Gulpin it Down – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 25

Filler / stand-alone episodeGulpin invasionGiant Treecko

Gulpin it Down is the 25th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 338th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 341, Bulbapedia code AG065). It first aired in Japan on 26 February 2004 and in the United States on 12 February 2005. It falls within the season’s Road to Petalburg: Lombre, Grovyle & the Balance Badge stretch (EP63–EP70).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Lunching in a harbourside park near Petalburg City, where Ash hopes to win his rematch with Norman, the group lose their food to a Gulpin that slides in and swallows everything, including Pikachu’s bowl, which it later spits back out. Sirens sound and Officer Jenny orders an evacuation. In the empty streets the group find a bakery overrun with Gulpin. Pikachu is buried under the pile and the others are nearly smothered until Jenny’s Tangela pulls them free with Vine Whip, and the swarm flows out of the shop as one mass. At the Pokémon Center, now a defence headquarters, Nurse Joy monitors the city while Professor Jacuzzi, a Gulpin specialist, explains that the Gulpin invade every year in search of food, and that their real target is the city’s central food storehouse.

Jacuzzi’s first plan is a giant Pokéblock made from 108 ingredients that Gulpin cannot resist. The swarm follows it until Team Rocket hijack it with their balloon; the Gulpin bring the balloon down with Sludge and blast the trio away with Stockpile and Spit Up. Brock grabs the device, Jenny’s Tangela, Meganium and Parasect hold back the mob with help from Treecko’s Bullet Seed, and a rocket carries the Pokéblock into the river with the Gulpin in pursuit. That night a blackout strikes and the Gulpin return. Joy closes the sewer gates to force them above ground, and when a manhole bursts open Pikachu’s Thunderbolt knocks out many of them, but more keep coming. Jacuzzi then unveils “Plan B”: the Mach III Particle Cannon, a dish-shaped machine designed to blast the Gulpin away.

The cannon freezes with one Gulpin left. Treecko fights it, and when the machine finally fires, both are caught in the beam together; the cannon overloads and explodes, and Treecko and the Gulpin emerge at enormous size. The giant Gulpin rampages through the city, wrecking buildings with Sludge, while Treecko blocks its path and hurls it towards the lake, and Team Rocket, fleeing with stolen food, are hit by another Spit Up. In the water Treecko is knocked down and exhausted, and the cannon’s effect wears off, shrinking it back to normal size. With no plans left, May suggests simply catching the Gulpin. An ordinary Poké Ball is too small, so Nurse Joy hands Jacuzzi a Heavy Ball, which does the job. The next morning the Gulpin is still giant, and Jacuzzi promises to find a way to restore it.

Major Events

• A Gulpin invasion
• Professor Jacuzzi’s particle cannon turns Treecko and a Gulpin into giants, the first enlarged Trainer’s Pokémon
• Jacuzzi catches the giant Gulpin in a Heavy Ball
• Lee Quick’s last episode as Officer Jenny
• Gulpin debuts

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Gulpin#0316 · AG065

Captures and evolutions

• Gulpin#0316 · Professor Jacuzzi · a giant, in a Heavy Ball

Trivia

• The English title plays on "gulping it down".
• The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.

Changes in the English Dub

• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon is best against Larvitar? Answer: Treecko (Carvanha was also correct)

Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Challenge guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.