Pokémon season 22: Sun & Moon—Ultra Legends — the season where Ash finally becomes Champion

This is the season of victory. After twenty-two years on the air and eight regions explored, Ash finally wins an official regional League, Alola's, at the end of the longest tournament the anime has ever staged. Ultra Legends wraps up cycle 6, closes out the Pokémon School year, and sends each character off toward their own plans. It also brings back Misty and Brock, a Meltan that becomes Melmetal, and a professor who gets unmasked.

Contents

• The season that closes cycle 6
• Broadcast: three schedules, three countries
• Before the tournament: Poni, visitors from Kanto and the last trials
• The Alola League: format, participants, how it played out
• The final against Gladion and the crowning moment
• The exhibition match and the unmasked professor
• Ash, his classmates and everyone's dreams
• Team Rocket, Team Skull and the Ultra Beasts
• The French broadcast and the movie of the same period
• What season 22 leaves behind
• Season 22 at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The season that closes cycle 6

Season 22's French title is Pokémon, la série: Soleil et Lune - Ultra-Légendes (in English, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Legends). It's the third and final season of cycle 6, the Sun & Moon cycle, following season 20, which introduced Alola, and season 21, which tipped the series into fantasy territory with the Ultra Beasts. It covers episodes SM093 to SM146, a total of 54 episodes.

Its narrative purpose is clear: to deliver on the promise made by the previous season. In it, Professor Kukui had announced, almost in passing, that he was working to create a Pokémon League in Alola. Season 22 makes the project official, stages it over seventeen episodes, then takes the time to say goodbye to each character.

As with every season, it's worth remembering that the split into seasons is itself a Western one. Japan aired these episodes continuously, with no season label, and in fact changed time slots just before: as of October 7, 2018 and SM091, the second-to-last episode of season 21, the series moved from Thursdays at 6:55 p.m. to Sundays at 6 p.m.

After this season, everything changes: the title, the format, the companions and the region. Season 23 is the one that opens cycle 7, and the contrast between the two is one of the sharpest in the franchise's entire history. The feature on Pokémon Sun and Moon shows how much the series kept from the games and how much it invented.

One last word on what season 22 isn't. It's neither a trip around the world nor a global tournament: everything plays out on the Alola archipelago, within a school year that is coming to an end. The franchise's big international competitions belong to the next cycle, and mixing up the two is the most common mistake about this period of the series.

Broadcast: three schedules, three countries

Season 22's episodes first aired in Japan between October 21, 2018, with episode SM093, and November 3, 2019, with episode SM146. These are the dates of the Japanese episodes, not of a Japanese season, since that notion doesn't exist in the series' home country.

In the United States, the season premiered on March 23, 2019 on Disney XD and ended on March 7, 2020. It held the Saturday morning slot throughout the 2019-2020 TV season. Canada had gotten it a little earlier, starting March 2, 2019 on Teletoon.

In France, the season premiered on June 3, 2019 on Canal J, Monday through Friday at 4:30 p.m., a daily pace that stands in sharp contrast to the weekly American broadcast. It ended on April 24, 2020, with three episodes aired on the same day, including the very last one, Merci, Alola! Et le voyage continue! (in English, Thank You, Alola! The Journey Continues!).

The French theme song is titled Le défi de la vie (in English, The Challenge of Life). Its instrumental version serves as the ending theme, set to the footage of cycle 6's second Japanese ending. The music is still by Ed Goldfarb, as on the cycle's previous seasons.

Before the tournament: Poni, visitors from Kanto and the last trials

The first half of the season takes its time. For two episodes, Ash and Pikachu are thrown into a ruined parallel dimension, where they meet a boy named Dia and his Zeraora, and take on a Guzzlord before they can go home. It's one of the series' rare outright science-fiction detours.

Next comes a gift for longtime viewers: Misty and Brock come to visit Alola, in a surprise arranged by Lana. Ash's two original companions spend two episodes with the class before heading back to Kanto, with Brock leaving with a Comfey given to him by Nurse Joy.

The group then settles in on Poni Island for several days. The island has had no kahuna since the previous one, Hapu's grandfather, stepped down because of his age: it's during this stay that Tapu Fini recognizes the young girl and appoints her through a ritual at the Ruins of Hope. Ash therefore takes his grand trial against the new kahuna, a one-on-one battle that Pikachu wins against her Mudsdale, and Hapu presents him with a case of Z-Crystals, from which he picks the Steel-type one.

💎 Faced with the case of Z-Crystals that Hapu holds out to him, Ash picks the Steel-type one; our Pokémon necklaces ask you the same question, except the stone ends up around your neck.

The companions make progress of their own throughout the season. Three evolutions mark these episodes: Sophocles's Charjabug becomes Vikavolt, while Lana's Popplio evolves into Brionne as early as episode SM106 before reaching Primarina in episode SM120. Mallow, for her part, befriends a wild Shaymin that agrees to stay with her. Ash, meanwhile, catches a Meltan that will play a major role later on.

The Alola League: format, participants, how it played out

Professor Kukui makes the League official midway through the season, in episode SM115. It is to be held at Manalo Stadium, a floating structure built by the Aether Foundation near Aether Paradise, still under construction on the day of the announcement and completed just before the tournament, and its winner will become the very first Champion in the region's history. The Alola League gets underway for real in episode SM128.

Its format is unlike any other. The tournament opens with a giant Battle Royal featuring all 151 participants — a number that nods to the 151 Pokémon of the first generation. The last sixteen left standing qualify for a one-on-one round of sixteen, followed by quarterfinals, also one-on-one, two-on-two semifinals, and a three-on-three final.

Another unusual feature: Ash's entire group takes part, which had never happened before. Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Lana and Sophocles all enter, as do Gladion, Hau, Jessie, James, Faba, Acerola, Mina and Guzma, the boss of Team Skull, who entered to wreck the League and shatter the dream of Professor Kukui, his lifelong rival. It's the League with the most identified Trainers in the entire series: twenty-seven named participants by Bulbapedia's count, versus only twenty-four entries in Poképédia's bracket, which groups the Team Skull grunts on a single line.

Ash's run comes down to four battles. He knocks out Faba in the first round, then Hau in the quarterfinals, then Guzma in the semifinals, before facing Gladion in the final. Poképédia points out a detail few viewers notice: it's the only official League in which Ash doesn't lose a single battle.

The tournament racks up firsts. It's the only League in which a wild Pokémon has been allowed to battle, in this case the Shaymin that travels with Mallow. It's also the first time every Trainer's identity is known from the round of sixteen on, and the first in which Ash shows up with fewer than six Pokémon on his team — he only gets his sixth back for the exhibition match that closes out the tournament.

The final against Gladion and the crowning moment

The final is a three-on-three battle spread over two episodes, SM138 and SM139. The night before the match, Ash's Meltan merges with a swarm of wild Meltan to become Melmetal, but falls to the Silvally fielded by Gladion, which Pikachu knocks out right after. Pikachu then takes down the opposing Zoroark in a double knockout, and it's Ash's Lycanroc in its Dusk Form that finishes off Gladion's Midnight Form Lycanroc.

Ash wins the Alola League and becomes the region's first Champion, in episode SM139, titled Enter the Champion! (Place au Maître! in French). The episode aired in Japan on September 15, 2019, in the United States on January 18, 2020, and in France on March 1, 2020.

One clarification is needed, because this is where the confusion starts. This isn't Ash's first tournament win: he had already won the Orange League, a side circuit in the Orange Islands, much earlier in the series. The Alola League, on the other hand, is his first win in an official regional League, after repeated failures in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova and a lost final in Kalos. The feature devoted to Ash and the Pokémon anime traces this track record in detail.

Nor should this title be confused with that of world champion. Ash's world title belongs to the next cycle: he would earn it by winning the Masters Eight Tournament, the final stage of the World Coronation Series, in season 25. The Alola League is a regional title, not a global one.

The exhibition match and the unmasked professor

The trophy ceremony is interrupted by the sudden arrival of three Guzzlord, two of them Shiny, each emerging from its own Ultra Wormhole. It takes a coalition of all the finalists and the Masked Royal to send them back home, and that's when the masked wrestler loses his mask in public.

The reveal is one of the longest-running gags in the series: the Masked Royal is none other than Professor Kukui, Alola's professor and Ash's teacher. Everyone had figured it out except the characters, and the season makes a point of making the confession public.

🎭 Under the Masked Royal's costume was Professor Kukui, a secret everyone had seen through except the characters; with our Pokémon costumes, it's up to you to decide who gets to see behind the mask.

The League's founder planned one last stage: the winner takes on the founder in a six-on-six exhibition match. The battle stretches over four episodes, SM141 to SM144. For the occasion, Ash gets back his old Poipole, which returns evolved into Naganadel, and his Torracat evolves into Incineroar against the professor's Incineroar.

Kukui's last Pokémon isn't a caught Pokémon but a guardian: Tapu Koko joins him to close out the battle. Pikachu wins with 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, the Z-Move exclusive to Pikachu in a cap. So Ash wins this match too, which remains an exception in a series where battles against authority figures almost always end in defeat.

Ash, his classmates and everyone's dreams

The cast is unchanged from seasons 20 and 21: Ash goes through all of cycle 6 with the same five schoolmates. It isn't the stability that's new — the Advanced Generation, Diamond and Pearl, Black & White and XY cycles also kept theirs once the group came together in the early episodes — but the number: with six main characters, Sun & Moon is the cycle with the most of any in the series. Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Lana and Sophocles are there from the first episode to the last, with Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet as their mentors.

The final episodes settle each character's path. Lillie finally manages to wake up the old automaton Magearna, with help from her brother's Zoroark, and leaves with Gladion and Lusamine to search for their father, who vanished into an Ultra Wormhole. Sophocles heads for the space center in Mossdeep City, in the Hoenn region. Lana sets out to sea hoping to get close to Manaphy.

Mallow wants to turn the family restaurant into a place open to humans and Pokémon alike, and Kiawe intends to complete the island challenge so he can become a kahuna in turn. Mallow's Shaymin leaves her in the final episode, taking on its Sky Forme on contact with Gracidea flowers. The Rotom Pokédex, for its part, stays behind to work at Aether Paradise.

📱 The Rotom Pokédex stays behind to work at Aether Paradise instead of leaving with Ash; our Pokémon iPhone cases, on the other hand, dress up the screen that follows you around in your pocket.

Finally, Ash leaves his entire Alola team with Professor Kukui: Rowlet, Lycanroc, Incineroar and Melmetal stay on the archipelago. He goes home to Pallet Town with Pikachu and a brand-new plan: to travel the whole world. That is exactly the starting point of season 23.

Team Rocket, Team Skull and the Ultra Beasts

Team Rocket gets one of its best roles here. Jessie and James enter the League and take it seriously: they get through the Battle Royal, face each other in the round of sixteen, and James makes it all the way to the quarterfinals before falling to Gladion. The trio ends up releasing several of its Alola Pokémon when it's time to say goodbye.

The trio is no longer the only troublemaker around. It's the first League in which two criminal organizations compete at the same time, Team Rocket and Team Skull. Jessie also forms a touching bond with a lost Stufful whose mother turns out to be the Bewear that has been regularly kidnapping her for two seasons.

Guzma, the boss of Team Skull, makes his first appearance in the series midway through the season, with his Golisopod. It's Professor Kukui he has come to challenge, holding a grudge over past defeats, but he already battles Pikachu at the Pokémon School in his very first episode, and their semifinal is one of the tensest battles of the tournament. His second-in-command, Plumeria, also takes part and is knocked out in the preliminaries.

The Ultra Beasts don't disappear from the picture, though. The Ultra Guardians carry out three new missions this season, including the capture of a Pheromosa and a failed attempt on a Kartana that slices the Beast Ball to pieces and opens its own wormhole to go home.

The French broadcast and the movie of the same period

In France, the season aired on Canal J starting June 3, 2019, as a daily late-afternoon show. The first French episode is titled Le sceptre de Lilila! and the last one, Merci, Alola! Et le voyage continue!, aired on April 24, 2020. Belgium and Quebec followed their own schedules, with Quebec actually beating France by nearly two months.

The French titles follow their own logic, without copying the English ones. The episode featuring the final is called Place au Maître! in French and refers to the title of League Champion, whereas the Japanese title speaks of the birth of Alola's winner. It's a useful reminder: you should never infer a French title from a literal translation.

The movie released alongside this season is the twenty-second feature film, Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution, released in Japan on July 12, 2019 and in France on February 27, 2020. It isn't an episode of the season: the movies tell parallel stories with their own continuity, as explained in the feature on the Pokémon movies.

What season 22 leaves behind

The Alola League is the longest in the entire series, at seventeen episodes, and the only one in which every battle is shown on screen. Where earlier tournaments rushed through entire rounds in a recap, this one takes the time for each matchup, including those that don't involve the hero.

The season also closes the book on an unusual format. Cycle 6 had swapped the journey for school, the map for a classroom, and badge collecting for an island challenge. That experiment ends here, and the series would then return to something more mobile — though without going back to its original formula.

In terms of character, the legacy is clear. Ash leaves Alola with a regional title, something he had never achieved in six regions, and with an entire team left behind. This twofold decision — to win, then leave everything behind — frees him up for the traveling format of cycle 7.

One line remains, spoken on the final evening: Ash no longer just wants to become a Pokémon Master, he wants to travel the world. It's that line that gives season 23 its title and its shape. To place Alola among the franchise's other playgrounds, the feature on the regions of the Pokémon world covers it all.

Season 22 at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the exact French title of season 22?
  The French title is Pokémon, la série: Soleil et Lune - Ultra-Légendes, known in English as Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Legends. It's the third and final season of cycle 6, after season 20, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, and season 21, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Adventures.
• In which season does Ash win the Alola League?
  In season 22, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Legends. The tournament, called the Alola League, starts in episode SM128, and the final takes place in episode SM139, titled Enter the Champion! (Place au Maître! in French). Ash beats Gladion there in a three-on-three battle and becomes the first Champion in the region's history.
• Is the Alola League Ash's first win?
  It's his first win in an official regional League, but not his first title. He had already won the Orange League, which is a side circuit in the Orange Islands and not a regional League. Poképédia puts it this way: the Alola League is the second League Ash wins in the anime, after the Orange League.
• Is the Alola League the same thing as the world champion title?
  No, they're two separate things from two different cycles. The Alola League is a regional tournament won in season 22, at the end of cycle 6. The world champion title comes from the Masters Eight Tournament, the final stage of the World Coronation Series, which Ash wins in season 25, at the end of cycle 7.
• How does the Alola League work?
  It starts with a giant Battle Royal among 151 participants, a number that refers to the 151 Pokémon of the first generation. The last sixteen left standing compete in a one-on-one round of sixteen, then one-on-one quarterfinals, two-on-two semifinals and a three-on-three final. The winner then faces the League's founder, Professor Kukui, in a six-on-six exhibition match.
• Who are Ash's companions in season 22?
  The same classmates as in the two previous seasons: Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Lana and Sophocles, all students at the Pokémon School. Gladion, Lillie's brother, is very present, and Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet look after the group. Misty and Brock also pay Alola a two-episode visit.
• What happens to Ash's Pokémon at the end of the season?
  Ash leaves them all in Alola with Professor Kukui: Rowlet, Lycanroc, Incineroar and Melmetal. His Poipole, which came back evolved into Naganadel for the exhibition match, returns to its home world. Ash goes back to Pallet Town with only Pikachu, intending to travel the whole world.

In short