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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · Izabe Island: Harley, Ludicolo & Snorunt arc (AG102–AG109) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 17 · English episode 382 · Japanese episode 385 · Bulbapedia code AG109 |
| English title | Do I Hear a Ralts? |
| Japanese title | ラルトスを救え！急げマサト！ Rarutosu o Sukue! Isoge Masato! — “Rescue Ralts! Hurry Masato!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 6 January 2005 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 21 January 2006 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Aya Matsui |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Pokémon Symphonic Medley – Pokémon Symphonic Orchestra · GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~ (That Shining Day) – GARDEN |
| English opening | Unbeatable – David Rolfe |
| Pokémon Trainer’s Choice | Which is not a dual type? (Medicham / Linoone / Lunatone) → Linoone |
| Previous episode | Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snorunt! (AG108) |
| Next episode | The Great Eight Fate! (AG110) |
Plot episodeMax & RaltsMeowth’s first Pokédex entry
Do I Hear a Ralts? is the 17th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 382nd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 385, Bulbapedia code AG109). It first aired in Japan on 6 January 2005 and in the United States on 21 January 2006. It falls within the season’s Izabe Island: Harley, Ludicolo & Snorunt stretch (EP102–EP109).
Synopsis
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 making slower progress than Max expected. Ash’s new Snorunt pops out of its ball to freeze Ash and Pikachu, and Max, hearing a faint cry, runs off and finds a sick Ralts lying beside a lake. Pikachu coaxes it into eating a little soup. When Snorunt startles Ralts, Ash and Max scold it, and it retaliates by freezing Ash’s cap and Max’s glasses; the pair’s frantic dancing makes Ralts laugh, and everyone realises Snorunt was only trying to cheer it up. Brock finds that Ralts is running a high fever, so Max volunteers to carry it to a Pokémon Center himself.
Team Rocket decide Ralts would make a fine gift for Giovanni. James poses as an old man claiming to own it while Jessie and Meowth dress as Gardevoir and Kirlia, but Ash’s Pokédex scans Meowth and exposes them, giving Meowth his first Pokédex entry in the series. In the battle Chimecho’s Heal Bell undoes Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, Iron Tail clashes with Poison Tail, and Ludicolo’s Razor Leaf blocks Pin Missile. With Ralts worsening, Ash sends Max on ahead alone, and when Wobbuffet’s Mirror Coat and Seviper’s Haze let the trio slip away in pursuit, Max is on his own in the woods. Ralts refuses berries until Snorunt freezes some and Max uses them as a cold compress on its forehead, after which it finally eats.
Team Rocket catch up, but a real Gardevoir and Kirlia blast them away. Kirlia squabbles with Snorunt and fires Psychic, and the weakened Ralts protects everyone with Safeguard, exhausting itself. Satisfied that Max can be trusted, Gardevoir teleports him and Ralts toward help, and at the Pokémon Center Ralts goes into intensive care while May comforts her sobbing brother until Nurse Joy announces a full recovery. When Max calls for Ralts’s family, Team Rocket appear in disguise again, and the recovered Ralts blasts them off with Psychic before the real Gardevoir and Kirlia finish James. Max promises Ralts that he will come back for it when he becomes a Trainer, and Ralts teleports away with its family, speaking to him telepathically as Jirachi once did.
Major Events
- Max nurses a sick wild Ralts and promises to come back for it when he becomes a Trainer
- Meowth’s first Pokédex entry
- The Japanese ending switches to the alternate-lyrics GLORY DAY
- Ralts and Gardevoir debut
Pokémon making their anime debut
Ralts#0280 · AG109
Gardevoir#0282 · AG109
Trivia
- The English title plays on the 1965 musical Do I Hear a Waltz?.
- The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Smile plays as background music in Japan, replaced in the dub by a song called “Please”
- Japanese ending switches to the alternate-lyrics GLORY DAY
- Music from The Power of One
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.