POKÉMON HORIZONS: THE SERIES

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ANIME ActionPokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master: Ultimate Journeys: The Series
ONA FantasyPokémon Concierge
ONA AdventureCube-Shaped Pokémon on Cubie Island?!
MANGA ActionAnime Pocket Monsters: Liko to Roy no Bouken
MANGA ActionPocket Monsters: Liko no Takaramono
MANGA FantasyKabigon no Yume Gourmet
SPECIALChallenge the World!
ONA AdventurePokémon: Paldean Winds
MUSIC SupernaturalGhost Dive
ONA MysteryDetective Pikachu & the Mystery of the Missing Flan
MUSIC ActionBiri-Biri
ONA FantasyThe Adventures of Snorlax & Cubone
MUSIC AdventureJUVENILE
MUSIC HorrorHyu~dorodoro
MUSIC FantasyPOKÉDANCE
MUSIC ActionGlorious Day
MUSIC ComedyYou're sleeping soundly, Snorlax!
ONA ActionPokémon Masters EX: 4.5 Year Celebration!
MUSIC AdventureAfter Epochs
MUSICLucky (feat. UMI)
ONA FantasyHomecoming
ONA ComedyPOKÉTOON (2024)
MANGA AdventurePocket Monsters: Pucchigumi SP
MANGA AdventurePocket Monsters: Yorimichi Volteccers!!
ONA ComedyMonpoké
MUSIC Slice of LifeThe Pokémon Inside My Heart
SPECIAL Adventure9-tsu no Bouken
ONA AdventurePokémon: Dragonite and the Special Delivery
ONE SHOT AdventureAnime Pocket Monsters Rising 4-koma Volteccers
MANGA AdventureAme Nochi Numera
ONA ComedyPOKÉTOON (2025)
MUSIC AdventureDeparture Song
ONA Slice of LifePokéOki
MUSIC AdventureCrossroad
MUSIC Slice of LifeIolite
ONA AdventurePOKÉTOON (2026)
MUSIC Adventure1996

REVIEWS

• 

  Adiamantine

  100/100
  When Pokémon evolved to a wonderful adventure. (Spoiler-free)

  Hi there,

  This is a repost of the original review I made for Pokémon Horizons a year ago. I left Anilist last April and came back a few days ago with a new account.
  This review will talk about episodes 001 to 089.

  If you know me at all, you know that I'm an absolute Pokémon fan. This obviously includes the games, but beyond that, it includes the entire Pokémon universe.

  This universe includes games, manga, plush toys, games, cards, LEGO (soon) and the Pokémon anime. For over 25 years, this anime was known for “Ash from Palette Town”, “The Team Rocket” and Pikachu, until early 2023, when The Pokémon Company announced the end of the Ash-era and a new series with a new protagonist and a new story: Pokémon Horizons.

  

  With the end of what I call the first real season of Pokémon Horizon, I figured it was time to do my very first anime review there and tell you why Pokémon Horizons is part of my life.

  
  

  # Context

  It's April 13, 2023, and the next day the first episodes of the new Pokémon series, Pokémon Horizons, will be released in Japan. At the time, I was actively following Pokémon Journeys in French, the last arc of the Ash era, and I was already in a mood where Pokémon Journeys made me evolve enormously and really immersed me in anime for good (I hardly followed any at the time, it was very occasional or even non-existent, depending on the year).

  For Pokémon Horizons, I decided to watch the series in OV and not in VF ("Version Française" - French version), to avoid the frustration of having to wait months or even a year for the anime to catch up with the Japanese version. When Horizons came out, we'd just started the final tournament of the Galar League, which lasted a good ten episodes (just to let you know that we still had a long way to go).

  I was very skeptical when Pokémon Horizons arrived, because for me, Ash was the very essence of what Pokémon anime was, having grown up watching the anime over the years of my childhood whether on TV or DVD. (The only season I didn't see at all was the Sun and Moon arc).

  
  

  # A very effective start

  The first episodes are released and... it's already a monumental slap in the face. In 48 minutes (the first 2 episodes were broadcast together as one big block), Horizons gave me a huge slap in the face to Ash's 25-year career. I have to say that between the 5485151st attempt by Team Rocket to capture Pikachu and what happens in these episodes, one of the two scenarios is much more mature and enjoyable to watch.

  What's more, this is one of the few times that a Pokémon has been incorporated into the anime before the main games in the series, and not just any Pokémon either, as it's a Pokémon that will be central to this “season 1” that I've named: Terapagos.

  

  In the original version, this “season 1” is divided into 4 arcs:

  • Liko and Roy's departure (Episode 01 to 25)
  • The Sparkling of Terapagos (Episode 26 to 45)
  • Terastal Debut (Episode 46 to 67)
  • Rayquaza Rising (Episode 68 to 89)

  In the U.S. and European versions, each season comprises 2 arcs (for the time being), with season 1 including episodes 01 to 45 and season 2 from 46 to 89.

  Each arc follows a different storyline while retaining a common objective, and compared to the Ash era where the objective was just to become the master, you could watch an episode on the fly without having seen any previous episode and still be totally lost, The narration of Pokémon Horizons puts a MONUMENTAL slap in the face of 25 years of anime with Sacha, because the episodes really do follow one another linearly, and it's not microadventures that advance the story, as was the case with Journeys for example, but a whole adventure that you follow from start to finish.

  
  

  # Unique and endearing characters

  There are 4 main characters in this series: Liko, Friede, Roy and Dot (as well as their partner Pokémon Cap' (Pikachu) and the trio of 9th-generation starters).

  Narratively, the one who “replaces” Ash's role is Liko, who will form a trio with Roy and Dot over the course of her adventure. As for Friede, he'll let you explain what he is in the series, if he doesn't forget. I'll focus on the trio in this section.

  
  ## Roy: The one who we love to trash talk

  Let's start with Roy, because it's going to be pretty short. Roy is a very energetic character who thinks of only one thing: fighting. In the adventure, his goal is to capture a specific, powerful Pokémon and therefore be strong enough to train. He's a bit of an airhead, relies a lot on strength and little on strategy, and loves to sing.

  Except that relying on his strength and not his strategy makes him a bit of a hothead, and even the writers have to play up to that because compared to Liko and Dot, right now even after 89 episodes, we know very little of Roy's backstory. I'm hopeful that one day we'll get a real Roy backstory, but until then, I and some other people who follow the series closely here love trashtalking him, even if we do like him a little (but shush.)

  
  ## Liko: An adventuress despite herself

  As mentioned above, Liko is Ash's “replacement”, and it's with her that we begin and follow the adventure from episode to episode. Originally from Paldea, she's a character who evolves over the course of the series: at first, she's a character who's lost in her thoughts, her emotions and who has no confidence in herself. Then, as the adventure progresses, she becomes a person who gains confidence in herself and in her friends and her Pokémon, and who manages to lose herself a lot less. (I won't say too much to avoid spoiling the series).

  Her goal in the adventure is at first to live a student life abroad, but this is quickly compromised right in episode 1, when she has to protect something very sentimental to her.

  At first glance, she doesn't have much of a backstory like Roy, but Liko is the character who evolves and matures the most over the course of the adventure. However, it would be a lie to proclaim that Liko has no backstory, being the main character and Ash's replacement, she is the central character of this adventure and as time goes by, we learn that she is much more involved than we could have imagined and we finally learn that she has a huge story around her.

  
  ## Dot: My beloved

  The one I'm most fond of in the end. Dot is a very introverted and shy character, but she's also strategic and competent. In the trio, she's the one with the most backstory, with a few episodes dedicated to her and her past.

  She doesn't appear at the start of the series (although...), so it's a good dozen episodes before we get to see her little by little, until she joins the duo of Liko and Roy and the duo becomes a trio.

  Her goal in this adventure is to open up to the world, and to protect those she holds dear to her heart.

  I could really write a novel about why I adore Dot more than any character in this series or even in the Pokémon universe, but this is a review of Pokémon Horizons, not of the character Dot herself (and that would be spoilerfree).

  But to make a long story short, I recognize a lot more of myself in her than anyone would imagine. If you know me at all, you know how passionate I am about this character.

  
  

  # Pokémon horizons: my favorite safe place

  It's been 2 years now, this April 14th, that every night from Friday to Saturday, I've been watching the episodes (with English subtitles) before going to sleep. At first, I was just watching, but after the 3rd arc, I started to share my impressions of the series here, on the forums, which few people were doing before by posting threads on each episode from episode 48 onwards, and which I'm still doing today.

  More than just another Pokémon series, Horizons is, for me, a new formula in Pokémon anime that works and completely overturns 25 years of Ash anime. The story is so much better developed and imposing, enormously more mature and serious, the anime's artstyle is in step with the times and you can feel that they wanted to go in a new direction at the risk of losing fans by breaking everything. But it's successful, very successful.

  The anime isn't perfect, and there are a few gray areas, such as the lack of Roy's story, or the absence of the secondary Pokémons that the trio obtain along the way, including one in particular that obviously comes from Roy.

  But as far as I'm concerned, Pokémon Horizons has done so much for me personally, made me feel so many emotions, joys, tears and discoveries, that I can't give it anything other than a 10/10.

  Remember when I mentioned Liko, the fact that she evolves enormously in the series? Well, I'm like Liko, totally, in two years I've evolved enormously with Horizons. I've made some sublime friends by opening up to others and investing a lot of time in the Horizons community here on anilist, and every episode has been a breath of happiness and a cure for any sadness I may have. It's a real appointment that I cherish above everything else in this world.

  And I'm limiting myself a lot to avoid saying too much and spoiling certain moments (it's very hard, especially not to talk about Dot), but each episode really is my little safe place, a little hour of pure happiness in which I forget that the world exists and put myself in a bubble that I cherish so much. A bubble I'm happy and proud to be in. A bubble that takes me away from all the worries of the world, all my negative thoughts, all my fears, all my worries, and which just, for the time of an episode and a post on a forum, makes me dream.

  
  Continue on AniList

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