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| Season | Pokémon Journeys: The Series (Season 23) · Beginnings & the Cerise Laboratory arc (JN001–JN003) |
| Episode | Season 23, episode 3 · English episode 1083 · Japanese episode 1089 · Bulbapedia code JN003 |
| English title | Ivysaur’s Mysterious Tower! |
| Japanese title | フシギソウってフシギだね？ Fushigisō tte Fushigi da ne? — “Fushigisou, Isn’t it Mysterious?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 1 December 2019 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 12 June 2020 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Shōji Yonemura |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – After the Rain · Pokémon Shiritori (Pikachu → Mew Ver.) – Pokémon Music Club |
| English opening | The Journey Starts Today – Walk off the Earth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Ivysaur (US) · Ivysaur (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Legend? Go! Friends? Go! (JN002) |
| Next episode | Settling the Scorbunny! (JN004) |
Plot episodeRotom PhonesRocket Prize Master
Ivysaur’s Mysterious Tower! is the 3rd episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, the twenty-third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1083rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1089, Bulbapedia code JN003). It first aired in Japan on 1 December 2019 and in the United States on 12 June 2020. It falls within the season’s Beginnings & the Cerise Laboratory stretch (EP1–EP3).
Released on Netflix on 12 June 2020 with the rest of the first batch; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 23 May and POP in the UK on 25 May 2020.
Synopsis
A mass outbreak of Ivysaur brings Vermilion City to a standstill, and Ash and Goh, newly equipped with Rotom Phones, follow the Pokémon to a Gym construction site where Team Rocket unveil a new weapon. On their first full day at the Cerise Laboratory, Mimey vacuums the reluctant boys out of bed, and in the lab Chrysa reports that roaming Ivysaur are causing chaos across the city. Professor Cerise gives Ash a smartphone, and two Rotom slip into the boys’ phones to turn them into Rotom Phones. At Team Rocket’s headquarters, Giovanni orders Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet to steal strong and rare Pokémon and promises them a secret weapon. In town, Officer Jenny, busy directing traffic around the Ivysaur, warns the boys that Team Rocket have been seen nearby; Goh doubts the stories of a talking Meowth, but Ash assures him they are true. When Ash tries to help an Ivysaur over a wall it tackles him, and Goh, insisting on caution, sets off to investigate alone.
Both boys clamber over the wall after the Ivysaur, and from the top Ash spots a mysterious building that his Rotom Phone identifies as a Gym under construction. A Sweet Scent fills the air, and Goh realises that the Ivysaur are about to evolve. Goh’s Rotom Phone explains that the site used to be a grassland where wild Bulbasaur and Ivysaur liked to bask in the sun, and the Pokémon, disappointed at first, climb the scaffolding with Vine Whip towards the sunlight. Ash helps Goh to the top, suggests they “become Ivysaur” to understand them, and the two lie back in the warm sun and breeze. Just as the Bulbasaur and Ivysaur begin to glow, a net drops over them: Team Rocket have arrived, and Goh, stunned to meet the villains, snaps photos of the talking Meowth. Pikachu frees the captives with Iron Tail, and Jessie lands the balloon to settle the score with Ash. A Pelipper then drops a coin-operated vending machine, the Rocket Prize Master, in front of the trio.
Jessie and James jam Meowth headfirst into the coin slot, and his golden charm makes the machine dispense two Rocket-branded Poké Balls containing a Gyarados and a Tyranitar. Pikachu dodges their Ice Fang and Fire Fang, but its Electroweb cannot stop their combined Hydro Pump and Dark Pulse, and after Pikachu’s Quick Attack the pair strike back with Aqua Tail and Stone Edge. Goh can only watch, since he has no Pokémon of his own. As Jessie and James prepare the final blow, the Ivysaur fire a combined Solar Beam, and when Gyarados and Tyranitar answer with Hyper Beam, Ash and Pikachu shield the Ivysaur; Pikachu’s Thunderbolt meets the beams head-on and blasts Team Rocket away, reminding them why they want to steal Pikachu. The Ivysaur then evolve into Venusaur, whose pollen makes flowers bloom across the city, and the Bulbasaur evolve into Ivysaur. Goh realises that the wind over the old grassland is what draws the Bulbasaur line there. Back at the lab, Cerise praises their findings, Goh asks whether Ash will be his friend, and Ash replies that they already are.
Major Events
- Rotom Phones and the Rocket Prize Master. Ash gets a smartphone and Professor Cerise’s two Rotom turn the boys’ phones into Rotom Phones
- Giovanni gives Team Rocket the Rocket Prize Master, which dispenses a Gyarados and a Tyranitar
- The anime’s first mass outbreak, of Ivysaur, ends with them evolving into Venusaur
- The Vermilion Gym is under construction
- Goh is the first male main character other than Ash with a Pokédex
- Japan’s Poké Riddle replaces the Poké Problem
Captures and evolutions
Ivysaur → Venusaur#0003 · A mass outbreak of wild Ivysaur · at a Gym construction site in Vermilion City
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto, Galar & beyond storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Rocket Prize Master becomes a “gumball machine” (in Japanese, a gacha capsule-toy machine)
- The pun on fushigi (“mysterious”) in Ivysaur’s Japanese name is lost
- Tara Jayne returns to the dub and Emily Jenness voices Officer Jenny on TV for the first time
Part of our Pokémon Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.