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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Islands, Ribbons & a broken heart arc (AG159–AG165) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 16 · English episode 433 · Japanese episode 437 · Bulbapedia code AG161 |
| English title | Odd Pokémon Out! |
| Japanese title | ジュプトルVSトロピウス！草原の決闘！！ Juputoru Tai Toropiusu! Sōgen no Kettō!! — “Juptile VS Tropius! Grassland Duel!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 26 January 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 28 October 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~ (That Shining Day) – GARDEN |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | Harley Rides Again (AG160) |
| Next episode | Spontaneous Combusken! (AG162) |
Plot episodeGrovyle evolves into Sceptile
Odd Pokémon Out! is the 16th episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 433rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 437, Bulbapedia code AG161). It first aired in Japan on 26 January 2006 and in the United States on 28 October 2006. It falls within the season’s Islands, Ribbons & a broken heart stretch (EP159–EP165).
Shown on 28 October 2006 between Harley Rides Again and the hour-long Pokémon Ranger special (AG171–AG172). The Castilian Spanish version of Pokémon TV left it out when the season went up on 1 April 2016 and added it on 9 April.
Synopsis
There is no direct ferry to Chrysanthemum Island, so the group stop on Camomile Island to catch a connecting boat and let their Pokémon out to play on its wide plains. Donphan’s attempt to play ball with some baby Rhyhorn scares them off and brings the adults charging, until Nurse Joy drives up in a jeep and calms the stampede with her Meganium’s Growl. Ash then finds Grovyle facing off against a wild Tropius beside a large tree. Joy explains that the tree is Tropius’s territory, and when Grovyle attacks, Tropius pins it with Gust, Steel Wing and Razor Leaf before Meganium’s Razor Leaf breaks up the fight; Joy notes that Tropius never attacks Meganium. Back at the Pokémon Center, Meganium heals the injured Grovyle, which falls for it on the spot as a flower blooms on the twig in its mouth. Ash fails to notice. Team Rocket, learning through Meowth that Tropius loves Meganium, plan to steal both.
That evening the trio’s mecha crashes through the Pokémon Center wall and seizes Meganium, while Mime Jr. keeps interrupting their motto. As Team Rocket escape, Ash gives chase, but Grovyle slips away on its own. Grovyle, though, heads back to the tree for a rematch. Tropius attacks with Gust, Steel Wing and Razor Leaf, but Grovyle blocks, catches sight of the flower in its mouth, remembers Meganium and finds new speed, striking from above with Bullet Seed and finishing Tropius with Leaf Blade. When Team Rocket set Meganium down, however, it runs straight past Grovyle to heal Tropius, and the two are plainly in love. The flower wilts and Grovyle collapses, heartbroken. As Brock explains to Ash, it won the battle but lost Meganium.
Meowth’s mecha then grabs both Meganium and Tropius, and Grovyle rises to its feet, glows and evolves into Sceptile. It charges the machine, but when Ash calls for Bullet Seed and Leaf Blade, Sceptile cannot perform either move, leaving it at the mercy of Seviper’s Poison Tail, Cacnea’s Needle Arm and the mecha’s stomping foot. Pikachu’s Thunderbolt blows out the machine’s knee and it topples, and when Meowth summons the balloon, Meganium and Tropius destroy it with a combined Razor Leaf and Gust, blasting Team Rocket away. Meganium and Tropius decide to stay together at the Pokémon Center. Ash is worried about Sceptile’s sudden inability to attack, but Joy is sure it will recover and grow stronger, and the group board the boat for May’s Contest.
Major Events
- Ash’s Grovyle evolves into Sceptile. Camomile Island
- Grovyle falls for Nurse Joy’s Meganium and beats its rival Tropius, but Meganium loves Tropius
- Sceptile evolves in heartbreak and cannot use any of its moves
- Tomoe Hanba voices Mime Jr. in Japanese during Ikue Ōtani’s maternity leave
Captures and evolutions
Grovyle → Sceptile#0254 · Ash · heartbroken over Meganium
Trivia
- The English title plays on "odd man out".
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Ash calls Sceptile “he”
- Laughter added
- OK! as an insert song as Sceptile faces Team Rocket
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.