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| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · Goldenrod City & the Plain Badge arc (EP158–EP160) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 3 · English episode 160 · Japanese episode 162 · Bulbapedia code EP160 |
| English title | Air Time |
| Japanese title | ラジオとうのたたかい! じくうをこえて!! Rajiotō no Tatakai! Jikū o Koete!! — “Battle of the Radio Tower! Surpass Spacetime!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 17 August 2000 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 September 2001 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Shōji Yonemura |
| 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? | Pikachu (US) · Charizard (Japan) |
| Previous episode | A Dairy Tale Ending (EP159) |
| Next episode | The Bug Stops Here (EP161) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeDJ Mary debuts
Air Time is the 3rd episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 160th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 162, Bulbapedia code EP160). It first aired in Japan on 17 August 2000 and in the United States on 8 September 2001. It falls within the season’s Goldenrod City & the Plain Badge stretch (EP158–EP160).
Synopsis
Ash’s radio interview at the Goldenrod Radio Tower turns into a chaotic live drama when Team Rocket crash the broadcast. The producer of Poké Talk Radio invites Ash on air to discuss his Plain Badge win, and Professor Oak phones in to say that all of Pallet Town will be listening, which leaves Ash tongue-tied until host DJ Mary tells him to imagine a battle instead. He explains his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master and his plan to head for Ecruteak City.
Team Rocket, meanwhile, sneak into the Tower disguised as celebrities, trash a storeroom of tape reels and are mistaken for a ventriloquist act called the Dugtrio Trio, with Meowth as the “dummy”. When the ruined tapes leave the station without its scheduled radio play, the producer presses everyone into an improvised drama about Prince Goldenrod. Jessie keeps rewriting the script so that her villainous Team Socket escape every trap, and the trio eventually grab Pikachu for real.
DJ Mary gamely narrates the pursuit up to the roof, where Chikorita dodges Arbok’s Poison Sting and slices the balloon rope with Razor Leaf; Pikachu’s Thunderbolt sends the trio flying. The play ends happily, and the real Dugtrio Trio finally ask a tree-bound Team Rocket for directions.
Major Events
- DJ Mary debuts
- Team Rocket hijack a live radio drama at the Goldenrod Radio Tower
- Japanese insert songs
- Premiered out of order in the US
- Not shown on Cartoon Network until 2 June 2007
Trivia
- 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 Charizard in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Pikachu in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Dodrio Clan becomes the “Dugtrio Trio”.
- Misty’s “something rotten in Goldenrod” nods to Hamlet, and Jessie’s “time warp” to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- The Japanese insert songs Mezase Pokémon Master, OK! and Pokémon Ondo are replaced by instrumental versions of All We Wanna Do and Pokémon Johto as the radio music.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.