Summary
Hard to believe, but it has already been two years since thePokemonanime left Ash and Pikachu behind in favor of its new lead characters, Liko and Roy. The new protagonists are already approaching 100 episodes of leading the anime’s new era in Japan, and the leaked, and now official, reveal of the next saga in Pokemon Horizons has confirmed Liko and Roy will do something that Ash never could.
That something is age. Even though Ash was the star of the Pokemon anime for 25 years, he canonically remained a ten-year-old for his entire run. Artwork for the next story arc in Horizons, which will seemingly be called Mega Voltage based on the Japanese translation, features Liko, Roy, and Dot all looking much more grown up than they have done up until this point.
Much more grown up might be a stretch. All three characters are older, but the consensus among fans appears to be that roughly three years will have passed between the end of the current arc and the beginning of Mega Voltage. The name also suggests that the next chapter will reintroduce Mega Evolutions to the anime. With Mega Evolutions returning to the games inPokemon Legends: Z-Alater this year, and Pokemon’s continued effort to make the games and the anime align, that makes a lot of sense.
Liko, Roy, And Other Characters Will Be Older In The Pokemon Anime’s Next Arc
25 Years And Ash Didn’t Age A Day
Liko’s Floragato, that began the series as a Sprigatito, is all grown up too, having evolved into a Meowscrada during the timeskip. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you - that is indeed a shiny Lucario standing next to Roy. He’s clearly a far luckier trainer than me.
According to the official reveal,via Serebii,the Mega Evolution arc of Pokemon Horizons will begin on Jul 02, 2025,so not long to wait. That’s only in Japan though with the gap between the anime’s episodes debuting in Japan and airing in the US still a pretty lengthy one. We’re currently about 30 episodes behind on the show in the US, so it’ll be a while before we see English-dubbed grown up Liko and Roy for the first time.
Pretty much everything revealed about Mega Voltage appears to have gone down well with Pokemon fans so far, including the timeskip.A post by u/HygorBohmHubner on the r/Pokemon subreddithas sparked people to ask why this never happened to Ash, while others are once again wondering that if Ash exists in this version of the anime, might we eventually meet a grown up version of the OG protagonist.
Others are concerned about the worrying lack of Friede in Mega Voltage’s reveal. Captain Pikachu has Friede’s goggles leading some to believe Friede might not have jumped forward in time with the rest of the cast.
