Pokémon Horizons General Discussion/Speculation Thread

[Eclipsical]

I think Mollie could be a fun twist on Nurse Joy. Joy is always positive and happy to help, while Mollie looks more serious.

 

[Hidden Mew]

What’s this writer’s obsession with sticking to Kanto and pushing aside the latest region? I could understand not wanting to 100% copy the games, but it really seems like the writers are just trying to copy Journeys with a brand new cast at this point. If they were going to do the same formula, then I’d rather they just extend Journeys rather than get rid of Ash and Goh just because.

Speaking of which, is the school at least an established location that isn’t Viridian City?

To be fair, we don't know if they'll be sticking to Kanto and pushing aside Paldea yet. Having another anime exclusive location in Kanto like this does set off some red flags, especially with it being another world tour series too. I don't know if they've confirmed where the school is yet either.

I'd be surprised if the school is significant purely because it has a uniform, and animators will not want to keep drawing Liko in both her uniform and travel clothes every episode.

I'm not expecting them to keep them at the school in every episode, but rather I don't know if they'd go through the hassle of desinging school uniforms and characters only for them to drop them and the location after Liko and Roy start their journey.

 

[Sakuraa]

Okay, now that I've taken the time to re-watch the trailer and look over the new website, I want to give some more opinions on Horizons.

When it was first announced that this series would be another region hopping one, I was a tad nervous, and I still am partially. But just from what I see now, things are looking good. It looks like they'll actually be focusing on all of the regions rather than this just being "Kanto feat: the other regions every so often". Heck, even though Liko is at a Kanto boarding school, we're seeing starters from all regions being given to students, we see the shiny Rayquaza over a Kanto mon, Freide's crew all have Pokemon from different regions, Amethio has Cereuldge, all Paldea starters are showing up early, and overall it doesn't fully feel like we're just limited to Kanto in the beginning.

I also just love how grand this new adventure feels. Traveling on a giant airship to discover Pokemon mysteries and challenge Pokemon from legends sounds like a fun premise that isn't a vague as the "Pokemon Master" nonsense from the previous show. I'm guessing Friede is a Professor of Kanto, but it's funny to me how he can just travel around on an airship from region to region. I wonder what his actual Professor duties are.

It's interesting that Liko's grandmother is the one who gave her the pendant. Now I'm curious how Roy got his mystery Poke Ball. Was it given to him or did he just find it somewhere? I also like that Liko is a fan of Gurumin/Nidothing's (I read that was the dub name) videos. I'm guessing Nidothing will have a more major role than I first anticipated, considering they have Quaxly for now. Though I'm wondering if it'll be a situation of Nidothing joining the main cast or Quaxly somehow winding up leaving Nidothing and joining main cast. Considering all of the promotion material shows it in the spotlight with Liko, Roy, and the other starters, I''m guessing it'll wind up with the main crew some way or another. Also the fact that Roy's Fuecoco likes to sing has me guessing it'll fully evolve eventually.

I also must say, that even though I'd like to see more of Roy, I do like all of the big focus on Liko up front. Story time: Back when Scarlet and Violet were first being teased, I noticed how Juliana was being promoted with the primary version Scarlet, while Florian was associated with the secondary version Violet, and overall was shown off more than him. And I remember myself thinking "Man, with all of this focus on the girl in the promos, it would be so funny if in the next anime series they replaced Ash with a girl." I literally just though it as a joke, but lo and behold, here we are.

Again, I am overall hyped. Everything is looking really nice. I truly haven't been interested, let alone actually EXCITED, to watch the Pokemon anime since XY so I really hope Horizons winds up being good.

 

[Eclipsical]

The fact that Landou looks like a Drampa but doesn't have a highlighted partner, along with him being old, make me feel like he had one at some point but it isn't around anymore (like a certain Stoutland...)

 

[Mr.Snack]

I know I will get hate for this, but today I have so many emotions in my chest thats overwhelming.

I´m disgusted with the anime staff PR/whoever that manages their twitter account. Today was the end of a 26 year midsummer night´s dream and what they do? Just promote the new series non stop. Ash was completely removed form the banner and even the Pikachu logo changed to Captain Pikachu. Obviously this needed to happen in the short term to promote the new series, but couldn´t they at least hold it back to next week? Let us old geezers say our goodbyes without being bombarded by the new generation.

To me this just proves they never cared about Ash or us, at least in the last few years. Don´t get illusions, they don´t care about Riko and Roy either. They are an experiment to see if they can win money. Nothing more.

Honestly, it´s making it pretty hard for me to not become a full blown hater of the next series and of some places of the Pokemon online community in general. Add to this the fact that today´s trailer paints Riko as the kind of character I hate the most in all fiction. The character that is special since the beginning, chosed by a higher power/having a special gift (her pendant). Say what you will about Ash, but when he began his journey he wasn´t special neither had something special with him. Further more, her first interactions with Sprigatito will just be a copy of Ash and Pikachu´s first meeting. So much for creativity and a fresh start.

Right now, Friede and the explorers are the only things that interest me. I still don´t have an opinion on Roy, which to me isn´t a good sign.

For the past years I had to deal with people bashing Ash and, above all, Team Rocket. Although I will try my best, I don´t think I will be able to stop myself to do the same to these characters, especially when they took something so important to me.

Once again I appoligize for my outburst, but I really hope this series burns in hell. The fact they are so desperate to pormote it at least shows they aren´t 100% delusional about it´s success and are actually putting on work.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Not gonna lie, pretty daring move on whoever manages the official twitter account.

 

[Kallyle]

Since Horizon’s seems to be focused on the mysteries of the Pokémon World, what mysteries do you think we’ll cover alongside Liko’s pendant and Roy’s Poké Ball? I want to see areas that the Anime didn’t get to touch upon yet like the majority of the Sevii Isles from FRLG and the Braille connection, or maybe Unova’s Black City and/or White Tree Forest.

I´m disgusted with the anime staff PR/whoever that manages their twitter account. Today was the end of a 26 year midsummer night´s dream and what they do? Just promote the new series non stop. Ash was completely removed form the banner and even the Pikachu logo changed to Captain Pikachu. Obviously this needed to happen in the short term to promote the new series, but couldn´t they at least hold it back to next week? Let us old geezers say our goodbyes without being bombarded by the new generation.

To me this just proves they never cared about Ash or us, at least in the last few years. Don´t get illusions, they don´t care about Riko and Roy either. They are an experiment to see if they can win money. Nothing more.

The cynic in me feels your assessment is spot on. I do think they’ll at least try with Liko and Roy, but that won’t mean much if they stick with their usual bad writing. They’ve definitely moved on too soon regardless.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Since Horizon’s seems to be focused on the mysteries of the Pokémon World, what mysteries do you think we’ll cover alongside Liko’s pendant and Roy’s Poké Ball?

I hope they'll focus on mysteries of legendaries and mythicals.

 

[Eclipsical]

Since Horizon’s seems to be focused on the mysteries of the Pokémon World, what mysteries do you think we’ll cover alongside Liko’s pendant and Roy’s Poké Ball? I want to see areas that the Anime didn’t get to touch upon yet like the majority of the Sevii Isles from FRLG and the Braille connection, or maybe Unova’s Black City and/or White Tree Forest.

Mew under the truck.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I know I will get hate for this, but today I have so many emotions in my chest thats overwhelming.

I´m disgusted with the anime staff PR/whoever that manages their twitter account. Today was the end of a 26 year midsummer night´s dream and what they do? Just promote the new series non stop. Ash was completely removed form the banner and even the Pikachu logo changed to Captain Pikachu. Obviously this needed to happen in the short term to promote the new series, but couldn´t they at least hold it back to next week? Let us old geezers say our goodbyes without being bombarded by the new generation.

To me this just proves they never cared about Ash or us, at least in the last few years. Don´t get illusions, they don´t care about Riko and Roy either. They are an experiment to see if they can win money. Nothing more.

Honestly, it´s making it pretty hard for me to not become a full blown hater of the next series and of some places of the Pokemon online community in general. Add to this the fact that today´s trailer paints Riko as the kind of character I hate the most in all fiction. The character that is special since the beginning, chosed by a higher power/having a special gift (her pendant). Say what you will about Ash, but when he began his journey he wasn´t special neither had something special with him. Further more, her first interactions with Sprigatito will just be a copy of Ash and Pikachu´s first meeting. So much for creativity and a fresh start.

Right now, Friede and the explorers are the only things that interest me. I still don´t have an opinion on Roy, which to me isn´t a good sign.

For the past years I had to deal with people bashing Ash and, above all, Team Rocket. Although I will try my best, I don´t think I will be able to stop myself to do the same to these characters, especially when they took something so important to me.

Once again I appoligize for my outburst, but I really hope this series burns in hell. The fact they are so desperate to pormote it at least shows they aren´t 100% delusional about it´s success and are actually putting on work.

While I want to give the series a chance, I certainly can't blame you for being upset. I knew that they'd have to change the banner, but they probably could have waited at least a couple of days after the episode aired instead of doing it so soon. I can't really blame them for promoting Horizons when we got a new trailer and the next couple of weeks will have more promotion too, but they still probably could have waited a bit to remove Ash and Pikachu from their Twitter banner.

 

[Soublades192]

Once again, I feel today's episode gave more of a 'See you again' type of feel than an actual definite ending for Ash. I would not be shocked if the PR person feels the same at this point

 

[Konja7]

To me this just proves they never cared about Ash or us, at least in the last few years. Don´t get illusions, they don´t care about Riko and Roy either. They are an experiment to see if they can win money. Nothing more.

Yeah. They don't especially care about Liko and Roy either.

I'm pretty sure they are planning to replace them when a new anime for Gen 10 starts.

It's convenient for the anime companies to constantly replace the protagonists, that way they could start a new story every time. Also, this gets the audience used to the constant change.

 

[Nicolas721]

The dub is taking a big risk by assouming Nidothing won't wear costumes of other Pokemon eventually lol I'm surprised they have Quaxly, so I assume the gang will watch their videos pretty often.

I expected a bit more from the trailer but it was nice that they presented the opening and that Liko will have two battles during the first episodes.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Once again, I feel today's episode gave more of a 'See you again' type of feel than an actual definite ending for Ash. I would not be shocked if the PR person feels the same at this point

I think that makes the most sense though. I don't think that they were ever interested in giving Ash a definite ending and from what I've seen/heard, the mini series wasn't really building up to a grand conclusion like a lot of fans wanted/expected. Ash continuing onto a new journey in off-screen land is fitting for his personality and the tone of the anime in general. From a marketing perspective, I'm sure that they still want the ability to use Ash and Team Rocket down the road instead of writing them out entirely with something like a time skip. epilogue. He's an iconic protagonist who has been the face of the anime for twenty five years. His big victories and his sendoff created a lot of waves online among both casual and long time fans. It makes more sense to still have the possibility of Ash and his friends being shown down the road, especially when this is such a huge risk to begin with that may or may not pay off well enough for them.

Yeah. They don't especially care about Liko and Roy either.

I'm pretty sure they are planning to replace them when a new anime for Gen 10 starts.

It's convenient for the anime companies to constantly replace the protagonists, that way they could start a new story every time. Also, this gets the audience used to the constant change.

I'm not sure if that necessarily means that they don't care about Liko or Roy. The other alternative would be to keep them around for years into other series like they did with Ash, which would make the change more hollow and questionable.

I would feel a bit mixed if they did go with that approach going forward though. It would fit from a marketing perspective since it would help to attract more attention on each new series, make the storylines feel potentially more fresh with clean slates every few years and plenty of fans have wanted the anime to do that for ages. But at the same time, it also would feel like the anime losing a core part of its identity. I know plenty of other long running franchises do this, but they didn't wait twenty five years to start changing their lead characters. Ash being the lead all this time felt more like a feature of the anime, not a bug that needed to be fixed, especially when it was relatively easy to keep him traveling around with new friends every few years too. Maybe it will feel more natural over time if they do replace the leads with every generation, but it honestly never really felt to me like the Pokemon anime really needed to go that route.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

I'm curious how long this series will go on for. If we assume they are doing the "New protagonist every generation" thing, and the series doesn't end early. That's ~142 episodes about if my math is right if gen 10 has the usual 3 year gap. Or ~200 episodes if gen 9 is 4 years to make gen 10 be on the 30th anniversary (If this ends up being true I'm not sure if Horizons will go the entire time because that would make it the longest Pokemon anime series by episode count)
This isn't taking into account breaks or off weeks.

Edit: Gonna add the longest series thing is counting Kanto and Johto as separate series

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm curious how long this series will go on for. If we assume they are doing the "New protagonist every generation" thing, and the series doesn't end early. That's ~142 episodes about if my math is right if gen 10 has the usual 3 year gap. Or ~200 episodes if gen 9 is 4 years to make gen 10 be on the 30th anniversary (If this ends up being true I'm not sure if Horizons will go the entire time because that would make it the longest Pokemon anime series by episode count)
This isn't taking into account breaks or off weeks.

Edit: Gonna add the longest series thing is counting Kanto and Johto as separate series

Considering that the Paldea starters are at the main focus of the promotional material, I imagine that Horizons will last through this generation. I don't think that they'll just give Liko and Roy the next starters to keep them around when they generally don't replace characters' starter Pokemon. If we are in another three year generation cycle, then it's possible that the series will be shorter given that it won't start until after Scarlet/Violet comes out. Although, that's assuming that a potential new series would be starting the November before generation ten is released instead of in April like Horizons is.

If they'll make this generation last longer to release the next one for the 30th anniversary, that could make the series last longer too. It's hard to say how likely it is that they'll go that route though. In a lot of ways, it would be good to make the generations last longer, give developers time to actually breathe instead of dealing with crunch time and potentially avoid more fan backlash for the games, even if that feels unlikely regardless of what Game Freak does at this point. But given how long they've been in the three year generation cycle and how much Scarlet/Violet sold, I'm not sure if they'll make it last longer. Not to mention it's probably just as likely that they'll just re-release R/B/Y for the 30th anniversary instead of having a new generation too.

 

[Kallyle]

Considering that the Paldea starters are at the main focus of the promotional material, I imagine that Horizons will last through this generation. I don't think that they'll just give Liko and Roy the next starters to keep them around when they generally don't replace characters' starter Pokemon. If we are in another three year generation cycle, then it's possible that the series will be shorter given that it won't start until after Scarlet/Violet comes out. Although, that's assuming that a potential new series would be starting the November before generation ten is released instead of in April like Horizons is.

If they'll make this generation last longer to release the next one for the 30th anniversary, that could make the series last longer too. It's hard to say how likely it is that they'll go that route though. In a lot of ways, it would be good to make the generations last longer, give developers time to actually breathe instead of dealing with crunch time and potentially avoid more fan backlash for the games, even if that feels unlikely regardless of what Game Freak does at this point. But given how long they've been in the three year generation cycle and how much Scarlet/Violet sold, I'm not sure if they'll make it last longer. Not to mention it's probably just as likely that they'll just re-release R/B/Y for the 30th anniversary instead of having a new generation too.

If the Anime keeps being a world tour from now on, then I see no reason for there to be a three year generational cycle per series anymore. It would just be starting over for the sake of starting over at that point. I can see them keeping Riko and Roy for longer than one generation because the starters from the previous generation have always been in the games code post-Dexit in regards to the VCG titles. That being said, I don’t think Horizons will go past Gen 10 either because of said reason.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Once again, I feel today's episode gave more of a 'See you again' type of feel than an actual definite ending for Ash. I would not be shocked if the PR person feels the same at this point

In a sense it’s a lot like how things were with Goku at the end of Dragon Ball GT with his final words not being goodbye but rather till we meet again.

 

[Unireon]

I am also a bit upset that the staff wouldn't take a little break.
Give us some time to cope with this change of eras.

Started wondering if replacing Satoshi was actually needed, he is still out there travelling.
Given the confirmation of the vagueness of his goal and his open-ended sendoff.

While I am going to watch this series, there are a few things that concern me.
Mainly if they are going to repeat the mistake that was the World Tour thing.....
Riko being a half baked attempt of a Satoshi-rehash is a close second.

In a sense it’s a lot like how things were with Goku at the end of Dragon Ball GT with his final words not being goodbye but rather till we meet again.

However at that time many people doubted that series' canonicity, long before it got declared non-canon.

 

[Hidden Mew]

If the Anime keeps being a world tour from now on, then I see no reason for there to be a three year generational cycle per series anymore. It would just be starting over for the sake of starting over at that point. I can see them keeping Riko and Roy for longer than one generation because the starters from the previous generation have always been in the games code post-Dexit in regards to the VCG titles. That being said, I don’t think Horizons will go past Gen 10 either because of said reason.

I really hope that they don't just have the anime being a world tour from now on. Putting aside how I feel about the format for a moment, I feel like just traveling between different regions all the time would get boring after awhile, assuming it hasn't for a lot of fans after Journeys. Doing the same format with new leads also sounds less refreshing on paper. To be fair, they can still potentially make new storylines with different characters to make a world tour still interesting, but I really don't have a lot of confidence that they can make this format work when it was so poorly handled in Journeys. You'd think by a certain point that they'd want to at least have a series set in the newest region instead just to make it stand out more.

While generation ten would most likely still have the Paldea starters available the games' code, I don't think that would necessarily make it more likely for Liko and Roy to stick around for another generation. They most likely would still want the next set of starters as the main focus of the next series. Giving Liko and Roy new starter Pokemon to replace their own starters just doesn't sound likely to me when they've rarely gotten rid of characters' first partner Pokemon in general. Obviously, I can't say for sure when we're speculating over something that might happen in a few years and we still have little information about Horizons itself, but I think that it's more likely for them to have new characters to feature the next set of starters by comparison.