Pokémon: Advanced Challenge

Pokémon: Advanced Challenge is the seventh season of the Pokémon anime series and the second season of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation. It originally aired in Japan from September 4, 2003, to September 2, 2004, on TV Tokyo, and in the United States from September 11, 2004, to September 10, 2005, on Kids' WB.
The season follows Ash Ketchum and his partner Pikachu as they collect Gym Badges in the Hoenn region to compete in the Hoenn League. Along the way, they are joined by Brock, Pokémon Coordinator May who participates in Pokémon Contests, and her younger brother Max.
The episodes were directed by Masamitsu Hidaka and produced by the animation studio OLM.

Episode list

Music

The Japanese opening songs are "Advance Adventure" by GARDEN for 30 episodes, and "Challenger!!" by Rica Matsumoto for 22 episodes. The ending songs are "Polka O Dolka" by Inuko Inuyama and Nolsol Chorus Group for 4 episodes, Toshiko Ezaki performed "Because the Sky is There" for 7 episodes, and "Smile" for 42 episodes, "Full of Summer!!" by Naomi Tamura and Himawari Chorus for 8 episodes, "Smile" by Toshiko Ezaki for 1 episode, and the English opening song is "This Dream" by David Rolfe. A shortened version is used as the end credit song.

Home media

In the United States, the series was released on 10 DVD volumes by Viz Media between 2005-2006.
Viz Media and Warner Home Video later released Pokémon: Advanced Challenge – The Complete Collection on DVD on December 5, 2017.