It’s always nice to see how a member of the Rising Volt Tacklers came onto the ship. While we know the general backgrounds of everyone except Ludlow, now that how Dot got here has been revealed in this episode, we're only waiting on how Murdock and Mollie came aboard the ship. Dot at the time was basically the same as she is now, but a bit shyer. She spent her days cooped up in her room streaming, but wanted to expand her horizons after seeing Friede’s thesis, and getting some advice from him and Iono. This was how she suggested to her mother, Blanca, that she wanted to aboard the Brave Olivine as a trial period.
It’s interesting to learn about Blanca and how she's connected to both Dot, her daughter, and Murdock, her older brother, given that Blanca is totally different from both of her family members. Blanca’s chatty, energetic, slightly scatterbrained and a bit overbearing, but means well. I love the little gag with how her Midnight Form Lycanroc has to stop her from chattering too much. I also like that while she did seem like an overprotective mom, she just wants what’s best for Dot—wanting her to say her true feelings, which she’s bad at. At the end of the day, she’s a good mother who teared up when Dot expressed her true feelings about ending the trial period and staying on the airship for real. It’s cute how both Murdock and Blanca have the Rockruff line, but she has the Midnight Form while her brother’s dog hasn’t evolved yet; will there be a day that it’ll evolve and if it does, will it be Midday or Dusk? Also, I was really surprised with her voice actress! She’s voiced by Motoko Kumai, who was previously in Pokémon in the XY series as Serena’s Showcase rival, Nini! I’m usually familiar with her most famous role as Li Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura, so for her to voice an adult woman is a strange but welcome feeling; it’s always nice to see returning voice actors and actresses try out new types of roles, even if they’re minor ones.
What I like about the family issues presented in Horizons is that they’re usually resolved on their own without anyone interfering too much. In the past series with Ash, he often had to step in and solve other people's family matters. For example, in the Black and White series, Bianca and her Dad had a conflict which Ash had to step in and resolve by battling her dad. In the Sun and Moon series, Ash had to involve himself with Lillie’s family matters at first before they resolved it on their own. In this series though, Liko resolved her family issues on her own back in Episode 9, and now in this episode, Dot resolves her own family issues on her own without Liko or Roy interfering. I think that it’s a nice change of pace!
The friendship between the three kids is adorable. Liko and Roy really like Dot, and because they’ve been around each other for a while, they know what to do get her to open the door to her room. This episode, they pretend to leave and it worked. So cute! Liko being a big Nidothing fan and realizing that Blanca once barged into her livestream on accident was cute! I also liked how Liko and Roy helped with chasing Tinkatink around the airship; they just appeared and I found that hilarious. I also found the Maushold being mini delivery mice on the airship adorable! It’s like Murdock got four employees that pass food to Dot!
My only concern with the episode is the fact that Friede was sleeping at Dot’s house, and her reaction to seeing a random guy sleeping in her living room was too calm. Other than that, this was a great episode! I’d love to see more Dot-focused episodes in the future, whether it be her doing silly things with our main duo, doing collaboration streams with Iono, or battling! What are your thoughts on this wonderful episode?
