Pokémon Horizons – The Search for Laqua

Lore & Background

The season comprises two story arcs. The first arc, 'Terastal Debut', covers the first 22 episodes and follows protagonists Liko, Roy, and Dot as they enroll at Naranja Academy in the Paldea region to learn about the Terastal phenomenon and battle Gym Leaders under Tera Training. The second arc, 'Rayquaza Rising', covers the final 22 episodes and follows the Rising Volt Tacklers as they search for Lucius’ remaining Six Heroes and eventually go on the path to Laqua.

Reader's Guide

Pokémon Horizons – The Search for Laqua represents a significant shift in the Pokémon anime franchise, being the second season to feature new protagonists after the conclusion of Ash Ketchum's journey. The season's split into two distinct arcs allowed for both a school-based training narrative and a quest-driven adventure. Critical reception was mixed: IGN gave the first half a 5 out of 10, criticizing it for abandoning earlier innovations in favor of a formula reminiscent of the original series. Anime News Network gave the first thirty-three episodes scores of 'A', 'A-', and 'B-'. The season also introduced new music, with Japanese opening themes 'Will' by Ive and 'Only One Story' by Zerobaseone, and English opening theme 'My Favorite Pokémon' by Isaiah Tyrell Boyd and Haven Paschall. Its release strategy varied by region, with Netflix distributing in the US, BBC iPlayer in the UK, and Cartoon Network and Télétoon in Canada.

Did You Know?

• The season is known in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Terastal Debut and Pocket Monsters: Rayquaza Rising.
• The first arc, 'Terastal Debut', covers episodes 1–22 and takes place at Naranja Academy in Paldea.
• The English opening theme outside of Asia is 'My Favorite Pokémon' by Isaiah Tyrell Boyd and Haven Paschall.
• In Canada, the season began airing on Cartoon Network and Télétoon on February 8, 2025.

A New Creative Direction

The twenty-sixth season of the Pokémon anime marked a notable shift in the production's credited leadership. Saori Den took the helm as director, with Daiki Tomiyasu serving as executive director, while Dai Satō oversaw scripts and Rei Yamazaki handled character design. Conisch composed the music, and the sound-editing team saw a change, with Naotsugu Uchida and Akane Yamago stepping in to replace Ryōko Nashimoto. Perhaps most strikingly, the season dropped long-standing credits: Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic and Gakushu Yochien were no longer listed as publishers, and Junichi Masuda and Ken Sugimori—figures associated with the franchise since its inception—were no longer credited as creators. Produced by OLM and broadcast on TV Tokyo, this season represented the first installment of a newly branded umbrella, Pokémon Horizons: The Series, signaling a deliberate rebranding of the franchise's identity as it moved beyond the era of Ash Ketchum, whose story concluded on March 24, 2023.

Two Arcs, One Quest

The season is divided into two distinct narrative stretches. The opening arc, titled "Liko and Roy's Departure" in Japanese, spans the first twenty-five episodes and introduces the audience to Liko and Roy as they join the Rising Volt Tacklers on a journey through the wider Pokémon world, including the Paldea region familiar to players of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The second arc, "The Sparkling of Terapagos," covers the final twenty episodes and pivots the story toward a more urgent mission: the Rising Volt Tacklers set out to locate Lucius's Six Heroes after learning that Liko's pendant is actually a Terapagos. Running through both arcs is the persistent threat of the Explorers, a mysterious organization that pursues the protagonists throughout their adventures. This two-part structure gives the season a clear escalation—from open-ended exploration to a focused, high-stakes search—while the antagonist group provides a continuous thread of tension across all forty-five episodes.

A Global Rollout

The announcement of the new series came on December 16, 2022, from The Pokémon Company, positioning it as the direct successor to the concluding arc of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys, which wrapped Ash Ketchum's twenty-six-year run as the anime's central figure. The first trailer dropped on March 3, 2023, confirming the April 14 Japanese premiere on TV Tokyo, and the season ran through March 29, 2024. Internationally, the rollout followed a staggered path. In the United Kingdom, the English dub first appeared on BBC iPlayer and CBBC on December 4, 2023, following an announcement on November 9 of that year. In the United States, Netflix initially targeted a February 23, 2024 release, but the date was pushed back to March 7, with the full season becoming available on the streaming platform by November 22, 2024. This multi-platform, multi-regional distribution strategy—spanning broadcast television in Japan, public-service streaming in the UK, and a major streaming service in the US—reflected the franchise's continued global reach as it entered a new chapter.

Soundtracks and Regional Identity

The musical identity of the season is layered and region-specific. In Japan, two opening themes rotate: "Heart-Pounding Diary" performed by Asmi featuring Chinozo, and "Halo" by Yama and BotchiBoromaru. The closing theme, "RVR: Rising Volt Tacklers' Rap," is an image song performed directly by the voice actors Minori Suzuki as Liko and Yuka Terasaki as Roy, tying the music to the characters themselves. For English-speaking audiences outside Asia, the opening is "Becoming Me," written and performed by Ed Goldfarb and Haven Paschall, with an instrumental version serving as the ending theme. In Asian markets receiving the English dub, the opening switches to "We Go" (English Version) by the K-pop group Aespa, while the ending still uses the instrumental of "Becoming Me." This regional differentiation in theme selection—pairing a Western pop track with a K-pop collaboration—demonstrates how the production tailors its sonic branding to different cultural audiences while maintaining a consistent closing motif across all English-language territories.