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| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · The National Park & the road from Goldenrod arc (EP161–EP172) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 6 · English episode 163 · Japanese episode 165 · Bulbapedia code EP163 |
| English title | Fossil Fools |
| Japanese title | こだいポケモンパーク! アルフのいせき!! Kodai Pokemon Pāku! Arufu no Iseki!! — “Ancient Pokémon Park! Ruins of Alph!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 7 September 2000 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 15 September 2001 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | OK! – Rica Matsumoto · Pokémon Hara Hara Rirē (Exciting Pokémon Relay) – Rikako Aikawa |
| English opening | Born to Be a Winner – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Pichu (US) · Omanyte (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Type Casting (EP162) |
| Next episode | Carrying On (EP164) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeProfessor OakRuins of Alph
Fossil Fools is the 6th episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 163rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 165, Bulbapedia code EP163). It first aired in Japan on 7 September 2000 and in the United States on 15 September 2001. It falls within the season’s The National Park & the road from Goldenrod stretch (EP161–EP172).
Synopsis
Ash’s group join Professor Oak at the Ruins of Alph, where living Omanyte and Omastar have surfaced in a prehistoric theme park. Oak’s former student Foster is overseeing the dig and swears everyone to secrecy about his discovery. The site’s fossil-cleaning water jets keep cutting out, and the reason is Team Rocket, who are bottling the forest spring to sell, until James finds an Omanyte jamming their pump and the trio switch to catching the “extinct” Pokémon for the Boss.
Foster leads the gang into the still-unopened Ancient Pokémon Study Park, complete with a robot Aerodactyl and a Kabutops statue, where a real Omastar and two Omanyte rise from the lake. Oak recalls the museum Omanyte shell that set him on his path as a six-year-old. Foster notes that the Pokémon appeared the very day the water trouble began, and when the flow stops entirely, Noctowl scouts ahead to the reservoir.
There Team Rocket are loading captured Pokémon into their balloon. Pikachu dodges Arbok’s Poison Sting and Weezing’s Sludge, then Thunderbolt and Tackle send both crashing into the pump. The overloaded balloon stalls, Noctowl tears it open, and the freed Omanyte and Omastar hose the trio into the sky with Water Gun before diving back to a hidden cavern full of their kind.
Major Events
- Professor Oak and his former student Foster at the Ruins of Alph
- Living Omanyte and Omastar
- The Japanese ending changes to Exciting Pokémon Relay
Trivia
- The English title plays on “fossil fuels”.
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- 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 Omanyte in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Pichu in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.