XY117

←	XY116 : The Synchronicity Test!

Making Friends and Influencing Villains!

XY117

EP916

森の呪いと白いボクレー！
The Forest's Curse and the White Bokurei!

First broadcast

Japan	April 28, 2016
United States	July 29, 2016* July 30, 2016*

English themes

Opening	Stand Tall
Ending

Japanese themes

Opening	XY&Z
Ending	プニちゃんのうた

Credits

Additional credits
Animation	Team Kato
Screenplay	藤田伸三 Shinzō Fujita
Storyboard	尼野浩正 Hiromasa Amano
Assistant director	阿部雅司 Masashi Abe
Animation directors	服部益実 Masumi Hattori
	平良哲朗 Tetsurō Taira
	金考恩 Kim Go-Eun

Making Friends and Influencing Villains! (Japanese: 森の呪いと白いボクレー！ The Forest's Curse and the White Bokurei!) is the 117th episode of the XY series, and the 916th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on April 28, 2016 and in the United States on July 30, 2016.

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

Blurb

Team Rocket finds some delicious macarons in the forest and happily digs in, only to be attacked by a group of Phantump who think the treats are theirs—but one little Phantump with unusual coloring accidentally gets blasted off along with them! When the frightened Phantump lands among our heroes, they introduce it to some new friends and promise to take it back home, but Team Rocket has other ideas…

In disguise, the villains lure Phantump away with the promise of more new friends—but its real friends soon come to the rescue, as the group of Phantump from the forest shows up to send Team Rocket blasting off again!

Plot

This plot summary is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this plot summary to add missing sections and complete it.

The episode starts with Team Rocket gobbling down a bunch of fruits stacked in a treehollow, without caring much for their owners. Suddenly they hear spine-chilling and ominous laughter that drives them crazy. The culprits are a group of Phantump, one of them Shiny, who are apparently infuriated because the fruits were intended to be offerings to them. Team Rocket pays no heed, and soon goes blasting off, with the Shiny Phantump tagging along.

This renegade Phantump is later discovered by Ash and his friends, and it quickly warms up to them after initially being sullen and rebuffing them. It is revealed that, because it only knew its own gang, Phantump has become cynical towards the rest of the world. After meeting a few amiable wild Pokémon and spending time with Ash and his friends, it begins to reconsider its world view.

Team Rocket seizes an opportunity and, in the guises of Kirlia, Gardevoir, and Gallade, kidnap the Shiny Phantump. In attempting to rescue Phantump, Pikachu gets trapped, but with a joint effort from Ash and his friends and the Phantump gang, both the Shiny Phantump and Pikachu are rescued. Having boosted Phantump's confidence, Ash and the gang continue their journey towards Snowbelle City, leaving their new friend with a new, brighter outlook on the world.

As for Team Rocket, they feel hungry again, suddenly, they hear someone laughing, and thinks there's a group of Phantump again, and this time they turn around and run away, they don't notice, that they were only two Campers walking back to camp.

Major events

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

TV episode debuts

Phantump

Characters

Humans

Pokémon Quiz

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Phantump (US and international)
Pokémon Quiz: Phantump (Shiny) (Japan)

Pikachu (Ash's)
Meowth (Team Rocket)
Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
Dedenne (Clemont's)
Chespin (Clemont's)
Gourgeist (Jessie's)
Inkay (James's)
Zygarde (Zygarde Core; Squishy)
Phantump (multiple, one Shiny)
Pikachu (multiple, one Shiny; Poké TV segment)
Helioptile
Bidoof
Diglett (×3)
Dugtrio (×2)

Trivia

File:Title Card XY Team Rocket V2.png

The title card segment focuses on Team Rocket for this episode

Poké TV: "Pokemon Unbelievable" focusing on Shiny Pokémon.
The English dub was released on iTunes on July 29, 2016, one day before the episode aired in the United States.
In the Japanese version, the title card segment focuses on Team Rocket.
Ash and Diantha narrate the preview for the next episode.
Meowth wears the same Kirlia disguise that he wore in Do I Hear a Ralts?.
The dub title for the episode is a reference to the best selling self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Errors

After Ash scans the Shiny Phantump with his Pokédex, the macaron it was eating got larger as if it hadn't eaten much of it though while the Pokedex entry was being read, it ate most of the macaron.
When Team Rocket disguises themselves as Phantump and take the Shiny Phantump away, when Clemont, Bonnie and Dedenne come around the corner, Dedenne is heard but his mouth doesn't move.
Before being blasted off, the group of Phantump trap Team Rocket in Forest's Curse. However, this should not have affected Gourgeist because she is part Grass-type.
In the dub, while Team Rocket disguise themselves as Phantump, Jessie and James are heard posing as Phantump, with Jessie's voice being heard when James speaks. Only James was present in that scene, joined by Meowth and Wobbuffet.

Dub edits

In other languages

Language		Title
Danish		Nye venner til Phantump!
Dutch		Vrienden maken en invloed uitoefenen op schurken!
Finnish		Ystävystyminen on makeaa!
European French		De nouveaux amis et des bandits de longue date !
German		Wie man Freunde gewinnt!
Italian		Nuovi amici, subdoli nemici!
Norwegian		Det er flott å få venner!
Portuguese	Brazil	Fazendo amigos e influenciando vilões!
Portuguese	Portugal	Novos Amigos para o Phantump!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Haciendo amigos e inspirando villanos!
Spanish	Spain	¡Haciendo amigos y espantando a los enemigos!
Swedish		Finna nya vänner och påverka skurkar!