Japanese Episode DP 171

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Episode Stats:
Japanese Episode DP 171: "Togekiss Dances About! The Princess' Pokémon Contest!!"
American Episode 1314: "Dawn of a Royal Day!"
Japanese Air Date: April 1st, 2010
American Air Date: August 28th, 2010
Important Characters: Princess Salvia (Princess Salvia), Freesia (Freesia)
Important Places: Katakuri Town (Arrowroot Town)

Satoshi and his friends are passing through Katakuri Town one day when they are approached by a maid. She tells Hikari that she's been waiting for her and takes her to a nearby mansion. There, Hikari comes face to face with a girl who looks exactly like her! The girl, Princess Salvia, has a lot of business to take care of that day, so she asks Hikari if she would be willing to fill in for her while she tries her hand at the upcoming Pokémon Contest. Hikari agrees, so the two girls switch clothes and take each other's place. At the Contest Hall, "Hikari" and her Togekiss skillfully make it through the Appeals round. Meanwhile, Hikari, disguised as the princess, has trouble fitting in with her alter ego's high class acquaintances. Eventually, "Hikari" and Candy Musalina face each other in the final round of the Pokémon Contest. Candy Musalina has the upper hand for a while, but "Hikari" eventually pulls herself together and earns a victory by knocking out her opponent. After the Contest, "Hikari" approaches Candy Musalina backstage and gives her the ribbon she won as thanks for giving her such an exciting battle. A bewildered Candy Musalina accepts the ribbon, giving her everything she needs to enter the Grand Festival! Back at the mansion, Princess Salvia thanks Hikari for her cooperation and asks her if she'd be willing to take Togekiss along on her journey. Hikari says that she will as she looks ahead to the Grand Festival!

Thoughts
Another day, another completely nonsensical episode.

The writers, I guess, think that the gap that exists since the last completely insane episode was too long or something, so they came up with this drug-induced gem to fill the void. In this particular episode, Hikari is approached by a strange adult who says she's been waiting for her. So she actually goes with her - I'm guessing the Shin'ou region doesn't have their own version of the Stranger Danger PSA - and meets an even crazier stalker girl who just happens to look like her. Nothing alarming about this, nosiree! Eventually, Hikari finds out that the twin sister that her mother never bothered to tell her about wants to swap places with her so she can compete in the Pokémon Contest that just happens to be going on that day. So kind of like The Prince and the Pauper, except Hikari and Salvia aren't friends and Salvia's dad doesn't kick the bucket. Hikari accepts because, hey, why not let some random girl you just met dress up like you and potentially screw up your reputation? The switch takes place, Satoshi and Takeshi say "screw you, you're on your own" to Hikari and then spend the day cheering on this creepy girl who's doing her best to cheat actual Coordinators out of a ribbon so close to the Grand Festival.

I mean, seriously, you know an episode is pretty messed up when Musashi, of all people, is the only person questioning what the hell is going on. I really enjoyed this episode (really!), but I also recognize that this one is dumb as hell.

Interestingly, the main character-of-the-day, Princess Salvia, was actually called "Princess Iris" (アイリス姫) in early summaries but was changed to "Salvia" at the last minute. Maybe the producers realized that, oh shit, we've already got the name "Iris" reserved for someone else?

The English version gives Princess Salvia a "British accent" (aka American actor doing an awfully stereotypical British accent), making this episode even more insane than it was originally. "Princess Salvia, why are you so uncouth? Also, why are you suddenly speaking with an American accent?"

A new version of Dotchi ~ Nyo?, which uses the lyrics from the second verse of the full version of the song, starts being used as the ending theme. I like this version, of course, because it's just one more song to add to the collection of "songs that have vague ties to Dogas."

Togekiss keeps its Japanese voice.

Dialogue Edit
After the opening narration:

Ash: "Wow, there's a Pokémon Contest takin' place here today."
Brock: "I'm a bit sorry you won't be in it."

Here, Takeshi simply states that Hikari won't be entering the Contest. He doesn't express his feelings one way or the other about her lack of participation.

Later, at Princess Salvia's mansion:

Dawn: "I've always wanted to get all dressed up just like a real princess!"
Ash: "It looks good on ya!"
Pikachu: "Pika!"
Dawn: "My subjects."

Originally, Hikari doesn't lord over her new minions, drunk off the power the tiara has given her. Instead, she tells them, in a very polite and princess-y way, that there shouldn't be any problems.

Freesia: "It won't be much longer. Why, there are only eighty-two more guests left."
Dawn: "Eighty-two more guests!?"

There are originally 80 groups in the Japanese version. I have no idea why TPCI would bump that up to eighty-two.

James: "A Togekiss!? Did she steal it? I would."

Originally, Kojirou wants to know when Hikari captured that pokemon.

Marion: "Incredible! The rains of beautifully colorful and shimmering light are pouring down on the stage, almost like an aurora!"

There's a pun going on here that the dub didn't bother to translate. In the Japanese version, Momoan states that the rains of hikari (or "light") are shining like an aurora and are the perfect Appeal for someone named "Hikari." The dub could have given us a pun involving the word "dawn," but I guess they felt that one Dawn pun per episode (in this case, the episode's title) was good enough.

Right before the commercial break:

Dawn: "Lunch...eon? Huh!? Eek! I'm not hungry!"

There's another play on words! Here, the old man calls the event that "Princess Salvia" is about to go to a kondankai (懇談会), or, simply, "get-together." Once Hikari opens the door and sees how many people there are, however, she panics and yells out that it's a kon'nankai (困難会), a made-up word that means "difficult meeting." Kondan...kon'nan...they sound pretty similar, right?

James: "That Togekiss could be trouble, stolen or not."

What is with the dub and them having James suspect that Dawn stole that Pokémon? Are they trying to make it look like he thinks that every Pokémon that everyone gets, ever, was stolen from someone else?

Kojirou just states that the Togekiss shouldn't be taken too lightly.

Cut--a little less than 1 second
The shot of Togekiss struggling to get up after being hit by Habunake's Poison Tail attack (during Princess Salvia's "Togekiss, please! Get a hold of yourself!") is about a second shorter in the dub than it was originally.

Dialogue Edit
It's been a while since Team Rocket told us about how abusive their female half is:

James: "Yes! I smell victory!"
Meowth: "Smells like ribbon number five's gonna keep the t'ree of us alive!"
Wobbuffet: "Wobbuffet!"

Nyasu simply states that it won't be long before Musashi gets the fifth ribbon that she's been wanting for so long. Not that Musashi is going to brutally murder them because she didn't win a ribbon.

Brock: "Togekiss doubled the point damage to Seviper because it was so close! Excellent!"

...not quite, Brock. Takeshi's explanation is that Togekiss charged it with such might that it doubled the amount of points it took away. Its proximity to Habunake had nothing to do with it.

It's still a bullshit explanation, though, regardless of the version you're watching.

James: "Cheer up, Jessie. You were exemplary!"
Meowth: "Dig it! You were really great, too!"

Originally, Nyasu tells Musashi that she'll just have to try her best the next time, implying that there's at least one more Contest out there for her to join. Meowth doesn't make the same implication.

By the way, does anyone know why TPCI decided to have Meowth constantly say "dig it" as if it was his catch phrase? It's been bothering me for the longest time. I just can't wrap my brain around the idea of someone looking at Nyasu and deciding that the phrase is somehow in-character for him. Neither one of 4Kids' versions of Meowth used the phrase, and the Japanese version sure as hell doesn't, so what gives?

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This page was last updated on September 20th, 2010