Following A Maiden’s Voyage! – Pokémon Season 10, Episode 1

Plot episodeSeason premiereDawn chooses Piplup

Following A Maiden’s Voyage! is the 1st episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, the tenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 465th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 468, Bulbapedia code DP001). It first aired in Japan on 28 September 2006 and in the United States on 20 April 2007. It falls within the season’s A new region, a new companion stretch (EP1–EP3).

First shown in the US on Friday 20 April 2007, when Cartoon Network aired DP001–DP003 together as a “TV movie”, two days before Pokémon Diamond and Pearl reached North America. The TV-movie version replaced the Japanese title display with the English rap opening and cut the title screens and the episode endings; the episode aired uncut on Monday 4 June 2007, the first day of the weekday run.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Sunrise over Twinleaf Town finds Dawn throwing open her bedroom window on the most important morning of her life. Over breakfast with her mother Johanna and the family Glameow, she rereads the postcard from Professor Rowan inviting her to pick up a first partner and weighs her three choices: Turtwig the Grass type, Chimchar the Fire type and Piplup the Water type. Each one stars in a daydream of Dawn dazzling the crowds at a Contest, because her goal is to become a Top Coordinator like her mother. Her first attempt at packing is a bulging suitcase of outfits and accessories, so Johanna helps her squeeze the essentials into a small backpack and hands her a precious gift for luck: the very first Ribbon Johanna ever won. With the Ribbon safely stowed, Dawn pedals off along Route 201 toward Sandgem Town.

Sandgem proves harder to navigate than her map suggests. Dawn barges into a restaurant convinced it is the laboratory and keeps going in circles until she literally bumps into Professor Rowan himself, who offers to show her the way. Meanwhile, the lab is in chaos: Chimchar pinches the last of Piplup’s breakfast, Piplup retaliates with Bubble Beam, and the scuffle panics Rowan’s Starly and Staraptor, whose flapping wrecks the room and smashes a window. The birds escape, with Chimchar and Piplup tearing after them, leaving only Turtwig behind when Rowan and Dawn walk in. Under the Professor’s stern gaze, Dawn volunteers to bring the runaways back. In the forest she finds Piplup trapped in an Ariados web with several other Pokémon, tricks the Ariados into shredding its own web, and catches Piplup as it falls, only to be pecked and scolded by the proud penguin, who refuses the food she offers.

The Ariados return in force and wrap Dawn and Piplup in a cage of String Shot. Dawn distracts them with Pokémon food while Piplup breaks the bars with Bubble Beam, and when she is tripped as they flee, Piplup stands its ground with Bide, absorbing the attacks and unleashing them in a blast that scatters the Ariados before it collapses from exhaustion. At the shore of Lake Verity a refreshed Piplup finally eats from Dawn’s hand, Staraptor flies past carrying Chimchar home, and a mysterious shape rises from the water and vanishes: the lake’s guardian, Mesprit, as Rowan later suggests. Back at the lab Dawn ignores Chimchar’s sneers and chooses Piplup on the spot, receiving a Pokédex and Poké Balls. Far away, Ash sails into Sinnoh with Pikachu and a stowaway Aipom, vowing to become champion. Professor Oak agrees to send Aipom’s Poké Ball on, but Team Rocket snatch Pikachu by balloon, and when Wobbuffet’s Counter bursts the balloon, Pikachu tumbles into the forest with Ash in pursuit.

Major Events

• Season premiere. Dawn sets out from Twinleaf Town to become a Top Coordinator like her mother Johanna
• She rescues Piplup from a swarm of Ariados and chooses it as her first partner
• Mesprit glimpsed at Lake Verity
• Ash arrives in Sinnoh with Pikachu and the stowaway Aipom
• Team Rocket’s balloon snatch leaves Pikachu lost in the forest
• No opening on Japanese TV, as part of the two-hour premiere
• Dawn reads the new title card
• Tracey’s only Diamond and Pearl appearance
• Professor Oak’s end segment returns after almost two years

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Turtwig#0387 · DP001
• Chimchar#0390 · DP001
• Piplup#0393 · DP001
• Starly#0396 · DP001
• Staravia#0397 · DP001
• Staraptor#0398 · DP001
• Bidoof#0399 · DP001
• Bibarel#0400 · DP001
• Budew#0406 · DP001
• Buneary#0427 · DP001
• Glameow#0431 · DP001
• Mantyke#0458 · DP001
• Mesprit#0481 · DP001

Captures and evolutions

• Piplup#0393 · Dawn · her first partner, received from Professor Rowan

Trivia

• The English title plays on a maiden voyage, for Dawn’s first journey.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• On the 20 April 2007 TV movie the English rap opening replaced the Japanese title display (8 seconds), the title screen (9 seconds) and the episode’s ending (17 seconds) were removed, and Jessie and Meowth’s closing scene was cut; the June rerun restored them
• Paint edit: the Route 201 signpost (Dogasu’s Backpack: “perfectly understandable”)
• The Japanese eyecatches are removed
• Later airings show DP001 without the English theme, for unknown reasons
• The dub implies that Dawn’s tenth birthday has passed
• The restaurant’s “one Pokémon” joke rewritten
• Pikachu, Aipom and Ariados keep their Japanese voices
• No opening on Japanese TV, as part of the two-hour premiere
• The dub keeps only five of the twenty Japanese cues; Dogasu’s Backpack: “about 75%” replaced with older 4Kids tracks, “way below acceptable”
• On the TV movie the English rap opening replaced the Japanese logo sequence

Part of our Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.