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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off arc (AG093–AG096) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 3 · English episode 368 · Japanese episode 371 · Bulbapedia code AG095 |
| English title | The Evolutionary War |
| Japanese title | ハンテールとサクラビス！進化の謎！ Hantēru to Sakurabisu! Shinka no Nazo! — “Huntail and Sakurabyss! The Riddle of Evolution!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 23 September 2004 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 1 October 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 effective against Mudkip? (Treecko / Torchic / Mudkip) → Treecko |
| Previous episode | The Relicanth Really Can (AG094) |
| Next episode | Training Wrecks (AG096) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeClamperl evolveProfessor Birch returns
The Evolutionary War is the 3rd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 368th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 371, Bulbapedia code AG095). It first aired in Japan on 23 September 2004 and in the United States on 1 October 2005. It falls within the season’s Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off stretch (EP93–EP96).
Synopsis
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 both species evolve from Clamperl. Team Rocket, chasing in their Magikarp submarine, wedge it between two boulders and crumple the hull. At the Pokémon Center on Island A, Nurse Joy introduces the racers as her class and explains their feud: the Huntail Trainers of one island and the Gorebyss Trainers of the other are bitter rivals. Professor Birch happens to be on the island studying Clamperl evolution at the outdoor pool, and he explains that a Clamperl becomes Huntail with a Deep Sea Tooth or Gorebyss with a Deep Sea Scale. His water samples show traces of Scale on Island B and minerals linked to the Tooth on Island C, and two students, Keith and Nancy, quietly listen in.
Team Rocket strike at the pool with a net, but Corphish slices it apart, and Crabhammer, the Clamperl’s Water Gun and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt repel Seviper and Cacnea. Keith wants a Huntail and Nancy a Gorebyss, so the group help them search the islands. On Island B they find a Deep Sea Scale and give it to Nancy’s Clamperl; on Island C they find a Deep Sea Tooth, which Nancy hands to Keith’s Clamperl. Holding the items is not enough on its own, so following Birch’s advice the two Clamperl are transferred through the Pokémon Center machine. When they arrive, Nancy’s Clamperl has become a Gorebyss and Keith’s a Huntail, and the two youngsters begin to see the point in working together.
Team Rocket return in a giant Kingler mecha. The new Huntail’s Bite and Grovyle’s Bullet Seed bounce harmlessly off its armoured shell, and Jessie gloats that “what you seed is what you get”. Huntail and Gorebyss then join forces for a Water Pulse that knocks the machine backward. The trio net both Pokémon, Grovyle’s Leaf Blade cuts them free, and Gorebyss lifts the mecha with Confusion before Huntail’s Screech and Pikachu’s Thunder send Team Rocket flying. Having seen what a Huntail and a Gorebyss can achieve side by side, the children of the two islands agree to drop their rivalry. Keith and Nancy set off to carry the news of the truce, Birch returns to his research, and Ash and his friends board their boat and continue toward Mossdeep City.
Major Events
- Professor Birch returns to study Clamperl evolution
- Keith’s Clamperl evolves into Huntail with a Deep Sea Tooth and Nancy’s into Gorebyss with a Deep Sea Scale, via the Pokémon Center transfer machine
- The rival islands make peace
- Huntail and Gorebyss debut
Pokémon making their anime debut
Huntail#0367 · AG095
Gorebyss#0368 · AG095
Captures and evolutions
- Clamperl → Huntail#0367 · Keith · Deep Sea Tooth
- Clamperl → Gorebyss#0368 · Nancy · Deep Sea Scale
Trivia
- The English title plays on the Revolutionary War.
- 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
- A Crabhammer hit to the head covered by an impact star
- The order of the final Thunder and Screech swapped
- Instrumental Advance Adventure as background music
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.