Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 185:  "The Trick Room of Terror!  Satoshi vs. Kouhei!!"
American Episode 1328:  "Working on a Right Move!"
Japanese Air Date:  July 22nd, 2010
American Air Date:  December 11th, 2010

Satoshi is training for his upcoming match with Kouhei when his Goukazaru unexpectedly learns Flare Drive!  As Satoshi celebrates, Kouhei decides which pokemon to use based on his evaluation of Satoshi's personality.  Later, the third round begins.  Kouhei sends out Tsubutsubo, so Satoshi sends out Yorunozuku.  Tsubutsubo uses Withdraw to withstand the owl pokemon's attacks, so Satoshi switches his pokemon out with Donphan.  After a Roll attack fails to make a dent, Satoshi replaces Donphan with Fukamaru.  As the dragon-type pokemon clamps down on Tsubutsubo's body, it successfully uses Meteoric Storm, perfecting the move and defeating the mold pokemon!  Kouhei's next pokemon is Berobelt.  Satoshi switches to Yorunozuku and takes advantage of its ability to fly to stay outside the reach of its opponent's tongue.  It uses Supernatural Power to slam Berobelt to the ground, knocking it out.  Kouhei's final pokemon is Yonoir.  It activates Trick Room, a technique that enables slower pokemon to always get in the first attack.  Now that it's the fastest battler on the field, Yonoir knocks out both Yorunozuku and Donphan, leaving only Fukamaru able to battle.  Yonoir is about to knock out Fukamaru with Shadow Punch when the pokemon bites down on its fist!  Fukamaru uses Meteoric Swarm and Dragon Aura to finish the match, allowing Satoshi to move onto the next round of the Shin'ou League!  Before long, it is revealed that Satoshi and Shinji are scheduled to face each other in the fourth round!  Who will emerge victorious from this long awaited battle?  To be continued!

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Thoughts
Satoshi vs. Kouhei!  Finally, a pair of trainers who barely know each other and don't have any sort of score to settle will face each other in the Shin'ou League!

When I think about Satoshi's rivals in the Shin'ou League, Kouhei is definitely the odd man out.  He's entertaining, sure, but he's not really much of a rival, is he?  He's the kind of character I associate more with Hikari than I do Satoshi, making his newfound role as "league competitor" utterly baffling.  I liked the battle and think Kouhei's an interesting person to watch, but I'm not as invested in the battle as I would have been if any sort of rivalry actually exited.  To me, Kouhei is more like a Kaoruko or a Moé or a  Kaede than an established rival competing to settle a score with Satoshi.

But, like I said, the battle itself was entertaining.  I thought the comeback Fukamaru made in its battle with Yonoir was complete bull and I wish Donphan had done more, but I was happy to see Yorunozuku actually be presented as a strong battler instead of an OK battler who's also really good at popping balloons.  I also liked a lot of the little things, like Satoshi surprising Kouhei with his choice of pokemon, or the quick thinking Kouhei displayed when he had Yonoir use Black Look to prevent Donphan from running. 

This is also one of those episodes where I'm glad the TV show explains every little thing for us.  I can certainly understand fans being upset with the writers for having Takeshi or whoever explain that electric attacks are strong against water attack for the millionth time, but there are some things about the games that aren't as well known and therefore need to be expanded on.  I had no idea what Trick Room was before this episode, and I wouldn't have been able to follow this battle at all if it wasn't for everyone explaining everything to me.  Same thing with Tsubutsubo and Power Trick.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm not a walking player's guide, so I need dialogue like that to help me make sense of things.

The folks at TPCI don't seem to be able to get through an episode without one complete rewrite these days, and I wish I knew why.  Other than that, this is the last episode we have to put up with Conway's awful dub voice, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Satoshi's Donphan keeps its Japanese voice.

Dialogue Edit
After Infernape learns Flame Blitz:


So we start the episode off with the most significant script change in the episode, huh?  Alright!

Originally, Takeshi tells Satoshi that Goukazaru forgot Flame Wheel in order to use Flare Drive, implying that the four move per pokemon limit from the games does indeed apply to the TV series despite all the evidence to the contrary.  Dub viewers don't get this important piece of information, for no reason.

A few lines later,


Jun doesn't "forget" that Satoshi has to defeat Kouhei before battling Shinji.  He's simply like "Oh, by the way, bla bla bla." 

During Cynthia's visit to Team Rocket's stand:


Shirona also wonders if she should try the onigiri (おにぎり), or "rice balls," but the dub doesn't have her bring them up.  I guess TPCI ignoring rice balls is better than what 4Kids painting them away, so it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.

The third round starts:


The phrase "Coin Toss," as in the Poketch app, is pretty much identical to the phrase "coin toss," as in what people in real life sporting events do to determine who goes first.  The announcer in the English version uses the former while the announcer in the Japanese version uses the latter. 

After Ash brings out his Noctowl:


"Shiny" is one of those fan terms that's sort of becoming used more and more in official sources.  It being used in the TV series is just one more step in its transformation to an officially used term.

In the Japanese version, Jun states that Satoshi's Yorunozuku is a different color.  The word "shiny" doesn't come up at all.

I wonder if we're ever going to hear the word "Eeveelution" at some point in the future.

After Ash chooses Gible:


Here, Conway assumes that Ash choosing Gible means that the Pokémon has mastered Draco Meteor.  Kouhei, however, assumes the opposite; he assumes that Satoshi's Fukamaru hasn't mastered Meteoric Swarm yet, and that therefore he'll have an easier time fighting it.

Fast forward to the second half of the episode, when Conway's Dusknoir is about to take out Ash's Donphan:


Kouhei adds that he pities Donphan, a sentiment Conway neglects to express.

Music Edit
During Satoshi's bullshit comeback during his fight with Yonoir, Mezase Pokémon Master 2001 plays in the background.  The dub replaces this with The Ultimate Challenge, or whatever that song used in "A Grand Fight for Winning!" is called.  Unfortunately, TPCI's ability to mix audio hasn't improved any since it's still nearly impossible to make out the majority of the lyrics being sung.

I made the comment back in my comparison for "A Grand Fight for Winning!" that this song "could have just as easily been a song used during ... Ash's battle against Paul in the Sinnoh League."  I was one battle off, but still, I think it's funny that TPCI appears to be trying their hardest to prove me right when I say that this is a really generic song that leaves no impact whatsoever.  How does this song benefit the scene in any way?  What does it add?

In Japan, you couldn't imagine them playing Kimi no Soba de ~Hikari no Teema~ during a Satoshi win, or Mezase Pokémon Master 2001 during a Hikari win.  Yet the dub has no problem using the same song for both moments.  I often complain about how the music used in the dub alters the feel of the show, and the use of this song in these two scenes is a perfect example of that. 

I hope when Best Wishes! comes around, The Pokémon Company International makes a few character specific songs so things like this don't happen again.

Dialogue Edit
Conway's final line of the series:


"...been inputed into my database?"  What are you, some kind of Pokédex-like machine that can just scan battle data immediately?

In the Japanese version, Kouhei sounds a little less robotic, saying that the battle with Satoshi has given him a lot of useful data to use for future equations.

Also, I thought that "input" was the past tense of "input," but I looked it up and apparently both "input" and "inputed" are acceptable.  You learn something new every day.

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