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| Season | Pokémon DP: Galactic Battles (Season 12) · The snowbound road north arc (DP118–DP125) |
| Episode | Season 12, episode 16 · English episode 583 · Japanese episode 588 · Bulbapedia code DP121 |
| English title | The Lonely Snover! |
| Japanese title | さびしがりやのユキカブリ！ Sabishigariya no Yukikaburi! — “The Lonely Yukikaburi!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 2 April 2009 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 22 August 2009 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Aya Matsui |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Hai Tatchi! (High Touch!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) & Hikari (Megumi Toyoguchi) · Moeyo Gizamimi Pichū! (Get Fired Up, Spiky-eared Pichu!) – Shōko Nakagawa |
| English opening | Battle Cry – (Stand Up!), Version 2 – Erin Bowman |
| Previous episode | The Mysterious Creatures, Pocket Monsters! (DP120) |
| Next episode | Stopped in the Name of Love! (DP122) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeGrotle learns Rock ClimbJapan goes HD
The Lonely Snover! is the 16th episode of Pokémon DP: Galactic Battles, the twelfth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 583rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 588, Bulbapedia code DP121). It first aired in Japan on 2 April 2009 and in the United States on 22 August 2009. It falls within the season’s The snowbound road north stretch (EP118–EP125).
Premiered on 22 August 2009 with the new widescreen version of Battle Cry – (Stand Up!), although Cartoon Network still showed the episode itself in 4:3; Canada’s YTV aired it uncropped.
Synopsis
A lonely Snover plays pranks on Ash’s group to get their attention, and when Team Rocket kidnap it, Grotle learns Rock Climb to come to the rescue. Pausing on the way to Snowpoint City, Ash trains Grotle against Chimchar, and Grotle’s slowness proves a weakness even though it wins the bout.
Snover then freezes the group with Powder Snow, trips them with Grass Knot, binds them with Ingrain and puts them to sleep with Grass Whistle, before hugging Ash and sharing its berries. The friends realise it only wanted company, and it stays for dinner and the night, until Team Rocket snatch it and its berries with a robot arm.
The next morning Team Rocket return and cage both Snover and Grotle beneath their balloon. Grotle breaks out with Energy Ball, then learns Rock Climb to race up a canyon wall, slashes the balloon, and catches the falling Snover. A teacher and her pupils befriend Snover, and she tells Dawn about a Contest in Sandalstraw Town.
Major Events
- A lonely Snover plays pranks for attention
- Grotle learns Rock Climb to rescue it from Team Rocket
- Japan’s first HD 16:9 episode, with a new ending, Get Fired Up, Spiky-eared Pichu!, a new title card and new eyecatches
- The dub’s opening becomes Version 2
- Snover’s TV debut
Pokémon making their anime debut
Snover#0459 · DP121
Trivia
- The English title plays on “nothing — it is a direct translation of the Japanese title, the first since DP014’s”.
- The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Sinnoh story.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Japanese version’s new eyecatches, and its quiz about where the Spiky-eared Pichu appeared, are missing from the dub, which has no eyecatches
- The Spiky-eared Pichu on the new Japanese title card is left out
- Cartoon Network showed the episode in 4:3 although it was made in HD (Canada’s YTV aired it uncropped)
- Brock calls the woman “a beautiful and caring teacher”, although the Japanese version never says she is a teacher
- The Pokémon cries at the end are removed
- New Japanese ending Get Fired Up, Spiky-eared Pichu!
- The English opening switches to its widescreen Version 2
- Together2008 during Rock Climb is replaced by instrumental music in the dub
- An Oración remix as Snover’s Grass Whistle
Part of our Pokémon DP: Galactic Battles guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.