Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 175:  "Mammoo and Pachirisu!  It's Up to the Ice Chandelier!!"
American Episode 1318:  "Opposites Interact!"
Japanese Air Date:  May 6th, 2010
American Air Date:  September 25th, 2010

The Shin'ou Grand Festival continues onto its second round!  The thirty-two remaining Coordinators assemble to hear the line-up for the battle round, and Hikari is shocked to learn that her first match will be against Urara!  At the start of the battle, Hikari calls out her Mammoo and Pachirisu and Urara calls out her Gabite and Booster.  Hikari starts the battle by combining Pachirisu's electricity with Mammoo's mass to deliver a surprise attack, but Urara is able to recover quickly with a combination of Kage Bunshin and Shadow Ball.  Hikari desperately tries to wrestle control of the match back from Urara with her Ice Chandelier combination, but Booster's Fire Swirl melts Mammoo's Ice Throwing Stone before it has a chance to reach Pachirisu!  Hikari's pokemon are eventually able to pull off the combination, but Urara's pokemon use Hole Dig to escape the attack!  Hikari's attacks and the Urara's dodging by using Hole Dig continue until the field is filled with holes!  Hikari notices this, so she orders Pachirisu to dive underground.  Ice Chandelier is activated once again, and the fact that Urara can't tell where it's going to come from until it's too late enables Hikari to hit her opponents!  When the smoke clears, both of Urara's pokemon are knocked out, winning the match for Hikari.  The battle round continues, and Nozomi, Candy Musalina, and Naoshi all manage to make it to the next round.  The first battle round comes to a close, leaving the remaining sixteen Coordinators to wonder who will make it to the semi-finals.

---

Thoughts
The first half of the Grand Festival wraps up with a rather so-so battle. 

Cheap battles where a pokemon is able to take dozens of hits before making an impossible comeback and then one hit KO'ing its opponent is nothing new for this series.  Hell, when it comes to Pokémon Contests, that's pretty much the norm.  Yet somehow, I'm able to watch Hikari's implausible victory and not really feel much of anything.  I guess I've become so desensitized to bullshit Pokémon Contest victories over the years that they don't really bother me anymore.  It's clear as day that Urara is the better Coordinator, but the plot demanded that Hikari win, so win she did.

I feel bad for Urara because she's pretty much been Hikari's punching bag her entire run.  Comparisons between Urara and Harley pop up every now and then, and if it wasn't for that one victory Harley had during his second Contest quest, the two would have nearly identical track records.  It's a shame the show never gave us a Jouto Battle Frontier quest where Urara would be given a chance to get at least one on-screen win because I think she deserves it.  Her half of the battle in this episode was fantastic, and I wish we could have had more opportunities to see her in action.

The pre-Contest stuff amused me if only because the idea that Nozomi and Naoshi are suddenly hanging out together is an amusing one.  I guess they're good friends now?  *shrugs*

La version anglaise is a little better with the music than it was before, so that's a plus.  I'm also warming up to Ursula's English voice, just in time for her departure from the series!  TPCI does a fairly good job of giving her dialogue that has just the right amount of venom to it, and the way her voice actor delivers said lines makes them work even more.

Dialogue Edit
Sometimes, the things TPCI has its characters say isn't the same thing they say in Japanese.  Let's look at a few examples.


Holy abuse of commas, Batman!

The Japanese version talks about how Hikari bids farewell to her childhood friend and promises to meet him again.  All this Kengo talk is the reason you see so many shots of him at the end of the recap.  The English version, on the other hand, seems to be downplaying the whole "Kenny leaving" thing to focus on Dawn and her upcoming battles.

In the...let's call it a green room, shall we?...Ursula taunts Dawn:


Urara tells Hikari that she's going to be the one to impress the judges with her beauty and elegance in the Japanese version.  She doesn't get in that little jab at Hikari's intelligence that Ursula does.


The delivery of this line is pretty hilarious in the dub.  What's even more hilarious is the fact that the same line, in the Japanese version, is delivered by someone with a much more feminine sounding voice.  It's kind of hard to pick it out since it's drowned out by the noise of the crowd more than the voice in the English version, but it definitely has that female / little boy sound to it.


Momoan states, correctly, that the winner of the first round is Hikari.  Yes, they're in the battle round, which is the second round of the overall competition, but Hikari just won the first round of the battle round, not the second.


Originally, Candy Musalina is simply shaking from the excitement of watching Hikari's battle.  She doesn't seem to be intimidated by her competition the way Jessilina is.


I like the wording of this a lot better in the Japanese version.  Originally, Hikari says that Urara was strong, so she responds by saying that yes, she is strong.


It's been a while since we've had one of these "Jessie is a psychopath who's out to kill us" lines!

Originally, Nyasu states that Candy Musalina's success is all due to their cheering.


The Japanese version makes it sound like there's only one card left, though there is some ambiguity.  It's possible the green furoshiki Nyasu is holding contains extra cards, but it's more likely that it just contains the money they made from their business.

The English version tells us that there are definitely more than one card left.  The thing is, Jessie only signed one of the cards instead of signing all of them, something I would think would be necessary if she really wanted to boost sales.

I dunno.

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