Episode Stats: 

Japanese Episode AG 022: "Daigo, Kokodora, Bosugodora!" 

("Daigo, Kokodora, and Bosugodora")

American Episode 294: "A Hole Lotta Trouble" 
Ookido-Hakase Pokemon Lecture:  Pii 
Pokemon Dare Da?  None (Japanese), Vigoroth (American) 
Japanese Air Date: April 24th, 2003 
American Air Date:  February 14th, 2004 
Important Characters:  Daigo (Steven Stone) 
Important Places:  Cave of Stone (Granite Cave) 

Satoshi-tachi arrive in the Ishi no Doukutsu (Cave of Stone) where they promptly fall into one of the Rocket-Dan's pitfall traps.  As the trio gloats at the young trainers, the cave gives way and everybody falls down separate tunnels.  Masato, Pikachu, and Nyasu find a spring together and eventually find Daigo, who is in the cave searching for rare stones.  Meanwhile, Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kojirou are having to run from a large group of Kokodora while Haruka is stuck trying to push Musashi out of a hole.  Everyone is eventually reunited, but before they have time to celebrate the group begins to battle.  Daigo stops them, yelling at them for disturbing the cave's pokemon, and sends his Bosugodora out to send the Rocket-Dan blasting off.  After speaking to Satoshi-tachi for a minute, Daigo finds a Fire Stone and decides that he's done enough excavation for one day.  Satoshi-tachi sees Daigo off to the next city as he shows them a nice spot on the island where they can train.  Let the training begin! 

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Thoughts
So here we are at the Houen remake of "Forest Grumps," one of the better Jouto filler episodes, but this time the plot is actually advanced some.  We get to meet Daigo, who was mentioned back in "Stairway to Devon," and the whole episode is spent in a location from the game (unlike the random forest that "Forest Grumps" took place in).  The only thing I didn't really like about the episode is Daigo's hypocritical attitude--he berates the gang for disturbing the pokemon in the cave, but then he goes and has his Bosugodora blow this big-ass hole into the side of the cave.  Now what do you think would disturb the pokemon more--a hole dug in the ground, or a whole blasted into the ceiling? 

There are a number of odd edits in the dub as it seems that 4Kids thinks that Musashi's skirt is a bit too short.  I don't see why they're having issues with it now considering how much of her legs we've been shown in the past, and it all seems very inconsistent, but there's really nothing any of us can do about it.  Aron's voice was a little strange to me (as was the pronunciation of its name..I've been pronouncing it like the name "Aaron" all this time), but that's really only because I'm used to the Japanese version's "...ko...ko..." thing that it does. 

Cut--4 seconds
The opening scene of the episode was actually a panning shot, but you wouldn't know that by watching the dub since the four seconds of the scene panning over to the group walking is cut out. 

Video Edit
When Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kojirou are running from the Kokodora, there's a part where Satoshi and Takeshi use Kojirou as a step to reach a higher tunnel.  4Kids replaces the actual image of Kojirou's head getting stepped on with one of those full-screen impact stars. 

I honestly don't see the point of the edit.  Either way, we know that the two trainers step on his head, so how is replacing a few frames of animation with an impact star making it any better? 

Paint Edit
In the scene where May is trying to push Jessie up the hole (before the Loudred comes crashing down) 4Kids makes Jessie's skirt longer (I know the image quality sucks, but that was the best I could do).  I think 4Kids was just being paranoid because you don't see any more of her legs in that scene than you do in the rest of the episode. 

Cut--1 second
A second is cut from the pan right after the "Who's That Pokémon" break. 

And speaking of the eyecatch, this is the first time (excluding the preview versions of the first two Pokémon Advanced episodes) that they've used a Houen pokemon as the "Who's that Pokémon."  I hope they continue to use Houen pokemon if they're going to continue what the Japanese version stopped doing at the beginning of the series. 

And does anyone know why we see one of Vigoroth's paws just floating to its side in the image they use for the eyecatch? 

Paint Edit
Jessie's skirt is lengthened again, this time when Steven releases his Aggron: 

Jessie:  "We were right!" 
James:  "It was angry!" 

Musashi's skirt is made longer for that shot because it's just that scandalous. 

Cut--1 second
A second is cut from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.

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