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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · Groudon vs Kyogre: the end of Teams Magma & Aqua arc (AG097–AG098) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 5 · English episode 370 · Japanese episode 373 · Bulbapedia code AG097 |
| English title | Gaining Groudon |
| Japanese title | グラードンＶＳカイオーガ！（前編） Gurādon Tai Kaiōga! (Zenpen) — “Groudon VS Kyogre! (Part 1)” |
| First aired (Japan) | 7 October 2004 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 15 October 2005 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Challenger!! – Rica Matsumoto · Smile – Toshiko Ezaki |
| English opening | Unbeatable – David Rolfe |
| Pokémon Trainer’s Choice | Which is most effective against Plusle and Minun? (Mudkip / Torchic / Treecko) → Mudkip (wrong: Mudkip is a pure Water type) |
| Previous episode | Training Wrecks (AG096) |
| Next episode | The Scuffle of Legends (AG098) |
Plot episodeMagma & Aqua finale, part 1Maxie & Archie debut
Gaining Groudon is the 5th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 370th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 373, Bulbapedia code AG097). It first aired in Japan on 7 October 2004 and in the United States on 15 October 2005. It falls within the season’s Groudon vs Kyogre: the end of Teams Magma & Aqua stretch (EP97–EP98).
Synopsis
Lost at sea after Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, Ash and his friends are pulled aboard a red submarine that surfaces beneath them and taken to Team Magma’s floating base. There Tabitha brings them before Maxie, Team Magma’s leader, who explains with his Mightyena at his side that his team intends to expand the world’s landmass by awakening Groudon. Magma have Kyogre in captivity, Maxie reveals, and he holds the Blue Orb that controls Groudon, while their rivals in Team Aqua keep Groudon and hold the Red Orb that controls Kyogre. Meanwhile Shelly of Team Aqua, disguised as a Magma grunt, knocks out two guards and sets Kyogre free. The Legendary Pokémon smashes through the base’s hull and escapes, and an undercover grunt who confronts Shelly on deck turns out to be Lance, who watches her dive overboard.
Back in Maxie’s office, an explosion throws the Team Magma leader to the floor and sends the Blue Orb flying across the room. Pikachu catches it, the orb fuses into his body, and Pikachu goes berserk with its power, knocking out three Mightyena at once with a supercharged Thunderbolt. In the chaos May, Max and Brock manage to escape, but Tabitha’s Mightyena corner Ash and the possessed Pikachu, and they are forced into a helicopter bound for Monsu Island, with Lance secretly on board. Out at sea Archie, the leader of Team Aqua, uses the Red Orb to command Kyogre, which sinks Team Magma’s ship, and Lance’s red Gyarados scoops May, Max and Brock out of the water before they can be swept away.
On Monsu Island the two teams meet for the agreed exchange: Archie holds two Magma members caught trying to take Groudon, and Maxie demands Groudon as promised. Instead Archie reveals that Kyogre is now his as well and gives Magma an ultimatum: disband today, or the Red Orb will turn Kyogre loose on everything. Lance quietly reassures Ash, who is held in the helicopter with Pikachu writhing in pain. Team Rocket decide to steal both Legendaries for Giovanni. They slip into Team Aqua’s submarine through a fake wall; Meowth’s hacking crashes the computer, Wobbuffet blows the door open by pressing a random button, and Cacnea’s Pin Missile clears the guards and their Crawdaunt. Jessie throws an electrified net over Kyogre’s tank, but the enraged Kyogre bursts out of the hold, the net drops back on the trio and blasts them off, and the explosion starts a fire beside the cargo hold where Groudon is imprisoned. The episode ends on Ash desperately clinging to the rampaging, orb-possessed Pikachu.
Major Events
- Team Magma vs Team Aqua, part 1. Maxie and Archie debut
- Magma hold Kyogre and the Blue Orb, Aqua hold Groudon and the Red Orb
- Shelly frees Kyogre
- Pikachu absorbs the Blue Orb and goes berserk
- Lance returns undercover with Dragonite and a red Gyarados
- First episode titled as a two-parter in Japan
- No Team Rocket motto
Pokémon making their anime debut
Kyogre#0382 · AG097
Groudon#0383 · AG097
Trivia
- The English title plays on "gaining ground".
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- 7 seconds of routine time cuts
- Maxie calls Ash by name
- Lance does not name Shelly (he does in Japanese)
- James compares events to his soap operas
- Brock calls Lance an Elite Four member (he is the Champion)
- Dogasu: 4Kids “can’t play any one song for longer than 10 seconds without switching to another one”, undercutting the Groudon–Kyogre climax
- Kyogre keeps its Japanese voice
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.