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| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · Westward with Todd: Snowtop Mountain & Articuno arc (EP184–EP191) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 31 · English episode 188 · Japanese episode 190 · Bulbapedia code EP188 |
| English title | Spring Fever |
| Japanese title | ここほれウリムー! おんせんをさがせ!! Koko Hore Urimū! Onsen o Sagase!! — “Dig Here, Urimoo! Search for the Hot Spring!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 8 March 2001 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 2 February 2002 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Yukiyoshi Ōhashi |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | OK! – Rica Matsumoto · Boku no Best Friend e (To My Best Friend) – Hiromi Iwasaki |
| English opening | Born to Be a Winner – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Farfetch’d (US) · Swinub (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Moving Pictures (EP187) |
| Next episode | Freeze Frame (EP189) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeSwinub debut
Spring Fever is the 31st episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 188th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 190, Bulbapedia code EP188). It first aired in Japan on 8 March 2001 and in the United States on 2 February 2002. It falls within the season’s Westward with Todd: Snowtop Mountain & Articuno stretch (EP184–EP191).
Synopsis
Three Swinub help a hot-spring prospector finally strike water after Team Rocket try to steal them for a spa empire of their own. Travelling with Todd towards Articuno’s mountain, the gang lose Misty’s rice ball to Su, Ein and Ub, Swinub belonging to Rory, a professional digger whose daughter Peggy keeps them in line. Rory has spent months failing to find a spring for a planned resort, and every spot the Swinub sniff out proves dry when Graveler digs.
Jessie dreams of owning every hot spring, so she and James pose as construction workers sent by the resort company and borrow the Swinub, bagging them and fleeing on Meowth’s sled. Super Slippy Oil sends the pursuers spinning (Todd glimpses Articuno mid-spin), and when the Swinub lead James to dig, he strikes an oil pipeline instead.
Noctowl tracks the fleeing trio and a full-scale brawl follows: Totodile and Poliwhirl hold off Arbok and Victreebel while Graveler Tackles Meowth and Rory frees the Swinub, who want their own revenge. Ein’s Take Down rescues a comrade from Wrap, Wobbuffet counters Ub’s Tackle, Poliwhirl’s Bubble clears Weezing’s Smokescreen, and the Swinub’s Powder Snow freezes every Rocket Pokémon before Water Gun blasts the trio away. Minutes later the Swinub find the real thing, and a geyser of hot water erupts.
Major Events
- Swinub debut
- The Japanese next-episode preview moves to after the ending theme
Pokémon making their anime debut
Swinub#0220 · EP188
Trivia
- The English title plays on “spring fever, in an episode about digging for hot springs”.
- The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Johto story.
- The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Swinub in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Farfetch’d in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- Bite is called “Fang Attack”.
- A line quoting Amuro Ray of Mobile Suit Gundam is lost.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.