Now that I have seen all the episodes I currently have access to, I present my first impressions on Pokémon Horizons' Mega Voltage.
Even with the much-ballyhooed time skip, I'm not particularly impressed by it. Before I explain why, getting into my issues with this arc so far (especially with how I don't think the time jump has been that well-implemented); I will address the positives as usual. The animation is once again very good, especially in terms of battles. This is especially true when they're seen through to the end, something HZ has been oddly hesitant to do. Also, when they actually do adapt elements from the games instead of just hinting at them. I still maintain that HZ would have been way better if they had just directly adapted the video games. Scarlet and Violet would have been perfect for the character-driven story they're aiming for.
Now, onto the issues I have with it; which also tie into the ones I have the end of Rayquaza Rising. One constant I have with others is that when there's an issue with Horizons is not the ideas themselves; but their implementation. That's what tends to break willing suspension of disbelief, with one of Tinkatuff's hammers. On a basic level, the characters trying to clear their names and taking the fight to the enemy is not bad. It's everything else that's the issue- you're telling me all this happened in the span of a year? Get out of here. Personally, I don't think that's a substantial enough amount of time for things to have changed.
It's especially not good when 5/6 of the Legendary Heroes fall into a crevasse, only for the preview to show the bad guy has them. Honestly, I'm starting to get bored with Spinel and the Explorers as villains- I personally found the AI variants of Sada and Turo; as well as the smaller-scale antagonism of Team Star and the rivals more interesting.
Inconsistencies aside (2/3 of the mains not having stage 2 starters and an offhand mention of Blueberry Academy without actually showing it), part of the supposed appeal of a time skip is to show a new perspective. I've never believed it was a solution in and of itself to anything in a story. It's just a storytelling tool to be used well or used badly, just like anything else.
It's a difficult thing to get right and an easy one to mess up, and it's very much a mixed bag. Some character behaviors have thankfully been dropped, but I honestly don't see that much different. The biggest difference I notice with these characters is they started dressing differently. As someone who took years to warm up to the costuming in the Advanced Generation; a new set of cosmetics isn't enough for me.
Instead of clarifying what continuity this anime takes place in, things have been made even less clear with the presence of one new character. As you can imagine, I do not like Ult as a character personally. It is fine helped save Liko and Roy from Exceed, but apart from that, I find him obnoxious at best and a danger to himself and others at worst. I know it's wishful thinking to see "you-know-who" crossover with this cast, but Ult to me displays the worst qualities of Yamcha without any of the redeeming aspects. They especially crank the distrust of female characters up to 11- I've seen "shyness" and this isn't it. This is much worse- I also don't enjoy how he's functionally taking the place of Dot as tritagonist for most of what I've watched of this arc; especially as she was most actively trying to improve herself and has changed the most out of the main cast. I can't say I was impressed with the episode addressing "nuisance streamer" culture- personally think the 2018 version of GeGeGe no Kitaro did it better in its first episode. I would not have invited the prankster with the Stunfisk on my stream- I would have him turned into a tree. I really have a hard time buying even in this day and age that nearly everyone took Exceed's account at face value when I see mistakes about the Switch 2 and the new Superman addressed and corrected in real time.
You only get one chance at a first impression, and in my eyes at least; Mega Voltage and Ult in particular wasted theirs. I'm willing to entertain some details had to be changed because of the Tera Leak, it's just not a direction I personally would have taken. Honestly getting harder and harder for me to buy this was all planned out when the actual result suggests the opposite. I will have more to say when I review each arc (after the EN dub is out), but it will not surprise me at all if what I hear about Generation X going back to basics is true.
Despite everything, what Pokémon Horizons' Mega Voltage arc reminds me most of is Digimon Adventure 02- lots of interesting ideas; but they don't really come together as a unified whole. Honestly hope the plan for the Generation X anime is much simpler, I also won't be surprised if it's a hard reboot. Thankfully, I will have much more pleasant matters to talk about soon. That will be all for now, take care.
