Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 181:  "The Treasure Hunter Baku and Yajiron!"
American Episode 1324:  "Bucking the Treasure Trend!"
Japanese Air Date:  June 17th, 2010
American Air Date:  November 13th, 2010
Important Characters:  Baku (Buck)
Important Places:  Tanpopo Island (Dandelion Island), Hard Mountain (Stark Mountain)

Satoshi and his friends meet a treasure hunter named Baku while on the ferry to Suzuran Island.  He tells them that he plans to get off at one of the islands the ferry will be stopping at on the way to the Pokémon League, Tanpopo Island, to hunt for a treasure that's said to be there.  Baku tells his new friends that he could use the extra help, so Satoshi agrees to join him.  Once on the island, the trainers come across wild pokemon who had been placed at various intervals to keep thieves away.  After making their way past groups of pokemon like Biriridama and Rafflesia, Satoshi and his friends come across the mountain where the treasure is supposed to be.  Baku uses his Yajiron to decide which cave will take them to the summit and leads everyone past the traps inside.  After outrunning a group of Golone, our heroes make their way out of the cave and discover an altar.  A switch at the top of the stairs is activated, and the island's protector god, Nendoll, is awakened!  After Satoshi's attempts to defeat the guardian fail, Baku uses his Yajiron to weaken Nendoll and catch it in a Monster Ball.  Now that the island's guardian has been beaten, Baku is able to retrieve the treasure of Tanpopo Island!  Back at the port, Baku thanks his new friends for all their help and parts ways with them.  After Satoshi and his friends get back on the ferry to Suzuran Island, they look ahead to the Pokémon League!

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Thoughts
We really, really needed a fun adventure episode like this before the League.  Thankfully, this episode gave it to us.

This feels more like an episode we'd get at the beginning or in the middle of a region than one we'd see ten episodes before a series' end, doesn't it?  I'm not saying that's a bad thing - in fact, I think the opposite - but it is a little odd to think we're getting an episode like this so late in the game.  Seeing the gang outrun all those pokemon and trying to navigate their way around the island is something I wish we could have gotten more of throughout the series, and I'm glad that the adventure episode they chose to go out on was one as solid as this.  There's just something about seeing all those pokemon running amuck that puts a smile on my face.

The Rocket-Dan were great in this one as well, especially at the beginning during all of Baku's exposition.  Their attempts to eavesdrop on the red haired treasure hunter really helped save what could have been an otherwise boring exposition scene, and for that I am grateful. 

The eigo baajon of this episode deprives us of Yajiron's funny, funny Japanese voice, but its English voice does an admirable job of conveying the same feel to it.  Other than that, the script is much better than the one for the last episode, so it looks like the train wreck we got last week was a fluke.  And even though I didn't expect the beer that Jessie's carrying at the beginning of the episode to be edited out, it's still nice to see it remain intact.

Dialogue Edit
After Piplup runs into Baltoy,


"...and I'm here to fuck."

Believe it or not, I didn't bring these lines of dialogue up so I can quote Kill Bill.  No, the thing worth mentioning here is that in the Japanese version, Baku sees that Potchama genuinely appears to feel bad about what it's done and decides to forgive it.  We don't really get that same impression from the dub at all.

After the opening theme,


Satoshi repeats the word "treasure" back at Baku in the Japanese version, which then gets the Rocket-Dan interested in their conversation.  In the dub, however, Team Rocket reacts to Ash saying "That's awesome," which doesn't make nearly as much sense.

Shortly after the halfway point,


I'm glad Jessie isn't the only one who didn't understand what the hell James was talking about earlier in this episode.

Anyway, in the original version, Nyasu states that they must be more of the torappu (トラップ), or "traps," that Kojirou was talking about earlier.  Musashi tells Kojirou that she thought he had been saying toranpu (トランプ), or "playing cards" this whole time.  Kojirou starts to explain the meaning of the word "trap" (it's not a word that most Japanese people would know, of course), but the Kusaihana and Rafflesia interrupt him with their attacks.

When Team Rocket's in the cave,  trying to figure out where to go:


In the Japanese version, Nyasu says dore ni shiyou ka na? (どれにしようかな？), which is like the Japanese version of "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe."  In Japan, however, the children's song is seen as a sort of prayer to God, asking for help deciding whatever it is the person singing the song needs to figure out.  The lyrics vary from region to region, but the second verse in almost all of the variants contains the words kami-sama (神様), or "God," and ten no (天の), or "heavenly."

Therefore, Musashi's next line is her expressing her surprise that Nyasu is asking God, of all people, for help.  Nyasu responds by saying they should be willing to try anything when faced with difficult situations.  Once Nyasu realizes that he's climbing up an Iwaku, he looks at it and refers to it as Iwaaku-sama (イワーク様), or "Lord Iwaku."

Of course, since none of this applies to our version of the saying, TPCI rewrote it.  It's annoying that TPCI had the members of Team Rocket insult each other for the millionth time, but I'm not really surprised by that anymore.

After the motto,


Originally, Kojirou states that they'll use the money the treasure will bring them to help fund their various schemes.

After Dawn looks up Claydol in her Pokédex:


Baku calls Nendoll a mamorigami (守り神), or "protector god."  The g-word got edited out of TPCI's script.

Right after Claydol defeats Piplup,


Baku calls Nendoll a "protector god" again.  TPCI removes the word "god" again.

Also, shouldn't Buck's line be "It's not the guardian for nothing?"  The line TPCI gave him sounds off to me, for some reason.


This one's super minor, but in the Japanese version, Baku states, in English, that he's "salvaged" Nendoll.  Buck doesn't get to use a similar treasure hunter related phrase here.

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