XY061

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Pokémon the Series: XY

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An Oasis of Hope!

XY061   EP860 荒野の決闘！戦えヌメラ！！！ Decisive Battle in the Badlands! Fight, Numera!!

First broadcast Japan February 19, 2015 United States May 2, 2015

English themes Opening Be a Hero Ending

Japanese themes Opening ゲッタバンバン Ending ドリドリ

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 大橋志吉 Yukiyoshi Ōhashi Storyboard 尼野浩正 Hiromasa Amano Assistant director 渡辺正彦 Masahiko Watanabe Animation director 夏目久仁彦 Kunihiko Natsume No additional credits are available at this time.

Screenshots on Filb.de Preview thread on BMGf Closed Original review thread on BMGf Dub review thread on BMGf

An Oasis of Hope! (Japanese: 荒野の決闘！戦えヌメラ！！！ Decisive Battle in the Badlands! Fight, Numera!!) is the 61st episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the 860th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on February 19, 2015 and in the United States on May 2, 2015.

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

Blurb

Ash and Goomy are training in the Lumiose Badlands when an injured Spoink appears and leads Ash and the others to its oasis home. There, our heroes find a group of Spoink under the control of an unpleasant Grumpig, who’s using its psychic powers to control them and steal all their food!

When our heroes retreat to plan their strategy, they become trapped in a cage set by Team Rocket! It turns out Grumpig is in cahoots with the villains to seize the oasis and its impressive food supply from the resident Spoink. First, Goomy slips through the bars and challenges Grumpig. Then, when Ash frees himself and leaps into the battle, Goomy evolves into Sliggoo to protect him!

When Grumpig realizes Jessie, James, and Meowth were just using it for their own selfish ends, it angrily sends them blasting off, and then apologizes to the Spoink with a gift of food. All is forgiven, and our heroes are off once more to Lumiose City!

Plot

While traveling to Lumiose City so Ash can have his Gym battle with Clemont, the group has to make their way through the Lumiose Badlands. Noticing that Goomy appears to be coughing, Bonnie asks if it is all right, but Clemont assuages her fears and says that he believes Goomy is trying to learn a new move. The others are all impressed with Goomy, wondering what kind of a move it is, and Ash decides to do some training with Goomy. However, Goomy's practice battle with Pikachu is interrupted by an injured Spoink begging for help. After Clemont treats its injuries, the Spoink leads Ash and his friends to an oasis so they can find out what had happened to it.

When they arrive at the oasis, the group sees a Grumpig lying down by the side of the oasis, forcing other Spoink to bring it food. When one of the Spoink trips and causes the food to fall, Grumpig is enraged and throws a Shadow Ball at the group of Spoink. The Spoink traveling with Ash and his friends tells them that Grumpig caused its injury, too. Seeing the way Grumpig is abusing the Spoink, Ash decides that they are going to stop Grumpig. Goomy, also, remembers the way it was abused by a group of Bug-type Pokémon and is angry at Grumpig's actions. However, when Ash confronts Grumpig, the latter responds by hypnotizing all the Spoink and ordering them to attack Ash and his friends. Ash tells Pikachu to not strike back because the Spoink's actions are not their fault. The group flees into a cave, but are trapped there when iron bars fall down behind them to form a cage.

As Ash and the others try to figure out what is going on, Team Rocket appears alongside Grumpig and explain their plan. They had found the oasis and also saw a hungry Grumpig. They convinced the Grumpig to help them by dominating the Spoink so that it would get all the food it wanted and Team Rocket would get their share as well. Team Rocket tells Ash to hand over Pikachu, to which Ash refuses; however, Grumpig begins attacking the hypnotized Spoink instead. Team Rocket threatens more of the same unless Ash gives them Pikachu. Left with no other choice, Ash agrees and Pikachu is put into a cage. To everyone's surprise, Chespin comes out of its Poké Ball and willingly goes into the cage with Pikachu. Leaving Grumpig to watch their captives, Team Rocket returns to their balloon to load all of the food onto it. Unbeknownst to Grumpig, Team Rocket has no intention of sharing their spoils with it.

Meanwhile, Grumpig has fallen asleep. Since Goomy and Dedenne can slip out of the cell without a key, they escape and try to take the key from Grumpig. However, Grumpig catches Dedenne and defeats it in a battle while Chespin uses Vine Whip to try and pick the lock on its own cage. During all this, Frogadier uses its own attacks to try and break free some of the more brittle rocks so that they can break down the door to their prison. Seeing Dedenne's defeat, Goomy recalls its own terrifying past and decides to stand up against Grumpig. However, Grumpig is much stronger, and Goomy takes a lot of punishment from it despite putting up a valiant fight. Just before Grumpig hits Goomy with an Iron Tail, Ash manages to break down the bars confining him and takes the attack for Goomy, causing his Pokémon to become even more determined and evolve into a Sliggoo, learning Dragon Breath in the process and defeating Grumpig. Its control over the Spoink is relinquished, Chespin manages to free itself and Pikachu, Grumpig learns that Team Rocket was only using it, and Team Rocket is sent blasting off.

With Team Rocket gone, the Spoink reclaim their stolen food. With all of the Spoink united against it, Grumpig begins to show remorse, and the Spoink that befriended Ash and his friends offers Grumpig some of the fruit, allowing Grumpig to continue living together with the Spoink as a friend instead of their enemy.

Major events

• Ash's Goomy evolves into Sliggoo and learns Dragon Breath.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Sliggoo (Ash's)

Characters

Humans

Pokémon Quiz

• Ash
• Serena
• Clemont
• Bonnie
• Jessie
• James
• Trainers

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Spoink (US and international)
Pokémon Quiz: Grumpig (Japan)

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Dedenne (Clemont's)
• Frogadier (Ash's)
• Goomy (Ash's; evolves)
• Sliggoo (Ash's; newly evolved; debut)
• Chespin (Clemont's)
• Pumpkaboo (Jessie's; Super Size)
• Inkay (James's)
• Bibarel (Trainer's)
• Pansage (Trainer's)
• Spoink (multiple)
• Grumpig
• Yanmega (multiple; flashback)
• Ariados (multiple; flashback)
• Gulpin (multiple; flashback)
• Lotad (×2; flashback)
• Wooper (×2; flashback)

Trivia

This episode's title card segment focuses on Ash

• Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster: Hawlucha
  • Instead of Pokémon Holo Caster, the trailer for the upcoming movie, Arceus, Shiny Rayquaza and Serena's Fennekin event giveaways were shown.
• Ash and Clemont narrate the preview for the next episode.
• The opening animation is updated to include Serena's new design, Ash's Sliggoo, Clemont's Luxray, and Serena's Braixen (the last three were updated already despite the evolutions happened a bit later).
  • The title card is also updated to include Serena's new design.
• V (Volt) plays during Goomy's evolution.
• Before Grumpig attacks Spoink a second time, Meowth says, "Now, deal or no deal?", to which Ash replies "no deal". James replies to Ash "Final answer?", and then tells Inkay to use Shadow Ball. These are likely references to the game shows Deal or No Deal and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
• This episode marks the first time a Dragon-type Pokémon belonging to a main character has been seen evolving.
• This is the first time Dedenne is knocked out.
• This episode marks the first appearance of a Spoink in the anime since its cameo in A Marathon Rivalry, 234 episodes ago.
  • This episode also marks the first appearance of a Grumpig in the anime since its cameo in Casting a Paul on Barry!, 210 episodes ago.

Errors

• Grumpig's height is dramatically increased in this episode. Whereas the Pokédex measures it at 0.9m (2'11"), it is depicted nearly twice as tall as Wobbuffet (1.3m, 4'3") and about as tall as Jessie and James.
• Chespin and Frogadier are absent when Ash and his friends confront Team Rocket, despite never leaving the scene or returning to their Poké Balls.
• When apologizing at the end of the episode, Grumpig's left arm is colored half-purple instead of completely black.

• 

  Grumpig's wrongly colored left arm

Dub edits

The dub's title card with Serena's old design

• The English dub's title card and opening sequence still show Serena's old design, despite her new look in A Showcase Debut!. This change is consistent in future episodes.
• Unlike the original version, Ash's Pokédex does not state that Sliggoo is the evolved form of Goomy in the dub.

In other languages

Language		Title
Chinese	Cantonese	荒野的決鬥！戰鬥吧，黏黏寶！！
	Mandarin	荒野的決鬥！戰鬥吧，黏黏寶！！
Danish		En oase af håb!
Dutch		Een oase van hoop!
Finnish		Toivon keidas!
European French		L'oasis de l'espoir !
German		Eine Oase der Hoffnung!
Greek		Μια Όαση Ελπίδας!
Hebrew		!נווה מדבר של תקווה
Italian		Un'oasi di speranza!
Korean		황야의 결투! 싸워라, 미끄메라!!
Norwegian		En oase av håp!
Polish		Oaza nadziei!
Brazilian Portuguese		Um Oásis de Esperança!
Russian		Оазис надежды!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Un Oasis de Esperanza!
	Spain	¡Un Oasis de Esperanza!
Swedish		En oas med hopp!
Thai		การต่อสู้บนพื้นที่รกร้าง! นูเมล่าฮึดสู้!!
Turkish		Umut Vahası!

← XY060 : A Showcase Debut!

Pokémon the Series: XY

XY062 : The Future Is Now, Thanks to Determination! →

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