YMMV / Pokémon Horizons: The Series

• Adorkable:
  • Liko's inner monologues and her reactions to things such as being overcome by cuteness for her Sprigatito or her fangirling over Nidothing make her very easy to like and root for.
  • Roy and Fuecoco as well, especially whenever they start singing their "Fue-Co-Co" song together, something that even Liko finds to be dorky.
• Awesome Music:
  • The original Japanese version uses a John Williams-esqe orchestral sound with a lot of brass that manages to perfectly fit the mood of every scene, from exciting battles to melonchaly pondering. Special note goes to the theme of the Rising Volt Tacklers themselves, which has an addicting harmony and an epic bridge that everyone mourned when it was removed from the English Dub.
  • The Japanese openings and closing are no slouch either.:
    • Liko and Roy's Departure has Dokimeki Diary by asmi and Chinozo for the opening plus the Rising Volt Tacklers Rap performed by Liko, Roy, and a member of the crew as the ending.
    • The Sparkling of Terapagos replaces the opening with Halo by yama and BotchiBoromaru. The RVR remains the closing but now we have part 2, with Liko and Roy swapping their verses and new special verse for the guest to sing to.
    • Terastal Debut changes both with Will by IVE as the opening while the ending is replaced by Let Me Battle by 9Lana, GIGA, and TeddyLoid
  • The Taiwanese dub of Horizons uses an English dubbed version of the song We Go by Korean girl group aespa as the opening, and it's an upbeat rock number that perfectly fits the theme of the series, to the point where many wish it could have been used for the English dub itself. The original Korean-language version is nothing to sneeze at either, with it being used as the opening for the Korean dub for the series.
    • Arguably the Asian English dub gets the best of both words, with this English dubbed variant played on top of the existing English dub.
• Base-Breaking Character: Shares a page with the rest of the series.
• Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the series.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • A number of fans speculate that Liko is autistic, owed to her lack of social skills, her strong observational skills, her studiousness, and her Shrinking Violet personality. She also displays a strong interest in Pokémon and Nidothing, her favorite internet personality, which is easy to read as special interests, and in one scene discusses how her social ineptitude makes it difficult to talk with anyone about them, an experience that many autistic fans relate to. Her first catch in the series, a Hatenna, is shown to be very uncomfortable around conflict and loud noises, which too is a common struggle for those on the autism spectrum.
  • Similarly, fans have been speculating that Dot is similarly autistic due to her being The Shut-In that almost never leaves her room, not even to eat (apparently she seems to subsist just on vitamin gummies), doesn't directly communicate with her teammates on the Brave Olivine aside from the Rotom Phone's messaging app and her Quaxly, and is a Child Prodigy who helped design the Rising Volt Tacklers's tech systems while moonlighting as the highly energetic Nidothing. She also describes direct human interaction as "a pain" and something she doesn't have time for while also loves acquiring new information on things, especially when it comes to Pokémon.
• Discredited Meme: After Liko's grandmother was revealed to not look at all like Delia or any of the mothers of Ash's traveling companions, jokes about any of them suddenly growing into a different look in old age became common and were seen as funny, with many hoping she really was one of them. However, as the rest of Liko's family was revealed and it became clear that Liko is not related to Ash at all, at least not directly, those memes became seen as tired and disrespectful of the series, and were soon always met with derision. Images depicting Ash and one of his traveling companions (usually Serena) as Liko's parents soon also fell out of favor as a result.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise here.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • With Ash retiring as the main protagonist, fans immediately got to theorizing how he would come back to the new series or be related to the new cast.
    • Almost immediately after the series was announced, fans quickly began speculating that Liko was Ash's daughter, given her hair clip is the same shape as the logo on Ash's first hat and that the two have similar hair coloring, leading to just as much speculation over which of his female traveling companions (the most common guesses being Serena and Misty) was the mother. This was debunked when Liko's grandmother appeared in a dream Liko had and she's not Delia, Grace, Caroline, Lusamine, Lana's mother or Johanna. Later, when a batch of episode descriptions leaked out, it further debunked the idea that Liko and Ash were related when it revealed her father's name was Alex. The final nail in the coffin came when the preview showing what Alex looked like arrived, and although he has a few similarities to Ash, he looks almost nothing like him.
    • This theory then bled over into Roy when it was announced he was originally from the Kanto Region — the same region of which Ash is from. Additionally, many speculate Roy is the son of Goh and Chloe due to having pink hair and a dark complexion like the two of them. Assuming Liko is Ash's daughter, many speculated Roy being the same so thematically the new protagonists are both the children of their predecessors. This was later disproven when it was revealed that Roy lived with his grandfather, and he's neither Goh's father or Professer Cerise.
    • With the theory of Ash being Liko's father debunked, another theory has popped up that Friede is either somehow related to Ash, or is Ash in disguise.
    • A new theory proposes that Lucius, the ancient hero from a century ago, is really a cover name for Ash, despite this hero being gone for almost a century and the technology of Ash and Liko's era being virtually identical. This was debunked when Episode 23 showed a better look at Lucius, and he looks nothing like Ash (though funny enough, he is later shown to have owned a Lapras like Ash). Furthermore, said appearance sparked theories that Liko was his descendant.
    • There is an abundance of theories that Ash becomes a mentor figure for Liko and Roy.
    • A new theory that's popped up is that the Hatenna Liko catches in Episode 21 is the same one Ash encountered in the final 13 episodes of his tenure as protagonist, which dropped in the US the same day that Liko caught said Hatenna. The main problem with this theory is that the Hatenna Ash encounters is physically larger then the one Liko encounters and catches.^note Though it wouldn't be the first time in the anime that a Pokémon "magically" changed size between appearances (i.e Dawn's Togekiss and Ash's Palpitoad) so the theory still stands in a way
  • After episode 3, when Mollie had Liko run into a Pokémon Center for her while she waited outside, more than a few people are convinced that Mollie is a relative of the Nurse Joys or a Nurse Joy undergoing a phase of some sort due to having pink hair, her main Pokemon being a Chansey, being The Medic of the Rising Volt Tacklers, and sharing the same Japanese voice actress (Kei Shindo) and English voice actress (Erica Mendez) as Nurse Joy as well. Episode 11 heavily implies this to be the case, though Mollie doesn't outright state it.
  • A LOT of people suspected The Faceless streamer Nidothing was actually Ludlow. While not a lot of hard evidence is present, they both own a Quaxly, and Ludlow is often not with the group. This was jossed when Episode 7 revealed Nidothing's real name to be Dot, and that the Quaxly doesn't really belong to Ludlow but they are friendly with one another. That said, they were right about Ludlow having a secret identity, just not one that anyone expected.
  • At least one person has believed that Goh eventually became a Pokémon Professor due to both of his voice actors being cast as the Pokédex interface, with the In-Universe reason being that he contributed to the dex's entries using his work as a research fellow.
  • Many fans speculate that Captain Pikachu has the Flying Tera Type, with Tera-Flying Pikachu being used in marketing for the gimmick, and Cap's backstory of wanting to fly.
  • A few fans have noticed that The Explorers, specifically Amethio, Zirc and Onia, seem to be close behind whenever Liko talks to Ann about anything regarding the pendant or the Black Rayquaza. This has lead to the theory that Ann is actually a part of the Explorers as The Mole. Many also theorize Ann's Oshawott evolves into the more evil-looking Hisuian Samurott, and a few theorists believe that Ann is outright related to Amethio due to them sharing eye colours, or Coral, due to a similar appearance.
  • After Episode 27 premiered, fans are convinced that the Ingredients Seller that appears in the episode is the same one that appeared during Journeys in the episode "A One Stick Wonder!", helping to establish a connection to Ash's travels. Notably, Nidothing's video also does have a few Pokémon that Ash owns, including a Pikachu, Dragonite, Gengar, and Snorlax, so make of that what you will.
• Evil Is Cool: The Explorers being dangerous and competent overarching villains was praised by fans and reviewers who thought Team Rocket's lack of threat has overstayed its welcome. Amethio being a strong Noble Demon and Spinel being a highly intelligent sociopath in the same vein as The Joker have further contributed to the writing standing out from previous seasons.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The idea of Liko and Roy meeting Ash, or at least one of his prior traveling companions, has been the subject of a great deal of fan art, animations, and fanfics.
  • Something that's been actively encouraged by The Pokémon Company is for the audience to imagine what Ash is up on his journey, while Liko and Roy are off on their own adventures.
• Franchise Original Sin: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The series unexpectedly introduced Terapagos before it made its debut in the mainline games, with Horizons being centered around The Explorers attempting to capture it for its power. When Pokémon Scarlet and Violet dropped The Indigo Disc DLC with said Pokémon, Kieran attempts to selfishly steal Terapagos before the player could obtain it of its own free will (by capturing it in a Master Ball) out of petty revenge for constantly being defeated in battle. Doing so causes the Pokémon to painfully transform into its Terastral Form and cause a lot of damage in the process. One hopes The Explorers fail to get their hands on it...
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • After all those theories that Liko's parents would be Ash and Serena before the series revealed otherwise, the English dub featured Ash and Serena's voice actors (Sarah Natochenny and Haven Paschall) as Liko's classmates. Close, but not quite.
  • An early preview of the series revealed that Steve Blum, who had previously voiced The Starscream himself on Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) and Transformers Earthspark would narrate the opening preview for the series. When the English dub premiered, it was revealed that the series' main antagonist, Gibeon, would be voiced by David Kaye, alias Starscream's boss Megatron from Beast Wars, Beast Machines and The Unicron Trilogy. It's doubly so considering that Armada has been negatively compared to the Pokémon franchise, and 20 years after it came out is its Megatron doing the same thing all over again.
• I Knew It!:
  • Following Ash's victory against Leon in Pokémon Journeys: The Series, fans guessed the character would be retired in favor of a new lead. Not only were they right, but it was also predicted that said lead would be female.
  • Almost everyone expected that Nidothing would be revealed to be on the Brave Olivine, due to the appearance of a seemingly ownerless Quaxly that wandered around the ship. While the identity would ultimately evade fans, their initial guess was correct.
  • When the previews for the 12th episode dropped, fans guessed that the black-haired woman with the yellow Squawkabilly was Liko's mom, and were proven right when it aired.
• Improved Second Attempt: With Ash out of the picture, Horizons aimed to distinguish itself from its predecessors by addressing several of the glaring flaws of the prior series.
  • A major criticism of the later sagas of Ash's tenure, when the series heavily featured one of the friends travelling with him, was that he ended up feeling like a Supporting Protagonist to them, with the series often ending up mostly revolving around the desires and goals of that featured companion and them getting all the good scenes (especially Dawn, Serena, Lillie, and Goh). While Roy is still present as the second protagonist, Liko is the center of the main plot which concerns her pendant and the ancestor who once had it and her emotional growth while learning about the latter. Roy's storyline ties in and supports it, having a connection to one of the Pokemon of her ancestor, but does not supplant it.
  • One of the biggest complaints about Journeys was the fact that, in spite of its "world travel" premise, it gave a very unequal focus to the 8 regions. A combination of the "home base" of the heroes being in Kanto and the show keeping its episodic nature meant that there were far more episodes in Kanto than in any other region, since any episode where Ash and Goh didn't travel would take place in Kanto by default. This also caused Galar to be placed Out of Focus and, outside of Leon, a handful of Gym Leaders, appearances by Hop, Marnie, and Team Yell late into the series, and the Darkest Day storyline (which is shooed out within the first third), get little to no exploration, in spite of it being the Gen 8 anime. This series addresses those problem by giving the heroes a flying ship for a base and introducing a more linear story. Now the main characters spend several episodes in any given region before moving on to the next, and episodes that take place within the Brave Olivine don't favor any region. The series starts in Kanto too, but quickly moves to Paldea to give the new region representation, and after that it moves to Galar, which is allowed much more time to shine. The main character even catches a Hatenna for additional Gen 8 representation.
  • While Chloe’s search for a goal was meant to be seen as sympathetic, many fans complained that having it last for the entirety of Journeys made it seem like she had no purpose in the series other than just existing as the designated Pokégirl, with her story arc rotating in and out with Ash and Goh's being seen as too disruptive to the pacing. While those complaints began to flare up again towards Liko when it seemed like Roy was growing more as a Trainer and a protagonist than her, Episode 20 reveals that this was intentional on the writers' part, with Kabu himself noticing this flaw and calling her out on being too passive and unambitious to be able to grow as a Trainer compared to Roy and that she needed to figure out a goal for herself, with Liko reflecting on these words at the end of the episode.
  • Chloe was later made into sort of a tritagonist for Journeys a fair bit of the way in, but many thought she still didn't appear enough, had barely any involvement in the main story-line, and she never really developed a dynamic with Ash. Horizons has a character that is kind of the tritagonist as well, but intently fixes all three issues: The character in question, Dot, appears frequently, helps Liko and Roy search for Rayquaza and has battled the Explorers, ensuring she has solid contributions to the story, and she quickly develops a dynamic and growing friendship with Liko where Liko helps her gradually grow out of her shell while Liko comes to terms that Dot is actually her idol, the streamer Nidothing.
  • The previous series under Ash's tenure as a whole faced heavy criticism for its abundance of Filler episodes that contributed little to Ash, his companions, his Pokémon, or even Team Rocket's Character Development, especially since it produced largely unmemorable characters-of-the-week with a few exceptions here and there. Horizons has largely reduced, if not outright eliminated, filler stories in favor of episodes favoring development between its main cast, supporting cast, villains, and Pokémon alike, and what weekly guest characters they bring on wind up having a greater contribution to their growth (notably, Kabu is the one who convinces Liko she's being an Extreme Doormat at her own expense).
  • Team Rocket's bumbling trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth are still iconic parts of the franchise for being hilarious, but their constant inability to steal Pikachu without much success and continuously being incompetent (barring Unova, and even that brief stint proved divisive before they went right back to being goofballs) for their tenure as the series villains had worn itself thin. Even worse, because they'd become so foolish, they hardly presented any challenge to Ash when he became stronger, and the moments where they did prove a threat were few and far between. The Explorers, while still having their comedic moments, are presented as far more competent, serious, and willing to learn from their mistakes to actually pose a challenge to Liko, Roy, and the Rising Volt Tacklers, forcing the heroes to adapt to be better prepared against them.
  • Speaking of the Team Rocket Trio, one of the constantly infuriating things about them (to the point where it even ended up on the series' What An Idiot! page) was the fact that despite the TRio constantly adopting disguises, some of them being so incredibly, blatantly obvious, Ash and his friends would constantly fall for every single one, with them only realizing when the TRio reveal their disguises or are exposed. In Horizons, two members of the Explorers, Coral and Sidian, try a similar trick by disguising themselves as students to spy on Liko, Roy, and Dot at Naranja Academy (complete with obvious aliases), yet the three of them are almost immediately able to recognize the two of them as members of the group that's been hunting them down, with them not taking action being far more justifiable than the Team Rocket situations due to the Explorers being far more competent and dangerous and often being known to win battles against the three in the past, as well as being a relatively unknown group globally. In addition, the Rocket trio have been able to fool other more experienced individuals into getting jobs frequently, the employers never bothering to give a background check to the three and just hiring them easily. This is addressed by having a third Explorer, Chalce, disguise as a teacher at Naranja Academy so she can register Coral and Sidian there more easily, overriding the authority of the school's headmaster Clavell when he rightfully recognizes that the two's fake identities aren't on his list.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • The series beginning in Kanto gave many fans painful flashbacks as it's believed that Journey's putting the central base in Kanto and thus giving it the most episodes hurt the representation of Galar and caused many plot points of other regions to feel not explored enough. Thankfully, after the first handful of episodes, the series has stayed in Paldea and Galar (with the possibility of the rest of the regions eventually being visited) for generous amounts of time and the base this time is mobile and travels with the cast, so most do not think this series will have that problem.
  • Pikachu and Charizard making it into the main cast of Horizons is seen as this amongst people who are sick of these two always getting the focus over the many other Pokémon that are out there. The Pokemon themselves are different enough from their predecessors in personality and the series has managed to do a good job of not having them hog the spotlight compared to the Pokemon of Liko and Roy, but the series has made sure to give them plenty of awesome moments that some fans feel are often too evocative of the awesome moments of the Pikachu and Charizard that Ash had.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • The Project SEKAI Fandom had started to like the show because of Minori Suzuki (Ena Shinonome's voice actor) voicing Liko the day during the official reveal announcement.
  • Many fans of the the past series who initially held out finally started tuning in when Nemona was announced to be appearing, especially ones who were still disgruntled Ash was no longer in the series, as she has a lot of similarities to him.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Goh reincarnated into the Pokédex and a Pokémon.^ExplanationThe jokes wrote themselves when Goh's Japanese voice actor Daiki Yamashita was cast as both Horizons's Pokédex and Roy's Fuecoco, with a common gag being that Goh wanted to catch all the Pokémon in the world so much he eventually became a Pokédex and a Pokémon himself. The joke was then revived when Goh's English voice actor Zeno Robinson was cast in the exact same roles as his Japanese counterpart.
  • Alex has rizz^ExplanationLiko's dad, Alex, is quite average-looking compared to his wife, Luca, who people found to be very attractive. Many fans joke about him being a Memetic Badass by wooing such a beautiful woman despite him not being too attractive.
  • Liko is Ena^ExplanationThe joke started following the announcement of Liko's voice actress for the new Pokémon anime, with fans making jokes about Ena being reincarnated into a Pokémon Trainer, or that she took inspiration of her father's skills. (Furthermore, both of them share similarities about their father's drawing skills in the game and anime.)
  • Amethio didn't watch the World Championships ^ExplanationWhen Friede sends out Captain Pikachu against Amethio's Ceruledge, Amethio gets incredibly insulted at not being taken seriously. This just after a Pikachu became The Signature Mon of the World Monarch! Needless to say, Ceruledge doesn't so much as get a hit in
  • Gibeon is Megatron. ^Explanation Similar to the Liko example, the announcement that David Kaye would be voicing The Explorer's leader Gibeon in the English Dub sparked jokes that he was really the Predacon Leader in disguise. The fact that two are closely associated with the color purple doesn't hurt the comparison.
• Moral Event Horizon: Spinel, one of The Explorers' admins, demonstrates he's not the bumbling Team Rocket Trio by launching a full-fledged assault on the Brave Olivine and then using his Beeheeyem to brainwash Liko and Sprigatito into thinking they had amnesia while he makes off with her pendant.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Many voice acting fans were ecstatic when they heard that the English dub of the series would receive an opening narration provided by none other than Steve Blum himself.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The English Dub finally got a release window in a region, December 2023 in the UK, 8 months after the series started in Japan, causing many fans to joke that the Dub was Saved from Development Hell due to the wait seeming absurd and North America still not having a release date. Actually, the last few sections of the Journeys dubs came out in English-speaking territories about six months after airing in Japan as well, so it's pretty much maintaining a release schedule of sorts. Also, looking at the history of the Pokemon anime, when 4Kids first started dubbing the series, it was a year and a half behind Japan, and the dub stayed between a year and six months until Diamond and Pearl aired on Cartoon Network and the series frequently aired two or three episodes together because CN wasn't able to produce more content at the time and they got good ratings while being cheap for the network, getting to just three months behind Japan, staying that way until the move to Netflix caused the gap to increase to what it was at the end of Journeys. ^note That said, the joke somehow managed to stick for the other English-speaking countries, as the release for the series on Netflix got delayed to March 7, 2024, almost a year after the episodes started airing in Japan and firmly being the second longest gap between premieres, only behind the first episode.
  • The series was announced to be increasing the focus on the humans compared to past series'. Pokémon: The Power of Us, released almost five years earlier, had done that, being somewhat of a character study of several characters.
  • Some critics have remarked that the series ruined what they believed to be a core aspect of the anime, in that the kids are under constant adult supervision while in past series they were autonomous people treated as equals. This is, at most, Early-Installment Weirdness but even that is probably stretching it. While Ash and his friends were on their own during the original series and Advanced Generation, they were still implied to frequently report their activities to their parents and Professor Oak and were still remarked to be kids (especially since no time was allowed to pass in order for them to grow) by adults. Diamond and Pearl introduced Cynthia who was in the same region and implied to be keeping track of Ash and, stepping in when things became crazy, and following series continued have situations like that (mainly in the form of Professors, the region's champion, and even Blaziken Mask who is actually Clemont and Bonnie's dad). Eventually it got to the point where in Sun and Moon, Ash was also surrounded by adults who supervised him, even living with Professor Kukui, and Journeys where he worked for Professor Cerise, who sent him on jobs he believed Ash could handle. On top of that, there are also the travel companions such as Brock or Cilan, who while not adults, are significantly older figures who help supervise the group so Ash and his friends were not truly independent for most of his run either.
  • Many noted that Liko having Sprigatito being selected for her by the school by chance was a massive subversion of how a character's first Pokémon is usually gained in a unique circumstance for a special reason. However, that actually didn't happen every time previously in the anime. May chose Torchic because she thought it looked cute and was mad at the Mudkip also offered, Serena decided to choose Fennekin for unexplained reasons, Mallow got Bounsweet by encountering it and her mother decided to catch it so she wouldn't be lonely, Kiawe and Goh both happened to encounter their first Pokémon and teamed up due to random events. Even Ash arguably subverted it in the first episode because the reason he could only get Pikachu was because he overslept.
  • Many people were surprised that Liko caught a Hatenna for her first catch, as while it is available in Scarlet and Violet, it debuted in Sword and Shield. Ash and friends also caught Pokemon not exclusive to the current Gen. (Examples include: Aipom during the Battle Frontier saga and Dragonite, Gengar, and Lucario on Ash's Journeys team)
• One-Scene Wonder: Larry's cameo in Episode 18 is this due to his Ensemble Dark Horse status in the games. Fans became even more ecstatic upon learning the "Terastal Debut" arc would feature him more.
• Spoiled by the Format: One thing that the poster for the upcoming "Terastal Debut" arc gave away was that Liko's Sprigatito would evolve into Floragato, before the show itself had yet for it to occur.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Perhaps naturally, there's a vocal minority of Pokémon: The Series fans that refused to give Horizons a chance simply because Ash was no longer the star of the show.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The way Terastalization is animated in the series is pretty damn impressive, still maintaining the same luster as it does in the games.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The appearance of Normal-form Terapagos in the cliffhanger between the first and second episodes. Not only was this far in advance of the Pokémon's game debut, as the release date for the Indigo Disk DLC wouldn't even be announced for nearly seven months after the episodes aired, but this was the first appearance of the Normal form anywhere, a surprising fact given that it had been multiple generations since the last time a Pokémon made its debut in the anime before being announced anywhere else.
  • As Journeys had downplayed the presence of characters from the games and didn't adapt much of its corresponding game, and no video-game characters were on the Rising Volt Tacklers, many fans believed that the series would double down on being its own thing and not have any game character appear. So most fans were pleasantly surprised when episode titles revealed that Nemona and Brassius from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet would be appearing in the tenth episode.
  • The poster for the Summer 2023 episodes featured another unexpected character - Kabu, the Motostoke Gym Leader of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Since Journeys only featured half of the Galar League characters ^Note Bea, Allister, Piers, Leon, Opal and Raihan, this was a pleasant surprise for fans of the Galar games.
  • Liko catching a previous generation Hatenna as her second Pokémon makes for quite a surprising catch as it serves to establish Horizons as a series that isn't going to be restricted to just Gen 9 catches^NoteHatenna is available in Scarlet and Violet itself, so it can still be recreated in-game..
  • The third Pokémon that belonged to Lucius is revealed to be a Galarian Moltres, another Gen 8 Pokémon that never appeared in the previous series.^note It is transferable into Scarlet and Violet, though it can't be caught in the games themselves.
  • Episode 25 reveals the identities of the other three Pokémon Lucius once owned, and they happen to be a Lapras, an Entei and a Kleavor. Not only were these surprising since Kleavor was the only one transferable into Scarlet and Violet until the release of The Indigo Disk DLC, but there was little presence of Hisuian Pokémon (aside from The Arceus Chronicles in a flashback, and a render of Hisuian Voltorb that appears in the ending credits) in the anime during Ash's run, and there is yet no in-universe explanation as to where the Hisuian Form Pokémon have been in the interim between the past and the present day.
  • A poster for the third arc, "Terastal Debut", revealed even more surprise characters being adapted from Scarlet and Violet, including Katy, Grusha, Rika, Poppy, and Hassel. The trailer itself also had a cameo appearance of Penny alongside the Paldean Elite Four.
  • Episode 45 revealed that Gibeon, leader of the Explorers, has a Shiny Zygarde in its 10% form by his side. While it makes sense in light of the announcement of Legends Z-A, seeing a Shiny version of one of the Kalos legendaries as a partner Pokémon of someone who is potentially the Big Bad of Horizons is still quite surprising.

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