Japanese Title: The Guardian Deity Kapu-Kokeko Appears! Challenge, Our Z-Move!!
Original Airdate: November 17, 2016
UK Airdate: November 20, 2016 (special airing)
US Airdate: December 5, 2016 (special airing), May 12, 2017 (in sequence)
Face to face with Tapu Koko
On his first day at Pokémon School, Ash gets his first taste of island challenges. And another run-in with Tapu Koko leads to Ash and Pikachu feeling the true power of the Z-Move.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Sophocles challenges Ash, which Ash assumes to mean "battle". Cut to the pile of balloons.
- Attack Backfire: Ash tries to win the balloon challenge by having Pikachu use Thunderbolt to pop them all at once, only for Togedemaru to use its Lightning Rod ability to absorb the attack and use the energy to help pop its balloons even faster.
- Cliffhanger: Right at the end of the episode, Professor Kukui gives Ash his new Pokédex.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Pikachu gets thrashed in the first two challenges, which are weighted to favor Sophocles' Togedemaru and Lana's Popplio. Ash does much better in the Tauros race with Kiawe, which doesn't favor either challenger, though he still loses by a narrow margin.
- Fish out of Water: Ash and Pikachu have already proved their battle mastery, but bumble at the more diverse Pokémon games offered by the classmates, foreshadowing the need to prepare for the island challenges.
- Foreshadowing: Near the beginning of the episode, Kiawe delivers a speech to Ash about what it actually means to have a Z-ring & crystal. 15 episodes later, it's revealed that Kiawe wasn't joking about it.
- Idiot Ball: Ash touches the Alolan Exeggutor without waiting for Samson to finish his lecture, which angers the independent tail head and gets him whacked into a nearby ladder.
- Meet Cute: Ash and Pikachu getting acquainted with Professor Kukui's Rockruff.
- Mythology Gag: There are some allusions to the game versions of Ash's classmates at the beginning of the episode; Sophocles' inventiveness relates to his status as the keeper of the Festival Plaza in the games, which is the main access to network connectivity. Mallow is into cooking, just as she is in the game.
- No-Sell: Tapu Koko takes Pikachu's Thunderbolt, boosted by its own Electric Surge (an Ability form of the move Electric Terrain), without a scratch. It also takes a direct hit from Pikachu's Gigavolt Havoc without damage, though it had to guard with its mask in that instance. Though it makes sense that it wouldn't be as effective against Tapu Koko, since its primary type is Electric.
- Oh, Crap!: Tapu Koko's expression changes ever so slightly when it's about to be hit by Gigavolt Havoc. It looks like, while it chose well in granting a Z-Ring to Ash, it might've underestimated him even then.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Played with. It looks like Ash is doing the Electric-Type Z move on his own, but if you pay attention, you notice that he is actually following Tapu Koko's motions to do the move. In addition, the Electrium-Z crystal shatters after Pikachu uses Gigavolt Havoc, showing that while Ash has the potential to use Z-power, he's not quite ready for it.
