AG053: Difference between revisions

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Game Winning Assist! (Japanese: エネコとねこのて！ドンメルの牧場！ Eneco & Cat's Hand! Meadow of Donmel!) is episode 53 of Advanced Generation. It was first broadcast in Japan on November 27, 2003 and in the United States on November 13, 2004.

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

Synopsis

While traveling through the Fiery Path to Lavaridge Town, Ash and his friends find themselves being chased by an angry group of Slugma after May's Skitty playfully attacks one. After a narrow escape Ash finds an exit from the cave, which brings them to a Numel ranch owned by a woman named Julie. Recognizing them as travelers, Julie invites them to rest at her ranch for a bit. Interested in the Numel, Brock and Max get some first hand experience on their physiology by helping Julie do her daily chores. Meanwhile May decides that the best way to redirect her Skitty's energy would be by teaching it how to battle. She asks Ash to battle with her, but Julie arrives and asks her to battle with her Furret instead. During the battle, May discovers that Skitty knows an attack called Assist, which allows it to copy attacks her other Pokémon known, like Torchic's Ember or Beautifly's Silver Wind. However even Assist isn't enough to turn the battle around, and Furret easily defeats Skitty.

Elsewhere Jessie, James, and Meowth find the Numel Ranch as well, and decided to steal the Numel so they can make money selling them as personal heaters. Late at night they sneak onto the ranch and begin stealing the Numel using a gigantic Numel shaped robot. Hearing the noise of the machine, Furret and Pikachu manage to wake everybody up, and they stumble out of bed to confront the Rocket Trio. Ash orders Pikachu to attack the machine with Thunderbolt but finds that it has no effect. With all of the Numel inside their robot, Team Rocket prepares to leave. Suddenly Skitty runs towards the machine and latches onto one of its arms. May rushes after Skitty, and the two wind up being trapped in the machine as well. With May, Skitty, and the Numel trapped inside their machine Team Rocket beats a hasty retreat. Intent on getting her Numel back, Julie gets into her truck, and with Ash and the rest in the back they begin to follow Team Rocket's trail.

Inside the robot, May and Skitty try to rouse the sleeping Numel. They finally manage to do it, but the Numel fall back asleep after Team Rocket uses a hidden sprinkler system to cool down their bodies. Thinking quickly, May orders Skitty to use Assist to hit one of the Numel with Ember. The attack wakes it up and the Numel quickly wakes up the remaining Numel with Flamethrower. The Numel begin to melt through the side of the robot with their fire attacks, causing Team Rocket to use the sprinkler system again. This time May is prepared, and has Skitty destroy the sprinkler with DoubleSlap. Combining their flamethrowers, the Numel succeed in destroying the robot, and are able to escape. Climbing our the wreckage, Team Rocket prepares to recapture the Numel, but are interrupted by the arrival of Julie's truck. Team Rocket call out Seviper and Cacnea to battle, but the combined forces of Furret and Pikachu are enough to send them blasting off again.

The next morning, Julie shows them the route to Mt. Chimney and Lavaridge Town. After waving goodbye, Ash and his friends continue on their way.

Major events

• May finds out that her Skitty knows Assist and learns about how the move works.

Debuts

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Julie

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Combusken

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Skitty (May's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Numel (Julie's; multiple)
• Furret (Julie's)
• Slugma (multiple)

Trivia

Errors

• The Trainer's Choice question was, "Which Pokémon is the best choice to battle Kirlia?", and suggested answers were Togetic, Combusken and Graveler. Judging by type effectivenesses and Generation III learnsets, the given answer (Combusken) is at least doubtful, since Kirlia is a Psychic Pokémon and Combusken belongs to Fire and Fighting types. This makes Combusken vulnerable to Psychic attacks and, additionally, in Generation III it could not learn any attacks that Kirlia is vulnerable to. The best choice of these three would be Togetic, as Psychic attacks are normally effective against him and Grass attacks (that Kirlia also can learn) are not very effective. Moreover, Togetic can learn Shadow Ball via TM and Kirlia is weak to Ghost attacks. Graveler is not the best choice, as it has 4x-vulnerability to Grass attacks.
  • Kirlia, however, can learn moves such as Shock Wave and Thunderbolt that are super effective against Togetic via TM. The TM capabilities of these Pokémon leave the given answers for this Trainer's Choice disputable.

Dub edits

In other languages

• French: La nouvelle attaque de Skitty
• Italian: Attacco Assistente, attacco vincente!
• Latin American Spanish: ¡Descubriendo ataques!
• Portuguese: O Auxílio de Skitty!
• Spanish: ¡Con Ayuda se puede ganar!

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