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| Season | Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series (Season 25) · To Be a Pokémon Master: farewells arc (JN142–JN147) |
| Episode | Season 25, episode 51 · English episode 1221 · Japanese episode 1231 · Bulbapedia code JN145 |
| English title | Rocket Revengers! |
| Japanese title | 逆襲のロケット団！ Gyakushū no Roketto-dan! — “Rocket-dan Strikes Back!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 10 March 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) · Maemuki Roketto-dan! (Face Forward Team Rocket!) – Team Rocket (Megumi Hayashibara, Shin-ichiro Miki and Inuko Inuyama) |
| English opening | Gotta Catch Em All – Ben Dixon and The Sad Truth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Latias (US) · Latias (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Getting to the Heart of it All! (JN144) |
| Next episode | Ash and Latios (JN146) |
Plot episodeTeam Rocket’s old PokémonTeam Rocket split
Rocket Revengers! is the 51st episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1221st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1231, Bulbapedia code JN145). It first aired in Japan on 10 March 2023 and in the United States on 8 September 2023. It falls within the season’s To Be a Pokémon Master: farewells stretch (EP142–EP147).
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 9 of 12 in that listing; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 8 July 2023.
Synopsis
Reunited with all the Pokémon they left at Team Rocket HQ, the trio launch an all-out scheme to capture Pikachu, until Latias reveals herself to save Ash and shows him a vision of a captive Latios. A Delibird delivers box lunches, ten Poké Balls and a golden statue of Giovanni to Jessie, James and Meowth, and Giovanni speaks through the statue, telling them to look after these Pokémon from now on before the statue destroys itself. Overjoyed to see their old teammates, the trio briefly remember the Pokémon no longer with them and plan their ultimate scheme. Mime Jr. appears before Ash’s group seemingly begging for help, and Team Rocket recite their motto from a tree, claiming that it has betrayed them and is on its way to Officer Jenny. Pikachu blasts them off, and Mime Jr. leads the group onward, straight into the next phase of James’s plan.
Amoonguss and Yanmega attack, and Brock stays behind with Ludicolo to hold them off; Frillish and Yamask ambush Ash and Misty, and Misty stays to fight with Staryu and Psyduck, whose face Yamask covers with its mask. Ash faces Carnivine and Gourgeist with Infernape and Hawlucha, telling Pikachu and Mime Jr. to run on. At the meeting spot, Mime Jr. drops its act and tries to hold Pikachu while James fires a net, but Pikachu escapes and the net catches Mime Jr. instead. Woobat, Seviper and Inkay block Pikachu while Jessie and James prepare a bigger net. Unable to watch any longer, the invisible Latias sends Ash a telepathic vision of Pikachu in danger, and Ash abandons his battle to rescue his partner, arriving just in time for Infernape’s Flare Blitz to destroy the nets.
Team Rocket’s Pokémon launch a combined attack, which Wobbuffet reflects with Mirror Coat into a tree, toppling it and flinging a resting Slakoth into the air. Ash leaps from a rock to save it and seems to float in midair before being lowered gently down. Realising that Latias is responsible, Ash watches as it reveals itself to Brock and Misty and blasts Team Rocket and their Pokémon away with Psychic. After crashing, the trio blame one another for the failure, declare they are through and walk off in different directions as their Pokémon look on sadly. Ash thanks Latias for the vision, and Brock and Misty reveal that he has told them about their first meeting. Latias then shows them another vision, of a Latios behind glass in an underground facility breaking free and a landscape outside, and her sad look leaves Ash wondering what is going on.
Major Events
- Rocket Revengers. Giovanni returns all of Jessie’s and James’s Pokémon from headquarters, twelve Team Rocket Pokémon in one episode, a record
- A ploy with Mime Jr.
- Latias reveals herself
- The trio split up
- A vision of Latios
- Face Forward Team Rocket! as the Japanese ending
- The last appearances of Morpeko and most of Team Rocket’s Pokémon
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto, Galar & beyond storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The title card shows Pikachu instead of Meowth
- Brock’s maracas are removed
- Michele Knotz voices James’s Mime Jr., replacing Kayzie Rogers
- Face Forward Team Rocket! as the Japanese ending
- Takeshi’s Paradise for Ludicolo’s Teeter Dance, an instrumental in the dub (Ludicolo is still heard singing)
- Both versions of Team Rocket’s Team Song
- Music from Pokémon Heroes
Part of our Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.