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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Islands, Ribbons & a broken heart arc (AG159–AG165) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 14 · English episode 431 · Japanese episode 435 · Bulbapedia code AG159 |
| English title | Off the Unbeaten Path |
| Japanese title | 優勝は誰の手に！？ポケモンオリエンテーリング！ Yūshō wa Dare no Te ni!? Pokemon Orientēringu! — “Who Single-Handedly Has the Victory!? Pokémon Orienteering!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 12 January 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 21 October 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Yukiyoshi Ōhashi |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~ (That Shining Day) – GARDEN |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | Queen of the Serpentine! (AG158) |
| Next episode | Harley Rides Again (AG160) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeJames wins the Teamwork Medal
Off the Unbeaten Path is the 14th episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 431st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 435, Bulbapedia code AG159). It first aired in Japan on 12 January 2006 and in the United States on 21 October 2006. It falls within the season’s Islands, Ribbons & a broken heart stretch (EP159–EP165).
Synopsis
On Potpourri Island, Nurse Joy explains to Ash, who has never heard of it, that the island is about to hold a Pokémon Orienteering event, a cross-country race with a map and compass in which each Trainer partners a single Pokémon. Team Rocket, watching in disguise from a tree, decide to enter too. The friends pick their teams that night: Ash with Pikachu, May with Eevee, Brock with Bonsly, and Max with May’s Munchlax. Next morning Joy hands out maps and compasses and shows off the prizes, a Teamwork Medal and a mountain of fruit. The race quickly turns chaotic. Ash and Pikachu almost blow off a high log, May slips off the stepping stones into a river with Eevee leaping in after her, and Brock gets so distracted by Joy that Bonsly’s Double-Edge launches him into the sky. James, meanwhile, climbs a cliff with Mime Jr. to stamp the Lunatone checkpoint on Moon Rock, while Munchlax drags Max off toward anything edible.
Checkpoint by checkpoint, the competitors collect their stamps: Ash beneath Rainbow Falls, where Remoraid spray arcs of water, Brock beside an enormous ancient tree marked with Pineco, May by a pair of rock spires bearing the Kingler mark. Jessie and Meowth, hopelessly lost, give up on winning themselves and decide to sabotage everyone else so James can claim the prize, but James refuses their help because he wants to win fairly. Their traps catch Brock in a net and nearly snare May and Max, and at the Skarmory checkpoint, on a pillar of rock between two bridges, Jessie and Meowth cut the ropes. May, Max, Eevee and Munchlax are left dangling against the cliff until Ash and Brock arrive just in time to haul them up.
Back at the Pokémon Center, Jessie and Meowth have netted all the resting Pokémon, but Swellow escapes to fetch Ash. The villains stall by reciting their motto while May, Max and Brock free the Pokémon and recover the stolen fruit, and when Jessie sends out Dustox, Donphan beats it with Take Down and blasts the pair away with Hyper Beam. James notices the familiar twinkle overhead but keeps on racing. At the finish line Joy announces the winner: “Jameson” and Mime Jr., who receive the Teamwork Medal. When Joy asks him to give the fruit to Ash’s group for defending the Pokémon Center, James agrees at once, leaving Jessie and Meowth speechless. May, meanwhile, is thrilled to learn that the next Contest will be held in Wisteria Town.
Major Events
- Pokémon Orienteering
- James and Mime Jr. win the Pokémon Teamwork Medal fairly while Jessie and Meowth sabotage the others
- Donphan blasts them off
- The Wisteria Contest is announced
- Masamitsu Hidaka’s director credit drops from the Japanese opening
Trivia
- The English title plays on "off the beaten path".
- The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- James’s joke about his “copyrighted catchphrase”
- The Pokémon Symphonic Medley and “Face Forward Team Rocket!”
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.