The Revenge Match! Lucario's Challenge!! - Pokémon Horizons Episode 132 Review - Relax And Take It Easy

I had assumed Roy's Lucario would have a disobedience arc, but I’m glad that Pokémon Horizons didn’t go that route and opted to give it some focus in this latest episode. Come to think of it, it never really had a true focus episode until now. The Mega Evolution mini-arc was mostly about Roy meeting Ult and learning about Mega Evolution, and Lucario was just the obstacle to defeat. So, it was nice to see more of Lucario’s personality come out, and how it finally masters the new Mega Evolution.

What I did like about this episode was that Roy is using what he learned from his first loss with Drayton and applying it to Lucario. If you remember, Lucario wasn’t really there when Roy was trying to train to be more relaxed. I did like that Lucario finally feels like an integrated part of Roy’s team with it learning to relax, and even joining in on the singing. Personality-wise, Lucario does have its goofy moments, but it is mostly a serious and disciplined Pokémon that can be easily frustrated and impatient, hence why a relaxed mindset was needed—to help it loosen up. This might be a hot take, but I think the shiny coloring of Mega Lucario Z is superior to its default colors. Maybe it’s because I like the blue and purple combination a lot more than the blue and yellow… I also find it interesting how Roy’s Lucario stands out for not using Aura Sphere, which is normally the signature move of its species. Instead, it learns Aerial Ace. To be honest, since there are a lot of Lucario in the anime, I do like that they’re doing their best to make this one stand out by making it shiny and have a more unorthodox move set, so it won’t just be a carbon copy of other incarnations. I think the fact that the Z Mega uses a different transformation sequence also stands out!

Other than that, I also liked the other aspects of the episode like how Diana joined the group after Pecharunt is revealed to be Tera Poison. By the way, Friede eating its mochi and dancing is purely fan service, because so much fanart of him dancing was made after the initial Pecharunt episode aired. I’ve seen people groaning about how Friede was handled in that scene, but it’s just fan service—everyone in the Rising Volt Tacklers has had their share of mochi dancing, so it’s fair that he should too. Remember that this is Friede—he has his fair share of silliness.

My favorite part of the episode though was definitely the battle. Or rather, while the battle between Roy and Master Mayonnaise was great, what I liked more was the background stuff to the battle. First off, why does Diana have a wrestling ring? Second, Murdock is a natural-born commentator, and I honestly loved his commentary throughout the match, especially the food puns. Since his voice actor Kenta Miyake did voice Monsieur Pierre in the XY anime, it makes sense that he’d be excellent at it. Also, Penny being a fan of Mega Hawlucha was funny. I guess my only gripe with the episode would be that Liko never showed off her Armarouge to Diana. She didn’t even get a battle with her, as Diana and Mayonnaise had a 2 vs. 1 battle against Ult who wanted to train his Sableye. I felt like it was wasted opportunity to not have a little mini rematch between Diana and Liko with Armarouge…

The finale of the arc will air on April 10th and 17th, with a teaser of a possible Pokopia arc at the end. It does make me wonder what will happen when they’re done with their objective. Will they return to the slice of life adventures like in the beginning of the story? For me, I’d like it if they have episodes dedicated to missed opportunities like Arven, Kieran, Amarys, and Crispin getting some focus. Since Horizons will be airing for another year, I feel like this would be a great opportunity to do all the things they couldn’t do or what the fans want to happen. Let me know what you think about the episode!