Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 055:  "Aipom and Buoysel!  Respective Roads!!"
American Episode 1103:  "Throwing The Track Switch"
Orchid-Hakase's Big Encyclopedia:  Karanakushi
Japanese Air Date:  November 22nd, 2007
American Air Date:  April 26th, 2008
Important Places:  Sage Town (Sage Town), Zui Town (Solaceon Town)

In a Pokémon Center en route to Tobari City, Hikari hears that Kengo has earned his second ribbon.  Nozomi, Hikari's rival, just happens to be in the building and joins the others.  Hikari learns that there's another Contest happening in Zui Town and decides to ask Nozomi if she'd be willing to help her prepare for it.  She accepts, so our heroes make their way to the battlefield outside.  Hikari and her Buoysel train with Nozomi while, at the same time, Satoshi and his Aipom train.  Nozomi notices that both Aipom and Buoysel seem to be interested in each other's battles more than their own, so she wonders if Satoshi and Hikari should trade their pokemon.  The two think it over and decide to lend each other their pokemon first to give them a chance to see how working with another trainer will work out.  During Aipom's practice Contest Battle and Buoysel's practice Gym Battle, the Rocket-Dan arrive on the scene and attempt to kidnap the brats' pokemon!  They end up grabbing Takeshi's Usokki and Nozomi's Nyaruma instead, so Aipom combines its beautiful combination attacks with Buoysel's powerful Aqua Jet to defeat the trio.  After the kidnapped pokemon are returned to their trainers, Satoshi and Hikari decide to go through with the trade after all and enter the Pokémon Center to begin the process.  Before long, Satoshi has a Buoysel and Hikari has an Aipom!  With new pokemon in each other's parties, Satoshi and Hikari look ahead toward their next challenge.

---

Thoughts
Looking back at the episodes between Buoysel's capture and this one, I'm always struck by how wrong the whole thing felt.  I will always think of Aipom as a Hikari pokemon and Buoysel as a Satoshi pokemon, but for about twenty episodes and a movie, those pokemon were with different trainers.  Thankfully, this episode corrects this.

At the time this episode aired, though...boy, was there a lot of hate for this trade.  I looked at the episode review threads on various message boards across the Internet and was amazed at how controversial this episode was.  And I really don't know why.  I will agree with the haters that it sucks how Buoysel never got to compete in a Pokémon Contest during its time with Hikari, but every other complaint they had is ridiculous.  "Hikari needs a water-type pokemon, even though Coordinators don't really need to worry about having a well balanced team since they don't compete in gyms!"  "But I thought the show said that trading is bad, based on that one episode that aired almost fifteen years ago!"  "Nozomi is such a bitch for giving advice to her friends!  She should have kept her mouth shut and let the pokemon continue doing things they don't like!"  Please.

Besides, the whole "Aipom likes Contests" thing had been built up since forever, and it going to the Coordinator of the group is a no-brainer.  The pokemon being traded were going to trainers in the main cast anyway, so it wasn't like we were never going to see them again.

I'm honestly more upset by how bad the artwork in this episode is more than anything else. 

I'm a bit confused as to why Satoshi was having to have a practice battle by himself in the first half of the episode instead of sparring with Takeshi.  Without another person there, Satoshi was having to command both Hikozaru and Aipom at the same time, and I just don't see how that benefits anyone.  Why didn't Takeshi step in and help his friend out instead of just standing on the sidelines?

I liked the fact that the writers had Sabonea's release in the previous episode continue to affect the plot in this one.  I love episodes that show how close Musashi, Kojirou, and Nyasu are to each other and how they'll pretty much do whatever it takes to make each other happy.  I also found myself laughing at how Kojirou blows his friends' cover by nonchalantly calling them out in front of the brats.  While this episode was already good, the Rocket trio really helped make this one so much better.

The closed captions for the English version of this episode refer to Zoey as a boy, which is kind of amusing.  Other than that, there's not a whole lot to talk about.  I guess I can talk about how much more difficult "Solaceon Town" is to spell out than "Zui Town," but since that's more a video game issue than a TV series issue, I can't really blame "the dub" for that one.

Dialogue Edit
The first line of the episode!


Nyasu never indicates that the pineapple looking thing in the can there is Kojirou's favorite.  Instead, he tells him that dinner's ready.

Also, I feel like it's worth pointing out that if 4Kids was still dubbing this show, the phrase "favorite fruit" would have been followed by one of the other characters making some snide remark about how gay James is, just because!

Opening Animation
Sabonea is removed from the opening credits in the Japanese version.  Looks kind of sad with that huge empty space there now, doesn't it?


Since the dub never bothers to update its opening, Cacnea will remain in this shot for the remainder of the season.

Dialogue Edit
In the Pokémon Center, Dawn watches coverage of Kenny's latest victory on TV:


The Contest actually happened senjitsu (先日), or "the day before," but the dub changes this to "a few days ago" for some reason.

Once Zoey arrives on the scene:


Here, Takeshi specifies that he's making special kanpouyaku (漢方薬), or "herbal medicine."  Nozomi repeats the word back to him, as if she doesn't know what that is, and then asks him if he got the medicine from Joi.  None of the differences here are huge, of course, but they are there.

Next, Dawn finds out where the next Contest is being held:


There's a Japanese reference in the original that has to do with the site of the next Contest, Zui Town.  Originally, Momoan says Mina-san no go-sanka o zu-zu-zui~tto omachi shite orima~su! (皆さんのご参加をずずずいーっとお待ちしておりまーす！), which basically means "We'll be eagerly awaiting your participation!"  The reason the Japanese text there has all the extra zu-zu-zu stuff attached to it is because Momoan's taking a pre-existing phrase from kabuki, Sumi kara sumi made zu-zu-zui~tto (隅から隅までずずずいーーっっと), and changing it around a little.

And why is she doing that, you may ask?  Well, as you can see, both the original kabuki phrase and Momoan's version of the phrase contain the word zui, which just happens to be the name of the town where the next Contest is taking place.  Basically, Momoan is having fun with how the name of this one town sounds like a part of a semi well-known phrase in Japanese.

There's no way the dub could have translated this properly, so they it overlooked Momoan's play on words.

Next, Dawn asks if it's OK if they stop by Solaceon Town on the way to Veilstone City:


Originally, Satoshi tells Hikari that this will be her fukatsu-sen (復活戦), or "comeback battle," referring to the fact that she lost the Yosuga Convention.  Ash kind of says the same thing here, but I feel like his line's a little less specific than the Japanese one.

Next, Brock gives out the medicine he's been working on.


Here, the dub makes it sound like Brock made the medicine specifically for Ash and Pikachu.  Originally, the herbal medicine is just "for humans" (人間用) and "for pokemon (ポケモン用).  Satoshi doesn't give Takeshi any sort of nickname in the Japanese version like he does in the dub.

While spying on the twerps:


Musashi says that it looks like the brat boy wants to torikaekko puriizu (とりかえっこプリーズ), or "trade, please" at this same point in the Japanese version.  Torikaekko Please just happens to be the name of a pokemon song released way back in 1998 about trading, and I think it's obvious why this reference was thrown in.

I think it's also obvious why the dub would choose to rewrite a reference to a song the overwhelming majority of its viewing audience has never heard of in their life.

Right before the commercial break:


"Wait, Team Rocket is acting like real friends?  Well, that just won't do.  Quick, let's have one of them insult another one, for no reason!  How about that cat thing?  He hasn't been an asshole to one of his teammates in a while, right?"

Originally, Nyasu says nyaruhodo, which is his way of saying "Oh, I see!"

Also, the part where Jessie talks about "making millions" was added in by the dub.  In the Japanese version, the only thing Musashi is interested in doing is helping out her friend.

The practice battle in the second half of the episode begins:


Nozomi's battle cry in the original is "Nyaruma...ready...go!"

Next, a disguised Jessie and Meowth introduce themselves.  Then:


Originally, Takeshi states that he's never heard of their group before.  He doesn't say anything about the name being strange.

The name Musashi and Nyasu go by in the Japanese version, by the way, is nagashi no sodateya-san (流しの育て屋さん), which translates to something like "flowing caretaker."   It's maybe a play on nagashi soumen (流しそうめん), a type of noodle that travels around restaurants in bamboo flumes filled with cold water.  Nagashi soumen...nagashi no sodateya-san...it's kind of a stretch, I know, but it's the only thing I'm able to figure out from the million Google searches I've done. 

Next, Meowth approaches his prey:


Nyasu refers to Aipom and Buoysel as Aipom-chan and Buoysel-chan here, giving us this cute little moment that's lost in the dub.

Then, James begins to blow his teammates' covers:


In the Japanese version, neither Musashi nor Nyasu bring up Muscippa, not even once.  Yet for some reason, every single line uttered by Jessie and Meowth during this little exchange talks about how Carnivine has bitten James' head and caused some sort of brain trauma, nevermind the fact that the animation doesn't match up with this at all. 

Music Edit
During the battle with the Rocket-Dan, the song Hello! Thank You! is used as an insert song.  It plays from the point when Hikari commands Aipom to use Speed Star (Swift) to when the Rocket-Dan blast off.

The dub replaces this with some not-exciting-at-all instrumental music.

Dialogue Edit
One last script change!  This one happens after the two trainers complete their trade:


Satoshi's just thanks Hikari here.  He doesn't say anything about whether or not their trade was the right thing to do in the Japanese version.

Ending Animation
Sabonea's removed from the ending animation as well.


Click on each image for a larger version.

The English version doesn't use these shots for anything, so these changes don't really affect it.

Side Note
The Orchid-Hakase lecture for this episode is for Karanakushi.  The reason I'm drawing attention to this fact is because it marks the first appearance of the East Sea Karanakushi in the TV series.


I think you guys not knowing the context of the second image up there is more entertaining, so I won't bother explaining what's going on.  I'm sure you all can come up with a much more amusing scenario here than what actually happens.

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