Just to clear this up, the kids didn't mention Ash at all. All they said was since Roy lived in Kanto, he could catch a Pikachu.On that note, any early fears Roy would be too similar to Ash have been immediately vanquished. Roy's ambition (he notably refers to his goal as a "plan" rather than a "dream") to challenge legendary Pokemon and sunny disposition don't preclude him from having smarts. He's clearly a talented kid waiting to break free from the island he lives on, but there's also something holding him back from doing so. Plenty of Pokemon live on the same island, yet he hasn't caught one to start his own journey unlike some of his classmates. Going by the preview for the next episode, I imagine we'll learn what this is.
My favourite scene was undoubtedly Roy and Fuecoco singing together. It was such a simple thing that showed Roy was already reaching an understating with it, in contrast to Liko needing longer to understand Sprigatito. Whether this will be the theme going forward we'll have to see, but Roy is striking me as the type who just "gets" Pokemon versus Liko who needs to study them more (the first half of the episode was her learning about Fuecoco's habits from the crew members, for instance).
As for Friede, I've already decided he's going to be a meme this series. The show will do its darndest to make him seem like the coolest person ever and sometimes it'll work and other times it'll just be so ridiculous it's funny. Him skipping around string shots to tie up the Pokemon was just plain goofy and honestly, if they take this idea to its logical extreme I'm down for it. That aside, there was a sliver of something deeper going on with him, as he seems to have some hang up about being a professor, which gives me hope his character will have a little more depth than super-competent-leader-everyone-looks-up-to.
So far, it's noticeable how each episode has ended with foreshadowing for the next one. This wasn't Pokemon's style before, as most episodes were self-contained and ended by wrapping up the one-off story without a hook for what's coming next. It's too early to say for sure, but I wonder (and hope, tbh) this is a sign Horizons won't be as episodic as we're used to. It could just be that once we're out of this honeymoon period the show will settle into something we're more accustomed to, but for now, I'm enjoying the story being built-up week on week.
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