'Pokémon Horizons: The Series' Flies Back To Netflix With Next Batch In May

Iono what you’re doing but it’s time to watch more Pokémon Horizons on Netflix. The U.S. is definitely catching up. Still a little lag though.

Well that was fast. Just a month after Pokémon Horizons: The Series finally brought its first 12 episodes to Netflix for United States audiences following a six month wait since the end of Ash Ketchum’s journey, The Pokémon Company has confirmed that the next batch will arrive on the streamer in just another month on May 10.

Whether the smaller gap means it was makeup for the six month wait for the previous or drops will have gaps that expand and contract is unknown. Until the 2.5 month gap between the last main part of Journeys and To Be A Pokémon Master, the gaps had added another month, from once a quarter to once every 4 months. 8 months from that to Horizons part 2 does average 4 months so the possibilities are there. The press release provided this synopsis for part 2: “Liko, Roy, and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers are charting a course toward the Galar region, seeking the truth about the legendary Ancient Adventurer and his Pokémon known as the Six Heroes. Along the way, Roy and Fuecoco find a new Pokémon partner, but an attack by the Explorers leaves Liko and Sprigatito feeling lost. Later, Dot and Quaxly team up, Roy and his Pokémon take on special training, and Friede reveals how he met Captain Pikachu. And when the Brave Olivine finally lands in Galar, friends both old and new await—along with fiery challenges from a Gym Leader and a seriously angry Galarian Moltres!”

Bulbapedia has already filled the May 10 date for the thirteenth through twenty-third episodes. Thanks to English dub airings that already happened in other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, the episode titles are already known. In fact, Australia’s release of episode 28 on iTunes happened on the day this news broke. The episodes in this batch are “An Unexpected Picnic!”, “Fly! Wattrel!!” (Oh Roy! What a new friend!), “Someone We Can't See! Whosawhatsit?”, “Quaxly, We Can Do It”, “Special Training Time!”, “Flying Pikachu, Rising Higher and Higher!” (The Friede/Captain Pikachu origin episode), “The Bittersweet Truth”, “Kabu's Battle Training!”, “The Lonely Hatenna”, “Charge! Galar Mine!”, and “Fiery Galarian Moltres”, the very one that’s “seriously angry” and one of the Six Heroes belonging to legendary Ancient Adventurer Lucius.

Of course, this makes one less episode than the first batch, but there might be a reason for this. See, in Japan, they are about to air the 46th episode, where Liko and Roy are set to learn more about the Terastal phenomenon at the Naranja Academy, in the series’s next chapter, subtitled “Terastal Debut”. The 45th episode, “To a Place Far, Far Away” was a climactic one that saw major progress against the Explorers and in Liko’s career as a Pokémon trainer, even if a scuffle with Lucius’s shiny Rayquaza didn’t go so well. Two region-starting seasons of Ash’s journey, both The Johto Journeys and Advanced, feature 40 episodes because the broadcast season also considers 12 or so episodes of the Orange Islands and Master Quest respectively part of it. The initial Journeys: The Series and Black & White seasons are 48 episodes, and XY is 49 episodes. This will likely mean that all three subsequent Netflix batches after the first will be 11 episodes to bring the season’s ending on episode 45, making the parts as equal as possible with the end point of the first dub season in sight. The first chapter in Japan “Liko and Roy's Departure” actually ended with episode 25, which leaves its two episodes to go to batch 3, while 45 ended the second chapter “The Sparkling of Terapagos”.

Entertainment Weekly has been provided several screencaps for their official American release, but aside from one where Friede’s Charizard faces off against Amethio's Ceruledge, they can all seem pretty mundane and don’t give much away plot-wise. However, even I can tell one is from “The Bittersweet Truth”. I’ve largely stayed away from watching the Japanese airings, though episode reviews on YouTube have been fair game (thanks Zactoshi!), while remembering every frame hasn’t been a priority. A clip from “Someone We Can't See! Whosawhatsit?” was included in the press release, featuring Levincia Gym Leader Iono of the Paldea Region titled “Hide-and-Seek: Find Liko!”, posted to their YouTube channel.

Sources: Pokémon (1, 2), Bulbapedia, Entertainment Weekly