This is a follow-up to my Pokemon XY review. To recap, I loved how XY perfected the near-two-decade-old formula that the Pokemon anime had used up until this point. The characters Satoshi, Serena, and Citron, are fantastic. The same remains true for Pokemon XYZ, the final third of Pokemon XY. XYZ takes what XY did and expands upon the aspects I thought XY didn't quite nail like the story and the character of Eureka.
1. The Story
This is one of two aspects where XYZ heavily improves upon its predecessor. XY made its characters and world a bit more mature, and XYZ multiplies that maturity ten times over. XYZ sees the introduction of multiple new story elements, namely the inclusion of Satoshi-Gekkouga, Squishy, Alan, and Team Flare. I'm going to delve into each element on its own because nearly every other aspect of XYZ is identical to XY.
2. Satoshi-Gekkouga
This is by far my favorite part of XYZ, as I'm sure it was for many others. I've often said when recommending the Pokemon anime to people, that it's been consistently on a roll since 2013 and it hasn't looked back. And I believe that's mostly due to the new direction it's been taking where it hasn't really been limited by the narrative of the games it's based on. XY is the last Pokemon anime to (mostly) directly follow the game's story. XYZ really takes it in a different and fresh direction. Satoshi-Gekkouga is the first of a few new elements thrown in to shake things up and give the anime an identity of its own. Satoshi-Gekkouga is the mental and (partial) physical fusion of Satoshi and his Pokemon Gekkouga. I'm not going to get into the implications this has on the final story arc, but Satoshi-Gekkouga plays a huge role in practically the entire 47 episode run of XYZ. This new burden placed upon Satoshi makes him go through things he's never gone through before. Self-doubt, genuine anger, true lack of understanding. It's really interesting to see this character we've known for 20+ years go through things that are not only new to him, but new to us as well. Satoshi-Gekkouga is used quite a lot in this series, and I love every time he's used. The music kicks in. I get a huge smile on my face. Goosebumps crawl along the surface of my skin. My hair raises. Whether it's the kick-ass "XYZ" opening performed by Satoshi's VA Rica Matsumoto or the instrumental "Satoshi-Gekkouga Appears!", I always get excited when Satoshi-Gekkouga shows up on screen. It makes this character finally feel like the true badass he's supposed to be.
3. Squishy and Eureka
Squishy is introduced in the first episode as a small green snake-like Pokemon. At first, you don't know what to make of it. It crawls in Eureka's bag while she doesn't notice and she instantly becomes infatuated with it. Squishy is Eureka's entire motivation this season, finally giving this character a true purpose and goal. She even creates a song called "Puni-chan's Song" (Puni-chan is Squishy's japanese name, though the version I watched called it Squishy in the subtitles so I will call it Squishy. The dub also calls it Squishy.) that she sings to it a few times during the season. It's very adorable. In XY I felt that Eureka was not as fleshed out a character as she could've been. She had a few great episodes in XY (namely XY087), but I felt she was the only character whose potential had not yet been fully realized by the end of XY. Thankfully, XYZ resolves this issue by giving Eureka Squishy to take care of. Thanks to their bond, she even plays a critical role in the climax of the last story arc. I will not discuss Squishy's true purpose and role in the story so as not to spoil anyone potentially reading this, just know it is a key player in this season.
4. Alan
Alan was technically first introduced in the XY Mega Evolution specials, and not XYZ. For my rewatch of XY and XYZ I did not rewatch the Mega Evolution specials, because (1) I was lazy, and (2) I felt it was not required to fully enjoy XY and XYZ. And I was right. I do think it wouldn't hurt to watch them, as it's only 4 episodes and will give you a greater understanding of the events in XYZ, but for someone like me who had already seen them and understood the story going in, it was not necessary to watch them a second time.
Anyways, Alan is a new character to XYZ and plays a key role in the development of Satoshi's character, Satoshi-Gekkouga, and the entire story. I cannot say much about him without spoiling the story, but he is a trainer who is motivated by his friend Manon and her Harimaron, who is in comatose. His entire motivation is to heal Harimaron and get it out of its coma. The events involving Manon and Harimaron are all shown and better-explained in the Mega Evolution Specials. In XYZ nothing is really explained until absolutely necessary. It's not hard to figure out what the situation is, so viewers aren't left too much in the dark about what Alan's goal is and how he got there. He has a Lizardon that can Mega Evolve, who becomes a rival to Gekkouga. He doesn't have much of a character arc until the very end during the last couple episodes of the last major story arc, but I enjoyed his battles with Satoshi-Gekkouga and watching him grow.
5. Team Flare
Team Flare is the evil team of this generation introduced in the first episode of XYZ. Their motives are unclear at first. All we know at first is that they want to capture Squishy. For what exactly is not immediately explained, leaving a bit of mystery. Team Flare in the games was a bit of a total pushover, with pretty poor motivation and were overall pretty bland. Luckily XYZ fixes this by changing Flare's methods and deviating from the original story. This shake-up in the story results in the best villain story arc the Pokemon anime has seen so far, raising the stakes higher than ever before. It's very well-done and provides the series a thrilling conclusion you can't look away from.
6. Miscellaneous Thoughts
XYZ still shares the excellent Shinji Miyazaki score that accompanied XY, although this time there are a few new music pieces I'd like to mention. Actually, I've already mentioned them. It's the opening theme "XYZ" sung by Rica Matsumoto and a similar-sounding piece called "Satoshi-Gekkouga Appears!" composed by Miyazaki. Both songs are excellent and do a great job of raising your excitement levels. Yet another reason to WATCH. THE. SUB. XYZ is not perfect. It makes one misgiving towards the end that I absolutely cannot forgive the writers for. They would try to remedy this gigantic flaw in Sun & Moon, and while that moment was great, it does not make up for this absolute travesty that should not have happened. If you've seen this show before you know what I'm referring to. There's another unfortunate moment that happens in the second-to-last episode but I'm not actually upset about it. Sure, it's disappointing, but at least that makes sense from a narrative perspective. Story issues aside, the final episode and ending are great and provide a wonderful ending to a fantastic season.
7. Final Thoughts
Overall, XYZ improves heavily on XY's strengths and weaknesses and was the greatest season of Pokemon up to this point in time in my opinion. It is not perfect, and has one huge flaw that will stick out like a sore thumb anytime I think about this season, but one poor writing decision does not automatically mean the entire season is bad. I cannot recommend Pokemon XY and XYZ enough. They are the most action-packed season of Pokemon to date, and give characters like Satoshi a kind of emotional depth we've never seen from the Pokemon anime before. It's darker, it's more serious, and it's still a boatload of fun to watch. I seriously hope we see more of these characters someday in the currently-running Pokemon Journeys anime. And I have a good feeling we will.
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