 |
|
| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · Goldenrod City & the Plain Badge arc (EP158–EP160) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 1 · English episode 158 · Japanese episode 160 · Bulbapedia code EP158 |
| English title | A Goldenrod Opportunity |
| Japanese title | コガネジム! スピード&パワー!? Kogane Jimu! Supīdo ando Pawā!? — “Kogane Gym! Speed & Power!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 3 August 2000 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 18 August 2001 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | OK! – Rica Matsumoto · Takeshi no Paradaisu (Takeshi’s Paradise) – Yūji Ueda |
| English opening | Born to Be a Winner – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Squirtle (US) · Clefairy (Japan) |
| Next episode | A Dairy Tale Ending (EP159) |
Plot episodeSeason premiereAsh loses to Whitney
A Goldenrod Opportunity is the 1st episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 158th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 160, Bulbapedia code EP158). It first aired in Japan on 3 August 2000 and in the United States on 18 August 2001. It falls within the season’s Goldenrod City & the Plain Badge stretch (EP158–EP160).
Synopsis
Ash arrives in Goldenrod City and loses his Gym battle to Whitney, whose Miltank proves unstoppable with Rollout. Finding the Gym closed for the day, the trio get hopelessly lost looking for the Goldenrod Galleria until a bubbly girl named Whitney scoops up Pikachu, plants a kiss on his head and offers to guide them, only to lead them further astray through the underground arcade. Meanwhile Team Rocket, working off a snack bill at the department store, spot Whitney’s unattended Clefairy and grab it.
The chase ends at the unfinished Magnet Train station, where Jessie and James flee on a handcar. Clefairy’s Metronome turns into Gust and pulls Pikachu free of Meowth, and a Thunder attack fires up the line’s magnets and launches the trio down the track. Whitney then reveals that she is the Goldenrod Gym Leader and reopens the Gym for a three-on-three battle.
Cyndaquil’s Flamethrower makes short work of Nidorina, and Whitney withdraws Clefairy after its Metronome produces a useless Splash. Then Miltank rolls out. Rollout flattens Cyndaquil, knocks out Totodile in a single hit and even shrugs off Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, since the spinning cow is too dry for the electricity to bite. Agility cannot outpace her either, and Ash leaves with a defeat and a puzzle to solve.
Major Events
- Season premiere
- Whitney debuts
- Miltank debut (Whitney’s)
- Ash loses to Whitney, his only official Gym defeat in Johto
- New title card in the dub
- The Goldenrod Department Store becomes the “Goldenrod Galleria” in the dub
Pokémon making their anime debut
Miltank#0241 · EP158
Trivia
- The English title plays on a golden opportunity.
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
- The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Clefairy in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Squirtle in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Goldenrod Department Store becomes the “Goldenrod Galleria”.
- The narrator says the group is “on the road to Johto”, although they are already there; the slip recurs in several later episodes.
- Some early Kids’ WB airings, and later Cartoon Network and Boomerang reruns, kept Pokémon Johto as the opening and closing theme up to EP162; the US DVDs use Born to Be a Winner.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.