The Pendant That Starts It All (Part One) – Pokémon Horizons Season 1, Episode 1

Plot episodeLiko receives SprigatitoSeries premiere

The Pendant That Starts It All (Part One) is the 1st episode of Pokémon Horizons: The Series, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1225th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1234, Bulbapedia code HZ001). It first aired in Japan on 14 April 2023 and in the United States on 7 March 2024. It falls within the season’s The pendant that starts it all stretch (EP1–EP3).

The first episode of Netflix’s Part 1 (HZ001–HZ012), released in the US on Thursday 7 March 2024. The Pokémon Company International had announced on 29 November 2023 a US premiere on 23 February 2024, for Pokémon Day, then on 12 January 2024 moved it to 7 March. The English dub had premiered on BBC iPlayer in the UK on 1 December 2023 (HZ001–HZ006; CBBC from 4 December), followed by Australia’s 9Go! on 27 February 2024 and Canada’s Cartoon Network on 2 March 2024; an eleven-minute clip had been shown at San Diego Comic-Con on 20 July 2023, and South Korea’s Tooniverse had begun the Korean dub, the first broadcast outside Japan, on 23 August 2023.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Liko, a shy girl from Paldea, enrols at Indigo Academy in Kanto, receives a moody Sprigatito as her first partner Pokémon, and suddenly finds herself hunted by the mysterious Explorers for the pendant her grandmother gave her. On the bus to the school she is too nervous to speak to the girls watching a video by her favourite online celebrity, Nidothing, and gazes instead at the Kanto Pokémon she is seeing for the first time. In her dormitory she meets her roommate, Ann, who is turning the room upside down in search of a missing toothbrush. Liko explains that she chose the academy because her parents once studied there, and Ann admits she envies her, never having left Kanto herself. The two watch a student battle together, and Ann chatters happily about the partner Pokémon they will receive at the entrance ceremony. That night Liko is too anxious to sleep and records her first day in a diary on her Rotom Pad.

At the ceremony the headmistress welcomes the new students, and in class each one receives a Pokédex on their Rotom Phone before choosing a partner. Ann picks Oshawott; Liko nervously chooses Sprigatito, which scratches her when she tries to pet it and runs away. She follows its scent to a rooftop, and when she grabs for it they both fall, landing safely on a sleeping Snorlax. Her first battle with Ann is called off, and her secret night practice of Leafage at the lake goes nowhere. Back in her room she takes out a box hidden under her bed: inside is a pendant, a good-luck charm from her grandmother that she does not yet feel ready to wear, and Ann, awake after all, asks about it. Following Ann’s advice to learn more about her partner, Liko manages to hold Sprigatito for the first time, while members of the Rising Volt Tacklers search the campus for her without success.

When the school break begins and Ann goes home, a young man named Amethio hands Liko a letter that supposedly comes from her grandmother, asking her to bring the precious pendant. Suspicious, Liko grabs the pendant and slips out of her window just before Amethio returns to her room. His fellow Explorer Onia spots her, and Zirc corners her with his Rhydon; Sprigatito is far too weak to win, so Liko has it blind Rhydon with Leafage and lull it to sleep with its soothing scent. On a rooftop Amethio demands the pendant, but a man named Friede swoops down on his Charizard, saying that he too has business with Liko, and Amethio’s Ceruledge challenges Charizard. Hoping to draw the fight away from the school, Liko leaps across a gap between the roofs; a deflected Psycho Cut flies straight at her, and the pendant suddenly glows, wrapping her in a green, hexagon-patterned sphere that holds her suspended in midair.

Major Events

• Liko’s first partner. Liko enrols at Indigo Academy and meets her roommate, Ann, and Ann’s Oshawott
• Liko receives a Pokédex and Sprigatito
• Her first battle, with Ann, is called off
• Amethio, Zirc and Onia hunt her for the pendant, and Sprigatito’s Leafage and sleep-inducing scent stop Zirc’s Rhydon
• Friede and Charizard face Amethio’s Ceruledge
• The pendant wraps Liko in a green barrier
• The first main-series episode in which Ash and Pikachu are not the protagonists and the Team Rocket trio not the antagonists
• 11 named recurring characters debut, the most in one episode since EP005
• No opening, title-card reading or eyecatches (a one-hour premiere with HZ002)

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Sprigatito#0906 · HZ001
• Quaxly#0912 · HZ001
• Ceruledge#0937 · HZ001
• Pawmi#0921 · HZ001
• Finizen#0963 · HZ001

Captures and evolutions

• Sprigatito#0906 · Liko · her first partner, received at Indigo Academy

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Dai Satō.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto, Galar and Paldea storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• The BBC (UK) version removes the shot of Liko and Sprigatito jumping from the roof
• In most dubs other than English, Japanese and some Asian releases, Liko reads the title aloud
• The Hindi dub leaves some Pokémon cries in English
• No opening theme in either version (a one-hour premiere with HZ002)
• An instrumental of Becoming Me plays over the English ending, as in every episode of the season

Part of our Pokémon Horizons: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.