So my kid has me watching this at the moment: Pokemon Horizons. I remember when he asked me to watch it with him I rolled my eyes because I knew the had just switched out Ash (who I grew up with) with a new girl called Liko.
My first thoughts to this was to roll my eyes again and think, oh, here we go, another girl to show the men how it's done. Another girl to show men that they aren't needed and that they can do life and everything in it way better than us silly ol' men can. I could only just imagine the, "winning one for the girls" comments coming out.
But, this surprised me.
And, as an adult I dare say I am really enjoying it, to the point that my son has had to stop me from watching it on my own because I'm getting further ahead than he is. It's really much better than the older one in my opinion. I like it because you hear Liko's thoughts, and it's very much woman-like because they tend to overthink things (on the whole).
We start off the series with Liko joining a new school. She wants to learn, make new friends, and have a nice friend circle. It's all very scary because this is her first day. She spots several girls chatting on the way to school and secretly wants to know them, so she'd feel a little more comfortable.
But, before she even starts school there's a mysterious man waiting on her, and, he doesn't look too pleasant. He's asking that she come away with him and to take her grandmothers pendant with her -- which his demeanour suggests he's more so demanding, rather than asking.
Anyway, she tells the mysterious man that she's going to get her necklace but she escapes through the window - and that's where crazy battles are about to emerge, but poor Liko, she doesn't know how to defend herself from the mysterious man's very strong pokemon.
That's where another unknown man swoops in with a fully evolved Charizard and saves Liko. Right now we don't know who the people we should trust and who we should not. Liko is highly confused and does not know what to do, or even why these strange men want to have her.
And Pikachu makes an appearance!! Yay. He's in the show too.
"Pika Pikaaaaaa pika pika!!"
On a side note I caught a Pikachu when I was playing Pokemon: Sword and Shield and they were VERY strong. And Pikachu is in this series too - he can put up a very good battle with the strange man.
Nevertheless, the battle happens and one thing leads to another and Liko, the unknown man, Charizard and Pikachu escape and fly off into the sunset -- and we're all still very in the dark about everything.
I am enjoying this thoroughly and I can't wait to watch the next one, and even although I still have no idea what the pendant is, what's it's for, or why they all want it -- but it's really really enjoyable.
If you're a pokemon fan like me (I know I'm old but meh) then I'd recommend this if you haven't watched it yet. Swapping it with a girl has been a positive change, and has only added to the pokemon universe, not taken away from it, which was a nice surprise.