Last year, the world was shocked to know that after 27 years, Pokemon would retire Ash Ketchum as the protagonist of the anime series. Now Studio OLM has released the first eleven episodes of the new anime: Pokemon Horizons with two brand new protagonists and so far, it’s been great mostly because it’s allowed to be its own thing.

Unlike the original anime, Pokemon Horizons seems to forgo retention of being an adaption of the games, instead seeing its characters chart a brand new course into an anime original plot. As a result, the show is something most Pokemon adventures are not: a mystery. I don’t know where the cast is going, what arcs they’ll overcome, and even how the game characters will react to them but if the first few episodes are any indication, it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

The Rising Voltackers

Pokemon Horizons introduces us to Liko, a young girl that attends a Pokémon training school where she meets her partner, Sprigatito.

While she’s having trouble bonding with the weed cat, a secretive group called The Explorers attempts to abduct her for a pendant given to her by her Grandma. Thankfully she’s saved by another group called The Rising Voltacklers, led by Professor Friede and Captain Pikachu. From there they pick up our other main character Roy, a young boy living with his grandpa who has a mysterious Pokeball. The group travels through the skies, meets new Pokemon, and trainers, and tries to figure out the secrets of their various items.

It’s still a light-hearted kids’ show but it’s been a long time since Pokemon has felt so fresh and well-executed.  With how often Pokemon is accused of repeating the same plots, it was great to see a new Pokemon story where I legit had no clue what would happen in the next episode, one could be fooling around with a group of forest Pokemon while the next has them battling against villains in a more intense battle.

It’s only by the tenth episode that we’ve seen characters from the game with Nemona and Brassius and they’re portrayed accurately with the former being Goku and the latter being the avant grade artist and yet you also see new sides of them. Remember Liko and Roy aren’t competing in the Pokemon league so when they meet Gym Leader Brassiues, they talk to him just fellow trainers looking to learn more about him and his Pokemon and battle him for more different reasons.

The New Crew

The new characters are a lot of fun and it’s cool to see Pokemon working with a larger cast. Liko and Roy make for good new protagonists. Liko is shy and relatable for a young kid while Roy is more like Ash, wild and raring to go. I can imagine most kids watching the show will identify with at least one of them and it’s cool watching them learn to train Pokemon.

But it’s not just them, the rest of the crew are likewise a fun bunch to be around with the cool mentor that is Friede, the lovable Chef Murdock, the mature straight-man Orla, and best of all, Mollie, the team medic who is pretty much a nurse joy who’s going through a scene phase. It’s cool partially because it acknowledges that there are adult Pokemon fans that can still go on their own adventures while helping out the younger fans. They’re like a big dysfunctional family, the best kind of group to watch.

This also extends to the Pokemon, the three main starters are all adorable. Sprigatito is a sassy little kitty, Quaxly is cool and collected, and hearing Fuecoco attempt to sing and run off out of embarrassment will absolutely melt your heart. Also, Captain Pikachu basically exists to stand around and look smug, and he’s very good at doing it, very clearly separating him from Ash’s Pikachu as well.

Prepare For Trouble

I should also quickly mention the series’ new villain team The Explorers. We haven’t seen a lot of them but they strike a good balance of being serious threats while also maintaining some of the goofy traits of Team Rocket. The leader Amethio is a sleek badass, with Ceruledge as his signature mon leading to a number of cool fight scenes with the heroes. Meanwhile, his grunts Zir and Conia are likewise pretty competent but also bring in some comic relief with their antics like Conia capturing Sprtigatito and being enraptured by its cuteness.

Once again, it’s a good balance between series and silly that allows the villains to be more flexible in how they’re used. It’ll also be interesting to see more of their organization as their big boss Gibeon and their master plan are yet to be revealed.

Pokemon Horizons

The new Pokemon anime isn’t going to blow your minds but it’s probably the highest quality Pokemon product I’ve seen in a while with a fun and engaging storyline for new and older fans.

I like that it’s doing its own thing, creating a new story in the Pokemon world, and being less reliant on the games. The battles have been fun, the mystery is interesting and overall, it’s set up a cool and likeably group of characters for us to follow.

If you’re an older Pokemon fan who felt like you outgrow the original anime and Ash constantly doing the same thing in each region, this might be a good chance to step back in and see some new Horizons.