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| Season | Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl (Season 10) · The road to Hearthome: Happiny, Cynthia & Gary arc (DP038–DP047) |
| Episode | Season 10, episode 42 · English episode 506 · Japanese episode 509 · Bulbapedia code DP042 |
| English title | The Electrike Company! |
| Japanese title | ラクライ訓練センター！ Rakurai Kunren Sentā! — “Rakurai Practice Center!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 9 August 2007 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 22 December 2007 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kimi no Soba de ~Hikari no Tēma~ (By Your Side ~Hikari’s Theme~), Pop-Up Version – Grin |
| English opening | Diamond and Pearl – Chris “Breeze” Barczynski |
| Previous episode | A Stand-Up Sit-Down! (DP041) |
| Next episode | Malice In Wonderland! (DP043) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeElectrike evolves into Manectric
The Electrike Company! is the 42nd episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, the tenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 506th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 509, Bulbapedia code DP042). It first aired in Japan on 9 August 2007 and in the United States on 22 December 2007. It falls within the season’s The road to Hearthome: Happiny, Cynthia & Gary stretch (EP38–EP47).
Synopsis
The friends are relaxing by a pond while their Pokémon play when an electric attack falls out of the sky and tears up the ground beside them. An Electrike comes charging after it and accidentally zaps Ash, and its apologetic Trainer, a Pokémon Breeder named Jaco, follows, admitting that he is far more used to raising Flying types and admiring Ash’s Staravia. Then Cal arrives, the head of a nearby training centre for Electric types, and gives the group a tour. The centre trains the Electrike line to work in the power industry, and Jaco’s Electrike is the last student left now that all the others have graduated. Cal’s own Electrike demonstrates with Charge and a Thunder it can steer left, upward and down onto the target, and Brock offers to coach the discouraged Jaco.
Team Rocket, watching from their Magikarp submarine, decide to let the twerps finish the training before stealing the Electrike. Brock teaches Jaco to brush his Pokémon, though not with a metal brush, which earns him a shock, and when Electrike tries Charge and Thunderbolt, its wild bolt hits Ash again. Pikachu shows how it is done, Pachirisu overcharges and zaps Ash too, then gets it right after a Poffin, and Brock explains that every type needs different care. That evening Pikachu trains with Electrike while James and Meowth watch, so moved by the two Pokémon’s bond that, when an impatient Jessie bursts in to steal Electrike, they refuse to help. Jessie runs off in tears, and James and Meowth join the training instead.
Next morning, Electrike finally fires Charge and Thunderbolt straight into the target, then practises on moving targets as Ash, James and Meowth run around in insulated jackets, impressing Cal when he drives up. Jessie returns in an insulated pink mecha and grabs Electrike, which glows and evolves into Manectric, now too big for the mechanical hand to hold, so Jessie grabs Pikachu instead. James and Meowth climb onto the machine and tear open a weak spot, then beg Ash to blast them off, and Manectric’s perfectly aimed Thunder destroys the mecha and sends Team Rocket flying, with James and Meowth delighted at its success. Cal declares Manectric a graduate and takes it off to work at a power plant, Jaco says a fond goodbye, and the friends head on toward Hearthome City.
Major Events
- Jaco’s Electrike evolves into Manectric
- James and Meowth help the heroes
Captures and evolutions
Electrike → Manectric#0310 · Jaco · at the Electrike training centre
Trivia
- The English title plays on the 1971 children’s series The Electric Company.
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Sinnoh story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Music from Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea used for the first time, as Electrike evolves
- An alternate cut of Together as background music
Part of our Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.