Review: Pokémon Horizons’ First Story Arc Starts Strong But Loses Its Way

Pokemon Horizons Roy and Liko battling

After Ash and Pikachu’s final journey in the Pokémon world came to a close earlier in the year, The Pokémon Company had big shoes to fill. After 25 years with one of the most recognizable duos in anime history, Pokémon had to find a replacement that would excite a whole new generation of Pokémon fans, just like Ash and Pikachu did all those years ago.

Pokémon Horizons was the solution, with two new protagonists: a girl named Liko, and a boy named Roy. It was a bold idea, balancing the focus on two characters with different goals, personalities, and approaches to the Pokémon world, though not one that hadn’t been tested. Pokémon Journeys saw Goh take almost equal spotlight with Ash as the latter was coming to the end of his story, and despite a few stumbles, The Pokémon Company managed to get it mostly right.

The same can’t be said for Pokémon Horizons, which just wrapped up its first story arc – Liko and Roy's Departure – in Japan over the weekend. Liko and Roy’s Departure is the first leg of what’s likely to be a long journey for the duo, and despite its strong start, it didn’t take long for problems to start creeping in.

Liko is a compelling character, unsure about her place in the world and how to go about her journey with Pokémon. The first two episodes, which focused solely on her, were charming, sweet, and exciting, with near-perfect pacing and just enough story untold to make me want to come back each week. When Roy was introduced, he was a great foil to Liko — headstrong, sure of himself, rushing into every situation without a second thought.

For a few episodes, we saw the focus shifted back and forth between the two, with some episodes having a heavier focus on Roy and others focusing on Liko. The cracks began to show when the plot tried to have an equal focus on both characters, and even introduced a third, Dot, who seemed poised to take the place of the third protagonist. That story setup with Dot, for better or for worse, seems to have been abandoned, but it still left a mess in its wake.

I’ve written in the past about a recent episode where the new Pokémon anime series went totally off the rails, but the truth is that it’s not just one episode, it’s The Pokémon Company’s entire approach to storytelling in Horizons. Liko and Roy’s mysteries – Liko’s pendant and Roy’s ancient Poké Ball – were interesting concepts apart, but it didn’t take long for Roy’s ancient Poké Ball to become a side story in the tale of Liko’s pendant.

For the last half-dozen episodes, Roy is simply present, a side-character in Liko’s story, and Liko’s story feels directionless and busy. We now know the secret of her pendant, and what she’s working towards, but the journey to get to that point has been a hot mess. Far too many episodes try their hardest to split time between Roy and Liko without ever giving either enough space to breathe. And despite that breakthrough with Liko, Roy is still left with nothing to do.

It’s not helped by a cramped cast, consisting of no less than nine members of the Rising Volt Tacklers – the crew with which Liko and Roy travel – and nine members of the Explorers, the evil team standing in opposition to the Volt Tacklers. The vast majority of this cast appear in every episode, alongside single-episode characters that also make an appearance, and there’s simply not enough time for any of them to make an impact.

The other major problem facing Pokémon Horizons is its desire to sporadically pander to the shonen crowd. Look, I love shonen anime as much as the next person, and Pokémon battles are great, but Horizons’ approach is simply chaotic. It tends to go a few episodes without any battles at all, then packs an episode with five or six battles, all squeezed into a 25-minute runtime.

None of these battles are particularly interesting either, because it’s always the same few characters facing off. Friede’s Charizard vs Amethio’s Ceruledge, Liko’s Sprigatito vs Onia’s Psyduck, Roy’s Fuecoco vs Zirc’s Rhydon. Sometimes Captain Pikachu will pop in to fire off a Thunder Punch, but it’s still the same three battles every single time with very little variation.

What few battles exist outside of this familiar trio of faceoffs are often wrapped up in under a minute, to make way for more plot. You could remove almost every Pokémon battle in Horizons and the story would be identical, they mean absolutely nothing, don’t progress the story in any way at all, and are frankly just boring to watch.

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Pokémon Horizons’ first story arc showed such promise when it began, but quickly devolved into a messy, incoherent slog that does a disservice to its characters and its viewers. Its second story arc starts soon, and promises to be much more focused, but unless The Pokémon Company finds a way to balance its crowded lineup and simplify its storytelling, it’s doomed to repeat the first arc’s problems again.