AG025

← AG024 : A Corphish Out of Water

Advanced Generation series

AG026 : Turning Over a Nuzleaf →

A Mudkip Mission

AG025   EP299 秘密の池！ミズゴロウがいっぱい！？ Secret Pond! Full of Mizugorou!?

First broadcast Japan May 15, 2003 United States March 13, 2004

English themes Opening I Wanna Be A Hero Ending

Japanese themes Opening アドバンス・アドベンチャー Ending ポルカ・オ・ドルカ

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 武上純希 Junki Takegami Storyboard 秦義人 Yoshito Hata Assistant director 秦義人 Yoshito Hata Animation director 宍戸久美子 Kumiko Shishido Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

A Mudkip Mission (Japanese: 秘密の池！ミズゴロウがいっぱい！？ Secret Pond! Full of Mizugorou!?) is the 25th episode of the Advanced Generation series, and the 299th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 15, 2003 and in the United States on March 13, 2004.

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

Blurb

As our heroes set out on their journey again, they encounter a waterfall. Brock ties a rope to a rock and, with Lotad's help, wraps it on a branch above the waterfall. After Brock helps everyone up the rope, they discover a lake filled with Mudkip. Brock notices a baby being washed away in the current and sends Lotad to help. Lotad gets caught as well and a larger Mudkip jumps in and saves them both. At this point an older man comes out, afraid that Ash and company are trying to steal the Mudkip. They explained what happened and are invited in for lunch.

The man explains that he takes care of and raises the Mudkip in the lake. He even shows them a baby Mudkip hatching out of an egg. He explains that while most Mudkip leave to explore the world, the larger one stayed to protect the babies. Throughout lunch, Team Rocket is debating whether or not to enter the lake area. They of course, do so, knocking over some cans that the caretaker had set up as sort of a security system. The man hears the noise and goes to inspect what is going on. Team Rocket destroys the dam so that the Mudkip are washed away and they can catch them easier. Brock uses his Pokémon to save the Mudkip. The larger Mudkip jumps in the water to rescue a baby that was being washed away, only to get caught in the current itself. It clings to a rock on the side of the water fall and finally agrees to let Brock rescue it.

Team Rocket arrives again, this time in a robot with scoops for hands, which they use to capture the baby Mudkip. Brock tells Lotad and Mudkip to use Water Gun at the base of the robot, which creates a mud pit and sinks Team Rocket. Pikachu then sends Team Rocket on their way. The show ends with the large Mudkip deciding to leave the lake with Brock.

Plot

Ash and his friends are walking along a river. May uses her fingers to form a camera position, talking to the "audience" as if she was on a nature TV show. As they continue to walk, they came to a waterfall. Faced with a hard climb up the mountain, Brock sends out his Lotad. He ties a stone to a rope and throws it up into the air and then, Lotad uses Water Gun to propel it up to catch on a tree branch at the top. After checking the rope to make sure it’s secure, Brock climbs up first and the gang follows behind. When Brock reaches the top, May helps Brock, Ash, and Max up the cliff. Ash asks how May beat them and she says she used her Silcoon to glide up, where Max remarks if she were a real reporter she wouldn't give away her secret.

Ash notices a foggy lake when Max checks his PokéNav he finds that the lake surrounds a small island. They decide to go there. Brock warns them that the ground will be muddy ahead. They step out of the fog and see lots of baby Mudkip playing in the lake. Ash scans them with his Pokédex. May remembers an incident where a Mudkip used Water Gun on her. May rushes up while saying that she will catch one, but a bigger Mudkip came out of the bushes and uses Water Gun to keep her away. May bemoans her luck with Water Pokémon.

Just then, one of the baby Mudkip falls into the lake and is washed away by the current. Everyone notices its plight and Brock quickly orders his Lotad to save it. Lotad jumps into the water and reaches the Mudkip, but the current is too strong for him and pulls him along too. Brock calls for it as the big Mudkip jumps into the water. It pulls Lotad and the baby back to the shore and Brock thanks it. The Mudkip leaps back with an angry look. Brock tells the Mudkip that May means no harm. The others approach but the Mudkip runs away. Brock picks up the baby Mudkip and plays with it. An old man with a Mudkip's fin-like hairstyle, pops up, scolding them for what they are doing with the Mudkip. Ash says that they mean no harm and told the man that Brock is the one who saved the Mudkip.

They go back to the Old Man's house, whose real name is Old Man Swamp, where they are allowed to see the Mudkip Eggs that the man is raising to go be starter Pokémon for Trainers starting their journeys in the Hoenn region. He expresses worry about the larger protective Mudkip due to the fact that it is too old and boisterous for a new Trainer and that soon it will be left alone when its friends go off to start their own Pokémon journeys with new Trainers.

However, Team Rocket has been secretly spying on the group. Making their move to try to steal the rare Mudkip with their newest mechas, they break down the dam and flood the river. Brock sends out his Forretress to keep the water at bay while he takes the Mudkip to higher ground. Team Rocket uses another mecha to scoop up the remaining Mudkip. Brock remembers himself saying how soft the ground is, and tells the Mudkip to use Water Gun, sinking the robot and rescuing the Mudkip.

Old Man Swamp thanks them for saving the Mudkip and asks Brock to take Mudkip with him, to which Brock accepts and the group walks off to the next town.

Major events

• James's Cacnea is revealed to know Needle Arm.
• Brock catches a Mudkip.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Brock's Mudkip

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Old Man Swamp

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Pelipper

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Silcoon (May's)
• Forretress (Brock's)
• Lotad (Brock's)
• Mudkip (Brock's; new)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Mudkip (multiple)

Trivia

The famous scene used in YouTube videos.

• The sequence following the Pokédex scan of two Mudkip on a rock has become an internet meme, spawning hundreds of YouTube videos with a sum of many millions of views.
• This episode is featured on the Volume 10: Mudkip copy of Pokémon All-Stars.
• This episode marks the first time in the anime that all eligible Pokémon trainer protagonists have at least one of the region's starter Pokémon. Ash has a Treecko, May has a Torchic, and Brock has a Mudkip.
  • Max, of course, is ineligible due to his age.

Errors

• In the flashback, Brock says "The ground around here is so soft". However, what he actually said at that time was, "Feels like it's pretty muddy over here".
• When Brock is trying to save Mudkip and the baby Mudkip, Forretress disappears.
• In May's flashback of getting attacked by a Mudkip, she says, "How'd I do?". She originally said, "That supposed to happen?"

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		秘密之池！好多水躍魚
Finnish		Mudkip-seikkailu
European French		Un bain de boue
German		Der alte Moormann
Hebrew		משימת מדקיפmesimat Mudkip
Italian		L'uomo della palude
Polish		Misja Mudkip
Portuguese	Brazil	A Missão Mudkip
	Portugal	Uma Missão para o Mudkip
Spanish	Latin America	¡Una misión Mudkip!
	Spain	Una misión Mudkip
Swedish		En ny kompis
Thai		บึงลึกลับ! มิสึโกโร่เต็มไปหมด!

← AG024 : A Corphish Out of Water

Advanced Generation series

AG026 : Turning Over a Nuzleaf →

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