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| Season | Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series (Season 25) · To Be a Pokémon Master: old friends arc (JN137–JN141) |
| Episode | Season 25, episode 46 · English episode 1216 · Japanese episode 1226 · Bulbapedia code JN140 |
| English title | Bearing Down Easy! |
| Japanese title | ツンベアーのためいき！ Tsunbeā no Tameiki! — “Tunbear’s Sigh!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 3 February 2023 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 September 2023 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mezase Pokémon Masutā -with my friends- (Aim to Be a Pokémon Master) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) · Hyakugojūichi (One Hundred Fifty-One) – Professor Oak (Unshō Ishizuka) and the Pokémon Kids |
| English opening | Gotta Catch Em All – Ben Dixon and The Sad Truth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Beartic (US) · Beartic (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Must Be Our Heroes and the Witch! (JN139) |
| Next episode | A Squad’s Worth of Passion! (JN141) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeBearticNo Team Rocket
Bearing Down Easy! is the 46th episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1216th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1226, Bulbapedia code JN140). It first aired in Japan on 3 February 2023 and in the United States on 8 September 2023. It falls within the season’s To Be a Pokémon Master: old friends stretch (EP137–EP141).
Released on Netflix in the US on 8 September 2023 with the fourth part, Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master (JN137–JN147 and JNS05) — episode 4 of 12 in that listing; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 3 June 2023.
Synopsis
On a mountain where the Magikarp waterfall has frozen solid, Ash helps a timid wild Beartic learn to control the icy breath that freezes everything whenever it is startled. Ash, Misty and Brock climb the mountain to watch Magikarp leap up a waterfall, and Ash brings out Oshawott to enjoy the sight, but the falls have frozen, and when Pikachu and Oshawott try to smash the ice, Oshawott’s Scalchop flies off into the woods. Chasing it, they find the Scalchop beside a wild Beartic, but when Ash thanks it, the Beartic’s startled breath freezes everyone’s feet to the ground and it bolts away, coating the forest in ice. Talonflame’s Flame Body thaws the group, and Ash, sensing sadness in the Beartic’s eyes, sends Pikachu, Oshawott and Talonflame after it, while he, Brock and Misty use Snorlax, Incineroar, Forretress and Starmie to clear a route through the ice pillars it has left behind.
They find Talonflame and many forest Pokémon frozen solid, and Incineroar thaws them with Fire Blast. Ash and Brock realise that Beartic only freezes its surroundings by accident when it is scared, and Ash, comparing its power to Kyurem’s, offers to train it, while Misty and Brock admire how he helps every Pokémon he meets. Beartic’s first attempt to form a chunk of ice explodes and freezes Ash solid until Incineroar, which uses Darkest Lariat for the first time since evolving, thaws him out. At Oshawott’s suggestion Beartic tries to shape an ice Scalchop, but it blows apart just before it is finished, and although the next attempt produces a perfect one, it too explodes and refreezes Talonflame and Incineroar.
Discouraged, Beartic runs to a frozen lake and roars, pouring out a stream of icy breath until the ice splits open and Ash, Pikachu and Oshawott tumble into the chasm. Beartic catches Ash, who twists his ankle on landing, and refuses to leave him behind, hauling him up the wall on its back; when its grip slips, it quickly creates an icy platform that stops their fall. Praising its control in a crisis, Ash asks it to do it again, and Beartic builds platform after platform into an icy staircase that carries them up to Brock, Misty and the thawed Talonflame and Incineroar. While Brock treats Ash’s ankle, Beartic shows off its new mastery by crafting a perfect, stable ice Scalchop, and when a Bellsprout asks for one of its own, the other forest Pokémon follow suit. Once the waterfall finally thaws, Beartic joins its new friends to watch the Magikarp climb.
Major Events
- Beartic’s sigh. A Beartic learns to control its ice
- Incineroar’s Darkest Lariat
- Misty’s Starmie appears for the first time in 1,164 episodes, and Brock’s Forretress
- The first episode without the Team Rocket trio
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- 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
- Beartic freezes Ash only partly in the international versions (completely in Japanese)
Part of our Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.