The Slipping, Smashing Mystery Pokémon?! - Pokémon Horizons Episode 30 Review - The Polteageist line makes their debut!

Have you ever envisioned a brawl between a Shuckle and a Polteageist? Whether you have or haven’t, this episode delivers just that, as Polteageist makes its official anime debut. I liked that this week's episode of Pokémon Horizons was more of a Pokémon-focused episode, rather than Horizons’ usual human and Pokémon-focused episodes. While there were some humans that played a key part in this episode, they weren’t the real focus of this episode as it was all Polteageist.

Despite Polteageist being a Pokémon that can only say its name, it’s interesting to see it interact with the other wild Pokémon aboard the Brave Olivine. My only issue was that how it stumbled upon the airship was never explained, but I also think that’s the beauty of the mysteriousness. Polteageist flew around dropping purple liquid, which is most likely its black tea, which Roy decides to investigate after Fuecoco slips on the liquid during battle training. Later that night, Liko heard mysterious clinking noises while meeting with Diana, prompted her to check out the source as well. While this plot was about Roy and Liko trying to find out the source of this mysterious happening, they ultimately take a backseat from the spotlight. After all, Polteageist is the star and I think the writers did a clever job incorporating that. I thought the part where it got stuck on Alolan Muk’s back was cute; I think that part of the episode showed off how much personality it has.

Though, I do wonder if Polteageist was mad at Shuckle for letting someone drink its juice, or did it have some sort of rivalry as they both produce tasty fluids? It can be a bit hard to decipher Pokémon’s behavioral patterns as these cute creatures do not talk; sometimes, some aren’t facially expressive, so they have to rely on body language—but body language can be hard to interpret as well. If only guessing Pokémon's emotions was as easy as the tests with Salvatore in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet made it seem!

I loved that out of the wild Pokémon aboard the airship, Shuckle gets the most focus; it’s unexpected that this tortoise-like Pokémon would be the deuteragonist of this episode. The part where Dot wanted to drink its juice straight from the shell was hilarious; it's too bad she was stopped by Quaxly. I think the cutest thing about Shuckle was that the anime did honor the game’s logic as it is a VERY slow Pokémon with a base speed stat of 5. Just seeing the part where Shuckle was sluggishly walking as a snail’s pace was hilarious—it was so slow that it had to be pushed to resume the plot. I think the anime also showed off its high defense and special defense stats as it tanked all of Polteageist’s attacks without much damage. I never knew the anime would be this accurate about a Pokémon’s stats—they never follow this logic in the previous anime as Ash would carry around extremely heavy Pokémon like Larvitar and Hippopotas as if they were made of cotton.

I do like that that the wild Pokémon on the Brave OIivine have their own hangout in the basement where they hold club-like parties. Even owned Pokémon like Captain Pikachu and Rockruff join in on the fun. I thought this was really cute, and it shows that the wild Pokémon on the airship are just as important as the trainer-owned Pokémon. I’d like to see more episodes that revolve around them if possible. Also, Captain Pikachu has a Skitty mug; isn’t that adorable?

Speaking of honoring game logic, Sinistea usually evolves by exposing it to a chipped or a cracked pot. I think it’s interesting to see it being “born” from the opposite way—by having Polteageist’s tea exposing it to a chipped teacup. Does this mean this is the first time asexual reproduction is seen in the anime? I think this is quite interesting. It’s cool that Diana had a chipped cup; I think she was already aware of Polteageist being on the ship, but said nothing as she wanted to prove her theory.

Like I mentioned before, I want to see more episodes of the wild Pokémon on the Brave Olivine. This episode proves that they’re as interesting as the human characters. I’d like to see how they stumbled upon the airship too. Before I end this review, there’s a little fun trivia that I know about Polteageist. It’s Japanese name is literally Potdeath (ポットデス), which makes sense since it’s a teapot and the death fits its ghost typing. Did you know that it’s also a pun; if you pronounce it by how it is pronounced in Japanese, you’re basically saying “It’s a pot” (Pot-desu). Isn’t that both cute and funny? Do you think we need more Brave Olivine Pokémon episodes?