Season 1 |
Season 2 |
– |
Episode Guide
Episode 13: An Unexpected Picnic!
Episode 14: Fly! Wattrel!
Episode 15: Someone We Can’t See! Whosawhatsit?!
Episode 16: Quaxly, We Can Do It!
Episode 17: Special Traning Time!
Episode 18: Flying Pikachu, Rising Higher and Higher!
Episode 19: The Bittersweet Truth
Episode 20: Kabu’s Battle Training!
Episode 21: The Lonely Hatenna
Episode 22: Clash! Galar Mine!
Episode 23: Fiery Galarian Moltress -| Review Score 4/5
Pokémon Horizons: The Series returns with new episodes for fans to binge. The first season set up the series’s foundation well. It introduced audiences to Liko, Roy, the Rising Volt Tacklers, and our heroes’s enemies, the Explorers. Despite offering thematically similar content as the first season, Pokémon Horizons: The Series Season 2 promises fans that they will be satisfied with its new batch of material.
Pokémon Horizons: The Series Season 2 continues following the adventures of Liko, Roy, and the Rising Volt Tacklers. Despite setting their sights on the Galar Region to speak with people with intel on Liko’s pendant and Lucius’s (the ancient Pokémon adventurer) ancient Pokémon, our heroes encounter familiar and new opponents who’ll thwart their progress. Therefore, it’s up to our heroes to defeat them if they want to progress.
Much like Season 1, this season offers audiences satisfying Pokémon and human-centric affairs that’ll ease them in with its storytelling. Season 2 includes casual and exhilarating situations that’ll soothe and excite anyone, especially diehard Pokémon fanatics. Additionally, this season utilizes the Pokémon world’s lore and abilities to great effect, allowing viewers’ imaginations to run wild as they observe our heroes and villains’ activities.
At the same time, fans will enjoy receiving minuscule intel regarding Liko’s pendant and Lucius’s ancient Pokémon. As with our Season 1 coverage, Season 2 adds a spice of originality to our heroes’ journey and will entice anyone, Pokémon fan or not, to jump in, discuss, and theorize about it all.
Also, Season 2 offers captivating drama that’ll give folks goosebumps. Fans will cherish the inspirational one-on-one conversations and thrilling duels set between episodes thirteen to twenty-three as much as Season 1’s similar scenarios. In addition to having enjoyable gags and jokes, Season 2’s storyline may persuade Season 1’s detesters to give it another go.
Although Season 2’s plot offers more fascinating scenarios and crucial details, it has problems similar to Season 1. First and foremost, this season’s plot contains similar degrees of plot convenience. From lackluster victories to questionable successful escape missions, some anime fans will be scratching their heads at the decisions made throughout this batch of chapters.
Simultaneously, Season 2 includes unnecessary scenarios that hamper the season’s pacing, making matters that could’ve been resolved swiftly, drawn out and dull. Two examples include Murdock’s Pokémon battle turned Food Wars cook-off with Mitchell and the Rising Volt Tacklers’ Liko search mission in Artazon. The former chapter should’ve leaned more into the cook-off, as it fits emotionally and narratively.
Regarding the latter scenario, the Rising Volt Tacklers should’ve abandoned Artazon in favor of Levencia City. Friede encountered the series’s new and other big-bad, Spinel, in the chapter before that scenario’s episode so it would’ve made logical sense. It’s moments like these that will leave some baffled and mildly annoyed.
Lastly, Season 2 often reuses ideas from Season 1 to develop its core cast. Cap’s battle with Roy’s Wattrel and Fuecoco is a great example. While this scenario leads to Roy developing new battle strategies and seemingly strengthens Wattrel and Fuecoco’s connection, the former result becomes meaningless, since Fuecoco and Wattrel resort to acting awful toward each other in the season finale.
In addition to having chapters solely focused on the supporting cast instead of the series’s unique lore and secrets, Season 2’s plot carries mixed baggage and may not be received well by some critics and audiences. Fortunately, the anime’s cast will entertain viewers. Liko and Roy receive decent growth and confront fitting issues relative to their personalities.
From Liko discovering her Pokémon Trainer calling to Roy developing new battle tactics, fans will enjoy seeing the two thrive or conquer the hurdles placed in front of them. Nonetheless, fans may gravitate toward Liko more, considering Season 2, like Season 1, gives her more significant, emotional, and engaging obstacles to resolve.
Protagonists aside, Season 2 delves into the supporting cast more than Season 1 did. Friede, Cap, and Dot are the standouts, considering this season delves deep into Friede and Cap’s origins and has Dot physically and socially interact with our leads more. Although this trio of side characters needs more depth, Season 2 will certainly entice fans to keep their eyes on them.
Although other supporting characters like Murdock receive depth, he and the other Rising Volt Tacklers take a backseat in favor of these three. The same can be said for the video game-originated characters like Iono and Kabu.
This season also properly introduces Spinel to audiences. Although Spinel’s no different from other strategic fictional villains, his brief role in Season 2 will instill folks with caution and fear. This makes him feel more compelling than Amethio (so far). Yet, based on Season 2’s closing events, many are optimistic that Amethio and his lackeys will make an exceptional comeback. Hopefully, that’s the case because they’re nowhere near as threatening as Spinel.
Visually, Season 2 looks as stellar as Season 1. OLM Studios, the studio behind this production, continues giving audiences a satisfying interpretation of this beloved monster-taming world. Although the visuals aren’t as exceptional as productions from Mappa Studios and others, Season 2’s fights, casual chatter, and other emotionally charged segments will evoke specific emotions from audiences. The soundtrack delivers a similar experience. Like Season 1, I watched this anime with its English Dub.
For the most part, the returning and new cast members put on a praise-worthy performance with Season 2. However, the voice acting wasn’t all that great, with some characters feeling mildly bothersome and bizarre to listen to. Voice acting aside, the background music inserted during Season 2’s touching and gripping portions fit well with the anime. Occasionally, it elevated the voice acting, making performances feel emotionally impactful.
Overall, Pokémon Horizons: The Series Season 2 offers more of the same and doesn’t tackle its unique material hard enough. Yet, it gives certain characters, like Dot and Friede, more spotlight, allowing them to generate a fandom, much like Liko and Roy. Although the series has its faults that should be addressed in Season 3, fans will find this continuation mysterious, engaging, and fun.
Read More: Pokémon Horizons: The Series Season 2 Ending Explained
Feel Free To Check Out More Of Our TV Show Reviews Here!
-
Verdict - 7.5/10
7.5/10