Preview HZ020: Kabu-san's Battle Training

[BigDocFan]

Screenplay 土屋理敬 (Michihiro Tsuchiya)
Episode Director 森山愛弓 (Ayumi Moriyama)
Storyboard 齋藤徳明 (Noriaki Saito)
Animation Director 倉員千晶 (Chiaki Kurakazu)
Animation Director 服部奈津美 (Natsumi Hattori)
Animation Director 萩原慶汰 (Keita Hagiwara)

Title and Staff List courtesy of Dephender at Serebii, set to air September 1st

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Finally, Kabu gets to make his long awaited debut.

I imagine he's probabrly going to be the main star attraction of Liko and Roy's first Galar visit so this should be an enjoyable episode.

Fingers crossed the other gym leaders we never saw in Journeys get to make their debuts in the future too.

 

[BigDocFan]

Super excited to see Liko and Roy (I assume its both of them) under-going battle training by Kabu

 

[Kurolegacy]

I swear to Arceus if this is yet another Roy episode when Liko hasn’t gotten much trainer development, I’m gonna lose it.

 

[SammyW27]

Wouldn't it be something if Horizons debuted the rest of the Galarean cast?

I swear to Arceus if this is yet another Roy episode when Liko hasn’t gotten much trainer development, I’m gonna lose it.

Eh, it's not like she's much of a trainer. Roy's the trainer doing regular trainer stuff. Liko's the heroine on a magical journey. It's about the same as Ash challenging Gyms, Dawn, May & Serena were in Contests/Showcases, and both dealt with the villains & helped Pokemon.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Wouldn't it be something if Horizons debuted the rest of the Galarean cast?


Eh, it's not like she's much of a trainer. Roy's the trainer doing regular trainer stuff. Liko's the heroine on a magical journey. It's about the same as Ash challenging Gyms, Dawn, May & Serena were in Contests/Showcases, and both dealt with the villains & helped Pokemon.

Well that’s kinda a problem for 2 reasons;

1 this is Pokémon. If we were here for some magical journey, we wouldn’t be watching this particular series as there’s an ocean of Isekai that are that.

And 2, and the thing I think people keep disregarding, Liko is the duel protagonist of this series. Ergo, she’s supposed to be in the same level of importance as Ash’s was. She shouldn’t be written as just another pokegirl because this is supposed to be half her story. And to deem that simply because she’s a girl that its fine that she doesn’t get to act as an actual trainer speaks a lot of the gender inequality in this anime. It’s especially ridiculous when we just saw a tournament of the top 8 trainers in the world where almost if of them were female and we’re in a generation where not only is the region champion female but our main rival who is also a champion level trainer is also female. So let’s not double down on Journeys‘ mistakes of trying to make this franchise out to be a boys club while girls aren’t allowed to get into the meat of things. Hell, Pokémon Special got this right years ago breaking expectations by having Sapphire be the one who pursued gym battles while Ruby did Contests, there’s no excuse here.

 

[Sakuraa]

Yay! Kabu's debut! I hope someone will battle him at his gym. I need to see the Galar Gyms properly shown off! Would be cool if Liko and/or Roy could challenge gyms as a side hobby on their adventures.

 

[Poke Trey]

I'm genuinely surprised at the return of JN writers in this series, now Michihiro Tsuchiya is back! He wrote some of my fave episodes from there like the Flygon episode, his SS episodes, Wikstrom's debut, his 2 MPM episodes and the one he wrote before the finals with Ash VS Leon. The choice of Director is interesting too because this'll be the 1st one that Ayumi will direct without Makoto Oga who usually directs with her.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Its a real shame Kabu had to wait until Pokemon Horizons to get his debut, instead of the actual Gen 8 series that was hardly a Gen 8 series.

 

[Eclipsical]

I don't think Journeys or Horizons are really adaptions of their respective generations in the same way the previous series were. They both feel more like shows that are about Pokemon as a franchise overall that aren't adherent to any generation and therefore don't feel obligated to showcase characters/Pokemon/locations/stories/etc that don't fit into the story they want to tell.

I think it is a little inaccurate to consider Journeys a Gen 8 series or Horizons a Gen 9 series (even if Horizons is seemingly adapting more from the current gen than Journeys) when they are meant to explore the entire Pokemon world and not just promote the newest games.

 

[Dr. Gro 3001]

I don't think Journeys or Horizons are really adaptions of their respective generations in the same way the previous series were. They both feel more like shows that are about Pokemon as a franchise overall that aren't adherent to any generation and therefore don't feel obligated to showcase characters/Pokemon/locations/stories/etc that don't fit into the story they want to tell.

I think it is a little inaccurate to consider Journeys a Gen 8 series or Horizons a Gen 9 series (even if Horizons is seemingly adapting more from the current gen than Journeys) when they are meant to explore the entire Pokemon world and not just promote the newest games.

You do have a point, and there is the fact that both Journeys and Horizons are emphasizing the world travel aspect of the Pokemon world. However, it did suck a little bit that Galar got shafted as it did in Journeys and that some characters from that region didn't even appear at all in Journeys.

 

[Alola]

I swear to Arceus if this is yet another Roy episode when Liko hasn’t gotten much trainer development, I’m gonna lose it.

I fear this'll be the case. Roy having a Fire Starter while visiting a Fire specialist in a training episode just seems too obvious a writing choice; I'm sure Fuecoco will go through some manner of skill gain, such as a new Fire-type move. I can only hope Liko gets absolutely destroyed in a battle with Kabu, to the point it makes her revalaute her training aspect of being a Trainer; hopefully, it could lead to some character development, maybe capturing some Pokemon, etc. But that's just an extremely unlilkely opinion.

Eh, it's not like she's much of a trainer. Roy's the trainer doing regular trainer stuff. Liko's the heroine on a magical journey. It's about the same as Ash challenging Gyms, Dawn, May & Serena were in Contests/Showcases, and both dealt with the villains & helped Pokemon.

I don't think that's a good comparison. Roy dabbles in battling, but doesn't take it nearly as serious as Ash typically did at the beginning of each saga; he's not even doing the most basic expectation of competing for Badges. And Dawn had done much more than Liko has at this point (episode-wise) in regards to her tangible goal.

I'll give you the comparisons of May & Serena, somewhat. Unlike Liko though, they weren't the main character or co-lead. And as such, there wasn't too much of a complaint at that point given that said main character was actually working towards his goal actively in the interim. I also don't think it's a good look that this is the fourth (or third, depending on your point of view) female traveling character that doesn't know what she wants to do in her life/doesn't have something to actively pursue for development while her male counterparts immediately do. It would be nice if that trait could be reversed from time to time.

 

[Karakuri18]

I fear this'll be the case. Roy having a Fire Starter while visiting a Fire specialist in a training episode just seems too obvious a writing choice;

Not necessarily. While this would indeed be a sensible choice, it doesn't necessarily work.
Note that Roy was fighting Brassius, even though Liko would have been more suited to it (in the episode with Kabu, it may be similar and it will be Liko who will fight the Galar leader).

 

[BigDocFan]

I fear this'll be the case. Roy having a Fire Starter while visiting a Fire specialist in a training episode just seems too obvious a writing choice; I'm sure Fuecoco will go through some manner of skill gain, such as a new Fire-type move. I can only hope Liko gets absolutely destroyed in a battle with Kabu, to the point it makes her revalaute her training aspect of being a Trainer; hopefully, it could lead to some character development, maybe capturing some Pokemon, etc. But that's just an extremely unlilkely opinion.

Maybe it will lead to her visiting Milo

 

[Emelie]

Liko training with a fire type trainer could be interesting but I bet they will just focus on Roy and his lame song gimmick lol.

 

[BigDocFan]

Summary courtesy of Dephender at Serebii

Liko and Roy have met Kabu, the Gym Leader of Engine Stadium and a native of the Houen region. Figuring that this means he might know something about Rayquaza, the Legendary Pokémon that's likewise from the Houen region, they decide to ask him about it. Kabu is so moved by their dedication he decides to train them. It's time for Kabu's fire training to begin!

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Seems like Kabu will be debuting at the end of the previous episode going off the summary.

Sounds like he'll be training both Liko and Roy as well.

 

[Eclipsical]

A bit of a logical jump for the kids to make that he would know about Rayquaza just because he's from Hoenn, lol. But nice to see them taking that bit of backstory into account.

 

[Eitarou]

Not only are they debuting Kabu, they're actively using his status as a Hoenn native as part of the plot? I spent months asking for that in Journeys!

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Seeing as how Liko only has Sprigatito and won't potentially have anything else until after this episode, could this mean a new move for Sprigatito? Feucoco's almost certainly getting a new move or something at least, given how Kabu specializes in Fire types.