 |
|
| Season | Pokémon: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond (Season 16) · Farewell to Unova arc (BW123–BW128) |
| Episode | Season 16, episode 31 · English episode 781 · Japanese episode 786 · Bulbapedia code BW128 |
| English title | To Catch a Rotom! |
| Japanese title | ロトムVSオーキド博士！ Rotomu Tai Ōkido Hakase! — “Rotom VS Dr. Okido!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 30 May 2013 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 31 August 2013 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Natsumeku Sakamichi (Summerly Slope) – Daisuke · Te o Tsunagō (Let’s Join Hands) – Shiritsu Ebisu Chūgaku (TV broadcast: live-action version 2; DVDs: the original animation) |
| English opening | It’s Always You and Me (Version 3) – Neal Coomer & Kathryn Raio |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Rotom (US) |
| Previous episode | The Island of Illusions! (BW127) |
| Next episode | The Pirates of Decolore! (BW129) |
Plot episodeProfessor Oak catches Rotom
To Catch a Rotom! is the 31st episode of Pokémon: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond, the sixteenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 781st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 786, Bulbapedia code BW128). It first aired in Japan on 30 May 2013 and in the United States on 31 August 2013. It falls within the season’s Farewell to Unova stretch (EP123–EP128).
Synopsis
On Torom Island, Professor Oak meets Iris and Cilan in person for the first time and catches a Rotom after the group rescues it from Team Rocket. The island’s Rotom love the power plant’s electricity, so the locals have built them a playground of electrical appliances.
Pikachu’s Thunderbolt draws three Rotom, and Oak, shocked during a failed catch, simply laughs and invites them to shock him again. They spurn Stunfisk’s electricity, enjoy Emolga’s Discharge, shrug off Attract because they have no gender, and slip into a washing machine, a microwave oven and a lawn mower.
Team Rocket lure out the Mow Rotom with generator power, trap it, and use its energy to drag out the others, which flee into a refrigerator and a fan. Stunfisk, Excadrill and Krookodile anchor them, the Frost Rotom freezes the villains, and Pikachu and the Fan Rotom free the captive before all three Rotom blast Team Rocket off. The injured Rotom lets Oak treat it and joins his research, and the group declines Oak’s offer of a flight back to Kanto.
Major Events
- Professor Oak catches a Rotom. Torom Island
- Iris and Cilan meet Oak in person
- The group declines Oak’s flight to Kanto
- The Live Caster’s Rotom lecture is part of the episode and kept in the dub
- The first anime mention of gender-unknown Pokémon
- Krookodile’s last episode in Ash’s party
- Debut of Professor Oak’s Rotom
Captures and evolutions
Rotom#0479 · Professor Oak · caught on Torom Island after the group rescues it
Trivia
- The English title plays on “probably Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film To Catch a Thief”.
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Unova storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Oak, not the narrator, says the closing “…as the journey continues” line, as the two have different English voices
- Japanese text is left visible and untranslated, the first time since Go West Young Meowth
- The Live Caster lecture is kept, as “Professor Oak’s Who’s That Pokémon”
Part of our Pokémon: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyond guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.