JN026

←	JN025 : A Festival Reunion!

Splash, Dash, and Smash for the Crown!
Slowking's Crowning!

JN026

EP1111

はねろ！コイキング
かぶれ！ヤドキング
Jump! Koiking
Put it On! Yadoking

First broadcast

Japan	June 28, 2020
United States	December 4, 2020

English themes

Opening	The Journey Starts Today
Ending

Japanese themes

Opening	１・２・３
Ending	ポケモンしりとり（ミュウ→ザマゼンタVer.）

Credits

No additional credits are available at this time.
Animation	Team Kato
Screenplay	藤咲淳一 Jun'ichi Fujisaku
Storyboard	湯山邦彦 Kunihiko Yuyama
Storyboard	樋口香里 Kaori Higuchi
Assistant director	ウヱノ史博 Fumihiro Ueno
Animation director	篠原隆 Takashi Shinohara

Splash, Dash, and Smash for the Crown! / Slowking's Crowning! (Japanese: はねろ！コイキング／かぶれ！ヤドキング Jump! Koiking / Put it On! Yadoking) is the 26th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,111th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on June 28, 2020, in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2020, and in Australia and the United States on December 4, 2020. It was initially intended to air in Japan on May 17, 2020, but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Blurb

The Magikarp high jump competition is here, and Goh and his Magikarp want to beat Kasukarp and his partner, Shinegoldie! After some intense training, Goh’s Magikarp leaves Shinegoldie in its wake—but it jumps so high that it enters the stratosphere and doesn’t come back, leaving it disqualified.

Then, our heroes visit Slowpoke Island, where they meet lots of Slowpoke and a Slowking! Goh wants to catch Slowking, but the Shellder on its head comes off, and one by one, our heroes find it on top of their heads, resulting in some strange behavior! When the chaos clears, the Shellder ends up back on Slowking’s head—along with Goh’s Magikarp!

Plot

At Team Rocket's secret base, Jessie complains of her boredom, and Meowth mentions that there has been no word from Giovanni. James suggests training, and Jessie makes a call for the Rocket Prize Master. At first, nothing seems to happen, as they're indoors, but suddenly, the doorbell rings, and James opens the door to find Pelipper, delivering the vending machine to them. Using Meowth's coin, they vend two Pokémon, which turn out to be a Magikarp and a Slowking, two kingly Pokémon. When James reads his Pokémon's information leaflet, he suddenly panics and lunges at the camera, informing the audience that the episode will be a double-feature.

Splash, Dash, and Smash for the Crown!

At Cerise Laboratory, Goh shows Ash a video advertising the tenth annual Magikarp High Jump Competition, his intention being to defeat the nine-time champion Kasukarp and his Shiny Magikarp, nicknamed Shinegoldie. He calls out his own giant Magikarp, which has grown very fat over its time at the laboratory, but Goh has a solution. He shows Ash an exercise video made by Kasukarp, who is also a popular muscle trainer. Goh gives a motivational speech to his Magikarp, who is fired up to defeat Shinegoldie. Ash and Pikachu decide to take part in the training too. Goh puts his Magikarp through a rigorous training exercise, and it finally gets rid of all of its fat, becoming fit and ready for the competition.

At the Magikarp High Jump Competition, Goh makes it to the semifinals, where he faces the last year's runner-up, Magikarpenter. Goh's Magikarp's Splash sends it up to 21.02 meters, breaking Goh's personal record and allowing him to advance to the finals. In the second semifinals match, Kasukarp's Shinegoldie easily outperforms its opponent, setting him up as Goh's opponent in the finals.

As the finals get ready to begin, Goh expresses his confidence to defeat Kasukarp. Seeing this, Kasukarp reveals that Shinegoldie has actually been holding back to liven up the tournament, and is now going to unleash its full power, fully intending to win their tenth tournament in a row. Even with this revelation, Goh's confidence remains unfaltered. Suddenly, two weights are released from around Goh's Magikarp's back fin, revealing that its jumps had been held back throughout the entire tournament so far, much to everyone's astonishment. As two Machamp try to carry one of the weights away, one of them ends up injuring its back, revealing how immensely heavy the weights had been.

With both Magikarp ready to unleash their best, the finals begin. At the commentator's signal, Shinegoldie makes its jump, but surprisingly, Goh's Magikarp hasn't jumped yet. However, rather than being scared, it's simply building up power to jump into any height it wants. In a bright burst of power, Goh's Magikarp uses Splash, zooming into the sky like a rocket. It easily outperforms Shinegoldie, who is sent tumbling down. The jump is so powerful that Goh's Magikarp is sent flying all the way into space. However, as Kasukarp falls on his knees in defeat, everyone realizes that Magikarp isn't coming back down. The judge declares that a result is only measured upon landing, so Goh's Magikarp's jump will not be measured, making Kasukarp the winner.

As Kasukarp celebrates his tenth consecutive victory, Goh is sad over his Magikarp, but gets frustrated when Ash reads the closing lines meant for Goh from a script.

Slowking's Crowning!

Ash and Goh have arrived on Slowpoke Island, where multiple Slowpoke live. Goh reads Slowpoke's Pokédex entry, learning that Slowpoke Tails are apparently sweet. Meanwhile, Ash has gotten hungry and sat down to eat some cup noodles, much to Goh's annoyance, but he puts that aside as he starts choosing a Slowpoke to catch. However, before he can make his choice, a Slowking appears, eating a bowl of udon. After reading its Pokédex entry and learning that Slowking posseses genius-level intellect, Goh tries to catch it, but Slowking simply uses Psychic to stop the Poké Ball and politely return it to him.

Slowking then notices the noodle cup in Ash's hand, and he happily agrees to share his noodles with the Royal Pokémon. Slowking levitates the remaining noodles to its mouth with Psychic, and falls in love with their delicious taste. Unexpectedly, it then uses Psychic to detach the Shellder crown on its head and swap it with Ash's noodle cup, causing the crown to land on his head. When Goh asks if he's okay, Ash suddenly starts acting weird, declaring himself to be a "Slowpoke Master", intent on using his influence to improve the Slowpoke. Goh realizes that the crown is the reason for Ash's odd behavior and tries to grab it, but Ash swiftly dodges him, refusing to let it be taken away. Goh tries to have Raboot and Pikachu to help in removing the crown, but Ash avoids Raboot's Double Kick, and Pikachu's Thunderbolt accidentally ends up hitting the Slowpoke instead.

Ash declares that both Pikachu and the Slowpoke are part of his family, and then suggests Goh joining them, taking a Shellder handed by a Slowpoke to turn him into a Slowbro. Goh then notices Raboot behind Ash, unnoticed by him, and tells it to use Double Kick, finally succeeding in removing the crown and bringing Ash back to his senses. However, the crown next lands on Goh's head, causing him to act weird and declare that he's going to catch all the Slowpoke, until Raboot kicks the crown off again. Next, it lands on Pikachu, who ends up blasting it off of his head with a Thunderbolt. The crown then proceeds to land on Raboot's head, and as it makes a spin in the air, the crown detaches and lands back on Ash. The cycle keeps repeating itself at an increasingly fast pace as Slowking returns to observe it. At the same time, Goh's Magikarp returns from its trip to space from the end of the previous part, and crashes down on everyone. The crash causes the crown and Ash's noodle cup to return to their original owners, and as the dust clears, Ash and Goh are surprised to see Magikarp having returned and gotten stuck on the top of Slowking's crown.

In the epilogue, a repeat of the episode's beginning at Team Rocket's secret base is shown, but when James goes to open the door, instead of Pelipper, the one behind the door is Kasukarp, and James closes the door on him without saying a word.

Major events

James is revealed to own a Dive Ball and a Nest Ball.
Goh tries and fails to catch a Slowking.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

Ash
Goh
Jessie
James
Giovanni (image)
Diantha (image)
Kasukarp
Magikarpenter
Commentators
Trainers

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Magikarp

Pikachu (Ash's)
Meowth (Team Rocket)
Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
Raboot (Goh's)
Magikarp (Goh's; giant)
Rotom (Professor Cerise's; Rotom Phone)
Magikarp (Kasukarp's; Shiny; Shinegoldie)
Machamp (Kasukarp's; ×2)
Magikarp (Magikarpenter's)
Pelipper (Team Rocket)
Magikarp (Team Rocket's)
Slowking (Team Rocket's)
Eevee (Trainer's)
Magikarp (Trainer's)
Boldore
Machamp (×3)
Pidgeotto
Slowpoke (multiple)
Slowking
Shellder
Slowbro (multiple; fantasy)

Trivia

Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!!: Slowpoke
The magazine cover Jessie holds during the starting of the episode has a printed character who has a striking resemblance to Diantha, The Kalos League Champion
This is the first episode of the anime to be split into two different segments.
Instead of an individual title card at the beginning of the episode, there are two title cards, each played at the beginning of their respective segment. Similarly, there were four different title cards in Lights! Camera! Pika!.
- Unlike Lights! Camera! Pika!, this is the first episode to have multiple titles in the English dub.
- Ash and Goh read both title cards in this episode.
James's Poké Ball collection from Acting True to Form! reappears at the beginning and end of this episode, now including a Dive Ball and a Nest Ball in addition to most of the previously seen Balls.
Jessie and James mimic Ash and Goh's poses and movements from the preview segment while sending out their Pokémon.
The Magikarp Song and Slowpoke Song are used as insert songs in this episode.
The Magikarp High Jump Competition and Goh's coaching methods for it are references to Pokémon: Magikarp Jump.
Even though Slowking is said to revert back into a Slowpoke if the Shellder on its head is removed, this does not occur in this episode.
This episode marks the first appearance of a Slowking in the main series since Conway's last appeared in One Team, Two Team, Red Team, Blue Team!, 554 episodes earlier.
Wobbuffet is seen playing with a toy car version of Team Rocket's van from Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon.
James breaks the fourth wall when he gets a Slowking from the Rocket Prize Master at the beginning of the episode, speaking directly to the audience by mentioning that the episode will be a "double-feature", referencing the fact the episode features two segments.
- The fourth wall is broken again when Ash reads the closing lines of the first part of the episode from a script and winks at the audience, with Goh getting frustrated that his own lines got read by Ash.
Ash, Goh, Pikachu, Raihan, Leon, and Raboot narrate the preview for the next episode.

Errors

When Jessie calls for the Rocket Prize Master, the Premier Ball on James's Poké Ball collection disappears.
When Goh's Pokédex explains Slowpoke's evolution into Slowking, no mention of King's Rock is made, despite the anime having previously established its requirement for the process.
In the title card for Slowking's Crowning! in the English dub, there is no episode title caption.
In the Polish dub, during Kasukarp's semifinal round, his opponent's voice is not heard when both Trainers tell their Magikarp to use Splash.

Dub edits

The Japanese texts depicting Magikarp and Slowking's categories and names are edited out.
Goh's Rotom Phone's description of Slowpoke is altered, changing the mention of their tails being sweet to them not minding their tails falling off.
When Ash and Goh see Slowking approaching, Goh originally says "That's..." with Ash then noting the bowl of udon it's carrying, instead of the Slowking itself. In the dub, Goh notes the noodles and Ash says that he wants them.
In the original version, the Shellder crown makes Ash able to speak English. In the English dub, he instead gains a fancy British accent.

In other languages

Language		Title
Finnish		Läiskytellen kohti kruunua! / Slowking kruunataan!
European French		Le Magicarpe qui monte, qui monte... / Le couronnement de Roigada !
German		Spitzenplatscher für die Krone! / Laschokings Krönung!
Hebrew		!התזה, ריצה ודהירה אל הכתר! / הכתרתו של סלווקינג
Italian		Un salto in alto per la corona! / L'incoronazione di Slowking!
Polish		Plusk, hops i skok po koronę! / Koronacja Slowkinga!
Brazilian Portuguese		Nade, pule e conquiste a vitória! / Coroação de Slowking!
Russian		Всплеск, треск и блеск ради Короны!
Latin American Spanish		¡Salpica, salta y lucha por la corona! / ¡La coronación de Slowking!