This is a followup to my Pokemon XY review. To recap I loved how XY perfected the neartwodecadeold formula that the Pokemon anime had used up until this point. The characters Satoshi Serena and Citron are fantastic. The same remains true for Pokemon XYZ the final third of Pokemon XY. XYZ takes what XY did and expands upon the aspects I thought XY didnt quite nail like the story and the character of Eureka. 1. The Story This is one of two aspects where XYZ heavily improves upon its predecessor. XY made its characters and world a bit more mature and XYZ multiplies that maturity ten times over. XYZ sees the introduction of multiple new story elements namely the inclusion of SatoshiGekkouga Squishy Alan and Team Flare. Im going to delve into each element on its own because nearly every other aspect of XYZ is identical to XY. 2. SatoshiGekkouga This is by far my favorite part of XYZ as Im sure it was for many others. Ive often said when recommending the Pokemon anime to people that its been consistently on a roll since 2013 and it hasnt looked back. And I believe thats mostly due to the new direction its been taking where it hasnt really been limited by the narrative of the games its based on. XY is the last Pokemon anime to mostly directly follow the games story. XYZ really takes it in a different and fresh direction. SatoshiGekkouga is the first of a few new elements thrown in to shake things up and give the anime an identity of its own. SatoshiGekkouga is the mental and partial physical fusion of Satoshi and his Pokemon Gekkouga. Im not going to get into the implications this has on the final story arc but SatoshiGekkouga plays a huge role in practically the entire 47 episode run of XYZ. This new burden placed upon Satoshi makes him go through things hes never gone through before. Selfdoubt genuine anger true lack of understanding. Its really interesting to see this character weve known for 20+ years go through things that are not only new to him but new to us as well. SatoshiGekkouga is used quite a lot in this series and I love every time hes used. The music kicks in. I get a huge smile on my face. Goosebumps crawl along the surface of my skin. My hair raises. Whether its the kickass XYZ opening performed by Satoshis VA Rica Matsumoto or the instrumental SatoshiGekkouga Appears I always get excited when SatoshiGekkouga shows up on screen. It makes this character finally feel like the true badass hes supposed to be. 3. Squishy and Eureka Squishy is introduced in the first episode as a small green snakelike Pokemon. At first you dont know what to make of it. It crawls in Eurekas bag while she doesnt notice and she instantly becomes infatuated with it. Squishy is Eurekas entire motivation this season finally giving this character a true purpose and goal. She even creates a song called Punichans Song Punichan is Squishys japanese name though the version I watched called it Squishy in the subtitles so I will call it Squishy. The dub also calls it Squishy. that she sings to it a few times during the season. Its very adorable. In XY I felt that Eureka was not as fleshed out a character as she couldve been. She had a few great episodes in XY namely XY087 but I felt she was the only character whose potential had not yet been fully realized by the end of XY. Thankfully XYZ resolves this issue by giving Eureka Squishy to take care of. Thanks to their bond she even plays a critical role in the climax of the last story arc. I will not discuss Squishys true purpose and role in the story so as not to spoil anyone potentially reading this just know it is a key player in this season. 4. Alan Alan was technically first introduced in the XY Mega Evolution specials and not XYZ. For my rewatch of XY and XYZ I did not rewatch the Mega Evolution specials because 1 I was lazy and 2 I felt it was not required to fully enjoy XY and XYZ. And I was right. I do think it wouldnt hurt to watch them as its only 4 episodes and will give you a greater understanding of the events in XYZ but for someone like me who had already seen them and understood the story going in it was not necessary to watch them a second time. Anyways Alan is a new character to XYZ and plays a key role in the development of Satoshis character SatoshiGekkouga and the entire story. I cannot say much about him without spoiling the story but he is a trainer who is motivated by his friend Manon and her Harimaron who is in comatose. His entire motivation is to heal Harimaron and get it out of its coma. The events involving Manon and Harimaron are all shown and betterexplained in the Mega Evolution Specials. In XYZ nothing is really explained until absolutely necessary. Its not hard to figure out what the situation is so viewers arent left too much in the dark about what Alans goal is and how he got there. He has a Lizardon that can Mega Evolve who becomes a rival to Gekkouga. He doesnt have much of a character arc until the very end during the last couple episodes of the last major story arc but I enjoyed his battles with SatoshiGekkouga and watching him grow. 5. Team Flare Team Flare is the evil team of this generation introduced in the first episode of XYZ. Their motives are unclear at first. All we know at first is that they want to capture Squishy. For what exactly is not immediately explained leaving a bit of mystery. Team Flare in the games was a bit of a total pushover with pretty poor motivation and were overall pretty bland. Luckily XYZ fixes this by changing Flares methods and deviating from the original story. This shakeup in the story results in the best villain story arc the Pokemon anime has seen so far raising the stakes higher than ever before. Its very welldone and provides the series a thrilling conclusion you cant look away from. 6. Miscellaneous Thoughts XYZ still shares the excellent Shinji Miyazaki score that accompanied XY although this time there are a few new music pieces Id like to mention. Actually Ive already mentioned them. Its the opening theme XYZ sung by Rica Matsumoto and a similarsounding piece called SatoshiGekkouga Appears composed by Miyazaki. Both songs are excellent and do a great job of raising your excitement levels. Yet another reason to WATCH. THE. SUB. XYZ is not perfect. It makes one misgiving towards the end that I absolutely cannot forgive the writers for. They would try to remedy this gigantic flaw in Sun Moon and while that moment was great it does not make up for this absolute travesty that should not have happened. If youve seen this show before you know what Im referring to. Theres another unfortunate moment that happens in the secondtolast episode but Im not actually upset about it. Sure its disappointing but at least that makes sense from a narrative perspective. Story issues aside the final episode and ending are great and provide a wonderful ending to a fantastic season. 7. Final Thoughts Overall XYZ improves heavily on XYs strengths and weaknesses and was the greatest season of Pokemon up to this point in time in my opinion. It is not perfect and has one huge flaw that will stick out like a sore thumb anytime I think about this season but one poor writing decision does not automatically mean the entire season is bad. I cannot recommend Pokemon XY and XYZ enough. They are the most actionpacked season of Pokemon to date and give characters like Satoshi a kind of emotional depth weve never seen from the Pokemon anime before. Its darker its more serious and its still a boatload of fun to watch. I seriously hope we see more of these characters someday in the currentlyrunning Pokemon Journeys anime. And I have a good feeling we will.