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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Mulberry, Pewter & the Battle Pyramid arc (AG173–AG179) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 28 · English episode 445 · Japanese episode 449 · Bulbapedia code AG173 |
| English title | All That Glitters is Not Golden! |
| Japanese title | ウソッキー！黄金伝説！？ Usokkī! Ōgon Densetsu!? — “Usokkie! Gold Legend!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 20 April 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 28 November 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Supāto! (Spurt!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) · Watashi, Makenai! ~Haruka no Tēma~ (I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~) – Haruka (KAORI.) |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | Pokémon Ranger – Deoxys’ Crisis! (Part 2) (AG172) |
| Next episode | New Plot, Odd Lot! (AG174) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeGolden SudowoodoNew Japanese ending
All That Glitters is Not Golden! is the 28th episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 445th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 449, Bulbapedia code AG173). It first aired in Japan on 20 April 2006 and in the United States on 28 November 2006. It falls within the season’s Mulberry, Pewter & the Battle Pyramid stretch (EP173–EP179).
Aired on Tuesday 28 November 2006, the day after Second Time’s the Charm!: because the Ranger two-parter had already been shown in October, US viewers went straight from the Battle Tower to the golden Sudowoodo.
Synopsis
Stopping for lunch on the way to the Battle Pyramid, Ash and May go to fetch water and find a golden Sudowoodo beside a lake. Pikachu’s Thunderbolt hits it, but when Ash throws a Poké Ball the Sudowoodo bats it straight back into his face and runs off. In a nearby town, where the restaurant looks like an old Western saloon, May spots a poster for a Contest in Mulberry City, and when she mentions the golden Sudowoodo the patrons mob her, each determined to catch it. A young man named Keenan hustles the group into his house to escape the crowd and shows them a photo of himself with the Sudowoodo, which he says is his. Its gold coating makes it water-resistant, he explains, which disappoints May. Brock wonders whether it polished itself on rare metals the way an Onix can become Steelix. Ash offers to help find it, but Keenan seems strangely reluctant, and Team Rocket are listening outside.
At the lake, Jessie decides a goddess must be responsible and tries to offer James as a tribute, then has Meowth disguise himself as a Sudowoodo to push into the water. When the real one bursts out, Jessie, equipped with a diving suit, rocket pack and net, catches it. Ash’s group and Keenan arrive, and James and Meowth flee from Pikachu’s sparking cheeks. Keenan tries to recall the Sudowoodo, but it dodges the beam, which hits Jessie and leaves her briefly paralysed. The Sudowoodo is clearly unhappy with its Trainer, and even Bonsly cannot persuade it to come back. Chasing after it, Keenan trips and confesses the truth: he experimented on it to cure its hatred of water, the treatment turned it golden, and it ran away from him.
The group agree to help bring it home so the change can be reversed, but Team Rocket’s balloon drives the Sudowoodo into town with nets, where the mob gives chase and it ignores Keenan’s calls. The trio then unleash their “Potted Bonsai Boy Mark 1” mecha, which is proof against Pikachu’s Thunderbolt. Keenan tries to fight it with a shovel and is knocked aside, but he clings to the machine’s legs to protect his Pokémon. Moved by his courage, the Sudowoodo knocks the mecha back and wrecks it with Brick Break, and Pikachu blasts Team Rocket away. Keenan apologises and hugs his Sudowoodo, and back at his house his machine restores its normal colour. Now an ordinary Sudowoodo, it walks straight past the mob unnoticed, and Keenan wishes May luck in the Mulberry Contest.
Major Events
- A golden Sudowoodo runs away from the Trainer whose experiment turned it gold
- Brick Break wrecks Team Rocket’s mecha
- The Mulberry Contest is announced
- New Japanese ending I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~
- Solana and Jack Walker join the Japanese opening
- The last episode by OLM Team Ota
Trivia
- The English title plays on the Merchant of Venice line "All that glisters is not gold", already used for EP184.
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- New Japanese ending I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~, also heard in karaoke
- A ballad version of Battle Frontier and the Pokémon Symphonic Medley
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.