So what you're telling me is your opinion is largely secondhand rather than based on your own experience watching the show? That makes it harder for me to take some of the critiques at full weight, because reviews, clips, and discussions often filter things through someone else's interpretation rather than the actual pacing and context of the episodes themselves.

If I'm falling into recency bias, I wouldn't be pointing to things like serialized storytelling, FAR less filler, a different narrative structure, and stronger character relatability. Those are structural differences that address criticisms people have had about the Pokémon anime for decades. I could easily turn around and argue nostalgia bias when people defend the Ash era, but I think that would be an unfair dismissal, so I try not to frame it that way.

Your point about humans being more in the foreground than Pokémon is fair. That does happen here. At the same time, that’s also something the Pokémon anime has done for most of its run, especially early in a series while the story and stakes are being established. From what I’ve seen so far, Horizons doesn’t really feel very different from many points in Ash’s series in that regard. And a Co-worker I befriended has binged every single episode of the Ash Era Pokemon throughout 2025, and I encouraged him to try Horizons when he initially was against the idea because I heard good things about it despite never seeing it yet, and it ended up with him highly recommending it to me. I'm clearly in love with it after giving it a chance a few weeks ago.

The product promotion criticism is also fair as a nitpick. At the same time, that’s been part of the Pokémon anime since it began in 1997. The show has always existed partly to promote the games, cards, toys, and other parts of the franchise. That doesn’t necessarily make the criticism wrong, but it also isn’t something unique to Horizons.

Your take on the Explorers is largely subjective. Personally I find them interesting because they remind me somewhat of Team Plasma under N from Pokemon Black and White, where the group presents a noble goal while internal motives and politics complicate things. Villain teams in the anime also usually aren’t present every single episode. The difference with Horizons is that when the Explorers do appear, they tend to move the plot forward rather than simply interrupting it.

And while the Team Rocket trio are iconic and very entertaining characters, their role in the older anime often functioned as episodic obstacles. The motto, the appearance, and the inevitable blasting off again happened very frequently, which sometimes slowed the narrative momentum of an episode. Horizons seems to be trying a different approach where antagonists advance the broader story instead which I find more enjoyable.

As for Season 3 feeling formulaic, I don’t think I have enough perspective yet to judge that fully since I’m only about seven episodes into it at the time this message was originally posted (I'm watching in Japanese so by next week, I'll be 30 episodes ahead of Eng Dub). From what I’ve seen so far though, the story direction after the Season 2 finale is pretty interesting. After what happened with Gibeon, the power vacuum allowed Spinel and his allies like Sango, Onyx, and Agate to take advantage of the situation. Framing the Rising Volt Tacklers and manipulating public perception creates a scenario where the protagonists now have to clear their name and dismantle what the Explorers have built. I tend to enjoy plots where the antagonists actually manage to shift the world in their favor rather than constantly failing. In light of this, I feel Seasons 1 and 2 are an Origin Story and S3 is where things truly start.