AG036: Difference between revisions

The Spheal of Approval

AG036   EP310 海の博物館を守れ！マグマ団の襲撃！！ Protect the Ocean Museum! Attack of Magma-dan!!

First broadcast Japan July 31, 2003 United States May 29, 2004

English themes Opening I Wanna Be a Hero Ending

Japanese themes Opening アドバンス・アドベンチャー Ending ポルカ・オ・ドルカ

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 藤田伸三 Shinzō Fujita Storyboard 木村竜二 Ryūji Kimura Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de Dub review thread on BMGf

The Spheal of Approval (Japanese: 海の博物館を守れ！マグマ団の襲撃！！ Protect the Ocean Museum! Attack of Magma-dan!!) is the 36th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 310th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 31, 2003, and in the United States on May 29, 2004.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

Fresh out of the contest, our heroes are exploring the bustling city of Slateport. Ash and Max want to check out the Sea Museum but discover that it is not only closed, but sort of being guarded by a boy named Marius and his Spheal. After a failed attempt at attacking Ash's Pikachu, the boy recalls his Spheal. Captain Stern, the curator of the museum, appears and offers Ash, Max, and Marius a tour of the museum. Team Rocket is, of course, observing all this and devising a way to steal Pikachu.

Captain Stern then shows them his latest discovery, a volcanic rock from the bottom of the ocean. He tells them about how it was believed in some cultures that a giant Pokémon caused volcanic eruptions. Team Rockets calls from outside, selling ice cream, and the boys decide to go out and get some.

During this time, Team Magma members infiltrate the museum and steal the volcanic rock. At this point, Team Rocket captures Pikachu. When they see Team Magma running away, though, they divert their attention to attacking them. Team Magma sends them blasting off again. A battle breaks out between the Captain Stern, Ash, and Team Magma. Marius and Max escape by using the Marius' Spheal and they meet up with Brock and May. Ash tries to escape the battle with the rock, but it falls and the stone breaks in two. One of the Mightyena grabs half the stone and Team Magma retreats with their prize.

Plot

After May's Pokémon Contest debut in Slateport City, the group decide to stay in the city one more day. Brock decides to go shopping to stock up on supplies, and May goes with him. Ash and Max opt to make their way to the Oceanic Museum instead, but to their surprise they find that it is closed. Ash consults the guide book, but Max, unwilling to give up on the visit, tries to scale the museum wall. Before he can make much progress, a boy named Marius confronts him thinking that Max wants to steal the museum's exhibits. Ash comes to see what's going on, but Marius calls him a thief too and sends out his Spheal, commanding it to use Water Gun. However, Spheal cheerfully sprays Marius with water instead. Marius then commands Spheal to use Body Slam. Ash and Max dodge the attack and Spheal bounces off a wall and ends up knocking Marius down to the ground. Marius orders his Spheal to use Blizzard and Ash tells Pikachu to counter with Thunderbolt, which knocks Spheal out, surprising Marius. Max explains that Water-type Pokémon have a weakness to Electric-type moves. Ash advises Marius to return Spheal to its Poké Ball so that Spheal can rest.

Captain Stern, the curator of the museum suddenly appears, and Marius once again accuses Ash and Max of being thieves. Ash and Max explain to him that they weren't trying to steal anything and just wanted to see the exhibit. After Marius apologizes, Captain Stern explains that he had to close the museum because of an unexpected event, but invites Ash, Max and Marius inside the museum. Team Rocket observe the scene through their binoculars and make a plan to steal Ash's Pikachu and rob the museum. Later Captain Stern guides Ash, Max and Marius through the Oceanic Museum's exhibits. While admiring the Pokémon models, Marius declares that he is going to catch a Goldeen one day and evolve it into a Gyarados. Ash and Max are quick to correct him that only Magikarp evolve into Gyarados, though Marius admits that he’ll learn everything properly during his travels out at sea in a submarine, pointing at a model of one. Captain Stern explains that the model is based on a submarine he is currently building at the local shipyards. The Captain takes the three boys to his office to explain why he closed the museum: he had received a sample of an unusual dark rock from the seafloor that was exposed to extremely high temperatures. Ash and Max are astonished by the claim, though Captain Stern informs them that undersea volcanoes or a Pokémon might be the cause.

Team Rocket's voices are heard coming from the museum's courtyard claiming to be selling snow cones. Ash, Max and Marius go outside to buy some, while Captain Stern decides to remain in the museum to start analyzing the rock. Ash, Max and Marius are enjoying their icy desserts, when it occurs to Max the museum is closed and the snow cone vendors ought to know that. However, Team Rocket persuades them to continue eating. When the boys are unable to move due to suffering from brain freeze, Team Rocket reveals their true identities and steal Ash's Pikachu, putting him in a metal cage, while trapping the three boys in a separate cage.

Meanwhile, Tabitha and two accomplice Team Magma Grunts infiltrate the Oceanic Museum with a code cracker. They switch off the facility's power before making their way into Captain Stern's office to steal the curious stone. Captain Stern confronts them, but Tabitha distracts him with his Mightyena's Shadow Ball and escapes. As Team Magma flee the museum, the Rocket trio spots them and figures that whatever it is that Team Magma is stealing it must be valuable, so they decide to steal it from them. Marius tries to break the cage using his Spheal's Body Slam, but once again he gets hit with the move instead. Ash sends out Corphish and commands it to break the cage with Crabhammer. Team Rocket blocks Team Magma's escape by sending out Seviper and Cacnea. Jessie commands her Seviper to use Poison Tail, but Tabitha's Mightyena Tackles it. James tells his Cacnea to use Pin Missile, but Mightyena uses Double Team to raise its evasion, making Cacnea's attack miss. Seviper tries to use Wrap, but Mightyena's Iron Tail hits first, sending Seviper flying into Team Rocket who are sent blasting off, dropping Pikachu's cage in the process and freeing it. Mightyena instantly snarls at Pikachu, but Tabitha orders it to leave him be.

The boys rush over, with Ash happily reuniting with Pikachu before turning his attention to Team Magma and demanding them to return the case. Captain Stern runs onto the scene saying that he'll deal with the goons and sends out his Sealeo. It attacks Mightyena with Aurora Beam, and the resulting blast sends Mightyena flying back into Tabitha causing him to drop the stone's case. Marius catches it and hands it over to Captain Stern. The grunts send out their Mightyena. Now with three threats to contend with, Ash calls on his Corphish and Pikachu to assist Stern's Sealeo. Captain Stern tells Max and Marius to run into town to get Officer Jenny when he gives them the signal. All three Mightyena use Hyper Beam while Corphish, Pikachu and Sealeo counter with Bubble Beam, Thunderbolt and Aurora Beam, respectively. The attacks collide, causing an explosion. With smoke covering the area, Captain Stern gives Max and Marius the signal to run and get help, which the boys obey. The boys have to escape the scene fast, so Marius decides they should jump off a cliff into the sea. Max is terrified and does not want to jump. Tabitha orders Mightyena to use Shadow Ball, so Marius takes Max's hand and jumps pulling him down with him to dodge it. The two boys and Spheal slide down the cliff and end up in sea below. They hold onto Spheal who starts swimming at an incredible speed towards the city. Max and Marius make it ashore where they encounter May and Brock who are just making their way over to the museum from shopping.

Meanwhile, Captain Stern hands the stone case to Ash, telling him to run while Sealeo distracts Team Magma using Blizzard. Ash runs with Pikachu and Corphish, but despite Blizzard, Mightyena is able to use Shadow Ball and strike the ground in front of Ash. The explosion sends Ash and the case flying. The case opens when it hits the ground, and the stone splits into two pieces. Pikachu runs to save the stone, but Mightyena gets there first, retrieving the bigger half of the broken stone for Tabitha. Team Magma's helicopter arrives and Mightyena uses Shadow Ball to make a clean getaway. As Ash and Captain Stern watch the helicopter fly off into the distance, the police arrive along with Brock, May, Max and Marius. Ash apologizes to Captain Stern for letting Team Magma get away with the stone, but Captain Stern assures him that the smaller piece of the stone will be sufficient enough for his research. Ash, Brock, May and Max bid their farewells to Captain Stern and Marius as they hit the road again to travel to Mauville City.

Major events

• Jessie's Seviper is revealed to know Wrap*.
• Ash and his friends leave Slateport City and head towards Mauville City.

For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.

Debuts

Humans

• Captain Stern

Pokémon debuts

• Spheal
• Sealeo

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Officer Jenny
• Tabitha
• Captain Stern
• Marius
• Team Magma Grunts (×2)

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Nuzleaf

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Corphish (Ash's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Growlithe (Officer Jenny's)
• Mightyena (Tabitha's)
• Sealeo (Captain Stern's; debut)
• Spheal (Marius's; debut)
• Mightyena (Team Magma Grunts'; ×2)
• Groudon (fantasy)
• Remoraid (image)
• Goldeen (image)

Trivia

• This episode's English dub title is a reference to the term "seal of approval".
• After this episode, the anime went on its summer hiatus on Kids WB!, not returning with new episodes until late August, despite the new season not beginning until What You Seed is What You Get.
• This is the first episode to use music from Jirachi: Wish Maker, during the Groudon scene. However, the music is replaced in the English dub.

Errors

The snow cones error

• While Ash, Max, and Marius are eating snow cones, Ash and Marius's snow cones trade colors. Ash's snow cone becomes yellow, and Marius's becomes green. This is corrected the next time the cones are shown.
• In one scene, Team Rocket is shown in disguises with short sleeves and their arms showing, however, after throwing off their disguises, they are in their long sleeved uniform, despite their short sleeve shirts not showing the sleeves.
• In the English dub, during the "Who's That Pokémon?" segment, Nuzleaf has a white square covering part of its left wrist and the hint has an extra in.
• In the Hungarian dub, a Team Magma Grunt orders his Mightyena to use "Shadow Bell" instead of "Shadow Ball".

Dub edits

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		保護海之博物館，火岩隊的襲擊！
Danish		Den mystiske sten
Dutch		De goedkeuring van Spheal
European French		Une pierre mystérieuse
German		Der geheimnisvolle Stein
Hebrew		המוזאון הימי hamuzeon hayami
Hindi		रहस्यमय पथ्थर Rahasyamaay patthar *
Italian		Guai al museo
Korean		바다의 박물관과 마그마단의 습격
Norwegian		Sjøfartsmuséet
Polish		Walka o kamień
Portuguese	Brazil	A Pedra Misteriosa
	Portugal	Um Spheal Aprovado
Russian		Ни минуты покоя! * С поддержкой новичков *
Spanish	Latin America	¡La roca misteriosa!
	Spain	La palmada de Spheal
Swedish		Sjöfartsmuséet!

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.