Horizons are taking things to a different approach. There are a few sprinkled nods that the show tosses in there.

One of them was Sprigatito being disobedient and doing whatever it wanted parallels Ash and Pikachu’s relationship when they first met. But at the end of the episode, Sprigatito and Liko were getting along.

Sprigatito’s voice is familiar. It is voiced by Jessie’s VA, Megumi Hayashibara.

Another nod was Liko’s hairpin. Her hairpin looks so much like Ash’s league hat.

The last notable nod was introducing a new Pokemon that no one knows. The second episode showed a preform of Terapagos. This hasn’t happened in a long time. So it was cool that we got to see the new Pokemon. Of course, a few days later, the Pokemon company tweeted out the new Pokemon…

The differences do show right away from what I explained earlier. This show is more plot-driven than anything else we ever received. I am excited to see where this story will take us. Roy hasn’t been as promoted as heavily compared to Liko, so I feel we start hearing from him very soon. I do spy a Quaxly on the ship. Is the Nidorina cosplayer in the Brave Asagi? Are we going to get a character dive to the other main cast members? My ultimate question is, will Pokemon Horizons be continuous like its predecessor? Or will it take breaks and air for a certain time and take a break for several months? The other major question that I asked earlier is whether Liko’s world is tied to Ash’s world.

Conclusion

I am excited that we have a brand-new series! All new characters, new stories that weren’t ever told, and mysteries to be unraveled. I am looking forward to more of the episodes every week. My rating for these 2 episodes is a 9 out of 10. This was a strong opening and I hope it continues on this path in the future. I do recommend it to Pokemon fans who were hungry for something new and different. Thank you for reading ^^

#pokemon horizons #anipoke #trainer liko #liko #sprigatito #captain pikachu #pikachu #professor friede #pokemon 2023 #friede #amethio #rising volt tacklers #pocket monster #pokemon

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