Hour of the Houndour – Pokémon Season 3, Episode 34

Filler / stand-alone episodeHoundour debut – first Dark type

Hour of the Houndour is the 34th episode of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys, the third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 150th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 152, Bulbapedia code EP150). It first aired in Japan on 1 June 2000 and in the United States on 14 April 2001. It falls within the season’s On the road to Goldenrod stretch (EP148–EP155).

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

Synopsis

After travelling safely through the Onix Tunnel, our heroes have decided to take a lunch break before continuing on to the gym in Goldenrod City. Ash returns from finding water to find his backpack has gone missing, Brock spots a Pokemon footprint leading back into the forest and Ash vows to set out to track it down and get his backpack back.

Meanwhile the local towns Nurse Joy and Chansey have just finished grocery shopping when they stop for an icecream. Team Rocket are watching her, and they dangle Meowth down to steal the big ham from her groceries while she and Chansey enjoy their ice cream. Jessie, James and Meowth are about to dig into the ham when they start arguing about who gets to have it first, in the commotion a Pokemon steals the ham and while Team Rocket are trying to work out who it was Nurse Joy and Chansey arrive, closely followed by Ash and gang. Joy tells Ash that her ham was stolen, and Ash says he had a similar predicament but his backpack went missing too. Ash and friends spot a trail of Pokemon tracks heading back into the woods and begin following it.

Team Rocket are behind some boxes listening in on it all unfolding and they realise that the thieving Pokemon who stole from them is also the same one that stole from the Twerps. Ash and friends find themselves in the middle of the woods and Brock declares that the place they’re at is the ideal place to stay because of the wind direction. Brock begins carving some fake meat out of wood and leaves it out on a plate as bait for the thief, with the scent of the real food carried on the wind to attract the thieving Pokemon.

With the trap set, Ash and friends watch the fake food in the bushes, and sure enough a Pokemon comes from the shadows, steals it and runs off. Brock declares that because the thief took the fake food, if its really hungry it’ll have to come back for the real food. Just then they hear growling from the bushes and several sets of sinister looking red eyes begin emerging from the bushes, revealing a pack of Houndour surrounding them. On a ridge above them they spot a Hondour with a scar on it’s face who appears to be their leader, it gives the nod for it’s pack to attack and Ash, Misty and Brock send out their Pokemon to face the pack; Psyduck, Pikachu, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Onix line up for a 5 on 5 battle. The battle is even until Cyndaquil gets warmed up and pushes them back, just then the Houndour leader jumps down from the ridge and challenges Ash and Pikachu to a 1v1 battle, the two are evenly matched for speed and neither is willing to give in, suddenly a cry can be heard from the forest and the Houndour release smog before running off into the forest. Ash and co give chase.

Ash and friends arrive at a cave to find an injured Houndour fighting a Golem, the rest of the pack get there and engage the Golem just as the injured one collapses. Just as the Golem is about to take down the Houndour leader with a tackle Ash dives in and saves it before repelling the Golem with his Chikorita. Brock checks out the wounded Houndour and finds that its wound is becoming infected. The pack react badly to Ash approaching their injured friend with a potion, but the leader nods to allow it. Ash tells the Houndour that they have to get their friend to the Pokemon Center right away or who knows what might happen, Ash picks up the wounded Houndour on his back but the pack surround him…. Seconds later the leader of the Houndour barks, telling them to let Ash go.

As Ash is about to begin the journey to the Pokemon Center with the injured Houndour on his back Team Rocket arrive on the ridge above them and ready yet another attempt to steal Pikachu. The Houndour leader gestures to Ash and co that they will deal with Team Rocket, and Ash runs ahead with the injured Houndour. The battle begins with Team Rocket sending out Weezing, Victreebel and Arbok who all fall victim to an immediate Leer attack, a brief battle follows but results in Team Rocket and their Pokemon fleeing into the forest.

Ash meanwhile is still running along with a Houndour on his back, and is still ahead of Brock and Misty until he falls over. The Houndour group catch up with Ash while he’s on the floor, and the leader of the pack says he will carry his friend, a short while later they all arrive at the Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy notes that the Houndour is burning up with fever and rushes it to the emergency room. A few hours later Nurse Joy comes out and proclaims that the fever is broken and that the Houndour will be just fine; when all of a sudden they hear a commotion outside the Pokemon Center. Ash and co plus Joy head outside to find Team Rocket in their balloon, they catch the Houndour pack minus the leader in a net and start flying off.

Ash tells the Houndour pack leader to take Pikachu on it’s back and jump as high as it can, enabling Pikachu’s electric attacks to reach Team Rocket. Houndour uses its flamethrower to incinerate the net it’s friends have been captured in and releases them, Team Rocket are blasted off by a combined fire and electric attack from Pikachu and Houndour. The freed Houndour bound over to Ash, knock him to the ground and start licking him.

Back inside the Pokemon Center the injured Houndour has made a 100% recovery, Brock gives it some real food to celebrate. Ash and friends continue their journey to Goldenrod City and bid farewell to the Houndour Pack.

Major Events

• Houndour debut — first Dark-type species
• Pikachu’s only Leer

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Houndour#0228 · EP150

Trivia

• The English title plays on a rhyme on Houndour’s name and the hour of the hound.
• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Johto story.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Houndour in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Hitmontop in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• The dub narrator says the heroes are on the road “to Johto”, although they are already there.
• The Pika Pika Massaichu instrumental (from Pikachu’s Vacation) opens the episode in both versions.
• Pokémon Karaokémon: “All We Wanna Do” (Élan Rivera & Jamily Gray).

Part of our Pokémon: The Johto Journeys guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.