AG093

Clamperl of Wisdom

AG093   EP367 パールルとバネブー！しんじゅをさがせ！ Pearlulu and Baneboo! Search for the Pearl!

First broadcast Japan September 9, 2004 United States September 17, 2005

English themes Opening Unbeatable Ending

Japanese themes Opening チャレンジャー!! Ending スマイル ②

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 大橋志吉 Yukiyoshi Ōhashi Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Clamperl of Wisdom (Japanese: パールルとバネブー！しんじゅをさがせ！ Pearlulu and Baneboo! Search for the Pearl!) is the 93rd episode of the Advanced Generation series, and the 367th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on September 9, 2004 and in the United States on September 17, 2005.

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

Blurb

The kids are heading to Maisie Island on a ferry when they spot a Spoink floating on a log. They quickly realize it's the same Spoink they helped before. When they save it and bring it aboard, it trips, dropping its pearl overboard. Ash's Pokémon go looking for the pearl with no luck.

When they arrive on the island, they meet a scientist named Isaiah who is doing research on Clamperl and their pearls—which end up as Spoink pearls. The jewel of his collection is a rare blue pearl.

Team Rocket sneaks in and tries to steal the blue pearl, only to be beaten out by Spoink stealing it first. Everyone goes looking for the little Psychic-type Pokémon. Meanwhile, the blue pearl accidentally gets switched with the pink pearl from a wild Clamperl. When this fact is discovered, everyone goes looking for the Clamperl and Team Rocket steals it away.

Team Rocket is trying to get the Clamperl open when the kids catch up to them. Spoink protects the Clamperl, who uses Water Gun to send the thieves blasting off. The Clamperl returns the blue pearl to Isaiah, and in exchange for the Psychic-type Pokémon's help, gives its pink pearl to Spoink.

Plot

As Ash and his friends are sailing to Mossdeep City, Pikachu and Torkoal notice something out on the ocean. It turns out to be a Spoink floating on a log, and is apparently the same Spoink they met before. Suddenly, a wave knocks Spoink from the log, and Ash calls for the boat's pilot to stop. They pull Spoink on board with a life preserver. It hops around happily due to the rescue, but trips over the life preserver, and its pearl goes flying out into the water. Spoink is initially saddened by this, but it notices a round red flotation device on the boat. As a result, it psychically picks it up and puts it on its head. Ash grabs the device, saying that it doesn't belong to Spoink, and Torkoal cries at Spoink's situation. Torkoal then impulsively jumps into the water, intending to look for Spoink's pearl. Worried that the Fire-type will be seriously hurt from being underwater so long, Ash dives in after it and rescues it. Later, Brock and Ash send out Mudkip and Corphish, respectively, to try to find Spoink's pearl. However, they find no sign of the pearl, and report back to the group empty-handed.

During a quick rest-stop at Maisie Island, the group wonders what they can do to help Spoink. A young boy and his Azurill run by, and Spoink tries putting Azurill on its head. The boy cries, and Ash and Brock snatch Azurill away, scolding Spoink. Spoink then tries on many other round objects, including a Swablu, a Castform, and even a large Wailmer. In the end, however, it is still disappointed at its pearl-less head. A scientist named Isaiah approaches the group and explains that the pearls grown inside a Clamperl are the same kind of pearl that Spoink wear. He escorts Ash and his friends to his lab and museum, where they find a pool enclosure with large rock formations in the middle; a group of Clamperl are on the rocks. May comments on how cute they are, and scans them with her Pokédex. Isaiah then explains some more about the connection between Spoink and Clamperl. Spoink then gets excited over a blue pearl in a display case. The group admires it, and Isaiah talks about it while Spoink stares at the pearl sadly.

Back on shore, the group sees a young girl and her Shroomish running along the beach. Spoink puts Shroomish on its head psychically, and May snatches it away, while Ash and Brock scold Spoink again. May returns Shroomish to its Trainer, apologizing, but the two promptly run away. They then realize that Spoink is missing. Meanwhile, Team Rocket sneak into the museum, intending to steal the valuable blue pearl from earlier. James removes the display case, but before Jessie can grab the pearl, Spoink hops by and psychically puts it on its head, hopping all the way out the window.

Back at the beach, the group is calling out for Spoink when they hear a burglar alarm coming from the museum, and run over to check it out. Jessie and James disguise themselves as janitors while Meowth hides in their cleaning bucket to avoid suspicion. They tell the group that they were minding their own business when a Spoink hopped by and used its Psychic to take the pearl, then hopped right out the window before they could do anything. The group decides to find Spoink and take back the pearl. Outside, Ash and May send out Swellow and Beautifly to search from the air while the group splits up and searches on the ground. Looking on, Team Rocket sets their sights on Spoink and the blue pearl, planning to give both to Giovanni.

Spoink happily hops along the beach with its new pearl when it encounters the two kids from earlier. They hold their Pokémon away from Spoink, afraid of what happened before, but then they realize it has a pearl now. However, Spoink slips again, and its blue pearl flies off. It ricochets among the rocks, lands inside a sleeping Clamperl, and knocks Clamperl's pink pearl out. The pink pearl somehow ricochets its way back to Spoink's head. Spoink is happy and bounds off, and the kids wonder why it had that blue pearl in the first place.

Beautifly reports back to the group that it had found Spoink, and leads them to it. They notice with surprise that Spoink is now wearing a pink pearl again. The two kids with the Azurill and Shroomish approach, and explain what they saw. They point Ash and his friends to the wild Clamperl's location, where the pearl swap occurred. The group thanks the young Trainers and make their way over.

Unbeknownst to them, Team Rocket had overheard the whole conversation while perched atop a palm tree, and decides to get the Clamperl. Spoink and the others find the Clamperl, but it now has its shell closed. When Spoink approaches, Clamperl opens its shell to reveal that it does indeed have the blue pearl. May asks if they could have the pearl back, but Clamperl refuses. Spoink then takes the pink pearl off its head and offers Clamperl a trade; it agrees, and May thanks it. Before they could make the switch, Team Rocket drops a smoke bomb and says their motto.

Jessie sends out Seviper, and Ash counters with Torkoal. Seviper lunges in for a Bite, and the attack proves too quick for a counterattack, so Ash tells Torkoal to use Iron Defense. Seviper ends up hitting its head on Torkoal's hardened shell. Ash then orders a Flamethrower, which Seviper dodges. Excited, since the battle is going her way for once, Jessie orders a Haze. Everyone runs around in confusion, but Team Rocket manages to meet up, with James carrying a sack containing Clamperl, and they escape in their balloon. When the smoke clears, the group realizes that Spoink and its pink pearl are still there, but Clamperl is missing.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket has landed some distance away, and are now trying to entice Clamperl to open its shell to retrieve the pearl. Jessie sweetly asks it to open up, but it clamps shut before she can grab the pearl. She tries again to get it to open, but fails. James tries to physically pry the shell open, but that doesn't work either. They try to sweet-talk it again, but fail. Meowth then gets the idea to try tickling it. The trio does so, and Clamperl partially opens up. Meowth taunts it with its tail to get it to open further, but Clamperl instead clamps down on it. It then finally opens it shell, and Meowth's momentum sends it flying into a tree. The shell closes again before Jessie can grab the pearl. James then thinks that Chimecho's sweet voice and chiming may get Clamperl in a better mood, so he sends it out, but Chimecho's attempt fails as well. Jessie tries again, but this time, she is sent flying into a tree by Clamperl's Water Gun. As Jessie tries to physically open the shell like James did, Swellow spots them from above and reports back to Ash and the others.

As Team Rocket attempts to use sticks as levers to force the shell open, Ash and his friends arrive. Spoink uses Psychic to lift Team Rocket away from Clamperl and throw them at their balloon. The group checks on Clamperl, as Jessie and James send out Dustox and Cacnea. After Ash sends out Grovyle, Jessie orders a Tackle, and Grovyle counters with Quick Attack. Cacnea attacks Clamperl with Pin Missile, but Spoink jumps in front of it and uses Psychic to stop the pins. Grovyle hits Dustox with Bullet Seed, while Spoink fires a Psybeam at Cacnea. Clamperl slowly opens up as it watches its friends defend it. Dustox aims a Poison Sting at Grovyle, who dodges with a series of back-flips. Grovyle follows up with a Leaf Blade and scores a direct hit on Dustox. James orders a Needle Arm and Cacnea rushes forward, but Spoink sends it back with another Psybeam. Finally, a Water Gun from Clamperl blasts Team Rocket off.

Spoink and Clamperl are now free to carry out their previously arranged trade, and Spoink uses Psychic to switch the pearls. Isaiah thanks Clamperl, but Spoink is saddened to be without a pearl once again. Clamperl generously offers to give Spoink the pink pearl as thanks, and Spoink happily accepts.

Major events

• Ash and his friends encounter the wild Spoink again.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Clamperl
• Luvdisc

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Giovanni (fantasy)
• Isaiah
• Madeleine
• Little boy

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

Pokémon Trainer’s Choice: Seedot

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Chimecho (James's)
• Swellow (Ash's)
• Grovyle (Ash's)
• Corphish (Ash's)
• Torkoal (Ash's)
• Beautifly (May's)
• Lombre (Brock's)
• Mudkip (Brock's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Dustox (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Shroomish (Madeleine's)
• Azurill (little boy's)
• Spoink (anime)
• Clamperl (debut)
• Luvdisc (multiple; debut)
• Wailmer (multiple)
• Swablu
• Castform

Trivia

• Megumi Hayashibara returns after maternity leave.
• This is the first episode of the eighth season, Pokémon: Advanced Battle.
• This is the last episode to air in Japan before the earliest release of Pokémon Emerald.
• This is the first episode in which the Pokémon Trainer's Choice segment was credited to Lawrence Neves, who greatly improved the segment's accuracy.
• After Team Rocket stole Clamperl, when they are leaving the area, in the European Portuguese dub, they said, "Sobe, sobe! Balão sobe!" This is a reference to the known song "Sobe, sobe, balão sobe!" by Manuela Bravo, which was the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979.
• Spoink is able to place a Wailmer on its head despite it weighing around 290 pounds (130 kilograms). This is an example of anime physics.

Errors

Dub edits

• In the Japanese version, Max mentions that Torkoal is a Fire-type after it dives into the water to look for Spoink's pearl. However, in the dub, he only says that Torkoal doesn't know how to swim.
• The gold border around James's cards was painted away in the dub.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

• Question: Trainers, which Pokémon would be most affected by Ember?
• Choices: Seedot, Lapras, Ludicolo
• Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Seedot, you were right!

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		珍珠貝與跳跳豬！尋找珍珠！
Danish		Den kloge Clamperl * En klog Clamperl
Dutch		Clamperl der wijsheid
Finnish		Viisas Clamperl
European French		Tout ça pour une perle
German		Wirbel um die blaue Perle
Hebrew		הפנינה הכחולהhapnina hakkhula
Hindi		किस्सा मोती का Kissa Moti Ka*
Italian		La perla contesa
Korean		진주몽과 피그점프! 진주를 찾아라!!
Norwegian		Visdommens Clamperl!
Portuguese	Brazil	Clamperl da Sabedoria
	Portugal	Magia Clamperl!
Russian		Мудрость Кламперл
Spanish	Latin America	¡Perlas de sabiduría!
	Spain	Clamperl de la sabiduría
Swedish		Vilken pärla!

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