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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Commerce City, Gardenia & the Battle Tower arc (AG166–AG170) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 21 · English episode 438 · Japanese episode 442 · Bulbapedia code AG166 |
| English title | Curbing the Crimson Tide! |
| Japanese title | 摩天楼の赤いイナズマ！ Matenrō no Akai Inazuma! — “The Red Lightning of Skyscrapers!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 2 March 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 18 November 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Supāto! (Spurt!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) · GLORY DAY ~Kagayaku Sono Hi~ (That Shining Day) – GARDEN |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | King and Queen for a Day! (AG165) |
| Next episode | What I Did for Love! (AG167) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeRed LightningNew Japanese opening
Curbing the Crimson Tide! is the 21st episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 438th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 442, Bulbapedia code AG166). It first aired in Japan on 2 March 2006 and in the United States on 18 November 2006. It falls within the season’s Commerce City, Gardenia & the Battle Tower stretch (EP166–EP170).
Synopsis
In a back alley of Commerce City, a mysterious figure known as Red Lightning challenges three boys and flattens Hiroshi’s Poliwag with a single Hyper Beam, then scribbles on the fallen Pokémon’s face and vanishes onto a rooftop on a gust of wind. Ash and his friends, passing through on their way to the Battle Tower, are at the Pokémon Center when the boys arrive with Poliwag. Nurse Joy explains that Red Lightning has been beating Trainers all over the city and drawing on their Pokémon, and Ash notices that the other patients carry the same marks. Team Rocket, disguised as janitors, plan to scoop up the beaten Pokémon. Outside, May is feeding Pokéblocks to Eevee and Munchlax when she realises Squirtle has wandered off to sniff flowers beside a Butterfree. Red Lightning appears and forces a battle, dodging Water Gun and knocking Squirtle out with Hyper Beam before decorating its face.
The friends set off to track down Red Lightning and find a girl’s Chansey beaten in an alley. Pikachu’s Quick Attack and Thunderbolt miss the culprit, and when Team Rocket fire a net it simply bounces off their balloon and escapes. The heroes agree to a temporary truce, climb into the basket and follow the trail to a rooftop garden, where a girl with a laptop presses a button and a tree launches out of the ground, smashing into the balloon and blasting Team Rocket away. The girl, Luna, coldly brushes the group off despite her butler’s apologies, then challenges Ash herself. Red Lightning opens with Hyper Beam, but Pikachu leaps clear with Quick Attack, and an exploding Swift reveals the attacker: a Scizor wearing a speaker in its collar.
Scizor lures Pikachu off the roof, so Ash switches to Sceptile, whose speed is a match for it. Sceptile leaps clear of Hyper Beam with Agility, clings to a skyscraper and rides the updrafts to drop a Leaf Blade that knocks Scizor out, then catches it as it falls. Luna is furious rather than grateful, but her butler explains that her parents are always away on research and she is very lonely. May comforts her and offers a rematch with Brock refereeing. Squirtle blocks Swift with Withdraw, misses with Water Gun, then freezes the walkway with Ice Beam so that Scizor loses its footing; even when Scizor jumps, Squirtle’s Rapid Spin catches it and knocks it out. Luna apologises and promises to stop causing trouble, and the butler mentions a Contest in nearby Gardenia Town, much to May’s delight.
Major Events
- Red Lightning turns out to be the lonely Luna’s Scizor
- Sceptile and then May’s Squirtle beat it
- Sceptile’s Agility revealed
- New Japanese opening Spurt!
- The insert song I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~ debuts
- The Gardenia Contest is announced
Trivia
- The English title plays on the Alabama Crimson Tide, probably, for a red Scizor.
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- New Japanese opening Spurt!
- The insert song I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~ debuts
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.