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| Season | Pokémon Horizons: The Search for Laqua (Horizons Season 2) · Kitakami: Kleavor, Rystal & Pagogo arc (HZ068–HZ075) |
| Episode | Horizons Season 2, episode 28 · English episode 1297 · Japanese episode 1306 · Bulbapedia code HZ073 |
| English title | Kleavor the Solitary Warrior |
| Japanese title | 孤高の戦士バサギリ Kokō no Senshi Basagiri — “The Lone Warrior Basagiri” |
| First aired (Japan) | 15 November 2024 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 27 June 2025 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Michihiro Tsuchiya |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Only One Story – ZEROBASEONE · Pikkān! (Sparkle!) – Rina Matsuda & Hikaru Morita (Sakurazaka46) |
| English opening | My Favorite Pokémon – Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd and Haven Paschall |
| Previous episode | The Search for Kleavor! (HZ072) |
| Next episode | The Three Explorers (HZ074) |
Plot episodeKleavor joins LikoStone Axe
Kleavor the Solitary Warrior is the 28th episode of Pokémon Horizons: The Search for Laqua, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1297th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1306, Bulbapedia code HZ073). It first aired in Japan on 15 November 2024 and in the United States on 27 June 2025. It falls within the season’s Kitakami: Kleavor, Rystal & Pagogo stretch (EP68–EP75).
Released on Netflix in the US on Friday 27 June 2025 with the rest of Part 3. Australia’s 9Go! had shown it between 30 April and 9 May 2025, before BBC iPlayer released it in the UK on 12 May 2025.
Synopsis
Lucius’s Kleavor tests the trio in a bamboo grove on Tengu Mountain, then shows them a vision of how it met Lucius and enters an Ancient Poké Ball, becoming the fifth of the Six Heroes in Liko’s care. Following Kleavor’s gouges, Liko puts on Lucius’s belt, and at a waterfall the group sees a tree sliced apart in an instant before Kleavor appears from behind the falling water. Lucius’s Lapras bursts from her Ancient Poké Ball and glares at it, and Liko realises that the gouges match the scars on Lapras’s neck. The two powerful Pokémon clash repeatedly until the fight stops abruptly, revealed as a kind of greeting. Liko asks Kleavor to join them so they can fulfil Lucius’s promise and reach Laqua, but after a pause it retreats behind the waterfall. Roy finds a hidden entrance to a limestone cave full of gouge marks, where Kleavor has trained; partway through, Perrin’s Growlithe chases a Noibat, and Perrin and Friede go after it, leaving the children to continue alone.
Following a breeze, the children reach a bamboo grove where Kleavor is cutting bamboo and turns to face them. Floragato’s Magical Leaf, Crocalor’s Stomping Tantrum and Quaxwell’s Air Cutter are all blocked without Kleavor moving, as are Acrobatics, Flame Charge and Liquidation, so Dot proposes dodging to wear it down. Kleavor withdraws deeper into the grove; when the partners surround it, it dodges them all, knocks them down and strikes with X-Scissor, and Dot realises that it lured them there because the bamboo lets it sense attacks by sound. As they try to retreat, Kleavor traps them in a ring of stone pillars. When Crocalor builds heat for a Flame Charge, the bamboo pieces at his feet burst, and Roy remembers his grandfather explaining that air trapped in bamboo expands and pops when heated. He has Crocalor run circles around Kleavor, setting bamboo popping all around it; Kleavor loses track of the attacks, and the partners finally land solid hits.
Kleavor retreats over the pillars towards the cave exit, where Friede and Perrin have just emerged, and counters the next assault with Stone Axe. Seeing that it is using its strongest moves because it feels cornered, the trio Terastallize their partners, power through another Stone Axe and drive it to one knee, but its counterattack sends splinters flying that knock out all three partners, leaving Kleavor exhausted too. Once everyone is healed, Kleavor leads them to a cliff overlooking Oni Mountain at sunset and smashes open a boulder to reveal an Ancient Poké Ball. A light shows them a vision: Lucius shielding a bound Kleavor from angry villagers, Lapras taking the blow that scarred her when Kleavor attacks him anyway, and Lucius inviting it to join his search for a paradise before telling someone called Rystal that it is time to go. Kleavor returns to the ball, which Liko takes. Perrin leaves the group, promising not to publish her photos of Terapagos or Kleavor, and the next day Liko hears a knock at her window and finds Diana’s Squawkabilly outside.
Major Events
- Kleavor joins Liko. Kleavor battles Lapras, then beats the trio in a bamboo grove
- A vision shows how it met Lucius
- It enters its Ancient Poké Ball and joins Liko’s care
- The name Rystal is heard
- Perrin leaves
- Stone Axe is the first move from Legends: Arceus in the anime
Captures and evolutions
Kleavor#0900 · Liko’s care · Lucius’s; it enters its Ancient Poké Ball after testing the trio
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Michihiro Tsuchiya.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Paldea, Kitakami and Johto storyline.
Part of our Pokémon Horizons: The Search for Laqua guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.