After being teased in the opening, Coral, Sidian, and Chalce make their return donning new outfits, and being idolized by the public. It’s almost scary to see how much Coral and Sidian are adored by the audience members; they’re like a cult in a way. It’s so hard for them to see how cruel the Strong Spheres are to the affected Pokémon. It shows how technology plays a factor in modern Pokémon times now. It’s scary how realistic media persuasion can be, and how people can become company supporters to the point of becoming mindless drones for them. Like, I know there definitely are Apple or Tesla devotees in real life, and what we see here is like the Pokémon equivalent in a way. There’s also a factor that the Explorers are treated like idols or celebrities due to how attractive they all are—one good thing about Pokémon Horizons is that they know how to make original characters ,and that all of them are attractive in one sense or another, allowing them to have fans—heck, Spinel was even lauded as the handsome director by the students at Indigo Academy back in episode 90.
I’m surprised that Sidian of all people used the Strong Sphere, and allowed his Garganacl to battle while afflicted by Laquium without caring too much about how much pain it is in. It’s crazy because out of all the Explorers, Sidian was the most noble. This was the man who shielded his partner Tulip’s Espathra from Rika’s Pokémon during the double battle back in episode 55, saying that he didn’t want to win with unfair advantages. Like, I get Coral using it because she does have a tendency to be abusive towards her Glalie with how she’s always making it Self-Destruct when things get too dire for her. Like, I wonder what caused him to change throughout the timeskip. Heck, he was also keen on attacking Liko and Roy’s Pokémon even after fainting alongside Coral. Gosh, that was a terrifying scene. They were willing to kill their Pokémon had Uruto not stepped in. What’s even more terrifying is that no one is questioning why they’re attacking the Pokémon that were knocked out, and that the battle only fueled a positive reception for the manufacturing of these Strong Spheres. It is a little weird from a writing perspective—since Coral announced them to be her ‘friends’, that’s the reason why she’s not exposing them as the Rising Volt Tacklers and also the reason why the audience aren’t questioning why they’re intent on killing their ‘friends’ Pokémon.
I wonder about the people who had theorized Uruto would join the Explorers due to his glum look in the preview of this episode. I, for one, never really thought Uruto would join them because he has a Key Stone, meaning he has a strong bond with his Sableye, and he’s no slouch in battle. He has always presented himself as overly confident, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to become a villain. So why was he looking so down? It’s because he has motion sickness, which is funny because he probably had to ride a lot of transportation from Hoenn to Johto just to chase after Roy. I do like that Uruto is willing to become Liko and Roy’s ally as the two don’t have many supporters—right now, they only got Ann, Nyabiko and Mollie. Having Uruto as both a supporter and a companion would benefit, because he’d be able to persuade them from a third party perspective if necessary. I honestly can’t wait to see Uruto’s dynamic with the leads as he’s like an annoying little brother to Roy, and super awkward around Liko as he’s not good with girls.
One interesting detail about this episode that I want to talk about is in the beginning where Liko and Roy were showing off their breakfast to Dot. Their breakfast consists of a toast plastered with red bean, whipped cream and butter. From what I’ve seen from the Japanese side of the Pokémon anime fandom is that this is a nod to Ogura Toast, which is a specialty in the city of Nagoya as they’re famous for their morning service meals. Anyways, I found a character that I hate in this episode, and that’s the ardent Coral fanboy who’s just cheering for her without a care in the world. He’s on my hated characters list alongside those two girls from Liko’s school who snitched on Roy being a member of the Rising Volt Tacklers to their schoolmates. Other than that, let me know what you think about this episode in the comments!
