 |
|
| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · The National Park & the road from Goldenrod arc (EP161–EP172) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 13 · English episode 170 · Japanese episode 172 · Bulbapedia code EP170 |
| English title | A Better Pill to Swallow |
| Japanese title | ツボツボVSマダツボミ Tsubotsubo Tai Madatsubomi — “Tsubotsubo vs. Madatsubomi” |
| First aired (Japan) | 26 October 2000 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 13 October 2001 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| 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? | Eevee (US) · Shuckle (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Beauty and the Breeder (EP169) |
| Next episode | Power Play! (EP171) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeShuckle debut
A Better Pill to Swallow is the 13th episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 170th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 172, Bulbapedia code EP170). It first aired in Japan on 26 October 2000 and in the United States on 13 October 2001. It falls within the season’s The National Park & the road from Goldenrod stretch (EP161–EP172).
Synopsis
An eccentric pharmacist who brews medicine inside wild Shuckle enlists the gang to find a rare purple one, with disastrous results for Team Rocket. Old Man Shuckle cures Ash’s stomach ache with Pokémon pills and shows off his storeroom, where the red “jars” turn out to be Shuckle whose shells ferment his ingredients into medicinal juice. He releases them into the wild for a year and tracks them down by scent with Spoopy, his Bellsprout; a Shiny purple Shuckle produces a juice said to tame any Pokémon.
Spoopy sniffs out the purple Shuckle under a rock, but Team Rocket drop from the trees, grab it behind Weezing’s Smokescreen and, parched, drink the juice themselves. Undiluted, it floods the drinker with pheromones that attract every Pokémon nearby for three days. A stampede of adoring Shuckle follows, Meowth declares his love for James, and Arbok, Wobbuffet and Victreebel pounce on their own Trainers rather than fight.
Even Pikachu wanders towards Jessie until the old man’s powder neutralises the effect. A lick on the belly from the purple Shuckle makes Jessie fling it skywards, Spoopy’s Vine Whip catches it, and the trio are blasted off. Brock declines the taming medicine, preferring to win Pokémon over honestly, while Team Rocket hide from lovestruck Beedrill and Ursaring.
Major Events
- Shuckle main-series debut
- A Shiny purple Shuckle
- Old Man Shuckle debuts
Pokémon making their anime debut
Shuckle#0213 · EP170
Trivia
- The English title plays on the phrase "a bitter pill to swallow".
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- 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 Shuckle in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Eevee in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- Brock’s “I’m a breeder, not an outfielder” is a dub-only nod to Dr. McCoy of Star Trek.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.