What I like most about this week's episode of Pokémon Horizons is that so much is given out, and that it's all explained so thoroughly. Instead of having the kids go on a Treasure Hunt like in the game, Liko, Roy and Dot enroll in Naranja Academy’s Terastal Course. It turns out that the school allows students from all over the world to enroll in the course to learn more about the Terastal phenomenon, as permitted by Director Clavell and Chairwoman Geeta.Dendra gives an explanation of how the course works. To study Terastal, students must defeat Gym Leaders according to their aptitude. There’s also a condition as students can only have two chances to challenge their assigned Gym Leader, and they pass if the Gym Leader acknowledges their skills. Also, students cannot terastalize outside of battles not revolving around the Terastal Course; this means that regular trainer battles do not permit Terastalizing. Liko gets paired up with Katy, Roy gets paired up with Brassius, and Dot gets paired up with Iono. The kids also get camping equipment, as they have to camp out for the course. Dot is definitely not amused that she's going to have to touch grass for a while now.
There are so many characters introduced in this week's episode that it’s kind of insane. Liko’s parents, Alex and Lucca, return and are actually seen together. It’s sweet that she has such loving parents. Sadly, despite Lucca's backstory as a teacher, she doesn’t seem to work at Naranja Academy. Then we have Clavell who wears the Scarlet version of his outfit, and the Pokémon League members with Geeta and the Elite Four showing up. It’s a little crazy how they just all show up at the school like it’s normal business to patrol the school or something. There’s also the debut of Penny, though she has no lines. I guess she’s being forced to work for the League in this iteration, but it’ll be cool if Team Star gets implemented into the story in some way. Jacq and Dendra make their debuts as teachers. They still teach their respective subjects of Biology and Battle Studies, as in the games. As already mentioned, Dendra is the one who explains the course to the kids, while Jacq tells them that he wants reports from them as they are still students at the end of the day. Nemona also makes a reappearance with her newly evolved Pawmot. In her first appearance, her Pawmo was the butt of a recurring joke where it got sprayed by Brassius’s Doliv’s oil twice. Here, Nemona is now the butt of a new recurring joke, as her desire to battle Roy keeps getting interrupted by staff and the school bell.
The biggest surprise in terms of character returns is Ann, who has transferred to Naranja Academy to partake in the Terestal Course with her newly evolved Dewott. The battle between her and Liko was really well-animated. Liko and Ann were both very strategic, and used various tactics to try and one-up each other. My favorite part of the battle was when Dewott used Aerial Ace, and its fists glowed up as it tried to punch Floragato. I do hope Ann battles more in this arc, it’d be a waste to not give her the opportunity when she’s clearly very capable.
Another surprise is the members of the Explorers coming in to partake in the course too. Sidian and Coral arrive late, and use very terrible pseudonyms, in order to pass as students. Fortunately, they were able to get in because Chalce is herself disguised as a teacher, and was able to hack them into the database. The Explorers are apparently doing this because they were tasked to keep an eye on Liko. There were two things I liked about the Explorers segment. The first is Coral laughing her head off when Sidian introduces them as Onigiri and Sandwich, which she then accepts. The second is the fact that Liko, Roy and Dot recognize them, and aren't suffering from the face blindness that Ash and his friends suffered through for 25 years when it came to Team Rocket’s disguises.Last but not least, the Rising Volt Tacklers are each doing their own things right now. Orla is in charge of the Brave Olivine repairs. Mollie and Ludlow are caring for Pokémon. Murdock is working at what seems to be Patisserie Soapberry in Cortondo as his outfit looks similar to Katy’s. Friede meanwhile is going to research the Six Heroes, as he has the Ancient Pokéballs and Lucius’s belt in his possession as Liko goes off to take the Terastal Course. It’ll be cool to see what the other Rising Volt Tacklers will be doing in future episodes.
As a whole, the entire episode was a very good introduction to the third chapter. The pacing was great in terms of squeezing in everything that was needed. The new opening and ending songs were great too! I think it was quite interesting that they decided to get IVE, a K-Pop girl group, to sing in Japanese for Horizons. Since K-op is rather popular in Japan at the moment, and they've been using K-Pop groups for different openings for various anime series, I guess it was about time that Pokémon would do the same. It shows that this arc will be one to remember with the new changes! It does feel like the quality has stepped up here. I’m honestly hyped up for what’s to come. What about you?
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