Mass Hip-Po-Sis! – Pokémon Season 10, Episode 44

Filler / stand-alone episodeA lost Hippopotas

Mass Hip-Po-Sis! is the 44th episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, the tenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 508th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 511, Bulbapedia code DP044). It first aired in Japan on 23 August 2007 and in the United States on 5 January 2008. It falls within the season’s The road to Hearthome: Happiny, Cynthia & Gary stretch (EP38–EP47).

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

Synopsis

As the friends pack up after lunch, Pikachu’s impression of Turtwig reveals that Turtwig has wandered off alone, and they follow it to a frightened wild Hippopotas stranded on a cliff ledge. Ash climbs down on a rope, and when the Hippopotas bites his hand, Pikachu slides down to calm it before Brock and Dawn haul them both up. The little Hippo Pokémon refuses Brock’s food but swallows a fruit from a nearby tree whole, and from then on it follows Ash everywhere. Rhonda and Jack from Sinnoh Now turn up searching for a herd of Hippopotas, and Rhonda identifies this one as a young male separated from his family. Ash decides to take it home, with the TV crew in tow, and carries the heavy Pokémon on his head.

Team Rocket’s pitfall trap snares the group and the trio snatch the Hippopotas into their balloon, but its Yawn sends Meowth to sleep, Turtwig’s Razor Leaf cuts it free, and another Yawn catches Brock and Jack, leaving Croagunk to drag Brock to safety and Rhonda to carry the boom microphone herself. At a bridge under construction, Team Rocket lure the Hippopotas with bait on a fishing line, but its Sand Tomb drags the balloon down and Aipom’s Focus Punch blasts them away. Soon Dawn is yawning too, and Brock carries her across another bridge, where Team Rocket net the Hippopotas and Ash leaps onto the net, sending them both into the river. Croagunk’s Poison Sting launches the trio away again, and Dawn’s Buizel rescues Ash and the Hippopotas.

Water is dangerous for Hippopotas, so Dawn dries it off and the group rush it to a Pokémon Center, where Nurse Joy settles it in a box of sand and the friends fetch desert sand to help it recover. Back on the road they meet a pair of sand sellers who are, of course, Team Rocket in disguise, and they bundle the Hippopotas into a bag. A Yawn sends Jessie nodding off in the middle of the motto, the Hippopotas escapes, and the heroes reply with a mocking motto of their own. Turtwig dodges Cacnea’s Pin Missile and strikes with Bite, Razor Leaf and Tackle, and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt blasts the villains off for the third time. In the desert, fresh footprints lead to the herd, which rises from the sand to greet the lost youngster, and its farewell Yawn puts Ash and Pikachu to sleep.

Major Events

• A lost Hippopotas is returned to its herd

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Hippopotas#0449 · DP044

Trivia

• The English title plays on "mass hypnosis", for Hippopotas’s Yawn.
• The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Sinnoh story.

Changes in the English Dub

• Because the Sky Is There as background music

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