Pokémon Season 8: Advanced Battle

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Pokémon: Advanced Battle is the eighth season of the English-language Pokémon anime and the third and final season of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. It covers Japanese episodes AG093 to AG145, which TV Tokyo broadcast from 9 September 2004 to 29 September 2005, and its 52 dubbed episodes ran on Kids’ WB from 17 September 2005 to 8 July 2006. It is the last season dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, the last shown on Kids’ WB and the last with the original English voice cast.

Ash’s Hoenn journey reaches its climax. Adrift at sea, the group are caught up in the final clash of Team Magma and Team Aqua, whose leaders Maxie and Archie lose control of the Red and Blue Orbs as Groudon and Kyogre awaken on Monsu Island. Ash then wins his last two Hoenn badges — the Mind Badge from the twin Leaders Tate and Liza and the Rain Badge from Juan — catches a mischievous Snorunt that evolves into Glalie, and meets two new rivals, Morrison and Tyson, before reaching the Top 8 of the Ever Grande Conference, where Tyson’s booted Meowth knocks him out. May wins her fourth and fifth Ribbons in spite of her scheming new rival Harley, catches Munchlax and reaches the Top 8 of the Hoenn Grand Festival before losing to Drew. Back in Kanto, Scott recruits Ash for the Battle Frontier, Misty pays a farewell visit, May swaps Bulbasaur for a Squirtle from Professor Oak, Ash’s returning Charizard beats Noland’s Articuno for the Knowledge Symbol, and May wins her first Kanto Ribbon in Saffron City.

Advanced Battle is also the season of the episode that never aired: a Whiscash story cancelled after the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake, which Bulbapedia files as “AG101 (unaired)”. Japan also got the anime’s first clip show (AG120), which was never dubbed, so 54 episodes were made, 53 aired in Japan and 52 reached English-speaking viewers. Behind the scenes the Japanese theme songs changed four times, David Rolfe’s Unbeatable became the first English opening with no clips from the episodes, the dub kept Pokémon Trainer’s Choice in place of Who’s That Pokémon?, and 30 species made their TV debut, among them Munchlax, the first Generation IV Pokémon in the series. Our complete episode guide below has a synopsis, both titles and the air dates for every one of the 54 episodes, the unaired one included.

• 54episodes produced — 53 aired in Japan, 52 dubbed
• 2Gym badges, Mind & Rain — Ash completes all eight
• Top 8for Ash at the Ever Grande Conference — and for May at the Grand Festival
• 30Pokémon species make their TV debut
• 3Ribbons for May: Purika, Pacifidlog & Saffron
• 1Frontier Symbol — Charizard wins the Knowledge Symbol

Quick Answers

Story Arcs

Pokémon: Advanced Battle runs for 52 dubbed episodes (54 in Japan’s production order) and takes Ash, May, Max and Brock from the seas off Mossdeep City to the Hoenn League, then home to Kanto and the Battle Frontier. Here is how the season breaks down, with stills from our episode guide below.

Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-offAG093–AG096

The new dub season opens at sea on the way to Mossdeep City. An old friend, the Spoink from earlier in Hoenn, loses its pearl overboard and tries every round object on Maisie Island as a substitute before a wild Clamperl gives it a new one, and Team Rocket’s attempt on the scientist Isaiah’s blue pearl ends with a blast of Clamperl’s Water Gun. At the Grand Wazoo Resort the treasure diver Adam follows the Relicanth to the wreck of the King Neptune, only to find a chest of Green Shards, and on the A-B-C Islands Professor Birch’s research into Clamperl evolution — a Deep Sea Tooth for Huntail, a Deep Sea Scale for Gorebyss — ends a feud between rival islands. On Muscle Island Ash wins a Double Battle against Coach Rocky’s Walrein and Quagsire, but a tug-of-war over Pikachu on the ferry ends with a Thunderbolt that blasts everyone overboard — the first time Ash and Pikachu have ever blasted off with Team Rocket.

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Groudon vs Kyogre: the end of Teams Magma & AquaAG097–AG098

Adrift, the group are hauled aboard Team Magma’s floating base, where the leader Maxie reveals his plan to expand the land by awakening Groudon: Magma hold Kyogre and the Blue Orb, while Archie’s Team Aqua hold Groudon and the Red Orb. Shelly frees Kyogre, the Blue Orb fuses with Pikachu and sends him berserk, and one of Magma’s grunts turns out to be Lance, working undercover. On Monsu Island Archie bonds with the Red Orb and unleashes Kyogre, Pikachu draws down a lightning bolt that awakens Groudon, and the two Legendaries clash in a storm of tsunamis, Solar Beam and Fissure until both orbs are forced out of their hosts, merge and vanish. Groudon and Kyogre return to their resting places, Lance’s Dragonite catches the unconscious Archie, and the schemes of both teams are over — in Japan the first two-parter to be titled as one, and the last time Fissure is used in the anime.

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Mossdeep City: the Mind Badge & DrakeAG099–AG101

In Mossdeep City Ash meets the twin Gym Leaders Tate and Liza at the Space Center, where Team Rocket’s stolen spacesuits end in an accidental launch and Tate piloting the shuttle home, with Max reading the instruments beside him. Their Double Battle — Pikachu and Swellow against Solrock and Lunatone on a field of floating planets — is the only Hoenn Gym battle Team Rocket interrupt; once their “unobtainium” cage mecha has been wrecked, Pikachu’s Thunder wraps both of Ash’s Pokémon in the golden glow fans call Thunder Armor, and Iron Tail and Aerial Ace win the Mind Badge, Ash’s seventh. Flushed with confidence, he then accepts a challenge from a sailor who turns out to be Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four, and is soundly beaten: Shelgon knocks out Pikachu and Altaria beats Grovyle. In Japan Vanity Affair was moved forward a week to replace the cancelled Whiscash episode.

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Izabe Island: Harley, Ludicolo & SnoruntAG102–AG109

The road to the last Gym runs through Wales Island, where May’s Bulbasaur learns Petal Dance among Professor Proctor’s revived fossil Pokémon, and on to Izabe Island. In Purika City May meets Harley, a Coordinator who smiles to her face, pastes her photo into a skull-marked scrapbook and dubs her “Miss Tent” after a childhood story Max lets slip; Bulbasaur beats his Cacturne anyway for her fourth Ribbon. A giant Claydol is sealed back inside its stone ball, Brock’s Lombre touches Samantha’s Water Stone and evolves into Ludicolo — the first stone evolution of a main character’s Pokémon — and the group get lost in the Trapinch Underground Labyrinth and help to clear an Absol of causing disasters. In a mountain blizzard Ash catches the prankster Snorunt that stole his Badge case and then sheltered him in a snow shelter, and Max nurses a sick Ralts, promising to come back for it when he becomes a Trainer.

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Sootopolis City: the Rain BadgeAG110–AG111

Sootopolis City’s Gym Leader is Juan, a former Top Coordinator who stages water shows with his Milotic and splits his five-on-five Gym battle into a Double Battle and a Single Battle. Pikachu and Snorunt open against Sealeo and Seaking; Snorunt suffers its only official defeat before it evolves, but Corphish comes in, Pikachu surfs on its back, and Iron Tail and Crabhammer win the first stage. On the lake-and-towers field Luvdisc confuses and beats Grovyle, Corphish beats Luvdisc but falls to Whiscash, Swellow downs Whiscash but is caught by Milotic’s Twister, and in the end Pikachu throws Milotic into the pool and finishes it with Thunder through the water. The Rain Badge is Ash’s eighth: the Ever Grande Conference is three months away, and Juan points May to the season’s last Contest, in Pacifidlog Town.

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The last Ribbon: Drew, Munchlax & MorrisonAG112–AG120

A Linoone that hoards round objects makes off with May’s Poké Balls, and Drew’s news that he already has five Ribbons is the prelude to May and Drew being washed up together on Mirage Island, where Wynaut and rare Liechi Berries see them through. On Donto Island, in the middle of the Donphan mating season, May refuses to board the last ferry without Max. At Pacifidlog Town the jealous Erica challenges her, Jessie is disqualified as “the Jester”, and Skitty’s unpredictable Assist conjures up a Fire Spin that beats Erica’s Jynx for May’s fifth Ribbon and a place in the Grand Festival — three episodes that Kids’ WB held back until after the Conference. May catches a Munchlax that swallows her Poké Ball, the first Generation IV Pokémon in the series; Ash meets his new rival Morrison and his Beldum; and the phantom thief Brodie nearly gets the Grand Festival cancelled before the ship docks in Slateport. Japan then paused for the series’ first clip show.

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The Hoenn Grand FestivalAG121–AG123

247 Coordinators enter the Grand Festival in Slateport City, and only 64 survive the one-move preliminary appeals: Harley talks May into using nothing but Silver Wind, but Beautifly’s 88 puts her through in 48th place. His next piece of “friendly” advice, to rely on Skitty’s random Assist, nearly costs her a place in the top 32, until Drew tells her the truth. May gets her revenge in the first Double Battle, knocking out Harley’s Cacturne and Banette, beats Anthony’s Swalot and Pinsir, and then loses to Drew’s Roselia and his newly raised Flygon in the quarter-finals; Robert’s Milotic and Claydol beat Drew in the final for the Ribbon Cup. Outside the arena Ash’s Snorunt shields Pikachu from Team Rocket, evolves into Glalie and at last masters Ice Beam. Japan aired all three episodes in a single two-hour special on 7 April 2005.

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The Ever Grande ConferenceAG124–AG131

A plane flown by a disguised Team Rocket runs out of fuel and strands everyone on the castaway Robin’s island until his Wailmer evolves and carries them through the whirlpools. In Ever Grande City Ash meets Tyson, a torch runner with a Meowth in boots, and decides to compete only with the Pokémon that have travelled with him through Hoenn. Pikachu beats Gilbert’s Hitmonlee in the preliminaries, Morrison’s Beldum evolves into Metang, and Ash wins his Double Battle qualifiers against Dominick and Clark. The Victory Tournament is six-on-six: Ash beats Katie of Lilycove City across rock and water fields, then his friend Morrison, whose Metang falls to Glalie’s spinning Headbutt. In the quarter-final against Tyson, Pikachu brings down Metagross with a point-blank Thunder but collapses against Tyson’s Meowth: Ash finishes in the Top 8, as he did in Johto, and Tyson goes on to win the Conference. Team Rocket spend the whole tournament working on the stadium’s food stalls.

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Back to Kanto: the Battle Frontier beginsAG132–AG136

The friends go their separate ways in Oldale Town, but not for long. In Viridian City Ash meets Scott, who tells him about the Battle Frontier, and loses to Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four, standing in as Gym Leader. In Pallet Town Misty is waiting with a new Azurill, Max arrives with Professor Birch and May follows: Professor Oak gives May a Squirtle and keeps her Bulbasaur, Ash leaves Torkoal and Glalie at the lab and takes Phanpy back, and Brock rejoins on the road. Misty travels with them as far as Mt. Moon, where a family of Cleffa dance around the Moon Stone, before heading home to the Cerulean Gym. At the Battle Factory the Factory Head, Noland, battles with the Articuno he once rescued, and Ash’s Charizard, recalled from the Charicific Valley, wins with Seismic Toss for the Knowledge Symbol, Ash’s first Frontier Symbol.

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On to Saffron City: May’s first Kanto RibbonAG137–AG145

The road toward the Battle Arena is a run of character stories — a kingdom of Rock-types ruled by an Onix, a former Pokéblock taster trying to catch a Jigglypuff for his daughter, a pampered Psyduck that only wants to battle, twin sisters running rival restaurants, and a Caterpie that eats a Rare Candy, grows to monster size and evolves twice in a single episode. Drew returns with his first Kanto Ribbon and beats May’s Squirtle with Flygon, then points her to Saffron City’s Contest. There Harley, now with an Ariados, tricks May over the registration deadline, but the MC Lilian Meridian vouches for her, Squirtle learns Ice Beam, and May wins the Saffron Ribbon by freezing Ariados in its own Spider Web. The season — and the 4Kids dub — ends at Saffron’s Fighting Dojo, where Ash and May’s battle with borrowed Pokémon is never finished but everyone gets what they wanted.

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Episode Guide

All 54 Japanese episodes of Pokémon: Advanced Battle are listed below in Japanese order. The 52 that were dubbed are numbered 1–52 in the # column, as on DVD and streaming, and the orange code is the Bulbapedia AG number used by most fan sites. Two rows have no number: the Whiscash episode cancelled after the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake, which never aired anywhere (AG101 unaired), and the Japan-only clip show Satoshi and Haruka! Heated Battles in Hoenn!! (AG120) — both are explained under Dub Edits. Every episode has its own page with our full synopsis, both titles, air dates, major events, Pokémon debuts, trivia and dub changes — click the title or the screenshot. US dates are the Kids’ WB premieres; Date Expectations, Mean with Envy and Pacifidlog Jam (AG114–AG116) aired out of order in April 2006, after the Ever Grande Conference. There is no Who’s That Pokémon? this season: the dub ran its Pokémon Trainer’s Choice quiz instead, and Japan showed a plain eyecatch.

	#	Episode	First aired	In short
	1AG093	Clamperl of Wisdomパールルとバネブー！しんじゅをさがせ！	Japan 9 Sep 2004 US 17 Sep 2005	Sailing on toward Mossdeep City, Pikachu and Torkoal notice a Spoink bobbing helplessly in the waves, and the group haul it aboard only to realise it… · Dub season premiere Episode guide →
	2AG094	The Relicanth Really Canジーランスと深海の秘宝！	Japan 16 Sep 2004 US 24 Sep 2005	On the way to Mossdeep City the group stop at the Grand Wazoo Resort, where a seaweed-draped diver named Adam bursts out of the surf clutching a… · Relicanth & the King Neptune Episode guide →
	3AG095	The Evolutionary Warハンテールとサクラビス！進化の謎！	Japan 23 Sep 2004 US 1 Oct 2005	Sailing for the A-B-C Islands, the group are overtaken by children racing on the backs of Huntail and Gorebyss, and the Pokédex reveals that… · Clamperl evolve Episode guide →
	4AG096	Training Wrecks筋肉バトル！？ダブルバトル！！	Japan 30 Sep 2004 US 8 Oct 2005	Waiting for a ferry to Mossdeep City, the group come ashore on Muscle Island, while Team Rocket’s leaking Magikarp submarine is swept away and… · Ash & Pikachu blast off Episode guide →
	5AG097	Gaining GroudonグラードンＶＳカイオーガ！（前編）	Japan 7 Oct 2004 US 15 Oct 2005	Lost at sea after Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, Ash and his friends are pulled aboard a red submarine that surfaces beneath them and taken to Team… · Magma & Aqua finale, part 1 Episode guide →
	6AG098	The Scuffle of LegendsグラードンＶＳカイオーガ！（後編）	Japan 14 Oct 2004 US 22 Oct 2005	Shelly reports that Kyogre is loose, and Archie raises the Red Orb as Maxie begs him to stop. · Groudon vs Kyogre Episode guide →
	7AG099	It’s Still Rocket Roll to Me!フウとラン！宇宙センターの戦い！	Japan 21 Oct 2004 US 29 Oct 2005	Arriving at last in Mossdeep City, the group head straight for the Gym, only to be told that its Leader is at the Mossdeep Space Center watching… · Tate & Liza debut Episode guide →
	8AG100	Solid as a Solrockトクサネジム！ソルロックとルナトーン！	Japan 28 Oct 2004 US 5 Nov 2005	At the Mossdeep Gym, Rachel explains the rules of the Double Battle and the arena’s field of floating planets as Tate sends out Solrock, Liza… · Mind Badge Episode guide →
	–AG101 unaired	Shaking Island Battle! Dojoach vs. Namazun!!ゆれる島の戦い！ドジョッチVSナマズン！！	Japan US never aired	Scheduled for 4 November 2004 but never shown anywhere, this Whiscash story was cancelled after the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake. · Unaired – banned worldwide Episode guide →
	9AG101	Vanity Affair海の男！四天王ゲンジ登場！！	Japan 4 Nov 2004 US 12 Nov 2005	On the road from Mossdeep, Ash’s Torkoal finishes a Trainer’s charging Scizor in one shot with a powerful Overheat, and a… · Ash loses to Drake Episode guide →
	10AG102	Where’s Armaldo?ドクター・モロボシの島！化石ポケモン現る！！	Japan 11 Nov 2004 US 19 Nov 2005	The group stop at Wales Island, a nature preserve, where May’s Bulbasaur learns Petal Dance and slices clean through an incoming wave. · Fossil Pokémon Episode guide →
	11AG103	A Cacturne for the Worseイザベ島ポケモンコンテスト！ライバルに気をつけろ！！	Japan 18 Nov 2004 US 26 Nov 2005	On the ferry to Izabe Island, May is practising with Bulbasaur when a flamboyant Coordinator named Harley introduces himself and his Cacturne. · Purika Ribbon Episode guide →
	12AG104	Claydol Big and Tall巨大ネンドールを封印せよ！！	Japan 25 Nov 2004 US 3 Dec 2005	Crossing a canyon on Izabe Island, the group spot an enormous stone Poké Ball sitting on a hilltop. · Giant Claydol Episode guide →
	13AG105	Once in a Mawile恋するクチート！ハスブレロの花道！！	Japan 2 Dec 2004 US 10 Dec 2005	After lunch Ash wants to train, so Brock offers a practice battle: Ash’s Torkoal against Brock’s Lombre, which Max expects to win thanks… · Lombre evolves into Ludicolo Episode guide →
	14AG106	Beg, Burrow and Stealナックラーとビブラーバ！幻の湖！	Japan 9 Dec 2004 US 17 Dec 2005	Lost in a desert where neither the PokéNav nor the map is any help, the group find the ground pitted with identical craters. · Trapinch labyrinth Episode guide →
	15AG107	Absol-ute Disasterアブソル！忍び寄るわざわいの影！！	Japan 16 Dec 2004 US 7 Jan 2006	Crossing Izabe Island toward a village, the group are nearly swept away when a wooden bridge collapses in an unusually powerful current, and Pikachu… · Absol cleared Episode guide →
	16AG108	Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snorunt!ユキワラシをつかまえろ！	Japan 23 Dec 2004 US 14 Jan 2006	With a blizzard closing in, the group shelter at a Pokémon Center in the snowy heights of Izabe Island. · Ash catches Snorunt Episode guide →
	17AG109	Do I Hear a Ralts?ラルトスを救え！急げマサト！	Japan 6 Jan 2005 US 21 Jan 2006	Heading through a forest on Izabe Island toward Cerosi Town and the ferry to Sootopolis City, where Ash’s last Hoenn Gym awaits, the group are… · Max & Ralts Episode guide →
	18AG110	The Great Eight Fate!ルネジム！水のアーティスト・アダン！（前編）	Japan 13 Jan 2005 US 28 Jan 2006	The group reach Sootopolis City, home of the eighth and final Hoenn Gym, and Ash wants to challenge it immediately. · Juan debuts Episode guide →
	19AG111	Eight Ain’t Enoughルネジム！水のアーティスト・アダン！（後編）	Japan 20 Jan 2005 US 28 Jan 2006	The confused Grovyle crashes into a pillar and is finished by Luvdisc’s Water Gun, so Ash sends the already tired Corphish back out. · Rain Badge Episode guide →
	20AG112	Showdown at Linooneマッスグマ！友情のカタチ！？	Japan 27 Jan 2005 US 4 Feb 2006	After docking at Giban Island, Ash phones Professor Oak from the Pokémon Center and vows to train hard for the Ever Grande Conference, now… · Linoone Episode guide →
	21AG113	Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut?まぼろし島のソーナノ！	Japan 3 Feb 2005 US 4 Feb 2006	While Ash prepares himself mentally for the Ever Grande Conference, the group find Drew training his Masquerain on a cliff, its Silver Wind… · Drew has five Ribbons Episode guide →
	22AG114	Date Expectationsころがれ！恋するドンファン！	Japan 10 Feb 2005 US 1 Apr 2006	The boatman Carlos assures the group that Pacifidlog Town is only an hour away, but his engine dies between two islands, so they land on Donto Island… · Donphan mating season Episode guide →
	23AG115	Mean with Envy混戦、混乱！ポケモンコンテスト・キナギ大会！（前編）	Japan 17 Feb 2005 US 1 Apr 2006	In Pacifidlog Town, a village of floating log walkways, May prepares for the Pacifidlog Contest, the last before the Hoenn Grand Festival and her… · Pacifidlog Contest Episode guide →
	24AG116	Pacifidlog Jam混戦、混乱！ポケモンコンテスト・キナギ大会！（後編）	Japan 24 Feb 2005 US 8 Apr 2006	The Battle Round of the Pacifidlog Contest opens with Erica’s Jynx against the Jester, who is really Jessie with Meowth disguised as her… · Pacifidlog Ribbon – May’s fifth Episode guide →
	25AG117	Berry, Berry Interestingハルカデリシャスで、ゴンベＧＥＴかも！！	Japan 3 Mar 2005 US 11 Feb 2006	On the way to Slateport City for the Grand Festival, the group stop at an island covered in berry trees. · May catches Munchlax Episode guide →
	26AG118	Less is Morrisonライバル登場！マサムネとダンバル！！	Japan 10 Mar 2005 US 11 Feb 2006	On the road to Slateport City, Ash and May bolt their lunch so they can get back to training, Ash on Snorunt’s unreliable Ice Beam and May on… · Morrison debuts Episode guide →
	27AG119	The Ribbon Cup Caper!怪盗バンナイとリボンカップ！！	Japan 17 Mar 2005 US 18 Feb 2006	Aboard the cruise liner S.S. St. Flower, bound for Slateport City and the Grand Festival now that May has her fifth Ribbon, Officer Jenny warns the… · Brodie returns Episode guide →
	–AG120	Satoshi and Haruka! Heated Battles in Hoenn!!サトシとハルカ！ホウエンでの熱きバトル！！	Japan 24 Mar 2005 US never aired	This Japanese-only episode is the first clip show in the Pokémon anime. · Clip show Episode guide →
	28AG121	Hi Ho Silver Wind!開幕！グランドフェスティバル①！！	Japan 7 Apr 2005 US 18 Feb 2006	May reaches Slateport City for the Hoenn Grand Festival, registers her Pokémon and all five Ribbons and receives her entry ticket and a… · Grand Festival begins Episode guide →
	29AG122	Deceit and Assist熱闘！グランドフェスティバル②！！	Japan 7 Apr 2005 US 25 Feb 2006	Nurse Joy returns May’s Pokémon after the preliminaries, and Harley sweetly suggests the two of them train together; May happily agrees. · Harley’s sabotage Episode guide →
	30AG123	Rhapsody in Drew決戦！グランドフェスティバル③！！	Japan 7 Apr 2005 US 25 Feb 2006	Harley’s Banette and Cacturne open with Screech and Bullet Seed, but May’s Bulbasaur and Beautifly quickly seize control with Vine Whip… · May loses to Drew – Top 8 Episode guide →
	31AG124	Island Timeサバイバルでいこう！	Japan 14 Apr 2005 US 4 Mar 2006	The group want to reach Ever Grande City quickly for the Conference, which is now only two weeks away, and May solves the problem by turning up with… · Stranded with Robin Episode guide →
	32AG125	Like a Meowth to a Flameサイユウシティ到着！長靴をはいたニャース！？	Japan 21 Apr 2005 US 4 Mar 2006	With a week to go before the Ever Grande Conference, Ash trains while May goes hunting for a famous ramen shop, the Ever Grande Noodle Nosh. · Tyson debuts Episode guide →
	33AG126	Saved by the Beldum予備選スタート！マサムネ登場！！	Japan 28 Apr 2005 US 11 Mar 2006	On the eve of the Ever Grande Conference, Glalie’s training Ice Beam accidentally hits Morrison, who shows off his newly won eighth Badge and… · Conference preliminaries Episode guide →
	34AG127	From Brags to Riches開幕！サイユウ大会！！	Japan 5 May 2005 US 11 Mar 2006	Nurse Joy explains the next stage of the Ever Grande Conference: a series of Double Battles in which a Trainer needs three wins to earn a place in… · Double Battle qualifier Episode guide →
	35AG128	Shocks and Bonds決勝トーナメントへ！熱き戦いの日々！	Japan 12 May 2005 US 18 Mar 2006	Ash’s third and final qualifying Double Battle pits Grovyle and Glalie against Clark’s Quilava and Charizard, a dangerous match-up for… · Victory Tournament begins Episode guide →
	36AG129	A Judgment Brawlそして…負けられない戦いは続く！！	Japan 19 May 2005 US 18 Mar 2006	The field switches to water for the second half of Ash’s Full Battle with Katie, who still has four Pokémon to Ash’s three. · Ash beats Katie Episode guide →
	37AG130	Choose It or Lose It!ライバル対決！VSマサムネ！！	Japan 26 May 2005 US 25 Mar 2006	Just before the referee can disqualify Morrison, Ash insists that his friend can still fight, and Morrison sends out Growlithe against Corphish. · Ash beats Morrison Episode guide →
	38AG131	At the End of the Fray最後の激闘！優勝への道！！	Japan 16 Jun 2005 US 25 Mar 2006	The collision of Ice Beam and Solar Beam explodes in a pillar of light, knocking out both Glalie and Sceptile at the very start of the quarter-final. · Ash loses to Tyson – Top 8 Episode guide →
	39AG132	The Scheme Teamエニシダとバトルフロンティア！	Japan 23 Jun 2005 US 8 Apr 2006	After the Conference, Ash says goodbye to Morrison and Tyson and meets May, Max and Brock in Oldale Town, where Munchlax devours most of a farewell… · Battle Frontier announced Episode guide →
	40AG133	The Right Place and the Right Mimeオーキド研究所！全員集合！！	Japan 30 Jun 2005 US 15 Apr 2006	Delia’s Mr. Mime opens the door to find May’s Combusken, Bulbasaur and Munchlax, followed by May herself, who has come to Pallet Town too. · May receives Squirtle Episode guide →
	41AG134	A Real Cleffa-Hangerオツキミやま！ピィとピッピとピクシーと！	Japan 7 Jul 2005 US 15 Apr 2006	On the way to the Battle Factory the group picnic at the foot of Mt. · Misty goes home Episode guide →
	42AG135	Numero Uno Articuno初陣！バトルファクトリー！！（前編）	Japan 21 Jul 2005 US 22 Apr 2006	Lost on the way to the Battle Factory, the group make camp and see an Articuno flying alongside a small biplane before both appear to crash in the… · Battle Factory Episode guide →
	43AG136	The Symbol Life初陣！バトルファクトリー！！（後編）	Japan 28 Jul 2005 US 22 Apr 2006	At dawn Ash and Pikachu test Charizard’s flying, and the whole group is impressed by the power of the Flamethrower and the new Dragon Breath it… · Knowledge Symbol Episode guide →
	44AG137	Hooked on Onixイワークの王国！！	Japan 4 Aug 2005 US 6 May 2006	Walking toward the Battle Arena and admiring his new Knowledge Symbol, Ash runs out of water, and while Brock and Mudkip go looking for a lake, Max… · King Onix Episode guide →
	45AG138	Rough, Tough Jigglypuffプリンの歌、パパの歌！	Japan 11 Aug 2005 US 13 May 2006	On the way to the Battle Arena, Ash, May and Brock are scooped up in a net and left dangling from a tree. · Mitch’s Jigglypuff Episode guide →
	46AG139	On Cloud Arcanineライバル対決！ウインディをゲットかも！	Japan 18 Aug 2005 US 20 May 2006	May and Ash are queueing at a busy Kanto bakery when an Arcanine streaks past. · Drew returns Episode guide →
	47AG140	Sitting Psyduckコダックの憂鬱！	Japan 25 Aug 2005 US 27 May 2006	During a break on the road to Saffron City, a terrified Psyduck crashes through the bushes and lands in the group’s campfire, chased by a… · Emily’s Psyduck Episode guide →
	48AG141	Hail to the Chef!ニューラとバリヤード！どっちのレストラン！？	Japan 1 Sep 2005 US 3 Jun 2006	On the way to Saffron City, May’s Munchlax escapes from its Poké Ball and follows a delicious smell to a restaurant run by a woman named… · Twin restaurants Episode guide →
	49AG142	Caterpie’s Big Dilemma進化！その神秘と奇跡！！	Japan 8 Sep 2005 US 10 Jun 2006	Walking toward Saffron City, Ash, May and Brock are surprised by an irritable Caterpie, and its young Trainer Zander accuses them of being thieves… · Giant Caterpie Episode guide →
	50AG143	The Saffron Conポケモンコンテスト・ヤマブキ大会！（前編）	Japan 15 Sep 2005 US 17 Jun 2006	May lines up her Pokémon for a pep talk about the Kanto Contest circuit, though Munchlax and Squirtle look less than interested; it will be… · Saffron Contest Episode guide →
	51AG144	A Hurdle for Squirtleポケモンコンテスト・ヤマブキ大会！！（後編）	Japan 22 Sep 2005 US 24 Jun 2006	Lilian opens the Saffron City Contest, shows off the prize Ribbon and introduces the judges, Raoul Contesta, Mr. · Saffron Ribbon Episode guide →
	52AG145	Pasta La Vista!格闘道場！サトシＶＳハルカ！	Japan 29 Sep 2005 US 8 Jul 2006	Before leaving Saffron City, May shows off her new Ribbon. · Season finale Episode guide →

Characters & Travelling Companions

Ash begins the season with six Hoenn badges and ends it with a Frontier Symbol. He wins the Mind Badge from Tate and Liza (AG100) and the Rain Badge from Juan (AG111), catches Snorunt (AG108) — his only new Pokémon of the season, which evolves into Glalie at the Grand Festival (AG123) — and enters the Ever Grande Conference with only the team that has travelled with him through Hoenn, finishing in the Top 8, and he loses exhibition battles to two Elite Four members, Drake (AG101) and, back in Kanto, Agatha (AG132). Home again, he leaves Torkoal and Glalie at Professor Oak’s lab, takes Phanpy back on the team and recalls Charizard from the Charicific Valley to win the Knowledge Symbol (AG136). Pikachu absorbs the Blue Orb and awakens Groudon (AG097–AG098), is on the field to the end of both Gym battles, and falls only to Tyson’s Meowth in the last duel of Ash’s Conference.

May has three Ribbons when the season opens and the Grand Festival in her sights. She wins the Purika Ribbon with Bulbasaur (AG103) and, at the last possible Contest, the Pacifidlog Ribbon with Skitty’s Assist (AG116), catches a ravenous Munchlax (AG117) and reaches the Top 8 of the Hoenn Grand Festival before losing to Drew (AG123), all while her new rival Harley (AG103) does his best to sabotage her. She then follows Ash to Kanto, leaves Beautifly and Skitty at the Petalburg Gym and Bulbasaur with Professor Oak, receives a Squirtle from him (AG133) and wins her first Kanto Ribbon in Saffron City (AG144).

Max still has no Pokémon of his own, but he makes his most important Pokémon friend: he nurses a sick wild Ralts back to health and promises to return for it when he becomes a Trainer (AG109). He goes home to Petalburg with May after the Conference, then turns up in Pallet Town with Professor Birch (AG132) and has his PokéNav updated by Tracey. Brock sees his Lombre evolve into Ludicolo with a Water Stone (AG105), goes home to Pewter City after the Conference and rejoins the group in Kanto (AG133), having left Ludicolo with his younger brothers and sisters (AG134). Misty watches the Conference on television in Pallet Town, greets Ash with an Azurill hatched from an Egg laid by Tracey’s Marill (AG132) and travels with the group as far as Mt. Moon before going home to the Cerulean Gym (AG134) — her last regular appearance until Sun & Moon, and Rachael Lillis’s last episode as Misty.

• Ash KetchumStarting over in Hoenn with only Pikachu
• MayPetalburg City’s budding Pokémon Coordinator
• MaxMay’s younger brother and a walking Pokédex
• BrockBack on the road as the group’s cook and breeder

Team Rocket

Jessie, James and Meowth end the Hoenn saga with the team they started this season with — Jessie’s Wobbuffet, Seviper and Dustox, James’s Chimecho and Cacnea — and no permanent changes. They are caught up in the Magma–Aqua finale (AG097–AG098), where their raid on Team Aqua’s submarine ends with an enraged Kyogre bursting out of its tank; they work as waiters, gardeners, bakery staff and, throughout the Ever Grande Conference, stall-holders for a short-tempered employer who finally punches them away (AG127–AG131); and back at a rebuilt headquarters Jessie and James claim the credit for the defeat of Teams Aqua and Magma, are posted to “Antarctica” by a sceptical Giovanni and watch Butch and Cassidy zoom past on new scooters (AG132).

Jessie keeps entering Contests in disguise: as “the Jester” in Pacifidlog, with Meowth dressed up as her Pokémon, until a burst costume gets her disqualified (AG115–AG116), and as “Jessiebelle”, who earns a Kanto Contest Pass and reaches the Saffron battle rounds before Harley ties Wobbuffet up with String Shot (AG143–AG144). Meowth gets his first Pokédex entry (AG109), meets his match in Tyson’s booted Meowth, whose sad backstory reduces him to tears (AG125–AG131), and feuds with a Sneasel chef (AG141). The trio blast off alongside Ash and Pikachu for the first time in Training Wrecks (AG096), never meet the heroes at all in A Cacturne for the Worse (AG103), are absent from the clip show altogether and recite their original motto for the last time in From Brags to Riches (AG127). Pasta La Vista! (AG145) is the last episode for their English voices, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart and Maddie Blaustein, whose Meowth signs off with “Looks like Team Rocket’s Blaustein off again!”.

• JessieTeam Rocket
• JamesTeam Rocket
• MeowthTeam Rocket’s talking Meowth

Rivals, Gym Leaders, the Battle Frontier & recurring characters

Two new rivals arrive for Ash. Morrison (AG118), a red-haired, excitable Trainer whose partner is a Beldum, turns every meeting into a contest; his Beldum evolves into Metang in the Conference preliminaries (AG126), and Ash beats him in the round of sixteen (AG129–AG130). Tyson (AG125), a torch runner whose Meowth wears the boots he gave it after nursing it back to health, leads a team of Metagross, Sceptile, Donphan, Shiftry and Hariyama, knocks Ash out in the quarter-finals and wins the Ever Grande Conference (AG131). For May there is Harley (AG103), a flamboyant Coordinator with a Cacturne, a Banette and later an Ariados, who smiles while he plots his revenge, alongside Drew, who has five Ribbons before May does (AG113), unveils a Flygon at the Grand Festival and is already collecting Kanto Ribbons by AG139; Robert, the Slateport winner from her first Contest, takes the Ribbon Cup.

The last two Hoenn Gym Leaders are the Mossdeep twins Tate and Liza (AG099–AG100), who battle as a pair with Solrock and Lunatone, and Juan of Sootopolis City (AG110–AG111), a former Top Coordinator whose Gym battles are water shows, refereed by his butler Sebastian. Two Elite Four members give Ash a lesson in humility: the sailor Drake (AG101), the only member of the Hoenn Elite Four to appear in the Ruby and Sapphire series, and Agatha (AG132), standing in at the Viridian Gym. Scott (AG132), a cheerful recruiter with a hair-raising taste in shortcuts, introduces the Battle Frontier, and Noland (AG135–AG136), the laid-back Factory Head, is its first Frontier Brain — and the only one 4Kids ever dubbed.

Maxie and Archie, the leaders of Team Magma and Team Aqua, debut in the Magma–Aqua finale (AG097–AG098) with their admins Tabitha and Shelly; both teams are later said to have disbanded (AG119), when a former Magma member, the phantom thief Brodie, tries to steal the Ribbon Cup. Lance returns undercover with his Dragonite and red Gyarados (AG097–AG098). The Contest world gains Lilian Meridian, Vivian’s younger sister and the Kanto MC (AG143), and League President Charles Goodshow has his last speaking role in the anime (AG125). Professor Birch studies Clamperl (AG095) and brings Max to Pallet Town, May’s mother Caroline cheers her on at the Grand Festival, and Professor Oak, Delia and Tracey follow the Conference on television before the group’s homecoming (AG132–AG133).

• Tate and LizaThe Mossdeep City Gym Leaders (AG099)
• Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four(AG101)
• HarleyMay’s scheming rival Coordinator (AG103)
• JuanSootopolis City Gym Leader and former Top Coordinator (AG110)
• MorrisonAsh’s friendly rival (AG118)
• TysonWinner of the Ever Grande Conference (AG125)
• Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four(AG132)
• ScottThe Battle Frontier’s recruiter (AG132)
• NolandThe Factory Head and first Frontier Brain (AG135)

Voice cast

Character	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor
Ash Ketchum	Veronica Taylor	Rica Matsumoto
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani	Ikue Ōtani
May	Veronica Taylor	KAORI.
Max	Amy Birnbaum	Fushigi Yamada
Brock	Eric Stuart	Yūji Ueda
Misty	Rachael Lillis (last episode AG134)	Mayumi Iizuka
Jessie	Rachael Lillis	Megumi Hayashibara (back from AG093 after maternity leave)
James	Eric Stuart	Shin-ichiro Miki
Meowth	Maddie Blaustein	Inuko Inuyama
Wobbuffet	Kayzie Rogers	Yūji Ueda
Giovanni	Ted Lewis	Hirotaka Suzuoki (last episode AG132)
Drew	Pete Zarustica	Mitsuki Saiga
Harley	Andrew Rannells	Jun’ichi Kanemaru
Morrison	Sean Schemmel	Masako Nozawa
Tyson	Marc Diraison	Kenji Nojima
Tate	Jason Griffith	Takahiro Mizushima
Liza	Andi Whaley	Chisa Yokoyama
Juan	Sean Schemmel	Shō Hayami
Drake	Brian Maillard	Shōzō Iizuka
Agatha	Allyson Johnson	Kazuko Sugiyama
Scott	Greg Abbey (credited as “Frank Frankson”)	Kōichi Sakaguchi
Noland	David Wills	Nobuyuki Hiyama
Professor Oak	Stuart Zagnit (last episode AG133)	Unshō Ishizuka
Tracey	Ted Lewis	Tomokazu Seki
Lilian Meridian	Lisa Adams	—
Narrator	Mike Pollock	Unshō Ishizuka

Pokémon: Captures, Changes, Encounters & Evolutions

In brief:

• Ash catches just one new Pokémon, Snorunt (AG108), which evolves into Glalie at the Grand Festival (AG123); back in Kanto Phanpy rejoins his team and Charizard returns for one battle (AG133–AG136).
• May catches Munchlax (AG117) — the first Generation IV Pokémon in the main series — and receives Squirtle from Professor Oak (AG133); her Bulbasaur learns Petal Dance (AG102) and Squirtle learns Ice Beam (AG143).
• Brock’s Lombre evolves into Ludicolo with a Water Stone (AG105), the first evolution-stone evolution of a main character’s Pokémon.
• Misty returns with an Azurill hatched from an Egg laid by Tracey’s Marill (AG132), and Max befriends a wild Ralts that he promises to come back for (AG109).
• Team Rocket’s line-up does not change all season: Jessie keeps Wobbuffet, Seviper and Dustox, and James keeps Chimecho and Cacnea.
• Elsewhere, Keith’s and Nancy’s Clamperl become Huntail and Gorebyss after a transfer through the Pokémon Center machine (AG095), Morrison’s Beldum becomes a Metang in the middle of a Conference battle (AG126), and Zander’s Caterpie evolves twice in one episode after eating a Rare Candy (AG142).

New Pokémon captured or hatched

• Snorunt#0361 · Ash · his only new Pokémon this season · AG108
• Munchlax#0446 · May · it swallows her Poké Ball · AG117
• Azurill#0298 · Misty · hatched from an Egg laid by Tracey’s Marill · AG132
• Squirtle#0007 · May · a gift from Professor Oak · AG133

Evolutions

• Clamperl → Huntail#0367 · Keith · Deep Sea Tooth · AG095
• Clamperl → Gorebyss#0368 · Nancy · Deep Sea Scale · AG095
• Anorith → Armaldo#0348 · Professor Proctor · AG102
• Lombre → Ludicolo#0272 · Brock · Water Stone · AG105
• Trapinch → Vibrava#0329 · wild · underground lake · AG106
• Snorunt → Glalie#0362 · Ash · shielding Pikachu · AG123
• Wailmer → Wailord#0321 · Robin’s friend · AG124
• Beldum → Metang#0375 · Morrison · mid-battle · AG126
• Caterpie → Metapod#0011 · Zander · giant, after a Rare Candy · AG142
• Metapod → Butterfree#0012 · Zander · same episode · AG142

Releases, departures and returns

None of the main characters releases a Pokémon this season, but the travelling teams change a great deal once the group return to Kanto. In The Right Place and the Right Mime (AG133) Ash leaves Torkoal and Glalie at Professor Oak’s lab and takes back Phanpy, trained up at the lab since Ash left for Hoenn — the first Pokémon left at the lab ever to rejoin his regular team — so that he sets out for the Battle Frontier with Pikachu, Swellow, Grovyle, Corphish and Phanpy. May reveals that she has left Beautifly and Skitty at the Petalburg Gym, leaves Bulbasaur with Professor Oak and travels on with Combusken, Munchlax and Squirtle, while Brock leaves Ludicolo in Pewter City with his siblings (revealed in AG134) and keeps Forretress and Mudkip.

Other goodbyes are temporary. Charizard flies in from the Charicific Valley at Ash’s request, arranged through Liza of the valley, to battle Noland’s Articuno and flies back afterwards (AG135–AG136), and Max’s Ralts teleports home with its Gardevoir and Kirlia family after he promises to return for it (AG109). May and Drew let a wild Arcanine go rather than split up its Growlithe family (AG139), Mitch decides that the Jigglypuff he has spent six months chasing belongs in the forest — only for it to move in with his family the next morning (AG138) — and Misty takes Azurill home to the Cerulean Gym (AG134).

Teams at the end of the season (AG145)

Trainer	Travelling with	Left behind this season
Ash	Pikachu, Swellow, Grovyle, Corphish, Phanpy	Torkoal and Glalie at Professor Oak’s lab (AG133); Charizard back in the Charicific Valley (AG136)
May	Combusken, Munchlax, Squirtle	Beautifly and Skitty at the Petalburg Gym, Bulbasaur at Professor Oak’s lab (AG133)
Brock	Forretress, Mudkip	Ludicolo with his siblings in Pewter City (AG134)
Max	— (no Pokémon of his own)	A promise to return for a wild Ralts (AG109)
Misty	Azurill (with the group AG133–AG134)	Goes home to the Cerulean Gym (AG134)
Jessie	Wobbuffet, Seviper, Dustox	—
James	Chimecho, Cacnea	—

Pokémon making their anime debut this season

Thirty species make their first appearance in the TV series during Advanced Battle — 29 from Generation III and one from Generation IV, May’s Munchlax, the first Diamond and Pearl Pokémon to appear in the main series. Many had already been seen on the big screen: Kyogre, Groudon, Salamence, Vibrava, Absol, Linoone and Tropius in Jirachi: Wish Maker, and Gorebyss, Cacturne, Mawile, Snorunt, Gardevoir, Munchlax and Metagross in Destiny Deoxys. Barboach was meant to debut in the cancelled Whiscash episode and appears instead in The Great Eight Fate! (AG110), and with Tyson’s Sceptile (AG128) every form of the Hoenn first partners has now been seen; no species debuts after that episode. The eighth movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, introduced Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Weavile, Regirock and Regice during the Japanese run.

• Clamperl#0366 · AG093
• Luvdisc#0370 · AG093
• Huntail#0367 · AG095
• Gorebyss#0368 · AG095 · TV debut
• Kyogre#0382 · AG097 · TV debut
• Groudon#0383 · AG097 · TV debut
• Salamence#0373 · AG101 · TV debut
• Lileep#0345 · AG102
• Cradily#0346 · AG102
• Anorith#0347 · AG102
• Cacturne#0332 · AG103 · TV debut
• Claydol#0344 · AG104
• Mawile#0303 · AG105 · TV debut
• Trapinch#0328 · AG106
• Vibrava#0329 · AG106 · TV debut
• Absol#0359 · AG107 · TV debut
• Snorunt#0361 · AG108 · TV debut
• Ralts#0280 · AG109
• Gardevoir#0282 · AG109 · TV debut
• Barboach#0339 · AG110 · moved from the cancelled episode
• Linoone#0264 · AG112 · TV debut
• Munchlax#0446 · AG117 · first Gen IV species
• Beldum#0374 · AG118
• Swalot#0317 · AG122
• Banette#0354 · AG122
• Glalie#0362 · AG123
• Metagross#0376 · AG125 · TV debut
• Metang#0375 · AG126
• Tropius#0357 · AG127 · TV debut
• Sceptile#0254 · AG128

Key Events, Gym Battles & Tournaments

Badges won this season

Badge	Gym & Leader	Leader’s Pokémon	Ash’s Pokémon	Result	Episode
Mind Badge	Mossdeep Gym · Tate & Liza	Solrock (Tate), Lunatone (Liza)	Pikachu, Swellow	Win — a Double Battle on a field of floating planets: Tackles land while Quick Attack and Peck miss, and Solar Beam and Ice Beam cancel out; Team Rocket’s cage mecha interrupts and is destroyed; outdoors, Light Screen and Sandstorm hold off Thunderbolt and Aerial Ace until Pikachu’s Thunder on the clouds gives both of Ash’s Pokémon “Thunder Armor”, and Iron Tail knocks out Solrock as Aerial Ace knocks out Lunatone	AG100
Rain Badge	Sootopolis Gym · Juan	Sealeo, Seaking (Double Battle) · Luvdisc, Whiscash, Milotic (Single Battle)	Pikachu, Snorunt, then Corphish (Double Battle) · Grovyle, Corphish, Swellow, Pikachu (Single Battle)	Win — in the Double Battle Sealeo’s Hyper Beam knocks out Snorunt, but Pikachu’s Iron Tail beats Seaking and Corphish’s Crabhammer beats Sealeo; in the Single Battle Luvdisc beats Grovyle and falls to Corphish, Whiscash beats Corphish and falls to Swellow’s Aerial Ace, Milotic’s Twister beats Swellow, and Pikachu throws Milotic into the pool and finishes it with Thunder	AG111

May’s last Hoenn Ribbons: Purika & Pacifidlog

The Purika Contest on Izabe Island (A Cacturne for the Worse, AG103) brings in May’s most devious rival. Bulbasaur’s Razor Leaf and Vine Whip appeal puts her through; Harley “helpfully” tells her that Kent’s Surskit is slow before its Quick Attack and Double Team nearly knock her out of the semi-final, and in the final he plays a recording of Max’s story about May’s childhood terror of Tentacool while Cacturne’s Feint Attack drains her points. May shakes it off and wins with Vine Whip, Razor Leaf and Petal Dance: the Purika Ribbon is her fourth.

The Pacifidlog Contest (Mean with Envy and Pacifidlog Jam, AG115–AG116) is the last Hoenn Contest before the Grand Festival and May’s last chance at a fifth Ribbon. Skitty’s Assist appeal, calling up Razor Leaf and Blizzard, sends her through alongside the jealous Erica’s Jynx, Joshua’s Houndoom and “the Jester”, who is disqualified when Meowth’s inflatable Wailord costume bursts. Skitty beats Houndoom in the semi-final and, in the final, a last Assist produces a Fire Spin that beats Jynx: the Pacifidlog Ribbon qualifies May for the Grand Festival. Kids’ WB did not air these two episodes until April 2006, more than a month after the Grand Festival.

The Hoenn Grand Festival (AG121–AG123)

The Hoenn Grand Festival in Slateport City is the climax of May’s Hoenn journey. 247 Coordinators enter; a one-move preliminary appeal cuts the field to 64, three-minute appeals scored out of 100 cut it to 32, and the rest is five-minute Double Battles judged by Raoul Contesta, Mr. Sukizo and three Nurse Joys, with Vivian Meridian as host. May follows Harley’s advice to use nothing but Silver Wind in the preliminaries and scores 88 with Beautifly, 48th of 64; his second tip, to rely on Skitty’s Assist, produces Silver Wind, Solar Beam, Petal Dance, Double Slap and Blizzard for a nervy 79 that scrapes into the top 32, while Drew’s Masquerain and Robert’s Milotic score a perfect 100.

In the battles May beats Harley’s Cacturne and Banette with Bulbasaur and Beautifly and Anthony’s Swalot and Pinsir with Combusken and Bulbasaur, before Combusken and Skitty lose to Drew’s Roselia and newly raised Flygon in the quarter-finals, when Stun Spore paralyses both and Steel Wing ends the match. Robert’s Milotic and Claydol beat Drew in the final for the Ribbon Cup and the title of Top Coordinator. The known placings are Robert winner, Drew runner-up, May Top 8, Anthony Top 16 and Harley Top 32 — and, just as at her first Contest in Slateport, May lost to Drew and Robert took the prize.

The Ever Grande Conference (AG125–AG131)

The Ever Grande Conference, the Hoenn League, is the biggest tournament Ash has yet entered. After one-Pokémon preliminary battles, the Top 256 fight Double Battles — three wins are needed — for a place in the Victory Tournament, where the last 32 contest six-on-six Full Battles with a half-time switch to a random rock, water, grass or ice field. The torch is lit from Moltres’s flame, as at the Indigo Plateau. It is the only Conference with Double Battles and without three-on-three matches, and Ash fights three Full Battles, more than at any other Conference, using none of the Pokémon at Professor Oak’s lab.

Pikachu beats Gilbert’s Hitmonlee in the preliminaries (AG126); Torkoal and Corphish beat Dominick’s Tropius and Swalot (AG127) and, after a second qualifier that is not shown, Grovyle and Glalie beat Clark’s Quilava and Charizard (AG128). In the Victory Tournament Ash beats Katie of Lilycove City — his first Full Battle against a female Trainer outside the movies — when Grovyle’s Leaf Blade knocks out her Walrein (AG128–AG129), then his friend Morrison, whose Metang falls to Glalie (AG129–AG130). In the quarter-final against Tyson, Glalie and Sceptile knock each other out, Hariyama and Metagross take two of Ash’s Pokémon each, and Pikachu beats Metagross with a point-blank Thunder only to lose the final duel to Tyson’s booted Meowth (AG130–AG131). Final placings: Tyson winner, Ash Top 8, Morrison Top 16, Katie Top 32, Clark and Johnny Top 64, Dominick and Gavin Top 256; Tyson’s semi-final and final opponents are never named.

Elite Four exhibitions: Drake & Agatha

Ash meets two members of the Elite Four this season and loses to both. Aboard his ship, Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four (AG101) takes on an overconfident Ash three-on-three: Shelgon shrugs off Thunderbolt and knocks out Pikachu with Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw, and Altaria, using five different moves, beats Grovyle with Solar Beam, before Drake’s Salamence rescues Pikachu from Team Rocket and Drake tells Ash to seek out stronger opponents to learn from. In Viridian City Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four (AG132), standing in as Gym Leader, beats Pikachu with Gengar’s Shadow Ball, Double Team, Hypnosis and Dream Eater, with Scott as referee. With Agatha, Ash and Pikachu have met every Kanto Elite Four member from both the original and the Generation III games.

The Battle Factory & the Knowledge Symbol (AG135–AG136)

The Battle Frontier, as Scott explains it, is seven facilities across Kanto run by Frontier Brains, and earning Symbols from six of them reveals the secret seventh. The first is the Battle Factory near Cerulean City, home to dozens of rental Pokémon, whose Factory Head, the mechanic Noland, agrees to a one-on-one with the Articuno he once rescued; Ash phones Liza of the Charicific Valley, and Charizard flies in to take it on. Mist, Ice Beam, Steel Wing and Water Pulse freeze Charizard’s wings and slam it into the walls, and Overheat melts the ice only to be cancelled by Water Pulse, until Charizard catches Articuno’s glowing wings in mid-Steel Wing and wins with Seismic Toss. Ash receives the Knowledge Symbol and a Frontier Pass. It is the first time in the anime that a non-Legendary Pokémon beats a Legendary one-on-one, and the only Frontier Brain battle dubbed by 4Kids; the next stop is the Battle Arena.

Saffron City: the first Kanto Contest (AG143–AG144)

In Kanto the MC is Lilian Meridian, Vivian’s younger sister, and May must exchange her Hoenn Contest Pass for a Kanto one — which Harley, now with an Ariados, uses to trick her over the registration deadline before Lilian vouches for her and the concierge hands May her new Pass and Ribbon case (AG143). In the Saffron Contest the appeals of Squirtle and Combusken, whose Fire Spin and Sky Uppercut bandanna routine brings the house down, take May through; Squirtle then beats a Crobat with Bubble and a Weepinbell with Tackle, while Harley eliminates “Jessiebelle” by working Wobbuffet like a puppet with String Shot after Lilian has shown them both yellow cards. In the final Squirtle’s new Ice Beam freezes Ariados in its own Spider Web, and May wins the Saffron Ribbon, her first in Kanto (AG144) — the only Kanto Contest 4Kids dubbed.

Movies & Specials Released During the Season

The eighth movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (Mew and the Wave Hero: Lucario in Japan), opened in Japanese cinemas on 16 July 2005, between A Real Cleffa-Hanger (AG134) and Numero Uno Articuno (AG135). It introduced Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Weavile, Regirock and Regice, opened with a movie arrangement of the new opening Battle Frontier, and gave the Pokémon Counting Song its debut a week before it became the TV ending; the Japanese DVD followed on 22 December 2005. English-speaking viewers had a long wait: 4Kids’ dub, opening with Unbeatable and ending with “We Will Meet Again”, reached the US on DVD on 19 September 2006, after the season had finished and the series had moved to Cartoon Network — although Unbeatable had already flashed a shot of Mew and Lucario at the start of the US run, until it was painted out from Vanity Affair (AG101).

The seventh movie, Destiny Deoxys, had opened in Japan on 17 July 2004, before the season began; it came out on DVD there on 21 December 2004 and was shown on TV Tokyo in the anime’s Thursday slot on 14 July 2005, two days before the eighth film opened. In the US it premiered on Kids’ WB on 22 January 2005 and reached DVD on 15 February 2005, as the last Pokémon film distributed by Miramax — months before Advanced Battle began — but it is the source of many of the season’s “debuts”: Gorebyss, Cacturne, Mawile, Snorunt, Gardevoir, Munchlax and Metagross all appeared in it first.

The big event of the US run was a special: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, dubbed by Pokémon USA and TAJ Productions, had its world premiere on Kids’ WB on 29 April 2006, between The Symbol Life (AG136) and Hooked on Onix (AG137). It was the first Pokémon animation shown in the US before Japan, where TV Tokyo’s Anitele streamed it from 13 to 31 October 2006, and the only Pokémon USA dub ever aired on Kids’ WB. Set after AG150 — Pikachu already knows Volt Tackle — it features Dr. Yung, Mew and Mewtwo, gave Michele Knotz her first role as Misty, and was redubbed for the Lucario DVD. In Japan the 2005 Pikachu Project also brought Pokémon 3D Adventure: Find Mew! (PK14), a 3D short shown in a theatre near PokéPark from 18 March to 25 September 2005 and never dubbed.

Side Stories, Specials & Crossovers

Side-story tie-ins

• Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station aired its last three side stories in September 2004, just as the season began in Japan: Misty’s Luvdisc story カスミとラブカス！ラブバトル！ (15 September), a Charizard story for Nanako, ナナコとリザードン！炎の猛特訓！ (21 September), and Ritchie’s Moltres story 天駆ける伝説 ヒロシとファイヤー！ (28 September). They were dubbed for Pokémon Chronicles — Misty’s as Luvdisc is a Many Splendored Thing! — which ran on Toonami in the UK from 11 May 2005, on YTV in Canada from 9 September 2005 and on Cartoon Network in the US from 3 June to 25 November 2006, overlapping the end of this season.
• Pokémon Sunday, TV Tokyo’s Sunday companion show, ran its Pokémon Research and Pokémon Revival rerun segments alongside the series and later used the new opening Battle Frontier as its ending (PS053–PS059); Team Rocket disguise themselves as its presenters to trap the group in The Right Place and the Right Mime (AG133).
• The Grand Festival special. TV Tokyo’s two-hour broadcast of 7 April 2005, which showed all three Grand Festival episodes in one evening, also included Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation Special: Odoru Pokémon Himitsu Kichi (おどるポケモンひみつ基地, “Dancing Pokémon Secret Base”).
• The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon interrupted the US run on 29 April 2006, and Pokémon 3D Adventure: Find Mew! (PK14) ran near PokéPark in Japan in 2005 — see Movies & Specials.

Characters from the games, manga and specials

• Tate and Liza are the seventh Gym Leaders of the games, and Juan is Sootopolis City’s Leader in Pokémon Emerald (Wallace holds the post in Ruby and Sapphire); the anime meets them in the games’ order.
• Drake is the Dragon-type member of the Hoenn Elite Four in the games, and Agatha the Kanto Elite Four’s Ghost-type veteran from the Generation I games and FireRed and LeafGreen; Lance, undercover in AG097–AG098, is the Champion.
• Maxie and Archie, the Red and Blue Orbs and the Groudon–Kyogre clash come from Ruby and Sapphire, with one twist: in the anime the Blue Orb controls Groudon and the Red Orb Kyogre, the reverse of the games.
• The Battle Frontier, Scott and the Factory Head Noland come from Pokémon Emerald, which launched in Japan on 16 September 2004, the day The Relicanth Really Can (AG094) aired; the anime moves the Frontier from Hoenn to Kanto, and its Battle Factory keeps the games’ rental Pokémon.
• Mirage Island and its Liechi Berries, Pacifidlog Town’s floating walkways, the Mossdeep Space Center, Sootopolis City and Ever Grande City are all game locations, and Munchlax (AG117) appeared in the series long before Diamond and Pearl, the games that introduced it, were released.
• Mean with Envy (AG115) quietly makes the special Mewtwo Returns canon when Brock recognises Meowth’s ice sculpture of Giovanni, and Team Rocket parody the real-life presenters of Pokémon Sunday in AG133.

Opening & Ending Themes

Advanced Battle is the busiest season yet for Japanese theme songs. The openings change from Rica Matsumoto’s Challenger!! to the wordless Pokémon Symphonic Medley at AG105 and to Akina Takaya’s Battle Frontier at AG135, and the endings from Toshiko Ezaki’s Smile to GARDEN’s GLORY DAY at AG099 and Akiko Kanazawa’s Pokémon Counting Song at AG135. The English dub opens all 52 episodes with David Rolfe’s Unbeatable, built from sped-up footage of the Japanese openings rather than episode clips; a shortened version plays under the end credits, and as usual the Japanese endings were never dubbed.

Japan’s background music leans on the earlier theme songs: an instrumental Advance Adventure scores more than a dozen episodes, Ready Go! returns in AG105, AG112, AG123 and AG145, Challenger!! backs May’s Pacifidlog final (AG116) and Max’s plane ride (AG135), the Symphonic Medley plays as an insert in AG128 and AG131, and Aim to Be a Pokémon Master turns up in AG132. Movie scores are reused as well, from Mewtwo Strikes Back to The Power of One and Lugia’s theme. In English, 4Kids replaced the vocal tracks with its own instrumentals — Ready Go!, OK!, and the Symphonic Medley and GLORY DAY in the Conference finale — scored AG128’s day-off montage with “You & Me & Pokémon” from Totally Pokémon, and turned Team Rocket’s motto into a song in AG100. Dogasu’s Backpack complained that in Gaining Groudon 4Kids “can’t play any one song for longer than 10 seconds without switching to another one”.

Unbeatable — the English opening used for every dubbed Advanced Battle episode. Video: The Official Pokémon YouTube channel.

TV Broadcasts & Original Airing Dates

Japan. TV Tokyo broadcast the season on Thursday evenings from 9 September 2004 (Clamperl of Wisdom), a week after the end of Advanced Challenge, to 29 September 2005 (Pasta La Vista!); Pokémon Emerald went on sale on 16 September 2004, the day AG094 aired. There were no episodes on 30 December 2004, 31 March 2005 (the week after the clip show) or 2 and 9 June 2005, and on 14 July 2005 the slot showed Destiny Deoxys instead, two days before the eighth movie opened. On 7 April 2005 the whole Grand Festival (AG121–AG123) went out in a single two-hour special. Japan has no “season 8”: these are simply episodes 93 to 145 of the 192-episode Advanced Generation series, and the Japanese rental DVDs treat Numero Uno Articuno (AG135) as the start of a new “Battle Frontier” chapter.

The missing episode and the numbering. A Whiscash episode planned for 4 November 2004 was withdrawn after the Chūetsu earthquake struck Niigata on 23 October, and Vanity Affair was moved up to take its place, so the weekly run has no gap (see Dub Edits). Bulbapedia therefore gives AG codes only to the 53 episodes that aired, AG120 included, and files the cancelled one as “AG101 (unaired)”; Dogasu’s Backpack and pocketmonsters.net count it as episode 101, so their numbers run one ahead from Vanity Affair onwards, and English Wikipedia lists it as “8.5”. In English the count is simple: Kids’ WB, VIZ Media’s DVDs and the Australian sets all have the same 52 episodes, the 53 Japanese ones minus the clip show.

United States. Kids’ WB premiered the season on Saturday 17 September 2005 at 10 a.m. — the last Pokémon season premiere on the network — and showed one new episode a week until 17 December, took two weeks off over Christmas and returned on 7 January 2006. From 28 January to 22 April it usually aired two new episodes back to back, so the Grand Festival and the whole Conference went by in little more than a month. On 29 April the slot carried the world premiere of The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon; the weekly run resumed on 6 May, skipped 1 July and ended with Pasta La Vista! on 8 July 2006. In the November 2005 sweeps the series tied for first place among Saturday-morning broadcast shows with kids and boys aged 6–11 (see Reception).

Out of order. Kids’ WB held back Date Expectations, Mean with Envy and Pacifidlog Jam (AG114–AG116) “for unknown reasons” and aired them on 1 and 8 April 2006, between At the End of the Fray (AG131) and The Scheme Team (AG132) — so American viewers saw May compete in the Grand Festival in February before they saw her win the Ribbon that qualified her. The clip show was simply skipped: The Ribbon Cup Caper! and Hi Ho Silver Wind! aired back to back on 18 February. The original broadcasts had their glitches, too: AG125 ran the previous season’s opening, This Dream, under its end credits with a ©1997–2004 notice, AG130’s title card read “Choose It or Loose It!” and AG137’s “Hooked on Onyx”. English Wikipedia’s episode table runs in story order and ends on 5 August 2006; our dates follow Bulbapedia, confirmed by pocketmonsters.net’s calendars.

Elsewhere. From this season UK rights to new episodes moved fully to Toonami, which gave Advanced Battle its UK premiere (Cartoon Network UK also showed some episodes), and several episodes aired in Britain before America: Once in a Mawile (AG105) on 7 November 2005, the first episode ever to do so, and AG114–AG116 between 30 January and 1 February 2006. In Australia the season aired on Cartoon Network, which New Zealand viewers could watch via Sky, but it never reached New Zealand free-to-air television. Ireland skipped Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut? (AG113), Spain premiered Pasta La Vista! on 25 June 2006, almost two weeks before the US, and the Nordic dubs stopped translating move names after AG145.

After the season. Kids’ WB announced that it would drop the shows it did not own, and Pokémon left the network: new episodes, dubbed by Pokémon USA and TAJ Productions with a new voice cast, moved to Cartoon Network with Battle Frontier on 8 September 2006, and Kids’ WB’s reruns ended that month. Pasta La Vista! itself did not air on Cartoon Network until the Sun & Moon era. Today the season is on the Pokémon TV channel on YouTube (see Where to Watch).

Dub Edits & Censorship

The unaired episode & the undubbed clip show

The unaired Whiscash episode. Shaking Island Battle! Dojoach vs. Namazun!! (ゆれる島の戦い！ドジョッチVSナマズン！！, Yureru Shima no Tatakai! Dojotchi Tai Namazun!!) was due to air on Thursday 4 November 2004, from a screenplay by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi. Its story — Chōta and a Barboach against a Whiscash causing earthquakes on Jojo Island — was pulled after the Chūetsu earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture on 23 October 2004, nearly a week before Solid as a Solrock first aired. The episode was first postponed and then discontinued, and Vanity Affair was moved up from the following week; the 28 October preview already announced Vanity Affair, although a preview for the Whiscash episode, probably aired by mistake on some stations, has since surfaced online. It was never broadcast, rebroadcast or released on video, and never supplied for dubbing, so it is the only Ruby and Sapphire episode banned in every country and the second worldwide ban after Electric Soldier Porygon (EP038). Bulbapedia treats it as non-canon. Barboach’s debut moved to The Great Eight Fate! (AG110), Ash is never shown learning where the eighth Gym is, and Earthquake, Fissure and Magnitude are reported to have been kept out of the anime ever since — Groudon’s Fissure in AG098 is the last. BW023 and BW024 were cancelled for the same reason in 2011.

The Japan-only clip show. Satoshi and Haruka! Heated Battles in Hoenn!! (サトシとハルカ！ホウエンでの熱きバトル！！, AG120), shown on 24 March 2005 in the week before the Grand Festival, is the first clip show in the Pokémon anime: framed as Ash and May looking back on the boat to Slateport City, it replays Ash’s Gym battles and May’s Contests with their original audio. It is the only Ruby and Sapphire episode without Jessie, James and Meowth — the first since EP001 — and Dogasu’s Backpack called it “the laziest clip show I’ve ever seen”, with about 24 seconds of new footage. With no new story to tell, it was never dubbed into any language: it is the last episode 4Kids skipped and the first skipped by every dub since EP038, and it is missing from every English home-video release. That is why the English numbering jumps straight from The Ribbon Cup Caper! (27) to Hi Ho Silver Wind! (28).

Changes in the English version

No Who’s That Pokémon? The segment had left the dub after AG040, and its replacement, Pokémon Trainer’s Choice — a three-option quiz narrated by Ash before the mid-show break — ran through every episode of the season, now with questions written by Lawrence Neves (credited from AG093), who greatly improved their accuracy. A few slips remained: Mudkip is said to be “most effective” against Plusle and Minun (AG097), Teddiursa to “last longest” against a Psychic attack to which Poochyena is immune (AG106), and Arcanine, heard with Growlithe’s cry, to have the advantage over Kirlia (AG132), and Flaaffy is twice spelt “Flaafy”. AG145 has the last Trainer’s Choice; Who’s That Pokémon? did not return until Black & White, 239 episodes later. In Japan the break used a plain eyecatch — Groudon and Kyogre, replaced at AG105 by Rayquaza and the Regis in the series’ last eyecatch change — and Professor Oak’s Pokémon Lecture, which ended with Torkoal in AG104, gave way to the pun-filled Pokémon Trivia Quiz; neither was dubbed.

Titles and time cuts. From AG093 the dub dropped its Hoenn-map title card for the Badge-case-and-Ribbon-case design Japan had introduced in AG092, two seconds shorter and, unusually, with the case’s Poké Ball left unedited — until a red bar replaced it in AG108 and the case was redesigned in AG112 and AG118; a new title sequence began at AG134. Dogasu’s Backpack logs 4Kids’ routine trims throughout — a second or three from the first shot, the title screen, the commercial breaks and the “To be continued…” card, up to nine seconds in episodes such as AG093, AG101, AG105 and AG123 — plus a 12-second recap cut from AG136. Unbeatable itself was edited from AG101, the first running change to a dub opening, to remove Mime Jr., Weavile and the Mew-and-Lucario shot.

Cuts and paint edits. Most are tiny: the gold border on James’s cards (AG093); radio static on Adam’s voice (AG094); a Crabhammer to the head hidden by an impact star (AG095); the neck of Giovanni’s wine glass (AG096), and his wine turned into milk on Kids’ WB (AG105); Harley’s skull-and-crossbones scrapbook mark turned into a sad face and Caroline’s cleavage removed (AG103); a Poké Ball banner, Jessie’s princess neckline and the sound of Wobbuffet’s flute (AG104); a one-second Corphish sneeze — in Japan, a sign that someone is talking about you (AG105); the X-shaped fainting eyes of Banette, Cacturne and Cacnea turned into arrows, prompting Dogasu’s remark that “the letter x is taboo now” (AG123); Japanese text erased from a ramen shop (AG125), the Viridian City sign (AG132) and wall scrolls and Team Rocket banners (AG140); a Mega Kick to Pikachu covered by an impact animation (AG126); cheerleaders’ chanting (AG127); and Jessie’s cleavage again (AG143). In Pasta La Vista! the sign text was replaced with an invented script — 4Kids’ “final paint edit”.

Food and dialogue. 4Kids’ habit of Westernising food peaks at the Conference: Morrison’s giant rice ball becomes a sandwich and Team Rocket’s a cracker (AG118), ramen becomes “chicken noodle soup” (AG125), melonpan become cheeseburgers (AG127) and spicy bread a “peanut butter and cactus burrito” (AG128); the Fighting Dojo is the “Pokémon Dojo” and its ramen “noodles” (AG145). Rare Candy is “Mystery Candy” (AG142) and Teeter Dance “Hula Dance” (AG134), and Brock calls a Hyper Beam “Solar Beam” (AG131). Elsewhere Adam talks of chasing the Relicanth “to China” (AG094), Brock calls Lance an Elite Four member (AG097), Drake takes his milk “with peppermint” instead of sugar (AG101), Scott’s apology for his shortcut becomes a joke about forgetting his deodorant and Max calls Articuno “the strongest catchable Pokémon” (AG135), and Lilian says the Grand Festival needs five “Badges” (AG144). Dogasu also took exception to the “godawful French accents” of Team Rocket’s maid disguises in AG101.

Other dubs and details. The season’s foreign versions have their own oddities: the Brazilian Portuguese dub repeatedly calls Leaf Blade “Razor Leaf” and Hyper Beam “Solar Beam”, the Latin American Spanish dub turns Harley into a woman (AG103) and compares Juan to the actor René Casados (AG110), the Swedish and Brazilian dubs swap Ralts and Kirlia (AG109), and the Hindi Disney XD dub turns Noland into a Munna Bhai parody (AG135). The Contest Passes in AG143 are signed with Haruka’s and Musashi’s Japanese initials, a detail the English version kept.

Episode titles explained

Almost every English title is a pun, and the last one may be a farewell. A few worth decoding:

• Clamperl of Wisdom — a “pearl of wisdom”
• The Relicanth Really Can — first announced as Really, Really Relicanth!
• The Evolutionary War — the Revolutionary War
• Training Wrecks — a train wreck
• Gaining Groudon — “gaining ground”
• The Scuffle of Legends — “the stuff of legends”
• It’s Still Rocket Roll to Me! — Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”
• Solid as a Solrock — “solid as a rock”
• Vanity Affair — Vanity Fair
• Where’s Armaldo? — Where’s Waldo? (Wally in Britain); the Japanese title nods to The Island of Doctor Moreau
• A Cacturne for the Worse — “a turn for the worse”
• Claydol Big and Tall — “big and tall” menswear
• Once in a Mawile — “once in a while”
• Beg, Burrow and Steal — “beg, borrow or steal”
• Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snorunt! — the Christmas song “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, which Ash sings in the dub
• Do I Hear a Ralts? — the 1965 musical Do I Hear a Waltz?
• Eight Ain’t Enough — the TV series Eight Is Enough
• Showdown at Linoone — “showdown at high noon”
• Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut? — the journalist’s Five Ws
• Date Expectations — Dickens’s Great Expectations
• Mean with Envy — “green with envy”
• Pacifidlog Jam — a log jam
• Berry, Berry Interesting — “very, very interesting”
• Less is Morrison — “less is more”
• Hi Ho Silver Wind! — the Lone Ranger’s “Hi-yo, Silver!”
• Deceit and Assist — “cease and desist”
• Rhapsody in Drew — Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
• Like a Meowth to a Flame — “like a moth to a flame”
• Saved by the Beldum — “saved by the bell”
• From Brags to Riches — “from rags to riches”
• Shocks and Bonds — “stocks and bonds”
• A Judgment Brawl — a “judgment call”
• Choose It or Lose It! — “use it or lose it”
• At the End of the Fray — “at the end of the day”
• The Scheme Team — “the dream team”
• The Right Place and the Right Mime — “the right place at the right time”
• A Real Cleffa-Hanger — a cliffhanger
• The Symbol Life — the reality show The Simple Life
• Hooked on Onix — Hooked on Phonics
• On Cloud Arcanine — “on cloud nine”
• Sitting Psyduck — a sitting duck
• Hail to the Chef! — “Hail to the Chief”
• Pasta La Vista! — “hasta la vista”, perhaps chosen to mark the end of the 4Kids dub

DVD & Blu-ray / Streaming

Advanced Battle came out in North America as ten single DVDs from VIZ Media in 2006–07, five or six episodes apiece, followed by a six-disc Complete Collection in 2018; all of them hold the same 52 episodes as the TV run, without the clip show AG120. Australia and New Zealand got five two-disc sets, a Super Wallet and a long line of repackaged disc sets. No UK DVD release of the season is known, and the unaired Whiscash episode has never been released anywhere.

North America (Region 1)

Release	Date	Contents
Vol. 1 Gaining Groudon and Vol. 2 The Scuffle of Legends (VIZ Media)	19 September 2006	AG093–AG097 and AG098–AG102 — released on the same day as the US DVD of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
Vol. 3 Absol-ute Disaster and Vol. 4 Eight Ain’t Enough	7 November 2006	AG103–AG107 and AG108–AG112
Vol. 5 Berry, Berry Interesting! and Vol. 6 Deceit and Assist	9 January 2007	AG113–AG117 and AG118, AG119, AG121–AG123 (the clip show is left out)
Vol. 7 Shocks and Bonds and Vol. 8 A Judgment Brawl	6 March 2007	AG124–AG128 and AG129–AG133
Vol. 9 Numero Uno Articuno and Vol. 10 Hail to the Chef!	1 May 2007	AG134–AG139 and AG140–AG145, six episodes each; English closed captions are the only extra on any volume
Pokémon: Advanced Battle – The Complete Collection (6 DVDs, VIZ Media via Warner Home Video)	12 June 2018	All 52 dubbed episodes in one case with a slipcover: AG093–AG101, AG102–AG110, AG111–AG119, AG121–AG129, AG130–AG137 and AG138–AG145; 1,200 minutes
VIZ Pokémon All-Stars and Pokémon Elements compilations	—	All-Stars Vol. 14 Wobbuffet (AG113), Vol. 17 Skitty (AG122) and Vol. 20 Onix (AG137); Elements Vol. 5 Ice (AG108), Vol. 6 Dark (AG107) and Vol. 10 Rock (AG099)

Australia & New Zealand (Region 4)

Release	Date	Notes
Vols. 8.1/8.2 The Evolutionary War / Gaining Groudon (2-disc set, Magna Pacific)	4 April 2007	AG093–AG096 and AG097–AG100; no captions or extras on any Region 4 set
Vols. 8.3/8.4 (2-disc set)	12 September 2007	AG101–AG104 and Absol-ute Disaster (AG105–AG108)
Vols. 8.5/8.6 Showdown at Linoone! / Date Expectations!	6 February 2008	AG109–AG112 and AG113–AG116
Vols. 8.7/8.8 Deceit and Assist / Shocks and Bonds	9 April 2008	AG117–AG119 and AG121–AG124, then AG125–AG131
Vols. 8.9/8.10 The Scheme Team / The Saffron Con	9 April 2008	AG132–AG138 and AG139–AG145
Season 8 Super Wallet (10 discs, Dive Ball design)	8 October 2008	All 52 episodes, released for the anime’s tenth anniversary
Season 8 DigiPack disc set (6 discs)	3 November 2010 (NZ 12 May 2011)	Discs themed on Baltoy, Snorunt, Grovyle, Banette, Azurill and Cacnea; JB Hi-Fi 20th-anniversary reissues on 14 July and 21 September 2016
Re-releases (Beyond Home Entertainment)	2 April 2014 · 5 February 2020 (NZ 18 March 2020)	Slimline and alternate-cover editions; the season is also in the Hoenn Collection, the Ruby and Sapphire Limited Edition Collection, the Heritage Collection and the Seasons 1–19 Deluxe, 1–20 Ultra and 1–21 Mega box sets

Japan

In Japan the episodes went out on rental-only DVDs from Media Factory and Shogakukan, three episodes per disc. The Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation 2005 line began with Vol. 1 (ZMBS-821R) on 27 May 2005, starting from Lessons in Lilycove (AG091), and reached Vol. 15 (ZMBS-835R, AG132–AG134) on 24 February 2006; the 2006 Battle Frontier line followed from 28 April 2006. No sell-through release of these episodes is known, and the unaired episode was never released. The movies came out on DVD on 21 December 2004 (Destiny Deoxys) and 22 December 2005 (Lucario and the Mystery of Mew).

Streaming

Pokémon TV carried the Ruby and Sapphire seasons at times, rotating them in and out after it moved to a rotating library in 2019, until the service closed on 28 March 2024 (app access had ended on 8 January). Since its launch on 6 December 2024 the Pokémon TV channel on YouTube has carried Season 8 — as of October 2026 in English and eleven other languages, from Danish and Dutch to Russian and Swedish. Its availability on Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu and the digital stores is not documented, and Bulbapedia notes that the iTunes releases of the earlier Hoenn seasons drop the end-of-act quiz segments and eyecatches. Check your local service, as availability changes often.

Covers

• Vol. 1 Gaining Groudon DVD (Region 1, 2006)
• Vol. 6 Deceit and Assist DVD (Region 1, 2007)
• Vol. 9 Numero Uno Articuno DVD (Region 1, 2007)
• Vol. 10 Hail to the Chef! DVD (Region 1, 2007)
• The Complete Collection (Region 1, 2018)
• Vols. 8.1/8.2 The Evolutionary War (Region 4, 2007)
• Season 8 Super Wallet (Region 4, 2008)
• Season 8 DigiPack (Region 4, 2010)

Where to Watch & Buy

Availability changes constantly, so treat this as a snapshot (October 2026) and check your local service. Links will be added here once we have settled on referral partners.

• The Pokémon TV channel on YouTubeCarries Season 8 in English and eleven other languages (as of October 2026).
• DVD – North AmericaPokémon: Advanced Battle – The Complete Collection (VIZ Media, 6 discs, 2018) has all 52 dubbed episodes in one case.
• DVD – Australia & New ZealandBeyond Home Entertainment’s Season 8 disc sets have been reissued several times and are part of the Hoenn Collection and the multi-season box sets.
• Not confirmedSeason 8 on Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu and the digital stores has not been confirmed for this page, and Pokémon TV closed in March 2024.

Trading Cards Released During the Season

Pokémon: Advanced Battle aired in the US during the late EX era of the trading card game. EX Unseen Forces was the newest expansion when the season premiered, and three more followed while the episodes were new:

• EX Unseen Forces — 22 August 2005 — on sale when the season premiered
• EX Delta Species — 31 October 2005 — between the Space Center episode and the Mind Badge
• EX Legend Maker — 13 February 2006 — the week before the Grand Festival reached Kids’ WB
• EX Holon Phantoms — 3 May 2006 — days after The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

In Japan many of these cards had appeared a year earlier — Mew ex, for example, was first printed in the Japanese Mirage Forest expansion, which became part of EX Legend Maker — and the English EX Team Rocket Returns (8 November 2004) had come out while the Hoenn episodes were still new in Japan.

Our TCG section has a full card list, print variations and the most valuable cards for every one of them.

Cards with a link to the season

Three cards from those sets tie straight into the season:

• Metagross δ · EX Delta Species 11/113EX Delta Species (31 October 2005) put a Lightning/Metal Metagross on sale four months before Tyson’s Metagross made its debut in the US broadcast of Like a Meowth to a Flame (AG125, 4 March 2006); three weeks later it knocked out Swellow and Grovyle in Ash’s quarter-final (AG131, 25 March 2006).
• Flygon ex · EX Legend Maker 87/92EX Legend Maker went on sale on 13 February 2006, twelve days before Drew unveiled his newly raised Flygon against May in the US broadcast of Rhapsody in Drew (AG123, 25 February 2006).
• Mew ex · EX Legend Maker 88/92Mew ex (13 February 2006) arrived between the painting-out of the Mew-and-Lucario shot in Unbeatable from Vanity Affair (AG101, US 12 November 2005) and Mew’s US appearances in The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (29 April 2006) and Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (19 September 2006).

Firsts & Lasts

• First episodes titled as a two-parter in Japan: Gaining Groudon and The Scuffle of Legends (AG097–AG098), parts 1 and 2 of Groudon VS Kyogre!.
• First regular episode never to air at all: the Whiscash episode cancelled after the Chūetsu earthquake (AG101 unaired) — the only Ruby and Sapphire episode banned in every country.
• First clip show in the anime: Satoshi and Haruka! Heated Battles in Hoenn!! (AG120), also the only Ruby and Sapphire episode without Jessie, James and Meowth.
• First time Ash and Pikachu blast off like Team Rocket: Training Wrecks (AG096), not repeated for 787 episodes.
• First evolution-stone evolution of a main character’s Pokémon: Brock’s Lombre into Ludicolo (AG105).
• First Generation IV Pokémon in the main series: May’s Munchlax (AG117).
• First Pokémon to evolve twice in one episode, and the anime’s only Rare Candy: Zander’s Caterpie (AG142).
• First Legendary Pokémon beaten one-on-one by a non-Legendary, and Ash’s first Frontier Symbol: Charizard against Noland’s Articuno for the Knowledge Symbol (AG136).
• First Pokémon left at Professor Oak’s lab to rejoin Ash’s regular team: Phanpy (AG133).
• First English opening with no episode clips and the first with a running change: Unbeatable (AG101); first Japanese opening not composed by Hirokazu Tanaka: Battle Frontier (AG135); only opening without on-screen lyrics: Pokémon Symphonic Medley (AG105).
• First episode to air in the UK before the US: Once in a Mawile (AG105, 7 November 2005).
• Last Professor Oak’s Pokémon Lecture until Diamond and Pearl (AG104), last anime use of Fissure (AG098) and last time Team Rocket recite their original motto (AG127).
• Last regular appearance of Misty until Sun & Moon, and Rachael Lillis’s last episode as Misty: A Real Cleffa-Hanger (AG134).
• Last episode dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, the last aired on Kids’ WB and the last Pokémon Trainer’s Choice: Pasta La Vista! (AG145).

Trivia & Facts

• The end of an era. Advanced Battle is the last season dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment and the last aired on Kids’ WB. Pasta La Vista! (AG145) is the final episode for the whole main English cast — Veronica Taylor (Ash and May), Eric Stuart (Brock and James), Rachael Lillis (Jessie), Maddie Blaustein (Meowth), Amy Birnbaum (Max) and the narrator, Mike Pollock — and Blaustein’s Meowth signs off with “Looks like Team Rocket’s Blaustein off again!”. The script adapter James Carter Cathcart, who retired after the series, did not adapt the finale.
• An episode lost to an earthquake. The Whiscash episode planned for 4 November 2004 was the first regular episode never to air at all. Barboach’s debut moved to AG110, and Earthquake, Fissure and Magnitude are reported to have been kept out of the anime ever since, making Groudon’s Fissure in The Scuffle of Legends (AG098) the last. Two Black & White episodes, BW023 and BW024, were cancelled for the same reason in 2011.
• Unbeatable shows 72 species — more than any other opening, and around 1,000 Pokémon counting duplicates — including nearly every Legendary up to Generation III except Lugia, and the Frontier Brains in silhouette, except Noland. Because it was cut together from the Japanese openings, it gives away Phanpy’s return, Misty’s Azurill, May’s Munchlax and Squirtle, and even James’s Mime Jr. from the following season.
• The Japanese version changed its theme songs four times in a single season. AG105 also brought new eyecatches, the Pokémon Trivia Quiz and a brighter art style, with lighter fur for Pikachu and CGI effects; it was replaced again from AG142, along with a new style of clouds that lasted until DP133.
• Clamperl of Wisdom (AG093) was the last episode to air in Japan before Pokémon Emerald, and The Relicanth Really Can aired on the game’s launch day, 16 September 2004 — with the treasure hunter Adam mistaking Green Shards for emeralds. The Rayquaza and Regi eyecatches introduced at AG105 are thought to promote the game.
• Gaining Groudon and The Scuffle of Legends (AG097–AG098) are the first episodes titled as a two-parter in Japan; English titles would not do the same until AG171–AG172. They are also the only Ruby and Sapphire episodes with a Champion, Lance — whom the dub calls an Elite Four member.
• At 256 qualifiers the Ever Grande Conference was the largest League yet, and it remains the only Conference with Double Battles and without three-on-three matches. It is also the first to centre on a rival’s battles — Tyson’s — and Ash’s first in which he used none of his Pokémon from Professor Oak’s lab. His Top 8 finish matched the Silver Conference.
  

  

• With Agatha (AG132), Ash and Pikachu have met every Kanto Elite Four member from both the Generation I and Generation III games, while Drake (AG101) is the only member of the Hoenn Elite Four to appear in the Ruby and Sapphire series.
• Megumi Hayashibara returns as Jessie in AG093 after maternity leave (Dogasu’s Backpack names Akiko Hiramatsu as her stand-in and called the fill-in voice “terrible”), The Scheme Team (AG132) is Hirotaka Suzuoki’s last episode as Giovanni before his death in 2006, and Morrison is voiced in Japanese by Masako Nozawa, the voice of Goku.
• Meowth gets his first Pokédex entry in Do I Hear a Ralts? (AG109), despite having appeared in almost every episode since EP002; Seaking (AG110) and Caterpie (AG142) also receive their first animated Pokédex entries long after their debuts.
• Professor Oak’s gift of Squirtle to May (AG133) is the first time a Professor gives a first partner to a Trainer who already has one from another region, and it makes May the first female main character with a Water-type first partner.
  

  

• Snorunt (AG108) is still Ash’s most recent Ice-type capture. Its only official defeat before evolving came against Juan (AG110), and as Glalie it fought its last on-screen battle against Tyson (AG131).
• A Real Cleffa-Hanger (AG134) is Misty’s last main-series appearance, flashbacks aside, until Alola, Kanto! (SM043), 573 episodes later; the previous episode is the last visit to Professor Oak’s lab until SM042 and the last time all of Ash’s Pokémon appear together until the Journeys series.
• A Cacturne for the Worse (AG103) is the first episode in 325 with no Generation II Pokémon at all, and one of the rare episodes in which Team Rocket never meet the heroes, recite their motto or blast off.
• Jigglypuff’s song in Rough, Tough Jigglypuff (AG138) sends even the narrator to sleep, and the episode is the first to depict the infatuation status, when Jigglypuff’s Cute Charm leaves Mitch’s Loudred unable to attack.
• Saved by the Beldum (AG126) is the 400th episode in Bulbapedia’s alternate overall count; English Wikipedia numbers the season 369–421 in Japan, counting two 1998 specials, and 366–417 in English.
• The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (29 April 2006) was the first Pokémon animation to premiere in the US before Japan, Once in a Mawile (AG105) the first episode to air in the UK before the US, and Pasta La Vista! premiered in Spain almost two weeks before Kids’ WB showed it.
• The trading card expansions released during the US run were EX Delta Species, EX Legend Maker and EX Holon Phantoms, with EX Unseen Forces newly on sale at the premiere; EX Legend Maker brought both a Flygon ex and a Mew ex just as Drew’s Flygon and the eighth movie’s Mew were on their way — see our TCG section.

Reception

Ratings. In the November 2005 sweeps, according to figures reported by Bulbanews from Animation Insider, Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Saturdays at 10 a.m.) tied with Xiaolin Showdown as the number-one Saturday-morning broadcast programme among kids and boys aged 6–11, and ranked second among kids 2–11, tweens 9–14 and male tweens 9–14, as Kids’ WB won its 16th consecutive Saturday-morning sweep. No numeric ratings for the season have been found. In Japan only series-wide figures are documented: Advanced Generation peaked at an 11.0% Kantō rating with its first episode and averaged 7.1% (Video Research).

Fan favourites. IMDb’s episode ratings could not be checked for this page and no season-level scores are available; MyAnimeList rates the whole 192-episode Advanced Generation series 7.16, from around 126,000 users. Dogasu’s Backpack, which compared every Japanese episode with the dub, singled out the Battle Factory showdown between Charizard and Articuno (AG136) as “pretty damn awesome”, wrote that in the Grand Festival May “put up a good enough fight that we weren’t bored watching her lose”, that Combusken “really shined” and that Snorunt’s evolution was “the biggest surprise” (AG123), and found the finale, Pasta La Vista!, “really too good” to be overshadowed by talk of the change of dub company.

Critical commentary. The same site was less kind to the season’s big set pieces. It called the dub premiere, Clamperl of Wisdom, “a rather crappy episode to start a new season with”, saved only by Team Rocket; judged the Groudon–Kyogre two-parter “terrible” and “a lot less grand than it was supposed to”, asking “Do the writers of this show even PLAY the games…?”; dismissed AG120 as “the laziest clip show I’ve ever seen”; and thought the League ended in a rush — “good enough, I guess” — perhaps to bring in the Battle Frontier before the eighth movie. Signing off from the 4Kids era after “eight long years”, it was “excited” about the new dub company but warned fans not to expect “this orgy of Japanese music and non-edits”. No reviews of the VIZ DVDs or the 2018 Complete Collection have been found, and the season won no known awards.

Continue the journey with Season 9: Pokémon Battle Frontier, go back to Season 7: Pokémon Advanced Challenge, or browse every season of the Pokémon anime.