EQUAL Pokémon Horizon Moving forward, an interesting theme has emerged in the series, and it's one that never quite made it into Ash's time. That theme is family, a theme that never really got much attention in the previous series.
In the original anime starring Ash Ketchum, the subject of family hardly ever comes up; Ash's father remains unknown even after over 1200 episodes, and his mother only appears rarely in the plot, and even then is mostly there to cheer Ash on. Ash will call Professor Oak much more often than his mother, and he has no other family to speak of. This is understandable, since the dream of endless adventure that the show presents doesn't mesh well with the concept of family.
However, Pokémon Horizons has found a way to incorporate the family element without losing the adventure.
Pokémon Horizons Makes Family Important
Liko, Roy and Dot all have stable families.
Family has played a role in Pokémon Horizons since the very first episode, when Liko receives a mysterious pendant from her grandmother. Friede and company are only introduced to Liko by being hired by Liko's mother to take her home, and Liko's father plays an indirect role in the plot with the Ancient Adventurer books, whose stories have been passed down in Liko's family for generations. Liko's grandmother even shows up and stays for a few episodes, and she's a really cool character that fans haven't seen before.
While Liko's family is the most important, both of the other main characters also have stable families. A large part of the reason Dot is the way she is is due to her mother's overprotective influence, and Dot's mother shows up at one point, trying to take her home. Dot also has her uncle, Murdock, on the ship with her, often watching over her and worrying about her. Roy is first introduced as living with his grandfather, and more recently it has been established that his love of singing with Fuecoco is influenced by his parents, who are often away on long sea voyages.
This is a much more realistic take on Pokémon adventures. While the original anime toyed with the idea on rare occasions, most notably in the third movie, Spell of the Unown, where Ash's mother is kidnapped, family isn't as important to Ash as it is in Horizons. This focus on family really helped establish Pokémon Horizons as a distinct kind of series, and with hints that Riko's legacy is more than meets the eye, it seems like that theme will only continue to grow stronger as the series moves into the future.
Pokémon Horizons needs to differentiate itself from the series that came before it, and it needs to do it quickly. It seems like the writers of Pokémon Horizon found exactly what was missing in Ash's era, and by making it the center of the story, clearly defined what makes this series different and why it has a story worth telling.
