I do like that there have been many changes in the one year jump regarding the characters’ appearance, personalities and Pokémon roster. Let’s start with the one with the biggest change, Roy. Throughout Horizons, Roy has been in between Liko and Dot in height, but now he’s the tallest of the three. A good estimate of his height is shown with Meowscarada who is 150cm, or 4’11 for those of you in the US. Roy is a bit taller than both Meowscarada, and her trainer Liko, who are the same height. Other than his noticeable growth spurt, Roy has ditched his black vest for a brown and yellow one, and has also ditched his hat and grew out his hair. His past appearance gave off a sporty young boy vibe, while this new appearance instead gives off a feeling of a boy starting to grow up. Personality-wise, Roy has also changed a lot. Previously he was very energetic to the point of being reckless, but now he’s very calm and mature. I do wonder if this shift in personality stems from being forced to grow up after what transpired at the end of the last arc. Now that he doesn’t have someone to admire like Friede, he's instead tried to become the one people can look up to.
Out of the three kids, Roy's Pokémon roster has also had the most noticeable change. In addition to his Kilowattrel learning a new move, Roy has a new Pokémon in the form of a Shiny Lucario. Captain Pikachu is also accompanying Roy right now, and is obeying his orders in battle, which is interesting as he is Friede’s Pokémon. I do wonder what caused Cap to go with Roy out of everyone else in the Rising Volt Tacklers. Because of his new additions, some people on social media have been calling Roy a discount Ash, which honestly annoys me a bit because all the whiners do is complain when they can just ignore show if they hate it so much. Why don’t we talk instead about how Roy having a Lucario is a sort of connection to Korrina in the previous anime, who like Roy was also voiced by Yuka Terasaki? Terasaki having now voiced two characters with a Mega Lucario is wild. The complainers may rag on about how Roy Lucario is "unearned" due to the timeskip, but remember that Horizons is excellent when it comes to flashbacks, like with how Friede met Cap, and how Lucius got to Laqua. I’m sure the anime team will come up with a compelling episode of how Roy and Lucario met. I also like to joke about how Friede has reincarnated into Roy’s Lucario because they share the same voice actor, Taku Yashiro.
In all honesty, the timeskip has impacted Liko quite negatively. Not that this is a bad thing story wise, but it really hurts having seen Liko blossom into a courageous girl after being so timid in the beginning, and now seeing her back to being so withdrawn once again. When her juniors were badmouthing the Rising Volt Tacklers, she didn’t even have the energy to get angry or upset on their behalf; Ann defended her, and Meowscarada got mad on her behalf—her claws will be rated E for everyone soon. Liko also has become a bit absent-minded, but not to the extent of scatter-brained Ann as she has a habit of rubbing Pagogo’s ball after it became dormant. I do like that the episode does take the time to show off how the year has changed for Indigo Academy, as there are an influx of middle-stage evolutions around campus, and Ann even has a fully evolved team as her Dewott and Sandshrew evolved into Samurott and Sandslash. I really like the vibes Indigo Academy has, as Liko mentioned it to be a very global school with students from different regions enrolled in it. During the timeskip, it seems Ann has become somewhat of the Academy’s ace, as she’s been scouted by Blueberry Academy’s principal Cyrano. It does seem like she is keen on wanting to study abroad in Unova from their conversation. It’s just unfortunate that Liko has become so withdrawn that she doesn’t really show how she is at school. Is she admired by her peers? Is she considered a top battler? Does she even battle anymore?
As for Dot, she's had a pretty big change in appearance herself. Her hair is longer, and looks more androgynous. She has returned to streaming as Nidothing while staying at her parents’ house, but she also uses her platform as a way to give Roy intel as the two have recently partnered up to stop rampaging wild Pokémon. Her personality is more or less the same as she’s still the brains of the group, and she gets flustered when her mom Franka shows up. It seems that her mother knows about her Nidothing gig, but her appearance hasn’t changed at all. Her clothes and demeanor is still the same, so it makes me wonder if only the kids have changed and not the adults…
During the timeskip, Spinel has framed the Rising Volt Tacklers for the events at Laqua, and people are believing his words. I do think that his being the "handsome director" of Exceed has a big factor to it. A detail one might not notice is that in the epilogue of Episode 89, there was a crowd of people watching Spinel’s interview, and there were a lot of women in the crowd. In this episode, the two juniors in the cafeteria were talking about Spinel, and one of them got excited when Spinel was brought up. Pretty privilege is a scary tactic.
Other than the characters of note, another aspect of this episode I liked was seeing Roy being able to maneuver all of his Pokémon. Folks, Kilowattrel is no longer snuffed. The timeskip has allowed Kilowattrel to be able to combine its power with Crocalor and be a sort of battle duo. Kilowattrel's days of being disrespected are no more. I’m so proud of the anime staff for being able to find some use for the goofy yellow bird. My only gripe with this amazing episode is the fact that the Mega Evolution sequence is a little too long for my liking. Hopefully, they’ll speed it up for subsequent episodes. It was well-animated, but I feel like it ate up like two minutes of air time. Also, I do wonder how Roy managed to travel from Hoenn to Kanto in just a day or two. I can’t wait to see what Episode 91 is going to be like. My only issue with this review is what to use for my thumbnail picture because they all look so good, but I need to make sure I'm not spoiling people as they scroll past! Let me know your thoughts on the premiere of the anticipated time skip arc!
