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| Season | Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends (Season 22) · The Ultra Ruin arc (SM100–SM101) |
| Episode | Season 22, episode 9 · English episode 1035 · Japanese episode 1041 · Bulbapedia code SM101 |
| English title | Parallel Friendships! |
| Japanese title | 放て！友情のツインスパーキングギガボルト！！ Hanate! Yūjō no Tsuin Supākingu Gigaboruto!! — “Fire! The Twin Sparking Gigavolt of Friendship!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 16 December 2018 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 6 April 2019 · Disney XD |
| Screenplay | Shōji Yonemura |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Kimi no Bōken (Your Adventure) – Taiiku Okazaki · Jari Bōi Jari Gāru (Twerp, Twerpette) – Taiiku Okazaki |
| English opening | The Challenge of Life – Dani Marcus and The Sad Truth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Guzzlord (US) |
| Previous episode | Battling the Beast Within! (SM100) |
| Next episode | Alola, Alola! (SM102) |
Plot episodeUltra Ruin, part 2Double Gigavolt Havoc
Parallel Friendships! is the 9th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends, the twenty-second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1035th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1041, Bulbapedia code SM101). It first aired in Japan on 16 December 2018 and in the United States on 6 April 2019. It falls within the season’s The Ultra Ruin stretch (EP100–EP101).
Premiered on Saturday 6 April 2019, the first episode of the weekly Saturday-morning run; Disney XD showed no new episode the following Saturday, 13 April.
Synopsis
In the ruined world of the Ultra Ruin, Ash and Dia join forces, and Pikachu and Zeraora fire a double Gigavolt Havoc to drive Guzzlord back into Ultra Space. The building Dia calls home really is the Pokémon School, and he explains that Ash has come from a parallel world in which Alola was never destroyed. About ten years earlier, Melemele Island was overdeveloped and polluted, and then Guzzlord reduced everything to rubble; Dia warns that wrong choices could bring the same fate to Ash’s world. Zeraora, he admits, is not really his Pokémon: their bond began when it struck Guzzlord with Plasma Fists as Dia tried to force the Ultra Beast through an Ultra Wormhole. Guzzlord’s weak point is the second face above its mouth, but Z-Moves have been impossible since Tapu Koko vanished from this world. Ash and Pikachu begin training, and Zeraora, irritated, throws a rock that Pikachu shatters.
Ash takes the gesture as an invitation, and a sparring match follows in which Pikachu finally tracks Zeraora’s speed and lands a Thunderbolt. Zeraora rewards it with a Sitrus Berry. The noise attracts Guzzlord, and Dia uses a tin of food to lure it towards a shrinking Ultra Wormhole, planning to trap it with Electroweb and finish with a combined Thunderbolt and Plasma Fists. Guzzlord crashes through several floors, then breaks free of the web and swats Zeraora into Dia. Just as it opens its jaws, the Shiny Tapu Koko arrives, traps it in electricity and cries out, reactivating both Z-Rings. Pikachu and Zeraora unleash a double Gigavolt Havoc that drives Guzzlord through the wormhole before it closes. Ash hugs Zeraora in thanks, and the Shiny Tapu Koko flies off.
Dia realises that Ash must go home, and the two Trainers agree to one last battle. Quick Attack meets Quick Attack and Iron Tail meets Close Combat, until a clash between Thunderbolt and Plasma Fists opens a dimensional rift. Ash and Pikachu leap through it, Dia promises to rebuild Alola, and Ash promises to look after his own world. Back home, Rotom greets them and Tapu Koko departs. Ash runs to the Pokémon School and apologises to Kiawe for missing their battle the previous day, but Kiawe is confused: almost no time has passed in Ash’s world. That evening Ash and Pikachu gaze over Alola from a balcony, while in the other world Dia and Zeraora survey the ruins and the Shiny Tapu Koko paints the dusty sky with a rainbow aurora, a sign of better days ahead.
Major Events
- The Ultra Ruin, part 2. Ash and Dia team up, and Pikachu and Zeraora’s double Gigavolt Havoc drives Guzzlord through an Ultra Wormhole
- Ash returns home to find that almost no time has passed
- Misty narrates the Japanese preview, her first since EP213
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- “Ash-Greninja Appears!” plays in the battle with Guzzlord
- The serious “There’s Trouble!” title-card jingle
Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.