EP072
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The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis
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First broadcast
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis (Japanese: げきとつ！ちょうこだいポケモン Fierce Battle! Ancient Pokémon) is the 72nd episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on November 26, 1998, and in the United States on October 14, 1999.
Blurb
While Ash and Brock are busy training for the Pokémon League, they inadvertently uncover a hidden temple containing Pokémon fossils. Misty recalls reading about a hidden city where people used to build temples to honor Pokémon. Could they have stumbled upon the ancient city of Pokémopolis?
Plot
Ash is finally training for the Pokémon League by battling Brock in a rocky valley, with Pikachu pitted against Vulpix. Pikachu is about to use Thunderbolt and Vulpix is about to use Flamethrower, when Jigglypuff suddenly appears in-between them. At Ash and Brock's command, Pikachu and Vulpix fire their attacks in a different direction, destroying a rock wall. As Ash and his friends walk closer, they see that they have uncovered the entrance to a temple, as well as a gigantic dōtaku bell. Brock finds an ancient artifact in the rubble, but it is suddenly taken by an archaeologist named Eve. She reveals that she and the other archaeologists with her are digging up artifacts related to the ancient city of Pokémopolis, a civilization that was supposedly destroyed in a single night. A professor brings them another artifact, this one resembling a spoon with similar markings to the earlier artifact, and reveals to the group that Eve is actually a young genius who's been an expert on all things Pokémopolis since she was six, much to their surprise. A flustered Eve pushes the professor out of the tent before showing the group an ancient tablet, which says that two great powers of destruction will fight and destroy the world, and no human knows the secret to stop them.
As the night falls, Team Rocket sneaks into the campsite to steal valuable artifacts. Figuring the best treasures have still not been unearthed, Jessie has her Arbok enter the temple and bring back the most valuable thing it can find. It brings back a dark object that is shaped like three dark orbs stuck together. Suddenly, Arbok gets absorbed into the artifact, much to the trio's horror. They attempt to run away, but suddenly find themselves frozen in place, leaving them helpless as footprint with no visible owner approaches them from behind, along with the artifact.
The next day, the professor finds the artifact discovered by Team Rocket, identifying it as the "Dark Device", and is suddenly absorbed by it. The Dark Device then absorbs all the archaeologists except Eve and turns into a giant Gengar with strange markings on it. As dark clouds cover the sky, Gengar starts heading towards Pallet Town. Ash and his friends chase after it while Eve heads back to her van, where the artifacts are floating around. Ash sends Pidgeotto after Gengar, but its Gust doesn't do much, and Pidgeotto also ends up being absorbed. Brock sends Onix after it and has Onix use Bind, wrapping around Gengar's leg, but Gengar absorbs it too.
Gengar turns around to chase Ash and his friends back to the van, where Eve is possessed by the two previously discovered artifacts. The spoon sticks in the other artifact like a key, and the spell on Eve and the other artifacts is broken. The two artifacts transform into a giant Alakazam, also with strange markings on it. Gengar and Alakazam start battling each other, with Alakazam shooting out blasts of energy that transform into strangely shaped stones upon hitting the ground. Gengar and Alakazam enter a beam struggle with Night Shade and Psybeam respectively, and where the beams collide, they shoot into the sky, threatening to destroy the entire planet.
Ash attempts to stop the giant Pokémon by catching them, but his Poké Balls are destroyed before they can even get close to their targets. The titans then use Disable to freeze the heroes in place, but Ash has the still-unfrozen Pikachu jump into the water and use Thunderbolt, shocking both Gengar and Alakazam enough for the heroes to be unfrozen and allow them to take cover. As the clash of the titans continues, Jigglypuff reappears on the scene. Misty suggests that perhaps Jigglypuff's singing could save them, so they have it sing for the two giants. Everyone inside the giant Gengar falls asleep, but Gengar and Alakazam do not, as Jigglypuff is too small to put them to sleep. Gengar knocks Alakazam backward, and it crashes into Jigglypuff, sending it blasting off.
However, Jigglypuff's song makes the giant bell glow, and it summons forth a giant Jigglypuff. The giant Jigglypuff's song is loud and powerful enough to put the giant Gengar and Alakazam to sleep, as well as everyone else. Just like the regular Jigglypuff, the giant Jigglypuff gets angry when it sees that Gengar and Alakazam have fallen asleep, and pulls off the head of the bell, revealing it to be a giant paintbrush, and scribbles on Gengar and Alakazam's faces. When Ash and the others wake up, the dark clouds have vanished, as have the three giant Pokémon, while the artifacts and all the giant Gengar's victims have all reappeared. Relieved to have gotten free of the nightmarish situation, Team Rocket cries in relief before running away. Eve examines the artifacts, theorizing that they could actually be primitive Poké Balls and deciding to study them more in order to unlock more of Pokémopolis's hidden secrets.
Major events
- Brock's Vulpix is revealed to know Quick Attack*.
- For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series: The Beginning, please see the timeline page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
TV episode debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Jigglypuff (US and international), Alakazam (Japan)
Trivia
- Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture: Rapidash
- Pokémon senryū summary: Cold winter; if Rapidash was here, it would be warm.
- A stone tablet very similar to the one that Eve deciphers appears almost exactly four years later in A Ruin with a View. It shows up in the possession of Professor Alden, who learns from it the way to get into the stone chamber of the Oldale Ruins.
- The object from which Gengar is released resembles a vajra. A bell and a vajra are two of the ritual objects used in Vajrayana Buddhism.
- This is the second time someone, namely the giant Gengar and Alakazam, doesn't fall asleep to Jigglypuff's song, this time because Jigglypuff was too small to affect them.
- The giant Gengar's ability to trap other people and Pokémon inside its body is somewhat similar to Meta Groudon from Jirachi: Wish Maker. Team Rocket was also trapped inside both.
- In The Battlefield of Truth and Love!, almost 1,000 episodes later, it would be shown that regular Gengar can take others into their body, though temporarily.
- Alakazam uses a move similar to Psycho Cut, although the move wasn't revealed until three generations later.
- Jigglypuff blasts off instead of Team Rocket in this episode.
- Unlike how it usually sleeps, Togepi does not retract its spikes when it falls asleep due to the giant Jigglypuff's song.
- Ash makes a reference to The Tower of Terror when he mentions that the last Gengar he saw wasn't even as big as him.
- This episode is featured on Volume 2: Jigglypuff from VIZ Media's Pokémon All-Stars series.
Errors
- Although Arbok was the first Pokémon to go into the Dark Device, it is never seen for the rest of the episode.
- Muk appears much smaller than normal when seen next to Professor Oak.
- In the English dub:
- The title card for this episode misspells Pokémopolis as Pokemopolis without the e acute (é).
- Brock tells Vulpix to use Agility in this episode, a move it was normally incapable of learning until the Generation VIII. In the original Japanese version, he instead tells it to use Quick Attack.
The misspelled title card
Muk's size
Dub edits
- Pikachu's Jukebox: My Best Friends
- At the start of the Japanese version, Ash and Brock both told their Pokémon to use Quick Attack instead of Agility.
- Brock and Misty's dialogue while commentating on the Psyduck dogū is different between the Japanese version and the English dub. In the original version, Misty is surprised to learn that an ancient civilization worshipped Psyduck, while Brock says he read about Pokémopolis long ago in a book. In the dub, their comments are effectively swapped, with Misty mentioning having read about a temple built for worshipping Pokémon, while Brock comments that a civilization must have been lost to have built a temple to honor Psyduck.
- The name of the Pokémopolis civilization is first mentioned by Misty in the English version instead of Brock.
- The part about Eve writing a book at age nine was exclusive to the English version.
- Instead of talking how she was afraid of doctors when she was eight, Misty originally said that she can't call Eve "Eve-chan" now, but Eve responds by telling Misty to use -chan instead of -hakase, since she proclaims herself as "someone who loves ancient civilizations".
- In the English dub, James refers to a location in the real world, Miami Beach, after being trapped in the giant Gengar. In the original, he instead comments on the professor's nonchalant attitude.
- In the English dub, when Gengar and Alakazam immobilize Ash and the others, Brock says his body is frozen, while in the original version, he reveals the two Pokémon used Disable—a move Gengar could not learn until Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
- Ash commands Pikachu to use Thunder Shock on Gengar and Alakazam to free himself, Misty, Brock, and Eve from being frozen by Gengar and Alakazam. In the original Japanese version, Ash commands Pikachu to use Thunderbolt instead.
- In the Italian dub, when Jessie and James plan what to do once they'll be rich thanks to the stolen artifacts, they make several real-world references, saying they'll be like Sitting Bull, an Egyptian pharaoh, a Roman emperor, an Assyrian king, and a Chinese emperor.
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
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 Arabic
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لغز اللوح الأثري | |
| Mandarin Chinese | 激烈衝突超古代神奇寶貝 | |
 Czech
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Starobylá hádanka Pokémopolisu | |
 Danish
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Gåden Om Det Gamle Pokémon Palads | |
 Dutch
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Geheimen uit de Oudheid | |
 Finnish
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Pokémopoliksen arvoitus | |
 European French
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Le mystère enfoui de Pokémonpolis | |
 German
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Die rätselhafte Tempelruine | |
 Hebrew
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תעלומת פוקימופוליס Taalumat Pokémopolis | |
 Hindi
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पोकेमोपोलीस शहर की प्राचीन पहेली Pokemopolis sheher ki Prachin Paheli! * | |
 Hungarian
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Pokémonpolis rejtélye | |
 Italian
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Un mistero dopo l'altro | |
 Korean
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포케모니아 문명과 거대 포켓몬 | |
 Norwegian
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Pokémopolis urgamle gåte | |
 Polish
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Starożytne miasto Pokémopolis | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
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O Antigo Quebra-Cabeça de Pokemópolis |
 Portugal
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O Antigo Puzzle de Pokémopolis | |
 Romanian
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Puzzle-ul Antic al Pokémopolisului | |
 Russian
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Древняя загадка Покемонополиса | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
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¡El misterio de Pokémopolis! |
 Spain
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El antiguo rompecabezas de Pokémopolis | |
 Swedish
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Pokémopolis hemlighet | |
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |