| Catching the Aura of Fate!
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ルカリオとゲッコウガ！運命の波導！！
Lucario and Gekkouga! The Wave Guidance of Destiny!!
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First broadcast
| Japan
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April 29, 2022
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| United States
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February 24, 2023
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Catching the Aura of Fate! (Japanese: ルカリオとゲッコウガ！運命の波導！！ Lucario and Gekkouga! The Wave Guidance of Destiny!!) is the 108th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,193rd episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on April 29, 2022, in Canada on October 8, 2022, in Australia on October 10, 2022, in South Africa on November 29, 2022, in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2023, and in the United States on February 24, 2023.
Blurb
Ash is training fiercely for his upcoming Masters Eight entrance battle against Raihan, and when he sees Goh’s Froakie evolve into Frogadier, he gets an idea! Realizing that his friendship with Lucario is similar to the bond he shares with Greninja, he and Goh travel to Kalos. They find Greninja, who runs circles around Lucario in battle, but eventually Lucario learns how to focus its Aura powers and connect with Ash on a closer level. And when gigantic roots attack, the Pokémon show their strengths and defeat them together! With Lucario boasting newfound strength, Greninja once again departs—but Ash knows they’ll always be close despite being regions apart!
Plot
Goh's newly evolved Frogadier
While most of Cerise Laboratory's staff and Chloe are watching a television broadcast about Ash and Raihan's upcoming World Coronation Series match, which will be the last entrance battle of the season, Ash himself is hard at work training with his Pokémon at Cerise Park. The training session is paused when Goh and Chloe come to bring the Pokémon some food. Lucario, however, is eager to keep going, and pulls Cinderace aside to act as its sparring partner. Inspired by this, Goh's Froakie also challenges Chloe's Eevee to a practice match. Following a tackle from Eevee, Froakie suddenly evolves into Frogadier. While Goh celebrates this, the sight stirs something in Ash's memories, and he turns to Lucario, inviting it to come meet his old friend, Greninja. As Ash and Goh board a plane towards Kalos, Ash explains that when he and Greninja battled together, it was as if they became one, which is what Lucario's Aura also feels like to him, so he wants the two of them to meet each other.
In Hammerlocke, Raihan is greeted by his fans, who promise to come to cheer for him during his battle. Raihan assures them that he won't lose, but his demeanor changes once inside his Stadium. Calling out his Duraludon, he admits to himself that he never expected Ash to rise through the ranks so quickly, and recalls a defeat in the hands of Leon, which started his habit of taking selfies. He swears to fulfill his dream of being the one to defeat Leon and starts training with Duraludon.
Arriving in Kalos, Ash and Goh start looking around a forest to find Greninja. However, they see no sign of it despite looking around for a whole day. As they camp out for the night, Ash starts recounting his history with Greninja to Goh; how Froakie had been the first Pokémon he caught in Kalos; how he raised it into a Greninja; how they, at one point, had even fought, due to Ash's obsessive focus on winning; how they had eventually made up and gone on to fight in the finals of the Kalos League; and, ultimately, how they had parted ways so that Greninja could continue to protect Kalos. Goh hopes they can meet it soon, and Ash hopes for the same as the two boys fall asleep.
In the middle of the night, both Ash and Lucario suddenly jolt awake, sensing something that they think is Greninja. Goh wakes up in time to see the two running off and follows after them. Lucario soon finds what it sensed, but instead of Greninja, it's a cluster of giant roots. Lucario tries to use Aura Sphere on them, but the attack is easily deflected by them. A root tries to attack Lucario but is sliced apart by Greninja's Cut before it can hit, the Ninja Pokémon making its appearance. Ash and Goh also arrive at the scene, and Ash is happy to see Greninja again, commanding his old partner in attacking the roots. Syncing up with Greninja, Ash is able to see the weak spot of the roots and has Greninja attack it with Water Shuriken, causing the roots to burst apart and disappear, leaving Goh amazed at Greninja's strength.
Lucario training its Aura with Greninja
With the threat over, Ash goes over to properly greet Greninja. Lucario also approaches Greninja, and Ash asks Greninja to battle him and Lucario. Greninja accepts the request, but despite Ash being able to sense which direction Greninja's attacks are coming from, Lucario is simply unable to match its speed and react in time, resulting in it quickly getting overwhelmed. Even when Ash tries to Mega Evolve Lucario, it rejects the process in favor of just charging ahead, which doesn't yield any results. Frustrated, Lucario eventually runs off, and Greninja goes after it, finding it sitting next to a stream. Greninja leads Lucario into the stream, creating a series of ripples by slightly moving its legs. Lucario mimics this, gradually syncing its ripples with Greninja's. Meanwhile, Ash talks with Goh about how he feels that Greninja and Lucario are alike, as they both have wanted to grow stronger since the moment he met them.
Lucario and Greninja's practice is suddenly interrupted when they both sense a root being about to attack Ash and Goh, which indeed occurs as they head back to help. Ash and Goh try to fight the roots, which are bigger than the last ones they saw, but Pikachu and Cinderace's attacks do nothing against them. Fortunately, Lucario and Greninja come to their aid and Ash has them attack the roots, this time also successfully Mega Evolving Lucario. The two Pokémon fight together as a perfect team, cutting and tearing apart the roots until they all coil together. Ash has Greninja prepare a Water Shuriken while Lucario starts charging up an Aura Sphere. Being in perfect sync with Ash, Lucario responds to its Trainer's willpower, making its Aura Sphere grow bigger than ever before. Greninja and Lucario's attacks are launched, obliterating the remaining roots. As Lucario reverts to its regular form, Ash congratulates his partner, much to its delight.
Come sunset, Ash prepares to part ways with Greninja again, assuring it that they'll be sure to come see it again. Greninja nods and disappears from the site in a flash, having helped Ash and Lucario in improving their chances against Raihan, who is still working equally hard in preparation for the entrance battle, sharing Ash's passion in aiming to face Leon.
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?: Greninja
Trivia
The "After the story" artwork for this episode
Errors
Dub edits
In other languages
Arabic
Bengali
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
European French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Latin American Spanish
Swedish
Tamil
