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| Season | Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl (Season 10) · The road to Hearthome: Happiny, Cynthia & Gary arc (DP038–DP047) |
| Episode | Season 10, episode 46 · English episode 510 · Japanese episode 513 · Bulbapedia code DP046 |
| English title | A Maze-ing Race! |
| Japanese title | 迷路でシャッフル！みんなでハッスル！！ Meiro de Shaffuru! Minna de Hassuru!! — “Shuffle in the Maze! Everyone Hustle!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 13 September 2007 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 19 January 2008 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kimi no Soba de ~Hikari no Tēma~ (By Your Side ~Hikari’s Theme~), Pop-Up Version – Grin |
| English opening | Diamond and Pearl – Chris “Breeze” Barczynski |
| Previous episode | Ill-Will Hunting! (DP045) |
| Next episode | Sandshrew’s Locker! (DP047) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeThe mazePaul reappears
A Maze-ing Race! is the 46th episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, the tenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 510th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 513, Bulbapedia code DP046). It first aired in Japan on 13 September 2007 and in the United States on 19 January 2008. It falls within the season’s The road to Hearthome: Happiny, Cynthia & Gary stretch (EP38–EP47).
Synopsis
Dawn is in a hurry: a Pokémon Center is giving away a new Pokétch app, and she drags Ash and Brock through the forest to get it, only to learn from Nurse Joy that the giveaway is at a different Center on the far side of the woods and is about to end. On the way the friends meet a disguised pair offering a shortcut through a cave and a map of the maze beyond its exit, asking only for a group photograph with all the friends’ Pokémon in return. While the group line up for the picture, the “guides”, who are of course Team Rocket, prepare to grab every Pokémon at once, but a stampede of Graveler and Golem comes rolling through the cave with Rollout and scatters everyone in different directions.
Ash and Pikachu emerge first and find Paul trying to catch a Fearow circling overhead; asked whether he has seen the others, Paul coldly says no. Dawn and Croagunk, and then Brock with Turtwig, Staravia and Aipom, run into Paul in turn and get the same curt answer, and Staravia flies up to search from the sky. Inside the maze, Team Rocket disguise themselves as boulders to separate Ash from Pikachu until the furious Onix that was chasing the Graveler and Golem blasts them off, with Jessie reminding the audience that this is only the first act. Pikachu joins up with Buneary and Happiny, Croagunk saves Dawn from the Onix by smashing a crack in a wall with Brick Break, and Ash ends up leading Piplup, Buizel, Pachirisu and Sudowoodo, where Piplup and Buizel squabble over the route before working together to drive the Onix back.
Staravia reunites everyone except Ash’s party, but when it flies up to look for him, the recovered Team Rocket grab it and escape. Brock and Dawn finally hear Ash calling on the other side of a wall, and Team Rocket’s mecha pins his group down behind piles of rocks. Bubble Beam and Sonic Boom cannot free Staravia, and Pachirisu’s Discharge zaps Ash’s own group, so the friends attack the wall together until it crumbles. Pikachu leaps down from a tall hill, breaks Staravia’s cage with Iron Tail and blasts the trio away with Thunderbolt for the second time. Reunited, the group make it out of the maze and reach the Pokémon Center in time for Dawn to download the Coin Toss app, which she promptly uses to choose their path.
Major Events
- The group are split up in a maze
- Paul reappears, trying to catch a Fearow
- Dawn downloads the Coin Toss app
Trivia
- The English title plays on the TV show The Amazing Race, or "Amazing Grace".
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Sinnoh story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Advance Adventure and Gotta Dance!! as background music
Part of our Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.