I Wish Pokémon Horizons’ New Opening Theme Song Was Better
Pokemon Horizons arc 2 Terapagos and Liko
Pokémon Horizons has just entered its second story arc in Japan – or second season, as it’s likely to be in the West when the series eventually makes its way over – and there’s a lot riding on it. As we mentioned in our review of Pokémon Horizons’ first story arc, the series had started strong, but lost its way pretty quickly and struggled to focus on anything in particular.
After one episode, its second story arc seems to be in a much stronger position, taking a more laid-back, slice of life approach to its storytelling. It’s a nice change of pace to previous episodes’ nonsensical rapidfire battles, but it’s hard to tell if it can stick the landing and find a nice balance to action and tender moments.
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Today, though, none of that matters, because I want to talk about Pokémon Horizons’ music — specifically, its opening theme song. Horizons’ first story arc had an absolute banger as a theme song: Dokimeki Diary by asmi and Chinozo. It’s high-energy, cute as heck, and perfectly captures the vibe of Liko and Roy’s adventures with the Rising Volt Tacklers.
Listen for yourself:
I absolutely adore this song. I’ve been a fan of asmi since her debut in 2019, and I love a lot of her music, but Dokimeki Diary is just on a whole other level. I don’t know how anyone can listen to that song and not be hyped to the moon and back, it’s just so dang good.
Starting with episode 26, and the second story arc for Pokémon Horizons, Dokimeki Diary is no more, instead being replaced with a new song — Halo by yama and BotchiBoromaru. And look, don’t get me wrong, it’s a really cute song, and I like it a lot. I pretty much immediately added it to my daily Spotify playlist.
It’s just… dull, y’know? It’s missing the incredible vibes that Dokimeki Diary brought to the table, and instead sounds a lot like just about every other anime opening for every other anime series on the planet.
Living up to Dokimeki Diary was a big ask in the first place, so I can understand why The Pokémon Company wanted to play it a bit safer. Still, I do wish the opening had a little bit more energy behind it, and was a little better suited to Liko in particular. This feels like a song that would’ve worked for Ash, but Liko’s journey is different, and it deserves a different sound to go with it.
At the very least, Pokémon Horizons did keep its fantastic Rising Volt Tacklers Rap as the ending theme song for its second story arc, even turning it on its head to have Liko leading the rap and mixing up the lyrics a bit. It’s a nice touch, and I truly hope the rap sticks around for the duration of the series — it’s a lot of fun, and it shows off the personalities of all of the Rising Volt Tacklers so well.
Related: Pokémon Horizons Is Struggling
No English release date for Pokémon Horizons has been announced yet, but it's expected to be released at some point by the end of the year in the US.
