Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 010: "Shijou Saikyou Perippaa Arawaru!!"

(The Strongest Pelipper in History Shows Up!!)

American Episode 282: "You Said a Mouthful!"
Orchid-Hakase Pokemon Lecture:  Pokemon Senryuu Contest information
Pokemon Dare Da?  None (Japanese),  Unown [P-Type] (American)
Japanese Air Date:  January 30th, 2003
American Air Date:  December 13th, 2003
Important Characters:  Anthony (Anthony)

As Satoshi-tachi are walking along on the path to Kanazumi City, they come across a sign announcing a gym housing the world's strongest pokemon.  As it turns out, the pokemon is a Pelipper that belongs to young man named Anthony, and Satoshi wants to battle it to find out why it's supposed to be so powerful.  Much to Satoshi's surprise, the flying/water-type pokemon is able to use attacks such as Vine Whip, Flamethrower, and Thunder!  As Masato tries to figure out how one pokemon is able to perform so many different attacks, Satoshi loses his battle and leaves the area confused.  Afterwards, the Rocket-Dan appear to kidnap the Pelipper, and in the process they discover its secret--the Pelipper's enormous beak houses a number of Monster Balls, and its various attacks are actually the attacks of the pokemon being carried around in its mouth.  The Rocket-Dan promise that they won't tell anyone the secret of Pelipper if Anthony allows them to do with it as they wish, so the young trainer reluctantly agrees.  Musashi-tachi set up a scam in which trainers who lose against their Pelipper have to give up their pokemon as punishment, and soon the trio has amassed a large number of pokemon.  Satoshi-tachi appear again, and after figuring out the Pelipper's secret they are able to send the Rocket-Dan's balloon blasting off.  Anthony apologizes for his shady battle techniques and promises to train his Pelipper the right way, and so Satoshi-tachi leave his gym to head toward their next adventure.

---

Thoughts
According to the various message boards I visit, a lot of people didn't like this episode.  Personally, I didn't think it was that bad.  The anime producers saw the pokemon's large beak and crafted a neat little story around it, resulting in one of the more clever episodes of the series.  Sure, we the audience figure out Anthony's ruse pretty early on in the episode, but it's still fun to watch Masato trying to figure out the pelican pokemon's secret.

As far as the dub goes, it actually turned out pretty well, even if I'm upset by its effect on the episode.  What am I talking about?  Well, look at the sign announcing the world's strongest pokemon; if this episode was made a few years ago, that sign would have been written in Japanese, no question.  But since 4Kids has this desire to make the show more "universally accessible," the Japanese producers are forced to use this made up Poké-language whenever they want to have any sort of text.  While it's not the first time this language has appeared in the series, this episode shows it off the most blatantly of any other, making me yearn for the day when this show used to be allowed to be Japanese.

Otherwise, the episode was fairly standard.  Anthony actually gets to keep his original name (when was the last time THAT happened!?), but since it was American to begin with it's not so unusual.  A lot of people didn't like Anthony's dubbed voice, but I for one thought it fit the character very well.  However, what is odd is that Pelipper's voice is dubbed for the American version.  The pokemon has the same name and the same cry in the Japanese version, yet 4Kids still found it necessary to dub it over.  In fact, it seems like all the Houen pokemon are getting their voices dubbed, making me wonder if it really is easier to just redub a pokemon rather than trying to salvage its voice from the Japanese audio.

Video Edit
Like with Episode AG 003, the entire episode is zoomed-in for some unknown reason.  I cannot confirm if this was done for the Sky One airing of the episode or not, but something tells me it's a Kids WB!-only edit.

Cut--1 second
Right after the title screen, there's a second cut from the opening pan shot.

Sound Edit
Nyasu bites his tongue twice in this episode, and each time he does so there's a really nasty *crunch* sound effect present.  This sound effect was taken out of the dub the two times this occurs.

Cut--1 second
Right after the show's second commercial break, there's a second cut from the panning shot.

Side Note
Does anyone else find it annoying that the show is repeatedly telling us that water conducts electricity?  I mean, I think they said it about five times in this episode, and after a while you really feel like your intelligence is being insulted.  They pretty much do the same thing in the Japanese version, so it's not just a 4Kids thing, but that doesn't change the fact that it's become redundant.  After all the years this show has been on, you'd think they'd realize that we know that water conducts electricity and that rubber protects against it. 

Cut--2 seconds
As usual, two seconds from the TO BE CONTINUED screen was cut.

Previous Episode

Next Episode