Who’s Flying Now? – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 44

Plot episodeJames catches ChimechoWinona debuts

Who’s Flying Now? is the 44th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 357th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 360, Bulbapedia code AG084). It first aired in Japan on 8 July 2004 and in the United States on 25 June 2005. It falls within the season’s Towards Fortree: Swellow, Combusken & the Feather Badge stretch (EP79–EP85).

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

Synopsis

Arriving in Fortree City, a town of treehouses built according to an old local tradition, Ash ignores the scenery and races to the Gym, where the assistant Zachary tells him that the Gym Leader is in town for the Feather Carnival, an annual celebration of the sky. In the town square a Skarmory lands carrying a woman and a child, and its rider looks for her next passenger. Ash pushes past Brock to introduce himself, and the woman reveals that she is Winona, the Fortree Gym Leader. She accepts Ash’s challenge but postpones the match until the festival is over. With time to spare, the group let their Pokémon enjoy the carnival, May and Max take their first flight on Skarmory’s back, and Ash and Brock talk over the city’s history and his strategy for the coming battle.

Team Rocket also arrive, and while Jessie and Meowth enjoy the fun, James is glum. He tells them that as a boy he longed for a rare Chimecho, never got one and missed the carnival, but they wander off before he finishes. James then spots a “Chimecho” for sale at a stall run by the Magikarp salesman, the same swindler who has cheated them before, and despite his misgivings he spends the trio’s last money on it. Jessie and Meowth soon reveal that it is a Hoppip with a bell tied to its tail, and a breeze carries it away. Moments later, a real wild Chimecho floats past and happily agrees to join James, giving him his first new Pokémon since he caught Cacnea at the start of the Hoenn journey.

Winona and Zachary lead Ash up to the open-air Gym on a rooftop, but an explosion draws them back to the square, where Team Rocket’s giant electric robot, the Sparky Shocker, is capturing the city’s Flying-type Pokémon. Winona’s Skarmory strikes it with Steel Wing, and Team Rocket recite their motto with Chimecho joining in. When Pikachu’s Thunderbolt hits the trio, Chimecho restores them with Heal Bell. Ash sends Swellow in with Pikachu riding on its back; Swellow pushes through the robot’s electric blasts to land Wing Attack, but another surge captures both of them. Skarmory’s Drill Peck breaks open the cage and frees the prisoners, and a second Drill Peck blows up the robot and blasts the trio away. With the sun setting, Ash and Winona agree to battle the next day, and the carnival ends with fireworks and a formation flight led by Winona.

Major Events

• Arrival in Fortree City and the Feather Carnival
• Winona and Zachary debut
• The Magikarp salesman sells James a belled Hoppip, then James catches a real Chimecho
• Megumi Hayashibara’s last episode as Jessie before maternity leave
• Chimecho debuts

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Chimecho#0358 · AG084

Captures and evolutions

• Chimecho#0358 · James · at the Feather Carnival

Trivia

• The English title plays on Journey’s "Who’s Crying Now".
• The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• James’s wine recoloured as strawberry milk
• Nagi renamed Winona
• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon is best against Magby? Answer: Lombre (Solrock was the better choice)
• Ready Go! plays over the Feather Carnival in Japan; the dub substitutes its vocal song You & Me & Pokémon

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