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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · The Ever Grande Conference arc (AG124–AG131) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 32 · English episode 397 · Japanese episode 401 · Bulbapedia code AG125 |
| English title | Like a Meowth to a Flame |
| Japanese title | サイユウシティ到着！長靴をはいたニャース！？ Saiyū Shiti Tōchaku! Nagagutsu o Haita Nyāsu!? — “Arrival in Saiyu City! Nyarth in Boots!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 21 April 2005 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 4 March 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 | What does Kingdra begin as? (Misdreavus / Horsea / Marill) → Horsea |
| Previous episode | Island Time (AG124) |
| Next episode | Saved by the Beldum (AG126) |
Plot episodeTyson debutsEver Grande City
Like a Meowth to a Flame is the 32nd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 397th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 401, Bulbapedia code AG125). It first aired in Japan on 21 April 2005 and in the United States on 4 March 2006. It falls within the season’s The Ever Grande Conference stretch (EP124–EP131).
The original Kids’ WB broadcast ran the previous season’s opening, This Dream, under the end credits, with a ©1997–2004 notice.
Synopsis
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. In a narrow back street a flock of Murkrow steals her guidebook, and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt only scatters them briefly before a Trainer named Tyson arrives with a Meowth wearing boots, a hat and a scarf, and drives them off. Tyson is heading to the same ramen shop, eats with the group, and explains that he has entered the tournament and has been chosen as a torch runner. At the Pokémon Center the League President Charles Goodshow, Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy and a crowd of spectators await the arrival of the sacred flame, lit from Moltres. Goodshow greets Ash and Brock as old friends, and Team Rocket’s Meowth seethes with envy at Tyson’s dapper Meowth.
Goodshow’s limousine takes the group to the stadium, where Ash registers for the Conference. When Professor Oak calls and offers to send over some of the Pokémon at his lab, Ash decides to compete only with the team that has travelled with him through Hoenn. Then the flame is stolen. An “Officer Jenny”, in fact one of Team Rocket in disguise, has lured the guards away with a fake report of a Moltres sighting, and Jessie and James escape on a motorcycle with the torch. Tyson and Ash give chase through the streets, and after a long pursuit the thieves take to their balloon, where Meowth bats Pikachu’s Thunderbolt straight back at him to keep the stolen torch, and the opening ceremony is in danger of starting without its sacred flame.
Tyson’s Metagross drags the balloon down with Confusion, and at Goodshow’s suggestion Ash’s Glalie freezes Team Rocket with Ice Beam. Ash grabs the flame, but the trio break free and it falls; Jessie throws Meowth after it, but Tyson’s Meowth catches the torch in mid-air, kicks its rival aside, sets the flame down safely and blasts Team Rocket’s Meowth off with Iron Tail before a Thunderbolt sends Jessie and James after him. Goodshow thanks Ash and Tyson, and the two Trainers say they look forward to meeting in battle. The episode opens the seven-part Ever Grande Conference arc, and it is Goodshow’s last speaking appearance in the anime. May and Max meet the League President for the first time, while Ash and Brock remember him from the Indigo Plateau.
Major Events
- Arrival in Ever Grande City
- Tyson debuts with his booted Meowth
- Ash registers and decides to use only the Pokémon that travelled with him in Hoenn
- The torch, lit from Moltres’s flame, is stolen and recovered
- Charles Goodshow’s last speaking role
- Metagross debuts
Pokémon making their anime debut
Metagross#0376 · AG125
Trivia
- The English title plays on "like a moth to a flame".
- The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Japanese text erased from the ramen shop
- Ramen becomes “chicken noodle soup”
- Goodshow is called a professor
- Instrumental Advance Adventure
- The original Kids’ WB broadcast ran This Dream under the end credits
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.