Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 172:  "Togekiss!  A Magnificent Battle!!"
American Episode 1315:  "With the Easiest of Grace!"
Japanese Air Date:  April 15th, 2010
American Air Date:  September 4th, 2010

As Satoshi and his friends approach an open field, Hikari decides that it's the perfect time to practice with the Togekiss she just got from Princess Salvia.  Satoshi volunteers to be her training partner and chooses his Fukamaru to go up against Hikari's pokemon.  Once the battle starts, Hikari notices a lag between the time she issues a command and her pokemon actually following it.  It appears that Togekiss is trying to do an Appeal before each and every move, giving its opponent plenty of time to dodge its attacks.  The battle is eventually called off, leaving Hikari to wonder what she should do about this problem.  Later, the Rocket-Dan appear and try to take Hikari's pokemon.  While Satoshi and Takeshi deal with Kojirou and Nyasu, Hikari and Togekiss go up against Musashi and Megayanma.  The battle begins with Togekiss dancing about, just like it had before, allowing Megayanma to gain the upper hand.  Hikari eventually realizes that if she wants to command her pokemon more effectively, she's going to have to work with Togekiss' showmanship instead of trying to force it to change.  Once she figures out how to do this, Hikari is able to command her pokemon to victory.  The Rocket-Dan hop into their hot air balloon and make a run for it, but our heroes' pokemon combine their attacks to send the trio packing.  Later, Hikari feels that she's figured out how to battle with Togekiss and is now more eager than ever to compete in the Grand Festival.

---

Thoughts
The previous episode was a disaster of storytelling, but it still managed to entertain me with all its ridiculous nonsense.  This episode, on the other hand, has the opposite problem.  While the episode's plot makes sense and features some important character development, it does so in the most uninteresting way.

Where do I even start?  Every single battle in this episode was dragged out way longer than they needed to be.  The before and after battle banter seems to go around in circles.  Pretty much everything from the commercial break up to the battle between Hikari and Musashi could have been cut without losing anything.  Not even the Rocket-Dan, who usually come along and save boring episodes like this one, do much of anything to make me smile.  I hated having to watch this episode because it was so dull, and the idea that there are people out there who actually like this snoozefest of an episode baffles me.

And why does it seem like the writers have it out for HIkari?  Seriously, it seems like every time you turn around, she has some ridiculous new problem that requires an entire episode to overcome.  Just a few episodes ago, Hikari had to waste a bunch of kids' afternoon by trying to figure out why she couldn't get her improbable Ice Chandelier to work.  Two episodes before that, she had to tend to her depressed Potchama.  Two episodes before that, her rival embarrassed her in front of a huge crowd by calling her "Pikari."  Seven episodes earlier, she had to involve her rival and her Gym Leader pal to help her develop Flame Ice.  I could go on and on.  It really seems like the writers have this sick fascination with putting the poor girl in as many predicaments as possible, almost as if they feel this sense of schadenfreude as they watch her stumble again and again.

The version of the episode that The Pokémon Company International (who fans still refer to as "PUSA" even though they haven't been using that name for a while) puts out is alright, I guess.  They keep most of the music intact, but they still have that annoying tendency of having Team Rocket insult each other constantly.  If all I watched was the dub, I swear I'd be yelling at Jessie and James to just fucking disband already since they seem to hate each other so much.

Dialogue Edit
It's been a while since Mr. Narrator has had some weird rewrite:


The Japanese narrator says all this, but he also mentions the fact that the Grand Festival is taking place at Risshi Lake.  It's not like the narrator has mouthflaps that need to be matched, so I don't see why his dialogue couldn't have included that bit of information in the dub.


Why would Jessie not assume that her friend is insulting her every chance that he gets?  It's almost expected at this point, isn't it?

Kojirou's response to Musashi's line is that she should reconsider whether or not she wants to capture Togekiss.  Musashi asks if he has a problem with the pokemon, and then Nyasu starts his speech about how they shouldn't go after the pokemon since it's responsible for her earning her fifth Ribbon.

Which doesn't really make any sense to me at all, since Princess Salvia is the one who decided to give her the Ribbon and not Togekiss, but whatever.

After the flashback,


OK, several things.  One, "touché" is a really stupid thing for James to say because it doesn't make any sense in context.  Two, I'm glad Jessie managed to find the time to insult her friends once again because if she hadn't, I'd be worried that she actually cares about these people she's spending the better part of her adult years with.  Three, since when has the brightness of the sun ever prevented Jessie and James from trying to capture a Pokémon?  Wouldn't the problem that Musashi had in the original, the fact that there's nowhere for them to hide, have made more sense?  And four, hooray at Meowth for getting in an insult of his own!


Hikari doesn't go all out-of-character on us and insult her pokemon in the original.  She just asks Togekiss what it's doing and tells it to hurry up. 


Actually, no, Jessie.  Her advice doesn't fall on deaf ears, since Togekiss actually does get out of there.  Do you think she was talking to you or something?

Musashi's response in the original version is that she won't allow Togekiss to "get out of there."

Music Edit
The third opening theme to Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation, Pokémon Symphonic Medley, is used as background music during the fight between Musashi and Hikari.  It starts playing from the moment Hikari orders Togekiss to dance right up to the part where Megayanma falls to the ground.

The dub replaces this with its own background music.

Dialogue Edit
In the Japanese version of the episode, the Rocket-Dan decide to have a graceful blast off and sing their little "ya na kanji~!" thing as they fly into the distance.  Team Rocket, on the other hand, does not.

Finally,


Takeshi actually suggests that they all start back on the road to the Grand Festival.  He doesn't say anything about the timing being good.

Previous Episode

Next Episode