#hz119

Achigator is evolving in the next episode, and I'm not sure how to feel about him evolving against Kakitsubata of all characters.. I think I'll need time to form my thoughts once I actually watch the episode next week, but that's rather unexpected.

When Hogator evolved the first time, it was during the climax of Terastal Debut and during a battle against Liko, who is Roy's close friend. (Nyahoja/Nyarote's evolutions also always happened during a chapter climax and specifically against the partners of Lucius and Gibeon, since her story is deeply connected to the Explorers'.. In comparison, Roy's main partner evolved against a friend, which fits.)

So, the part I find unexpected here is that next episode isn't a chapter climax at all (we're still into the first episodes of the new chapter), and the evolution will take place during a battle against Kakitsubata, a character who doesn't really have as much history with Roy or strong emotional ties to him. So yeah, both points are a bit surprising to me. After next ep, all of Roy's Pokemon will have reached their last evolution stages and I'm not sure what they plan to do with his team afterwards since they haven't gotten emotional focus lately. Anyway, next ep will be written by Naruki Nagakawa, who also wrote HZ067 (which was when Hogator evolved the first time at the end of Terastal Debut, but most importantly, it was the episode when Onyx gave a sandwich to Sango and both of them quietly ate food together, and this is the most relevant part). So, both evolutions eps for Hogator/Achigator are handled by the same writer (he usually does very good eps, such as ep 16/27 and last ep he wrote was ep 95 which was like.. a long time ago.. can he write more eps for this chapter).

Speaking of evolutions, it seems like all of the remaining Pokemon who have yet to evolve will reach their last evolution stage in this chapter too. Tebrim evolved in today's ep (HZ118). Dot's Welcamo and Collecurei will probably evolve too, it's just matter of time. I'm quite curious about these two. I wonder how it'll happen and if Nanjamo will be involved since she appears in the opening. I'd like for her to witness Dot's growth as a Trainer further somehow since she influenced her so much. I wonder who will evolve first between the two? Welcamo is the "big brother" so I wonder if he'll be the last to evolve (as in, his little siblings are growing up faster than him, etc).

Liko's Carbou will also evolve, and I guess this is probably the evolution they are setting up the most in terms of narrative for this chapter. It's also the one I'm anticipating the most, because I wonder how they'll go at it.. Carbou needs an item to evolve, so it's an evolution different than the ones we've had before. They hinted at the evolution in the opening and showed individual scenes of Liko and Carbou in both the op/ed, so there is specific care and attention put into this. Maybe Liko will need to look for the Auspicious Armor in a specific place? Either way, I wonder if Amethio will be involved in some capacity in Carbou's evolution. He used to have a Carbou and I'm curious about the circumstances that led to his evolution (and if there is a specific reason he and Carbou ended up choosing Soublades as an evolution). I feel like Carbou's evolution will be written by Kureha Matsuzawa too, but it'll be a while before we know that.