 |
|
| Season | Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series (Season 25) · Marnie, the Monarch & a return to Kalos arc (JN099–JN104) |
| Episode | Season 25, episode 11 · English episode 1181 · Japanese episode 1187 · Bulbapedia code JN101 |
| English title | A One-Stick Wonder! |
| Japanese title | スティック一本、バチンキー！ Sutikku Ippon, Bachinkī! — “One Stick, Bachinkey!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 11 March 2022 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 21 October 2022 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Yuka Miyata |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – Satoshi & Go (Rica Matsumoto and Daiki Yamashita) · Batsugun Taipu (Supereffective Type) – Pokémon Music Club |
| English opening | With You – Echosmith |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Thwackey (US) · Thwackey (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Meeting Up with the Monarch! (JN100) |
| Next episode | Battling in the Freezing Raid! (JN102) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeThwackeyGrookey stays
A One-Stick Wonder! is the 11th episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1181st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1187, Bulbapedia code JN101). It first aired in Japan on 11 March 2022 and in the United States on 21 October 2022. It falls within the season’s Marnie, the Monarch & a return to Kalos stretch (EP99–EP104).
Released on Netflix in the US on 21 October 2022 with the first part (JN091–JN102); Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 6 August 2022.
Synopsis
In the Wild Area, Goh’s Grookey befriends a Thwackey that has lost one of its drumsticks, and Ash and Goh help it learn to drum twice as fast so it can keep up with its troop. Goh has not caught a single Pokémon because Grookey’s enthusiasm keeps scaring them away, so he and Ash cook curry as a lure, then eat the first pot themselves. The aroma still attracts a Thwackey carrying only one stick, which knocks Goh’s Poké Ball straight back at him and flees. After buying fresh ingredients from a passing seller, they cook again, and the Thwackey returns, but Grookey rushes up to impress it and falls flat on its face. The Thwackey comforts the sad Grookey by grooming it, a sign of friendship and trust, and leads it away to teach it how to crack nuts with a stick. Goh sees an ideal mentor for Grookey and is about to invite it to join him when a whole troop of Thwackey, led by a Rillaboom, arrives drumming on the rocks and trees.
Unable to keep up with the troop’s thunderous rhythm with only one stick, the Thwackey runs off in disappointment, and Ash and Goh find it searching the forest for a replacement stick, though nothing it picks up feels right. Grookey offers its own treasured stick, and although the Thwackey hesitates, it refuses. Grookey keeps drumming on a rock to change its mind, crying when the Thwackey stubbornly declines, and as its drumming grows faster and faster the boys have an idea: the Thwackey can make up for its missing stick by drumming twice as fast. The Thwackey trains with Ash’s Pikachu and Sirfetch’d, and later with Goh’s Greedent, while Goh gathers Nanab Berries for the Thwackey’s mate and their Grookey child, who share them with everyone during a break before Goh joins the training session with his own Pokémon.
As night falls, Ash and Goh doze off beside the practice spot, but the determined Thwackey keeps drumming through the night, and by morning it has mastered its fast new style, to the boys’ delight when they wake. When it rejoins its troop, it keeps pace with the others so impressively that Rillaboom joins in the performance. Ash and Goh congratulate it, and the Thwackey stops by to say goodbye before returning to its family and its pack. Seeing how much Grookey adores its new mentor, Goh, who had once hoped the Thwackey might teach Grookey, offers instead to let Grookey stay with the troop. Instead, Grookey leaps onto Goh’s head and begins grooming him, making it clear that it wants to stay with its Trainer, and Goh happily accepts.
Major Events
- The one-stick Thwackey. A Thwackey with only one stick learns double-speed drumming
- Goh fails to catch Applin and Thwackey and offers to release Grookey, which stays
- Every form of the Galar starters has now been shown
- No female humans appear
- Debuts of Applin and Thwackey
Pokémon making their anime debut
Applin#0840 · JN101
Thwackey#0811 · JN101
Trivia
- The English title plays on the phrase “one-hit wonder”, for the Thwackey with one drumstick.
- The screenplay is by Yuka Miyata.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto, Galar & beyond story.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Ingredients Seller becomes a “Hiker”
Part of our Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.