Pokémon Horizons season 1: Liko, Roy and the pendant that changes everything

"Pokémon Horizons" isn't the next chapter in Ash Ketchum's adventures: it's an entirely new animated series, and its season numbering starts over at 1. Its first season introduces two brand-new protagonists, Liko and Roy, a crew of adventurers called the Rising Volt Tacklers, and two mysterious objects that drive the entire plot. Forty-five episodes to build a world that owes almost nothing to the one it replaces.

Contents

• A new series, and season numbering that starts from scratch
• 45 episodes, three broadcast schedules
• Liko and Roy, the two new protagonists
• The Rising Volt Tacklers, a crew rather than a trio
• The pendant, the ancient Poké Ball and the Black Rayquaza
• The regions visited
• The season's standout Pokémon
• The Explorers, a different kind of adversary
• The French broadcast
• What this first season brings
• Pokémon Horizons Season 1 at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A new series, and season numbering that starts from scratch

This is the key point to understand before anything else. "Pokémon Horizons" is a separate animated series, announced on December 16, 2022, as an "all-new series" with entirely new protagonists and an entirely new story. It follows " Pokémon the Series " without continuing its story: Ash's journey has come to an end, and none of its characters takes the lead role here.

The exact title of this first season is Pokémon Horizons: The Series, and the French version of that title was revealed on March 24, 2023. It really is a Season 1, not the next number in the previous series' count: the official season numbering was reset to one, just as a new collection starts from scratch. Any claims to the contrary you come across online stem from internal counts specific to certain markets, not from the official French presentation.

The series was handed to a new pair of heroes and given a new tone. Where "Pokémon the Series" followed a Trainer chasing League titles, "Horizons" tells the story of a treasure hunt and a family mystery, with a crew, an airship and a secret handed down through several generations. Battles still happen, but they're no longer the backbone of the story.

As always, the feature films stay out of the count. The Pokémon movies follow their own continuity and don't fit into the season numbering; our complete guide to the Pokémon movies helps you place them separately.

45 episodes, three broadcast schedules

Season 1 has 45 episodes, numbered HZ001 to HZ045. In Japan, these episodes aired on TV Tokyo from April 14, 2023, to March 29, 2024. In France, the season ran from December 9, 2023, to October 13, 2024, and in the United States it was released on Netflix from March 7 to November 22, 2024.

The international season doesn't match a single Japanese block. It merges the first two arcs of the Japanese series: a first set of 25 episodes, aired from April 14 to October 20, 2023, then a second set of 20 episodes, from October 27, 2023, to March 29, 2024. Their Japanese titles translate as "Liko and Roy's Departure" and "The Radiance of Terapagos," but these aren't season titles: internationally, the switch from one to the other only shows through a change of visuals in the opening and ending sequences.

The season's French theme song is titled "Être qui je suis" ("To Be Who I Am"). The French episode titles stay close to the international version, give or take a few liberties, but the names they use are those of the French dub: "Le pendentif par lequel tout a commencé," "Tout ira bien! Poussacha est avec moi!" and "Je t'ai trouvé, Chochodile!" (Poussacha and Chochodile being the French names for Sprigatito and Fuecoco). It's best to quote them as they are rather than working back from the American version.

The other French-speaking territories had their own schedules, well out of step with France. Belgium started the season on March 7, 2024, and Quebec on March 2, 2024, nearly three months after France, and Quebec finished it on December 28, 2024. Here again, none of these dates can be inferred from the others.

Liko and Roy, the two new protagonists

Liko is a shy, reserved girl from the Paldea region, the setting of the games covered in our feature on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. At the start of the series, she arrives in Kanto to study at Indigo Academy, where she receives her starter Pokémon, a Sprigatito , and the two get off to a rather rocky start. Nothing about her suggests the self-assurance of an anime hero.

She wears a pendant around her neck, a gift from her grandmother Diana, without knowing its value. This object makes her the target of the Explorers, an organization that tries to seize it from the very first episodes. It's this pendant, and not any ambition as a Trainer, that sets Liko on the road.

📿 Her grandmother Diana's pendant puts Liko in the Explorers' crosshairs from the very first episodes, and she still doesn't know why: our Pokémon necklaces hang around your neck without attracting that kind of trouble.

Roy is her exact opposite: a lively boy from an island in Kanto, who has dreamed since childhood of living the adventures of a legendary hero named Lucius. He too owns an heirloom, an ancient Poké Ball entrusted to him by his grandfather, which he has never managed to open; our feature on the types of Poké Balls shows just how unusual this model is.

The two characters move at different speeds, and that's what holds the season together. Liko has to learn to make her own decisions, and Roy to temper his enthusiasm. Neither of them starts the season with a Pokémon of their own: Liko gets Sprigatito in the first episode, while Roy doesn't become the Trainer of a wild Fuecoco until HZ006.

The Rising Volt Tacklers, a crew rather than a trio

This is where the big structural break with the previous series lies. Liko and Roy don't travel as a pair or a trio, but as part of a full crew, the Rising Volt Tacklers, a band of adventurers who roam the world aboard an airship, the Brave Olivine, to uncover its mysteries.

The team is led by Friede, a Pokémon Professor and pilot, who rescues Liko in the very first episode. Around him are Orla the mechanic, Murdock the cook, Mollie the medic, Ludlow the old sea dog, and Dot, a young computer genius. Each has a concrete job on board, which makes the series feel more like an expedition than a coming-of-age journey; our guide to Pokémon professors puts Friede's status in perspective among his peers.

One unusual figure rounds out the crew: Captain Pikachu, who pilots the airship and wears a captain's hat. This isn't Ash's Pikachu, and the series draws no connection between the two — he's a character in his own right, Friede's partner, whom our Pikachu profile helps place within the long history of the species.

Dot holds a special place in this first season. She lives shut away in her cabin and at first appears only behind an avatar, before officially becoming the Trainer of Quaxly in HZ016, then catching a Tinkatink in HZ039. Her personal growth will be one of the major threads of the following seasons.

The pendant, the ancient Poké Ball and the Black Rayquaza

The overall plot falls into place in stages, and it rests on two objects. After a clash with the Explorers, Roy's ancient Poké Ball opens for the first time and releases a black Rayquaza , which immediately flees. This unusual coloring ties into the phenomenon described in our feature on Shiny Pokémon.

Once in Paldea, Liko chooses to stay with the Rising Volt Tacklers rather than go home. The group then sets off in search of the Black Rayquaza, and Brassius, a Gym Leader, points them toward the forest of Arboliva. There, a giant Arboliva resonates with Liko's pendant, which reveals a small turtle Pokémon for the first time.

The trail then leads the crew to Galar, to meet Diana, Liko's grandmother. Kabu steers them toward the Galar Mine, where they discover a giant Galarian Moltres , which also has an ancient Poké Ball of its own — a regional form that our feature on regional forms covers in detail. Liko manages to calm the creature, and the small Pokémon in her pendant appears once again.

It's Diana who finally puts a name to this mystery. The creature is a Terapagos, nicknamed Pagogo, and it is linked to the Pokémon of an adventurer from the previous century: Lucius, the very same one whose stories Roy knows by heart. So the pendant was never a piece of jewelry, but a dormant form.

Over the course of the season, Liko takes charge of several of Lucius's former partners, who will later be known as the Six Heroes. Arboliva joins her in HZ012, Galarian Moltres in HZ023, and Lucius's Lapras in HZ032. The season closes on the hunt for the Black Rayquaza, which is still at large.

The regions visited

This first season doesn't settle in any single region. It starts in Kanto, passes through Paldea, then sets course for Galar, following clues rather than a Gym circuit. The overview of the regions of the Pokémon world gives you a sense of the distances covered.

This choice has a direct impact on the supporting cast. The Gym Leaders met along the way — Brassius, Iono, Kabu — don't battle the heroes for a badge, but step in as sources of information or occasional allies. The "one town, one Gym, one badge" formula no longer shapes the season.

The airship plays the role once filled by the road traveled on foot. The Brave Olivine serves as transportation, home base and recurring setting all at once, and most of the group's everyday scenes take place on board. It's a notable change of pace for anyone coming from the earlier cycles.

The route follows the logic of an investigation. Kanto is the starting point because Liko is a student at Indigo Academy there, Paldea because it's her home, Galar because that's where Diana is: each move answers a question raised by the previous episode. No sightseeing detours, no pointless stops — the map unfolds as the clues come in.

📓 Kanto opens the season only because Liko is a student at Indigo Academy there: our Pokémon pencil cases will go back to school with you, minus the airship.

This approach makes the season more compact than it looks. Forty-five episodes are enough to cover three regions and establish around ten recurring characters, whereas the cycles of the previous series sometimes devoted an entire season to a single region and its Gym circuit.

The season's standout Pokémon

The starting partners are two Paldea starters. Liko starts out with Sprigatito, which evolves into Floragato in the season's final episode, facing the Black Rayquaza; Roy, for his part, takes in Fuecoco in HZ006. Our roundup of the starters from every region places this starter trio within the history of the games.

The teams stay deliberately small. Liko catches a Hatenna she took in while in Galar, in HZ021, and Roy a Wattrel in HZ014, which he had first helped learn to fly again. By the end of the season, neither hero has more than two Pokémon of their own — the exact opposite of the XXL collections of earlier cycles.

The most spectacular creatures don't belong to them. The Black Rayquaza, the giant Galarian Moltres and the giant Arboliva are Lucius's former Pokémon, and Terapagos accompanied him on his adventures alongside Rystal; they were entrusted rather than caught, and our guide to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon helps explain what their presence implies.

As for the crew, Friede battles with a Charizard, and Captain Pikachu proves to be a formidable fighter. This division — powerful adults, still-fragile kids — sets up an unusual hierarchy for the franchise, where the hero usually carried the big battles alone.

The Explorers, a different kind of adversary

There's no Team Rocket in "Pokémon Horizons." The recurring antagonists are the Explorers, a structured organization trying to get its hands on Liko's pendant — and one that works nothing like the comedic trio described in our feature on Team Rocket.

The group first appears in the form of Amethio, a cold, methodical administrator, backed by his two henchmen, Zirc and Onia. They're not there for comic relief: their interventions are effective and put the heroes in real trouble, which clearly shifts the balance of the battles.

The season then widens the picture with other members: Spinel, Coral, Sidian and Chalce. Each has their own motives, and not all of them pursue the same goal as their superiors, an ambiguity the following seasons will exploit extensively. Our overview of the criminal organizations lets you compare how they operate with their predecessors.

The result is a constant threat. The Explorers don't just pop up in one isolated episode; they follow the heroes from one end of the season to the other, which gives "Horizons" a serialized tension that the previous series only sustained at its biggest moments.

Their method also differs from anything seen before. Where classic villainous organizations went after a Legendary Pokémon or an entire region, the Explorers are pursuing an object and a child. The scale is smaller, the pressure more personal, and Liko can never really set her bag down. That tighter focus is what gives the season its edge.

The French broadcast

The series arrived in France on December 9, 2023, on Canal J, nearly eight months after its Japanese debut. The first two episodes, which form a two-part story, aired on the same day.

A second channel joined in shortly after. Gulli has been airing the series since February 28, 2024, which broadened its reach mid-season. The pace stayed weekly, with a few double-episode airings early in the run.

The season wrapped up in France on October 13, 2024, after just over ten months on air. This French schedule is completely independent of the Japanese one: by the time French viewers were discovering the first episodes, Japan had already started the series' second arc.

📺 Ten months of weekly episodes between Canal J and Gulli is a long haul: our Pokémon blankets make hunting the Black Rayquaza a lot cozier from your couch.

One last word on names. The French version is the reference here, and several characters have different names in it than in the English version — Roy, for one, goes by Rhod in French. When talking about the French broadcast, it's best to stick to the French names.

What this first season brings

Its main achievement is pulling off a risky transition. Replacing a hero who had been around since 1997 without keeping any of his familiar touchstones was a gamble, and the season pulls it off by building a self-contained world: new heroes, a new crew, a new narrative engine, a new rival organization.

It also changes the nature of the story. The through line is no longer personal growth but an investigation into the past — that of Lucius, of Diana and of the objects handed down from generation to generation. Every episode moves a shared case forward, whereas the previous series could string together standalone episodes for weeks on end.

And it deliberately leaves plenty of questions open. The Black Rayquaza is still at large, the Explorers' true intentions remain unclear, and the nature of Terapagos is only sketched out: all threads that the following season, The Search for Laqua, picks up directly.

For viewers discovering Pokémon through the anime, it's an ideal entry point. No knowledge of the previous twenty-five seasons is required, and the rare nods to older regions work as backdrops, not prerequisites.

One honest caveat remains: the season takes its time. It takes a good ten episodes for the mystery of the pendant to become more than a promise, and the battles, fewer and less formulaic than in the League-driven cycles, may throw off viewers who came for them. It's a story of exploration before it's a story of competition.

Finally, it pulls off a structural gamble rarely attempted in the franchise. The adults on the crew aren't background figures: they battle, make decisions and make mistakes, which lets Liko and Roy remain believable beginners for an entire season. Many series would have rushed their rise in power; this one chooses to hold it back.

Pokémon Horizons Season 1 at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Pokémon Horizons a continuation of Ash's adventures?
  No. It's an entirely separate animated series, announced on December 16, 2022, as a new series with brand-new protagonists and a brand-new story. Ash isn't its hero, and his story ended with Season 25 of the previous series. Season numbering also starts over at 1: Horizons begins with a Season 1, not with a continuation of the previous count.
• How many episodes are in Season 1 of Pokémon Horizons?
  Season 1 has 45 episodes, numbered HZ001 to HZ045. On the Japanese side, it corresponds to the first two arcs of the series combined: a set of 25 episodes aired from April to October 2023, then a set of 20 episodes aired from October 2023 to March 2024.
• Who are Liko and Roy?
  Liko is a shy girl from the Paldea region who comes to study at Indigo Academy in Kanto, where she receives a Sprigatito as her first partner. She wears a pendant given to her by her grandmother Diana, which is coveted by an organization called the Explorers. Roy is an enthusiastic boy from an island in Kanto who loves the tales of the adventurer Lucius, and he owns an ancient Poké Ball inherited from his grandfather.
• Who are the Rising Volt Tacklers?
  They're the crew of adventurers who take in Liko and then Roy, and the series unfolds aboard their ship. The crew is led by Friede, a Pokémon Professor and pilot, and includes Orla the mechanic, Murdock the cook, Mollie the medic, Ludlow the sailor, Dot the computer whiz, and Captain Pikachu. They travel aboard an airship called the Brave Olivine.
• What is the Black Rayquaza?
  It's a Shiny-colored Rayquaza sealed inside Roy's ancient Poké Ball. It comes out for the first time after a clash with the Explorers, then flees, and the hunt for it becomes one of the season's main threads. It once belonged to Lucius, the adventurer whose stories Roy has known since childhood.
• When did Season 1 air in France?
  The series premiered in France on December 9, 2023, on Canal J, then also aired on Gulli starting February 28, 2024. The season ended on October 13, 2024. Belgium started on March 7, 2024, and Quebec on March 2, 2024, each on its own schedule.
• Do you need to have watched Ash's seasons to understand this one?
  No. Season 1 of Pokémon Horizons is designed as an entry point: new heroes, a new plot, a new rival organization. Familiar regions like Kanto and Galar serve as backdrops, not prerequisites. You don't need any knowledge of the previous twenty-five seasons to follow the story.

In short