A New Horizon

I've been loosely following the new Pokémon anime, Pokémon Horizons, since it began airing in Japan, but I decided to wait for the English version before properly watching it. I was really happy when I learned that we'd be getting Pokémon Horizons here in the UK on BBC iPlayer at the beginning of December.

The other day, I sat down and watched the first six episodes of the show that are currently available as of writing and decided to write up my thoughts on it as I watched.

(Warning: This may have spoilers for the first 6 episodes and maybe some minor spoilers for episodes beyond that.)

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Pokémon Horizons follows the story of a new Pokémon Trainer, Liko, as she begins at a new school in the Kanto Region. Liko is originally from the Paldea Region and the school was was recommended to her by her parents, who both attended the same school themselves when they were younger. This is Liko's first time outside of the Paldea Region and going about things on her own, but she hopes that this journey to a new school and new region will help her to discover and learn more about herself.

One of the first things we learn about Liko is that she seems to struggle a little with social anxiety. On the bus that is taking her to her new school, she sees two girls watching 'Nidothing', a popular content creator that Liko also loves, but she never knows how to start conversations and often as she's trying to figure out what to say, she misses her change to do anything at all. She is also a rather introspective kind of girl, who thinks a lot in her mind about the situations she's in and the solutions to problems, but she also, at times, can get carried away with specific thoughts and loses focus on other things.

Liko on the bus unable to start a conversation with a couple of other girls.

Honestly, as someone who is also a quiet, introspective person who struggles with anxiety, I found Liko quite a relatable character in the first few episodes. 

Liko eventually meets her new roommate, Ann, who, despite being quite the opposite to Liko with a very upbeat and energetic personality, she quickly becomes friends with her.
Sadly, Ann doesn't get a huge lot of focus and doesn't appear much at all after the first episode, but she's a fun character and gets an Oshawott as her partner.

Liko eventually receives her first partner Pokémon, Sprigatito, but it doesn't quite go to plan.
She's nervous about meeting her first partner, wanting to make a good first impression, but Sprigatito is quite stand-offish with Liko at first. When Liko reaches out to touch it, it scratches her and runs off. Sprigatito seems to prefer to do it's own thing, which makes it difficult for Liko to bond with it. Despite this, Liko is determined to learn what she can about her new partner, so she follows it and observes it's behaviour, hoping to figure out what Sprigatito likes and what they'd like to do together.

Liko and Sprigatito

When the school break begins, Liko stays at the school and is soon approached by a mysterious stranger claiming to be delivering a letter from her grandmother. He tells Liko to come with him and to bring the pendant that her grandmother gave to her. We later learn this mysterious person is named Amethio and is a member of a group called 'The Explorers'.

Liko is immediately suspicious of him, so she gets the pendant from her room and escapes out of the window with Sprigatito. The Explorers pursue her onto the roof, demanding that she gives them the pendant. This is when another person Liko doesn't know (Friede) shows up on the back of a Charizard and faces off against Amethio.

As the battle behind her happens, Liko attempts to make a leap onto another roof with Sprigatito, just as an attack hits nearby, but her pendant suddenly glows and creates a protective shield around her. Inside it, she sees a strange Pokémon (which we know to be the normal form of Terapagos), but it quickly disappears, the shield going with it, which causes Liko and Sprigatito to fall. Thankfully, they're caught by Friede and Charizard and are taken back to an airship, named the 'Brave Olivine', which is the home and base of operations for Friede's team, the 'Rising Volt Tacklers'.

Liko and the Rising Volt Tacklers

Friede is the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers. He's confident in his battling skills, but he definitely seems like an 'Act now. Explain later' kind of person... then he forgets to explain anything at all. His absent-minded tendencies seems like a very well known personality quirk amongst the rest of his crew, especially when they discover that he's not explained anything to Liko about them, or what's going on, or that they were actually hired by Liko's mother to be her bodyguards.

Other than Charizard, Friede's other Pokémon is Captain Pikachu, or 'Cap' for short, which has powerful moves such as Thunder Punch and Volt Tackle. It also appears that it is left in charge of navigation when Friede isn't there.

The other members of the crew are:

Orla: The ships engineer.

Mollie: In-charge of the ships infirmary and health of those on board.

Murdock: The ships cook.

Ludlow: An older man who seems to keep mostly to himself and seems to stay on the ship.

There is also another on board that we don't get directly introduced to in the first six episodes, which is Murdock's niece, Dot. She's the reclusive programmer of the group... and is also secretly the influencer, Nidothing.

Later on in the first six episodes, we also meet Roy, a young enthusiastic, adventurous boy who is lives on a remote island in the Kanto region. He dreams of becoming a trainer and going off on adventures, inspired by the stories he was told about a legendary adventurer. He also owns a mysterious ancient Pokéball which was given to him by his grandfather.

He eventually comes across and befriends the Fuecoco that resides on the Brave Olivine, when it falls off the airship and onto the island. After they part, Roy attempts to sneak onto the Brave Olivine to see Fuecoco again, wishing to be it's partner.

Roy showing Fuecoco his mysterious ancient Pokéball.

During a run-in with the Explorers the next day, Liko's pendant and Roy's Pokéball glow together, seemingly having some kind of connection. This causes the ancient Pokéball, which Roy thought was empty, to open and a black Rayquaza to come out from it. The Rayquaza uses Draco Meteor, which makes the Explorers retreat, then it flies off.

After this, Roy tells Fuecoco how much he wants it to be his partner and Fuecoco, feeling the same way, spits out a Pokéball that was given to it by Friede's Charizard.

Once he's captured Fuecoco, Roy explains how much he not only wants to chase his own dream of being a trainer and finding the black Rayquaza, but also Fuecoco's dream of becoming big and strong like Friede's Charizard, which it admires. Upon hearing this, Roy's grandfather allows him to join the Rising Volt Tacklers and embark upon his Pokémon journey.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching the first six episodes of Pokémon Horizons. The show is the typical feel-good adventure series that Pokémon has always been, but I do enjoy it having a bit more of a story-driven narrative about the mystery of Liko's pendant and Roy's Pokéball. I will admit, I'm pretty fond of stories where the characters get to travel on something like a cool looking airship, so it's definitely already an aesthetic I quite like.

All the characters seem incredibly fun with their own little personality quirks and I'm left wishing to know more about the Rising Volt Tacklers, as well as the Explorers and why they're after Liko's pendant.

I am aware of some of the story developments beyond the first six episodes, but I am excited to see where this series goes in its story and character development going forward.