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Stelman257
Joined: 26 Jul 2013
Posts: 311
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 11:20 am
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God I absolutely loved watching Spinel and Matthew Mercer was so perfect as him. Completely agree that he's such a unique idea and great execution as a villain in a Pokemon series. And I love that even one as scheming, sneaky, and sometimes sinister as him, still pets and adores his partner Umbreon. Amazing presence and so fun to watch.
Crispin Freeman also continues to be so good as Friede, and the episode with his and Captain Pikachu's backstory was incredible. Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect from this new Pokemon entry, but I'm glad it's turned out to be such a good lil time.
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InNeedOfAName
Joined: 13 Feb 2023
Posts: 233
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 3:14 pm
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Still find it odd that they only added 11 episodes rather than 13, since episode 25 is when the first arc ends. And while the international release isn't separating it by arcs like Japan, the English opening after episode 25 has the visuals of the second opening.
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Thatguy3331
Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1799
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 10:18 pm
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So I'm obviously not waiting for Netflix for this and I looked up the episodes to remind myself where this batch is currently at and one thing I can say is that admittedly they probably stopped off at a better place for a "season" than the episode when the "first arc" actually ends because that episode (25) doesn't feel like a conclusion of any sort, and episode 23 is fairly climatic in it's own right. I can give the localization that small compliment as I will now completely disregard everything else about it in whatever I type of this post.
I think this stretch of the show (I'll include the 1st 12 as well) is pretty strong, I was genuinely surprised that the show went as long as it did with episodes immediately following up on each other before getting more breather one off type of episodes. Not that they couldn't be enjoyed on their own right but continuity of this level in a pokemon show is pretty unheard of (yes there were multi episode arcs before but it was always like 3 episodes max and then we went back into episodic land, don't be goofy about this) While I have a few criticism about how Liko gets handled in the show (and the next batch will be especially egregious in regards to her and Roy being allowed to do anything on their own) overall I think her character is a delight and the show has been pretty consistent with her personal strengths and weaknesses, even if a part of me feels like a bit more can be done with that but, hey, this show will probably be longer than 100 episodes like before. Roy is pretty fun still but Dot will really begin to steal the show out of the 3 from this point on and it's great that she basically just becomes part of the main cast as opposed to the wishy washiness the show had with Chole in Journeys. and yeah episode 18 is great. The pokemon has had plenty of great animation over the years but this is one of the few times it's had especially strong direction as well (most of the time it's just functional, which is fine but still, compared to some toei kid shows it was always left in the dust in this regard)
I don't think Horizons has especially done anything yet to be my new definitive favorite Pokemon series yet, in fact my personal hot take (if it even is one) is that quality wise I don't think this is all too different from Journeys, I just think the approach is vastly different, that being said the approach is still compelling in it's own right and it's kept we around to where I'm still watching as the show hits it's 50th episode in Japan. I'm definitely happy the show decided to do something totally new like this, and while I doubt Liko, Roy and Dot will be around for the anime in the next generation of Pokemon (Gen 10) I get fairly confident that they will have left their mark, and it also makes me eager to see how the anime will proceed to do things now that it's truly up in the air.
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lealex
Joined: 02 Apr 2023
Posts: 85
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 11:18 am
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I don't think it's totally fair to say Liko was dumbed down to never catch onto Nidothing's true identity. Many people, especially kids, have strong mental images of what celebrities are like in real life, and they're usually in line with how they act on screen. And I'm positive a dour, socially withdrawn hermit who could learn a thing or two about friendship was something Liko never seriously considered her idol to be behind the scenes.
I especially like that everyone else was already in the know about Dot's secret, but chose to respect Dot's privacy because it was her secret to share. And it's not like Dot's costume was just ponytails and glasses that manage to fool everyone week after week after week.
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