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Pokémon Horizons General Discussion/Speculation Thread

The series' blurb for reference (translated by Dephender):
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 Liko 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.
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So all we know is that all 9 regions will indeed be featured again to some extent, and that a Black Rayquaza
is involved in the plot somehow (this series' Lugia, perhaps???).
I could tolerate the next series' plot if the hub world is Paldea and not Kanto again,
and if this series doesn't copy and paste Journeys' template with Liko and Roy using
a research position as a ticket to travel across the world, but we'll see.
 
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FinnishPokéFan92 said:
We don't yet know how they'll execute the concept this time around.
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That's a bit moot. If they couldn't execute the world tour concept during an anniversary series, it doesn't give me much hope that they can pull it off better the second time around. Not impossible, but aside from maybe having their home base in Paldea, I'm not happy about the possibility of another world tour format, especially when that was one of my biggest issues with Journeys. Not to mention it makes the new series sound like Journeys 2.0 with new leads, which just doesn't sound too promising to me.

RileyXY1 said:
The Gym Challenge can’t really work in a multi-region saga.
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Not really. They could easily go to each Gym in-between their travels to different regions. It shouldn't be that hard to pull it off, especially with new lead characters.
 
Hidden Mew said:
Not really. They could easily go to each Gym in-between their travels to different regions. It shouldn't be that hard to pull it off, especially with new lead characters.
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It would put too much focus on one region. I'm only expecting Gyms to return if this saga is purely Paldea-only. Otherwise, I think that the PWC will return instead because that is much friendlier to a multi-region saga.
 
RileyXY1 said:
It would put too much focus on one region. I'm only expecting Gyms to return if this saga is purely Paldea-only. Otherwise, I think that the PWC will return instead because that is much friendlier to a multi-region saga.
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That doesn't make sense though. Why shouldn't they put more focus on Paldea? It's the newest region with the newest Pokemon and characters. Should they just put it on the sidelines like they did with Galar? A lot of fans, included myself, hated that and if this poster is any indication, Paldea will ideally get more attention than Galar did. They probably aren't going to take forever to showcase the new starters at least, which might also lead to them doing more with the region and the characters from the games. Devoting a few episodes to Gym battles in Paldea wouldn't change the fact that they're still hoping between regions. If anything, spending more time in each region, being more willing to have mini arcs/multi-part episodes would be a massive improvement from how it was handled in Journeys. I don't expect them to do that if they are going for another world tour format for a few reasons, but that would be an improvement.

And doing the PWC again would make no sense. If they were just going to repeat it again with new characters, I don't think that they'd rush through so much of it in Journeys with Ash. Plus, assuming that these will be new trainers if they are going to start off with one of the Paldea starters, I think having either Riko or Roy taking part in the PWC would be a bad choice. Like I said before, it was arguably already a tough sell for them to have Ash defeat Champion level trainers even with his experience. I do not think that they could pull it off with brand new rookie trainers. Fans would also expect for them to face off against Ash if they get to the finals. People might like the idea to have kind of the anime version of Red vs. Ethan on Mt. Silver, but regardless of who would win, I think that it would just create a lot of backlash.

People have said that they couldn't have a return to Gyms because of Ash's experience. I never believed that and still don't, but now that we have new leads who are seemingly going to choose their first partners among the Paldea starters, there is no excuse for not having Gym battles. At the very least, I don't think it should be brushed off as a possibility.
 
Honestly, we don't even know if the new characters will have a battle oriented goal.

We're in totally new territory since we don't know the direction the story is going to take.
 
RileyXY1 said:
It would put too much focus on one region. I'm only expecting Gyms to return if this saga is purely Paldea-only. Otherwise, I think that the PWC will return instead because that is much friendlier to a multi-region saga.
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While I can see your point in regards to Paldea, I don’t think you can get away with putting newbies in a PWC without stepping on Journeys’s toes so soon or without implying that they aren’t actually newbies. Besides, if they want to show off Galar, they’re going to have to touch the gym challenge there since that’s a big part of said region’s culture. Actually, now that I think about it, having Riko or Roy take on Galar’s gym challenge could actually make up for the lack of Galar focus last time around.
 
Konja7 said:
Honestly, we don't even know if the new characters will have a battle oriented goal.

We're in totally new territory since we don't know the direction the story is going to take.
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Yeah. It’s unknown if this new anime would even feature battle oriented goals.
 
Shadao said:
Professor Oak didn't retire despite his iconic voice actor, Unshō Ishizuka, passed away. Neither did Giovanni despite Hirotaka Suzuoki passing away in 2006.
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Except for the fact that these characters appear once in like 1-2 years while Ash is the iconic protagonist who appears in almost every episode of a 25 year saga. They aren’t remotely comparable.
Shadao said:
As for Paul, it's more of the fact he was introduced with the most basic team: A baby Pokémon Elekid, a Starly, and a Starter Pokémon Chimchar. There was nothing indicating he had a powerhouse team with him the entire time until he faced Cynthia. Prior to that, people assumed his starter was Chimchar. When you compare it to Trip, an genuine rookie trainer that somehow got the edge over Ash for the majority of BW, you can see how Paul was carefully characterized to be revealed as a powerhouse veteran just to ensure he didn't make Ash look bad as a trainer.
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Ash started with the exact structure back then so I'm not sure what your point is. He’s characterised as a mirror of Ash, to the point of rotating his teams. Literally picking and choosing an optimal Pokémon and releasing all the others in the first episode itself is clearly not a rookie trait.
And you yourself admit that his characterisation was made with accordance to the reveal. How is it a retcon?
FinnishPokéFan92 said:
We don't yet know how they'll execute the concept this time around.
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We clearly will never get a "Ash travels across "x" region with his friends to challenge the League" structure @Alola was talking about though.
 
Riko and Roy going region to region like Ash and Goh did, from a storytelling perspective, makes no sense at all!??!

The main attraction of JN's world tour aspect was that Ash would be revisiting places he's been to, meeting people he knows, etc... (not that it happened much)

When we don't know the history of Riko and Roy, what's the point of having them hop from region to region (aside from promoting games other than SV)?

Especially when the games provide lots of content that can be spread out across the entire series.
 
PkmnTrainerV said:
Except for the fact that these characters appear once in like 1-2 years while Ash is the iconic protagonist who appears in almost every episode of a 25 year saga. They aren’t remotely comparable.

Ash started with the exact structure back then so I'm not sure what your point is. He’s characterised as a mirror of Ash, to the point of rotating his teams. Literally picking and choosing an optimal Pokémon and releasing all the others in the first episode itself is clearly not a rookie trait.
And you yourself admit that his characterisation was made with accordance to the reveal. How is it a retcon?

We clearly will never get a "Ash travels across "x" region with his friends to challenge the League" structure @Alola was talking about though.
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If they can avoid it, they won't recast. But don't think they won't consider doing recast if needed. I mean, young Satoshi was voiced by someone else rather than Rica.

Again, they can continue Ash's journey forever if they choose it. Even voice actors won't limit that factor. What ultimately led to Ash's departure has nothing to do with voice actors. It's because the narrative ran out, plain and simple.

As for Paul, recall how fans were surprised that his real starter was Torterra and not Chimchar. And recall the fans crying foul when Ash's Pikachu tied with Paul's Elekid in the first battle. Whether it's really a retcon or not, Paul wasn't established to be someone who has been in the training business for a long time until Cynthia's debut. Most just used Silver as a rival comparison for Paul. And Silver's team wasn't exactly a veteran one.

But even if it's not a retcon, it still serves as an example of why rivals have to be on par with Ash rather than Ash being below par with newbie rivals. Trip shows why Paul's veteran experience is essential for rivalry.
 
Shadao said:
As for Paul, recall how fans were surprised that his real starter was Torterra and not Chimchar. And recall the fans crying foul when Ash's Pikachu tied with Paul's Elekid in the first battle. Whether it's really a retcon or not, Paul wasn't established to be someone who has been in the training business for a long time until Cynthia's debut. Most just used Silver as a rival comparison for Paul. And Silver's team wasn't exactly a veteran one.
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I mean, I still don’t agree with the assessment as he’s always, from his first appearance coded to come off as much more selective and at higher standards than your usual newbie. The thing that I originally took an issue with is you calling it a “retcon” to further your point when there are evidences to suggest that this has arguably an intended choice since the first episode itself. Just because some fans couldn’t deduce it in time for the reveal doesn’t make it a retcon.

Paul has been by design- a trainer with comparable experience and accomplishments to Ash with a difference in training styles. It’s the very thing that makes him work and that’s how he’s been coded since his first appearance.
 
Articfoxgamez said:
I will say that being multi-regional wouldn't nessecarily make the paths impossible. I don't expect it to follow the sv story 1-1 but like.
Theres nothing saying you cant take breaks between each gym
The Titans can be explained as like, They can't fight them yet because more research needs to be done on where they are located between each fight.
And team star can be done all at once in an arc like most every evil team plot in the anime.
And of course they should show off the Paradox forms somehow, even if not nessecarily by doing the whole time machine ai professor plot.
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It would just put too much focus on Paldea and neglect the other 8 regions. So I think that it’s more likely that we’ll see the PWC again as that is more friendly to a world traveling saga.
 
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