Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 042: "Barubiito to Irumiize!  Koi no Dansu!"

("Volbeat and Illumise!  The Dance of Love!")

American Episode 314: "Love at First Flight"
Orchid-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  Pokémon Senryuu Contest information
Japanese Air Date:  September 11th, 2003
American Air Date:  October 16th, 2004
Important Characters:  Romeo (Romeo), Julié (Juliet), Beat (Beat)
Important Places:  Haruka Lake (Lake May)

On the way to Hajitsuge Town, the group comes across a giant lake named Haruka Lake.  There, a Volbeat trainer named Romeo and an Illumise trainer named Julié are practicing for an upcoming Haruka Festival, but Romeo and his pokemon seem to have trouble performing correctly.  After our heroes save Romeo from drowning in the lake, they learn that Romeo really likes Julié.  In addition, his star Volbeat, Beat, is in love with Julié's Illumise!  While Haruka makes Satoshi dress up like Julié so that Romeo can practice confessing his love, the Rocket-Dan steal Julié's Illumise.  Julié finds Romeo and tells him what happens, so Romeo decides that his Volbeat can track Illumise's scent.  The plan leads them straight to the Rocket-Dan, who use a giant vacuum to suck up the pokemon!  The Volbeat and Illumise eventually use teamwork to send the Rocket trio packing, and after the battle, Romeo confesses his love to Julié.  Satoshi and his friends stay to watch the Haruka Festival, where Romeo and Julié perform their act flawlessly.

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Thoughts
Eh, standard filler episode.  This episode didn't stand out to me at all, even with Satoshi's crossdressing (which he hasn't done since "Pokémon Scent-sation").  Which reminds me; isn't it a bit odd that, when Julié tells Romeo what happened to her Illumise, she doesn't seem to notice Satoshi dressed up in her clothes?  If I was a girl and I saw some little boy dressed up like me, I'd have some questions to ask.

The dub is pretty standard as well.  4Kids decides to spell out the Romeo & Juliet homage by renaming Julié and giving Brock all those Shakespeare lines, but that's not that big a deal.  I do remember, though, that this episode aired out of order in the U.S., prompting many fans to crap themselves, believing that 4Kids banned the episode because of Ash's crossdressing.  Apparently these people forgot that a good half of the Johto episodes were premiered out of order, that Ash has crossdressed before, and that banned episodes typically aren't given English titles.  As predicted, the episode wasn't banned, and all those fans whining about how 4Kids is evil and bans everything really looked like dumbasses.

There's also the belief that Illumise's name was mispronounced in the dub.  The pokemon keeps its Japanese name, and, unlike a pokemon like Raikou, kept the same pronunciation as well.  Despite this fact, fans were upset that the official pronunciation of the pokemon's name doesn't match up with their fan-made pronunciation (which is based on spelling, which, in English, is absolutely absurd), and so yet again 4Kids was the target of fans' misguided anger.

Both Volbeat and Illumise keep their Japanese voices.

Cut--6 seconds altogether
Nothing but time cuts this time.

A second is cut from the opening shot of the episode.

A once-second scene transition is cut after Kids' WB!'s main commercial break.

Two seconds are cut from the scene after the final commercial break.

And two seconds are cut from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.

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