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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · New voices, new Symbols: the Arena & the Dome arc (AG146–AG153) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 4 · English episode 421 · Japanese episode 425 · Bulbapedia code AG149 |
| English title | Wheel of Frontier |
| Japanese title | バトルアリーナ！格闘対決！！ Batoru Arīna! Kakutō Taiketsu!! — “Battle Arena! Fighting Showdown!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 27 October 2005 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 16 September 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · Pokémon Kazoe Uta (Pokémon Counting Song) – Akiko Kanazawa |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | A Chip Off the Old Brock (AG148) |
| Next episode | May’s Egg-Cellent Adventure (AG150) |
Plot episodeGuts SymbolSnorlax returns
Wheel of Frontier is the 4th episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 421st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 425, Bulbapedia code AG149). It first aired in Japan on 27 October 2005 and in the United States on 16 September 2006. It falls within the season’s New voices, new Symbols: the Arena & the Dome stretch (EP146–EP153).
Synopsis
At a Pokémon Center near the Battle Arena, Scott catches up with Ash, who vows to win his second Frontier Symbol. Inside the Arena, Arena Tycoon Greta drills a crowd of students in martial arts, and Team Rocket have enrolled in disguise as part of a plan to get close to Pikachu, only to collapse during arm-thrust drills and smash their balancing bowls in a crouching exercise, earning cleaning duty. Greta hears a challenger is on the way and expects an easy win. Scott warns that she will probably use Medicham and Hariyama and that she admires the Fighting-type experts Brawly and Chuck, and Ash, after studying her Pokémon, dashes back into the Center without saying why. When he reaches the Arena, his shouted greeting goes unanswered until Scott announces the challenge for him. A giant roulette wheel rises from the floor to decide the format, and Ash’s spin lands on two, making it a two-on-two battle.
Barefoot, in keeping with the dojo’s tradition, Greta sends out Hariyama and Medicham, while Ash chooses Grovyle and Snorlax, whom he has just had sent over from Professor Oak’s lab; that was the reason for his sudden dash back to the Pokémon Center. Greta’s students crowd around the field to watch with Brock, May, Max and Scott. Grovyle’s speed and Bullet Seed and Leaf Blade look promising, but Hariyama blocks, turns the Wood Gecko Pokémon’s momentum against it and knocks it out with Focus Punch, a classic Fighting-type tactic as Brock and Scott point out. Snorlax proves a different story. It absorbs Hariyama’s Arm Thrust with Protect and hits back with Headbutt, and when Hariyama’s Focus Punch misses and hurts its own arm, Snorlax’s Ice Punch freezes it solid and puts it out of the match.
Medicham is far tougher. It breaks through Protect and sends Snorlax crashing into the watching trainees, knocking off Team Rocket’s disguises, and when the trio go for Pikachu, a Thunderbolt blasts them out of the building. Back on the field, both Pokémon trade Ice Punches and Snorlax is frozen, so Ash has it use Rest to recover; it wakes just as Medicham’s High Jump Kick misses and hurts its user. Medicham keeps pounding Snorlax with Focus Punch while Ash waits, then he has Snorlax fire Hyper Beam straight up at the ceiling. The recoil carries it down onto Medicham in a full-weight Body Slam that ends the battle. Ash wins the Guts Symbol, and Greta tells him the next facility, the Battle Dome, lies south of Lavender Town.
Major Events
- Guts Symbol. Arena Tycoon Greta debuts
- Ash borrows Snorlax from Professor Oak
- The roulette picks a two-on-two
- Hariyama beats Grovyle
- Snorlax beats Hariyama with Ice Punch and Medicham with a Hyper Beam-powered Body Slam
- Next stop the Battle Dome, south of Lavender Town
Trivia
- The English title plays on the game show Wheel of Fortune, whose opening Ash and May chant.
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Scott mispronounces Cianwood
- The Japanese Battle Frontier plays during the battle
- The first Pokémon USA episode to reuse 4Kids-era stock music
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.