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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off arc (AG093–AG096) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 4 · English episode 369 · Japanese episode 372 · Bulbapedia code AG096 |
| English title | Training Wrecks |
| Japanese title | 筋肉バトル！？ダブルバトル！！ Kinniku Batoru!? Daburu Batoru!! — “Muscle Battle!? Double Battle!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 30 September 2004 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 October 2005 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Challenger!! – Rica Matsumoto · Smile – Toshiko Ezaki |
| English opening | Unbeatable – David Rolfe |
| Pokémon Trainer’s Choice | Which comes first? (Poliwhirl / Poliwag / Poliwrath) → Poliwag |
| Previous episode | The Evolutionary War (AG095) |
| Next episode | Gaining Groudon (AG097) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeAsh & Pikachu blast offDouble Battle win
Training Wrecks is the 4th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 369th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 372, Bulbapedia code AG096). It first aired in Japan on 30 September 2004 and in the United States on 8 October 2005. It falls within the season’s Toward Mossdeep: Spoink, Relicanth & a blast-off stretch (EP93–EP96).
Synopsis
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 sinks, the trio bickering over whose fault it was. Following the sound of rhythmic chanting, Ash and his friends find a training camp run by a burly coach named Rocky, whose students sweat through gruelling drills on the principle that strong Trainers raise strong Pokémon. The campers look like triathletes, and their Pokémon, including a Blastoise, a trio of Geodude and an Electrode, train alongside them. Brock, Max and Ash dive in with enthusiasm, and May is dragged along despite her best efforts to sit it out. Not far away, James persuades Jessie and Meowth that they should get in shape too, convinced that muscles are the missing ingredient in their plans to catch Pikachu.
Rocky challenges Ash to a Double Battle, Pikachu and Grovyle against his Walrein and Quagsire. Quagsire’s Water and Ground typing lets it soak up every Thunderbolt, and Walrein’s Ice Ball pounds both of Ash’s Pokémon. Watching closely, Ash notices that the bigger the Ice Ball grows, the longer Walrein takes to charge it. He waits for Walrein to wind up a huge one, has Pikachu fire a Thunderbolt that Quagsire must stay put to absorb, and sends Grovyle in with Leaf Blade. Pikachu then leaps onto Grovyle’s leaf, is catapulted toward Walrein and unleashes Thunder from the air. Both of Rocky’s Pokémon faint, and the coach admits he has learned something himself and starts to think about leaving the island to travel.
Rocky points the group to their ferry, and they board at sunset, tired but pleased with their workout. Team Rocket, dressed as sailors, offer to look after Pikachu “for safe-keeping” during the crossing, and when the heroes see through the disguise a tug-of-war breaks out on the deck with Pikachu stretched between them. The frightened Pikachu lets loose a Thunderbolt that blasts the trio and everyone in Ash’s party clean off the ship. It is the first time Ash and Pikachu have ever blasted off alongside Team Rocket, a gag the series will not repeat for another 787 episodes. The ferry steams away toward Mossdeep City without them, leaving the heroes and the villains adrift together somewhere out in the open sea, and setting up the encounter with Team Magma that follows.
Major Events
- Ash wins a Double Battle against Rocky’s Walrein and Quagsire with a Grovyle-launched Thunder
- Ash and Pikachu blast off with Team Rocket for the first time (next in JN072)
- The group are left lost at sea, setting up the Magma–Aqua finale
Trivia
- The English title plays on a train wreck.
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.
Changes in the English Dub
- The neck removed from Giovanni’s wine glass
- The blame for the submarine flooding and the “about to explode” line reassigned
- Music from Mewtwo Strikes Back reused
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.