| Food Fit for a Kingambit!
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看板ポケモンはドドゲザン!?
The Signature Pokémon is Dodogezan!?
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First broadcast
| Japan
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July 12, 2024
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| United States
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April 25, 2025
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Food Fit for a Kingambit! (Japanese: 看板ポケモンはドドゲザン！？ The Signature Pokémon is Dodogezan!?) is the 58th episode of Pokémon Horizons: The Series, and the 1,290th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on July 12, 2024, in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2025, in Australia on March 18, 2025, and in the United States on April 25, 2025.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Blurb
While visiting Medali, Liko, Roy, and Dot decide to try one of its famous eateries. Enter the Anything Goes Café, where disharmony seasons both the food and the relationships. Nandy and Mokichi—and their Kingambit—are struggling to bring in customers thanks to their complicated house special. And to top it off, Kingambit’s booming voice leaves a bad taste in patrons’ mouths. The trio and Quaxly lend a hand, with Dot using lessons she learned from streaming to improve the menu and the dining experience—and to battle! The special ingredient for success seems to lie with Kingambit, but something about the Pokémon seems off. Can our heroes save the day…and the café?
Plot
Liko, Roy, and Dot have arrived at Medali for Dot's second Tera Training test. Walking through the city renowned for its many restaurants, they spot an old couple arguing while trying to clean up a griddle. Dot's Tinkatink eagerly approaches the item, but a sudden, booming yell from a Kingambit halts her and startles the group with its volume. The old couple, Nandy and Mokichi, apologize for the Pokémon's habit of trying to attract customers and invite the children to visit their restaurant, the Anything Goes Café, as an apology for scaring them. While waiting for their meals, Roy checks Kingambit's data on his Rotom Phone, learning that it's a Pokémon that strives forward with brute strength, which is showcased when it accidentally sets down a salad plate hard enough to shatter the plate, despite trying to be gentle with it, and bows down in apology. Nandy asks Kingambit to return outside to welcome customers while the trio gets their meals, which turns out to be mishmash bowlfuls of food items called House Specials.
The children dig into their meals, but the assortment of flavors in it leaves them confused at how to describe how it tastes like. Nandy and Mokichi get into an argument regarding Mokichi's way of preparing the meal in a thoughtless fashion of piling together random stuff. Dot, meanwhile, discovers udon at the bottom of the meal, which she finds very tasty. Nandy and Mokichi reveal that the noodles were made by Kingambit, who excels at any job that requires a lot of muscle. As the group's Pokémon get their own sets of House Specials, Liko questions the reason behind the dish's extravagant nature. Nandy explains that they are trying to not get shown up by the Treasure Eatery, the biggest and most popular restaurant in Medali, which has started to drain away even some of their old regulars. As such, they came up with the House Special to compete with the Treasure Eatery's menu, though they end up tossing everything into a single bowl to make it easier for Kingambit to carry. Mokichi prepares to make more, only to notice that his iron griddle is missing. Noticing that Tinkatink is also missing, Dot fears the worst and rushes outside to, indeed, find Tinkatink having just finished fashioning the griddle into a new hammer. To pay up for the lost griddle, the children are put work at the restaurant for the rest of the day, with Liko helping to clean the place up, Roy going outside to advertise the Anything Goes Café alongside Kingambit, and Dot heading out to buy a new griddle. Roy questions Dot's decision to take Tinkatink along, considering what happened with the previous griddle, but Dot isn't worried, knowing that Tinkatink has an eye for good quality iron, so the griddle that she finds interesting is bound to be a good one. Liko is surprised to see Dot being more in-tune with Tinkatink than she expected, but the realization also makes her happy.
Dot eventually returns with a new griddle, finding Roy having a hard time getting any new customers for the restaurant, partially due to Kingambit's booming voice intimidating people. Kingambit's loud attempt to greet a young boy results in the boy starting to cry, but he's quickly cheered up by Dot's Quaxly's happy dancing. The dance performance attracts a small crowd, which Roy and Dot use to grab people's attention and lead then to the Anything Goes Café. Soon enough, the restaurant is filled with people, keeping, Liko, Roy, and Dot busy, though Mokichi is briefly distracted by how silent Kingambit has suddenly gotten. Taking a break from the exhausting work, Dot goes to sit outside, where he's soon met by Mokichi. Mokichi says that Kingambit is not feeling as cheerful as usual, which has never happened before since they first met years ago and started the Anything Goes Café together. Dot is surprised to learn that Nandy wasn't at the restaurant from the start. Mokichi explains how he first met her when Kingambit's yelling caused her to throw out her back, and an apology meal at the restaurant had eventually led to them living together. Kingambit is the thing that keeps the two of them cheerful, so seeing it lose its cheerfulness worries Mokichi. Dot feels that maybe her and her friends taking its usual jobs is why Kingambit is feeling downcast, but Mokichi assures her to not blame herself, only wanting to find out how to get Kingambit back to its old, cheerfully hollering self again.
Seeing several leaving customers feeling hesitant about the idea of coming back makes Dot realize something. She, her friends, Nandy, and Mokichi gather inside the restaurant as she gives a briefing on what she feels is wrong. The problem, she determines, lies in the fact that while Quaxly was able to get them some customers just now, the House Special is so full of different stuff that it doesn't have a distinct flavor which would leave a lasting impression on people and make them want to come back for more. She bases her deduction on her career as a livestreamer, which requires her to always think of new ways to make viewers come back to view and comment on her videos. She declares that the solution to this problem lies in the udon made by Kingambit, the most delicious part of the meal. Since the House Special is currently so full of everything that the flavor of the udon doesn't have a chance to leave a lasting impression, it needs to be revised to into a new specialty dish that allows Kingambit's udon to stand on its own. Kingambit backs away at this sudden new suggestion, only to almost back straight into Sidian as he opens the front door to enter. He barely has enough time to recognize Liko, Roy, and Dot before Quaxly charges at him, only to stumble and slam straight into his leg. Sidian mistakes this act as a challenge for a Pokémon battle and accepts the supposed challenge. Sensing an opportunity, Dot tells Kingambit to start preparing udon dough for the afternoon opening.
Moving outside the restaurant, Sidian and Dot start their battle. Sidian's Garganacl makes the first move with Salt Cure, which Quaxly dodges. Quaxly tries to counterattack with Liquidation, but is blocked by Garganacl's Iron Defense. A crowd starts to gather to watch the battle, just like Dot had hoped in order to gather more customers. When Garganacl uses Salt Cure again, Dot has Quaxly counter it with a Low Kick, creating a beautiful shower of salt particles that captivates the crowd. Dot asks Sidian to do the same again, which he is all too agreeing to oblige to, allowing Quaxly to create another captivating shower of salt. Dot then calls out to Kingambit, who lets out one of its signature loud yells, attracting the crowd's attention to the restaurant. To seal the deal, Dot tells Liko to open up the door, allowing the crowd to smell the delicious scent of Kingambit's udon dough. Dot announces to the crowd that starting from this afternoon opening, the restaurant's menu will include the brand-new Kingambit Noodles meal, and invites everyone to come in. The crowd eagerly follows, leaving Sidian confused at what happened to their battle, though he too quickly notices how hungry he feels.
The Kingambit Noodles prove to be a massive success, with customers, including Sidian, finding it delicious, some of them even asking for seconds and promising to come again. Kingambit is back to doing its usual hollers, making Dot happy to see it being so cheerful again. Eventually, Liko, Roy, and Dot all get to taste the new meal as well, finding it just as tasty as expected. Mokichi thanks the children, and especially Dot, for their help. While he and his wife start working on more udon, at the counter, Larry finishes his own bowlful, liking the simplicity of the meal. As he leaves, Dot seems to suddenly notice him and tries to get a closer look, but tells her friends it was nothing when they turn to look and see no one.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in Pokémon Horizons: The Series, please see the timeline page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Trivia
- Professor Friede's Pokémon Seminar: What is the characteristic of Kingambit's fighting style?
- Choices: Brute force, intelligence, a surprise attack
- Answer: Brute force
- It is one of the few instances in this series where the English dub title isn't a more or less direct translation of the Japanese title. Instead the English dub title is a play on the idiom "fit for a king".
- At one point, Nandy mentions how "that adventurer guy" hasn't shown up lately. This is likely a reference to a line spoken by Friede in The Lonely Hatenna, where he mentions having once dined at a restaurant when a married couple started arguing loudly and ruined his appetite, a description that matches Nandy and Mokichi's portrayal in this episode.
- In the English dub, Nandy mentions how they "don't even get the adventurers passing through no more" - making the reference less direct.
- After the second time Dot commands Quaxly to deflect Garganacl's Salt Cure, an Azumarill can be seen coughing, likely a reference to how Salt Cure's effect does double the damage to Water-type Pokémon.
- This is the first episode in which Sidian appears but Coral does not, as well as the first episode in which Sidian is the only member of the Explorers to appear.
- The first eyecatch features Dot and her Tinkatink, and the second features Dot and her Quaxly.
- Liko, Dot, Roy, Floragato, and Quaxly narrate the preview for the next episode.
Errors
Dub edits
In other languages
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.
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