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Review

by Bolts,

Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua Part 3

Anime Series Review

Synopsis:
Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua Part 3 Anime Series Review
Liko, Roy and Dot have finished their Terastallization test so now it's time to depart with the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers to continue their journey. We still have a few more of Lucius's Pokemon to chase down including Kleavor and Entei who might be in the region of Kitakami. Will they be able to capture these pokemon and finally discover what exactly Laqua is?
Review:

Training is over and it's time to leave Paldea. Liko, Roy and Dot are stronger than they ever have been before, but now it's time to resume the journey to find Laqua. But first we need to find the remaining of Lucius's Pokémon, including the Black Rayquaza. All of that sounds really exciting right? So why does half of this batch of episodes feel so boring?

Maybe this is on me for getting too excited and attached to the Terastallization test that was going on for the last two batches of episodes. I was originally worried that getting away from Pokémon Horizon's originally established formula would hurt it, and instead we got some of the best moments in the entire series so far. Now, after going back to what we originally had from Pokémon: Horizons with our trio going on adventures with the Rising Volt Tacklers, things honestly feel kind of slow by comparison. It's not bad necessarily, but it really does feel like the story just went back to the way things were without really progressing the overall narrative structure of the show.

It's back to unraveling the mystery of Lucius and there are some really good episodes in here that go all in on that mystery. These are arguably the most important episodes of the entire series thus far, because it fully goes into confirming major details about the past and even pays off some theories that were felt throughout the show up until this point. But the foundation by which this information is delivered has to be one of the most mind-boggling and borderline frustrating aspects of the entire series thus far. It loosely makes sense if you've played Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, as a narrative component from those games is built into the show itself. There is actually a lot of game fanservice here for Pokémon: Legends Arceus and some of the game's DLC, but the integration of these ideas feels very lackluster. They feel more like footnotes rather then actually built up lore.

We get more of Lucius's legendary Pokémon, but the way that they are handled feels way too bland compared to how they're built up and I'm trying to figure out why. Arguably things aren't much different from how they were in the early seasons, and that's the problem. There isn't anything new or exciting about the actual journey at this point. It's more of the same of what we had before, and that's not good enough for me anymore after the show kept raising the bar with hype and character. There are even some episodes here that would just straight up feel like filler if it wasn't for the fact that they randomly pull in a plot point at the last minute. Even when the show is trying to follow up on the things that it does best, it ends up tripping over its own feet and face plants into the ground.

It really does feel like a majority of the animation spotlights and character development was reserved for the early parts of this season and now it feels like it's running out of steam. They could have truncated a good chunk of these episodes and not lost a lot of major information. The Explorers don't even get a lot of things to do, which feels very strange considering how involved they were previously.

This also applies to the animation quality, which isn't bad, but we don't really hit any of the major highs that the series had kind of become known for before now. We're starting to see a few segments of repeated animation, the choreography feels a bit slower, and some gags just overstay their welcome. The music is about the same, and while there are some really strong dub performances here, I can't even give them that much proper attention because some characters aren't specifically listed next to a cast member in the credits. For some reason, Netflix is listing some new actors as additional voices and that makes it very difficult to determine who is playing who. I even had to double check Bulbapedia, but some actors just aren't being credited properly.

Seriously, almost everything about this batch of episodes feels like the show is losing steam. I had feared we would get to this point a while ago, but Pokémon: Horizons was always good at capitalizing on this strong sense of momentum. While there were some episodes that felt slower than others, they were at least entertaining or tied into a character's personal development, even if it didn't focus on the main story. But some of these episodes just felt like a drag to get through, and that's a shame considering that we are on our way to reaching the overall climax of this arc. For the first time since the beginning of the series, I'm genuinely concerned. Hopefully this is more of a speed bump instead of a new status quo.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : B-
Story : B-
Animation : B
Art : B
Music : B-

+ Major mysteries are finally answered, decent game fanservice
Many episodes feel like filler, animation feel lackluster, narrative momentum has slowed down

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Production Info:
Chief Director: Daiki Tomiyasu
Director: Saori Den
Series Composition: Dai Satō
Script:
Deko Akao
Naohiro Fukushima
Kureha Matsuzawa
Naruki Nagakawa
Dai Satō
Muga Takeda
Michihiro Tsuchiya
Kimiko Ueno
Storyboard:
Otumami
Suzu
Hiromasa Amano
Yūji Asada
Saori Den
Mio Hidenin
Satoru Iriyoshi
Yoshihiko Iwata
Daigo Kinoshita
Ichizō Kobayashi
Takahiko Kyōgoku
Daichi Masu
Kazuaki Mōri
Ayumi Moriyama
Makoto Nakata
Shōji Nishida
Yasuhiro Noda
Makoto Ōga
Yūsuke Oshida
Noriaki Saito
Masato Satō
Satoshi Shimizu
Ayae Shinkai
Kyōhei Sumiyama
Hiroaki Takagi
Haruno Tasaka
Daiki Tomiyasu
Chiko Ueda
Tetsuo Yajima
Misu Yamaneko
Episode Director:
Yūichi Abe
Yūji Asada
Saori Den
Yasunori Gotō
Tsurugi Harada
Yoshihiko Iwata
Kenya Kodama
Takashi Kojima
Junya Koshiba
Hiromichi Matano
Yoshihisa Matsumoto
Ayumi Moriyama
Makoto Nakata
Yasuhiro Noda
Makoto Ōga
Jin-Koo Oh
Hiroyuki Okuno
Masatune Ooi
Satoshi Saga
Hye Jin Seo
Ayae Shinkai
Kyōhei Sumiyama
Hiroaki Takagi
Masashi Tsukino
Chiko Ueda
Fumihiro Ueno
Misu Yamaneko
Unit Director:
Otumami
Saori Den
Takahiko Kyōgoku
Ayumi Moriyama
Yūsuke Oshida
Kotaro Sakamoto
Ayae Shinkai
Haruno Tasaka
Daiki Tomiyasu
Chiko Ueda
Music: Conisch
Original Concept: Satoshi Tajiri
Character Design: Rei Yamazaki
Art Director: Masatoshi Muto
Chief Animation Director:
Kyōko Itō
Rei Yamazaki
Animation Director:
Mixemirai
Sato
Sakuya Abe
Toshinari Abe
Ryōtarō Aoba
Makoto Arashiro
Imani Brown
Jie Qiong Chen
Liang Chen
Inseop Choe
Imsoo Do
Li Ze Dong
Saki Ebisawa
Rie Eyama
Dong dong Fan
Kennedy Freeman
Peng Guan
Keita Hagiwara
Yutsuko Hanai
Hironori Hano
Masumi Hattori
Natsumi Hattori
Hui He
Jae Young Heo
Kosuke Hiramatsu
Toshihito Hirooka
SuBeen Hwang
Federico Iglesias
Asato Ikumi
Kyōko Itō
Masaaki Iwane
Ya Chen Ji
DAHYE JUNG
Noeko Kashiuchi
Kenji Kato
CEAEI KIM
HanJu KIM
Jin Ah Kim
Jung Woo Kim
Sunmi Kim
Yūki Kitajima
Kou Kobayashi
Mari Kobayashi
Chiaki Kurakazu
Ryōta Kuratani
Arisa Kuroda
EunJoo Kwon
Niu Lao
Min Ji Lee
So Yeon Lee
Yerin Lee
Ding Fu Liu
Jun Liu
Qing Yun Lu
Rui Luo
Yuki Masutani
Katsuji Matsumoto
Megumi Matsumoto
Toshiko Nakatani
Toshiko Nakaya
Hiromi Niioka
Azusa Nishimura
Yasue Ohno
Akihiko Oka
Tatsuya Oka
Masaya Ōnishi
Reina Ono
Yoshifumi Ookawa
Yūsuke Oshida
Masashi Ōtsuka
Ji-Yun Park
Song Hwa Park
Pei Qi Peng
Hiromi Sakai
Prommee Saksit
Yukie Sasaki
Mare Sekikawa
Tao Yi Shen
Izumi Shimura
Takashi Shinohara
Gyeon Suk So
Jiyeon Song
JoonYoub Song
Takaaki Sonoda
Miho Sugimoto
Sayo Sugiyama
Kei Takahashi
Yūhei Takahoshi
Hibiki Takazoe
Akira Takeuchi
Shūji Tanaka
Teruki Tomomatsu
Yousuke Toyama
Miki Ueda
Xu Long Wei
Xiao Lai Wu
Tong Xiao
Chuang Xu
Toshiya Yamada
Kurika Yamagata
Naoko Yamamoto
Rei Yamazaki
Yoshitaka Yanagihara
Shinichi Yoshino
Subin Youn
Hui Yun Yu
Yeon Jun Yu
Qing Yun Zhao
Jin Zhong
Pei Ming Zhou
Sound Director: Masafumi Mima
Cgi Director: Takayoshi Kawasaki
Director of Photography:
Yūsaku Ishimi
Hiromichi Suzuki
Producer:
Tsuyoshi Kajiwara
Yūsuke Kudō
Kōhei Momose
Tomoya Negishi
Ayaka Sekiguchi

Full encyclopedia details about
Pokémon Horizons: The Series (TV)

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