AG052 : Cheer Pressure!
Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire
AG054 : Fight for the Meteorite!
Game Winning Assist
AG053.png
AG053   EP327
エネコとねこのて!ドンメルの牧場!
Eneco and Cat's Paw! Meadow of Donmel!
First broadcast
Japan November 27, 2003
United States November 13, 2004
English themes
Opening This Dream
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening アドバンス・アドベンチャー
Ending スマイル
Credits
Animation Team Ota
Screenplay 藤田伸三 Shinzō Fujita
Storyboard 秦義人 Yoshito Hata
Assistant director 秦義人 Yoshito Hata
Animation director 宍戸久美子 Kumiko Shishido
Additional credits

Game Winning Assist (Japanese: エネコとねこのて!ドンメルの牧場! Eneco and Cat's Paw! Meadow of Donmel!) is the 53rd episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 327th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on November 27, 2003, and in the United States on November 13, 2004.

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

Ash and friends are fleeing a group of rampaging Slugma along the Fiery Path, when they escape down a hill and end up on a Numel ranch. They are greeted by the owner Julie and her Furret.

Brock and Max offer to help with the chores on the ranch while Julie and May have a Pokémon battle. May looks up attacks in her Pokédex, and orders Skitty to use the move Assist against Julie's Furret. To May's surprise, Skitty uses Ember, then Silver Wind. Julie defeats May in the battle, and explains that the move Assist allows a Pokémon to use any of the moves known by their Trainer's other Pokémon.

That night, while everyone is sleeping, Team Rocket shows up in a robotic Numel to steal the sleeping Numel. The kids wake up, and try to stop them. May and Skitty are captured by the robot.

Inside the robot, Skitty wakes up the still-sleeping Numel and they try to escape. Team Rocket activates internal sprinklers to prevent the Numel from using their Ember attacks. Skitty uses Assist to recharge, and the Numel burn through the robot's shell to break free.

Team Rocket tries to battle May and her friends, but they are quickly zapped by Pikachu. The next morning, Julie gives the kids directions to Lavaridge Town and they depart.

Plot

Ash and his friends rush through Fiery Path after May's Skitty disturbed a group of wild Slugma. A crack in the cavern walls offers a glimmer of hope, so Ash has Pikachu use Iron Tail to create an escape route. As they run to safety, the group slips down a steep embankment and finds themselves on an open plain. Skitty runs off again, this time it locates a resting Numel. Before Skitty can do any more harm, May quickly recalls it. A woman named Julie approaches the group and introduces herself before inviting them to rest at her Numel ranch for a bit. Interested in the Numel, Brock and Max get some firsthand experience with the Numel 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 suggests she battle her Furret instead. Skitty, however, is too distracted by Furret's tail and its opponent evades all of its efforts. Julie suggests May consult her Pokédex. During the battle, May discovers that Skitty knows an attack called Assist, which allows it to copy attacks from other Pokémon on May's team, 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 with Slam.

Everyone returns to Julie's house to rest up. As Skitty enjoys the homemade Pokéblock, Julie admits that she used to be a Pokémon Coordinator. She commends May on Skitty's speed and power, declaring that May will become a strong Coordinator in the future. Max enters the room and guides them through to the dining table, which is full of a banquet of Brock's cooking.

Elsewhere, Jessie, James, and Meowth find the Numel ranch as well, and decide 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 mecha. Hearing the machine's noise, Furret and Pikachu manage to wake everybody up, and they stumble out of bed to confront the Team Rocket. 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 Double Slap. Combining their Flamethrowers, the Numel succeed in destroying the robot and are able to escape. Climbing out of the wreckage, Team Rocket prepares to recapture the Numel, but are interrupted by the arrival of Julie's truck. Jessie and James call out Seviper and Cacnea respectively to battle, but the combined forces of Furret and Pikachu are enough to send them blasting off again. The next morning, Julie shows the group to the route to Mt. Chimney and Lavaridge Town. After waving goodbye, Ash and his friends continue on their way.

Major events

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

TV episode debuts

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Combusken

 
Pokémon Trainer's Choice


Trivia

  • This episode is featured on Volume 17: Skitty from Viz Media's Pokémon All-Stars series.
  • James mentions how his grandfather bought him some Numel to keep him warm in the winter. A later episode introduces Pop-Pop, who the English dub implies is James's grandfather, but it is unclear how such recontextualizes the sequence.

Errors

Dub edits

  • In the Hindi Hungama TV dub of the episode, Julie says that Assist can execute any random move, instead of stating that it can only randomly select and perform moves already known to the other members of the Trainer's party.
  • In the original Japanese version, the Numel with a mark near its eye has a nickname, but it doesn't in the English dub.
  • In the original Japanese version, Jessie wants a barbecue with all-you-can-eat rice, Meowth wants a cheeseburger and a chocolate parfait, and James wants ramen and yokisoba. In the English dub, Jessie only wants barbecue; Meowth wants a cheeseburger, French fries, and a chocolate shake; and James wants ice cream.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

In other languages



AG052 : Cheer Pressure!
Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire
AG054 : Fight for the Meteorite!
  This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.