Japanese Episode DP 030

Dogasu's Backpack | Episode Comparisons | Diamond & Pearl

Episode Stats:Japanese Episode DP 030: "Hakutai Forest! The Minomutchi Evolution Operation!!"
American Episode 494: "Some Enchanted Sweetening!"
Orchid-Hakase's Big Encyclopedia: Seals and Capsule Balls
Japanese Air Date: April 19th, 2007
American Air Date: September 29th, 2007
Important Characters: Momi (Cheryl)
Important Places: Hakutai Forest (Eterna Forest)

Satoshi and his friends have made it into the Hakutai Forest! As they make their way toward Hakutai City, a Minomutchi appears. Before anyone can see what it's doing, a Treasure Hunter named Momi appears and initiates a battle with the bug-type pokemon! Momi's Lucky is able to weaken Minomutchi enough for its trainer to capture it. After our heroes introduce themselves, they are told that Minomutchi is the key to finding some enchanted honey. This honey is a treasure that Momi's grandfather sought but was unable to find, so Momi has decided to pick up where he left off. She reveals that if Minomutchi can evolve into a Garmale, its sense of smell will enable her to locate the treasure. Satoshi volunteers to help Momi's pokemon evolve, so he has his Naetle battle it. However, Minomutchi is extremely weak and is unable to put up much of a fight! Before long, the Rocket-Dan appear and kidnap Minomutchi so they can find the honey for themselves! After making their getaway, the trio attempts to make the pokemon evolve, but their efforts are just as futile as Satoshi's. Eventually, our heroes find the Rocket-Dan's hiding place and battle them to regain Momi's pokemon. During the fight, Minomutchi finally gains enough experience and evolves into Garmale. After using a newly-learned Psybeam attack, the Rocket-Dan are sent blasting off again. Now that Momi has the Garmale she desperately needed, her search for the enchanted honey can begin in earnest. Can Momi find the treasure that her grandfather could not? To be continued!

Thoughts
Of all the episodes to remake...why "The Problem with Paras," one of the most hated episodes of all of Kanto?

I mean, this episode does have its redeeming parts. We get to see Momi, a character many thought would not make it into the anime. We also get a nice explanation on Minomutchi's various evolution chains. Finally, we get the start of a three-episode arc that, while not as interesting as some of the other arcs in the series, is at least a welcome distraction from the fact that Satoshi's gathering his badges at a slower rate than he did in Jouto.

The big thing about the dub of this episode is the exclusion of the Boss Fantasy, which I'll get to later. Other than that, the dubbers manage to keep eight pieces of music, so two mediocre (music-wise) episodes in a row isn't too bad.

Garmale keeps its Japanese voice.

Cut--34 seconds
So the Team Rocket boss fantasy is removed from the dubbed version of this episode. The fantasy would go after Meowth's "Lay some of that stuff on the Boss and he'll eat like a king! And we'll be rich..." and lasts a whopping 34 seconds.

The Boss is running through a wasteland...	...and he's covered in the enchanted honey!
As he runs, pokemon gather.	More and more pokemon arrive.
They're all attracted to the honey. At this point, the way the pokemon are animated makes it look like they're humping Sakaki.	Sakaki is happy with all the pokemon the honey's attracted and thanks Nyasu-tachi on a job well done.. Meanwhile, the pokemon continue to "hump" him.
Kojirou doubs the likeliness of that scenario.	Musashi reassures him that it'll all work out fine.

Basically, Nyasu imagines Sakaki running through a desert wasteland, wearing nothing but a speedo. Oh yeah, and he's smothered in honey. The reason Nyasu would even imagine the Boss like this is another story altogether. Anyway, the honey's scent attracts a lot of pokemon to the Boss, and the fantasy ends with the pokemon piling up on him. I guess the pokemon are supposed to be licking the honey off him (which is a disturbing enough image), but the way the animators drew the scene makes it look like they're humping him instead.

So the question is...why was the scene cut? There's the disturbing creep-out factor to the scene, but that hasn't prevented other scenes like it from being left in. So what's the deal, PUSA?

Some people believe that the cut was mandated by Cartoon Network and will be restored for the DVD version of the episode (whenever that's released). But...I don't see that as being likely. Meowth's line before the cut makes it clear that the trio wants to get the honey so the Boss can eat it. Not to attract pokemon with. This edit was done on PUSA's side, no doubt about it.

Added Footage--3 seconds
That good ol' TO BE CONTINUED... screen is three seconds longer in the dub than it is in the Japanese version.

Previous Episode

Next Episode

This page was last updated on September 20th, 2010