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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off arc (AG093–AG096) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 1 · English episode 366 · Japanese episode 369 · Bulbapedia code AG093 |
| English title | Clamperl of Wisdom |
| Japanese title | パールルとバネブー！しんじゅをさがせ！ Pāruru to Banebū! Shinju o Sagase! — “Pearlulu and Baneboo! Search for the Pearl!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 9 September 2004 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 17 September 2005 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Yukiyoshi Ōhashi |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Challenger!! – Rica Matsumoto · Smile – Toshiko Ezaki |
| English opening | Unbeatable – David Rolfe |
| Pokémon Trainer’s Choice | Which is most affected by Ember? (Seedot / Lapras / Ludicolo) → Seedot |
| Next episode | The Relicanth Really Can (AG094) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeDub season premiereSpoink returns
Clamperl of Wisdom is the 1st episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 366th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 369, Bulbapedia code AG093). It first aired in Japan on 9 September 2004 and in the United States on 17 September 2005. It falls within the season’s Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off stretch (EP93–EP96).
The Kids’ WB season premiere on 17 September 2005 — the last Pokémon season premiere on the network — introduced the new English opening Unbeatable and a new title card showing the Badge and Ribbon cases.
Synopsis
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 is the same Spoink they met earlier in Hoenn. Its happy bouncing ends in disaster when it trips over a life preserver and the pearl on its head drops into the sea. Torkoal leaps in even though it cannot swim, Ash dives after it, and Corphish, Brock’s Mudkip and Lombre comb the water, but nobody finds the pearl. The desperate Spoink uses Psychic to plant a round buoy on its head instead, and once the boat docks at Maisie Island it starts trying out every round thing it can find as a substitute: a boy’s Azurill, little Madeleine’s Shroomish, a Swablu, a Castform and even a full-grown Wailmer, forcing Ash and Brock to keep pulling the startled Pokémon off its head.
The island scientist Isaiah explains that Spoink’s pearls actually come from Clamperl, and he shows the group the Clamperl living in his laboratory pool along with the rarest piece in his collection, a blue pearl that Spoink stares at with obvious longing. When Team Rocket break in that night to steal the blue pearl, Spoink snatches it first with Psychic and escapes through a window, and the trio, disguised as janitors, report the theft so that Spoink takes the blame. Ash’s Swellow and May’s Beautifly join the search. On the beach Spoink slips, and the blue pearl knocks a pink pearl loose from a sleeping wild Clamperl; the pink pearl lands neatly on Spoink’s head while the blue one ends up inside the Clamperl. Beautifly leads everyone to the pair, and Spoink offers to swap the pearls back.
Before the trade can happen, Team Rocket attack behind a smoke bomb. Jessie’s Seviper bites Ash’s Torkoal only to bash its own head on Iron Defense, and Haze covers the trio’s escape with the wild Clamperl stuffed in a sack. In their balloon they coax, pry and tickle the shell without success; Meowth gets clamped, Jessie takes a Water Gun to the face, and Chimecho’s efforts fail too. Isaiah and the heroes catch up, and Spoink’s Psychic flings the villains back against their own balloon. Grovyle outfights Dustox with Bullet Seed, Quick Attack and Leaf Blade, Spoink’s Psybeam and Psychic stop Cacnea’s Pin Missile and Needle Arm, and Clamperl finally opens its shell to blast Team Rocket away with Water Gun. Spoink switches the pearls as promised so the blue pearl can go back to Isaiah, and the grateful Clamperl gives its pink pearl to Spoink to keep.
Major Events
- Dub season premiere: Unbeatable replaces This Dream and a new title card shows the Badge and Ribbon cases
- Spoink returns and gets a new pearl from a wild Clamperl on Maisie Island
- Isaiah and Madeleine
- Torkoal uses Iron Defense
- Megumi Hayashibara returns as Jessie after maternity leave
- Last Japanese episode before Pokémon Emerald
- Clamperl and Luvdisc debut
Pokémon making their anime debut
Clamperl#0366 · AG093
Luvdisc#0370 · AG093
Trivia
- The English title plays on "pearl of wisdom".
- The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.
Changes in the English Dub
- New dub title card showing the Badge and Ribbon cases, 2 seconds shorter than Japan’s, with the case’s Poké Ball left unedited
- Gold border on James’s cards painted out
- 9 seconds of routine time cuts (first shot, title screen, after the breaks, To be continued)
- Max’s line that Torkoal is a Fire type dropped
- New English opening Unbeatable replaces This Dream
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.