A full 11 months after it premiered in Japan, the newest Pokémon series—Pokémon Horizons—finally became available for American audiences on Netflix. And you know what? It’s no Pokémon Concierge, because Pokémon Concierge is arguably the best Pokémon thing in existence, but it’s pretty good!
The 12-episode first season is a big deal for several reasons, but primarily because Pokémon Horizons essentially serves as a reboot of the mainline Pokémon anime. Ash, his Pikachu, and Team Rocket are nowhere to be found. Instead, we’re introduced to a new cast of characters, including a shy girl named Liko, a bombastic boy named Roy, and their ridiculously precious Pokémon, Sprigatito and Fuecoco. And we’re introduced to a brand-new story, which follows Liko and Roy on their adventures to discover the mysteries behind their mysterious relics.
But 12 episodes is merely a taste. Are there more episodes of Pokémon Horizons? And if so, where are they?
More, please?
At the time of this article’s publication (March 2024), 43 episodes of Pokémon Horizons have aired on TV Tokyo in Japan since the series’ Japanese premiere in April 2023. So it’s not really a question of whether or not there will be a season two, since nearly four more “seasons” worth of Pokémon Horizons already exists. It’s more a matter of when Netflix will start streaming them in the U.S.
When Pokémon Horizons came to US Netflix, no one really knew how much was going to stream when the series dropped on March 7. Forbes called it a “40-episode series,” seemingly assuming all existent episodes would come onto Netflix at once. On the polar opposite end of expectation, I was personally prepared for Horizons to drip out one episode at a time, a la Delicious in Dungeon, even though it wasn’t airing in “real-time.”
There’s quite a lot to be done between the original Japanese release and the English-language versions’ release, so sadly, a simuldub isn’t possible. Because it’s not just the voices of Pokémon Horizons that need dubbing—bizarrely, frustratingly, the series’ music almost entirely gets re-scored for the English-language release. The theme song is also completely different between the releases.
Still, there’s something else at play. The BBC began airing the English-language version in December 2023, four months ahead of Netflix’s American release. The BBC releases episodes in small chunks and is currently up to episode 20. Theoretically, that’s eight episodes of Pokémon Horizons that American audiences haven’t seen which are ready to go.
So even though Netflix hasn’t announced anything, there will almost certainly be a second season of Pokémon Horizons, because it already exists. We will just have to wait to see it.
(Image credit: TV Tokyo)
