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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 29 · English episode 1298 · Japanese episode 1307 · Bulbapedia code HZ074 |
| English title | The Three Explorers |
| Japanese title | ３人のエクスプローラーズ San-nin no Ekusupurōrāzu — “The Three Explorers” |
| First aired (Japan) | 22 November 2024 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 27 June 2025 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Kureha Matsuzawa |
| 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 | Kleavor the Solitary Warrior (HZ073) |
| Next episode | The Wonders of the World! (HZ075) |
Plot episodeLiko beats DianaRystal appears
The Three Explorers is the 29th episode of Pokémon Horizons: The Search for Laqua, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1298th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1307, Bulbapedia code HZ074). It first aired in Japan on 22 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
Diana returns, loses a battle to Liko and reveals that Lucius, Rystal and Gibeon founded the Explorers, and at the Crystal Pool the group meets Rystal, Terapagos’s original Trainer, learning that she and Lucius are Liko’s great-great-grandparents. Diana, who learned the ship’s location from Lucca, has ridden Arcanine to Kitakami with news about Lucius, but first she challenges Liko. Remembering how she and Roy barely touched Arcanine last time, Liko is confident now despite the type disadvantage. Floragato takes an Extreme Speed head-on so that a curving Magical Leaf strikes the briefly immobile Arcanine, then dodges Flamethrower to counter with Acrobatics, wearing it down. Diana calls for a serious Flare Blitz that grazes Floragato, and a Sucker Punch cancels the next one but triggers Arcanine’s Hidden Ability, Justified, boosting its strength. Liko Terastallizes Floragato and, seeing that a full Magical Leaf would burn up, targets Arcanine’s feet to trip it before a huge Magical Leaf wins the battle, and Diana praises the growth Liko owes to her friends and Tera Training.
In the conference room, Diana explains that a year ago she reunited with her old friend Hamber and learned that he was after Liko’s pendant, so she asked Lucca to keep Liko safe, which led to the Rising Volt Tacklers being hired to bring her home. When her castle hideout was attacked, she realised that Hamber was an Explorer, a shock because the Explorers were founded by Lucius; she left the Brave Olivine, swearing Friede to secrecy, and has since visited towns Lucius passed through a century ago, collecting legends and diaries. She shows a photo of the three original Explorers: Lucius, Rystal and Gibeon. Liko recognises Rystal’s name from Kleavor’s vision and Gibeon’s from Amethio, who called him the Explorers’ leader and his grandfather, though no one can explain how he could still be alive after a hundred years. Diana has also found that Gibeon chairs Exceed’s board; Friede recalls that Exceed studied Laquium, a substance with strange effects on Pokémon, and the team concludes that the Explorers want Laqua’s Laquium.
When Terapagos reacts with longing to Rystal’s name, Liko suggests visiting the Crystal Pool, said to let people meet the dead. After sunset they pray beneath the stars while Terapagos calls out to Rystal; the pool glows, and a woman holding a baby appears. Terapagos runs to her, the Six Heroes emerge from their Ancient Poké Balls, and Rystal, recognising them, asks why Liko has them. Friede explains that they need the heroes to restore Terapagos’s power and reach Laqua, and that the pool has brought her into the future, which she accepts on seeing Lucius’s Pokémon and her old partner Pagogo; the group is stunned to learn that Terapagos was Rystal’s, not Lucius’s. When the baby cries, Rystal calls her Layla, the name of Diana’s mother, making Diana Rystal’s granddaughter. Rystal bristles at being called old, then explains that Lucius is Layla’s father, which is why Terapagos was with them, and Liko panics as she realises that the Ancient Adventurer is her great-great-grandfather.
Major Events
- The three Explorers. Liko beats her grandmother Diana’s Arcanine, and the term Hidden Ability is used for the first time
- Lucius, Rystal and Gibeon founded the Explorers, and Gibeon chairs Exceed’s board
- The Crystal Pool brings Rystal and her baby, Layla, from the past
- Rystal was Terapagos’s Trainer, and she and Lucius are Liko’s great-great-grandparents
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Kureha Matsuzawa.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Paldea, Kitakami and Johto storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Japanese opening replaces its Carmine, Briar, Perrin and Kleavor clips with Geeta and the Legendary beasts
Part of our Pokémon Horizons: The Search for Laqua guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.