The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon Horizons Season 5

Ah Pokémon Horizons, here we are again.

Feels like yesterday since this show started, doesn't it? Here we were back in 2023 anticipating a brand new Pokémon anime without Ash as the lead character and not knowing what we were in for. Ever since the show caught our attention with its bold new direction and brand new cast of characters that promised a Pokémon anime like never before, the show has...honestly not really lived up to its full potential.

It had a VERY strong start with its excellent first season, but then Season 2 felt like a downgrade due to giving up on the story half way through and meandering to the end, Season 3 was a frustrating experience that stands as an example of Horizons at its worst and Season 4, while not as good as Season 1, was a strong return to quality that really threw us all for a curve with that sudden cliff-hanger ending and time skip.

And that's where we are today. We've jumped ahead a year and are now on Season 5, a season that promises us Mega Evolutions, a new status quo and look for our characters and a compelling narrative of our heroes having to fight against the Explorers in spite of their slandered reputation.

This season has a lot of potential. But does it stick the landing? Or is this another dirty trick by Spinel? Let's find out as we return to Pokémon Horizons for the fifth time...

Section 1: The Writing

A year has gone by and the Explorers are now at the top of the world manufacturing Strong Spheres and gaining good publicity from the populace. The Rising Volt Tacklers have been branded as criminals and have disbanded. But when Roy comes to see Liko again at Indigo Academy, the two alongside Dot and Roy's new friend Uruto join forces to put a stop to the Explorers and destroy the Laquium for good...

Now on paper, this season sounds very strong and like it had a lot of potential. In execution...it really left a lot to be desired.

The biggest problem this season has is that it's too reliant on pandering to fan criticism and throwing in fan service at the expense of its story-telling. No joke, it feels like this season was a desperate attempt to please everybody and in the end it pleased nobody. Kinda like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Let's list all the times they sabotage their own story with this stupid attempt at pandering to the fans:

• This arc features Mega Evolution! But only Roy and Uruto use it and the story in no way, shape or form is even about Mega Evolution. It's blatantly shoe-horned into the story just because Pokémon: Legends Z-A is upcoming and they need to show off Mega Evolutions to advertise the game. If Mega Evolution was to truly have a point here, then Liko and Dot should've gotten Megas too and Roy and Uruto shouldn't be the only ones using them.

• Roy has a shiny Lucario! Even though people are sick to death of Lucario by now and Roy's Lucario was given no personality whatsoever. Also Roy just has it and the arc never once explains or shows us how he got it. Instead we've got a pointless three-episode mini arc coming out after this season concluded to do the heavy lifting instead.

• The secondary mons get more screen time! But it comes at the expense of shafting the Paldea starters and making them look weak just so these secondary mons get their time to shine. Also the secondary mons still don't really get their time to shine with only Dot's Tinkatink (which later evolves into Tinkaton) and Pagogo getting to win some battles in this arc. Liko's Hattrem at least learns a new move, but only uses it in the episode she learns it in and never uses it again, which brings to mind the criticism I had of her in Season 2 where she learned Heal Pulse but never used it again until the next arc.

• Liko gets a rematch against Katy! But she uses Pagogo instead of Meowscarada in order to beat her, thus it didn't truly feel like a redemption for her loss to Katy in Season 3.

• Liko catches a Charcadet! Which should've happened much sooner and also comes at the expense of nerfing Meowscarada just so Charcadet can have its time in the spotlight. Seriously, Liko's Meowscarada really got shafted in this arc! She's become the new Ash's Torterra in where somehow evolving seems to make her weaker rather than stronger.

• Dot catches a Gimmighoul! But they clearly set Roy up to do it and nobody was asking for Dot to be the one to catch it. It feels like just an excuse to have more comic relief.

• Uruto has a Mega Evolving Dragonite! And it's clearly just there to clumsily promote Legends Z-A because he just has it with very, very little foreshadowing so it feels like a lazy deus-ex-machina.

• Roy wins a battle against Nemona! And it was bulls***. You seriously expect me to believe that Roy, the boy who got his ass kicked by pre-character development Liko TWICE is now suddenly able to beat Nemona, A CHAMPION RANKED STUDENT NEED I REMIND YOU, after a year's worth of training?! And people mock Ash for having Plot Armour. They didn't even try to make his win look convincing. As usual, Roy only wins because the plot says he does, not because he's actually a skilled or strong trainer.

• Dot and Penny have a battle! And it had nothing to do with the episode it was featured in. It was there to pad out the running time, was very poorly animated and executed and clearly only exists because the fans wanted it to happen, not because he writers did.

Seriously, it's embarrassing how many times the story trips on its own feet because it's trying to please so many people at once. I get trying to give the fans what they want and all and answer some fan criticisms, but you can do that WITHOUT sabotaging your own story! I could've easily executed this arc by including some of this stuff without compromising the story in any way! I wouldn't nerf the Paldea starters just so the secondary mons can have their time to shine, Roy wouldn't beat Nemona, the backstory of him and Lucario would've been told in this season, Uruto's Dragonite would've had more build-up and Dot vs. Penny would've had a whole episode dedicated to it instead of being shoved into another episode that had nothing to do with it.

That's not the only problem this season has though. Much like Season 2, the arc starts off pretty strongly in the first half but then in the second half, it kinda meanders a bit until the end. Hell, we even get ANOTHER beach episode just like in that season! It's not as bad as Season 2 thankfully because there's less filler episodes this time around and it doesn't feel like the season gives up having a plot halfway through. Even when the plot is a little stagnant, it still feels like there's a plot at all and some stuff still happens or gets revealed to give the episodes some purpose. Still, they could've thought this through a little more. The pacing does this season no favours either as it simultaneously feels padded AND rushed at the same time. In the first half, we bring the RVTs back together, find out where Black Rayquaza is hiding, get Uruto on the team AND Pagogo reawakens again only three episodes into the season. Come the second half, a lot less happens at once and it's so weird like that. Personally I think gathering the team back together should've spanned the whole season instead of being over with so quickly.

Also I feel the finale was a little underwhelming and like the writers wanted another downer ending for whatever reason, so they have to force things to happen just so our heroes can lose again and set up the next arc. I'm not against the idea of our heroes losing again so we can emphasize what a big deal the Explorers are, I just hate how they executed it.

Speaking of execution, I hate how quickly the Rising Volt Tacklers are brought back together. The first half of the season is more or less about bringing them back together, even though the team disbanding was the perfect excuse to finally write them out of the show and just focus entirely on Liko and Roy. Seriously, why did they bother bringing the team back? They're just dead-weights plot wise and there's no need to bring them back. It feels like they only exist just so our characters can get from Point A to Point B, even though Liko and Roy were doing that just fine without them so we don't even need them for that. Oh and Episode 100 implies that Friede is actually alive. That sucks, I was hoping they actually did kill him off for real. Him being alive just undercuts the emotional gut punch that was Season 4's ending and it runs the risk of him coming back and stealing Liko and Roy's thunder again...still, at least they haven't immediately brought him back and are keeping his return ambiguous so we don't know exactly when he'll come back.

I also hate how this season has some stuff that should have a big payoff, but it falls flat. They reveal that the Black Rayquaza is recovering in a cave somewhere, implying it'll get some kind of big heroic moment at the end of the season and...nothing. We never see Black Rayquaza again after that episode it shows up. So what was the point of that? Also Amethio needs to find his grandfather's White Zygarde. Instead of devoting a few episodes to that, he just turns up in the finale with the White Zygarde having been found offscreen. Seriously, would it kill the writers for once in this show to have it so we can have some Amethio focused episodes and we're not always focusing on Liko and friends?

And I REALLY hate how they set up Liko's part of the story. Roy comes to Indigo Academy in Episode 2, beats Ann in a battle, then beats Liko in a battle and that loss...rejuvenates Liko somehow. That was stupid. Having Roy beat BOTH Ann and Liko in the same episode just felt unnecessary. Either he should've won one battle or the other, he shouldn't have won both times. Beating Ann just made her achievements feel like a joke and have us asking how is she as good as they say she is if Roy can beat her with this random Lucario he got offscreen and beating Liko just didn't make any sense. How did that snap her out of her funk? Shouldn't losing the battle have made Liko feel MORE depressed and have her say that this just proves her point that she's useless to him? Liko should've won that battle as that would've made WAY more sense in getting her out of her depressed state and proving to herself and others she's still got it. But no, the writers clearly thought Liko looked too competent in the last arc so they have to make her lose again because Roy is their little pet now and he gets to win all the battles this arc instead of her BECAUSE THIS SHOW SUCKS AT TREATING THE DUAL PROTAGONISTS AS EQUALS!!!

(pants heavily)

So yeah, I hated that.

Overall, Season 5 sounds like it's a bad season just like Seasons 2 and 3, right? Almost...but not quite. Believe it or not, this season isn't a complete disaster. It DOES have a lot of good things about it that at least makes it better than those two seasons.

For starters, I love how the stakes have been raised and now we've gone from "finding Laqua" to "stopping the villains from capitalizing on the suffering of Pokémon". The show makes it so clear that this is NOT an easy feat and that our heroes have a lot of work to do since they're seen as the bad guys now and the Explorers have grown in popularity and are adored by the public. Simply stopping the villain isn't enough here and this isn't a problem that can be solved by simply winning a Pokémon battle. These are high stakes and it makes for a more engaging watch as now we're wondering "how will our heroes win in the end?". And in the end, they DIDN'T win! While the execution could've been better, it was still a smart idea to make it so this season ends with another loss for our heroes to further emphasize how the Explorers can't be dealt with as easily as before. It's not like the Ash era where Team Rocket could be dealt with in every episode and that was it, these are villains that require A LOT of effort and careful planning to take down, and with the public on the villain's side? It'll not be so easy...

Yet despite that, the show never feels like it gets too dark or cynical and it keeps true to the tone of the previous seasons. The time skip does allow for some more dramatic and emotional writing than what we usually get in Pokémon, but it doesn't overdo it and the show is still able to be fun and have some optimism too it so the situation doesn't feel completely hopeless and our heroes do have some victories here and there.

Also, while I complain about Liko losing a lot in this arc again, UNLIKE Season 3's horrendous handling of her, Season 5 handled these losses a lot better. In Season 3, her losses felt forced and unnecessary and felt too excessive since we had a big string of losses in-between wins for her. In Season 5, they're more evenly spread out so they don't feel as much in one go, she still gets to look competent while in action even if she loses and her losses have more of a point to the story this time around. Here, Liko losing either emphasizes how dangerous the Explorers have become thanks to their use of Strong Spheres or it teachers her Pokémon an important lesson like with Charcadet. While I wish Liko won more battles this time around, her losses frustrate me a lot less here because there's more weight behind them and it doesn't feel like she's losing just because. That and she still gets some time to shine anyway whether it was taking down the Tauros alongside Roy, Dot and Uruto, winning a rematch against Katy, keeping an Incineroar trainer on the ropes before the battle was interrupted and even dealing with a Laquaium infected Vileplume with her Hattrem. Hell, despite losing her training match to Diana, she at least took down one of her Pokémon, hence she didn't get utterly curbstomped! That's a big step-up from Season 3 where she couldn't beat any of Rika's Pokémon in that double battle! So thankfully, she wasn't reduced to a pathetic punching bag like in Season 3 and even with a few losses here, they didn't feel as annoying and they weren't as excessive. Oh and the fact despite Roy's increased prominence, Liko still feels like the main character of this story really helps too. She still gets a lot of focus and is pivotal in quite a few big character moments in this arc, so that was a relief.

I may also question why the writers bothered to bring the Rising Volt Tacklers back, I will give them credit that the team were given more depth this time around as we see how they've all been doing since losing Friede, disbanding the team and moving on with their lives a year later. Orla's return episode especially was pretty emotional and had you really feeling the weight of her loss. It's too bad that Friede's implied to be alive and thus it undercuts that drama, but it's still some good emotional stuff that makes you feel for the characters and makes them easier to root for. Amethio's return episode was really solid here too and was probably the best episode of the season for me.

And one last thing to praise about this season is that it makes good use of continuity and is able to make previous episodes feel less like filler this time around. Remember that episode where we see a Charcadet and a Gimmighoul? No longer filler since those two mons end up getting caught by Liko and Dot respectively in this arc. Karna the Pokéball mechanic whom we saw all the way back in Season 2? She actually comes back here and her factory is factored into the plot in an organic way so that episode from Season 2 is no longer filler. It takes some good writing I say when you can make previous filler episodes no longer feel like filler by building on them and making use of previous continuity. Goes to show that some intelligence did go into the scripts of this season and it's not all bad.

Season 5 overall had a lot of problems, but its good moments were so good that it stops the season being terrible overall. It could've been a great season, but hey, I'll take what I can get. At least it wasn't as bad as Seasons 2 and 3, so I consider THAT a victory...

Section 2: The Characters

It's been a year in-universe since the fall of Laqua, so how have our characters grown and changed since then?

Let's start with our main heroine Liko (voiced in Japanese by Minori Suzuki and in English by Alejandra Reynoso). Liko's battle record sadly took a dip here, but as I mentioned earlier Season 5 handled her losses A LOT better here since they either emphasize the threat of our villains some more or her Pokémon learn an important lesson so thankfully it doesn't feel like she's been reduced to a punching bag again. Battles aside, Liko was fantastic in this arc. I especially LOVE how she's become more assertive and pro-active this time around, being more involved in making decisions that forward the story instead of everyone else having to push her in that direction, she's less of a pushover and isn't afraid to get angry. No joke, she actually SNAPS at Coral and yells at her to "drop the act" in one episode! That was awesome! Same for another episode where she basically tells Uruto to knock it off and to work as a team. Liko in previous seasons would never have done that, so it's awesome to see how she's grown so much over the course of the series. The fact she gets to play a part in Amethio's development and motivate him the same way he motivated her was brilliant too. This Liko is braver, more assertive, isn't afraid to call people out on their crap and yet still is very kind and compassionate. If this Liko can win battles more often like in Season 4, then the writers will have finally got it right with her. As is, I loved Liko in this season, she was on top form, even if it was more in terms of character moments than battle prowess.

But while I loved Liko in this season, I HATED Roy (voiced in Japanese by Yuka Terasaki and in English by Anjali Kunapaneni) here. Remember how I used to call Roy a useless spare part? Those days are over, because now he's no longer a useless spare part. He's a tool, an annoying, obvious, blatant tool that exists just to shill Mega Evolutions. Aside from motivating Liko into getting involved in the plot this season by kicking her ass in a battle (somehow), Roy does nothing of note except give the writers an excuse to show how super-duper-awesome Mega Evolutions are and also to show off how super-duper-awesome Lucario is. Sorry writers, but this isn't going to convince me. Roy is still a guy who only wins battles because the plot says he does and he still needs his opponents to be handicapped just so he can win. This isn't how you make your character look strong! While I sort of like how he's a little more mature and serves as the straight man to Uruto's antics, it feels like he has less personality this time around and he has no development or arc this season. Instead, we're getting a pointless miniseries after this season has ended in order to get that development. Like I say, he's no longer a character, he's just a marketing tool to shill Mega Evolutions. God I wish the show was just about Liko, cause anytime I see Roy I'm just given more evidence how right I am that the show would benefit from his absence.

Also there's a HUGE missed opportunity regarding Roy in this season. Instead of giving him a Mega Evolving Lucario, since lord knows we haven't seen enough of that oversaturated jackal in this franchise(!), the writers should've given him a Mega Evolving Absol instead. Think about it, Absol is a Pokémon with a bad reputation because it's seen as a doom bringer due to disasters happening when it appears. Roy is a trainer with a bad reputation because the Rising Volt Tacklers have been framed as criminals by the Explorers. YOU SEE HOW PERFECT THIS COULD'VE BEEN?!?! Mega Absol would've been way more appropriate and WAY more interesting a partner for Roy since it's the Pokémon that visually represents the RVTs slandered reputation the best! But no, we gotta shill Lucario for the millionth time even though there is nothing special about that thing and the anime will never convince me otherwise! This is why stories should be run by what makes sense for the story and not be marketing decisions, because then you get wasted potential like this...

Dot is back too (voiced in Japanese by Yoshino Aoyama and in English by Faye Mata) and at first I was worried her character development was going to be undone and she'd be back sitting in her room all day like before. Thankfully, this wasn't the case and she got involved in the story. It was somewhat fitting how at first, she was kind of playing an Oracle-style role to Liko and Roy, but I like how she came and joined everybody in person later on so she wasn't just doing that. Sadly, like Roy she doesn't really have an arc or development this season. She's just the tech savvy girl who helps our heroes out now and also had that nonsensical moment where she catches a Gimmighoul despite Roy being the one set up to catch it at first. I still don't get what that was about. It was nice to see her Tinkatink become a Tinkaton at least.

And then we have our newest member of the Rising Volt Tacklers, Uruto (voiced in Japanese by Natsumi Fujiwara but currently has no confirmed English voice actor). He has now taken Roy's position as the useless spare part. He LITERALLY only exists just to shill Mega Evolution. That's it. That's his only purpose in the story. He contributes nothing else. If it wasn't for the fact Legends Z-A was coming and they needed to shill Mega Evolutions to promote the game, I bet this waste of space wouldn't have been created. He's such a nothing character. All he has going for him is that he has a Sableye and a Dragonite that can both Mega Evolve with Dragonite being a mon that acts more like a deus ex machina for him to rely on to get out of a sticky situation. I just feel like Roy whenever he's onscreen and wish we could just get rid of him. He has no point to the story, especially once Legends Z-A comes and goes and they don't need to shill Mega Evolutions anymore. The Rising Volt Tacklers are better off without him.

Speaking of the Rising Volt Tacklers, we get to see Orla, Mollie, Murdock and Ludlow again. There were given a pretty strong showing in the first half as the team gets back together and we see how their lives have been since the time skip, but come the second half they more or less just vanish from the plot and have no relevance ever again. Like I say, the time skip really was the perfect opportunity to write them out of the series entirely but they squandered it and now we have them stuck around doing nothing again. This show really proves why the Ash era worked so well when it was just Ash and two or three companions travelling with him. This cast would benefit so much from being shrunk down.

And finally, we have our villains, the Explorers. With Spinel (voiced in Japanese by Makoto Furukawa and in English by Matthew Mercer) in charge, the organization has become more global and is now beloved in the eyes of the public with Coral and Sidian more or less being big name celebrities now. We even get two new members named Indy and Rubella, who essentially exist just to replace Zir and Conia. Those two have no real character or personality to them other than "Spinel's grunts", so I won't waste time talking about them. While I like how the Explorers remain an active threat and the status quo has put them in a position where they can't be so easily defeated, I still hate how they barely show up at times and we don't get any episodes focusing on them. Spinel desperately needs a focus episode or two, because as of now, I REALLY don't see what his endgame is. Why is he manufacturing the Strong Spheres and using Laquium like so? What's he getting out of this? I doubt he's doing it for the money, so what's the point of all this? Does he want to take over the world, is he doing it for science or what?! Just tell us goddamn it! Give me something to work with here!

I also HATE how Coral and Sidian are handled here. Season 4 had them objecting to Spinel using the Laquium Sphere last time, but here in Season 5 they happily go along with Spinel's plans and seemingly have no problem with what he's doing. Coral I guess kinda makes sense since she's the attention whore and all and would obviously love her newfound celebrity status. Also she's not one to care for Glalie's well-being since she tells it to blow up whenever she feels like it. But Sidian especially feels hideously out-of-character here. He's the honourable one who dislikes winning via dirty tactics, yet he's perfectly fine using a Strong Sphere to enhance his Garganacl in order to win fights and doesn't seem to care of the pain and damage it's doing to itself. I don't buy for a second that Sidian would be OK with this. This is why we needed an episode focusing on him and Coral this season so we could maybe see if he's really as willing as the season makes it seem or maybe show us why he seems to be OK with this. These villains have so much story and character potential to them and it's just not being explored (no pun intended).

On that note, I'll give this season credit for actually giving Zir and Conia more personality and focus this time around. Seriously, it took them five seasons to FINALLY do something with the two instead of making them generic grunts? Took them long enough. Sadly they disappear from the plot after Amethio is found, but it's still nice we got an episode about them. Zir finding out Dot is Nidothing was very funny too. Seriously, what the hell was going through his head when he found that out? XD

And on the subject of characters who don't appear enough in this show, Amethio (voiced in Japanese by Shun Horie and in English by Daman Mills) is back and sadly appears as sporadically as he usually does. At the same time though, the show keeps up its tradition of making his appearances count whenever he does appear, for his return episode with Liko is the best episode of the season for me and I love how Liko gets to be the one to motivate him back into action just as he did for her back in Season 3. And while it wasn't really necessary to see, it was pretty funny seeing him and Mighty G interact together. Also it was nice to see him and his father Cervantis (or Crave in the Japanese dub) reconcile, even if it could've done with more development. Hopefully next time he shows up, he'll get to play more of a part and actually get to stop Spinel with Gibeon's Zygarde...

We do get some guest character showing up here, but they don't really contribute a whole much aside from giving our heroes someone to battle every now and then. Ann and Nemona really get the short end of the stick here as they exist just to be worfed at Roy's expense, Penny exists just so Dot can battle here for no reason other than because the fans wanted to see it happen, Team Wiggle feels like he belongs in the Ash era of the show and not this series and Diana shows up just to give Liko another training episode, but does also suggest how Terapagos can get rid of the Laquium for good so that'll be helpful at least. The most memorable guest character of this season for me was Litten Girl. She was a lot of fun and I genuinely hope we see her again, which says a lot of a one-shot character of the day doesn't it? Also Katy was a welcome return, especially for her part in Murdock's return and it was a welcome surprise to see Karna again for the first time since Season 2.

The characters suffer here from either being dead-weights plot wise or not getting enough appearances. It's so sad when Liko's the only one who's consistently being the star of the show here while everybody else falters in comparison...

Section 3: The Animation

Now onto the one thing that everybody seems to unanimously agree on regarding this arc: the animation really took a downgrade here. No joke, this season has the worst animation of all the seasons we've had of Pokémon Horizons so far. Did they run out of budget or something when this season was being crafted? Seriously, what happened to the animation here?

It's not entirely terrible of course. The colours are still crisp and bold and add a lot of life to the drawings here, the character designs are still solid, the new outfits for the cast are pretty neat with Liko and Roy especially looking older and more mature (and in Roy's case he actually looks better the way he does now), the Pokémon look great when they're onscreen and the animation has a few bits that look awesome and well animated. The highlights include Penny throwing a Tera Orb (seriously, they went ridiculously hard at that part) or any time Roy and Uruto use Mega Evolution. I especially love how cool Mega Dragonite looks in Horizons's animation style. I dare anyone to still think it sucks after seeing it here. So yeah, the animation isn't entirely bad here, it does have a few good moments.

But let's not delay any further. Why is the animation bad here? Let's get into it.

First of all, not every Horizons character got a good redesign here. Some like Orla, Sidian and Chalce barely look any different from before to the point I wonder why they bothered if they were going to do such a lazy job on them. Everybody else at least looks like they've had a proper change in outfit and such, so why did they put the bare minimum into those characters?

And then there are the fight scenes. Oh god...the fight scenes. Pokémon Horizons has a very poor track record when it comes to battles to the point I feel Season 4 was the only time the show ever gave us halfway decent fight scenes. Here, the battles are a complete joke. They're poorly choreographed and executed to the point nearly every battle ends in an anti-climax and with barely any actual fighting going on. And that's where the bad animation doesn't help matters. A lot of the battles here are stiffly animated or barely animated at all so the battles don't feel as exciting or as dynamic as they should do. Attacks and impacts barely have any weight to them and a lot of the times when the Pokémon lose, it feels very abrupt and forced with the finale being the worst example of that. It says a lot when Liko vs. Litten Girl was one of the few battles that was decently animated, and that was a filler episode! Also Liko vs. Amethio looked pretty decent too, but that's about it. The only battle that also had some creativity to it was Roy and Uruto against Indy and Rubella. It was pretty clever of Indy and Rubella to have four Rabsca in action to use Gravity to weigh everybody down and make it harder for them to fight, but that battle ends in an anti-climax when Roy and Uruto Mega Evolve Lucario and Dragonite respectively and take their Pokémon down in a single stroke.

It's such a shame that the visuals took a downgrade here, because they could've made this season feel so epic and given us some incredible battles. Instead it feels like they had to cut a lot of corners here to save money. Maybe they're saving their energy and animation for the next arc? Who knows...

Overall

Pokémon Horizons Season 5 is very middle-of-the-road. It's better than Seasons 2 and 3, but it's a step down from Seasons 1 and 4. The story feels a little stagnant, the fan-service is detrimental to the plot, Roy and Uruto are just tools to promote Mega Evolution instead of actual characters, Liko is back to losing a lot again, the animation took a huge downgrade, the fight scenes are a joke and the ending really made this season feel like a waste of time in the end. But it IS salvaged thanks to some strong character writing for Liko, Amethio and the RVTs, the Explorers prove they're still a threat and won't go down so easily, Liko catching Charcadet, the secondary mons getting some time to shine and a few satisfying moments that make it at least worth a watch in some places. I wouldn't say to skip this season entirely since the first half is pretty strong and there's some great moments in there. Just lower your expectations a little. As I say, it's squarely in the middle if we're rating the seasons from best to worst. Not as bad as Seasons 2 and 3, but nowhere near as good as Seasons 1 and 4. Still, we have a sixth season coming up soon and who knows, maybe that'll be an upgrade from this one...

Oh...great. Another training arc set at a school and featuring characters from the Scarlet and Violet games. Writers, I have one tiny request...

PLEASE DON'T MAKE THIS A REPEAT OF SEASON 3! I CAN'T GO BACK THERE BRO!

If Liko gets treated like crap again and Roy gets shilled for the umpteenth time in this arc, then this show is dead to me... On the plus side, yay Lacey's debuting in the anime! She might make this worthwhile at least. I'll also laugh if we get the return of "Cornbread" and "Seasoning" too. XD

And that's it for my review of Pokémon Horizons Season 5. Did you like the season? Did you not like it? I'd love to hear your comments, so comment away below.

Next week I'll be counting down my Top 10 Favourite Doctor Who villains. See you then media fans!

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