A Test in Paradise! (Japanese: カイリューの楽園、ハクリューの試練!, Hepburn: Kairyu no Rakuen, Hakuryu no Shiren!, trans. Kairyu's Paradise, Hakuryu's Ordeal!) is the 10th episode of Pocket Monsters (2019 series), and Pokémon Journeys: The Series of Pokémon Journeys: The Series.
Synopsis[]
After Professor Cerise tells Ash and Goh about a rumor of an island inhabited by Dragonite, our heroes set out to find it. But they get caught in a storm, only to be rescued by a group of Dragonite who take them straight to Dragonite Island! While exploring, they come across a Dragonair who's having trouble learning how to fly. Determined to help, Ash does some training with Dragonair, and soon it's flying high. When Team Rocket attacks, it springs into action, evolving into Dragonite to rescue Ash—and then it happily joins his team! Our heroes return to the Cerise Laboratory with some amazing stories…and a new friend![1]
Episode plot[]
At the Cerise Laboratory, everyone in the lab watches the news about a man being saved by the Pokémon known as Dragonite. Ash wants to meet the Dragonite, but Ren states that not many of them live in the wild as they are the evolved form of Dratini and Dragonair. However, Cerise does mention that there is a rumor about an island where only Dragonite live, which Goh checks and discovers a report about some sightings that occurred a couple of years ago. Ash and Goh decide to head to the Island to investigate.
As the boys arrive at Vermilion port, Goh brings a lot of Poké Balls so he can complete Dratini's evolutionary line. However, their boat is unable to take them that far on their mission, so they decide to catch a Dewgong as their ride to the island. However, Team Rocket is following the boys and had heard them talking about the Island of Dragonite and plan to steal some for Giovanni. Goh finds a Dewgong and attempts to catch it, but fails many times until he finally succeeds. While on their way to Dragonite Island, Dewgong becomes infatuated with a female and proceeds to follow it. As a result, he inadvertently leads Ash, Pikachu, and Goh into a thunderstorm. After being struck down by waves, Ash spots a flock of Dragonite approaching them before blacking out.
The boys wake up to find themselves surrounded by multiple Dragonite and a Dragonair and realize they have washed up on Dragonite Island. Goh immediately attempts to capture one of the Dragonite, only to freak out because he had wasted all of his Poké Balls trying to catch Dewgong. Ash offers him one of his Poké Balls, but Goh declines, saying that Ash might need it later on. The head Dragonite and Dragonair decide to show Ash and Goh around the island, much to their excitement. They see many Dragonite living on the island and soon spot three Dragonair performing Dragon Dance. The one Dragonair seems discouraged at seeing the other three perform the move until Scorbunny shows up wearing a molted Dratini skin, which leads them to watch a wild Dragonite helping a Dratini shedding its skin. While watching both Pikachu and Scorbunny playing with Dragonair, both Ash and Goh discuss the evolutionary lines of Dratini, questioning how a Pokémon like Dragonair evolves into Dragonite by gaining arms and legs, and believe it would make more sense for it to evolve into something more serpentine such as Milotic.
Later, Goh soon explains that the Island is always concealed by storms created by the Dragonite's power which is why most people can't get to their island. They watch the Dragonite fly off into the storm clouds, as Ash spots a Dragonite trying to help the Dragonair from before fly. Seeing it struggling, Ash decides to help Dragonair by teaching it Dragon Dance, much to Goh's shock. Ash has Pikachu use Electroweb to create a trampoline, and then jumps on it, but is electrocuted. When he tries again, the same thing happens. On the third try, Dragonair jumps with Ash and got electrocuted as well, but it begins flying. Finally, it comes back down and gets electrocuted again, but by now, it is now completely flying and hugs Ash in gratitude.
Dragonair then senses something just happened and Ash decides to assist it, but cannot get a good grip since Dragonair's skin is slippery, so he lets Dragonair fly and find its friends. It soon learns that the head Dragonite has been captured by the Team Rocket trio who survived the stormy weather. It immediately rushes back to the island to inform Ash and Goh, who has his Dewgong carry them to the scene.
Jessie grabs a Poké Ball from their Vending Secret and sends a Wailord to attack them both as James explains to them about Wailmer's fully evolved form before unleashing its Flop. Ash sends Pikachu to break the cage using Iron Tail, freeing Dragonite an reuniting with Dragonair. Jessie then orders Wailord to use Flop but its move causes it to accidentally hit its head on one of their boat logs, resulting in a massive wave that sends Ash into the sky. Dragonair dives after Ash and tries to save him but just like before, its skin is too slippery for Ash to hold on to, worrying both of them. Dragonair soon evolves into Dragonite by sprouting arms and legs to rescue Ash just before he falls into Wailord's Whirlpool. After sending Team Rocket blasting off with a Hyper Beam, the head Dragonite congratulates its friend on its evolution and rescue efforts. Ash then deduces that the reason Dragonair grow limbs when they evolve is so that they can protect those that they care about. Dragonite then hugs Ash and decides to join his team, allowing Ash to capture it.
They later return to Cerise Laboratory to show their pictures during their stay at the island to Professor Cerise, who decides to keep Dragonite Island a secret. Dragonite excitedly hugs him in pain, much to everyone's laughter.
Debuts[]
Pokémon[]
Trivia[]
- "Who's That Pokémon?:" Dragonite
- This is the first episode where a Dragonair evolves into a Dragonite.
- This marks the longest time taken for Ash to catch his first Pokémon in a new series, at ten episodes, surpassing the Ruby and Sapphire series and Sun & Moon series, with four episodes.
- This marks the first time Ash has caught a fully evolved Pokémon since he caught Noctowl in "Fowl Play!", 941 episodes earlier.
- As such, this also marks the first instance of Ash catching a fully evolved Pokémon outside of the original series.
- This also marks the first time Ash has caught a Pokémon that isn't from a brand new region as his first new Pokémon in a new series, where his first capture takes place in the Kanto region instead of the newest region Galar.
- This is the second episode to feature an island inhabited by the evolutionary line of Dratini headed by a Dragonite in this episode. The first is "Beach Blank-Out Blastoise" where they discovered an island inhabited by the evolutionary line of Squirtle headed by its king Blastoise.
- In this episode, Ash wears a teal vest within his current main outfit as opposed to his blue vest.
This is the first episode that Dratini sheds its skin in the anime series.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ (n.d.) . "The Official Pokémon Website | Pokemon.com". From A Test in Paradise! | Pokémon TV (pokemon.com). Archived from the original on December 9, 2023.
