Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 180:  "Satoshi vs. Kengo!  Their Respective Departures!!"
American Episode 1323:  "Four Roads Diverged in a Pokémon Port!"
Japanese Air Date:  June 10th, 2010
American Air Date:  November 6th, 2010
Important Characters:  Mikan (Jasmine)
Important Places:  Asagi City (Olivine City)

The ferry to Suzuran Island has already left for the day, so Satoshi and his friends must stay behind in Nagisa City for another night.  As they linger around the station, they hear Kengo training with the Asagi City Gym Leader Mikan!  She explains that she's on a journey to improve herself and decided to help Kengo get ready for his next Grand Festival in the meantime.  Ohba also shows up at the port to bid Satoshi farewell, and Mikan uses this opportunity to challenge the Four Heavenly Kings member to a battle.  During the match that follows, Ohba sits back and lets Mikan attack first before his Goukazaru defeats her Haganeil with a powerful Flare Drive.  After the battle, Kengo tells Hikari that he's going to challenge Satoshi to a battle and that if he wins, she'll have to join him on his new journey!  The next day, Kengo's Empärt faces off against Satoshi's Buoysel.  Satoshi tries to mimic Ohba's battle style, but this wait and see approach ends up costing him the battle.  Later, Mikan announces that she'll return to the Asagi City Gym, Ohba announces that he'll challenge the Champion Shirona to a battle, and Kengo tells Hikari that he'll wait for her under the lighthouse in Nagisa City.  As he watches Hikari's ferry depart, he finds a note from his friend telling him that even though she doesn't know what the future holds for her, she's sure that their paths will cross again someday.  The ferry for Suzuran Island leaves Nagisa port, and Hikari waves goodbye to her childhood friend.

---

Thoughts
I seriously love wrap-up episodes like this one.  Kengo kind of got the shaft in the series Grand Festival, getting eliminated so early and all, so it's nice to see the character get this final episode to himself.  Well, sort of.  I mean, Mikan had to get some screentime as well, and then there's the whole thing with Ohba, so this ended up not being a Kengo episode as much as it's an everyone episode.  Is this the writers' way of saying that even they don't think Kengo's interesting enough to carry an episode by himself, and that you need to pull in other, more interesting characters to make people watch him?  Maybe!

As mentioned before, this episode was the obligatory "Mikan in Shin'ou" appearance.  I'm glad the TV series remembered to do this since it really is the sort of thing they could have skipped over.  The flashback to Satoshi's battle with Mikan kind of irritated me, though, since I feel like they focused on the wrong pokemon.  The overwhelming majority of that Gym Battle was between Mikan's Haganeil and Satoshi's Hinoarashi, yet Pikachu, who got knocked out quite early, was the one they went with?  That was one of Hinoarashi's most notable battles, and it's a shame that it didn't get the attention it deserved here.  I'm also kind of disappointed with Mikan's performance in her battle against Ohba.  I didn't expect her to win, of course, but I think it's kind of odd that she didn't have her Haganeil dig all over the place like she did in her match with Satoshi.  Maybe the writers felt like that would have taken too much time to showcase and therefore favored a quicker loss instead? 

The thing is, they really could have trimmed some of the episode's unnecessary scenes to make room.  Was there a point to Empärt and Buoysel creating this rivalry the night before their battle?  "Oh no, Empärt and Buoysel are pissed at each other.  This is going to make the battle thrilling."  I mean, really?!

I find myself not really caring about Ohba and his whole desire to challenge Shirona or anything like that, though.  So I guess he wants to battle her now, even though he hasn't even hinted at wanting to battle her before?  *shrugs*  Whatever!

This episode also includes the final Rocket-Dan Boss Fantasy, ever.  I can't see the future, of course, but I'm confident in saying that this is the last one ever because of the way the trio acts in the following series.  I really loved these Boss Fantasies and looked forward to seeing what crazy shit Nyasu will think up next, but I guess that chapter of the franchise has come to a close.  I'm going to miss them.

The English adaptation of this episode has a higher than usual number of rewrites.  I don't know why TPCI decided to take so many liberties with the script this time around, but it's kind of aggravating to see "the company that doesn't edit the show the way 4Kids does" give us some script edits that would make their predecessors proud.  What's the point, really?

Dialogue Edit
The first of many dialogue edits begins after Jasmine first shows up.


In the Japanese version, Takeshi makes a reference to the Chinese belief of the red string of fate by saying that he and Mikan are bound together by the red string of Itomaru.  The dub replaces this reference to this belief, as well as the mention of the Jouto pokemon, with some weird "time and space" stuff that doesn't really make any sense to me.

During the last Boss Fantasy of the series:


Nyasu does something very rare in the Japanese version and has Sakaki refer to the trio as "Kojirou and his friends" (Kojirou-tachi) instead of "Nyasu and his friends" (Nyaasu-tachi).  My guess is that Nyasu is trying to win Kojirou over to his side by having his deranged version of the Boss recognize him above everyone else; judging by Kojirou's agreement to go through with Nyasu's plan, it seems to have worked.

The dub just has Meowth say "Meowth and friends" like it always does.

A little later,


Major rewrite number one!  Originally, Kojirou wonders if the little flotation pillow thing around Flowsel's neck even comes off.  No idea why TPCI would rewrite that.

Next, during the conversation with Jasmine that takes place before Team Rocket attacks,


Jasmine tells us that the person who's watching over her gym in her absence is a male, something Mikan never does.  The Japanese language is set up in a way where you don't have to include gender specific pronouns in most cases, so Mikan's vagueness here isn't odd at all.

Cut--1 second
A one-second clock wipe transition is removed between the shot of Satoshi expressing his interest at the upcoming battle and the pan-down shot of the field where the battle between Ohba and Mikan takes place.


I would say this edit would be restored for the episode's eventual DVD release.  But since Viz doesn't seem to be interested in releasing those anymore, I don't know.

Dialogue Edit
Back to the script edits!  This one takes place after the battle between Flint and Jasmine.


Dawn's "Journey!?" line near the end there is dub-only.  Originally, she just lets out a weak little "Eh?"

Kengo also admits to being a little pushy with his request, but Kenny doesn't.


This is really minor, but in the Japanese version, the boy in the pink shirt is the one who wants the autograph and the boy in the purple shirt is the one who wants the handshake.  The dub switches their dialogue around for some reason.

Jasmine's advice to Dawn:


Mikan never indicates that she was willing to quit being a Gym Leader.  She tells Hikari that she wondered what would happen if she continued on as a Gym Leader, but she never gave the impression that she had ever thought about stepping down. 

The cause and effect relationship between her journey and her belief in the advice she gives Hikari is much clearer in the Japanese version as well.  Mikan explains that the things she experienced on her journey made her realize that we're the only ones who can decide our future.  She then offers this to Hikari as advice.  The dub, on the other hand, just has Jasmine making a random statement after bragging about how great her journey was.

After the commercial break, Flint begins that flashback that contradicts what we saw in his debut episode:


The rumor in the Japanese version wasn't just that the guy was strong, but that he was the favorite to win the whole tournament.  Don't sell Flint short, TPCI!

After Kenny wins his battle with Ash,


Notice how Kenny sort of stops after saying these lines, waits a second, and then continues walking?  That's because in the Japanese version, he stops and says that he'll be off now.  The dub, for whatever reason, doesn't give Kenny anything to say here.

The next part takes place on the moving sidewalks of LaRousse Nagisa City:


Originally, Ohba tells Satoshi that he realized that he wasn't following his own advice about needing to believe he can win, so he's sucking it up and is going to give it a try.  He implies that Satoshi's battle is what snapped him out of it, but the dub doesn't express this at all.

Next, in Dawn's letter to Kenny:


Hikari adds that they'll be able to meet just like they did "yesterday" (kinou mitai ne?).  Mouthflaps!

Finally,


Hikari tells Kengo that he looked "cool" (chotto kako yokatta yo) when he beat Satoshi.  Not handsome.  Cool.  Because apparently, ten year olds call each other "handsome" all the time now.

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