AG007

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Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG008 : A Tail with a Twist →

Tree's a Crowd

AG007   EP281 キモリの森！巨大樹を守れ！！ Forest of Kimori! Protect the Gigantic Tree!!

First broadcast Japan January 9, 2003 United States November 29, 2003

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 そこに空があるから

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 松井亜弥 Aya Matsui Storyboard よこた和 Kazu Yokota Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director 酒井KEI Kei Sakai Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de Dub review thread on BMGf

Tree's a Crowd (Japanese: キモリの森！巨大樹を守れ！！ Forest of Kimori! Protect the Gigantic Tree!!) is the seventh episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire and the 281st episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on January 9, 2003, and in the United States on November 29, 2003.

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

Blurb

Deep in the woods, Ash spies a Treecko. He's wanted to catch a Treecko since he first saw one at Professor Birch's laboratory. He follows the Treecko to an enormous tree that seems to be dying. There, Ash's Treecko has an argument with all of the other Treecko. It seems that Ash's Treecko is very attached to the tree and wants to stay with it, while the rest of the clan wants to move on to a new tree. Ash watches as the lone Treecko struggles to save the tree. He and Pikachu feel badly for the Treecko and try to help. In the end, however, the tree dies and falls. Now that its home is gone, Treecko is ready to make a new home with Ash. He and Pikachu battle, and Ash catches his Treecko!

Plot

The group finds themselves lost in Petalburg Woods, and a fight soon erupts between siblings May and Max. Ash and Brock manage to separate the pair, likening their situation to the many times that they got lost while traveling with Misty, though tensions remain high. Ash suddenly sees a bunch of Treecko running through the trees. He says that he had wanted one since he first saw one at Professor Birch's lab. He quickly tosses a Poké Ball, but the Treecko bats it away with its tail, and May sarcastically reminds Ash that you have to battle the Pokémon first. Their talk is cut short when Brock notices that the Treecko are running away.

Ash chases after them and the others follow. Ash sees what looks like a huge, odd tree up ahead. Unfortunately, he doesn't pay attention to where he's going and falls face first down a steep hill. When he looks up, he sees that the tree is right in front of him, and it's massive. It's more than twice as tall as all the other trees in the forest. Ash comments that it looks almost magical, but he notices that it has no leaves and looks somewhat dead. Suddenly a sharp twig lands in the ground right in front of Ash's face. He looks up and sees an angry-looking Treecko sitting on a branch with another twig in its hand. Ash challenges the Treecko to a battle. Treecko leaps into action, jumping between the branches before spitting its twig at Pikachu. Pikachu dodges, but Treecko lands next to him and delivers a powerful whack with its tail. Treecko taunts Pikachu, urging him to attack. Pikachu rushes towards his opponent, though Treecko dodges and strikes Pikachu again with its tail.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket watch on and are mildly impressed with Treecko's reflexes. Meowth explains that Treecko would make a great masseur for Giovanni. The boss fantasy sets the Rocket trio's sights on capturing the Treecko for themselves. Ash and Pikachu soon find themselves surrounded by a large group of Treecko. An older Treecko attempts to talk to the one that Ash just battled, but is yelled at and pushed backwards. The other Treecko look pretty mad, but the old Treecko urges them not to attack. Jessie is excited because she loves watching other people's troubles, and asks Meowth for a translation. The old Treecko says that the tree is going to die and all the Treecko need to move to another tree. However the other Treecko remains defiant, replying that it was born on that tree and isn't going to give up on it, no matter what. The sentiment really moves James and Meowth, but Jessie doesn't think it's very heroic at all, since life is full of change. She explains all about this, until they notice that all the Treecko are leaving except for one. Once the others are out of sight, that Treecko rushes off too. Ash is prepared to follow it, but Pikachu has a better idea, so they stake out in the tree.

Brock has since cooked up a meal for him and the others to enjoy. Max is worried about Ash, but Brock assures him that Ash will be fine, and they agree to go look for him after they're done eating. As the sun sets, Ash and Pikachu are still waiting at the old tree. Ash decides to send Taillow to look for his friends, since he's afraid they might be worried about him. As soon as Taillow flies away, Treecko appears carrying a leaf full of water. It carefully waters the tree before placing some dry leaves down to keep the ground from drying up again. Treecko goes off to get more water, as Ash wonders whether it's too late to save the tree. As darkness falls, he and Pikachu start to help the Treecko water the tree. It's angry at first, but it warms up to them when it realizes they just want to help.

As the trio return from collecting more water, they hear a commotion and discover that Team Rocket is using a bulldozer to ram all the trees, knocking the sleeping Treecko into their net. When they spot Ash, Pikachu, and Treecko, Team Rocket charges at them, sending them flying. After their motto, they take off in their waiting balloon, now covered in neon lights, with all the Treecko in a cage. Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but it turns out that the lights were actually electricity blockers. Ash calls for Taillow, but he quickly realizes that he sent it away to find the others. Team Rocket takes the opportunity to grab Pikachu in a net. But the Treecko that Ash befriended wasn't caught in the net, and now it's angry. It spits its twig at the balloon, but it just bounces off. Team Rocket laughs, and James sends out his Cacnea. Ash doesn't recognize Cacnea, declaring the trio must have stolen it as he checks it out in his Pokédex. Treecko leaps from the top of a tree into the balloon, and starts attacking Team Rocket. Jessie steps backwards and accidentally hits the button that releases the trapped Pokémon. Treecko leaps onto the balloon itself and taunts Cacnea. Cacnea responds angrily with a Pin Missile, but Treecko evades and the attack punctures the balloon instead. The Treecko free Pikachu and they all abandon ship as the balloon flies off into the distance, sending Team Rocket blasting off.

The Treecko that Ash befriended makes up with the old one, but still doesn't want to give up on the tree. Everything seems to be going well until the giant tree suddenly splits in two. The Treecko try to hold it together and Ash gets a rope out of his backpack, but they are stopped when the sun rises, illuminating the tree beautifully. As they look on, Ash and the Treecko have some sort of vision of the tree's life from a seed to the majestic tree it used to be. But the imagining fades and they're only looking at a split, dead tree again, and the two halves suddenly split even more and they fall over completely. A seed rolls from the wreckage and stops at Treecko's feet. Ash takes this as a sign of gratitude from the tree for trying so hard to save it. But Treecko doesn't take kindly to this suggestion and hits Ash. He realizes that Treecko is trying to tell him it's ready to battle.

Ash's friends and Taillow rush onto the scene as the match begins. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, which Treecko dodges multiple times, before finally scoring a hit. However, Treecko doesn't seem to have taken much damage, and Max reminds them that Electric attacks aren't very effective on Grass-type Pokémon. Ash calls for a Quick Attack, which Treecko dodges. However the evasion manoeuvre leaves Treecko vulnerable, and Pikachu delivers a lot of damage with a Thunderbolt. Treecko hits the ground, knocked out. Max doesn't understand what happened, but Brock explains that usually Electric attacks don't work well because the Grass Pokémon can diffuse the electricity into the ground. Since Treecko was hit in the air, there was nowhere for the electricity to go. Ash throws a Poké Ball and catches Treecko. Ash calls it out of its Poké Ball, and the old Treecko hands it the seed from the dead tree. Treecko promptly plants it, before leaving with Ash and friends as the other Treecko care for the newly sprouted tree.

Major events

Ash after catching Treecko

• Ash learns that James has obtained a Cacnea.
• Ash catches a Treecko.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Ash's Treecko

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Giovanni (fantasy)

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Girafarig

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Taillow (Ash's)
• Treecko (Ash's, new)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Treecko (multiple)
• Murkrow

Trivia

• The title of this episode is based on the phrase "two's company, three's a crowd." It could also be based on a television show of the same name.
• This is the first episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire to have a boss fantasy, a segment that became prevalent for the rest of this series and the next.
• Although May claimed that Treecko are "creepy" six episodes earlier in Professor Birch's laboratory, she states in this episode that they are "cute".
• Brock explains that Grass-type Pokémon resist Electric-type attacks because they diffuse the electricity into trees or the ground. Furthermore, he states that if they are in the air, they are unable to diffuse the electricity and suffer normal damage from Electric-type attacks.
  • Ironically, in the real world, electrocution can only happen if electricity has something into which it can diffuse from the target.
• This episode is featured on Volume 12: Treecko from Viz Media's Pokémon All-Stars series.
• In this episode, Wobbuffet is the only Pokémon in Jessie's team. Arbok was released in the previous episode and Seviper was caught in the following episode. Prior to In the Shadow of Zekrom!, this was the only episode where Jessie didn't have a Poison-type or a snake Pokémon on hand.
• Music from Pikachu's Vacation and Mewtwo Strikes Back is used in this episode.
• Because Everyone Was There is used as an insert song.

Errors

• When Ash says that the tree is dying, the end of Pikachu's tail is cut off.
• When May, Max, and Brock arrive at Ash's location, Taillow is seen along with them, but the next time they appear onscreen, Taillow is nowhere to be seen, despite Ash never recalling it, and doesn't appear for the remainder of the episode.
• In the English dub:
  • The PokéNav is referred to by its Japanese name, PokéNavi.
  • The Who's That Pokémon? segment says that Girafarig has a tale that bites, instead of the correct homophone tail.

Dub edits

• Ash refers to his Treecko as male when, after watching it shove the oldest Treecko to the ground, he states "That's weird; looks like he's not good buddies with the other Treecko."
• In the English dub, Ash talks about how he traveled around with Brock and Misty and got lost. In the original Japanese version, he doesn't mention Misty.
• In the English dub, a couple of the hits from Treecko's attack on Team Rocket's faces were replaced by impact stars instead. Other hits were kept intact.
• In the English dub, Pikachu's final attack on Treecko is called Thunderbolt. In the original Japanese version, it is called Thunder.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		木守宮之森！保護巨大樹！
Danish		Treeckos træ
Dutch		Een boom van een Treecko!
Finnish		Puiseva juttu
European French		L'arbre à Pokémon
German		Die Geckarbor und ihr Zuhause
Hebrew		להציל את העץ lehatsil et ha'ets
Hindi		एक विशाल पेड़ और Treecko Ek Vishal Ped aur Treecko *
Italian		I Pokémon degli alberi
Korean		나무지기의 숲, 거대한 나무를 지켜라
Norwegian		Tretrøbbel
Polish		Troje to już tłum
Portuguese	Brazil	Três é Demais
	Portugal	Três é Demais
Russian		Суета вокруг дерева
Spanish	Latin America	¡El árbol de Treecko!
	Spain	Amigos de los árboles
Swedish		Episod Trä
Thai		ป่าคิโมริ! พิทักษ์ต้นไม้ยักษ์!!

← AG006 : A Poached Ego!

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG008 : A Tail with a Twist →

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