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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 10 · English episode 167 · Japanese episode 169 · Bulbapedia code EP167 |
| English title | A Hot Water Battle |
| Japanese title | ジャングルのさんびき! おんせんバトル!! Janguru no San Biki! Onsen Batoru!! — “The Three of the Jungle! Battle in the Hot Springs!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 5 October 2000 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 22 September 2001 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Hideki Sonoda |
| 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? | Wigglytuff (US) · Aipom (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Two Hits and a Miss (EP166) |
| Next episode | Hook, Line, and Stinker (EP168) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeAipom TV debutOn GBA Video
A Hot Water Battle is the 10th episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 167th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 169, Bulbapedia code EP167). It first aired in Japan on 5 October 2000 and in the United States on 22 September 2001. It falls within the season’s The National Park & the road from Goldenrod stretch (EP161–EP172).
Synopsis
Ash’s three bickering Johto starters learn to work together after a lost beach ball leads them into a cave with Team Rocket and a Snorlax. At a jungle hot spring, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile fall out when Totodile hits the ball into Cyndaquil and off into the trees. Ash sends them to fetch it, but a troop of Aipom have claimed it, and the chase ends with the trio buried in sand until Chikorita taps Cyndaquil’s head with Razor Leaf to light its flame.
The pursuit tramples Team Rocket and spills everyone into a cave, where a Snorlax eats James’s fruit and falls asleep across the only exit. When Snorlax starts pounding the mountain, cave-ins separate the group; Totodile saves Meowth from a rockslide, Chikorita batters through the rubble to reach them, and the three starters apologise to one another. Totodile’s Water Gun and some shoving open an air hole, but it leads straight back to the sleeping giant, whom Cyndaquil tickles awake with Flamethrower.
The Aipom then unleash a waterfall that floods the cave and sweeps everyone downstream. Clinging to Snorlax above a second waterfall, Chikorita fells two trees with Razor Leaf for her friends to ride to safety. Team Rocket are not so lucky: Snorlax wakes, swims off and lets them tumble over the edge.
Major Events
- Aipom TV debut (first seen in the third movie)
- Wobbuffet reveals Bide
- Ash’s Johto starters learn to work together
- Released on Game Boy Advance Video
Pokémon making their anime debut
Aipom#0190 · EP167
Trivia
- The English title plays on a hot-water bottle.
- The screenplay is by Hideki Sonoda.
- 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 Aipom in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Wigglytuff in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- A close-up of Misty sunbathing is skipped.
- Ash identifies Aipom without his Pokédex, and baseball and “jaywalkers” jokes are added.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.