XY073 : A Fashionable Battle!
Pokémon the Series: XY
XY075 : Rivals: Today and Tomorrow!
Fairy-Type Trickery!
XY074.png
XY074   EP873
クノエジム戦!美しきフェアリーの罠!!
Kunoe Gym Battle! The Beautiful Fairy Trap!!
First broadcast
Japan May 28, 2015
United States August 1, 2015
English themes
Opening Be a Hero
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening ゲッタバンバン
Ending ガオガオ・オールスター
Credits
Animation Team Kato
Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard 樋口香里 Kaori Higuchi
Assistant director 大和田淳 Jun Ōwada
Animation directors 篠原隆 Takashi Shinohara
篠原信子 Nobuko Shinohara
上杉遵史 Junji Uesugi
清水健一 Ken’ichi Shimizu
志村泉 Izumi Shimura
酒井裕未 Hiromi Sakai
No additional credits are available at this time.

Fairy-Type Trickery! (Japanese: クノエジム戦!美しきフェアリーの罠!! Kunoe Gym Battle! The Beautiful Fairy Trap!!) is the 74th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the 873rd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on May 28, 2015 and in the United States on August 1, 2015.

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

After observing the talents and skills of Laverre Gym Leader Valerie in action, it’s time for Ash to challenge her for his sixth Kalos Gym badge! First, Valerie’s Sylveon is up against Ash’s Fletchinder. Valerie is quite adept at drawing out the full potential of her Pokémon, but with help from Fletchinder's Steel Wing attack (which is super effective against Fairy-type Pokémon), Ash gets the first win—as Sawyer takes copious notes.

Valerie next sends out Spritzee, who gains the speed advantage by using Trick Room and knocks Fletchinder out. The score is now one to one! Ash sends in Hawlucha, who uses a powerful X-Scissor to break through Spritzee's Trick Room, leading the way to Ash’s victory and the Fairy Badge!

Sawyer really wants Ash to teach him how to battle with the same unique brand of creativity and power. Ash can't quite figure out how to put his strategy into words...but he promises to battle Sawyer later by way of explanation, as the journey to the Kalos League continues!

Plot

After witnessing Sawyer's loss against Valerie, Ash and his friends arrive at the Laverre Gym for Ash to challenge her to a battle as well. Sawyer has come along in order to watch Ash's Gym battle. Entering the Gym, the group is greeted by four Furisode Girls, who show them into the main battle area. Sawyer brings out his Treecko just before Valerie arrives in order to help both of them grow stronger by watching Ash.

 
Ash facing Valerie

After Valerie's dramatic entrance, Kali acts as the referee, stating that each Trainer will use two Pokémon each. Valerie immediately calls out her Sylveon and has a quick conversation with it in Pokémon language, much to the surprise of Ash and the others. Valerie then explains that she wants to be a Pokémon, so she learned how to speak to her Pokémon. After this brief discussion, Ash calls on Fletchinder to battle Valerie's Sylveon. Fletchinder quickly hits its mark with a Steel Wing attack, and Sylveon responds with Disarming Voice. When Fletchinder attempts to use Peck, Sylveon dodges and catches Fletchinder with its feelers, swinging Ash's Pokémon around and hitting it with Fairy Wind at the same time. In order to break free from Sylveon's grasp, Fletchinder uses Flame Charge, making it faster as well as hitting Sylveon. Finally, a collision of Giga Impact and Steel Wing results in Fletchinder's victory in the first round.

Valerie recalls Sylveon and sends out the Spritzee that battled Sawyer's Bagon the day before. Ash realizes that the only move of Spritzee's that he knows of is Dazzling Gleam, so he has no idea what the battle will be like. After another Steel Wing attack from Fletchinder, Valerie orders Spritzee to use Trick Room. Ash responds by ordering Fletchinder to increase its speed by using Flame Charge again. This alarms Clemont, who explains to the others that because of Trick Room, the faster Fletchinder gets, the slower it will move. Despite taking several direct attacks from Spritzee, Ash orders Fletchinder to keep on using Flame Charge. Suddenly, the Trick Room vanishes, and Ash seizes his chance with Fletchinder's boosted speed, ordering it to use Steel Wing on Spritzee. This explains why he kept having Fletchinder use Flame Charge within the Trick Room; to intentionally lower its speed so Valerie would let her guard down, thus allowing him to blindside her with a high-speed super effective attack once the Trick Room wore off. However, Spritzee manages to survive the attack and fires back with Moonblast, which knocks Fletchinder out.

Much to everyone's surprise, Ash sends out Hawlucha to battle Spritzee, despite its type disadvantage. Hawlucha opens with Karate Chop, but Spritzee dodges and once again uses Trick Room. After Spritzee hits Hawlucha with another Moonblast, Ash comments on Spritzee's strength with Hawlucha. Responding to Valerie's query if he can speak to Pokémon as well, Ash explains that he can sense rather than translate what his Pokémon are saying. Hawlucha then uses X-Scissor, but it misses and hits the wall of Trick Room. Working with Hawlucha's battle style of taking on its opponent's attacks, Ash orders Hawlucha to grab onto Spritzee just as it connects with Gyro Ball. Using the speed from Spritzee's attack, Hawlucha bounces off of the wall and executes a spinning X-Scissor, cutting through Dazzling Gleam and ramming Spritzee with enough force to shatter the Trick Room. Clemont then realizes that X-Scissor was so effective on the Trick Room because it is a Bug-type move and Trick Room is a Psychic-type technique. As Hawlucha and Spritzee continue exchanging attacks, Hawlucha finally defeats its opponent with High Jump Kick.

Following their fierce battle, Valerie congratulates Ash on his win and presents him with the Fairy Badge. Inspired by Ash's battling style, Sawyer begs him to explain how he battles so well, and Ash suggests that the two of them go back and have a battle.

Major events

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

 
Pokémon Quiz

Pokémon

 
Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Mr. Mime (US and international)
Pokémon Quiz: Spritzee (Japan)

Trivia

 
The title card segment focuses on Ash for this episode

Errors

  • In one scene, the blue tip on Sylveon's feeler is completely colored pale-cream.
  • When Valerie orders Spritzee to use Moonblast on Hawlucha while in Trick Room, Spritzee is seen using the move before Valerie could call it out.
  • In one scene, the lower jaw of Treecko is incorrectly colored with the same green as its skin.
  • When Valerie walks up to Spritzee after losing to Ash, she wasn't holding Spritzee's Poké Ball. When Spritzee looks up at Valerie, a Poké Ball is all of a sudden resting in Valerie's hand.
  • In one scene, Sawyer appears with four triangle hair on his back just like Bonnie instead of three. This error repeats in the next episode in recaps.
  • In the dub, when Ash's friends are looking at the field in awe, Bonnie's and Dedenne's mouths move, but no sound comes out.
  • When Sawyer is taking notes on Ash's battle, his pen moves but his hand doesn't.

Dub edits

In other languages



XY073 : A Fashionable Battle!
Pokémon the Series: XY
XY075 : Rivals: Today and Tomorrow!
  This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.