XY038

←	XY037 : The Cave of Mirrors!

Forging Forest Friendships!

XY038

EP837

蠢く森のオーロット！
Ohrot of the Crawling Forest!

First broadcast

Japan	August 7, 2014
United States	October 4, 2014

English themes

Opening	Pokémon Theme (Version XY)
Ending

Japanese themes

Opening	メガＶ（メガボルト）
Ending	ピースマイル！

Credits

No additional credits are available at this time.
Animation	Team Kato
Screenplay	米村正二 Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard	吉村文宏 Fumihiro Yoshimura
Assistant director	西田健一 Ken'ichi Nishida
Animation director	篠原隆 Takashi Shinohara

Forging Forest Friendships! (Japanese: 蠢く森のオーロット！ Ohrot of the Crawling Forest!) is the 38th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the 837th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on August 7, 2014 and in the United States on October 4, 2014.

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

Blurb

On the way to Shalour City, Clemont suggests a Double Battle to help Ash train for his upcoming Gym battle. Ash's Froakie and Hawlucha team up against Clemont's Pokémon, but their battling styles are so different that they just aren't getting along. Ash is trying to teach them how to combine their attacks into a single move he calls Super Flying Cut when he's pulled into the woods by a ghostly forest Pokémon called Trevenant!

Hawlucha and Froakie work together to rescue Ash, and after Trevenant lets him go, he finds out why the Pokémon grabbed him in the first place. Team Rocket has caught two of Trevenant's Pokémon friends in an electrified net, and it needs Ash's help to rescue them. Pikachu's Iron Tail quickly sets the Pokémon free, and a perfect Super Flying Cut sends the villains blasting off again!

Plot

While his friends watch on, Ash trains with Froakie for their upcoming Gym battle against Korrina. Unexpectedly, a log descends down the waterfall and is about to hit Pikachu, but Froakie saves him by using its newly learned Cut. Ash is thrilled, he congratulating Froakie on learning Cut and thanks it for saving Pikachu.

Ash facing Clemont

Following on Clemont’s suggestion, Ash agrees to have a practice Double Battle. Clemont is about to call out his first Pokémon, but first, Chespin comes out of its Poké Ball ready to battle. Clemont also goes with Bunnelby. Ash decides that Froakie's partner will be Hawlucha, who emerges in a prideful pose. Ash tells Hawlucha and Froakie to work together as a team, and before any battling begins Hawlucha holds out a fist to get a fist bump from Froakie. Froakie hesitates, but it does eventually give Hawlucha a fist bump before Bonnie calls for the battle to begin. Clemont goes first telling Chespin to use Tackle on Froakie and Clemont tells Bunnelby to use Double Slap on Hawlucha. Ash orders Froakie and Hawlucha to dodge. Hawlucha, however, doesn't dodge and just takes the Double Slap hits from Bunnelby. Ash is impressed to see Hawlucha testing Bunnlby's strength, but Froakie feels otherwise. Ash tells Froakie to use Bubble and Hawlucha to intercept with Karate Chop. Clemont commands Chespin to use Vine Whip while Bunnelby keeps using Double Slap. Both Bunnelby and Hawlucha take hits before Clemont then tells Bunnelby to use Mud Shot on Hawlucha. As Bunnelby gets ready, Ash orders Froakie to use Water Pulse on Bunnelby to help Hawlucha out. However, the intervention makes Hawlucha furious. With Ash’s team distracted, Clemont has Chespin use Pin Missile. Froakie dodges and the pins end up hitting Bunnelby instead, knocking him out in the process. Soon, Hawlucha gets so furious with Froakie that it uses High Jump Kick on it. Froakie retaliates with Cut, which strikes its ally. Next Hawlucha attempts to use Flying Press on Froakie, but gets confused because Froakie uses Double Team. Soon Ash breaks up the fight and tells Hawlucha and Froakie to stop, and the battle is called off.

Ash takes Froakie and Hawlucha away from the rest of the group and tells them they need to work together because they're on the same team. He comes up with a combo move for the two of them which he calls the "Super Flying Cut". It starts out with Froakie riding on Hawlucha's back, and then it jumps and uses Cut, and then Hawlucha finishes with Flying Press. Ash decides to start working on training, but Hawlucha stops Ash and tells him it thinks it and Froakie should make up for their argument first, and it extends its hand to Froakie attempting to apologize to it, but it turns away. Ash tells Froakie to make up with Hawlucha, but it still won't, and this causes more fighting between the two. Ash eventually manages to get the pair to work together, but training is cut short when Ash is dragged into the forest by a wild Trevenant. His friends hear the noise and rush over to see what's wrong.

Meanwhile, in the forest, Ash sees he's being carried away by Trevenant and scans it with his Pokédex. He tells Trevenant he'd never do anything to hurt the forest and yells at it to let him go. Hawlucha and Froakie see this and attempt to rescue their Trainer but they get caught in vines. They look at each other and growl angrily before looking in the opposite direction. Froakie begins swinging itself back and forth to try and shake loose from the vine, and Hawlucha does the same, but the two end up crashing into each other, causing them to argue once again, and this is enough to make the vines snap and free them. Froakie then sees Ash's hat on the ground and hands it to Hawlucha who puts the hat on its head. The pair recall Ash’s words and agree to work as a team to rescue Ash.

When the two find Ash, they begin to battle Trevenant. Froakie launches a barrage of frubbles, temporarily blinding Trevenant. Next Hawlucha attempts to use High Jump Kick, to which Ash explains that Trevenant is immune to Fighting-type moves because it's a Ghost-type. Trevenant approaches Hawlucha with a Shadow Claw, though Froakie stops it in its track with Bubble. Ash is freed as a result, and Hawlucha promptly returns Ash’s hat to him. Ash then calls for a Super Flying Cut combo, however, Froakie just manages to leap onto Hawlucha’s back. Though Hawlucha simply flies through the Ghost-type, without scoring any damage. Trevenant retaliates with two Will-O-Wisps, but Ash is undeterred and vows to protect his friends. The show of determination leads Trevenant to forfeit, and it leads Ash, Hawlucha, and Froakie to a net where a wild Bonsly and Sudowoodo are being held. Ash now understands Trevenant's earlier aggression, so he attempts to free the two Rock Pokémon, but gets shocked by the net. Just then Pikachu and the others arrive on the scene. Ash explains the situation before having Pikachu use Iron Tail to free the two from the net.

The celebration is short-lived as the culprits, Team Rocket return to net Pikachu for themselves. A battle begins, and Ash has Hawlucha and Froakie battle Team Rocket. Jessie's Pumpkaboo uses Shadow Ball, but Froakie and Hawlucha both dodge it. Froakie uses its Frubbles to blind Pumpkaboo as Hawlucha prepares to use Flying Press. But being part Ghost-type, Pumpkaboo is unaffected as Jessie states that Fighting-type moves won't work as Ash says he's one step ahead as Froakie uses a close-range Water Pulse on Pumpkaboo, knocking it out. After dodging James's Inkay's Tackle and Psybeam, Ash tells Hawlucha and Froakie to use "Super Flying Cut" and they get the combo perfect, knocking out Inkay. Before Team Rocket are about to leave, Trevenant pitches in with a Wood Hammer to smash the remote and free Pikachu from the net. Pikachu then blasts Team Rocket off with a Thunderbolt.

With Froakie and Hawlucha having put their differences aside, Ash and his friends say goodbye to Trevenant, Bonsly, and Sudowoodo as they head off towards Ash's Shalour Gym battle.

Major events

Ash's Froakie learns Cut.
Serena's Fennekin uses Scratch for the first time.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

TV episode debuts

Trevenant

Characters

Humans

Pokémon Quiz

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

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

Trivia

The title card segment focuses on Ash for this episode (DVD version)

The title card segment focuses on Clemont for this episode (TV version)

Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster: Absol
- For the TV Tokyo airing, instead of the Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster segment, the clips of Xerneas and Yveltal, and the scene where Pikachu was turning into a stone in Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, were shown.
Ash, Professor Sycamore, Serena, and Clemont narrate the preview for the next episode.
V (Volt) is used as an insert song in this episode.
This episode marks the first appearance of a Bonsly in the anime since The Fleeing Tower of Sunyshore!, 205 episodes earlier.
- It also marks the first appearance of a Sudowoodo in the anime since Brock's last appeared in DPS02, over three years ago.

Errors

When Serena says that whoever ate all of the Poké Puffs she made will be revealed shortly, her neck is colored brown.
When Pikachu has been trapped by Team Rocket's trap, while everyone is shocked, the hair on Clemont's right side of his ear is colored beige instead of blond.
When Ash orders Froakie to use Cut on Inkay, Froakie's sclerae are colored white instead of yellow. This error was fixed in future episodes.
When Froakie mounts Hawlucha's back to use "Super Flying Cut" on Inkay, Hawlucha's entire legs are yellow instead of just its feet.

Clemont's hair error
Froakie's sclerae error
Hawlucha's miscolored legs

Dub edits

In other languages

Language		Title
Chinese	Cantonese	蠕動森林的朽木妖！
Chinese	Mandarin	蠢動森林的朽木妖！
Danish		Nye venskaber i skoven!
Dutch		Vriendschap sluiten in het bos!
Finnish		Ystävyyttä ihan puskasta!
European French		Une amitié née dans la forêt !
German		Neue Wald-Freundschaften!
Greek		Φιλίες Ανθίζουν στο Δάσος!
Hebrew		!חברות יער
Hindi		दोस्ती हो तो फ़्रोकी और हॉलूचा जैसी! Dosti ho toh Froakie aur Hawlucha jaisi!
Italian		Nuovi amici della foresta!
Korean		움직이는 숲의 대로트!!
Norwegian		Nye venner i skogen!
Polish		Budowanie leśnych przyjaźni!
Portuguese	Brazil	Forjando Amizades na Floresta!
Portuguese	Portugal	Fazer Amizades na Floresta!
Russian		Укрепление лесной дружбы!
European Spanish		¡Haciendo Amigos en el Bosque!
Swedish		Att skapa vänskapsförbindelser i skogen!
Thai		โอร็อตแห่งป่าวงกต!
Turkish		Ormanda kurulan dostluklar!
Vietnamese		Orotto của khu rừng ma quái!