Review HZ124: Break In! Explorers' Headquarters

What a before the storm episode for Spinel underlings to exhausting our gang from preventing rescue five of the six heroes. Liko's Charcadet evolve to Armarouge is no surprised and also the debut of Armor cannon move set that finishes both Rubina and Indi Salamence.

Now for the epic rescue in next Friday. Otherwise, the writer given Spinel with an Ace in the Hole card that he had already capture Black Rayquaza to prevent our gang rescue the five of six heroes. That will be worse scenario to occur.

Overall rating: B+
 
Okay, well, they seem to be treating Amethio's character with the reverence he deserves, so that's nice. As far as watching an unsubbed episode goes, I didn't see anything wrong with this one.

...except for the fact Charcadet's evolution is pretty poorly animated. It's not the biggest deal in the world but it does feel kind of disappointing. Here's hoping Quaxwell doesn't take too long to evolve as well, they've really been dragging it out...
 
Welcome to the team Armarogue, even though the animation was incredibly mediocre outside of it using Armor Cannon. At least with Iwane doing next episode we should get some cool moments.

Liko and Amethio had a great team-up as well. Goes to show how much they've grown since the early days when Amethio was on the villain side.
 
RetroPokeFan said:
Welcome to the team Armarogue, even though the animation was incredibly mediocre outside of it using Armor Cannon. At least with Iwane doing next episode we should get some cool moments.

Liko and Amethio had a great team-up as well. Goes to show how much they've grown since the early days when Amethio was on the villain side.
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And then, Spinel will surprise the gang by revealing he already capture Black Rayquaza in order for the series to be prolong in the most A$$ pull plot twist ever.
 
Had fun watching this. But the best moment to me was Amethio's interaction with Uruto. The difference between their characters, their language stylizations, and the delivery of their lines... perfection

Amethio: It was a dark and stormy night...*
Uruto: What? Why are we suddenly talking about the weather?*

* not a translation, just me exaggerating the joke

Also, this:
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Hooray! Liko and Amethio defeated Indy and Rubina, even with the later two using their Strong Spheres. It is kind of odd seeing Amethio just make his way to the Brave Olivine to talk with the Rising Volt Tacklers about breaking into Explorers' hq. I did like Roy and Ult teaming up to distract a number of the guards. Otherwise, the obvious thing happened. Liko's Charcadet evolved into Armarouge. It was cute seeing Charcadet wearing the armor that was too big for it before it evolved, and Ceruledge and Armarouge worked together pretty nicely.
 
I liked this episode a lot. It was great to watch Amethio reminisce about the past and how Horizons started. I also think they nailed the choregraphy for Amethio and Liko VS the two Salamences. They were really in synch and Liko was back to using her moves in the smartest way possible. It was fun to watch Charcadet get used to the armor and use it as a protection (that's what an armor is, after all)! And I loved the checkmate moment with the Fire Spin! Charcadet really deserved that evolution.

I didn't think pretty much the entire episode would be focused on that battle, but I guess that's alright. We're getting way more in the next one. Everyone's gonna be fighting! ... I'm sceptical of how the animators will handle five battles simultaneously. But this is a big episode coming, they better put some budget in that animation. Do you think Quaxwell will evolve next week? I would like to watch Dot do a full fight with Gholdengo, but I think it's going to be mainly Quaxwell for her.
 
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Wow, we're back to decently written Horizons episodes?!?!?! Amethio's arrival didn't feel as "out of the blue" as Friede's did when he called. We kinda know that Amethio and his squaddies are doing spy work still outsmarted by Spinel lol pwned ez behind the scenes and when they spied out an opportunity Mr. Romantic did the logical thing and just flew to the team to arrange a heist. It just works because it was foreshadowed unlike someone's space trip.

Amethio and Uruto is the bromance we need and deserve. And a bromance they deserve. Friendship above the class division or sth.

Charcadet vs. Armor was a cute and funny comic relief and it got exactly the amount of screentime it needed. Enough to relate to the lil' mon's excitement and pull the obligatory "haha small person big clothes" and "haha baseball Charcadet", not too much to overdo a joke.


NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
Also, this:
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Umbreon is the most precious part of this show. And I may be reading (hearing?) too much into this but I'd swear I heard purring when Spinel stroked Umbreon (but this could have been just a drone in the soundtrack).

Also come to think of it:
1. Explorers' defector contacts the Volt Tacklers
2. "We need to go to this remote, fortified Explorers'/Exceed outpost"
3. Indy & Rubella sacc'd for bait
4. It's a trap! Umbreon gets its pats.
5. Release the six heroes
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i guess it's a 1v1 x5 next week, it's truly time for the grand finale, but do they have what it takes to stop spinel?

p.s. Some of Spinel's Henches (i.e. Coral, Sidian and Chalce might be leaving spinel because of what he did to them)
 
I find it funny how a lot of people who complained about Liko getting the Auspicious Armor two weeks ago became excited over Charcadet evolving into Armarouge.

It's sweet how Ult decides to trust Amethio because he likes the RVTs.

I do like that their other Pokemon will have screen time next episode because they overexerted themselves in this one.

I didn't like that Charcadet evolved with the glowing armor and then bam, Armarouge shows up.
 
Liko, Roy, Dot, Ult, and Ametheo head out to rescue five of the Six Heroes. Initially, Ametheo, Zir, and Conia serve as distraction 1, Roy and Ult as distraction 2, and Liko and Dot try to sneak in through a freight elevator (relying on Dot's hacking skills to unlock it). Indy and Rubella show up, as does Ametheo (done with his part in the distraction), A battle (Liko's Charcadet and Ametheo's Ceruledge vs. Indy and Rubella's two Salamence). Charcadet wears the Auspicious Armor the entire time but doesn't evolve until the last minute, finishing the battle with its newly learned Armor Cannon. Dot then finishes unlocking the door and congratulates Liko on her Charcadet's evolution into Armorouge. Roy and Ult show up having battled a large number of grunts (who managed to collectively defeat Lucario, Cap, and Sableye offscreen). Our heroes are then separated and each trapped with one of the Heroes and one of the Explorers admins (including the recently defeated Indy and Rubella, who ran off, apparently to retrieve more Pokémon).

The experienced Ceruledge and newly evolved Armarouge make a good team, but I won't support any implications of AmeLiko that anyone reads into that (and I will insist on reading LikoDot into the initial assignments for the mission). Shipping aside, this was a pretty good episode. I assume the Rescue the Heroes arc is wrapping up, and the Recruit 12 More arc is going to start within a few episodes. Hopefully, they will work a Liko and Dot Mega Evolution training arc in there somewhere.
 
ena9219 said:
Hopefully, they will work a Liko and Dot Mega Evolution training arc in there somewhere.
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I also hope they both get Mega Evolutions eventually. As for the training itself, though, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't any at all, seeing as how Dragonite and Lucario were able to Mega Evolve without any problems (I mean, they were able to do it on their first try despite having a weak bond with their trainers).
 
Banger episode 10/10 no notes my son evolved :wynaut:

Not much to type about tbh just a really good episode all around and in all honesty the reveal of fire spin going away and armarouge standing there next to ceruledge is infinitely cooler than a regular evo animation would have been

Also likodot brain but I think its cute how dot got distracted by how cool liko and armarouge were
 
I kinda wanted to more of Roy and Ult being decoys but this is still a pretty good episode
 
An all around pretty good episode! Things are heating up, pun intended. The plan to rescue the Six Heroes (really the Five Heroes) is put into action, with the focus falling on Liko and Amethio as they fight alongside their Charcadet and Ceruledge. From the beginning, I and I'm sure many other people thought it would make a lot of sense for Liko to one day obtain an Armarouge to mirror Amethio and his Ceruledge, and the day where that is fulfilled has finally come. Although it wasn't the longest build-up or anything, it is still a nice parallel between them.

The battle itself was entertaining with some good strategy employed by both sides. There was a lot of stat-raising, which you don't see all too often most of the time in the anime. It was smart to have Charcadet absorb all of those Flamethrowers via Flame Body, and you also had the Salamence and their Dragon Dance, which were ultimately nullified by Clear Smog. Using Fire Spin to lure them in was also smart of Liko. The evolution sequence itself was a bit disappointing since most of it happened within the vortex, but Armarouge itself is cool to see.

It was cute watching Charcadet wear the armor even though it didn't really fit that well, but he still managed to take advantage of it to reduce damage and nullify recoil during the battle.

I don't really see Liko catching another Pokemon at this stage in this series, so in my opinion this is likely her completed team, with the only further upgrade being Full-Power Pagogo.

I also enjoyed the interaction between Amethio and Ult. The RVTs and Amethio have a long history by this point, but Ult didn't experience that, but he is still going to trust him because his friends have put their trust in him themselves. They're a funny duo considering how different their personalities are.

Of course, the plan fell apart at the end with Spinel expecting every move they made. Once I heard that Spinel was supposedly not there and this was the miraculous last chance they had to save the Six Heroes, I knew it was going to end up being a trap to lure them in. Now they're split up and pinned against an Explorer and one of the Six Heroes. We'll see how that turns out, but whatever happens will surely be a big turning point in the story.
 
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Karakuri18 said:
At what point in the series? It's not stated anywhere that HZ will end anytime soon.
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I doubt that the series will extend into Gen 10, which will in all likelihood be announced next month on Pokémon Day and release by the end of the year going by historical standards (with Z-A’s year long delay being an anomaly). Sure, that would give Horizons about a year left, but we’re clearly transitioning into the later stage of the story at this point imo. The average Pokémon series has had roughly 140 episodes ever since Black & White. At this point it looks like Horizons will likely run longer than that, but I can’t see it lasting as long as Advanced Generation or Diamond & Pearl did at their 190 or so episode length.

And even so, none of them truly need another Pokémon. The kids’ teams are all fairly well-rounded and they tend to work together in most battles anyways so they don’t really need a full party of six, plus the Pokémon they do have are largely unrepresented and undeveloped outside of their Paldean starter trio. I’d much rather they focus on developing Kilowattrel, Lucario, Hatterene, Tinkaton, Gholdengo, etc. before they decide to add even more to the cast which will only make the issue worse.
 
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