• Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Pokémon Horizons General Discussion/Speculation Thread

You will see. For the next 8 generations, she will climb the trainer's ranks and try to match him until finally fighting him.
 
Welp, it's finally happening. It was bound to happen eventually, but it's still hard to believe that I'm actually here witnessing it.

Honestly, the simple fact that they're finally doing the big thing that people said would never, ever happen makes me very intrigued and excited for the new series. I've always watched the Pokemon anime for the Pokemon themselves, so seeing the anime trying out something new again with the next generation has genuinely caught my interest. And while it was nice to always have the familiar iconic faces of Ash and his friends around, losing them ain't enough of a reason for me to stop watching. It's the same reason I've enjoyed all those side stuff that didn't have Ash in them, like Pokemon Origins and Twilight Wings. Simply seeing Pokemon being brought to life through animation brings me joy, so I'll continue watching the anime as long as I'm a fan of the franchise.

But yeah, it still feels so surreal seeing the end of an era, and I absolutely understand all the people who feel that this is a good time to stop. That their decades-long journey has finally ended. As bittersweet as this all feels, I do genuinely hope that everyone working on the anime can give it their all to give Ash a proper sendoff. He absolutely deserves it, along with everyone else who has stuck by his side all these years.
 
Mx.Writer said:
The ultimate troll is if Ash just married a random that he's never met in his 20+ year journey lol. Like it be kinda realistic that he didn't find his gf/wife while he was 10, but imagine how pissed shippers would be?
Click to expand...
Okay I don't like the whole "The new protagonist is gonna be Ash's daughter" theory but the idea of Pokémon pulling a Mordecai on Ash sounds hysterical to me.
 
Obviously if Ash if going to have a child, it's going to be Goh's

BTW Riko's necklace looks like a Tera crystal.
 
Mx.Writer said:
The ultimate troll is if Ash just married a random that he's never met in his 20+ year journey lol. Like it be kinda realistic that he didn't find his gf/wife while he was 10, but imagine how pissed shippers would be?
Click to expand...
Lol, so the Jotaro Kujo route.

I will say I would prefer neither character to be related to a previous character if possible.
 
I saw the news right before work and only just got a bit of free to leave my thoughts and wow. First of all, I am utterly and completely shocked that, I was right. For months I'd been feeling that there was no way they were gonna go back to status quo and do a 'Pokemon the Series: Scarlet and Violet' after all the twists and shake ups in recent years. I assumed the Journeys format was the way of the future and now it's confirmed.

In April 2023, the curtain rises for new dreams and adventures set across the entire Pokémon world! The video that was revealed for the first time in the world today also announced the two new protagonists of this series, a young girl named Riko and a young boy named Roy, who also appear in the teaser poster.
The new series will see an adventure unfold alongside lots of Pokémon, including Nyahoja, Hogator and Kuwassu from the new Pocket Monsters games "Pocket Monsters Scarlet/Violet" for the Nintendo Switch. The alternately colored legendary Pokémon "Black Rayquaza" will appear as well... Please stay tuned for further news.

That summary screams Journeys 2.0 to me. Two new dual protagonists, adventures set across the entire Pokemon world, a legendary Pokemon showing up at the beginning, hell even the title just being Pocket Monsters....it's literally Journeys but without Ash. And might I say I am both happy and annoyed by this. Happy because I would have been hella pissed if every other region got it's own series except for Galar (and sort of Alola), so the pretty part of me is happy Paldea is getting the same treatment. But the annoyed part of me is kind of like, come on, haven't we seen enough Kanto and every other region that got it's own series by now? Well whatever, at LEAST this is more tolerable since they're using new characters instead of Ash. At least it'll be nice to see these characters experience all the regions for the first time. Also, it makes far more sense to do a loose region hopping story to correspond to the open world era of Pokemon that SV offers vs. SwSh which really should have just had its own series. They don't need to worry about showing off specific characters or plot lines by a specific time anymore.

Oh yeah, the best news I've heard in years, ASH'S STORY IS FINALLY ENDING. My gosh, this is so long overdue. Ash should have been ditched after the Orange Islands, but better late than ever I guess. I'm so excited to finally get a fresh start with the series. Riko and Roy look like they're meant to based on Juliana and Florian (I swear Riko's hair looks a lot like a hair I used in Scarlet). I like the designs and I like that Riko will be having Sprigatito since it seems most fitting for a girl. Roy looks like he'll be having Fuecoco, but Quaxly seems a bit vague. It's closer to Roy on the poster, but Riko is the one wearing all of the blue, so who knows who's getting it. I don't care. Ash is gone, so I'm beyond thrilled.

Now I can only hope for a few things. I know it's confirmed that this will be another region hopping series, but I REALLY hope Paldea and SV's storylines won't be ignored as badly as SwSh's content was in Journeys. Please let Riko and Roy go through the Path of Legends, Starfall Street, and Victory Road storylines. Scarlet and Violet have such beautiful stories, it would be a shame to see them ignored like everything from SwSh were. If they do plan to give everything SV related the shaft, I hope we'll get a Twilight Wings type of side series in the future to actually focus on SV's stories. Either way, I'm more excited than I've ever been for the anime in years. I an only hope the series will actually be good.
 
Not really related to much but the mention of swsh story reminded me, Rose in the anime canonically just ran off into a forest never to be seen again after the end of the eternatus arc.
 
Riko's hairclip is a nice touch. I'm hoping it becomes like the goggles in Digimon, with the design designating who the protagonist is.

This is such a wild time to be a Pokemon fan, though. We've discussed this moment for ages yet the fact it's actually happening is still surreal. It's hard to comprehend that this is the first time in over 20 years we're going to have a brand new, mainstay protagonist with zero baggage. A new series will begin without debate about whether there's been a reset or not. That, by itself, is reason to celebrate.

As for the world adventure premise, I never thought it was inherently bad in Journeys. It gives the anime something unique the games and manga don't, which is access to every region and every Pokemon at any given time. I see more value and potential in that type of set-up than in a close adaptation of Scarlet/Violet, and would rather the stories of those games be adapted in a separate animated project like Origins/Generations. Where Journeys went wrong with it was having Ash and Gou hop between regions too quickly without spending any meaningful time exploring them. I think this can be avoided by having short arcs taking place in one region at a time, with key characters and locations, rather than random one-off characters.
 
Mr. MoonStone said:
Here’s to hoping the dubs retain the original music and themes. Not that I think Ash’s presence was the reason why that didn’t happen in the first place, but I’m hoping a more faithful dub approach is taken for the new series.
Click to expand...
Agreed - the only music that should be replaced is anything with Japanese lyrics, such as the OP. Also, the instrumental music should be based on that used by the games - the original series had some great orchestral remixes of the Game Boy chiptunes.
 
Islander Princess said:
Oh man, I didn't realize the new series was also going the traveling route. I thought it was going to be Paldea based.

Now I'm definitely not interested.
Click to expand...
So it looks like Paldea is getting sidelined just as hard as Galar, only this time it's worse because there won't be anything familiar for older audiences, not even Ash himself.
 
What I like about the designs of the two new protagonists, is that their color symbolism very nicely matches up with the first two games of the franchise. One is red and one is blue. Pokémon Red and Blue, or in Japan's case, Red and Green. The female protagonist symbolizes this too, given she has a green amulet thingy and apparently Sprigatito is her starter.
 
To be honest, I'm disappointed for some reasons...

First, I was hoping that Ash would get the help of his friends to take down Team Rocket once and for all before his time as a protagonist comes to an end. I was mostly hoping to see Ash having a fierce rematch with Giovanni - this time, to decide the villainous team's fate and to show him how stronger he has become now. It hurts me to see that nothing has been done to put an end to their real plans for good.:annoyedVoltorb:

Second, Pikachu is the mascot of the Pokémon franchise as a whole, and Eevee has become a second one for it in recent years, right? Will one of the new protagonists own one of these two Pokémon in addition to the Paldean starters? That's something I'd like to know.:confused_emoji:

Third, I've been very upset to learn that Ash and his Pikachu no longer have the protagonist's role that they share together. Despite that, I want to keep hope that they will still appear - at least, as supporting characters. Additionally, who will be Riko and Roy's enemies? New characters from Team Rocket or the same trio? That villainous team's mighty boss?! If not, who will be their archenemy?!!:confused:

(To myself) Whoa! Calm down! We still don't have more information about that new series yet! We need to wait patiently until we receive more information about this upcoming new series. Don't panic and be calm!

(Back to you, everyone) Forgive me, everyone. I've been imagining a lot of things about the anime's future. But my imagination can play a lot of tricks on me, you see...
 
Last edited:
How much news about journeys did we get before it started? Trying to figure out how much to expect about the new series between now and when the 11 episode ash finale ends
 
I have so many… emotions.

This is incredibly bittersweet. Seeing Ash go is really hard. On one hand, seeing him get a proper farewell and conclusion with the celebration he deserves after so many people unfairly belittle him online is amazing to see. But on the other hand, not having Ash in any capacity is really gonna hurt for me. I really thought his journey would never end.

I’m excited to see the new anime and what it brings, but I’m also mourning the loss of someone who has been with me since my childhood even if I wasn’t a big watcher of the show as a kid.
 
The best part is that the new main protagonist is a female, which tells me that somebody realized they screwed up the female representation in Journeys and are trying to atone for it by reminding viewers that Pokemon isn't just a boys only thing. I mean yeah, the series looks like Journeys 2.0 with Riko taking the place of Ash and Roy taking the place of Goh, but I'm looking forward to seeing if it manages to be better now there's a clean slate with no continuity to pay lip service to.
 
Back
Top Bottom