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"Can't Beat the Heat!" is the 272nd (269th in International broadcasts) episode of Pokémon the Series. It first aired in Japan on October 17, 2002 and in the United States on September 27, 2003. In this episode, Ash Ketchum continued to battle his rival, Gary Oak at the Silver Conference and also started battling Harrison at the end of the episode.
Plot[]
The battle between rivals continues as Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak battle for the next round. Gary's Blastoise proves stronger than expected and defeats both Heracross and Bayleef. Down three Pokémon an intermission is called. Pikachu wants in but Ash's team is already registered. Rallying his Pokémon Ash defeats two of Gary's but loses two more after that. This puts all his chances for victory on Charizard's shoulders. With his shear power Gary's Scizor and Golem are beaten but Blastoise has had a rest and a type advantage, putting Ash on the backfoot once again. Realizing that a direct attack would fail Ash orders an attack on the very ground, melting the arena with Flamethrower. Gary counters by cooling it with Hydro Pump but this creates a fog cloud. The cloud dissipates to reveal Blastoise and Charizard grappling in the center, too close for Hydro Pump to aim. Ash uses Seismic Toss to finally defeat Blastoise and with it Gary. In defeat Gary silently takes his loss and leaves while Ash can't believe he's won. Catching up later Gary explains his feelings and leaves him with his half of their broken Poké Ball and some words of encouragement.
The next round begins with Harrison vs Ash. Harrison begins with another never before seen Pokémon from Hoenn, Kecleon. How will Ash face a trainer from an unknown region?
Quotes[]
What kind of crazy..., I mean what a unique strategy.
- -Battle Announcer
Home video releases[]
- DVD
- Pokémon All-Stars, Volume 5: Blastoise
Gallery[]
Reception[]
This episode is considered to be one of the best episodes of the Pokémon anime by a lot of the community. Is one of the episodes that YouTuber Lumiose Trainer Zac gave a 10/10, and it has a 8.3/10 rating on IMDb. WatchMojo ranked number 1 as the anime's best episodes.[1] Ash and Gary's battle also ranked number 1 in the best battles of the anime overall, Pokémon League battles and rival battles in anime.[2][3][4]
Trivia[]
- Who's That Pokémon?: Blastoise (Japan), Bayleef (United States)
- Although Who's That Pokémon? was random by this point in the dub, the Pokémon featured was Bayleef, which did play a notable role in this episode.
- This is the only time that the move Magnitude is used in the anime. Due to an incident with a Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire banned/unaired episode featuring the move Earthquake, Magnitude would never be used again in the anime due to its extreme similarity to Earthquake.
- When Charizard and Blastoise fight in hand-to-hand combat, Gary says Charizard is too close for Blastoise to aim "with its hydro cannons", referring to the cannons on its back that it uses to use Hydro Pump. Coincidentally, the Third Pokémon generation would later introduce the move Hydro Cannon.
- Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!, while two shots from this episode were redrawn and used for flashback material for Advice to Goh!
- This marks the only known instance in the anime of Ash not using Pikachu in a Full Battle.
- When Charizard uses Seismic Toss on Blastoise, the globe appears as usual, but, whereas normally specific shapes on the globe cannot be made out, Asia and Australia are prominently seen.
References[]
External links[]
- Can't Beat the Heat! at Bulbapedia, the Pokémon wiki.
- Can't Beat the Heat! at the Internet Movie Database