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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Pokémon Ranger: the Deoxys Crisis arc (AG171–AG172) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 26 · English episode 443 · Japanese episode 447 · Bulbapedia code AG171 |
| English title | Pokémon Ranger – Deoxys’ Crisis! (Part 1) |
| Japanese title | ポケモンレンジャー！デオキシス・クライシス！！（前編） Pokemon Renjā! Deokishisu Kuraishisu!! (Zenpen) — “Pokémon Ranger! Deoxys Crisis!! (Part 1)” |
| First aired (Japan) | 13 April 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 28 October 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Supāto! (Spurt!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) · GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~ (That Shining Day) – GARDEN |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | Second Time’s the Charm! (AG170) |
| Next episode | Pokémon Ranger – Deoxys’ Crisis! (Part 2) (AG172) |
Plot episodeRanger special, part 1Aired out of order in the US
Pokémon Ranger – Deoxys’ Crisis! (Part 1) is the 26th episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 443rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 447, Bulbapedia code AG171). It first aired in Japan on 13 April 2006 and in the United States on 28 October 2006. It falls within the season’s Pokémon Ranger: the Deoxys Crisis stretch (EP171–EP172).
Aired out of order: Cartoon Network premiered the two-parter as an hour-long special on 28 October 2006, before AG162–AG170, to promote the DS game Pokémon Ranger. pocketmonsters.net’s calendar also lists the two parts on 3 and 10 December 2006, probably repeats.
Synopsis
The group are travelling on, with May one Ribbon short of the Kanto Grand Festival, Brock looking forward to visiting Pewter City and Ash preparing for the Battle Pyramid, when an aurora lights up the sky above a cliffside lookout and a flock of Swablu and Altaria scatters in confusion. Pikachu starts sparking and feeling ill, none of their Poké Balls will open and Max’s PokéNav is dead. Then they spot Ranger Solana, who is already helping the affected Pokémon. She captures an Altaria with her Capture Styler, which is shielded against electromagnetism, and its Refresh heals the flock and leads them to safety. Solana explains that disturbances in the Earth’s geomagnetic field are to blame. Pikachu suddenly sees a Deoxys emerge from a portal in the sky, and Max meets its gaze and glimpses a strange vision before it vanishes.
At the Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy reports that the computers have been down for about a week. Solana recalls a similar incident in LaRousse City, where Professor Lund linked the disturbances to a meteorite, and Joy remembers that one crashed in the nearby mountains ten years ago. Solana sets off alone with a map, refusing to let Max come because it is too dangerous, but he follows her anyway and the others soon catch up, so she lets them join her. Team Rocket, who have overheard everything, decide to catch Deoxys for their boss. In a cave the disturbance comes and goes, and Solana captures a Miltank in case it can help. At the meteorite, Deoxys appears, switching into Attack Forme to fire Psycho Boost and into Defense Forme to block Pikachu’s Thunderbolt. It can only be captured in its Normal Forme, but every time Solana tries, it changes into Speed Forme or Defense Forme and escapes.
Max can hear Deoxys trying to communicate, and Solana’s scanner shows that it is in pain. Miltank’s Heal Bell soothes it back into Normal Forme, but when Solana tries again it blasts everyone with Psycho Boost and Miltank flees. Team Rocket then arrive with their motto, and Deoxys knocks everyone away except Meowth. While Meowth tries to talk to it, Max climbs the meteorite, and Deoxys seals the three of them inside a Safeguard barrier. Since Meowth cannot understand it, Deoxys takes control of his body and speaks through him, admitting that it is frightened. Through Max’s mind it shares images of its long, cold, lonely journey through space on the meteorite. Then it opens a portal and pulls Max and Meowth through into another dimension.
Major Events
- Pokémon Ranger and the Deoxys Crisis, part 1. Solana returns
- A meteorite’s geomagnetic disturbance disables Poké Balls and sickens Pokémon
- Deoxys speaks through Meowth and pulls Max and Meowth into its dimension
- The anime debut of Deoxys’s Speed Forme
- Professor Lund’s research makes Destiny Deoxys canon
- First episode by OLM Team Iguchi and first credited to director Norihiko Sudō
- Aired out of order in the US
Pokémon making their anime debut
Deoxys#0386 · AG171
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- No To be continued card
- Jessie’s nickname “Deoki-chan” for Deoxys dropped
- Deoxys’s first cry removed; otherwise it keeps its Japanese voice
- The cold open is rewritten with lines such as “Raise the roof” and “stomping grounds”, which Dogasu called “pretty horrific”
- Music from Destiny Deoxys
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.