Someone We Can't See! Whosawhatsit? - Pokemon Horizons Episode 15 Review - Iono about you, but this episode was fun!

In Episode 15 of Pokémon Horizons, Dot leaves her room and Iono makes her debut! Nidothing and Iono team up for their biggest collaboration!

Where’s Liko? Iono! Get it? That was supposed to be a pun on Iono’s name being based off “I’unno” in a way; I’m a dad joke enthusiast, so I’m sorry for future bad jokes. This episode gives us the debut of Iono, Dot development and Liko getting her memories back. All in all, this was a rather entertaining episode to watch.

Amnesia plots can be contrived, but fortunately, Liko doesn’t lose all of her memories; her amnesia seems to be a temporary thing as she manages to remember things clearly by the end of the episode. She remembers that she’s Liko, her partner is Sprigatito, and that she attends Indigo Academy, but has no idea why she’s back in Paldea. The collaboration between Iono and Nidothing helped Liko recall events that had happened to her and piece herself back together. I’m glad that the writers wrote it in a way that Liko didn’t lose all of her memories, and that she worked hard to get them back herself. Everything got resolved in the end, and she even managed to remember the Beheeyem that hypnotized her.

Iono’s debut was amazing! The Horizons staff really know how to respect the Paldean trainers like Nemona, Brassius and Iono without going too out of character. Iono retains her outgoing personality as a streamer, which inspired her fan Dot to create and become Nidothing. They also adapt Iono's Gym Challenge from the games, “Where In Levincia Is Mr. Walksabout?” where the player had to find Mr. Clavell, as a challenge to find Liko during Nidothing and Iono's collaboration. While her voice actress is different from the promotional trailer for the game (Fairouz Ai ファイルーズ あい), her anime voice actress Kaede Hondo (本渡楓) does a great job capturing Iono’s energy. I can’t wait to see the day the other Paldean trainers make their anime debut. As someone who loved Pokémon Violet, it makes me happy to see the writers respect game canon.

Dot gets positive development in this episode. She actually leaves her room to search for Liko! Talk about the power of friendship indeed! She teams up with Roy and Friede to search for Liko who was in Levincia and not Artazon (which was fake info that Spinel threw in to distract the group). Liko’s kind actions from the previous episodes helped Dot break out of her shell; Roy and Liko meet her in person for the first time, which is exciting because it means that Dot will most likely be the tritagonist of this show since she’s Quaxly’s trainer. The fact that Dot is willing to collaborate with Iono to find Liko shows how precious she is to her. I want to see them bond in future episodes. It’s a must!

The fact that Friede goes “Did I forget to tell you?” again shows that this is really an issue that Friede needs to fix. I feel like Friede needs to trust his fellow Rising Volt Tacklers more and that the Rising Volt Tacklers need to berate him more for this bad habit. Fortunately, Friede makes up for his flaws by helping the kids out. Now that the group finds who the enemy is, they’re going for a counterattack for the pendant.

There are two things that weirded me out in this episode though. The first is that Liko had one of Roy’s Ancient Pokéballs in her possession. How did it get there? Why does she have it? I thought Roy was taking care of them. I find that a bit odd. Second, how did Roy get from Artazon to Levincia and only got tired out after arriving at the city? I remember that in the games, the distance between the two cities was quite far by walking. I know that he was chasing after his Wattrel, but still! Roy’s stamina is platinum-leveled confirmed.

Spinel’s a very excellent villain in my opinion. He’s sinister and deceptive. He stalled the Rising Volt Tacklers for time by giving out fake information about Liko being in Artazon when she was actually in Levincia. Previous episodes had him use his Magnetons to interfere with technology and his Beheeyem hypnotize Liko while he disguised himself as a civilian walking his Umbreon. The fact that he does all these dastardly things makes him such a formidable foe. I wonder where his hideout is and what will happen when he loses the pendant.

What are your thoughts on the amnesia plot point for this episode? Was it contrived? Was it not? How was Iono’s anime debut? I hope you electrifying readers stay tuned for next week for the possible showdown between the Rising Volt Tacklers and Spinel. I’ll be tuning in for sure!