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| Season | Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series (Season 24) · Chivalry, Grookey & Sirfetch’d arc (JN056–JN060) |
| Episode | Season 24, episode 10 · English episode 1138 · Japanese episode 1144 · Bulbapedia code JN058 |
| English title | A Rollicking Roll… / Eyes on the Goal! |
| Japanese title | パニック！ゴクリン球！！／カモンカムカメカメレース！ Panikku! Gokurin-dama!! / Kamon Kamukame Kame Rēsu! — “Panic! Gokulin Ball!! / Come on, Kamukame – The Turtle Race!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 5 March 2021 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 10 September 2021 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Deko Akao |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – Karaage Sisters · Pokémon Shiritori (Pikachu → Mew Ver.) – Pokémon Music Club |
| English opening | Journey to Your Heart – Haven Paschall |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Gulpin (US) · Gulpin (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Memories of a Warming Kindness! (JN057) |
| Next episode | When a House is Not a Home! (JN059) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeTwo storiesGulpin ball and turtle race
A Rollicking Roll… / Eyes on the Goal! is the 10th episode of Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1138th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1144, Bulbapedia code JN058). It first aired in Japan on 5 March 2021 and in the United States on 10 September 2021. It falls within the season’s Chivalry, Grookey & Sirfetch’d stretch (EP56–EP60).
Released on Netflix in the US on Friday 10 September 2021 with the rest of Part 1; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 14 August 2021.
Synopsis
Two Team Rocket mishaps spill into Vermilion City: a giant ball of sticky Gulpin rolls Ash and Goh around town, and Wobbuffet’s Chewtle races a Turtwig in the park. In the first story, the trio are dozing in their base when Jessie slaps James in her sleep; James blames Meowth and plonks him on the Rocket Prize Master’s coin slot, and Pelipper, curious, bumps the machine until it starts spitting out Poké Balls, each containing a Gulpin. The Gulpin wander out of the base while Pelipper pretends not to notice. Out jogging, Goh leans into a bush and Ash knocks him in, and he emerges with a Gulpin stuck to his head; touching it only glues his hand to it too. Heading for the Cerise Laboratory for help, Ash finds another Gulpin on his backside, and then the pair are buried by a whole swarm, which links into a giant ball that rolls through the city collecting a juggling Alakazam, other Pokémon, dirt and branches.
Alakazam’s Psychic lifts the ball into the air, and at the lab Professor Cerise and Chrysa detect a strong energy reading and wonder whether they have found a new Pokémon. The ball slams into a building so hard that Alakazam faints and it rolls on through Vermilion City, with Goh horrified and Ash enjoying the ride. Videos spread online, Ren sends photos, and Chrysa spots Ash and Goh in the footage just as Goh calls Chloe in a panic. Using Chloe’s Rotom Phone, Cerise explains that the Gulpin’s Sticky Hold Ability is to blame and that Gastro Acid will cancel it; Goh mishears it as “Astro Glasses,” but the instruction works and the ball breaks apart. In the second story, Meowth and Wobbuffet wake up, and Wobbuffet gets a Poké Ball from the machine that releases a Chewtle, which wants to play in the park. When a Turtwig walks past it on the way, the irritated Chewtle challenges it to a race, and Meowth films it on Team Rocket’s Rotom Phone.
A laughing Torkoal joins the race and fills the track with smoke, so the racers detour through a playground, where Turtwig accidentally knocks Chewtle off the slide’s stairs, then catches it and throws it to safety, sacrificing its own lead. A speeding Tirtouga joins in the sandpit but crashes out. Back on the path, Turtwig collapses with wilting leaves, and although it insists it is not thirsty, Chewtle revives it with Water Gun. Then a whole herd of shelled Pokémon, from Squirtle and Wartortle to Torterra, Carracosta, Turtonator, Drednaw and six Blastoise, stampedes into the race, and Wobbuffet trips in its path, until an elderly man calls them all home: he is the Shell Sage, their Trainer. With no rivals left, Chewtle strolls to an easy victory and tells Meowth it was sure to win from the very start.
Major Events
- Two Team Rocket shorts. A Rollicking Roll…: a ball of Gulpin with Sticky Hold rolls Ash and Goh around Vermilion City until Gastro Acid frees them
- Eyes on the Goal!: Wobbuffet’s Chewtle races a Turtwig and wins after the Shell Sage calls his Pokémon home
- The first Journeys episode with none of Goh’s Pokémon
- A Katamari Damacy nod
- Tirtouga and Carracosta appear for the first time in 410 episodes
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Deko Akao.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto, Galar & beyond story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Goh mishears Gastro Acid as “Astro Glasses” (in Japanese, ieki as “Yay”)
- Meowth’s “turtle Pokémon” become “Pokémon with shells”
Part of our Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.