Judgment Day! – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 52

Filler / stand-alone episodeSeason finaleWartortle evolves into Blastoise

Judgment Day! is the 52nd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 365th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 368, Bulbapedia code AG092). It first aired in Japan on 2 September 2004 and in the United States on 10 September 2005. It falls within the season’s To Lilycove: Aerial Ace & the Lilycove Ribbon stretch (EP86–EP92).

The season finale, shown on 10 September 2005 as the second half of a double bill with Lessons in Lilycove. Advanced Battle began the following Saturday, 17 September 2005, with Clamperl of Wisdom.

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

Synopsis

Racing to catch the ferry to Mossdeep, Ash and May board the wrong boat and end up on Bomba Island, which, as Max points out, has no direct ferry to Mossdeep. On the island they meet an Ivysaur, a Charmeleon and a Wartortle hauling heavy boxes. They belong to Jimmy, a trainee referee, who explains that the island is home to the Pokémon Battle Judge Training Institute. Its teacher, Professor Serena, asks the visitors to stage a mock battle for her students, and Jimmy referees Ash’s Swellow and Corphish against Brock’s Lombre and Mudkip. Meanwhile Team Rocket, who have followed in their Magikarp submarine, set their sights on Jimmy’s three Kanto Pokémon, the evolved forms of the original first partners Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.

Brock tests the referee by having Lombre play dead, and Jimmy almost stops the match before Lombre springs up to dodge Swellow’s Aerial Ace. When Corphish shields Swellow from a double Water Gun, Jimmy wrongly declares it unable to battle, only for Corphish to get back up, and Serena scolds him sharply: mistakes are part of learning, but a referee must always appear confident. That night the friends find Jimmy brooding outside and hear his story. Wartortle was his first partner, Ivysaur joined him after he accidentally gave it a sandwich, and he traded a golden Magikarp to an old man for Charmeleon. His only Badge, a Cascade Badge, was a thank-you from Daisy for cleaning the Cerulean Gym’s pool, and he ended up on Bomba Island when his boat drifted away from Lilycove while he slept.

Serena urges Jimmy to lead with his heart. Then Team Rocket’s mecha storms the beach and traps each of his Pokémon in a giant Poké Ball-shaped prison. Jimmy climbs onto the machine and tries to pry them free with a sharp rock but is thrown off. Encouraged by Serena, he charges back, and the mecha’s claw punches him away, at which point Wartortle evolves into Blastoise, whose larger body bursts its prison open. Blastoise’s Hydro Pump frees the other two, and a combined Razor Leaf, Flamethrower and Hydro Pump blasts Team Rocket away. Serena tells Jimmy that he would make a better Trainer than a judge, and the next day he decides to return to Lilycove and restart his journey. Ash and his friends hire a boat and set out once more for Mossdeep City, bringing the season to a close.

Major Events

• The wrong ferry to Bomba Island and its Pokémon Battle Judge Training Institute
• Professor Serena and the trainee referee Jimmy
• Jimmy’s Wartortle evolves into Blastoise
• New Japanese title card with Badge and Ribbon cases
• The Japanese ending returns to Smile
• The group sail for Mossdeep City

Captures and evolutions

• Wartortle → Blastoise#0009 · Jimmy

Trivia

• The English title plays on the day of judgement, at a school for referees.
• 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

• A rice ball replaced in five shots by a single static drawing of a sandwich (Dogasu’s Backpack: “stupid and disappointing”)
• The dub keeps the old Hoenn-map title card instead of Japan’s new Badge-and-Ribbon card
• Sarina renamed Professor Serena and Banba Island Bomba Island
• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon evolves into Nuzleaf? Answer: Seedot
• Type: Wild plays during Ash’s mock battle with Brock in Japan; the ending returns to Smile

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