Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies (Season 15)


Season	Season 15 of the English dub · the second season of Pokémon the Series: Black & White, covering the last 36 episodes of Japan’s Best Wishes! and the first 13 of Best Wishes! Season 2
Series	Best Wishes! series (ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュ Pocket Monsters Best Wishes!, BW049–BW084; ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュシーズン2 Best Wishes! Season 2, from BW085)
Region	Unova — from Nimbasa City over the Driftveil Drawbridge to Driftveil City and Milos Island, through Chargestone Cave to Mistralton City, Ambiga Town, Twist Mountain and Icirrus City, then by sea to Virbank City and on to Undella Town, Lacunosa Town and Humilau City
Episodes	49 produced, 49 aired in Japan (BW049–BW097) and 49 dubbed, on TV and on video — nothing skipped, banned or left undubbed
First episode	Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader! (BW049) · Japan 22 September 2011 · US 18 February 2012
Last episode	Unova’s Survival Crisis! (BW097) · Japan 4 October 2012 · US 26 January 2013
Japanese opening themes	Besuto Uisshu! (ベストウイッシュ！ Best Wishes!) – Rica Matsumoto (BW049–BW084) · Yajirushi ni Natte! (やじるしになって！ Be an Arrow!) – Rica Matsumoto (BW085–BW097)
Japanese ending themes	Pokémon Ieru kana? BW (Can You Name All the Pokémon? BW) – Takeshi Tsuruno (BW049–BW060) · Nanairo Āchi (七色アーチ Seven-colored Arch) – Pokémon BW Choral Gang (BW061–BW078) · Mite Mite☆Kotchitchi (みてみて☆こっちっち Look Look☆Here) – Momoiro Clover Z (BW079–BW096) · Roketto-dan yo Eien ni (Team Rocket Forever) – Jessie, James & Meowth (BW097, original broadcast only)
English opening theme	Rival Destinies – Alex Nackman & Kathryn Raio (all 49 episodes; its instrumental plays under the end credits)
Travelling companions	Ash Ketchum & Pikachu, Iris and Cilan throughout; Bianca (BW049, BW062–BW063, BW070–BW073), Stephan (BW069–BW073), Dawn (BW085–BW093) and Cameron (BW093–BW094) for stretches; the Mythical Meloetta follows Ash from BW082
Badges won	Bolt Badge (Nimbasa Gym, BW050), Quake Badge (Driftveil Gym, BW061), Jet Badge (Mistralton Gym, BW068), Freeze Badge (Icirrus Gym, BW079), Toxic Badge (Virbank Gym, BW084) — eight Unova Badges, enough for the Unova League
Tournaments	Clubsplosion, Ambiga Town (BW070–BW073): won by Stephan, Ash in the Top 4 · Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup, Lacunosa Town (BW090–BW093): won by Trip, Ash runner-up
Related movies	Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice (Japan 14 July 2012, between BW087 and BW088 · US TV 8 December 2012) · White—Victini and Zekrom (US TV 11 February 2012, a week before the premiere)
Previous season	Season 14: Black & White
Following season	Season 16: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies is the fifteenth season of the English-language Pokémon anime and the second season of Pokémon the Series: Black & White. It covers Japanese episodes BW049 to BW097, which TV Tokyo broadcast from 22 September 2011 to 4 October 2012, and all 49 ran on Cartoon Network, in the same order, from 18 February 2012 to 26 January 2013. In Japan the season straddles two series: BW049 to BW084 are the last 36 episodes of Pocket Monsters Best Wishes!, which ended with a one-hour Virbank Gym special on 14 June 2012, and BW085 to BW097, with the new opening Be an Arrow!, are the first 13 of Best Wishes! Season 2. Unlike the season before it, nothing was lost on the way: every episode was broadcast, dubbed and released on video.

Ash, Iris and Cilan cross Unova from Nimbasa City to Undella Town, and Ash wins five Badges — Elesa’s Bolt Badge in Nimbasa, Clay’s Quake Badge in Driftveil as Roggenrola evolves into Boldore, Skyla’s Jet Badge in Mistralton as Tranquill becomes Unfezant, Brycen’s Freeze Badge in Icirrus and, with the Opelucid Gym closed, Roxie’s Toxic Badge in Virbank City — to complete his eight and qualify for the Unova League. His only new Pokémon is the sunglasses-wearing Krokorok that has dogged the group since it was a Sandile, but his team grows up around it: Swadloon evolves into Leavanny, Tepig into Pignite against the Trainer who abandoned it, and Krokorok into Krookodile in the Junior Cup. He battles the Unova Champion, Alder, reaches the Top 4 of Don George’s Clubsplosion and finishes runner-up to Trip in the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup, while Iris catches a rogue Dragonite and Cilan’s Dwebble evolves into Crustle.

Team Rocket and Dr. Zager move from the forces of nature — freeing Tornadus and Thundurus on Milos Island, where Iris, as a shrine maiden, summons Landorus to stop them — to a time gate in Twist Mountain and finally the Mythical Meloetta, which follows Ash invisibly from Virbank City. The second half brings back Cynthia, who hosts the group at her villa in Undella Town, and Dawn, who travels with them for eight episodes before leaving for Johto, and the season ends with Giovanni’s Operation Tempest, in which the Reveal Glass turns Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus into their Therian Formes before Team Rocket withdraw from Unova. Fifty-one species make their TV debut, Japan revives its own Who’s That Pokémon?, Dare da?, and our complete episode guide below has a synopsis, both titles and the air dates for all 49 episodes.

49episodes — every one aired in Japan, dubbed and shown in order
5Unova Badges for Ash — Bolt, Quake, Jet, Freeze and Toxic, his eighth
1new Pokémon for Ash: the sunglasses Krokorok, 62 episodes after it debuted as a Sandile
6evolutions on the heroes’ teams, from Boldore (BW061) to Krookodile (BW092)
51Pokémon species make their TV debut, from Shelmet to Meloetta
2tournaments — Ash reaches the Top 4 of the Clubsplosion and the final of the Junior Cup

New foes, new friends, and dozens of never-before-seen Pokémon await Ash and Pikachu in Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies, the new season of the Pokémon animated series. As Ash and his friends continue to explore the Unova region, he’ll find himself up against the ultimate battle challenge: Alder, the Champion Master of Unova! His friends also face their own trials, one fighting for the right to continue her travels, another confronting a returning challenge from the past—and all three of them must team up to save an island from the clashing forces of three powerful and mysterious Legendary Pokémon!

— Official description

Quick Answers

How many episodes are in Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies?

49, in every count. TV Tokyo broadcast BW049 to BW097 from 22 September 2011 to 4 October 2012 — BW083 and BW084 together as a one-hour special on 14 June 2012 — and Cartoon Network showed all 49 in the same order from 18 February 2012 to 26 January 2013, as do the VIZ Media DVDs, the Australian sets and streaming services. Nothing was banned or skipped. Japan never had a “season 15”: the dub’s season joins the last 36 episodes of Best Wishes! (BW049–BW084) to the first 13 of Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW085–BW097).

Which Badges does Ash win in Rival Destinies?

Five, completing his eight. Pikachu’s Iron Tail beats Elesa’s Tynamo for the Bolt Badge (BW050); Roggenrola evolves into Boldore and survives Excadrill’s Horn Drill with Sturdy to win Clay’s Quake Badge in an underground mine (BW061); Tranquill evolves into Unfezant and beats Skyla’s Swanna with Aerial Ace for the Jet Badge (BW068); Krokorok copies the catch-and-throw trick of Bianca’s Emboar to beat Brycen’s Beartic for the Freeze Badge (BW079); and, with the Opelucid Gym closed, Pikachu’s Static paralyses Roxie’s Garbodor for the Toxic Badge (BW084), which qualifies him for the Unova League, three months away. It is the first time Ash’s Badges differ from the games’, where Drayden’s Legend Badge is the eighth.

What Pokémon does Ash catch in Rival Destinies?

Only one: the sunglasses-wearing Krokorok, which had kept challenging Pikachu since it was a Sandile and joins Ash after a fair rematch in Battling the Bully! (BW065) — 62 episodes after the species’ debut, the longest gap between a debut and Ash catching that Pokémon. Instead, his team evolves: Roggenrola into Boldore (BW061), Tranquill into Unfezant (BW068), Swadloon into Leavanny, his first friendship evolution (BW074), Tepig into Pignite (BW077) and Krokorok into Krookodile (BW092). He ends the season with ten Pokémon, six carried at a time; Meloetta travels with him from BW082 but is never caught.

Who wins the Clubsplosion and the Junior Cup?

Stephan and Trip. Don George’s Clubsplosion in Ambiga Town (BW070–BW073) ends with Stephan’s Sawk outlasting Montgomery’s Throh, the previous year’s champion, which had knocked out Iris’s Excadrill and Ash’s Scraggy; Bianca’s Emboar beat Trip in the first round. At the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup in Lacunosa Town (BW090–BW093) Ash’s Krokorok evolves into Krookodile to beat Iris’s Dragonite in the semi-final, but Trip’s Serperior beats Pignite in the final — and then falls to a single Head Charge from the Champion Alder’s Bouffalant in the prize battle.

When does Dawn appear in Rival Destinies?

From the end of All for the Love of Meloetta! (BW085) to Goodbye, Junior Cup—Hello, Adventure! (BW093). Staying at Cynthia’s villa in Undella Town, she reunites with Ash, battles Cilan with a Counter Shield, enters the Junior Cup — where Iris’s Dragonite beats her Mamoswine in the quarter-finals — and leaves for the Wallace Cup in Johto after a drawn farewell battle between her Quilava and Pikachu. Her Cyndaquil had evolved in the undubbed special Hikari Sets Off Anew! (DPS01), so Quilava appears in English for the first time in BW086.

What is Operation Tempest?

Team Rocket’s last Unova mission. Once Dr. Zager has recorded Meloetta’s Relic Song (BW095), Giovanni arrives in person, corners Ash and Pikachu with his Persian and makes Meloetta surrender (BW096); its song raises the Abyssal Ruins from Undella Bay and reveals the Reveal Glass, which turns Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus into their Therian Formes and possesses Giovanni. Pikachu, overcharged by Thundurus’s lightning, destroys the top of the temple with a giant Electro Ball, Jessie, James and Meowth pull Giovanni clear, and he withdraws Team Rocket to Kanto as Meloetta leaves with its Protector, Ridley (BW097).

Story Arcs

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies runs for 49 episodes and follows Ash, Iris and Cilan from Nimbasa City to the Abyssal Ruins under Undella Bay. Here is how the season breaks down, with stills from our episode guide below.

Nimbasa City & the ChampionBW049–BW052

Ash meets the supermodel Gym Leader Elesa and, so that Bianca may keep travelling, battles her father’s Darmanitan and loses. Next day his carefully planned Gym battle falls apart until he trusts Pikachu, whose Iron Tail beats Tynamo for the Bolt Badge, his fourth. With the Driftveil Drawbridge closed, Cilan’s Stamp Rally ends in a Tag Battle defeat by the Subway Bosses Ingo and Emmet, and at Performers Square Ash finally meets the Unova Champion, Alder, whose battle with him ends when he falls asleep but whose lesson — that friendship between people and Pokémon matters most — frames the season.

BW049 Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader!

The road to DriftveilBW053–BW058

Standalone stops — Toby’s Maractus trio and Ash’s first official Triple Battle, the four seasonal Sawsbuck at a hidden spring, a spoiled Gothita who wants Scraggy, a shy Deino at Bobby’s Day Care — lead to Driftveil City, where Gym Leader Clay turns Ash away and the costumed hero Accelguard foils Cryogonal Man, and Cilan’s brother Chili sets out to travel before Pansear learns Solar Beam. In the background, Team Rocket and Dr. Zager fly to Milos Island and start breaking the wedges that seal the shrines of the forces of nature.

Milos Island & the forces of natureBW059–BW060

Sent by Clay for Revival Herbs, the group reaches Milos Island just as Team Rocket’s sabotage frees Tornadus and Thundurus to resume their ancient feud. Guided by Lewis and his Gothorita, Iris prays as a shrine maiden and summons Landorus, which survives Team Rocket’s attempt to box up all three Legendaries, calms the pair and restores the island, and the group sails back to Driftveil with the herbs.

BW059 Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 1

BW060 Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 2

Driftveil Gym, Chargestone Cave & the Hero’s RuinBW061–BW066

Deep in a mine, Roggenrola evolves into Boldore to win the Quake Badge — and, in Japan, the silhouette quiz Dare da? returns. In Chargestone Cave Cilan’s Dwebble evolves into Crustle in a battle with Team Rocket; Bianca and Professor Juniper then perform the anime’s first trade evolution, Shelmet and Karrablast becoming Accelgor and Escavalier, and Juniper’s father, Cedric, leads the group through the trap-filled Hero’s Ruin. The sunglasses Krokorok returns, helps a boy beat a bully and finally joins Ash, before a Bouffalant stampede splits the group.

Mistralton CityBW067–BW069

The pilot and Gym Leader Skyla hands out or withholds Badges by imagined “Air Battles”; Cilan challenges her to a real one and loses, and Ash’s Tranquill evolves into Unfezant mid-battle to win the Jet Badge, after which Skyla returns to proper Gym battles. At Mistralton Tower’s Wishing Bell Festival Stephan edges out Ash and a fake psychic to ring the bell, wishing that people would say his name right and that he will win the coming Clubsplosion.

The ClubsplosionBW070–BW073

Don George’s tournament in Ambiga Town reunites Trip, Bianca, Burgundy and Georgia. Scraggy learns an unpolished Focus Blast and wins two rounds, Bianca’s newly evolved Emboar beats Trip’s Conkeldurr and Georgia’s Bisharp, and the previous year’s champion, Montgomery, and his Throh knock out Iris’s Excadrill and then Ash’s Scraggy in the semi-final, before Stephan’s Sawk wins a gruelling final with Close Combat.

Twist Mountain to Icirrus CityBW074–BW079

Swadloon evolves into Leavanny, Ash’s first friendship evolution, and stitches leaf outfits that help rescue Axew from a Durant nest. In Twist Mountain Team Rocket and Dr. Zager revive a Cover Fossil to open a time gate, foiled by the archaeologist Ferris and the revived Tirtouga, his childhood friend, which evolves into Carracosta and returns to the ancient world. Tepig evolves into Pignite to beat Shamus, the Trainer who abandoned it, and the retired movie star Brycen, who protects Volcarona from a Pokémon Hunter, turns out to be the Icirrus Gym Leader; Krokorok beats his Beartic for the Freeze Badge.

BW076 A Restoration Confrontation! Part 2

Virbank City & the eighth BadgeBW080–BW084

With the Opelucid Gym closed, a Connoisseur’s contest in Stonesthrow Town points the group to Virbank City; on the way Iris and Georgia’s new Vanilluxe contain a moss outbreak at the Ferroseed Research Institute. At Pokéstar Studios Luke’s monster film wins the competition while the Mythical Meloetta, glimpsed by Ash, begins to follow him. The punk-rock Leader Roxie lets Ash use six Pokémon against her three, and after her Koffing, Scolipede and Garbodor knock out five of them, Pikachu’s Static wins the Toxic Badge, his eighth, in the last episode of Japan’s first Best Wishes! season.

Season 2 begins: Undella TownBW085–BW089

The Sinnoh Champion Cynthia, met in Virbank City, battles Iris — Axew learns Giga Impact against her Garchomp — and flies the group to her villa in Undella Town, where Dawn is waiting. Piplup and Oshawott compete for Meloetta, which shows its Pirouette Forme on Onix Island as Oshawott learns Hydro Pump; Detective Cilan finds a missing Cubchoo; and Iris clears a rogue Dragonite blamed for a blackout and catches it, while Team Rocket’s submarine locates the Abyssal Ruins.

BW086 Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times!

The Junior Cup, Cameron & Operation TempestBW090–BW097

At the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup in Lacunosa Town Iris’s disobedient Dragonite beats Georgia and Dawn, Krokorok evolves into Krookodile to beat it, and Trip’s Serperior beats Ash’s Pignite in the final before losing to Alder. Dawn leaves for Johto, and the forgetful Cameron wins his eighth Badge from Marlon in Humilau City. Once Team Rocket have recorded Meloetta’s Relic Song, Giovanni arrives with Operation Tempest, raises the Abyssal Ruins and uses the Reveal Glass to turn the forces of nature into their Therian Formes, until Pikachu’s supercharged Electro Ball frees Meloetta and Giovanni withdraws Team Rocket from Unova.

BW092 Ash, Iris, and Trip: Then There Were Three!

Episode Guide

All 49 episodes of Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies are listed below in Japanese broadcast order, which is also the order of the English dub, the DVDs and streaming. The # column is the season number used by Cartoon Network, VIZ Media and streaming services, and the orange code is the Bulbapedia BW number used by most fan sites. Every episode has its own page with our full synopsis, both titles, air dates, major events, Pokémon debuts, trivia and dub changes — click the title or the screenshot. US dates are the Cartoon Network premieres on Saturday mornings, from 18 February 2012 to 26 January 2013, with no new episode on 29 December 2012; in Japan, Rocking the Virbank Gym! Parts 1 and 2 (BW083–BW084) aired together as a one-hour special on 14 June 2012.

Who’s That Pokémon? continues in the English dub as its mid-episode break, the silhouette shown before the adverts and the answer just before the end credits, and each episode page gives its answer. In Japan the quiz, Dare da?, returned in Battling the King of the Mines! (BW061) for the first time since the original series, so from then on the two versions often show different Pokémon — Krokorok in English but Excadrill in Japanese in BW061 — until Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown! (BW073) became the first Black & White episode with the same Pokémon in both. Japan closed each episode with Professor Oak’s Pokémon Live Caster, often taken over by movie trailers or by Team Rocket.

#	Episode	First aired	In short
1BW049	Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader!ジムリーダーはカリスマモデル！カミツレ登場！！	Japan 22 Sep 2011 US 18 Feb 2012	Ash meets Nimbasa City’s Gym Leader, the supermodel Elesa, and ends up battling Bianca’s father so that Bianca can keep travelling. · Season premiere Episode guide →
2BW050	Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!ライモンジム！華麗なる電撃バトル！！	Japan 29 Sep 2011 US 25 Feb 2012	Ash wins the Bolt Badge from Elesa after his carefully planned strategy falls apart and he learns to trust Pikachu instead. · Bolt Badge Episode guide →
3BW051	Lost at the Stamp Rally!サトシ、デントVSサブウェイマスター！	Japan 6 Oct 2011 US 3 Mar 2012	While Cilan races to finish the Subway Bosses’ Stamp Rally, Ash and Iris spend a day out in Nimbasa City and try to reunite a lost Axew with… · Tag Battle with Ingo & Emmet Episode guide →
4BW052	Ash Versus the Champion!サトシVSチャンピオン・アデク！	Japan 13 Oct 2011 US 10 Mar 2012	At Performers Square Ash meets Unova’s Champion, Alder, but their battle ends with no winner when the Champion falls asleep. · Ash meets Alder Episode guide →
5BW053	A Maractus Musical!虹の彼方へ！マラカッチでミュージカル！！	Japan 27 Oct 2011 US 17 Mar 2012	Ash, Iris and Cilan help a performer named Toby and his three Maractus perfect their rainbow routine, and Ash fights his first official Triple Battle. · First official Triple Battle Episode guide →
6BW054	The Four Seasons of Sawsbuck!メブキジカ！春夏秋冬勢揃い！！	Japan 3 Nov 2011 US 24 Mar 2012	Ash and a photographer named Robert search a fog-bound mountain for the spring where Robert’s grandfather once photographed four Sawsbuck from… · Four seasonal Sawsbuck Episode guide →
7BW055	Scraggy and the Demanding Gothita!ズルッグとわがままゴチム！	Japan 10 Nov 2011 US 31 Mar 2012	A spoiled Gothita falls for Ash’s Scraggy and pushes her Trainer, Katharine, into demanding a trade. · Snivy beats Gothita Episode guide →
8BW056	The Lonely Deino!アイリスとモノズ！育て屋修行！！	Japan 24 Nov 2011 US 7 Apr 2012	At a Pokémon Day Care, Iris patiently wins the trust of a painfully shy Deino before its Trainer arrives to take it home. · Iris and the shy Deino Episode guide →
9BW057	The Mighty Accelguard to the Rescue!快傑ア☆ギルダーVSフリージ男！	Japan 1 Dec 2011 US 14 Apr 2012	In Driftveil City, Gym Leader Clay turns down Ash’s challenge, and the group helps the masked hero Accelguard foil a frozen-food heist by the… · Clay debuts Episode guide →
10BW058	A Call for Brotherly Love!デントとポッド兄弟バトル！バオップVSヤナップ	Japan 8 Dec 2011 US 21 Apr 2012	Chili leaves the Striaton Gym to Cress and turns up in Driftveil City, where Cilan helps him and his Pansear grow as a team. · Chili returns Episode guide →
11BW059	Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 1トルネロスVSボルトロスVSランドロス！（前編）	Japan 15 Dec 2011 US 28 Apr 2012	Sent to Milos Island to gather Revival Herbs for Clay, Ash, Iris and Cilan arrive just as Team Rocket’s sabotage unleashes a battle between… · Forces of nature, part 1 Episode guide →
12BW060	Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 2トルネロスVSボルトロスVSランドロス！（後編）	Japan 22 Dec 2011 US 5 May 2012	Landorus answers Iris’s call and, after Team Rocket’s attempt to capture all three forces of nature fails, calms Tornadus and Thundurus… · Forces of nature, part 2 Episode guide →
13BW061	Battling the King of the Mines!地底のジム戦！VSヤーコン！！	Japan 5 Jan 2012 US 12 May 2012	Ash finally battles Clay deep underground, and his Roggenrola evolves into Boldore to win him the Quake Badge. · Quake Badge Episode guide →
14BW062	Crisis at Chargestone Cave!バチュル、デンチュラ！電気石の洞穴！！	Japan 12 Jan 2012 US 19 May 2012	Near Chargestone Cave, a wave of electricity-draining incidents brings the group back together with Bianca and Professor Juniper, and Cilan’s… · Dwebble evolves into Crustle Episode guide →
15BW063	Evolution Exchange Excitement!通信交換進化！シュバルゴとアギルダー！！	Japan 19 Jan 2012 US 26 May 2012	Bianca and Professor Juniper trade Shelmet and Karrablast, and both Pokémon evolve, though Bianca’s new Escavalier will not listen to… · First trade evolution Episode guide →
16BW064	Explorers of the Hero’s Ruin!黒き英雄の遺跡！シンボラーとデスカーン！！	Japan 26 Jan 2012 US 2 Jun 2012	Professor Juniper’s father, Cedric, leads Ash, Iris and Cilan through a trap-filled ruin where the legendary hero of Unova is said to have met… · Hero’s Ruin Episode guide →
17BW065	Battling the Bully!ダブルバトル！ピカチュウ・ワルビルVSペンドラー・ガマゲロゲ！！	Japan 2 Feb 2012 US 9 Jun 2012	The Sunglasses Krokorok returns to challenge Pikachu, helps a boy stand up to a bully in a Double Battle, and then joins Ash’s team. · Ash catches Krokorok Episode guide →
18BW066	Baffling the Bouffalant!アフロでGO！バッフロンはNO！！	Japan 16 Feb 2012 US 16 Jun 2012	A Bouffalant stampede splits the group in two, leaving Iris in charge of Ash’s squabbling Oshawott and Tepig in herd territory. · Bouffalant stampede Episode guide →
19BW067	Cilan Takes Flight!フキヨセジムのエアバトル！挑戦者デント！？	Japan 23 Feb 2012 US 23 Jun 2012	In Mistralton City, Gym Leader Skyla hands out or withholds Jet Badges without battling, and Cilan loses a real battle when he challenges her method. · Skyla debuts Episode guide →
20BW068	An Amazing Aerial Battle!フキヨセジム！VSフウロ空中決戦！！	Japan 1 Mar 2012 US 30 Jun 2012	Ash wins the Jet Badge from Skyla when his Tranquill evolves into Unfezant in the middle of the battle. · Jet Badge Episode guide →
21BW069	Climbing the Tower of Success!難関突破！天空の塔を登れ！！	Japan 8 Mar 2012 US 7 Jul 2012	Ash, Iris, Cilan and Stephan compete in the Wishing Bell Festival at Mistralton Tower, where Stephan beats a self-proclaimed psychic to ring the bell. · Wishing Bell Festival Episode guide →
22BW070	The Clubsplosion Begins!ドンナマイト開幕！ズルッグVSヤナッキー！！	Japan 15 Mar 2012 US 14 Jul 2012	Don George’s Clubsplosion tournament opens in Ambiga Town, reuniting Ash with his rivals and teaching Scraggy a still-unpolished Focus Blast. · Clubsplosion, part 1 Episode guide →
23BW071	Search for the Clubultimate!どんどん続くよドンナマイト！クリムガンVSキリキザン！！	Japan 22 Mar 2012 US 21 Jul 2012	Iris beats Burgundy as the first round of the Clubsplosion continues, and Trip’s Conkeldurr takes on Bianca’s newly evolved Emboar. · Clubsplosion, part 2 Episode guide →
24BW072	A Clubsplosion of Excitement!熱闘ドンナマイト！キリキザンVSエンブオー！！	Japan 29 Mar 2012 US 28 Jul 2012	Bianca knocks Trip out of the Clubsplosion, and the second round decides the semi-finalists. · Clubsplosion, part 3 Episode guide →
25BW073	Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown!決戦ドンナマイト！ナゲキVSダゲキ！！	Japan 5 Apr 2012 US 4 Aug 2012	Stephan wins the Clubsplosion, defeating Bianca in the semi-finals and Montgomery’s Throh in a gruelling final. · Stephan wins the Clubsplosion Episode guide →
26BW074	Battling the Leaf Thieves!キバゴ救出！アイアントの巣窟！！	Japan 12 Apr 2012 US 11 Aug 2012	Ash’s Swadloon evolves into Leavanny, and its new sewing skills help the group rescue Axew from a nest of leaf-stealing Durant. · Swadloon evolves into Leavanny Episode guide →
27BW075	A Restoration Confrontation! Part 1ネジ山の激闘！アバゴーラの奇跡！！（前編）	Japan 19 Apr 2012 US 18 Aug 2012	In Twist Mountain, Team Rocket and Dr. Zager steal a Cover Fossil from an archaeologist named Ferris, hoping its Pokémon will lead them to a… · Twist Mountain, part 1 Episode guide →
28BW076	A Restoration Confrontation! Part 2ネジ山の激闘！アバゴーラの奇跡！！（後編）	Japan 26 Apr 2012 US 25 Aug 2012	Tirtouga evolves into Carracosta and, with Ferris’s help, escapes Team Rocket and returns to the ancient world before the Time Gate closes… · Twist Mountain, part 2 Episode guide →
29BW077	Evolution by Fire!炎のメモリー！ポカブVSエンブオー！！	Japan 3 May 2012 US 1 Sep 2012	At Don George’s Battle Club in Astilbe Town, Tepig meets Shamus, the Trainer who abandoned it, and evolves into Pignite to beat him. · Tepig evolves into Pignite Episode guide →
30BW078	Guarding the Guardian of the Mountain!ハチク登場！ウルガモスの聖なる山！！	Japan 10 May 2012 US 8 Sep 2012	Near Icirrus City, the group trains with a retired martial-arts movie star named Brycen and helps him save the mountain’s guardian, Volcarona,… · Brycen debuts Episode guide →
31BW079	Caution: Icy Battle Conditions!セッカジム戦！氷のバトルフィールド！！	Japan 17 May 2012 US 15 Sep 2012	Ash wins the Freeze Badge from Brycen on the Icirrus Gym’s ice-covered battlefield, with Krokorok defeating Beartic in the final round. · Freeze Badge Episode guide →
32BW080	Clash of the Connoisseurs!ポケモンソムリエ対決！テイスティングバトル！！	Japan 24 May 2012 US 22 Sep 2012	Cilan is whisked away to a wealthy estate, where he competes against a rival Connoisseur to choose a shy girl’s first Pokémon. · Opelucid Gym closed Episode guide →
33BW081	Crisis at Ferroseed Research!テッシード研究所！アイリスとバイバニラ！！	Japan 31 May 2012 US 29 Sep 2012	At the Ferroseed Research Institute, an outbreak of electrified moss engulfs the building and the city, and Iris must work alongside Georgia and her… · Iris and Vanilluxe Episode guide →
34BW082	An Epic Defense Force!映画対決！出撃イッシュ防衛隊！！	Japan 7 Jun 2012 US 6 Oct 2012	In Virbank City, Ash and his friends help the young director Luke make a monster movie for the Pokéstar Studios film competition, while a… · Meloetta debuts Episode guide →
35BW083	Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 1激闘タチワキジム！VSホミカ！！（前編）	Japan 14 Jun 2012 US 13 Oct 2012	Ash challenges Roxie, the punk-rock Gym Leader of Virbank City, for his eighth Badge, but her Poison-type Pokémon tear through half his team. · Virbank Gym, part 1 Episode guide →
36BW084	Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 2激闘タチワキジム！VSホミカ！！（後編）	Japan 14 Jun 2012 US 20 Oct 2012	Ash wins the Toxic Badge from Roxie with his last Pokémon, Pikachu, earning his eighth Badge and a place in the Unova League. · Toxic Badge Episode guide →
37BW085	All for the Love of Meloetta!歌えメロエッタ！愛の旋律！！	Japan 21 Jun 2012 US 27 Oct 2012	Ash reunites with Sinnoh’s Champion Cynthia, the group cares for an injured Meloetta, and Iris battles Cynthia’s Garchomp. · Best Wishes! Season 2* begins* Episode guide →
38BW086	Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times!ポッチャマVSヤナップ！華麗なるバトル！！	Japan 28 Jun 2012 US 3 Nov 2012	At Cynthia’s villa in Undella Town, Ash reunites with Dawn, while Meloetta finally comes out of hiding to join the group. · Dawn returns Episode guide →
39BW087	Expedition to Onix Island!イワークの島でサバイバル！	Japan 5 Jul 2012 US 10 Nov 2012	A day trip to a deserted island turns into a desperate escape from a horde of Onix, and Meloetta reveals its Pirouette Forme. · Meloetta’s Pirouette Forme Episode guide →
40BW088	The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo!ソムリエ探偵デント！消えたクマシュンの謎！！	Japan 19 Jul 2012 US 17 Nov 2012	Detective Cilan helps a boy named Chris find his missing Cubchoo, which has slipped out to play with a wild Larvitar. · Detective Cilan Episode guide →
41BW089	Iris and the Rogue Dragonite!アイリスと暴れ者カイリュー！	Japan 26 Jul 2012 US 24 Nov 2012	Iris defends a Dragonite blamed for wrecking Undella Town’s power plant, proves its innocence and catches it. · Iris catches Dragonite Episode guide →
42BW090	Jostling for the Junior Cup!ジュニアカップ開幕！カイリューVSツンベアー！！	Japan 2 Aug 2012 US 1 Dec 2012	The Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup opens in Lacunosa Town, and Iris’s new Dragonite wins its first match despite refusing to obey… · Junior Cup, part 1 Episode guide →
43BW091	Battling Authority Once Again!パワーバトル！アイリスVSヒカリ！！	Japan 23 Aug 2012 US 8 Dec 2012	Iris’s Dragonite still ignores her orders but defeats Dawn’s Mamoswine, and Trip storms into the Junior Cup final. · Junior Cup, part 2 Episode guide →
44BW092	Ash, Iris, and Trip: Then There Were Three!サトシ、アイリス、シューティー！最後のバトル！！	Japan 30 Aug 2012 US 15 Dec 2012	Ash’s Krokorok evolves into Krookodile to beat Iris’s Dragonite in the Junior Cup semi-final, but Trip’s Serperior defeats Ash in… · Krokorok evolves into Krookodile Episode guide →
45BW093	Goodbye, Junior Cup—Hello, Adventure!別れと出会いのジュニアカップ！	Japan 6 Sep 2012 US 22 Dec 2012	Alder defeats Trip in the Junior Cup’s prize battle, Dawn sets off for Johto, and the group meets a scatterbrained Trainer named Cameron. · Dawn leaves Episode guide →
46BW094	The Road to Humilau!セイガイハジム戦！マンタインVSダイケンキ！！	Japan 13 Sep 2012 US 5 Jan 2013	Ash and Cameron get lost on the way to Humilau City, then watch Cameron win his eighth Badge from Gym Leader Marlon. · Cameron wins the Wave Badge Episode guide →
47BW095	Unrest at the Nursery!ポケモン保育園は大騒ぎ！ワシボンとバルチャイ！	Japan 20 Sep 2012 US 12 Jan 2013	At a Pokémon Nursery in Undella Town, Cilan helps a jealous Vullaby and a Rufflet become friends. · Giovanni returns Episode guide →
48BW096	Meloetta and the Undersea Temple!メロエッタと海底の神殿！	Japan 27 Sep 2012 US 19 Jan 2013	Giovanni arrives in Unova to launch Operation Tempest, captures Meloetta and uses its song to raise the Abyssal Ruins from the bottom of Undella Bay. · Operation Tempest, part 1 Episode guide →
49BW097	Unova’s Survival Crisis!霊獣フォルム総進撃！イッシュ最大の危機！！	Japan 4 Oct 2012 US 26 Jan 2013	Giovanni uses the Reveal Glass to summon Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus in their Therian Formes, until the artifact’s power possesses him and… · Season finale Episode guide →

Characters & Travelling Companions

Ash arrives in Nimbasa City with three Badges and leaves Undella Bay with eight. He wins the Bolt (BW050), Quake (BW061), Jet (BW068), Freeze (BW079) and Toxic Badges (BW084), qualifying for the Unova League three months away, and catches only one new Pokémon, the sunglasses-wearing Krokorok that has challenged Pikachu since it was a Sandile (BW065). Five of his Pokémon evolve instead — Roggenrola into Boldore and Tranquill into Unfezant mid-Gym battle (BW061, BW068), Swadloon into Leavanny (BW074), Tepig into Pignite against the Trainer who abandoned it (BW077) and Krokorok into Krookodile (BW092). He loses to Bianca’s father (BW049) and, with Cilan, to the Subway Bosses (BW051), fights the Unova Champion Alder to no result — his first battle with a Champion (BW052) — reaches the Top 4 of the Clubsplosion (BW073) and the final of the Junior Cup, where Trip beats him (BW092), and loses to Giovanni’s Persian (BW096). The Mythical Meloetta follows him from Virbank City to the finale without ever being caught (BW082–BW097). Pikachu wins the Bolt Badge with Iron Tail and the Toxic Badge when its Static paralyses Garbodor (BW084), and its giant, overcharged Electro Ball ends Operation Tempest (BW097).

Iris becomes a shrine maiden to summon Landorus on Milos Island (BW059–BW060), finishes fourth at Mistralton’s Wishing Bell Festival (BW069), loses to Montgomery in the Clubsplosion quarter-finals (BW072) and seems relieved when the Opelucid Gym — Drayden’s, whose Haxorus once beat her Excadrill — turns out to be closed (BW080). Despite her fear of Ice types she works with Georgia’s Vanilluxe to stop a moss outbreak (BW081), and in All for the Love of Meloetta! she becomes the first of Ash’s friends to battle a Champion, Cynthia, as Axew learns Giga Impact (BW085). She clears and catches a rogue Dragonite, her only on-screen Dragon-type capture (BW089), which ignores her orders through the Junior Cup — winning two rounds before losing to Krokorok in the semi-final (BW090–BW092) — and only begins to trust her when she shields it in the finale (BW097). She is voiced by Eileen Stevens in English and Aoi Yūki in Japanese.

Cilan loses the Stamp Rally’s Tag Battle with Ash (BW051), beats his brother Chili and teaches his Pansear Solar Beam (BW058), and sees Dwebble evolve into Crustle in Chargestone Cave — the only on-screen evolution of one of his Pokémon (BW062). He challenges Skyla to a real battle and loses (BW067), falls to Stephan in the Clubsplosion (BW072), stages a mock trial over Tepig’s abandonment (BW077), beats the A-class Connoisseur Ricard Nouveau and chooses a Foongus as a shy girl’s first Pokémon (BW080), turns detective again for a missing Cubchoo (BW088) and reaches the Junior Cup semi-finals, where Trip’s Serperior beats his Crustle (BW091). He is voiced by Jason Griffith in English and Mamoru Miyano in Japanese; Ash is voiced by Sarah Natochenny, and Ikue Ōtani remains Pikachu in both languages.

Team Rocket

Jessie, James and Meowth spend the season working with the scientist Dr. Zager. They break the wedges sealing the shrines of the forces of nature on Milos Island and try to box up Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus (BW056–BW060), harvest the charged rocks of Chargestone Cave (BW062), and revive a Cover Fossil to open a time gate in Twist Mountain, where Ash meets Zager for the first time and the trio recite their Unova motto for the last time (BW075–BW076). Between Chargestone Cave and Twist Mountain they sit out twelve episodes in a row (BW063–BW074), their longest absence as main characters. They catch nothing new: Jessie still has only Woobat and James Yamask, whose Will-O-Wisp is revealed in BW076.

From Virbank City they hunt Meloetta with Zager’s anti-cloaking glasses (BW083–BW095), locate the Abyssal Ruins under Undella Bay (BW087–BW089) and record the Relic Song, as Giovanni and his secretary Matori appear for the first time since BW022 and BW023 (BW095). Giovanni then comes to Unova himself to lead Operation Tempest: his Persian battles for the first time, Ash faces a villainous team’s leader for the first time, and the Reveal Glass possesses him until Jessie, James and Meowth push him out of its range; he remembers nothing and withdraws Team Rocket to Kanto, ending their Unova mission, and Dr. Zager makes his last appearance (BW096–BW097). In Japan the original broadcast of BW097 closed with the trio’s song Team Rocket Forever. Jessie is voiced by Michele Knotz, James and Meowth by James Carter Cathcart, and Giovanni by Ted Lewis.

Gym Leaders, Champions, rivals & recurring characters

Elesa, Nimbasa City’s Electric-type Leader and a supermodel, referees Ash’s battle with Bianca’s father and loses the Bolt Badge to Pikachu (BW049–BW050). Clay, the Ground-type Leader and mine owner of Driftveil City, twice turns Ash away and sends him to Milos Island for Revival Herbs before battling him underground (BW057–BW061). The cargo pilot Skyla of Mistralton City judges challengers by imagined “Air Battles” until Cilan and Ash bring her back to real ones; her grandfather Miles, a former Gym Leader, referees and hosts the Wishing Bell Festival (BW067–BW069). Brycen of Icirrus City is a retired martial-arts film star (BW078–BW079), and the punk-rock bassist Roxie of Virbank City, fronting Koffing and the Toxics, is the only Gym Leader to appear in the anime before her game debut (BW083–BW084). Marlon of Humilau City battles only Cameron, in his single episode (BW094).

The Unova Champion Alder, a carefree flirt who falls asleep in mid-battle, teaches Ash that friendship between people and Pokémon matters most (BW052) and returns to co-host the Junior Cup and beat Trip (BW090–BW093), calling them “Ashton” and “Tristan”. Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion, meets the group in Virbank City and hosts them at her villa in Undella Town, with her butler Jervis, for the rest of the season (BW085–BW097); she stops her battle with Iris herself (BW085) and draws on time with the Elite Four’s Caitlin (BW090). Dawn stays with Cynthia as a guest, reunites with Ash and enters the Junior Cup before leaving for Johto (BW085–BW093). Professor Juniper runs a base outside Chargestone Cave and trades Karrablast to Bianca, and her father, Cedric Juniper, a researcher of Zekrom and Reshiram, leads the group through the Hero’s Ruin (BW062–BW064). Ridley, descendant of the Protectors of the Abyssal Ruins, leaves with Meloetta at the end of the finale (BW096–BW097).

Trip reappears with five Badges (BW052), loses to Bianca in the Clubsplosion (BW072) and wins the Junior Cup over Ash before Alder beats him (BW092–BW093). Bianca wins her father’s permission to keep travelling (BW049), trades Shelmet for Karrablast (BW063) and reaches the Clubsplosion semi-finals with her newly evolved Emboar (BW070–BW073); Stephan, whose name nobody pronounces right, wins the Wishing Bell Festival and the Clubsplosion with Sawk (BW069–BW073); Georgia returns with Bisharp and a new Vanilluxe (BW070–BW072, BW081, BW090–BW093); Burgundy gatecrashes a Connoisseur’s contest as “Fauxgundy” (BW080) and makes her last physical appearance in the Junior Cup (BW093); Montgomery, the previous year’s Clubsplosion champion, finishes runner-up with Throh (BW070–BW073); and the forgetful Cameron wins his eighth Badge (BW093–BW094). Luke wins the Pokéstar Studios film competition in his last physical appearance (BW082), Chili sets out from the Striaton Gym (BW058), the Subway Bosses Ingo and Emmet host the Stamp Rally (BW051), and Don George and Freddy O’Martian run the Clubsplosion (BW070–BW073).

Elesa, Nimbasa City’s Gym Leader and a supermodel, in Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym! (BW050)

Clay, the Driftveil Gym Leader and mine owner, in Battling the King of the Mines! (BW061)

Voice cast

Character	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor
Ash Ketchum	Sarah Natochenny	Rica Matsumoto
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani	Ikue Ōtani
Iris	Eileen Stevens	Aoi Yūki
Cilan	Jason Griffith	Mamoru Miyano
Jessie	Michele Knotz	Megumi Hayashibara
James	James Carter Cathcart	Shin-ichiro Miki
Meowth	James Carter Cathcart	Inuko Inuyama
Dawn	Emily Jenness	Megumi Toyoguchi
Cynthia	Emily Jenness	Tomo Sakurai
Elesa	Eileen Stevens	Yumiko Kobayashi
Clay	Sean Schemmel	Tsuguo Mogami
Skyla	Sarah Natochenny	Kana Ueda
Brycen	Benjamin Becker	Nobuo Tobita
Roxie	Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld	Eri Kitamura
Marlon	Ed Paul	Yūji Ueda
Alder	Scottie Ray	Unshō Ishizuka
Caitlin	Miriam Pultro	Miyu Matsuki
Cameron	Rory Max Kaplan	Kōki Uchiyama
Trip	Jamie McGonnigal	Akeno Watanabe
Bianca	Erica Schroeder	Shizuka Itō
Stephan	Darren Dunstan	Tomohiro Waki
Montgomery	Nicholas DiMichele	Miyu Irino
Professor Juniper	Khristine Hvam	Naomi Shindō
Cedric Juniper	Stuart Zagnit	Kenyu Horiuchi
Ridley	Tucker Allan	Shūhei Sakaguchi
Meloetta	Megumi Nakajima (singing: Erica Schroeder)	Megumi Nakajima
Don George	Marc Thompson	Hisao Egawa
Freddy O’Martian	Tom Wayland	Mitsuaki Madono
Dr. Zager	Marc Thompson	Masayuki Omoro
Giovanni	Ted Lewis	Kenta Miyake
Matori	Emily Jenness	Kiyomi Asai
Narrator	Rodger Parsons	Unshō Ishizuka

Pokémon: Captures, Changes, Encounters & Evolutions

In brief:

Ash catches just one Pokémon this season, the sunglasses Krokorok (BW065), and ends it with ten — Pikachu, Unfezant, Oshawott, Pignite, Snivy, Scraggy, Leavanny, Palpitoad, Boldore and Krookodile — carrying six at a time and keeping the rest at Professor Juniper’s lab. For the Nimbasa Gym he has Juniper send him Pokémon, leaving Tepig out of his party for the only time in the Black & White series, and when his plan collapses he fetches Snivy from the Pokémon Center in mid-battle — the only time he changes his party during a Gym battle (BW050).
Five of them evolve: Roggenrola into Boldore against Clay’s Excadrill (BW061), Tranquill into a female Unfezant against Skyla’s Swanna (BW068) — both in the middle of Gym battles — Swadloon into Leavanny in a practice battle, Ash’s first friendship evolution (BW074), Tepig into Pignite against its former Trainer (BW077) and Krokorok into Krookodile in the Junior Cup, the first on-screen evolution of a main character’s Dark type (BW092). Boldore learns Rock Blast and Rock Smash (BW061), Unfezant Aerial Ace (BW068), Pignite Fire Pledge (BW077) and Krookodile Dragon Claw (BW092); Scraggy learns Focus Blast (BW070), mastered by BW095, and Oshawott Hydro Pump (BW087).
Iris catches Dragonite (BW089), and her Axew learns Giga Impact against Cynthia’s Garchomp (BW085). Cilan’s Dwebble evolves into Crustle and learns Rock Wrecker (BW062), his Pansage shows Rock Tomb (BW058) and Stunfisk learns Sludge Bomb (BW091).
Team Rocket gain nothing new — Jessie has Woobat and James Yamask — but Giovanni’s Persian uses moves for the first time (BW096).
Elsewhere, Bianca and Professor Juniper trade Shelmet and Karrablast, which evolve into Accelgor and Escavalier — the anime’s first trade evolution (BW063); Trip’s Gurdurr and Servine, Bianca’s Pignite and Georgia’s Pawniard have evolved off screen into Conkeldurr (BW070), Serperior (BW090), Emboar and Bisharp (BW071); a revived Tirtouga evolves into Carracosta (BW076); and Dawn’s Cyndaquil, which evolved in the undubbed special Hikari Sets Off Anew! (DPS01), appears in English as a Quilava (BW086).

New Pokémon captured or hatched

Shelmet#0616 · Bianca · newly caught, it battles Elesa’s Zebstrika · BW049
Karrablast#0588 · Bianca · from Professor Juniper, traded for Shelmet · BW063
Krokorok#0552 · Ash · the sunglasses Krokorok, after a fair rematch with Pikachu · BW065
Foongus#0590 · Marigold · her first Pokémon, chosen by Cilan · BW080
Vanilluxe#0584 · Georgia · caught off screen, an Ice type to beat Iris · BW081
Dragonite#0149 · Iris · her only on-screen Dragon-type catch · BW089

Evolutions

Roggenrola → Boldore#0525 · Ash · mid-battle against Clay’s Excadrill · BW061
Dwebble → Crustle#0558 · Cilan · against Team Rocket in Chargestone Cave · BW062
Shelmet → Accelgor#0617 · Professor Juniper · by trade, the anime’s first trade evolution · BW063
Karrablast → Escavalier#0589 · Bianca · by trade · BW063
Tranquill → Unfezant#0521 · Ash · mid-battle against Skyla’s Swanna · BW068
Gurdurr → Conkeldurr#0534 · Trip · off screen, revealed at the Clubsplosion · BW070
Pignite → Emboar#0500 · Bianca · off screen, revealed at the Clubsplosion · BW071
Pawniard → Bisharp#0625 · Georgia · off screen, revealed at the Clubsplosion · BW071
Swadloon → Leavanny#0542 · Ash · in a practice battle, his first friendship evolution · BW074
Tirtouga → Carracosta#0565 · the revived Tirtouga, Ferris’s childhood friend · BW076
Tepig → Pignite#0499 · Ash · against its former Trainer, Shamus · BW077
Servine → Serperior#0497 · Trip · off screen, revealed at the Junior Cup · BW090
Krokorok → Krookodile#0553 · Ash · against Iris’s Dragonite in the Junior Cup semi-final · BW092
Cyndaquil → Quilava#0156 · Dawn · evolved in the undubbed special DPS01, first seen in English · BW086

Releases, departures and returns

No Pokémon is released by a main character this season, and the only trade is Bianca and Professor Juniper’s exchange of Shelmet and Karrablast, made so that both would evolve (BW063). Which of Ash’s Pokémon are at Juniper’s lab at any moment is rarely shown; he reshuffles his team for the Nimbasa Gym (BW050), and Meloetta, which travels with him from BW082, leaves with its Protector, Ridley, in the finale without ever being caught (BW097).

Among the guests, the shy Deino Iris befriends goes home with its Trainer (BW056), Erina is reunited with her lost Axew (BW051), the revived Carracosta returns through the time gate to the ancient world with three others of its kind (BW076), Brycen frees Volcarona from the Pokémon Hunter Rizzo (BW078), the forces of nature are released from Dr. Zager’s boxes (BW060), and the overcharged Ferroseed are returned to normal at the research institute (BW081); Chris resolves to travel with his Cubchoo and a wild Larvitar one day (BW088).

Teams at the end of the season (BW097)

Trainer	Pokémon	Changes this season
Ash	Pikachu, Unfezant, Oshawott, Pignite, Snivy, Scraggy, Leavanny, Palpitoad, Boldore, Krookodile (six carried at a time)	Caught Krokorok (BW065); Roggenrola evolved into Boldore (BW061), Tranquill into Unfezant (BW068), Swadloon into Leavanny (BW074), Tepig into Pignite (BW077) and Krokorok into Krookodile (BW092)
Iris	Axew, Excadrill, Emolga, Dragonite	Axew learned Giga Impact (BW085); caught Dragonite (BW089), which begins to trust her in BW097
Cilan	Pansage, Crustle, Stunfisk	Dwebble evolved into Crustle (BW062); Stunfisk learned Sludge Bomb (BW091)
Jessie	Woobat	No change
James	Yamask	Will-O-Wisp revealed (BW076)

Rivals’ and guests’ Pokémon this season

Trainer	Pokémon	Episodes
Trip	Gurdurr → Conkeldurr, Servine → Serperior	BW052, BW070–BW072, BW090–BW093
Bianca	Shelmet (traded), Karrablast → Escavalier, Minccino, Pignite → Emboar	BW049, BW062–BW063, BW070–BW073
Stephan	Sawk	BW069–BW073
Georgia	Pawniard → Bisharp, Beartic, Vanilluxe	BW070–BW072, BW081, BW090–BW093
Burgundy	Dewott, Darmanitan	BW070–BW072, BW080, BW090–BW093
Montgomery	Throh	BW070–BW073
Dawn	Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, Mamoswine, Togekiss, Quilava	BW085–BW093
Cameron	Riolu, Ferrothorn, Samurott	BW093–BW094

Pokémon making their anime debut this season

Fifty-one species make their first appearance in the TV series during Rival Destinies, every one of them from Generation V, plus new Forms of two that debuted the season before: Summer Form Deerling and Sawsbuck in all four seasonal Forms, the Winter Form new to the anime (BW054). Twenty-six of the 51 had already been seen in the fourteenth movie, and Ferrothorn and Vullaby in the opening of the fifteenth. Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus debut together on Milos Island (BW059) and return in their Therian Formes in the finale (BW097); Karrablast first appears in a fantasy (BW062); and Meloetta (BW082), whose Pirouette Forme follows in BW087, is the first event-only Pokémon to debut in the TV series rather than a movie. The same episode, BW087, has the Black & White series’ first Shiny Pokémon, an Onix, and a Liepard is glimpsed in a photograph in BW054.

Shelmet#0616 · BW049 · Bianca’s
Tynamo#0602 · BW050 · after the fourteenth movie; Elesa’s
Gigalith#0526 · BW052
Maractus#0556 · BW053 · Toby’s trio
Lilligant#0549 · BW053 · after the fourteenth movie
Amoonguss#0591 · BW054
Deerling#0585 · BW054 · Summer Form; the species debuted in Black & White
Sawsbuck#0586 · BW054 · Winter Form, and Summer and Autumn Forms on TV; the species debuted in Black & White
Garbodor#0569 · BW055
Deino#0633 · BW056
Accelgor#0617 · BW057 · Charles’s
Vanillish#0583 · BW057 · Dr. Ferrara’s
Landorus#0645 · BW059 · Incarnate Forme; its Therian Forme follows in the finale
Tornadus#0641 · BW059 · after the fourteenth movie; Incarnate Forme
Thundurus#0642 · BW059 · after the fourteenth movie; Incarnate Forme
Gothorita#0575 · BW059 · after the fourteenth movie; Lewis’s
Boldore#0525 · BW061 · Ash’s Roggenrola, evolved
Karrablast#0588 · BW062 · in a fantasy, then Juniper’s
Crustle#0558 · BW062 · Cilan’s Dwebble, evolved
Klink#0599 · BW063 · after the fourteenth movie
Klinklang#0601 · BW063 · after the fourteenth movie
Cofagrigus#0563 · BW064 · in the Hero’s Ruin
Sigilyph#0561 · BW064 · after the fourteenth movie
Seismitoad#0537 · BW065 · after the fourteenth movie
Unfezant#0521 · BW067 · after the fourteenth movie; Skyla’s male, a week before Ash’s female
Conkeldurr#0534 · BW070 · Trip’s
Simisage#0512 · BW070 · Angus’s
Throh#0538 · BW070 · after the fourteenth movie; Montgomery’s
Simipour#0516 · BW071 · Betty’s
Bisharp#0625 · BW071 · Georgia’s
Mienshao#0620 · BW071 · Delbert’s
Emboar#0500 · BW071 · after the fourteenth movie; Bianca’s
Durant#0632 · BW074
Tirtouga#0564 · BW075 · after the fourteenth movie; revived from a Cover Fossil
Carracosta#0565 · BW075 · after the fourteenth movie
Heatmor#0631 · BW077 · after the fourteenth movie; Shamus’s
Volcarona#0637 · BW078 · after the fourteenth movie; the mountain’s guardian
Jellicent#0593 · BW078 · after the fourteenth movie; Rizzo’s
Cryogonal#0615 · BW079 · Brycen’s
Petilil#0548 · BW080 · after the fourteenth movie
Whimsicott#0547 · BW080 · after the fourteenth movie
Ferroseed#0597 · BW081
Vanilluxe#0584 · BW081 · Georgia’s
Meloetta#0648 · BW082 · Aria Forme; the first event-only Pokémon to debut outside a movie
Krookodile#0553 · BW082 · after the fourteenth movie; Jules’s
Hydreigon#0635 · BW089 · after the fourteenth movie
Ferrothorn#0598 · BW089 · after a cameo in the fifteenth movie
Cinccino#0573 · BW090 · after the fourteenth movie; Horatio’s
Reuniclus#0579 · BW090 · after the fourteenth movie; Geraldo’s
Serperior#0497 · BW090 · after the fourteenth movie; Trip’s
Samurott#0503 · BW094 · after the fourteenth movie; Cameron’s
Rufflet#0627 · BW095 · after the fourteenth movie
Vullaby#0629 · BW095 · after a cameo in the fifteenth movie

Key Events, Gym Battles & Tournaments

Events of note

Ash loses to Bianca’s father’s Darmanitan, and Bianca may keep travelling (BW049 – Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader!)
Ash wins the Bolt Badge, his fourth (BW050 – Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!)
Ash and Cilan lose a Tag Battle to Ingo and Emmet (BW051 – Lost at the Stamp Rally!)
Ash meets the Unova Champion, Alder; their battle ends with no result (BW052 – Ash Versus the Champion!)
Ash’s first official Triple Battle, against Toby’s Maractus, is called off (BW053 – A Maractus Musical!)
Team Rocket and Dr. Zager reach Milos Island (BW056 – The Lonely Deino!)
Clay refuses Ash’s challenge (BW057 – The Mighty Accelguard to the Rescue!)
Chili sets out from the Striaton Gym, and his Pansear learns Solar Beam (BW058 – A Call for Brotherly Love!)
Tornadus and Thundurus break free; Iris summons Landorus (BW059 – Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 1)
Landorus calms the forces of nature and restores Milos Island (BW060 – Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 2)
Roggenrola evolves into Boldore, and Ash wins the Quake Badge (BW061 – Battling the King of the Mines!)
Cilan’s Dwebble evolves into Crustle (BW062 – Crisis at Chargestone Cave!)
The anime’s first trade evolution: Shelmet and Karrablast become Accelgor and Escavalier (BW063 – Evolution Exchange Excitement!)
Ash catches the sunglasses Krokorok (BW065 – Battling the Bully!)
Cilan loses a real battle to Skyla (BW067 – Cilan Takes Flight!)
Tranquill evolves into Unfezant, and Ash wins the Jet Badge (BW068 – An Amazing Aerial Battle!)
Stephan wins the Wishing Bell Festival (BW069 – Climbing the Tower of Success!)
Scraggy learns Focus Blast (BW070 – The Clubsplosion Begins!)
Bianca’s Emboar knocks Trip out of the Clubsplosion (BW072 – A Clubsplosion of Excitement!)
Stephan wins the Clubsplosion; Montgomery beats Ash in the semi-final (BW073 – Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown!)
Swadloon evolves into Leavanny (BW074 – Battling the Leaf Thieves!)
Team Rocket recite their Unova motto for the last time (BW075 – A Restoration Confrontation! Part 1)
Tepig evolves into Pignite and beats its former Trainer (BW077 – Evolution by Fire!)
Ash wins the Freeze Badge (BW079 – Caution: Icy Battle Conditions!)
The Opelucid Gym is closed, and the group heads for Virbank City (BW080 – Clash of the Connoisseurs!)
Meloetta appears and begins to follow Ash (BW082 – An Epic Defense Force!)
Ash wins the Toxic Badge, his eighth, and qualifies for the Unova League (BW084 – Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 2)
Iris battles Cynthia, and Axew learns Giga Impact (BW085 – All for the Love of Meloetta!)
Dawn returns (BW086 – Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times!)
Oshawott learns Hydro Pump, and Meloetta shows its Pirouette Forme (BW087 – Expedition to Onix Island!)
Iris catches Dragonite (BW089 – Iris and the Rogue Dragonite!)
Krokorok evolves into Krookodile; Trip wins the Junior Cup (BW092 – Ash, Iris, and Trip: Then There Were Three!)
Alder beats Trip, and Dawn leaves for Johto (BW093 – Goodbye, Junior Cup—Hello, Adventure!)
Cameron wins the Wave Badge (BW094 – The Road to Humilau!)
Giovanni arrives in Unova and launches Operation Tempest (BW096 – Meloetta and the Undersea Temple!)
Team Rocket withdraw from Unova, and Meloetta leaves with Ridley (BW097 – Unova’s Survival Crisis!)

Gym battles & the League

Bianca v Elesa (Bianca loses) and Ash v Bianca’s father (Ash loses) — BW049
Ash v Elesa, Nimbasa Gym (Bolt Badge) — BW050
Ash & Cilan v Ingo & Emmet, Tag Battle (lose) — BW051
Ash v Alder (no result) — BW052
Ash v Toby, Triple Battle (called off) — BW053
Tepig v Katharine’s Mandibuzz and Snivy v Gothita (both win) — BW055
Cilan v Chili (Cilan wins); Chili’s Pansear v Oshawott (Pansear wins) — BW058
Ash v Clay, Driftveil Gym (Quake Badge) — BW061
Ash & Cilan v Professor Juniper & Bianca, Double Battle (win) — BW063
Mick, with Pikachu and Krokorok, v Glenn (Mick wins); Pikachu v Krokorok (Pikachu wins) — BW065
Cilan v Skyla, Mistralton Gym (Cilan loses) — BW067
Ash v Skyla, Mistralton Gym (Jet Badge) — BW068
Clubsplosion, first round: Ash v Angus, Cilan v Flora, Iris v Burgundy (all three win) — BW070–BW071
Clubsplosion, quarter-finals: Ash v Betty (Ash wins), Cilan v Stephan and Iris v Montgomery (both lose) — BW072
Clubsplosion, semi-final: Ash v Montgomery (Ash loses) — BW073
Ash, with Snivy and Tepig, v Shamus, Double Battle (win) — BW077
Krokorok v Rizzo’s Jellicent (wins, then loses to his second Jellicent) — BW078
Ash v Brycen, Icirrus Gym (Freeze Badge) — BW079
Cilan v Ricard Nouveau (Cilan wins) — BW080
Ash v Roxie, Virbank Gym, six against three (Toxic Badge) — BW083–BW084
Iris v Cynthia (stopped by Cynthia) — BW085
Cilan v Dawn (interrupted) — BW086
Scraggy v Larvitar (draw) — BW088
Junior Cup, first round: Ash v Marris, Cilan v Shepherd, Iris v Georgia, Dawn v Ramone (all win) — BW090
Junior Cup, quarter-finals: Ash v Geraldo and Cilan v Horatio (both win), Iris v Dawn (Iris wins) — BW091
Junior Cup, semi-finals: Cilan v Trip (Cilan loses) and Ash v Iris (Ash wins) — BW091–BW092
Junior Cup, final: Ash v Trip (Trip wins) — BW092
Ash v Dawn, Pikachu v Quilava (draw) — BW093
Ash v Giovanni, Pikachu v Persian (Ash loses) — BW096

Gym Badges won this season

Badge	Gym & Leader	Leader’s Pokémon	Ash’s Pokémon	Result	Episode
Bolt Badge	Nimbasa Gym · Elesa	Zebstrika, Emolga, Tynamo	Palpitoad, Snivy, Pikachu	Win — three-on-three. Palpitoad shrugs off Zebstrika’s Flame Charge and Double Kick and wins with Supersonic, Mud Shot and Hydro Pump, but Emolga’s Attract and Aerial Ace beat it; Snivy, fetched from the Pokémon Center in mid-battle, finds that her own Attract fails against a female and falls to Acrobatics and Aerial Ace; Pikachu’s Quick Attack beats Emolga, and after Tynamo’s Tackles batter it, Thunderbolt roughens the flat arena and Iron Tail wins — Ash’s fourth Badge	BW050
Quake Badge	Driftveil Gym · Clay	Krokorok, Palpitoad, Excadrill	Oshawott, Snivy, Roggenrola (Boldore)	Win — three-on-three in an underground mine, after Clay twice refused Ash (BW057, BW059). Oshawott clears Krokorok’s Sandstorm with Water Gun and wins with Aqua Jet and Razor Shell; Clay’s huge Palpitoad beats it with Hydro Pump, Sludge Bomb and Rock Smash, but Snivy’s Attract and Leaf Storm beat Palpitoad; Excadrill’s Rapid Spin and a one-hit Horn Drill beat Snivy; and Roggenrola, evolving into Boldore, survives the next Horn Drill with Sturdy and wins with Rock Blast and Rock Smash	BW061
Jet Badge	Mistralton Gym · Skyla	Swoobat, Unfezant, Swanna	Krokorok, Tranquill (Unfezant), Pikachu	Win — three-on-three, after Skyla makes her entrance fired from a cannon and gliding through balloon hoops. Swoobat turns Krokorok’s Stone Edge back with Gust and wins with Air Cutter, and Tranquill brings it down with Air Cutter; Pikachu beats Unfezant with Iron Tail and Electro Ball but falls to Swanna’s Aqua Ring, Bubble Beam, Hurricane and Brave Bird; and Tranquill, slammed down by Hurricane, evolves into Unfezant and wins with its new Aerial Ace. The day before, the same team had beaten Cilan (BW067)	BW068
Freeze Badge	Icirrus Gym · Brycen	Vanillish, Cryogonal, Beartic	Krokorok, Scraggy, Pignite	Win — three-on-three on an ice rink. Vanillish freezes Krokorok’s legs with Astonish, Icicle Spear and Blizzard until Ash recalls it; Scraggy, in its first Gym battle, beats Vanillish with a curving Focus Blast and Headbutt; Cryogonal’s Rapid Spin and Aurora Beam beat Scraggy, and Pignite’s Fire Pledge beats Cryogonal; Beartic beats Pignite with Brine, Icicle Crash and Aerial Ace; and Krokorok, borrowing the catch-and-throw tactic of Bianca’s Emboar, beats Beartic. With this battle every Unova Pokémon of Ash’s has fought in a Gym	BW079
Toxic Badge	Virbank Gym · Roxie	Koffing, Scolipede, Garbodor	Boldore, Unfezant, Leavanny, Pignite, Palpitoad, Pikachu	Win — Ash’s six against Roxie’s three, in the concert hall where her band plays. Koffing’s Clear Smog, Gyro Ball and Sludge Bomb beat Boldore and Unfezant before Leavanny reels it in with String Shot for a point-blank Energy Ball; Scolipede’s Toxic, Rock Tomb and Sludge Bomb beat Leavanny, and Pignite, badly poisoned, beats Scolipede with Fire Pledge and is cured with a Pecha Berry; Garbodor’s Hyper Beam beats Pignite and Gunk Shot and Venoshock beat Palpitoad; then Pikachu’s Static paralyses Garbodor and Thunderbolt and Electro Ball win. Ash’s eighth Badge qualifies him for the Unova League — and makes this the first time his Badges differ from the games’	BW084

The Clubsplosion

Don George’s Clubsplosion (Japanese: Donamite), at the Ambiga Town Battle Club (BW070–BW073), is a sixteen-Trainer tournament of computer-drawn single battles, one Pokémon each, with a Fighting-type theme but any type allowed, called by Freddy O’Martian, for a year’s supply of Vitamins. In the first round Stephan’s Sawk beats Edmund’s Seismitoad with Bulk Up and Close Combat, Cilan’s Pansage beats Flora’s Gothorita with a surprise Dig, and Ash’s Scraggy, pinned by Angus’s Simisage, blocks Giga Impact with a newly formed Focus Blast and wins with Leer and Headbutt; Iris’s Excadrill beats Burgundy’s Dewott with Dig and Drill Run, Betty’s Simipour beats Getty’s Simisear, Georgia’s new Bisharp beats Gail’s Druddigon, the previous year’s champion, Montgomery, beats Delbert’s Mienshao with Throh, and Bianca’s newly evolved Emboar catches Trip’s Stone Edge and flings Conkeldurr’s own pillars back at it.

In the quarter-finals Sawk beats Cilan’s Pansage before Cilan can finish his evaluation, Scraggy beats Betty’s Simipour with Headbutt and High Jump Kick, Emboar beats Georgia’s Bisharp with Flamethrower and Throh lifts Iris’s Excadrill out of its Dig with Superpower. In the semi-finals Sawk survives Emboar’s Fling and wins with Karate Chop, and Throh sidesteps a string of missed Focus Blasts to beat Scraggy with Circle Throw, Superpower and Seismic Toss. The final is a contest of strength: Throh throws and binds Sawk, Sawk answers with Bulk Up and Close Combat, and after a last Close Combat Sawk bows and walks away as Throh faints — Stephan wins the Vitamins and still has to correct everyone’s pronunciation of his name, the narrator’s included (BW073).

The Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup

The Junior Cup at Lacunosa Town (BW090–BW093), co-hosted by Alder and Freddy O’Martian, has sixteen entrants in single battles, with a computer draw for the first round, a fixed bracket after it and a free choice of Pokémon each round; the winner earns a gold trophy and a battle with the Champion. It opens with an exhibition in which Cynthia’s Garchomp and the Elite Four member Caitlin’s Gothitelle trade Draco Meteor and Thunderbolt until time runs out on a draw. In the first round Trip’s Serperior beats Burgundy’s Darmanitan with Solar Beam, Ash’s Leavanny beats Marris’s Karrablast, Cilan and Dawn advance, and Iris’s new Dragonite, ignoring her orders, knocks out Georgia’s Beartic with one Thunder Punch; in the quarter-finals Boldore’s Rock Blast beats Geraldo’s Reuniclus, Cilan’s Stunfisk beats Horatio’s Cinccino with Sludge Bomb, Serperior beats Manning’s Heatmor and Dragonite beats Dawn’s Mamoswine with Dragon Rush (BW090–BW091).

In the semi-finals Serperior’s Frenzy Plant beats Cilan’s Crustle, and Ash’s Krokorok, frozen by Ice Beam and blasted by Flamethrower, evolves into Krookodile and beats the berserk Dragonite with its new Dragon Claw and Stone Edge. In the final Serperior dodges Pignite’s Flame Charges and Fire Pledge and wins with Solar Beam and Frenzy Plant, so Trip takes the trophy and Ash is runner-up (BW092); in the prize battle Alder’s Bouffalant absorbs Solar Beam with Sap Sipper and wins with a single Head Charge, and Alder tells Trip he must learn to feel the bond with his Pokémon (BW093). It is the only Black & White tournament with a fixed bracket.

Rivals, Champions & other battles

Before the Nimbasa Gym Ash stakes his own journey to battle Bianca’s father, the former “Red Meteor”, whose Darmanitan beats Oshawott with Fire Punch and Flare Blitz, though Ash’s loyalty to her wins Bianca the right to keep travelling (BW049). With Cilan he loses the Stamp Rally’s Tag Battle to Ingo and Emmet’s Chandelure and Eelektross (BW051), and his first battle with a Champion ends with no result when Alder falls asleep and his Bouffalant, absorbing Thunderbolt with its afro, rams him into a tree (BW052). Iris is the first of Ash’s friends to battle a Champion, Cynthia, whose Garchomp she cannot beat before Cynthia stops the match (BW085); Ash and Dawn’s farewell battle is a draw (BW093); and in Meloetta and the Undersea Temple! Ash faces a villainous team’s leader for the first time, losing to Giovanni’s Persian (BW096).

The eighth Badge was meant to come from Opelucid City, but its Gym is closed when the group arrives (BW080), so Ash goes to Virbank instead and wins Roxie’s Toxic Badge in place of the games’ Legend Badge; Iris’s own battle with Drayden comes later. In Humilau City the forgetful Cameron, who thought the Unova League was in Ecruteak City, wins the Wave Badge, his eighth, from Marlon: Ferrothorn’s Thunderbolt beats Jellicent, whose Cursed Body disables it, Mantine wins with Wing Attack, Bullet Seed and Psybeam, and Samurott beats Mantine underwater with Hydro Cannon, Aqua Jet and a double Razor Shell (BW094). The Unova League, three months away when Ash wins his eighth Badge, follows in the next season.

Movies & Specials Released During the Season

The fifteenth movie, Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice (劇場版ポケットモンスターベストウイッシュキュレムVS聖剣士ケルディオ, “Kyurem VS the Sacred Swordsman: Keldeo”), opened in Japanese cinemas on Saturday 14 July 2012, between Expedition to Onix Island! (BW087) and The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo! (BW088), although it is set earlier, without Dawn or Meloetta. At 72 minutes it is the shortest Pokémon film; it opened second at the Japanese box office and debuted Kyurem, with its Black and White forms, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo, while its opening gave Ferrothorn and Vullaby cameos ahead of their TV debuts. The Japanese version opens with Be an Arrow! and ends with “Memories”; the English one opens with the full-length “Rival Destinies” and ends with “It’s All Inside of You”. The season trailed it in the Live Caster slot and in Team Rocket’s Keldeo phone-ins, and Japanese players received Keldeo (with advance tickets, 23 June – 31 August 2012) and Meloetta (at cinemas, 14 July – 30 September 2012). Cartoon Network premiered it on Saturday 8 December 2012, the day of Battling Authority Once Again! (BW091) — YTV in Canada the same day — and VIZ Media released it on DVD on 2 April 2013; in Japan it came out on DVD on 19 December 2012 with the short Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade.

Kyurem vs. the Sword of JusticeMovie 15 · Japan 14 July 2012 · US TV 8 December 2012 · US DVD 2 April 2013

The fourteenth films, White—Victini and Zekrom and Black—Victini and Reshiram, had opened in Japan during the previous season and earned ¥4.33 billion, the fifth-highest gross of 2011 in Japan; they came out on Japanese DVD on 16 December 2011, and pocketmonsters.net lists a TV showing of the Reshiram film on 12 July 2012, a Thursday without a new episode. In the US, Cartoon Network premiered White—Victini and Zekrom on 11 February 2012, a week before Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader!, and both films reached US DVD on 3 April 2012. Many of this season’s TV debuts were first seen in them, and The Road to Humilau! (BW094) is the first episode to use music from both.

Four Pikachu shorts fall in the season’s window. Pikachu’s Strange Wonder Adventure (PK21) was shown on TV Tokyo in the anime’s slot on 20 October 2011, in place of that week’s episode, and Pikachu’s Summer Bridge Story (PK22), on ANA flights since August 2011, came out on DVD on 20 July 2012; neither has been dubbed. The Meloetta shorts tied in with the TV story: Sing Meloetta: Search for the Rinka Berries (PK23) came on a magazine DVD on 3 July 2012 and was later shown on Pokémon Smash!, and Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade (PK24) played before the fifteenth movie, with Look Look☆Here as its ending, and was promoted at the end of BW082, BW087 and BW088.

Side Stories, Specials & Crossovers

Side-story tie-ins

Japan’s quiz and end segment. Japan’s mid-episode silhouette quiz, Dare da?, returned in Battling the King of the Mines! (BW061, 5 January 2012), replacing the generic eyecatches, for the first time since EP274 and the first time outside the original series; Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 2 (BW060) was the last episode with eyecatches until JN071. Each episode still closed with Professor Oak’s Pokémon Live Caster, given new background music from BW051, but its slot was often taken over by trailers for the fifteenth movie, a preview of Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW079) or Black 2 and White 2 news (BW081), and from BW084 by “Team Rocket’s Pokémon Live Caster” phone-ins: callers to BW084’s three numbers heard missions from Jessie, James or Meowth, and ten who picked the most-called member won the new games, while BW097’s asked viewers whether Wobbuffet, Mime Jr. or Dustox should return. Nothing followed BW083, which ran straight into BW084.
Specials and companion shows. Pokémon Smash!, TV Tokyo’s Sunday companion show, reran Mewtwo Returns on 18 and 25 September 2011, just before the season began, and ran a Pokémon anime 15th-anniversary special on 1 April 2012 and movie specials on 8 and 15 July 2012; TV Tokyo added a three-hour New Year special on 3 January 2012 and, on 16 August 2012, a 15th-anniversary ranking of favourite movie scenes in the anime’s own slot. The first broadcasts of BW083 and BW085 opened with a clip of Ash and Pikachu marking the “Pokémon Movie & TV Anime 15th Anniversary”.
Two series, one season. Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 2 (BW084) closed the first Best Wishes! season with the promise “Next time… a new beginning!”, and All for the Love of Meloetta! (BW085) opened Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 on 21 June 2012 with a new opening; Japan later subtitled parts of the second season Episode N and Decolora Adventure. The English dub ignored the break and ran all 49 episodes as one season.

Characters from the games, manga and specials

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 came out in Japan on 23 June 2012, between All for the Love of Meloetta! (BW085), the last Japanese episode before them, and Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times! (BW086); Cartoon Network aired Cilan Takes Flight! (BW067) the same day. Roxie, Virbank City’s Gym Leader, appeared in the anime “just over a week” before her game debut (BW083–BW084) — the only Gym Leader to do so — and the Live Caster slot carried news of the games (BW081) and gave copies away in Team Rocket’s phone-ins. In the US, An Epic Defense Force! (BW082) was the last new episode before the games’ English release and Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 1 (BW083) the first after it.
Game events that mirror the anime. A Thundurus distribution was advertised after Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 1 (BW059) as the forces of nature reached the TV series; the fifteenth movie brought a Keldeo for advance-ticket holders and a Meloetta at cinemas, just as Meloetta was travelling with Ash in Japan; and Team Rocket’s phone-in prizes after BW096 and BW097 included the Pokédex 3D Pro and Pokémon Dream Radar.
From the games. Elesa, Clay, Skyla, Brycen, Roxie, Marlon, the Champion Alder, the Elite Four’s Caitlin, Cynthia, Cedric Juniper and the Subway Bosses all come from the games, and Cynthia’s villa in Undella Town is hers in Black and White too; Trip, Stephan, Georgia, Burgundy, Montgomery and Cameron were created for the anime. The Opelucid Gym’s closure gives Ash a combination of Badges that neither game offers, with Roxie’s Toxic Badge from Black 2 and White 2 in place of Drayden’s Legend Badge.
Back from Sinnoh. Dawn’s eight-episode guest run (BW085–BW093) brings back her Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, Mamoswine and Togekiss, a Quilava that evolved in a Japan-only special, and her old Counter Shield (BW086), its only use in Black & White; BW086 is also the last meeting of Buneary and Pikachu, and BW093, in which she leaves for the Wallace Cup in Johto, plays the ballad “By Your Side ~Hikari’s Theme~”. Unlike Misty and May in their comebacks, she keeps her old outfit and team, and Piplup is the first Generation IV Pokémon in Who’s That Pokémon? (BW086).
The cancelled episodes live on. The chamber of the Golden Dark Stone in the Hero’s Ruin reuses the Meteonite chamber of the unaired BW023 (BW064); Ash’s capture aboard Dr. Zager’s helicopter and Giovanni addressing his Grunts reappear in BW096; and the giant Electro Ball, the ruins’ backstory and the aborted mission in BW097 come from the unaired BW024, so the Unova story ends much as the shelved two-parter would have, with Giovanni leaving for Kanto.
Pop-culture nods. The masked Accelguard and his Japanese name, A☆Gilder, salute Kamen Rider’s 40th anniversary (BW057); Pansear’s training montage parodies Rocky (BW058); a boulder chases the group through the Hero’s Ruin as in Raiders of the Lost Ark (BW064); Mick’s troubles with the bully Glenn and his friend Sean are a tribute to Doraemon (BW065); Brycen’s films send up Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, Way of the Dragon, Fist of Fury and Game of Death (BW078); Pokéstar Studios gets an MGM-style logo and a Godzilla-and-Mothra monster film (BW082); Roxie’s band nods to This Is Spinal Tap (BW083–BW084); and Cynthia’s ice-cream scene recalls Roman Holiday (BW085).

Opening & Ending Themes

Rival Destinies changed its Japanese opening once and its ending three times. Rica Matsumoto’s Best Wishes! opened BW049 to BW084, finishing an 84-episode run without a remix, and her Be an Arrow! arrived with Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW085), its Dawn-and-Piplup animation replaced by Cameron and Riolu from BW094. Takeshi Tsuruno’s Can You Name All the Pokémon? BW ended the episodes to BW060, the Pokémon BW Choral Gang’s Seven-colored Arch from BW061 and Momoiro Clover Z’s Look Look☆Here from BW079, and the first broadcast of the finale closed with Team Rocket’s own Team Rocket Forever. In English, Alex Nackman and Kathryn Raio’s “Rival Destinies” opened all 49 episodes — the only English opening built entirely from episode clips — and its instrumental played under the credits. As usual, the Japanese themes were never dubbed.

Opening 14 · Besuto Uisshu! (ベストウイッシュ！ Best Wishes!) — **Opening 14 · *Besuto Uisshu!* (ベストウイッシュ！ Best Wishes!)**Rica Matsumoto · BW049–BW084Lyrics by Akihito Toda, music by Hirokazu Tanaka, arranged by Yōgo Kōno. The all-CGI opening of the first *Best Wishes!* season ran unchanged from BW001 to BW084; this season its instrumental also scores BW050, BW051, BW053 and BW068, replaced each time in the dub by an English theme.

Opening 15 · Yajirushi ni Natte! (やじるしになって！ Be an Arrow!) — **Opening 15 · *Yajirushi ni Natte!* (やじるしになって！ Be an Arrow!)**Rica Matsumoto · BW085–BW097Lyrics by Akihito Toda, music and arrangement by Hirokazu Tanaka. The opening of *Best Wishes! Season 2*, also used in the fifteenth movie, puns in its lyrics on Dawn’s Japanese name, Hikari (“light”); its original animation with Dawn and Piplup ran to BW093, and Cameron and Riolu replace them from BW094. It gives away Krokorok’s and Servine’s evolutions and is the first opening of a League arc not to show all or most of the known Legendaries; it ran to BW108, followed by *Be an Arrow! 2013*.

Ending · Pokémon Ieru kana? BW (ポケモン言えるかな？ＢＷ Can You Name All the Pokémon? BW) — **Ending · *Pokémon Ieru kana? BW* (ポケモン言えるかな？ＢＷ Can You Name All the Pokémon? BW)**Takeshi Tsuruno · BW049–BW060Carried over from the previous season (BW026–BW060 in all), Tsuruno’s Generation V Pokérap switched to the second half of the song, with altered animation, from BW052.

Ending · Nanairo Āchi (七色アーチ Seven-colored Arch) — **Ending · *Nanairo Āchi* (七色アーチ Seven-colored Arch)**Pokémon BW Choral Gang · BW061–BW078Sung by Aki Okui, Toshiko Ezaki and Fumie Akiyoshi; lyrics by PikachuPJ-2012, music by Toshiko Ezaki, arranged by Kōji Gotō (ck510). Cilan conducts Ash, Iris and their Pokémon singing in a cherry-blossom meadow while Team Rocket watch from a cliff, giving away Unfezant, Leavanny, Pignite, Crustle and the capture of the sunglasses Krokorok; Boldore’s spine, red in the first airings, was corrected from BW064. A rearranged instrumental had already played in BW053, and the full version came out as a digital single on 7 March 2012.

Ending · Mite Mite☆Kotchitchi (みてみて☆こっちっち Look Look☆Here) — **Ending · *Mite Mite☆Kotchitchi* (みてみて☆こっちっち Look Look☆Here)**Momoiro Clover Z · BW079–BW096Lyrics by Akihito Toda, music and arrangement by Hirokazu Tanaka. Pansage, Axew, Pikachu and Oshawott dance with Meloetta in its Pirouette Forme. Announced by Professor Oak at the end of BW078, it also ends the short *Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade* and runs on into the next season; the first Japanese theme not published by Pikachu Records, it is the coupling track of the group’s single *Z Otome Sensō* (King Records, 27 June 2012, per pocketmonsters.net). On TV the finale closed instead with *Team Rocket Forever*; reruns and the DVDs restore this song to BW097.

English opening · Rival Destinies — English opening · *Rival Destinies*Alex Nackman & Kathryn Raio · all 49 episodesLyrics and music by John Loeffler and David Wolfert, arranged by Loeffler and Manny Corallo. The only English opening made up entirely of clips from *Black & White* episodes — among them scenes not yet aired in Japan when it premiered, such as Skyla and Ash’s Unfezant — it gives away the evolutions of Tranquill, Roggenrola and Dwebble and the forces of nature, and is the first English opening since “Born to Be a Winner” not to sing its season’s subtitle. A full-length version opens the fifteenth movie, instrumentals score BW050, BW051 and BW082 and every end credit, and a lyrical version returns in BW108 and BW109.

Japan’s background music leans on the films: “As I’m Lost ~By Your Side~”, from the Zoroark soundtrack, in BW050, BW051, BW054, BW057 and BW089; cues from Arceus and the Jewel of Life (BW059, BW064, BW068, BW081, BW096) and Zoroark: Master of Illusions (BW052, BW054, BW056, BW059, BW064, BW081, BW096, and its opening theme in BW062); an arrangement of “Celebi Revived” (BW054); and, from The Road to Humilau! (BW094), music from both fourteenth films. Sinnoh returns with Dawn — the ballad “By Your Side ~Hikari’s Theme~” and the Route 201 theme in BW093, Route 201 also in BW062 — and the Black and White games’ rival battle theme plays in BW068 and a rearranged Seven-colored Arch in BW053. BW088 is, per Bulbapedia, the last Black & White episode to use the original series’ music for Dare da?, and BW097’s first broadcast closed with Team Rocket Forever (lyrics by Takeshi Shudō), heard before in EP045, as the opening of EP070 and in later episodes. The English dub, made by The Pokémon Company International at DuArt, swapped the Best Wishes! instrumental for a “Rival Destinies” one in BW050, BW051 and BW068 and its insert for a Black and White one in BW053, used “Rival Destinies” as background music in BW079 and instrumentals of “Rival Destinies” and “Follow Your Star (Ideals Mix)” in BW082, cut Ash and Cameron humming Aim to Be a Pokémon Master in Japanese (BW094) and changed the Who’s That Pokémon? voices from BW080.

Rival Destinies — Alex Nackman and Kathryn Raio’s English opening, used for all 49 episodes, begins 30 seconds into this compilation of the Unova-era themes, where Bulbapedia’s page for the song cues it. Video: The Official Pokémon YouTube channel.

TV Broadcasts & Original Airing Dates

Japan. TV Tokyo broadcast the season on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m., starting with Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader! on 22 September 2011, a week after the one-hour Battle Subway finale of Black & White. There was no new episode on 20 October 2011, when the slot showed the Pikachu short Pikachu’s Strange Wonder Adventure; on 17 November and 29 December 2011 and 9 February 2012; on 12 July 2012, two days before the fifteenth movie opened, when pocketmonsters.net lists a TV showing of the fourteenth; on 9 August 2012; and on 16 August 2012, when a 15th-anniversary ranking of movie scenes took the slot. Rocking the Virbank Gym! Parts 1 and 2 (BW083–BW084) aired back to back as a one-hour special on 14 June 2012, the finale of the first Best Wishes! season, and All for the Love of Meloetta! opened Best Wishes! Season 2 a week later, two days before Black 2 and White 2 came out. The season ended with Unova’s Survival Crisis! on 4 October 2012, and the next episode, Beauties Battling for Pride and Prestige!, followed on 11 October. Japan has no “season 15”: these are episodes 49 to 84 of Best Wishes! and 1 to 13 of Season 2.

The US run. The dub’s title, Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies, was announced on 4 February 2012, and Cartoon Network premiered the season at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday 18 February 2012 with BW049, a week after showing White—Victini and Zekrom; the press release promised that it “picks up where Black & White ended”. New episodes followed every Saturday, in Japanese order and with nothing skipped, until Unova’s Survival Crisis! on 26 January 2013; the only Saturday without one was 29 December 2012. Cilan Takes Flight! (BW067) aired on 23 June 2012, the day Black 2 and White 2 launched in Japan, An Epic Defense Force! (BW082) was the last new episode before their English release and Battling Authority Once Again! (BW091) premiered on 8 December 2012, the day the channel showed Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice. Adventures in Unova followed on 2 February 2013. No viewing figures for the US run have been found.

Premiere slips. The Who’s That Pokémon? segment was missing from the first airings of The Mighty Accelguard to the Rescue! (BW057) and Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 1 (BW059) “for an unknown reason”, and skipped on the original English airing of Jostling for the Junior Cup! (BW090). Skyla’s Japanese voice can be heard in the dub of BW067, as she introduces Swanna, and in BW068’s quiz reveal, and during the US premieres of Meloetta and the Undersea Temple! (BW096) and Unova’s Survival Crisis! (BW097) Cartoon Network accidentally carried the Latin American Spanish dub, not due until November 2013, on its secondary audio track. In the UK, the first airing of Evolution Exchange Excitement! (BW063) had “The Excitement of Exchange Evolution!” on its title card.

Elsewhere. Canada’s YTV began the season on Saturday 7 April 2012 — the first time a season started there in spring rather than late summer or autumn — replaced Black & White’s weekday run with it on 13 August 2012 and premiered the fifteenth movie on 8 December 2012, the same day as the US. In the UK, CITV premiered the season on 14 April 2012 and showed the last four episodes first, BW094 and BW095 on 28 December 2012 and BW096 and BW097 on 31 December, eight to 26 days ahead of Cartoon Network; Disney XD also carried the series, and BBC iPlayer added the season on 18 February 2022. In Australia it went out on Toasted TV, by then on Eleven. Italy’s K2 aired Jostling for the Junior Cup! on 26 November 2012, five days before the US, and the last four episodes on 2 and 3 January 2013; Germany’s Disney XD showed BW091 on 5 December, three days early; Poland’s Disney XD aired BW095 to BW097 on 8–10 January 2013, with the season logo fully localised from BW049; and Latin America premiered BW096 and BW097 on the same days as the US. Pokémon TV’s English and European rotations of 3 June 2016 left out the Milos Island two-parter (BW059–BW060).

The numbering. There are 49 episodes in Japan and 49 in English, numbered 1 to 49 on TV, DVD and streaming, with Bulbapedia codes BW049 to BW097 and alternate overall codes EP706 to EP754. English Wikipedia numbers the season 708–756 in Japan and 702–750 in English, the English count this site uses, and pocketmonsters.net’s production numbers — “BW 51” to “BW 86” and “BWS2 1” to “BWS2 13” — still count the two unaired episodes of the previous season. By Bulbapedia’s count, which leaves out Holiday Hi-Jynx and Snow Way Out!, Goodbye, Junior Cup—Hello, Adventure! (BW093) is the anime’s 750th episode.

Dub Edits

Changes in the English version

Nothing banned. All 49 episodes were dubbed by The Pokémon Company International at DuArt and shown on Cartoon Network in Japanese order, with no episode skipped or held back, and the visual edits are few. Dogasu’s Backpack, which compared the Japanese and English versions of the previous season, has no comparison pages for this one — its Best Wishes list stops linking after BW048 — so the changes below come from the “Dub edits”, “Errors” and “Trivia” sections of Bulbapedia’s episode pages.

Who’s That Pokémon? and Dare da? The dub kept its quiz as the mid-episode break, but Japan’s Dare da? returned in BW061, so from then on the two versions often show different Pokémon — Krokorok against Excadrill (BW061), Krookodile against Tyranitar, Japan’s first Black & White quiz without a Generation V Pokémon (BW082), Onix against Pirouette Forme Meloetta (BW087) and Persian against Therian Forme Landorus (BW097). Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown! (BW073, Throh) is the first Black & White episode with the same Pokémon in both, the first since EP095, 635 episodes earlier. Since its return the dub’s quiz had its first Pokémon from before Generation V, Koffing (BW083), its first Mythical one, Meloetta (BW085) — leaving aside the Mew of the 4Kids dub of The Dunsparce Deception — its first from Generation IV, Piplup (BW086), and its first that does not appear in the episode, Persian (BW097); its voices changed from BW080, and it was missing from the first airings of BW057 and BW059 and skipped on that of BW090.

Music. The dub replaced the Best Wishes! instrumental with a “Rival Destinies” one in BW050, BW051 and BW068 and its insert with a Black and White one in BW053, used “Rival Destinies” as background music in BW079 and instrumentals of “Rival Destinies” and “Follow Your Star (Ideals Mix)” in BW082, and cut Ash and Cameron humming Aim to Be a Pokémon Master in Japanese (BW094). The Japanese endings, including BW097’s one-off Team Rocket Forever, have no English counterpart.

Names. Kamitsure became Elesa, Yakon Clay, Huuro Skyla, Hachiku Brycen, Homika Roxie, Shizui Marlon, Kotetsu Cameron, Larry Ridley, Masaomi Montgomery, Katorea Caitlin and “Araragi-Papa” Cedric Juniper; the Donamite (Don George’s name plus dynamite) became the Clubsplosion; the “Pokémon Sommelier” stayed a Connoisseur, so Pokémon Sommelier Showdown! Tasting Battle!! became Clash of the Connoisseurs! (BW080); the hero A☆Gilder and his foe Freege Man became the Mighty Accelguard and Cryogonal Man (BW057); and Raimon, Hodomoe, Fukiyose, Sekka, Tachiwaki and Seigaiha became Nimbasa, Driftveil, Mistralton, Icirrus, Virbank and Humilau.

Dialogue and slips. Montgomery’s Japanese pun on Throh’s name, Nageki (nageku, “to deplore”), becomes “don’t want to be thrown by Throh” (BW070); Iris no longer calls Krokorok Axew’s “cool big brother”, leaving its gender unstated (BW078); after Crustle’s Rock Wrecker blasts Burgundy over a wall, the English Ash “could’ve sworn” he had heard that before, a nod to Team Rocket’s old blast-offs (BW080); and the Japanese jokes about Stephan’s name — “Tom-Yum-Goong” (BW069), “Yukgaejang” and “União” (BW072) — and Burgundy’s borrowed yana kanji (BW072) are lost. Slips include Razor Shell called by its Japanese name, “Shell Blade” (BW049), a “lightning wedge” for the wind wedge (BW057), Thundurus as “the Bolt Pokémon” (BW060), Boldore pronounced “boulder” (BW061), the afro called “curly hair” (BW066), Ash’s “Attack now” covering a Wing Attack that Tranquill cannot learn — the Black & White series’ first move error (BW068) — “A-class Connoisseur” for Burgundy (BW073) and Dawn introducing Brock as if for the first time (BW088). In the finale Tornadus keeps one voice for both Formes and the possessed Giovanni’s red eyes and forehead seal are toned down (BW097), and the BBC iPlayer and CBBC version of BW090 cuts Georgia and Iris’s insults about each other’s hair. Abroad, the Greek dub renamed Skyla “Skaila” (BW067), and Czech title cards often differ from the spoken titles.

Episode titles explained

Several of this season’s English titles play on familiar phrases, films and songs:

The Four Seasons of Sawsbuck! — Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, for a Pokémon that changes with them
The Mighty Accelguard to the Rescue! — a superhero cry; “Accelguard” blends Accelgor and “guard”, and the Japanese hero, A☆Gilder, salutes Kamen Rider
A Call for Brotherly Love! — Philadelphia, “the City of Brotherly Love” and the home of Rocky, whose training montage the episode parodies, for a story about Cilan and his brother Chili
Baffling the Bouffalant! — alliteration, for a herd that leaves anyone with an afro alone
Climbing the Tower of Success! — “climbing the ladder of success”, for a tower climbed in a race to ring the Wishing Bell
The Clubsplosion Begins! — “Clubsplosion” is Battle Club plus explosion, as the Japanese Donamite is Don George plus dynamite
Search for the Clubultimate! — “ultimate”, for the next round of the Clubsplosion
Caution: Icy Battle Conditions! — a road-sign warning of icy conditions, for a Gym battle on an ice rink
Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 1 — rock music, for a Gym that doubles as the concert hall of Roxie’s band
Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times! — Simon & Garfunkel’s “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme”
Ash, Iris, and Trip: Then There Were Three! — Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, as the Junior Cup narrows to three friends and rivals

DVD & Blu-ray / Streaming

Rival Destinies came out in North America from VIZ Media, distributed by Warner Home Video, as three sets in 2013 and 2014 — the third a four-disc set of 25 episodes — followed by a six-disc Complete Season in 2022; all of them hold the same 49 episodes. Australia and New Zealand got two Collections from Beyond Home Entertainment, a six-disc DigiPack and a slimline repack. No UK DVD release of the season has been found.

North America (Region 1)

Release	Date	Contents
Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies Set 1 (VIZ Media, 2 discs)	10 September 2013	BW049–BW054 and BW055–BW060
Set 2 (2 discs)	3 December 2013	BW061–BW066 and BW067–BW072
Set 3 (4 discs)	18 March 2014	BW073–BW078, BW079–BW084, BW085–BW090 and BW091–BW097
Pokémon the Series: Black and White – Rival Destinies, The Complete Season (6 DVDs in one case with a slipcover, 3000088426)	15 March 2022	All 49 episodes: BW049–BW057, BW058–BW065, BW066–BW073, BW074–BW081, BW082–BW089 and BW090–BW097

Australia & New Zealand (Region 4)

Release	Date	Notes
Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies – Collection 1 (3 discs, BHE4358)	3 February 2013 (New Zealand 19 January 2013)	BW049–BW073; no English captions
Collection 2 (3 discs, BHE4359)	5 June 2013	BW074–BW097
Pokémon Season 15 DigiPack (6 discs, BHE4875)	2 October 2013 (New Zealand 16 October 2013)	Discs 15.1–15.6 themed on Scraggy, Tranquill, Pansage, Palpitoad, Krookodile and Stunfisk; JB Hi-Fi 20th-anniversary reissue on 14 July (online) and 21 September 2016
Slimline repack (BHE5399)	2 April 2014	The six-disc set repackaged
Multi-season sets	—	The season is also in the Pokémon Unova Collection, the Heritage Collection II and the Seasons 1–19 Deluxe, 1–20 Ultra and 1–21 Mega box sets

Japan

In Japan the episodes went out on DVD volumes of Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! — Vols. 8–9 on 21 September 2011, 10–11 on 26 October, 12–13 on 25 November, 14–15 on 25 January 2012, 16 on 22 February and 17 on 21 March — and then of Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! 2012: Vol. 1 on 23 May 2012, 2–3 on 27 June, 4–5 on 29 August, 6–7 on 26 September, 8–9 on 24 October and 10–12 on 28 November 2012; which episodes each volume holds has not been confirmed. Three eight-disc Pokémon BW TV Anime Collection sets followed on 18 January, 12 July and 6 November 2012, and the DVDs fix a few animation errors, among them Meowth’s whiskers in BW060 and colour slips in BW067 and BW084. The fourteenth films came out on DVD on 16 December 2011 and the fifteenth, with Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade, on 19 December 2012.

Streaming

Pokémon TV added the season on 1 May 2020, later rotated it out, stopped new viewing on 8 January 2024 and closed on 28 March 2024; DisneyNOW and Watch Disney XD carried Black & White episodes until those apps closed on 23 September 2024. In the UK BBC iPlayer has carried the season since 18 February 2022. The Pokémon TV channel on YouTube, launched in December 2024, carries only Seasons 1 to 11 so far (as of October 2026), so Rival Destinies is not on it, and no Netflix release of this season has been found. Check your local service, as availability changes often.

Covers

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies Set 1 (Region 1, 2013)

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies Set 2 (Region 1, 2013)

Where to Watch & Buy

Availability changes constantly, so treat this as a snapshot (October 2026) and check your local service. Links will be added here once we have settled on referral partners.

BBC iPlayer (UK)Has carried the season since 18 February 2022.
DVD – North AmericaPokémon the Series: Black and White – Rival Destinies, The Complete Season (VIZ Media, 6 discs, 2022) has all 49 episodes in one case.
DVD – Australia & New ZealandThe Season 15 DigiPack and its slimline repack, and several multi-season box sets.
Not on Pokémon TVThe Pokémon TV channel on YouTube carries only Seasons 1–11 (as of October 2026), and the Pokémon TV service closed in March 2024.

Trading Cards Released During the Season

Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies aired in the US as the trading card game’s Black & White era reached its Dragon-type sets, and four expansions came out while it was on Cartoon Network:

Dark Explorers — 9 May 2012 — between Stopping the Rage of Legends! Part 2 (BW060) and Battling the King of the Mines! (BW061), with 111 cards from Japan’s Dark Rush: Tornadus-EX, Darkrai-EX, Entei-EX, Raikou-EX, Kyogre-EX and Groudon-EX, Krokorok and Krookodile, Excadrill, Swanna, Zoroark, the Supporters Cheren, N and Professor Juniper and the Stadium Twist Mountain
Dragons Exalted — 15 August 2012 — between Battling the Leaf Thieves! (BW074) and A Restoration Confrontation! Part 1 (BW075), with 128 cards from Dragon Blast and Dragon Blade that introduced Dragon-type cards: Rayquaza-EX, Giratina-EX, Terrakion-EX, Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon, Garbodor and Secret Rare Serperior, Reuniclus and a Shiny Krookodile
Dragon Vault — 5 October 2012 — the day before An Epic Defense Force! (BW082), a 21-card set sold only in Dragon Vault blister packs, with the Dratini line, Axew, Fraxure and Haxorus, Druddigon, Latias, Latios, Rayquaza and Kyurem
Boundaries Crossed — 7 November 2012 — between Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times! (BW086) and Expedition to Onix Island! (BW087), with 153 cards from Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare and the first ACE SPEC cards: Keldeo-EX, Landorus-EX, Black and White Kyurem-EX, Meloetta, Cryogonal and the Supporters Skyla, Bianca and Cheren

In Japan the cards had come out months earlier: Dark Explorers is the English version of Dark Rush (16 December 2011), Dragon Vault of Dragon Selection (27 January 2012), Dragons Exalted of Dragon Blast and Dragon Blade (16 March 2012) and Boundaries Crossed of Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare (13 July 2012). Next Destinies, from Psycho Drive and Hail Blizzard, came out on 8 February 2012, ten days before the US premiere, with a Supporter card for Cilan, and Plasma Storm followed after the finale.

Our TCG section has a full card list, print variations and the most valuable cards for every one of them.

Cards with a link to the season

Three cards from those sets tie straight into the season:

Firsts & Lasts

First battle between Ash and a League Champion: Alder (BW052).
First trade evolution in the anime: Shelmet and Karrablast into Accelgor and Escavalier (BW063).
First friendship evolution for Ash: Swadloon into Leavanny (BW074).
First on-screen evolution of a main character’s Dark type: Krokorok into Krookodile (BW092).
First time Ash’s Badges differ from the games’, and the first official Gym battle with unequal teams: Roxie’s Toxic Badge (BW083–BW084).
First Japanese Dare da? since EP274 (BW061), and the first episode since EP095 with the same quiz Pokémon in both versions (BW073).
First Generation IV Pokémon in Who’s That Pokémon?, Piplup (BW086), and, in the dub, the first Mythical one apart from a 4Kids-era Mew, Meloetta (BW085), the first from before Generation V since the segment’s return, Koffing (BW083), and the first not to appear in its episode, Persian (BW097).
First event-only Pokémon to debut in the TV series rather than a movie, and the only Mythical Pokémon to travel with the group: Meloetta (BW082).
First Shiny Pokémon of the Black & White series: an Onix (BW087).
First episode in which all three forces of nature debut together (BW059), and the first and only use of Fly in the TV series (BW096).
First time Ash battles a villainous team’s leader: Giovanni and his Persian (BW096).
First of Ash’s friends to battle a Champion: Iris against Cynthia (BW085); first episode with two League Champions together and first Unova Elite Four member (BW090).
Last recital of Team Rocket’s Unova motto (BW075), last appearance of Dr. Zager (BW097) and last time Pikachu’s Static activates (BW084).
Only English opening built entirely from episode clips: “Rival Destinies”.

Trivia & Facts

Two Japanese series in one dub season. Rival Destinies joins the last 36 episodes of Best Wishes! (BW049–BW084), which ended with the one-hour Virbank Gym special of 14 June 2012, to the first 13 of Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW085–BW097), which arrived with a new opening, Rica Matsumoto’s Be an Arrow!, in June 2012.
Five Badges, one twist. With the Opelucid Gym closed (BW080), Ash’s eighth Badge is Roxie’s Toxic Badge instead of Drayden’s Legend Badge — the first time his Badges differ from the games’. Roxie is the only Gym Leader to appear in the anime before her game debut, and BW083–BW084 is the first official Gym battle with unequal teams, Ash’s six against her three.

Ash takes on Roxie and her three Poison types at the Virbank Gym in Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 2 (BW084) — the eighth and final Badge of the Unova journey, won six-against-three in the anime’s first official Gym battle with unequal teams. Screenshot: Pokémon anime, BW084 “Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 2” · via Bulbapedia
An evolution season. Six of the heroes’ Pokémon evolve — Boldore, Crustle, Unfezant, Leavanny, Pignite and Krookodile — two of them in the middle of Gym battles; BW061 introduced a new evolution animation, BW063 has the anime’s first trade evolution, BW074 Ash’s first friendship evolution and BW092 the first on-screen evolution of a main character’s Dark type.
Dare da? is back — in Japan. Japan’s silhouette quiz returned in BW061, its first appearance since EP274, and Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown! (BW073) became the first Black & White episode whose quiz matched the dub’s, the first since EP095; BW060 was the last episode with Japanese eyecatches until JN071.
The longest wait for a catch. Ash caught the sunglasses Krokorok in BW065, 62 episodes after Sandile’s debut — the longest gap between a species’ debut and Ash catching it — and it is his only new Pokémon of the season and his last Ground-type catch to date.
A Mythical companion. Meloetta (BW082) is the first event-only Pokémon to debut in the TV series rather than a movie and the only Mythical Pokémon to travel with the group. Its last appearance in Japan (BW097, 4 October 2012) aired the same week as its English debut (BW082, 6 October 2012).

Meloetta arrives in An Epic Defense Force! (BW082) — the first Mythical Pokémon to debut on television rather than in a film, and the only one ever to travel with Ash and his friends. Screenshot: Pokémon anime, BW082 “An Epic Defense Force!” · via Bulbapedia
Team Rocket’s last Unova mission. The trio recite their Unova motto for the last time in BW075; Giovanni returns in BW095, 71 episodes after he was last seen if the two unaired episodes are counted; his Persian battles for the first time and Ash fights a villainous team’s leader for the first time (BW096); and Operation Tempest ends with Team Rocket’s withdrawal to Kanto and Dr. Zager’s last appearance (BW097).
The cancelled episodes live on. BW064’s Golden Dark Stone chamber reuses the Meteonite chamber from the unaired BW023; BW096 reuses Ash’s capture aboard Dr. Zager’s helicopter and Giovanni addressing his Grunts; and BW097’s giant Electro Ball, ruins backstory and aborted mission come from the unaired BW024.
Dawn’s guest run. Unlike Misty and May in their comeback episodes, Dawn (BW085–BW093) returns without a new outfit or a changed team; her Quilava, evolved in the undubbed special DPS01, first appears in English in BW086, which also has the Black & White series’ only Counter Shield and the last meeting of Buneary and Pikachu.
Champions everywhere. Ash battles a Champion for the first time (Alder, BW052), Iris becomes the first of his friends to do so (Cynthia, BW085), and Jostling for the Junior Cup! (BW090) is the first episode in which two League Champions interact and the first appearance of a Unova Elite Four member, Caitlin, whose Gothitelle is the only anime Pokémon to use Flatter.
Two tournaments, no trophy for Ash. He reached the Top 4 of the Clubsplosion, won by Stephan, and was runner-up in the Junior Cup, won by Trip — who then lost to Alder’s Bouffalant in one hit.
Legends in pairs and threes. BW059 is the first episode in which all three forces of nature debut together, and BW097 debuts their Therian Formes; Ridley’s Golurk uses Fly in BW096, the move’s first and only use in the TV series.
Iris’s only Dragon catch. For all her Dragon Master dreams, Dragonite (BW089) is the only Dragon type Iris catches on screen, and it is the only Black & White episode in which a main character catches a Pokémon from before Generation V.
Game timing. The US premiere of Cilan Takes Flight! (BW067) fell on the day Black 2 and White 2 launched in Japan, and All for the Love of Meloetta! (BW085) was the last Japanese episode before them; in the US, BW082 was the last new episode before the English release and BW083 the first after it.
An all-clip opening. “Rival Destinies” is the only English opening built entirely from episode clips, some of them not yet aired in Japan, and the first since “Born to Be a Winner” not to sing the season’s subtitle; in Japan, Momoiro Clover Z’s Look Look☆Here is the first theme not published by Pikachu Records.
Ratings low and high. Evolution by Fire! (BW077, 3 May 2012) drew 2.2%, the lowest rating of the Black & White series according to Bulbapedia, while The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo! (BW088) drew 7%, the best of Season 2 according to Japanese Wikipedia.
Guest voices from the 4Kids era. Kerry Williams, 4Kids’ Casey, voices Katharine (BW055) and Stuart Zagnit, 4Kids’ Professor Oak, voices Cedric Juniper (BW063); in Japan Rikako Aikawa voices Gothita, her first role since the Advanced Generation series. Sarah Natochenny doubles as Skyla and Eileen Stevens as Elesa.
A milestone and a record. Goodbye, Junior Cup—Hello, Adventure! (BW093) is the anime’s 750th episode, not counting Holiday Hi-Jynx and Snow Way Out!, and Marlon (BW094) is the first Gym Leader to appear in only one episode since Bugsy.
Games and cards. The trading card expansions released during the US run were Dark Explorers, Dragons Exalted, Dragon Vault and Boundaries Crossed, from Tornadus-EX and Krookodile to the first Dragon-type cards, Skyla and Meloetta — see our TCG section.

Reception

Ratings. No viewing figures for the US run have been found. In Japan, according to Japanese Wikipedia, the first Best Wishes! season (BW001–BW084) averaged 5.8% in the Kantō region, its closing one-hour special (BW083–BW084) drew 6.5% and Season 2’s best figure was 7% for The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo! (BW088), its first episode after the fifteenth movie opened; Bulbapedia records 2.2% for Evolution by Fire! (BW077), the lowest of the Black & White series. Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice opened second at the Japanese box office in July 2012.

Fan scores. MyAnimeList rates Pokémon Best Wishes! Season 2 (BW085–BW108) 6.50 and the first Best Wishes! season, which includes BW049–BW084, 6.48. Episode Hive’s user ratings, with roughly 90 to 125 votes each, cover only BW049 to BW073: the highest are Enter Elesa, Electrifying Gym Leader! and An Amazing Aerial Battle! at 7.1, followed by Battling the King of the Mines! and Battling the Bully! at 7.0, and the lowest Baffling the Bouffalant! at 6.0 and Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym! at 6.1. IMDb’s episode ratings could not be checked for this page.

Commentary. Unlike the season before it, Rival Destinies has no Dogasu’s Backpack comparisons — the site’s Best Wishes list stops linking after BW048 — and no professional reviews of the episodes, the VIZ Media sets or the 2022 Complete Season have been found; fan discussion lives mainly in the Bulbagarden Forums’ preview and review threads, which Bulbapedia links from every episode page. The season won no known awards.

Continue the journey with Season 16: Pokémon BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond, go back to Season 14: Pokémon Black & White, or browse every season of the Pokémon anime.