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| Ride, Lapras, Ride!
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ラプラスにのって♪
Riding on Laplace♪
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First broadcast
| Japan
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February 24, 2023
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| United States
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
| Animation
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Team Kato
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| Screenplay
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冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka
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| Storyboard
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齋藤徳明 Noriaki Saitō
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| Assistant director
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向山鶴美 Tazumi Mukaiyama
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| Animation director
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岡昭彦 Akihiko Oka
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| Additional credits
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Ride, Lapras, Ride! (Japanese: ラプラスにのって♪ Riding on Laplace♪) is the seventh episode of Pocket Monsters: Aim to Be a Pokémon Master, the 143rd episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,228th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on February 24, 2023, and in Canada on June 24, 2023.
Plot
Ash reuniting with Lapras
Ash and his friends are watching some Wailmer bouncing on a beach when a distressed Lapras approaches them. Almost immediately, Ash recognizes this Lapras as the same one that he met back at the Orange Islands. He and Lapras share a happy embrace before Lapras motions him and his friends to come with it. As such, the group boards Lapras, who leads them and the Wailmer from the beach to a small rocky island filled with holes and caves. The reason behind Lapras's distressed state is soon made clear as the group spots a Wailmer stuck in a hole, having apparently gotten stuck in it after bouncing too high. Ash promises Wailmer to help it, with an invisible Latias arriving to observe the scene. Unnoticed by the group, the periscope of Team Rocket's Magikarp submarine surfaces nearby and spies on all the Water-type Pokémon gathered on and around the island, the trio planning to nab them and Pikachu.
After failing to get Wailmer unstuck by hand, Ash calls out Kingler and Sirfetch'd to help Pikachu smash the rocks around Wailmer. However, the rock the island is made of proves too hard to break, with Wailmer's bouncy body sending everyone flying back. Ash lands in a cave, but gets out easily with Heracross's help. Misty is the next one to offer a solution, suggesting she and Ash try to pull Wailmer out with their fishing rods. Ash approves the idea and calls out Bayleef to help, getting affectionately hugged by her immediately after she appears. Once she's calmed down, Ash has her hold onto Misty with Vine Whip, while Heracross holds onto him. They both throw their lures into Wailmer's mouth and start to pull. Ash receives additional help from Kingler, while Brock calls out Marshtomp to support Misty and Bayleef. With extreme effort, they manage to pull Wailmer out of the hole, but just when the situation seems to be over, Wailmer jumps so high up out of happiness that it falls into a cave. It then proceeds to unexpectedly evolve into Wailord, causing it to get stuck again.
With Wailord's new size, the fishing rods are out of the question. While the group tries to think up something, Pikachu notices Team Rocket's periscope and gets an idea, climbing onto the periscope and peeking inside to startle Rocket trio into surfacing. He then threatens to shock the trio unless they help, which they reluctantly agree to do, deadpanning at the twerps' ignorance of the fact that their submarine is man-powered. Ash calls out his Torterra and explains his plan as it's put into action: Brock and Torterra ride the submarine, with Brock having Torterra use Frenzy Plant to bind Wailord, the group of Wailmer helping to give the submarine an extra boost, and Pikachu standing inside the submersible to make sure Team Rocket does their part. Misty, meanwhile, has all the Pokémon on land and in the water, including her Gyarados, pull on Torterra's Frenzy Plant to add more force to the pull. Lastly, Ash enters the cave with Heracross and Bayleef, the three of them joining together in tickling Wailord to help it squirm its way to freedom. In the middle of the rescue operation, Wailord starts to glow as it uses Heavy Slam, successfully freeing itself. Team Rocket plans to steal Pikachu now, but he simply busts the submarine's hatch off and jumps off with Brock and Torterra, giving the trio a watery sendoff.
However, even though Wailord is now safe, its escape caused a cave-in that blocked off the cave entrance, leaving Ash trapped just as the tide begins to rise. To save him, Lapras uses Ice Beam to freeze the water flowing into the cave, after which Wailord uses Weather Ball to create an ice tunnel all the way to Ash's location. Lapras reaches Ash by sliding through the tunnel, and they slide out together. After Ash has thanked Wailord for its part in helping him, Lapras takes the group back to the beach, where Ash and Lapras share one more hug before Lapras swims away to reunite with its herd. No sooner has Lapras left, though, when Misty realizes they could've gotten Wailmer out of the hole by just briefly putting it in a Poké Ball. Regardless, Ash says he found the experience a fun one.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Lapras
Trivia
The "After the story" artwork for this episode
- Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!! - Episode Paldea: Pawmi
- The Japanese title of this episode shares its name with the sixth original series ending, Riding on Lapras, which is also used as the ending theme for this episode.
- Like in the previous two episodes, there was no Dare Da? segment in the initial airing of the episode, instead having the series logo on the screen before and after the commercial break.
- This episode marks the first physical appearance of Ash's Lapras since Lapras of Luxury, 971 episodes earlier.
- Shinji Miyazaki's music from the original series, Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and Pokémon the Series: Black & White are reused as background music in this episode.
- This episode marks the first time that Ash's journey through the Orange Archipelago is directly referenced in Pokémon Journeys: The Series. With this, all the regions that Ash has traveled to during his Pokémon journey have been recalled during Pokémon Journeys: The Series.
- This is the first episode of the Aim to Be a Pokémon Master arc in which Ash has a Pokémon caught in Pokémon Journeys in his active party.
- As such, as of this episode, at least one of Ash's Pokémon from each region he has visited has been in Ash's active party during this arc.
- This is the only episode of the Aim to be a Pokémon Master arc where Ash is shown with a full team of six Pokémon on hand.
- Team Rocket performs a variation of their motto in this episode.
- This episode marks the first time Ash's Kingler has been in Ash's active party outside of being used for a battle.
- Lapras sliding on ice to help Ash is reminiscent to Ash's Mikan Gym challenge in Fit To Be Tide, in which Lapras also slid on an ice path it created.
- The English dub title is a reference to a lyric "Ride, Sally, ride" from the song Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett.
- Misty, Brock, Ash, and Pikachu narrate the preview for the next episode.
- The narration part where Brock speaks to Nurse Joy and gets attacked by his Croagunk is synced up with a shot from the episode where the same thing happens.
Errors
- When Misty and Ash start using their fishing rods to pull Wailmer, Misty's suspenders are disconnected from her shorts for a split second.
- Same as the last episode, the English dub's broadcast shows the "Who's That Pokémon?" segment in its entirety after the commercial break, rather than splitting it into two parts before and after.
- When Pikachu says "pika-pi," the English dub's subtitles incorrectly write "pika-pika."
Dub edits
In other languages
