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| Season | Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series (Season 25) |
| Episode | Season 25, episode 54 · English episode 1224 · Japanese TV special · Bulbapedia code JNS05 |
| English title | Distant Blue Sky! |
| Japanese title | ポケットモンスター 遥かなる青い空 Poketto Monsutā Harukanaru Aoi Sora — “Pocket Monsters: The Distant Blue Sky” |
| First aired (Japan) | 23 December 2022 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 September 2023 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Shōji Yonemura |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | None – the special has no opening · None – the special has no ending |
| English opening | None – the special has no opening (its dub credits list With You) |
| Previous episode | The Rainbow and the Pokémon Master! (JN147) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeSpecialAsh’s new hat
Distant Blue Sky! is the 54th episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1224th episode of the English dub overall (a Japanese TV special, Bulbapedia code JNS05). It first aired in Japan on 23 December 2022 and in the United States on 8 September 2023.
Released on Netflix in the US on 8 September 2023 as the twelfth and last episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master; Teletoon had shown it in Canada on 29 July 2023 and e.tv in South Africa on 8 August 2023. In Japan it aired on 23 December 2022 as a TV special between JN136 and JN137 and is not counted as an episode.
Synopsis
On his way to meet his father, Ash befriends a boy named Sunny who has never touched a Pokémon, and learns that Sunny is the ghost of a child who died a year earlier, in a special set in the world of the I Choose You! film trilogy. Swimming in a river full of Water types, Ash is lifted out of the water by a Gyarados and fails to catch it, then beats a Trainer named Len’s Machamp with Pikachu’s Thunderbolt. At a Pokémon Center, Delia calls to say that she will meet Ash’s father in the town next door the next day, and Ash sets off at once, followed by Team Rocket. Passing through a tunnel beneath a giant tree into a forest full of Pokémon, he camps for the night and wakes to find Pikachu gone. A boy offers to lead him to it, and they find Team Rocket celebrating with Pikachu locked in an insulated capsule; while the trio recite their motto, Ash simply takes the key, frees Pikachu, and Pikachu blasts them off.
The boy, Sunny, will not shake Ash’s hand and asks what touching a Pokémon feels like, since he loves them but has never done it. Ash describes it as warm and soft and tries in vain to find a forest Pokémon for him to touch. Fleeing a swarm of Beedrill, they stumble into an Oran Berry orchard beside a house, where a man named So is painting the sky; Sunny points out the painting he likes best, and when So’s wife Sue appears, Sunny vanishes. The couple give Ash Oran Berries and Berry bread, which Sunny declines when Ash finds him again. Sunny then asks Ash to recover his favourite cap from a Mankey, and remembering the Primeape that once stole his own hat, Ash chases the Mankey onto an Onix, retrieves the cap and gives the disappointed Mankey his own hat in exchange. Sunny leads him back to the house, but when Ash says that Sunny asked him to fetch the cap, So accuses him of lying and Sue bursts into tears.
Ash learns that Sunny was their son, who loved the forest Pokémon and dreamed of becoming a Trainer but fell ill and died a year ago; since then So has painted only the skies his son loved, and Sue explains that the loss taught her to thank the people she loves while she can. After Ash leaves, So resolves to paint the forests and Pokémon too. Meeting Sunny once more, Ash offers to let him touch Pikachu, but Sunny’s hand passes straight through, so Ash embraces him and uses his Aura to share the feeling of touching Pikachu, which Sunny finds as comforting as Ash said. When Ash opens his eyes, Sunny is gone, and beyond the tunnel Ash sees a sky just like Sunny’s favourite painting and thanks Pikachu for being there. In town, Delia tells him that his father had to leave for an emergency but left a gift: a brand-new hat. Over croquettes, which Delia also shares with a disguised, starving Team Rocket, Ash finds himself crying without knowing why. The next morning, hearing that an Entei has been sighted, he races off beneath the distant blue sky.
Major Events
- The ghost boy Sunny. Set in the world of the I Choose You! films, Ash befriends Sunny, the ghost of a boy who never touched a Pokémon, and shares the feeling through his Aura
- Pikachu beats Len’s Machamp
- Ash fails to catch a Gyarados
- Ash receives a new hat from his father
- No opening, ending or title card
- Storyboarded by Kunihiko Yuyama, with archive narration by Unshō Ishizuka
- Not counted as an episode in Japan
- The dub’s season finale
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
- 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
- Dub error: the credits name Takashi Shinohara instead of Masaaki Iwane and list “With You”, although the special has no opening
- Delia’s “Tonari Town” (“the town next door”) is left unnamed
- Dub error: a closed caption reads “good evening”
Part of our Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.