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| Season | Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon (Season 20) · Snowy, Rockruff & Steenee arc (SM011–SM018) |
| Episode | Season 20, episode 13 · English episode 948 · Japanese episode 953 · Bulbapedia code SM013 |
| English title | Racing to a Big Event! |
| Japanese title | アローラパンケーキ大レース！ Arōra Pankēki Dai-Rēsu! — “The Big Alola Pancake Race!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 2 February 2017 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 10 June 2017 · Disney XD |
| Screenplay | Aya Matsui |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Alola!! – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) with Pikachu (Ikue Ōtani) · Pōzu (Pose) – Taiiku Okazaki |
| English opening | Under the Alolan Sun – Jannel Candrice and The Sad Truth (featuring Ben Dixon and the Vestigial Horns) |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Raichu (Alola Form) (US) |
| Previous episode | The Sun, the Scare, the Secret Lair! (SM012) |
| Next episode | Getting to Know You! (SM014) |
Plot episodePancake RaceSnowy hatches
Racing to a Big Event! is the 13th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, the twentieth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 948th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 953, Bulbapedia code SM013). It first aired in Japan on 2 February 2017 and in the United States on 10 June 2017. It falls within the season’s Snowy, Rockruff & Steenee stretch (EP11–EP18).
Synopsis
Ash and his classmates enter the Pokémon Pancake Race, which Samson Oak’s Komala wins, and the next day Lillie’s Egg hatches into an Alolan Vulpix. Mallow and Bounsweet are practising balancing stacks of pancakes for the annual race, and she invites Ash to enter. At a café Professor Kukui introduces Nina, last year’s champion, and her Alolan Raichu, which Rotom explains is a Psychic and Electric type. The rules are simple: drop a pancake and you are out. Raichu snubs Pikachu, starting a rivalry, and the two pairs practise together; Pikachu finishes exhausted but with its stack intact. Team Rocket learn that the prize is a year’s supply of Alolan pancakes, and Jessie resolves to win. On race day the announcer, Anna, explains the three stages: an obstacle course with stacks, a wagon-pulling section, and a final dash by the Pokémon alone. Using attacks to disrupt rivals means disqualification.
The classmates boast about winning, Lillie cheers from the sidelines with her Egg, and Nina says that fun and safety matter more to her than victory. On the balance beams Sophocles falls and is eliminated, startled by Alolan Muk cleaning up the dropped pancakes, and Togedemaru punishes him for failing. Jessie is distracted by Mimikyu, which keeps trying to attack Pikachu. Rotom points out Samson Oak’s Komala, which has also turned up for the race. James pulls a Bewear-shaped robot carrying Meowth and Wobbuffet, grumbling about their weight, while Kiawe’s Turtonator is so heavy that Kiawe collapses dragging its wagon. On a bridge Mimikyu prepares a Shadow Ball, but Bounsweet topples into it and both stacks fall, and the misfire bursts Popplio’s water balloon and ruins its stack, eliminating Mallow and Lana and infuriating Jessie.
On the rocky final stretch, Pikachu and Raichu are neck and neck when Meowth fires the robot’s thrusters and rockets past them both. Then the real Bewear appears, grabs Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet, and smashes the robot, exposing Team Rocket. With Pikachu and Raichu distracted, Komala wins by a nose, and the two rivals tie for second. At the ceremony Ash praises Pikachu, Nina comforts Raichu, and Mallow suggests that Lillie could race next year with her Egg, which Lillie has nicknamed Snowy; Kiawe, who did not finish, vows never to give up. The next day Snowy begins to glow, and as the class gathers round, the Egg hatches into an Alolan Vulpix, setting up Lillie’s next and greatest challenge: touching a Pokémon of her own.
Major Events
- The Pancake Race and Snowy’s hatching. The Pokémon Pancake Race: Samson Oak’s Komala wins, and Pikachu and Nina’s Alolan Raichu tie for second
- Lillie names her Egg Snowy, and it hatches into an Alolan Vulpix
- Anime debuts of Alolan Raichu, Muk and Vulpix
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Japanese and English endings show Snowy in place of the Egg from this episode
Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.