While this page does mark spoilers, early information that is considered Late-Arrival Spoiler in later episodes could remain unmarked in newer edits, and with this series being more serialized than past Pokémon series, proceed at your own risk if you are not caught up with all episodes that have aired in Japan.

Pokémon Horizons: The Series (simply known as ポケットモンスター Pocket Monsters in Japanese) is the eighth chapter of Pokémon the Series, and the first story not to feature Ash and Pikachu as the anime's protagonists. Taking place throughout the Pokémon World including the Paldea region of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, this chapter focuses on two new trainers—a young girl named Liko hailing from Paldea in possession of a mysterious necklace, and a young boy from Kanto named Roy who has a Poké Ball of unknown origins—as they explore the wider Pokémon world with the help of Professor Friede and his partner, Captain Pikachu. Along the way, they'll encounter all sorts of strange and mysterious wonders, including a shiny Rayquaza, and the three starters of the Paldea region—Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly—all while a group of mysterious villains known as The Explorers seek to claim Liko's pendant by any means necessary.

Starring in the anime are Minori Suzuki as Liko, Yuka Terasaki as Roy, and Taku Yashiro as Professor Friede. Ikue Ōtani will voice Captain Pikachu, continuing her iconic role as a different iteration of the franchise's mascot. The anime has a concurrent manga adaptation serialized in the Shōjo magazine Ciao—the first feat in many years for the franchise.

The series premiered in Japan on April 14, 2023, with an hour-long special. A trailer for the English dub premiered during San Diego Comic-Con 2023; the dub itself premiered on BBC iPlayer and CBBC in the United Kingdom on December 1st, 2023, and on Netflix in the United States on March 7, 2024. It can also be freely watched on YouTube in Southeast Asian regions.

To promote the international launch of the series on Netflix, the series had a crossover with Pokémon GO in which Liko and Roy will randomly appear in Snapshots, Pikachu wearing Cap's hat can be caught, and Charcadet, Ceruledge, and Armarouge will be outright added to the game, as well as several of the game's currencies being boosted, it ran from March 5 to 11, 2024.

Not to be confused with Pokémon Horizon, a manga based on Pokémon Sun and Moon.

English dub:

• Pokémon Horizons: The Series (Episodes 1-45)
• Pokémon Horizons: Season 2 - The Search for Laqua (Episodes 46-89)
• Pokémon Horizons: Season 3 - Rising Hope (Episodes 90-ongoing)

Japanese version:

• Pocket Monsters: Liko and Roy's Departure (Episodes 1-25)
• Pocket Monsters: The Sparkling of Terapagos (Episodes 26-45)
• Pocket Monsters: Terastal Debut (Episodes 46-67)
• Pocket Monsters: Rayquaza Rising (Episodes 68-89)
• Pocket Monsters: Mega Voltage (Episodes 90-111)
• Pocket Monsters: Episode Mega Evolution (Episodes 112-114)
• Pocket Monsters: Rising Again (Episode 115-136)
• Pocket Monsters: Wonder Voyage (Episodes 137-ongoing)

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Pokémon Horizons: The Series provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: In the games, it is emphasized that Terastallization can only occur in a select few locations, and not in any region that the games were set in before Scarlet and Violet, but in this series, it can be used anywhere such as in Galar, when Friede uses Tera Dark to defeat Amethio in HZ025.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Due to Pokémon Journeys: The Series not being purely focused on the Galar region, not everything from the Generation VIII games made an appearance in that series, and appeared in Horizons instead. Finally making their appearance are...
  • Kabu, the Fire-type Gym Leader from Motostoke, in HZ020.
  • Galarian Moltres, in HZ022.
• Advertised Extra: Carmine appears in the poster for Rayquaza Rising, but she appears exclusively in one episode where in which she doesn't even have a big role in it. It would take until Rising Again for Carmine to reappear and have a somewhat bigger role.
• The Alleged Car: The Brave Olivine, the airship that the Rising Volt Tacklers use to fly all over the world, used to be a fishing boat owned by Ludlow that was then converted into the airship it is now. It's not exactly in the best shape, but it is lovingly cared for by Orla. Unfortunately, it gets badly damaged during the crew's rematch against the shiny Rayquaza, leading to Liko, Roy, and Dot all enrolling at Naranja academy in order to learn about Terastalization while the rest of the crew repair the ship.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • The English dub has an original song Becoming Me sung by Haven Paschall (Serena's voice actress) used as the opening theme instead of Dokimeki Diary.
  • The Korean dub uses the song We Go by K-pop girl group aespa. The Taiwanese dub uses an English dubbed version of We Go.
• Animal Talk: Like in the previous series, Pokémon can speak to one another and understand human language, though this time there isn't a talking Meowth to translate some of it.
• The Anime of the Game: Zig-Zagged. While this anime does feature elements of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, including its lead protagonist being from that game's region of Paldea, the leads using the Paldean starters, and its central mystery focusing on the normal form of Terapagos, it's taking a "World Tour" approach to allow various other regions and Pokémon outside of Paldea to get some focus.
• Art Evolution: The color palette is broader (the sky in particular is often a range of blues, whites, and oranges as opposed to the always clear blue skies of past series'), and some attacks look different, such as Dragon Claw going from a Pokémon coating their claws in green to a smaller orange coat.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In HZ093, the Nidothing superfan Litten Smitten apologizes to Liko and Roy for lying about seeing the Black Rayquaza, wasting their time, and slightly imitating Liko's fairly generic username (in the Japanese dub, Nyabby Superfan, inspired by Liko being Nyahoja Superfan).
• As You Know: In HZ083, Hamber apologizes to Amethio if he already knows some of what he is about to say, but recaps Gibeon's backstory to catch up Zirc and Onia, also doubling as a sort of recap for viewers.
• Batman Gambit: The Explorers, after repeatedly failing to steal the Pendant, opt to just follow The Rising Volt Tacklers as they find the rest of the Six Heroes and release the seal to Laqua. That does happen, and then they attack.
• Battle-Interrupting Shout: Liko begs two Steelix to stop fighting in episode 92, temporarily getting them to stop doing it... though all it gets her are their attacks thrown at her.
• Beach Episode: HZ042 brings the gang back to Paldea to have a relaxing day at the beach. The whole day leads to them meeting a Palafin, along with the audience learning that Ludlow is a superhero.
• Beam-O-War: In HZ063, Liko faces Grusha, and at the end of the battle, they both Terastallize their Pokémon, Floragato and Altaria, respectively, and they both launch a Tera-boosted Magical Leaf and Ice Beam at each other, causing a very typical example of this to happen.
  • Happens again in HZ088, where multiple Pokémon engage in one against Zygarde's Core Enforcer. One of these helps Liko's Floragato evolve into Meowscarada.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The conclusion of the first adventure: Gibeon is convinced to stand down when his Zygarde abandons him after Liko proves herself and Pagogo purifies Laqua of the Laquium, causing it to fall into a deep sleep and Lucius and Gibeon to pass on. However, right after, Spinel infects the Six Heroes (except for Rayquaza) with the pink mist, turning them against Liko and her friends and forcing them to retreat. Friede and his Charizard are also lost in the escape, Friede entrusting Captain Pikachu to Roy’s care. And a year later, it’s revealed that Spinel has taken over Exceed and has framed the Rising Volt Tacklers for what happened, with the group having disbanded and gone their separate ways. What keeps it from being a full-out Downer Ending is the very end where Roy is shown still on his journey, on his way to reunite with Liko.
  • Episode 125 has the protagonists successfully free the Six Heroes from the Explorers’ control and allow them to return to their homes in the wild. However, Spinel remains one step ahead and uses this opportunity to once again paint the Rising Volt Tacklers as the bad guys, this time to the whole world (though subsequent episodes confirm that not everybody is fooled).
  • The final episode of Rising Again has several moments, but it's more sweet than bitter. The Laquium Core is successfully erased, the Rising Volt Tacklers finally clear their names and become global heroes, Spinel is abandoned by his Umbreon and incarcerated for his crimes, and Amethio reconciles with his father who likewise is reinstated as the chairman of Exceed with the goal of reforming the Explorers and fixing the damage Spinel's reign as caused. However, Pagogo ends up leaving Liko after choosing to remain in Laqua with the Six Heroes so that they can protect and restore the paradise to its former glory, and Roy and Amethio respectively release the Black Rayquaza and White Zygarde.
• Bowdlerise: The dub cuts a few seconds from HZ096 where Ult has his Sableye do a very literal Throat Chop on a Cyclizar.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first entry in the Pokémon series that:
    • Does not have Ash and Pikachu as the main protagonists (not counting Pokémon Chronicles or any of the other adaptions of the games), let alone a Pikachu who isn't the Pikachu.
    • Has a female protagonist— both the show's leading human as well as the Pokémon partner— as the lead character alongside the male protagonist.
    • Does not have a disembodied narrator; instead, recaps are done by Liko herself, and the audience often hears her inner thoughts.
    • Has a group of adults that consistently receive major focus and travel with the kids, and are far more involved in the plot than even Cynthia and Kukui ever were. In fact, it is one of these adults who owns the series' Pikachu rather than the child protagonists.
    • Restores the previous trend of having a protagonist catch the regional bird, which Roy does when he gets Wattrel.
    • Gives a lead protagonist a Psychic-type (not counting Ash's Mr. Mime, who mostly stayed at home helping his mother, or Serena's Delphox, which didn't obtain the typing until after she left the main group).
    • Puts the lead's grandparent in a much more significant role than the prior series had.
    • Has all three of the starters evolve for the first time since Advanced Generation, and have all three starters reach their final form.
    • It's also the only season where every single Pokemon owned by a main character is fully evolved.
    • The initial plot focus is far more on the adventuring aspect of the Pokémon journey, rather than self-improvement via battling others. Both protagonists lack some form of To Be a Master / competitive goal that involves battling powerful trainers. Liko is just a schoolgirl caught up in events centered around her pendant, and Roy wants to battle Pokémon mentioned in legends. Liko's lack of a goal in particular becomes a plot point when Kabu helps her realize she's just trying to make others happy while not allowing herself to grow in the process, which is hurting her as a trainer.
  • The series has downplayed catching when it was a major part of all prior series. Ash usually captured a Pokémon or two by the tenth episode, but as of the twelfth episode, Liko's only Pokémon was gifted to her, and Roy's willingly joined him without battle. It wouldn't be until the fourteenth episode that Roy would catch a Wattrel, and even then, Liko wouldn't catch her first new Pokémon until Episode 21.
  • The "Mega Voltage" arc breaks one of the most significant trends of them all by having a Time Skip — the first in the anime's history — after the prior series notoriously kept Ash and his friends as perpetually the same age.
• Breather Episode: HZ026 to HZ030, the first stretch of the second arc, The Sparkling of Terapagos is much less heavy than the preceding episodes, showcasing picnics and exploits on the ship, until HZ031, which begins the next stage of the quest in earnest.
• Brick Joke: Friede and Amethio battle a lot in the first arc (to the point where Liko's first Pokémon battle in the series during HZ005 was cast aside for one, much to the outrage of fans), but are never able to finish, to the point that neither shows surprise when they get interrupted in their later battles. In their second battle, Amethio did not expect Friede to send out his Pikachu or that it would be that strong, but states he won't get surprised again, so fittingly and ironically, Friede finally defeats Amethio by again surprising him, Terastallizing Charizard into a Dark-type.
• Bright Castle: Liko's grandmother lives in a secluded, hard-to-access castle, the first place outside the ship in a while that the main characters can relax in. The Explorers make it a subversion fairly quickly by solving its puzzle then attacking, and causing enough damage that Liko's grandmother joins them afterwards for the next handful of episodes.
• Big Damn Reunion: In HZ121, the Rising Volt Tacklers have finally been reunited with their leader, Friede, and Charizard, who have been successfully rescued as they returned from space thanks to their help, with everyone so relieved to see him again, even after finding out he's still alive in HZ100, especially Captain Pikachu, who sheds Tears of Joy, and the rest of the crew running towards Friede for a Group Hug by the end of the episode.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Unlike Ash and most of his friends, who are explicitly based on game characters from various entries in the game series, the protagonists and antagonists are original creations to the anime. The only connections between this series and all previous ones are the presence of Pokémon whose species have previously been featured in the series before, and Nurse Joy, who was also a Canon Foreigner before being incorporated into games as a standard design for Pokémon Center Nurses.
  • There's also the Indigo Academy, a school that was created entirely for the series.
• Caught Singing: One episode, Roy's Fuecoco was caught singing and got embarassed, ran away and almost fell from a cliff.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Many characters from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet like Nemona, Brassius, and Larry are introduced early on as among the many minor characters that the protagonists hang with for an episode or two in the Pokémon anime (Larry even less, just a cameo), but later became major characters in the third arc, that started airing about a year after they appeared.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In HZ043, Liko and Roy get ambushed by Sidian and Coral, who demonstrate that without Friede, the kids are still pretty much powerless and only get saved by Sidian getting a "more important" phone call.
• Cutting Off the Branches: When the Rising Volt Tacklers arrive in Paldea, the school at Mesagoza is called Naranja Academy, not Uva Academy. There are also notes on Terapagos in Heather's Scarlet Book. The most prominent example of how they went with Scarlet for the Paldea-based content is the late-game-plot-related detail of the Paradox Pokémon, as all of the introduced ones are Ancient Pokémon such as Scream Tail or Gouging Fire.
• Darker and Edgier: While the series is still on the Idealistic tone of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, it depicts a more hostile and uncaring world that the characters live in as opposed to the Sugar Bowl that the previous series depicted it as. The tone is, on average, much more melancholic and dramatic.
  • The latter stretch of the Ash saga usually depicted conflict as coming from a misunderstanding with no sides actually being evil; however, The Explorers are traditional villains whose motives stem from greed and other unholy motives. They are far more serious and threatening than the bumbling goofballs in Team Rocket, especially Spinel. To show how evil the Explorers are, one of the new villains, Coral, is outright excited at the prospect of using Explosion to knock out and capture her targets, and indeed tries to outright harm Friede and Pikachu with it in episode 25, which was something previous antagonists considered too far even for them, and even then, she's not as bad as Spinel. Even the independent criminals are darker in this series, as in the past, they often had some sort of Freudian Excuse that made them somewhat sympathetic while they're usually just dirtbags here.
  • The two immediate predecessors, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon and Pokémon Journeys: The Series depicted wild Pokémon as very friendly and helpful, and the protagonists could always quickly team up with them if needed. Horizons depicts them as more aloof and often hostile, and the characters often have to fight or outright run away from them, a far cry from before. Notably, at one point, the series depicts a band of Pokémon that act as pirates who steal from ships, and while the characters make peace with them, the series never actually tries to justify them, with Above Good and Evil being the most a character offers as possible vindication.
  • In Episode 37, the excavation workers would have "exterminated" Desert Crocs for being a threat to the equipment, if Liko and Roy haven't figured out the problem. While the franchise emphasizes living in harmony with Pokémon, this episode implies that, to some regular people, they are just wild animals.
  • In episode 64, Explorers Spinel and Chalce undergo a plan to kill Liko and Amethio by trapping them in a cave and get Coral and Sidian to occupy Liko's friends nearby while the trail is warm. This is by far the most realistically brutal way that villains have attempted to murder characters in the anime by far, as Spinel seemingly wanted them to freeze to death when nobody finds them.
  • Mega Voltage depicts the Pokémon World as falling into something close to a Crapsaccharine World, with wild Pokémon becoming infected into violent beasts who attack everyone else around them and an incredibly popular company developing and advertising a ball that temporarily makes a trainer's Pokémon berserk with said infection, getting massive applause from even the children in attendance at the events they host.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Laquium increasing a Pokémon's strength and power with the side effect of making them act extremely aggressive is treated the same as using steroids for performance enhancement. Further driven home with Strong Spheres, which are powered by Laquium: they temporarily provide a large boost to strength and power at the cost of exhaustion when it wears off and damage from prolonged usage, and they have planned obsolescence in that trainers will need to obtain more of them after a time.
  • Exceed using Pokemon as test subjects for Laquium brings to mind the (often unethical) practice of companies testing their products on animals.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme for the first part of Horizons is done by Liko and Roy, with one of the Rising Volt Tacklers joining them each week.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Like in the previous series, none of the Pokémon are given nicknames, with the slight exception of Captain Pikachu (and even then, he's usually called "Cap" for short).
• Dub Name Change: Averted for the first time in the anime; the majority of the characters either keep their Japanese names or have Barely Changed Dub Names. Played Straight for the Rising Volt Tackler's ship, which goes from the Brave Asagi in Japanese to the Brave Olivine in English.
• Deus Exit Machina: The Black Rayquaza managed to evade capture by Spinel, but was injured enough fighting off the rest of the Six Heroes that it went into a cave in Johto, and is still recovering when Liko and Roy find it a year afterwards, meaning they are short of a very powerful ally for the time being.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • The Shiny Rayquaza and the Pokémon inside Liko's Pendant, the Normal Form of Terapagos, both appeared in this series before Pokémon Scarlet and Violet made them obtainable with a Pokémon Home compatibility update and the release of The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero DLC, respectively.
  • Mega Dragonite debuted in the "Mega Voltage" arc two months before its official appearance in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
• Elemental Absorption: Cap has the Lightning Rod ability, making him an excellent partner to Friede's other Pokémon, Charizard. Spinel tries to use Skill Swap to mess with this, but giving Pikachu Telepathy ends up doing no favors to him.
• Empty Shell: Surprisingly deconstructed in a more optimistic way. At the beginning of Mega Voltage, Liko worries that she's wasted the year passed by the time-skip away just going through the motions at Indigo Academy, but after battling Roy, he and Ann assure her that she has still grown in some ways being at the school, even if her experiences haven't been as noteworthy as his.
• Evolving Credits:
  • Starting in Episode 7, the opening adds the shiny Rayquaza to the scene of Roy looking up at the sky in wonder.
  • Episode 9 has Dot joining the end group shot of the Rising Volt Tacklers, and she later starts appearing in the final shot of the credits starting from Episode 16 as she goes through significant Character Development within that episode.
  • Episode 17 shows an evolved preview for the next episode at the end. Before that, it is always Nidothing doing the preview but since Liko and Roy now know it is Dot, they apparently will now sometimes try to do it themselves from her room, although she catches them at the end and says the 'Next time' part by herself, though she allows them both to ask the viewer to watch it with her.
• Face of a Thug: Episode 58 sees Liko, Roy, and Dot encounter a Kingambit owned by a pair of restaurant chefs; it's kind and sincerely wants to help drum up business, but its scary face, loud voice, and intimidating strength tend to drive away customers instead. Dot manages to find a new role for it that suits its talents better: using its strength to make delicious noodles.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the second episode, Murdock warns Friede not to do anything crazy because they have children on board. Children as in plural, when Roy had not been introduced yet. We'd be made aware of Murdock's niece, Dot, several episodes later.
  • In Episode 44, Coral calls Amethio a pampered little prince, possibly foreshadowing his status as Gibeon's grandson and heir of the Explorers.
  • In Episode 51, one of the wild Pokémon Roy encounters while at the riverbank is a Kilowattrel, which has its Wattrel flapping its wings in imitation of it. Guess what happens to Wattrel in the next episode.
  • During the first visit to the Crystal Pool in Kitakami, the Rising Volt Tacklers hoped to see Lucius but nothing happened. Then when they returned to the pool to see if Rystal could be summoned, the pool's rumored power worked and she was temporary pulled from the past. It turns out that Lucius was still alive in suspended animation in the Laquium crystal back on Laqua. The Crystal Pool didn't call Lucius previously because at that point he was among the living, and the pool only works on those who are truly dead.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In episode 69, Roy and Crocalor end up switching bodies due to a Synchro Machine. They retain their original voices, with Roy still being able to talk in Crocolor's body, while Crocolor can only do Pokémon Speak in Roy's body.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • It's mentioned in the Pokédex entry for Galarian Moltres that it drains the will of its opponents to make them unable to resist it. Such a Moltres appears, and it does just that to the heroes, taking almost every effort to snap themselves out of it.
  • In Scarlet and Violet, the Galarian Moltres doesn't have a Dex entry because it's a transfer-only Pokémon. When Liko tries to scan it with her Rotom Dex, it can't find any information on it.
  • In episode 31, when an Ambipom and Toedscruel appear on the Brave Olivine in a sea off the coast of Galar, Friede notes that those two Pokémon aren't found in Galar. Neither is playable in Galar in the games, as Ambipom isn't just omitted from the Galar Pokedex, but isn't even coded into Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Toedscruel debuted in the generation after them.
  • Liko, a Paldean, remarks she hasn't seen a Clefairy or Clefable in person before, when seeing one in episode 85. That evolutionary line is not encounterable in the base Scarlet and Violet game, only appearing in DLCs set outside the region.
• Good All Along: The Dragon Rampage Gang in HZ096 have a reputation for mugging travelers who venture too close to the mountain where they reside, but it's later revealed that they are were actually protecting the Black Rayquaza who was resting there recovering its strength and spread false rumors in order to keep its existence safe from the public. They quickly prove to be friendly and helpful to Liko, Roy, and Ult (to a lesser extent) after witnessing them protect some Dratini eggs from a poacher.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Gibeon's Zygarde was his loyal Pokémon who presumably was always at his side, but then contained the Laqua Crystals from spreading, "betraying" him before seemingly re-affirming its loyalty over the next hundred years. It's later revealed that it was secretly watching for Laqua Crystals around the world to ensure they wouldn't cause damage while "reporting" about it to a trapped Lucius and releasing him when the time was right, which Gibeon deems as another "betrayal". Afterwards, it decided to fight Amethio, Liko, Roy, and Dot for Gibeon, seemingly to ensure he could drill up the Laquium Core, but even that was primarily with the intent of testing Liko's strength and demonstrating the wrongs their trainer had committed — as soon as she proves herself, it readily abandons Gibeon.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: The Six Heroes, after joining up with Liko and company, never actually help them get the remaining ones. Finally averted somewhat in HZ084 where they help Liko, Friede, Dot, and Roy scale the mountain to Laqua
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Downplayed as their actual hairstyles are quite varied, but Liko's family, going up her mother's side, all have a very prominent spike of hair jutting out of the backs of their heads. It also adds to the Ambiguously Related status of ancient hero Lucius to their family, as alongside various other aspects he shares the back-spike.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The first human character from the old series to be featured in this one is Nurse Joy, who has the same jobs and roles as before. That said, it's also Averted with Mollie, a former Nurse Joy that looks significantly distinct from her relatives.
• Internal Deconstruction:
  • While previous series have made being a Pokémon Professor a rather glamorous job (with Professor Oak notably being revered for his research and enjoying it quite tremendously), Episode 18 reveals that Professor Friede found the job absolutely soul crushing, and actually quit being a Professor because he spent all day cooped up in a lab — the results of which completely burnt him out and left him unwilling to pursue any further research until he met Captain Pikachu.
  • In past series, Ash and friends demonstrating a complete willingness to help total strangers they just met was always played as a good thing, helping to cement them as heroes and rarely biting them in the rear. But when the key factor of them still focusing on their own personal goals while doing so is taken away, the results aren't so pretty; Liko finds herself bending over backwards to make others happy that it's stunting her growth as a Pokémon Trainer, which displeases her Sprigatito when she forfeits a match to Wakaba, while also displeasing Wakaba, who wanted to win by her own merit.
  • Roy himself is a similar Deconstruction to someone with Ash's Blood Knight tendencies, but lacking any of Ash's raw talent. For all that Ash struggled in Kanto, at least he had some skill that barely got him by until he picked up the slack and turned himself into a man worthy of becoming World Champion. Roy, sadly, lacks any ability as a trainer and failed to win a single battle on his own merit until his rematch against Brassius.
  • Team Rocket infamous wore so many Paper Thin Disguises that Ash and his friends fell for every single time despite the fact they should have known better than to fall for something so obvious after so long. The Explorers infiltrate Naranja Academy, but the kids aren't fooled by how obvious they stick out; they choose not to take action against them though because unlike Team Rocket, the Explorers are considerably more dangerous and cunning.
  • Jessie and James were decent trainers and could genuinely make an honest living, but they were such piss-poor villains that their entire tenure of trying to steal Ash's Pikachu was nothing but endless failure. Coral and Sidian—their spiritual replacements—have the opposite problem; they're significantly more effective and dangerous villains who actually pose a genuine threat to the protagonists, but their life outside of being the bad guys leaves much to be desired. Case in point, Sidian is a Blood Knight who takes pleasure in the heat of battle and committing needless cruelty (such as how he uses his Garganacl's Salt Cure on wild Pokémon for no reason other than for kicks), but his Honor Before Reason tactics lead him to take the hits for his teammates when he doesn't need to, wasting his partner's power on defense. As for Coral, her violent temper tantrums make her a potentially lethal opponent on the clock, but keeping that same attitude while undercover only makes her a nasty little brat that no one takes seriously.
  • The past series under Ash's tenure infamously left many Pokémon Out of Focus (such as Ash's Pidgeot or Kingler), where their screen time was focused either on eating, training, chasing after Team Rocket, or being subject to The Worf Effect whenever they went up against a powerful trainer. While this occurred so often, rarely did anyone get called out on focusing on just one or two of the Mons, even if their battle performance somewhat suffered. In Episode 61, Ryme takes Roy to task over being in such poor sync with his Pokémon, easily destroying his Kilowattrel with her Houndstone before sweeping a Terastalized Fuecoco with her Toxtricity. Afterwards, she calls him a failure of a trainer for not truly understanding his Pokémon and fails him on his Terastal exam.
  • Amethio's arc effectively picks apart everything about the Team Rocket Trio during their tenure — more specifically, their inability to recognize that serving down this path will offer them nothing but shame and defeat. While the three of those villains were bumbling incompetents that only occasionally showed they were Not So Harmless Villains, the only reason they stuck around is because Giovanni knew that for all their faults, they were loyal and never questioned him. Amethio is all but loyal to Gibeon, his maternal grandfather, to the point he's willing to go to any lengths to prove it, but disobeys several direct orders to do so, and even then shows he has his limits because of his own personal code of honor. Spinel and Chalce use this to frame Amethio as a traitor, leading Gibeon to disown him and cast him out of the Explorers.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The cast learns about the true name of Terapagos in HZ024, while the audience had already known what it was for several months.
  • Liko doesn't learn who Gibeon is until HZ065 and forgot to tell the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers until HZ074, when he appeared to the audience all the way back in HZ006, though his face wasn't clearly shown until HZ054.
• Introvert–Extrovert Pairing:
  • Liko and Roy. Liko is shy and a bit of an Extreme Doormat, while Roy is more talkative and up for adventure. They are best friends, with Liko usually keeping Roy's impulsive behavior in check.
  • Dot and Liko. Although Liko is shy, she is still willing to join events like picnics, while Dot considers talking to others to be painful to her. Liko gradually helps Dot open up, helping Dot become more confident in expressing herself.
• I Shall Taunt You: In HZ039, a wild Orthworm steals a hammer from a Tinkatink that Dot befriends. When they battle it, it tries to mostly stick underground, only popping up to attack, or flaunting that it has the hammer to Dot, Quaxly, and Tinkatink.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In HZ002, as she's falling after jumping off a building, Liko internally feels like she's the protagonist of a series.
  • In HZ083, Hamber apologizes to Amethio if his upcoming presentation recapping what happened with Lucius and Gibeon at Laqua contains information he already knows, but the way it is framed, he says this as he looks right at the camera, as if he's apologizing to viewers who already know this from previous episodes.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: The modern-day Explorers believe they can use the Laqua Crystals to give people and Pokémon super long lives with the research their front organization, Exceed, has done. Gibeon himself has already been keeping himself alive with the substance in them.
• MacGuffin: Liko has her pendant given to her by her grandmother that also contains a Pokémon later revealed outside the series as Terapagos in its Normal Form while Roy has his mysterious Poké Ball that housed a shiny Rayquaza. The Explorers were in pursuit of Liko's pendant in particular for the first two story arcs.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: From HZ045 onwards, after repeated failures by Explorers, Spinel suggests letting the Rising Volt Tacklers gather the Six Heroes for them, awaiting the right moment to snatch everything they need to access Laqua.
• Meaningful Name: Laqua (Rakua) is a Portmanteau of Rakuen (garden or Paradise) and aqua, and is treated as a legendary safe haven for Pokémon.
• More Dakka: Meowscarada's Flower Trick is depicted in this series as a series of flower-bombs appearing around the enemy and exploding. If she really wants to, Liko can ask her to make a surprisingly large number of bombs to boot.
• Mundane Utility: The show often explores how Pokémon are used outside of battling or the traditional HM moves, usually incorporating traits from their Dex entries.
  • Most of the wild Pokémon on the Brave Olivine have jobs aboard the ship. Carkol creates coal, which Slugma burns to power the engines. Nosepass acts as a compass, Noctowl serves as a sentry, Muk absorbs and disposes of trash, Shuckle produces berry juice, and Snorunt refrigerates items.
  • This extends to the Pokémon of the Rising Volt Tacklers as well. Friede's Charizard and Roy's Fuecoco often power the engines with Fire attacks. Orla's Metagross aids her in maintaining the ship. Mollie's Chansey serves as her medical assistant. Murdock's Alcremie helps him with cooking.
  • Spinel uses his Beheeyem to provide remote surveillance and manipulate people's memories, but it also knows Teleport to help him and itself escape getting discovered or caught. It successfully ambushes Friede without exposing its trainer and wipes Liko and Sprigatito's memories on Episode 14, and it teleports itself and Spinel out of a trapped cave on Episode 64. Spinel also uses his Magneton to disrupt electronics and jam communications.
  • In Episode 5, the wild Pokémon of Roy's island live alongside the residents and assist in day-to-day tasks.
  • In Episode 31, Floatzel and Buizel are part of a ship's crew.
  • Episode 58 features a Kingambit who works in a restaurant and has excellent cooking skills, but whose nature makes it difficult for it to perform simpler tasks like serving plates and opening doors.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Nidothing's overview of Pokémon Centers shows not just Chansey and Blissey, but the regional exclusive helper mons of other regions, such as Audino, Wigglytuff, Comfey, and Indeedee in the later seasons of the Ash-led anime.
  • Quaxly's English voice sounds a lot like Donald Duck, similar to Ash's Totodile.
  • Each time a gym leader has shown up, the characters have ended up doing something similar to their qualifying trials in the games:
    • When Brassius was dealing with artist's block, they played Sunflora hide-and-seek to cheer him up.
    • A variant on "Where in Levincia is Mr. Walksabout" was co-hosted by Dot and Iono with an amnesiac Liko replacing Director Clavell.
    • Kabu had them do a variant of the catching trial in the Motostoke Gym, but instead of catching Pokémon, they had to put out/ignite the flames on the Litwick’s heads.
    • A flashback in Episode 18 shows Larry eating at the Treasure Eatery, where the players in the games can meet him for the first time. Later on, the kids meet up with him in the same place for Dot's test.
    • Ryme's battle against Roy started with a rap battle hosted by MC Sledge.
  • In HZ071, the kids fight against a Tera-Ghost Milotic in the Crystal Pool, referencing the Milotic encounter with Carmine in The Teal Mask, including its hidden Tera type that normally cannot be seen in-game. In the same episode, Perrin challenged Dot to a battle before joining the group to find Lucius’ Kleavor, similar to her fight before the Bloodmoon Ursaluna quest.
  • The Laquium that Gibeon seeks is a substance that can boast a Pokémon's power significantly, at the cost of driving them to a berserk state, much like with R from Pokemon Detective Pikachu.
  • Nemona's Ribombee and Decidueye are Pokemon she uses after Mochi Mayhem if the player picked Sprigatito as their starter, which corresponds to Liko's starter of choice.
• One Degree of Separation: There's a surprising amount of interconnection between the cast. Liko is The Legendary Hero Lucius's great-great-granddaughter. Lucius himself was a friend of the series' Big Bad Gibeon, whose butler, Hamber, was in turn friends with Liko's grandmother and Lucius's granddaughter, Diana. It's also mentioned that part of Lucius's inspiration in his travels were records written by another adventurer, Heath (a character originally from games canon that Lucius himself appears to be loosely based on), ancestor of Professor Briar, a present-day Pokémon researcher and ally of the heroes. Roy's ancient Pokéball also belonged to Lucius and contains his old partner, Rayquaza . How it ended up with his family remains unknown, though it was given to him by his grandfather. Said grandfather also used to tell him legends about Lucius, which may hint at a further, yet-unexplored connection. Friede, used to be a student of Lucca, Liko's mom, and at some point became acquainted with Roy's grandfather ; his own former boss from his old office job, Cervantis, eventually turns out to be Gibeon's son-in-law and father of Amethio .
• Pokémon Speak: Just like before, the anime features numerous different species of Pokémon communicating by just saying their name.
• Purple Is Impure: Any moves that a Pokemon infected with Laquium uses (such as Flamethrower or Thunderbolt) is colored purple as an indication of the unnatural power boost.
• Putting the Band Back Together: The Rising Volt Tacklers sans Friede are back together along with the Brave Olivine taking to the air again in Episode 100.
• That Man Is Dead: Debated in episode 94. Mollie tells Liko and Roy that they should stop using the Rising Volt Tackler name and create a new name to describe themselves since she and the other adults that founded the group are now doing their own thing, though the tweens reject that, having become attached to describing themselves the same way the adults did back then.
• The Quest: The premise of the series is Liko, Roy, and the Rising Volt Tacklers partaking in a quest to uncover the secrets of Liko's mysterious pendant and how it connects to the legend of Lucius and his Pokémon team. Post Time Skip, the quest changes to Liko and the other kids looking to end the influence of the Explorers and the spread of Laquium.
• Red Herring: The Rising Volt Tacklers go to Olivine City in episode 77 and hear about an Entei nearby, and so they go to it... but it wasn't the one Lucius traveled with. It stood there as Terapagos spoke presumably nonsense to it, then ran off to watch a Volcano erupt with a Suicune and Raikou.
• Running Gag:
  • The first three episodes have Friede blurt out something that he should have told Liko before, with one of the Rising Volt Tacklers exasperated that he forgot to tell her about it. Friede then brings up something else by "putting it aside". This comes up again when Friede forgot to mention to the rest of the group about his run-in with the Magneton in Levincia that had been disrupting the airship's electronics and that it was being directed by an unseen person remotely. He gets called out on his forgetfulness in Episode 15 when Liko goes missing.
  • Liko keeps missing that Dot is Nidothing, even when the evidence is right in front of her. This eventually stops in Episode 16, where Dot finally confesses the truth to her.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: In one of the only times in the entire series where they directly reference and show meat, in episode 13, Friede and his Pikachu both eat a sandwich filled with nothing but meat. They don't say what kind of meat, but by this point, normal animals have long since disappeared from the anime, leaving the only option to be Pokémon meat.
• The Scream: Scream Tail, well, screams very loudly. Liko and company even hear it before going to sleep. Coral eventually catches it (accidentally by throwing everything she has at it to try and get it to shut up), and it can suitably use Boomburst.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Averted. Unlike the previous series, where Ash himself and most of his friends didn't attend a school on a regular basis apart from Sun and Moon, Liko and Roy attend online classes via their Rotom phones. Liko is still enrolled at the Indigo Academy, while Roy previously lived on a remote island that was too small to have its own school. Played Straight by episode 46 when Liko, Roy, and Dot enroll in Naranja academy in order to learn more about Terastallization while the "Brave Olivine" is still being repaired after the crew's rematch with the shiny Rayquaza.
• Shout-Out:
  • Quaxly's voice in the English dub sounds like Donald Duck.
  • Ludlow being the superhero "The Mighty G" borrows heavily from All-Might, the Big Good of the My Hero Academia universe. Much like his inspiration, Ludlow has an impressive physique in superhero form, is drawn heavily in shadows, and can only maintain this form for only a few minutes.
• Small, Secluded World: In Episode 84, the Rising Volt Tacklers discover a town near Laqua that seemingly is cut off from the rest of the world, with vaguely tribalistic clothing, though one of the elders remembers Gibeon.
• Soft Reboot: After spending 25 years focusing on Ash and his friends, Horizons focuses on a new cast that may or may not be in the same universe, but nevertheless continues to focus on the joys and dangers found in the Pokémon world.
• Stealth Sequel: Possibly. There are a few hints that Horizons might actually be set after the events of the Gen IX games instead of being a Pragmatic Adaptation of them with a new cast like some of the original anime's seasons. Briar mentions she actually met another Terapagos before the one in Liko's pendant, Penny, Arven, and Nemona are implied to already be friends, Team Star is absent (beyond a brief cameo of their symbol in Penny's room) with Penny doing IT work for the league, and Carmine's brother Kieran is nowhere to be found in Kitakami. All of which match up with the events of the Scarlet and Violet and their DLC episodes.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: In episode 37, the main characters encounter a family of Sandile and Krokorok led by a Mama Bear Krookodile, who has eyelash-shaped scars to indicate that she's female.
• Time Skip: The end of "Rayquaza Rising" sees a one-year time skip occur ahead of the beginning of "Mega Voltage" chapter. The trio of Liko, Roy, and Dot visibly age, and Roy has a new Shiny Lucario.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: The 3rd chapter of the series, "Terastal Debut", is centered around Liko, Roy, and Dot learning and mastering the power of Terastalization, which will have them facing the Gym Leaders of Paldea as a test of their mastery.
• Title Drop: The international title gets multiple in the English dub.
  • The full version of the opening theme Becoming Me has an obvious one in the bridge, repeated four times at that.
    We're looking for new horizons
    Let's go explore new horizons
    We're looking for new horizons
    Let's go explore new horizons
  • Episode 75's dub has a somewhat sneakier one in an offhand line of dialogue.
    Gibeon: Rather than mock those who dare to dream, you might want to broaden your horizons.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The poster for Terastal Debut, made public before the event itself happened, spoiled Liko's Sprigatito's evolution into Floragato.
  • Likewise, the poster for Rayquaza Rising spoiled Fuecoco's and Tinkatink's evolution into Crocalor and Tinkatuff.
• Truer to the Text: The depiction of Paldea in this series is the most accurate to the games of any region depicted in the Pokémon Anime. The towns are depicted the same way they are in the games, and the wilderness between them also corresponds to the correct biomes in the game, with no extra features or swapped locations.
• Two Aliases, One Character: In Episode 54, Friede returns to his old employer Exceed and meets up with his old boss, Cervantis, the company director. Also in the episode, Amethio meets up with his grandfather Gibeon and says to him that he won't fail to find Laqua like his father. Then in Episode 78, it is revealed that Cervantis is the aforementioned father of Amethio.
• Unstoppable Rage: Laquium causes a Pokémon to go absolutely berserk and massively increases its power, and their eyes become red. Spinel’s Umbreon's eyes became a deeper color, best described as blood red, when under its effects.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The series is the same in tone as previous Pokémon entries, but The Explorers are a lot more serious and hell-bent on stealing Liko's pendant to a more dire extent than the Team Rocket trio's efforts to steal Ash's Pikachu ever were. And then when Spinel is introduced, he proves to be even more vile than his teammates, being a Joker-esque sociopath who brainwashed Liko and successfully slandered the RVT as Heroes With Bad Publicity.
• Villain Teleportation: Two of the Explorers have Psychic Pokémon with the move Teleport. They take full advantage of it not being bound by game mechanics multiple times throughout the series by using it to spy on others, avoid detection, create ambushes, and escape capture.
  • Spinel traps Amethio in a cave by luring him in, collapsing the tunnel, and using his Beeheeyem to Teleport him back to the entrance.
  • Agate's Xatu abuses Teleport Spam to dodge attacks and disrupt other Pokémon. She also uses it to Teleport to Dot and steal her phone.
• A Way Out of a Cave-In: Episode 38 lampshades this. Liko and the Pokémon with her are caved in, and while the other characters all team up to pull the rocks out of the entrance since they assume she's trapped...but it's then revealed that after they work hard to try to clear the entrance, Liko and company found a way out, and it was basically around the corner from where the group was.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 45 has the characters confront Rayquaza after getting several legitimate upgrades, and we see Friede's Charizard and Amethio's Ceruledge do real damage to it for the first time with Terastallization. Liko's Sprigatito even evolves. Unfortunately, all of that still isn't enough to take Rayquaza down. And then it's revealed that the Brave Olivine is out of commission due to damage it sustained in the previous episode from Rayquaza's Draco Meteor. Friede decides to enroll Liko, Roy, and Dot at Naranja Academy to train to be able to Terastallize their own Pokémon, causing a Genre Shift for the next season where the kids stay in Paldea long-term and go on adventures related to the Terastallization course without the adults that had been with them up until then.
  • Episode 64 reveals that the other Explorer members are trying to kill Amethio. It was previously revealed that Spinel was a Dragon with an Agenda, it's now revealed that Chalce is definitely in cahoots with him. And she gets an unknowing Coral and Sideon to take part in the scheme saying she'll return a favor afterwards, likely dragging them into their plot as well. Additionally, it is revealed that Laquium causes a Pokémon to go berserk and massively increase in power for a short period of time, with Spinel's Umbreon one-shotting Amethio's Terastalized Ceruledge.
  • Episode 74 has the return of Diana, and we learn more about the origins of the Explorers, mainly how they were founded by Lucius and his two friends, Rystal and Gibeon. And when Liko, Roy, Dot, Fried, and Diana go to the Crystal Pool with Terapagos, Rystal appears with a baby girl named Leila, who happens to be Diana's mother. Rystal then reveals that Liko and Diana are descendants of her and Lucius, making him Liko's great-great-grandfather.
  • Episode 89 has things really escalate. Laqua is purified, but things go haywire after the Six Heroes go berserk. Friede and Charizard fall from the Brave Olivine, fates unknown. And then it cuts to a year later, revealing the Explorers have framed the Rising Volt Tacklers for the incident.
  • Episode 100 has the Rising Volt Tacklers reform at last. What's more, it's revealed that Friede and Charizard are still alive, albeit in hiding.
• Wham Shot:
  • After the Ancient Poké Ball was marketed as being Roy's one-of-a-kind MacGuffin like Liko's pendant, Episode 9 reveals the existence of another one on a giant Arboliva. As it turns out, there are at least 6 of them.
  • When Spinel's Umbreon's eyes go from red to blood red in Episode 64.
  • In Episode 106, Ult's Dusk Ball is revealed to contain a Dragonite, something Ult himself wasn't aware of.
• Work Off the Debt: Episode 58 has the trio end up having to spend the day working at the Anything Goes cafe to make up for Tinkatink stealing their griddle and reworking it into a new hammer.

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I want to find out about myself!
If I can raise my voice and say "Off I go!"
I guess I've grown up a bit