Some character notes and episode notes for HZ070, writing them down for future reference.
The episode starts with Liko, Roy, Dot and Friede heading to the Terasu Pool. The others members of the Rising Volt Tacklers are staying at Kitakami for some cultural exchange (Murdock is making the baked candy apple, Mollie is helping the local doctor heal the Pokemon, Landau is chilling with his Pokemon).
On their way to the Terasu Pool, an Otoshidori is playing pranks on them and drops objects. Kanuchan spots some iron the Pokemon dropped and begins working on it to make her hammer bigger. As they keep climbing the moutain, Liko and the others come across wild Pokemon and observe them. Dot records them, too. Some Pichu also want to play with Cap. Liko thinks they are cute, which triggers Cap's allergy to that specific word, which makes Dot learn of it for the first time. Friede notes that Cap sure is popular. In the meantime, Kanuchan comes across iron again and pounds her hammer on it. Dot points out that Kanuchan takes a while when she gets focused like this, and doesn't pay attention to her surroundings. Liko says that it's similar to how focused Dot can get when she is editing her videos, and Roy agrees with her. Friede suggests taking a break (so Kanuchan can keep working on her hammer).
Meanwhile, the Otoshidori the group came across earlier is trying to disrupt and surprise Kanuchan as she is working on her hammer by dropping objects around her. Kanuchan is too focused on her work to pay attention to anything happening around her. The Pokemon manages to get her attention by dropping some toy on her head and takes that opportunity to steal the iron Kanuchan was working on. Kanuchan runs after Otoshidori to get her iron back, and Dot asks Welcamo to get it back too, which Welcamo does successfully. Otoshidori is back with a vengeance by dropping a Kunugidama on everyone, which causes an explosion and separate Kanuchan from the others as she started chasing the Otoshidori to retrieve her iron.
Liko and the others notice Kanuchan is gone, so they split up to look for her. Meanwhile, Kanuchan keeps looking for Otoshidori by herself. She comes across many Pokemon and asks them if they've seen it, but no one has. Kanuchan eventually finds it and follows the Otoshidori to its nest and looks for her iron there. Dot finds Kanuchan and tries to buy her time until she finds her iron, which Kanuchan does eventually. Kanuchan immediately starts working on her hammer again, so Dot battles the Otoshidori so the Pokemon doesn't get in Kanuchan's way. Somehow, the wild Pokemon Terastalized and another Otoshidori joined the battle. Dot tried to use Terastal in response too, but dropped her Tera Orb (because of the impact of an a move) so she keeps fighting without one. Kanuchan eventually finished her hammer and notices the situation. She tries to intervene to help Dot and Welcamo but her new hammer is too heavy for her. She keeps doing her best through her tears and eventually manages to lift her hammer, which causes her to evolve into Nakanuchan. Both Nakanucha and Welcamo face the two Otoshidori and manage to make them run away. Nakanuchan proudly shows her new hammer to Dot, who gets emotional over her growth and tears up.
At the end, Liko, Roy and Friede all meet back up with Dot and her Pokemon. Liko thinks Nakanuchan's new hammer turned out well. Friede seems surprised to hear about wild Pokemon Terastalizing outside of the Paldea region, which Dot also found unexpected. Nakanuchan shows her new hammer to Cap, who approves of it (and seemed proud of her evolving too). Nakanuchan spots some new iron and starts working on making her hammer bigger once again.
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Overall, good ep! Seeing the Rising Volt Tacklers in casual settings at the beginning was fun. And I love Kanuchan, so more focus on her is always welcome.
Something I liked in the ep was when Liko pointed out that Kanuchan getting so focused on her work that she loses sight of her surroundings is similar to Dot focusing on editing her videos. Having these similarities brought up in the text itself, which highlights why Dot and Kanuchan are a perfect match thematically. Which is a thing I love about the characters and their Pokemon in Horizons, they fit thematically and feel meaningful and relevant to the human character's arc, and they are not just picked out randomly. Dot's team is perfect for her because Welcamo is a performer (which fits Gurumin's side of Dot), and Kanuchan (now Nakanuchan) is a crafter and literally creates things (which Dot does too, she creates videos). And the fact Kanuchan brings out the softer and tender sides of Dot and is a Pokemon who easily gets emotional, which is also a side of Dot we get to see the more she opens up.. it's good. I love when the writing makes full use of the Pokemon's traits. Characters having specific Pokemon in Horizons always feels thought out.
The whole setting with Kanuchan working on her hammer which eventually led to her evolution was also nice.. again, making use of the Pokemon's traits, etc. Kanuchan becoming braver to get her iron back and save Welcamo was also very cute. Also the fact they used Otoshidori as an opponent in this episode (a bird Pokemon) feels intentional, given the fact that Nakanuchan's last evolution stage has history with Armorga.. who is a Pokemon that Amethio has. The writers must be aware of this, and Dot's VA brought it up in an interview once and mentioned that Dot is probably aware of that fact.. so I wonder what they'll do with it, if they eventually decide to make use of this setting.
The Pokemon moments were really good, too. I always like seeing casual moments showing off the Pokemon world. Kanuchan interacting with many different Pokemon was cute, and so was the moment with the Pichu playing with Cap. Cap looked so done with it, but still let the Pichu play on him (which shows he is patient and kind). Speaking of Cap, I also loved that Nakanuchan showed off her hammer to Cap at the end. Since the beginning of the current chapter, they are showing small moments with Cap acknowledging the kids or their Pokemon. It's funny in a way because it feels like Cap is asserting his position as The Mascot, but character-wise, I do like that Cap (and Friede too) is here to ascertain the kids' growth (as well as their Pokemon's) and comes off as this wise figure who guides them and watches over them from afar.. I really like the writing around Cap. It feels like the older gen is passing the baton to the current gen and lets them shine.
Dot was good as usual. I love her relationship with her Pokemon (she always sounds so affectionate when she speaks to Kanuchan in particular). I enjoy seeing the emotional sides of her character too, since she teared up at the end when she felt proud of Nakanuchan. Both her mother and Murdock are people who get easily emotional, and it's sweet to see that Dot is similar to them on that aspect.
Also, Dot's interaction with Friede towards the end (when they discussed the Pokemon Terastalizing outside of Paldea) felt interesting to me. We usually get Friede interacting more with Liko and Roy and their admiration towards him is more apparent, but it's also nice seeing that he impacts Dot in his own way (they see things from a researcher perspective). Friede was the one who gave her a Pokeball to catch Kuwassu in HZ016, and he was also the one who told her that there is value in seeing things for herself about setbacks in a journey when Spinel tricked Dot with false info in HZ027.. I just like seeing the way Friede influences others characters, etc. (Friede himself was very good this ep too. Casually suggesting a break when he saw that Kanuchan was going to keep working on her hammer for a while because he is thoughtful like that, and being excited about seeing wild Pokemon, etc..)
As an aside, the OST used during Kanuchan's evolution scene was good. I don't think it's a track we've ever heard before.