#hz080

Following the events of last episode, Liko and the others head to Area Zero to meet up with Briar. She explains the situation to them and warn them of the dangers of Area Zero, before they start heading to the place where Entei is supposed to be.

Meanwhile, Sango and Onyx are tailing them while trying not to get found. Sango eventually gets separated from Onyx and meets a Paradox Pokemon she mistakes as a Purin (Scream Tail). She gets into a fight with it and mocks it, though they eventually anger another Paradox Pokemon (Great Tusk) that Sango ends up battling. The battle ends up escalating and Sango ends it with a Self-Destruct that she gets caught into. Sango admits that "Onipurin" (the Paradox Pokemon she named as such) was cool, and catches it accidentally while trying to shut it up. Onyx finds her at the end of the day while she is arguing with Onipurin and she explains what happened to her.

While Sango is off on her own, Roy also gets separated from his group and meets a Paradox Pokemon as well (Sandy Shocks). He battles it and defeats it. Roy ends up thanking the Pokemon for the fun battle, and leaves with Achigator while singing, which causes the Pokemon he met to hum his song too. Roy eventually ends up catching up to Liko and Dot before they go look for him. Roy explains what happened to him and they all join Friede and Briar to set up a camp for the night and have dinner together. At night, Liko and the others hear a cry in the distance and Briar explains that it is the sound of a Scream Tail before she heads off to sleep.

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Overall, funny ep! Sango is entertaining to watch.

Many things to cover in regards to Sango. Not in order.

Something something about the parallels between Roy and Sango and both of them battling/bonding with a Paradox Pokemon in that episode and getting separated from their respective group. Sango and Roy highlighting a "familiar" side of the Paradox Pokemon by interacting with them (while many things are unknown about the Paradox Pokemon, they are also Pokemon like any other and the interactions in this ep showed that etc). Scream Tail being about screaming and Sandy Shocks eventually taking a liking to Roy's singing at the end (noise/music theme). Sango got separated from Onyx because she was chasing after Roy in the first place too, so it's nice they are keeping that kind of rivalry/bond between both of them even after the conclusion of their battle in HZ066. Roy actually kept up with Sango's "game" last time they battled and "played" with her until the end of their battle, so I wonder if Sango just wanted to have fun again? I wonder if they will focus more on Sango's relationships with Liko and Roy in the future.

Small things I liked: the content of Sango's bag shown after the battle (candy, hairbrush, definitely shows more of her character and that she is pretty simple at the end of the day), the domesticity of the scenes with Liko and the others getting ready for dinner and their Pokemon eating with them (it was nice seeing Tebrim and Nakanuchan etc again, pls show me the secondary Pokemon more), Onyx's voice when he said Sango is "always like that". Sounding kind of resigned, but like... not angry? He knows she is "like that" and knows the way she is (hence why he tried to remind her of the terms of their mission), but it feels like he's accepted it at this point.

Sango things to note: her being easily bored.. it was already shown before, but she is always seeking a form of entertainment and seems so bored and understimulated? Her buttons are easily pushed too. She has a short temper and gets into physical fights with Pokemon. I wonder why she is so agressive.

The dynamics between Sango and Onipurin was really fun. I am actually liking that they take time to flesh out Sango's Pokemon and give them so much life. Her Onigohri really fits her. Onipurin stands out in terms of personality too. Which is really cool, considering that she is actually the only Explorers admin with so much care put into the secondary Pokemon's personality so far. They mostly focus on the main partner Pokemon for the others Explorers.

I also think it feels special that Sango is the only one from the Explorers (and might be the only one in the series) who caught a Pokemon onscreen? This was only done with the main heroic characters so far. It definitely helps humanize Sango more and show more of her sympathetic sides, by portraying her as someone worth getting attached to and someone worth following.

I am really curious what they have in store for Sango and Onipurin. Horizons strikes me as a story with a specific plan and story for the human characters and their Pokemon (hence the small teams), so why are they adding a member to Sango's team. And not just any Pokemon, but a Paradox Pokemon that Agate specifically brought up when she talked about their existence being absurd. Is it just because Onipurin "fits" Sango in terms of personality? Will there be something more to it?

Also, while Onipurin fits Sango in terms of energy, I am hoping they won't turn them both into a running gag. Though, this story generally avoids that and all the things that could have been used endlessly for comedy were actually turned into very important points of growth and development (or ways to reveal more about a character, such as Friede forgetting to tell stuff to others could be interpreted as him not wanting to burden others as the leader on occasions, etc..). Liko doesn't notice that Dot is Gurumin? Not used that much as a gag (only three times, I think?), and the culmination of Dot's arc of coming out of her room for the first time ended in her trusting Liko and opening up about the fact that she is Gurumin (ie, used cleverly to further Dot's character arc in communicating with others). Liko is embarassed about Dot being Gurumin? Also used to further the relationship development between the two and Liko actually grows in this aspect and managed to reconcile the two in her mind and she is relaxed about it now. Sandwich and Onigiri? Silly and endearing nicknames that don't fool Liko and her friends, and the climax of the Terastal Debut chapter showed that Sango and Onyx actually got attached to their nicknames and their school lives while they ate food quietly together..

Anyway.. what I mean is that I am hoping there will be something interesting in store with Sango and Onipurin because this story has shown that it knows better than be static about these kinds of things and make gags that devalue characters and their development. Sango and Onyx have proven to be more complex than they let on too, so. The little bits with Onipurin lacking confidence while still being a menace in its own way and Sango being a jerk who can still admit when someone is cool and Sango considered to be worth following were really interesting already.

Onyx being so done with Sango and sighing about it is funny, but also man, you still care about her and spent the whole day looking for her, so who is the real winner here- (I think their future dates could be complete disasters. Sango never showing up on time at the meeting spot or getting distracted while Onyx looks for her and can't get in touch with her. Nothing to do with the episode, and everything to do with me shipping them btw. But they kinda gave me that on a platter to think about, so.)

It's worth pointing out that Onyx didn't really comment on Sango's antics though. The way he looked for her reminded me of that time he did the same thing in HZ043 (she was out to buy sweets and he wondered where she was and eventually found her beefing with Liko and Roy, and he didn't really have to go out of his way to look for her since they were called for the mission at the end of the episode after their battle, he just wanted to know where she was way before that). This time, his eyebrow twitched in annoyance, but he actually restrained himself and didn't escalate the situation. They used to argue much more before, and he actually had reasons to get pissed this time since he probably spent a lot of time looking for her.. So it's kinda interesting to me seeing them like that now. Also, I found their small exchange at the end cute (when he asked about her Pokemon, and she told him she caught it and explained the situation a bit more). It's always striking to me how normal their interactions feel compared to the others Explorers? They can just have casual conversations about stuff that happened to them and share that with each other and they don't try to hide things from each other? They are just that comfortable around each other. I think it's neat.

Like, it matches Sango in terms of energy and noise and has a bit of a mocking streak too, so it can keep up with her banter and Onigohri's. But for a Pokemon that is all about screaming, they pointed out that when it's scared, its voice won't come out. Onipurin was seen tearing up at some point, too. And there was lots of focus on Onipurin's expressions during the battle, which made me think that it was kind of inspired by Sango's determination and guts and that seeing her and Onigohri try their best spurred it into action and made Onipurin want to keep fighting?

Onipurin clearly wanted to follow Sango at the end too (that shy looking towards her at the end because it didn't want to leave yet, and allowing itself to be caught). Sango said Onipurin was awesome too, so it's cool that Onipurin must have been touched by her words enough to want to stick by her side. And that Sango comes off as kind of inspirational and someone to get attached to, despite everything.

Monthly calendar is here.

Intriguing that Sango is set up to team up with "an odd-looking Purin" in HZ080 given that Agate specifically brought it up in HZ056 and considered the existence of Paradox Pokemon to be absurd.

Writing thoughts for future reference, etc.