All They Want to Do is Dance Dance! – Pokémon Season 21, Episode 38

Plot episodeSteenee evolves into TsareenaAlola Hula

All They Want to Do is Dance Dance! is the 38th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures, the twenty-first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1016th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1022, Bulbapedia code SM082). It first aired in Japan on 19 July 2018 and in the United States on 8 December 2018. It falls within the season’s Ultra Beasts & everyday Alola stretch (EP78–EP86).

Premiered on 8 December 2018, the day Disney XD gave Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us its US television premiere.

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

Synopsis

During a Pokémon dance recital at the school, Mallow’s Steenee learns Stomp and evolves into Tsareena to break the class free from Team Rocket’s cages. Professor Kukui announces a recital in three days, and Steenee wanders off to the fruit stall of Anela, who finally gives her name and explains that Steenee has been communicating through Alola Hula, an ancient dance. Anela’s Pa’u Style Oricorio, Dori-chan, demonstrates, and Mallow and Steenee draw a crowd as they copy its swaying, so Mallow decides that Steenee will perform the hula. Team Rocket, whose honey-donut van is doing well, overhear and plan to steal the students’ Pokémon during the event. At rehearsals, Lillie works on a tap routine, Lana on water balloons, Marowak sets Kiawe on fire during fire twirling until Popplio puts him out, and Ash’s Pokémon totem pole collapses.

On recital day, Kukui introduces Anela and Dori-chan as masters of Alola Hula. Snowy uses Powder Snow to make an icy ring and skates around it with a backflip; Popplio bounces Lana’s sisters Harper and Sarah through water balloons; Marowak sets Kiawe alight once more; and Sophocles’s Charjabug transforms from a racecar into a robot with Togedemaru as its head—though Sophocles admits he never programmed any dancing. Before Ash can perform, the lights go out, and a voice-over and two spotlights lead the students into frames on the floor. Team Rocket appear in cabaret costumes, perform a classical number and reveal themselves, and with the press of a button they cage Kukui, Anela and the students apart from their Pokémon, while Jessie gloats about forming a dancing troupe.

Steenee, who had been practising in the background, attacks the bars with her sepals until Meowth restrains her with a remote-controlled basketball hoop—and carelessly reveals that the cages are weak at the top. Snowy’s Powder Snow sends Meowth sliding into a wall, and Steenee kicks the top of the cage again and again until her leg glows: she has learned Stomp. In a pink light she evolves into Tsareena, pins Meowth with one leg and launches him into a basketball net with Trop Kick, then kicks the cage seals apart to free everyone. Outnumbered, Team Rocket are rescued by Bewear. Everyone congratulates Tsareena, and Kukui suggests a dance inspired by her, but a flick of her hair releases Sweet Scent, drawing Rowlet in for a “Rowlaunch” that bowls Ash over.

Major Events

• Tsareena. An Alola Hula class with Anela, named for the first time
• A dance recital
• Team Rocket cage the class
• Steenee learns Stomp, evolves into Tsareena and learns Trop Kick
• The first Japanese episode after The Power of Us, whose theme Breath ended its first TV airing
• Anime debuts of Oricorio’s Pa’u Style and Tsareena

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Tsareena#0763 · SM082

Captures and evolutions

• Steenee → Tsareena#0763 · Mallow · learning Stomp before and Trop Kick after evolving

Trivia

• The English title plays on Don Henley’s “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”.
• The screenplay is by Jun’ichi Fujisaku.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• Tsareena’s stomp is frozen, though the stomping sound is kept
• Japanese version: Future Connection insert at Steenee’s evolution
• The first TV Tokyo airing ended with Breath (Porno Graffitti); the DVD uses Twerp, Twerpette, over clips from The Power of Us

Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.