JN139

← JN138 : A Fated Face-Off!

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

JN140 : Bearing Down Easy! →

Must Be Our Heroes and the Witch!

JN139   EP1224 タケシとデントともりのまじょ！ Takeshi and Dent and the Forest Witch!

First broadcast Japan January 27, 2023 United States September 8, 2023

English themes Opening Gotta Catch Em All Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター -with my friends- Ending タケシのパラダイス

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation directors 岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane 志村泉 Izumi Shimura Additional credits

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

Must Be Our Heroes and the Witch! (Japanese: タケシとデントともりのまじょ！ Takeshi and Dent and the Forest Witch!) is the third episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master, the 139th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,224th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on January 27, 2023, in Canada on May 27, 2023, in South Africa on June 6, 2023, and in the United States on September 8, 2023.

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

Blurb

Ash and Misty stop at a restaurant where they’re surprised to learn Brock is the chef! He’s helping out a woman who works there, but when he finds out she’s engaged to someone else, his mood turns sour. Outside, the group runs into Cilan, and they all take Brock to a flower field to cheer him up. Brock suddenly runs into the woods, so our heroes ask a Hatenna for help. It turns out a Hatterene is trying to trap Brock in the forest so it can feed on his negative emotions. A confrontation ensues, but when Hatterene sees Ash and Brock helping Hatenna, it has a change of heart!

Plot

Ash and Misty's journey has led them to Stow-on-Side in Galar, where they decide to relieve their hunger by stopping at a café. The sandwiches they're served taste familiar to them, and the reason turns out to be because they're made by their old friend, Brock, who explains that he's trying to win over the café owner Kathy's heart. However, Kathy suddenly informs Brock that her boyfriend is going to be returning soon and they'll get married once he does, resulting in Brock's heart getting broken once again. Later, while Ash and Misty try to cheer Brock up, they're approached by another one of Ash's old traveling companions, Cilan, whom Misty recognizes from the lure that Ash used recently. Misty introduces herself as the Cerulean City Gym Leader, with Cilan recognizing the Cerulean Gym as the place run by the Sensational Sisters, whom Misty sheepishly admits to be her sisters. Cilan, in turn, introduces himself as a Pokémon Connoisseur and demonstrates his profession by evaluating Misty's Psyduck. Ash tries to introduce Cilan to Brock, only to learn that they've actually met before in Johto and also watched his battle in the Masters Eight Tournament finals together, with Cilan also remembering to congratulate him on his victory. Up above, Team Rocket observes the reunion from their balloon while once again scheming to steal Pikachu.

Cilan figures that the sight of beautiful flowers could cheer Brock up, so the group takes him to see a flower field nearby. While the sight does momentarily cheer Brock up, he's quickly reminded of Kathy and falls into depression again. His negativity is sensed by a Hatterene lurking in the nearby woods, who uses her Psychic powers to create an illusion of Kathy for Brock to follow. The others try to run after Brock, but Hatterene induces headache on them to keep them from following until she and Brock are out of sight. Once the headache is over, the rest of the group runs into Glimwood Tangle as well, secretly followed by Team Rocket. When they fail to locate Brock, Cilan assumes his "Connoisseur Detective" mode. He deduces that Hatterene, which is able to sense emotions from 50 kilometers away, sensed the heartbroken Brock's negative emotions and used her Psychic powers to lure him into the forest. Also known as "the Forest Witch", Hatterene are said to lure in those with negative emotions and trap them inside their forest. Moreover, they are also known for violently attacking those who get too loud around them, putting Brock in serious danger.

While looking for Brock, the group finds a Hatenna. Ash scans her with his Rotom Phone, which reveals that Hatenna is able to sense the emotions of other creatures with the protrusion on her head. This gives Cilan an idea to ask Hatenna to help them find Brock. Ash agrees and asks Hatenna to do so, which she agrees to. It doesn't take long for Hatenna to sense Brock's negativity, but along the way to him, they encounter a Hattrem, which doesn't take kindly to the strong emotions they're exuding and angrily chases after them until they manage to lose her. Continuing on their way, Ash and Cilan both start feeling hungry again from all the running, while Misty gets scared of a Joltik hanging from a tree. Ash explains to Cilan that Misty loves Water types but hates Bug types. This prompts Cilan to ask her how she'd react to a Pokémon that's both of those types, like Dewpider, which she doesn't have an easy answer to. Unnoticed by them, Hatterene appears behind them and starts casting illusions on the group: for Ash, she creates an illusion of his mother offering him some croquettes; for Misty, the illusion is a group of Water-type Pokémon; and Cilan's illusion is Ingo and Emmet offering out boxed lunches. While each of them chases after their respective illusion, Team Rocket encounters Hattrem and is chased by her due to their own strong emotions.

As Ash and his friends run out of the forest, the illusions they were chasing change into much less pleasant forms, with Ash being crushed by a falling tower of giant croquettes, Misty's Water types transforming into Bug types, and Ingo and Emmet driving away from Cilan on a railroad cart. Finally, Pikachu uses Thunderbolt on all three of them, snapping them out of their illusions. After recovering from the return to reality, the group resumes following Hatenna's lead, soon leading them to Brock and Hatterene. With Hatenna relaying the emotions she's sensing to Pikachu, Cilan is able to deduce that Hatterene is making Brock feel love and rejection in an endless cycle to feed from the negativity of each heartbreak. Fearing that this could permanently scar Brock, Ash rushes to help him, only for Hatterene's illusions to make Brock see him as Kathy's boyfriend. Wanting to defend his "love" from him, Brock sends out Steelix to confront him, with Hatterene also attacking Ash. When Ash tries to protect Hatenna from the attacks launched his way, Hatterene's influence on Brock starts to falter, ending completely just before Hatenna is struck by a Psycho Cut from Hatterene. He immediately rushes to help Hatenna, treating the injured spot with a Potion and bandages. With Brock's negativity gone, Hatterene also calms down, and she expresses her gratitude for Brock helping Hatenna. Above them, the invisible Latias resumes secretly following and observing Ash.

Later, Brock declares that he'll resume traveling with Ash and Misty to train his heart to become stronger. Ash and Misty look forward to tasting the delicious cookings of both Brock and Cilan, but Cilan informs them that he won't be traveling with them, as he intends to check out a new coach that Ingo and Emmet are about to unveil, as well as taste the boxed lunches they'll be serving. As such, Ash, Brock, and Misty part ways with Cilan and wave him goodbye. Meanwhile, Hatterene has found new "playmates" in Team Rocket, making them think they're eating endless food without actually satisfying their hunger.

Major events

• Ash visits Galar again, while Misty visits the region for the first time.
• Ash and Misty reunite with Brock.
• Ash and Brock reunite with Cilan, while Misty meets him for the first time.
  • In the process, Brock and Cilan are also revealed to have traveled to Galar.
• Ash learns that Brock and Cilan have met each other before.
• Brock rejoins the group, while Cilan returns to Unova.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Hatenna

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Cilan
• Jessie
• James
• Delia (illusion)
• Nurse Joy (illusion)
• Giovanni (fantasy)
• Sensational Sisters (fantasy)
  • Daisy
  • Violet
  • Lily
• Ingo (illusion)
• Emmet (illusion)
• Kathy
• Kathy's boyfriend (photo/illusion)
• Citizens

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Hatterene

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Psyduck (Misty's)
• Steelix (Brock's)
• Pansage (Cilan's)
• Rotom (Professor Cerise's; Rotom Phone)
• Ariados (Trainer's)
• Slowpoke (Trainer's)
• Latias (anime)
• Hatterene
• Hatenna (debut)
• Hattrem
• Joltik
• Dewpider (fantasy)
• Samurott (illusion)
• Vaporeon (illusion)
• Slowpoke (illusion)
• Blastoise (illusion)
• Mudkip (illusion)
• Sobble (illusion)
• Quagsire (illusion)
• Venipede (illusion)
• Skorupi (illusion)
• Ninjask (illusion)
• Spinarak (illusion)
• Caterpie (illusion)
• Ariados (illusion)

Trivia

The "After the story" artwork for this episode

• Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!! - Episode Paldea: Smoliv
• As of this episode:
  • Max is Ash's only traveling companion introduced prior to Pokémon Journeys: The Series who has not reunited with Ash following his departure from the main cast.
  • Clemont is Ash's only male and Gym Leader friend Misty and Brock have not met.
  • Wobbuffet has either met or seen all of Ash's friends.
• Brock officially regains his status as a traveling companion in this episode after losing said status in Memories are Made of Bliss!, 567 episodes earlier.
• Shinji Miyazaki's music from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon the Series: Black & White is reused as background music in this episode.
• This episode is the first one of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master in which Ash and his friends are traveling through a known location, with the previous two episodes taking place in unspecified locations.
• This episode marks the first appearance of several Pokémon species in the anime after long absences:
  • Samurott, who last appeared in A Unova League Evolution!, 459 episodes earlier.
  • Venipede, who last appeared in Splitting Heirs!, 380 episodes earlier.
  • Skorupi, who last appeared in A Towering Takeover!, 293 episodes earlier.
• This episode marks Ingo and Emmet's first appearance since Survival of the Striaton Gym!, 427 episodes earlier.
• This episode marks Cilan's final physical appearance in the anime.
• The Galarian Darumaka boxed lunches offered by the illusions of Ingo and Emmet in this episode are based on the Darumaka boxed lunches featured in Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice and Partners in Time!.
• This is the only episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master in which Ash's rotated team, aside from Pikachu, doesn’t appear.
• The farewell between the group and Cilan is reminiscent of the farewell between Ash, Misty, and Brock in Gotta Catch Ya Later!.
• Unshō Ishizuka was added into the credits for this episode, with archived audio of his voice being used for Brock's Steelix.
• The English dub title is a reference to a lyric from the song Season of the Witch by Donovan.
• Misty, Brock, Ash, Oshawott, and Pikachu narrate the preview for the next episode.

Errors

• While Team Rocket is spying on Ash and his friends, the burner of their Meowth balloon is missing.
• When the group finds Brock in the forest, Hatenna disappears from the top of Ash's head during the close-up shots of him and Cilan.
• Cilan mentions that Hatterene is able to sense emotions from 50 kilometers away. However, this only applies to Gigantamax Hatterene, not its base form, as this episode implies.
• The English dub subtitles mistakenly state, "We know it's our destiny" instead of "I know it's my destiny" during the opening.

In other languages

Language		Title
Arabic		!أبطالنا تحت تأثير السحر
Bengali		আমাদের হিরোরা আর এক জাদুকরী!* আমাদের হিরোরা ও এক মায়াবিনী!*
Chinese	Cantonese	小剛與天桐與森林魔女
	Mandarin	小剛與天桐與森林魔女！
Czech		Naši hrdinové a čarodějka!
Danish		Vore helte og skovheksen!
Dutch		Onze helden en de bosheks!
Finnish		Sankarimme ja noita!
European French		Les héros et la sorcière !
German		Unsere Helden und eine Hexe!
Hebrew		הגיבורים והמכשפה!
Hindi		हमारे हीरो और जादूगरनी! Hamare Hero aur Jadoogarnee!
Indonesian		Brock, Cilan, dan Penyihir Hutan!
Italian		I nostri eroi e la maga del bosco!
Korean		웅과 덴트와 숲의 마녀!
Norwegian		Må være heltene våre og heksa!
Polish		Nasi bohaterowie i czarodziejka!
Portuguese	Brazil	Os heróis e a Bruxa da Floresta!
	Portugal	Os heróis e a Bruxa da Floresta!
Romanian		Eroii și vrăjitoarea
Russian		Наши герои и ведьма!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Un encuentro con la hechicera del bosque!
	Spain	¡Nuestros héroes y la Hechicera del Bosque!
Swedish		Häxan i skogen!
Tamil		நமது ஹீரோக்களும் சூனியக்காரியும்!
Telugu		మన హీరోస్ మరియు విచ్!
Thai		ทาเคชิกับเดนโตะและแม่มดแห่งป่า!
Turkish		Kahramanlar ve Cadı!
Ukrainian		Наші герої та відьма!

← JN138 : A Fated Face-Off!

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

JN140 : Bearing Down Easy! →

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