Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode DP 187:  "The Fiercely Fought Full Battle!  Satoshi vs. Shinji!!"
American Episode 1330:  "A Real Rival Rouser!"
Japanese Air Date:  August 12th, 2010
American Air Date:  January 8th, 2011

The battle continues as Shinji's Drapion finishes off Buoysel with a powerful Missile Needle.  Satoshi chooses his Mukuhawk next, thinking that its ability to fly will keep it safe from the effects of Toxic Spikes.  Drapion, however, is able to knock its opponent to the ground with its Cross Poison attack.  Drapion's third opponent is Satoshi's Dodaitoise.  The continent pokemon uses Rock Climb to surprise Drapion, but it quickly recovers and uses Missile Needle to score another KO.  With half of Satoshi's pokemon eliminated, Shinji decides to switch things up and calls on his Tekkanin to battle.  Satoshi decides to go with Glion but quickly recalls it after it hits the ground and becomes affected by Toxic Spikes.  Satoshi decides to use Goukazaru next to find a way to get rid of Toxic Spikes.  The flame pokemon uses Dig to go underground where it unleashes a powerful Flare Drive that dissolves all the poison!  The attack also damages Tekkanin, decreasing its speed enough for Goukazaru to be able to knock it out with Mach Punch.  The next match-up is between Shinji's Yukimekino and Satoshi's Pikachu.  The ice-type uses a combination of Hail and its "Snow Hiding" Ability to avoid being hit by Pikachu's electric attacks.  Yukimekino uses Ice Beam to freeze Pikachu, but just as it's about to finish it off, Pikachu breaks free with Volt Tackle and defeats Shinji's pokemon.  Shinji calls on Drapion again, so Satoshi asks Glion to help him out a second time.  Will Satoshi be able to defeat his long-time rival?  To be concluded!

---

Thoughts
When I first heard that this battle was going to be a three parter, I thought that there was no way they were going to devote all three episodes to just the battle.  I was positive they were going to break the whole thing up with flashbacks or something to flesh out Shinji as a character and maybe explain why he is the way he is.  But they didn't; all three episodes, for the most part, are just battle, battle, battle.  I'm not upset with the way the whole thing turned out - I thought they did a really good job of keeping my attention through all three parts - but I'm surprised we didn't get more glimpses of what makes Shinji tick.  I mean, when else are they going to have the chance to do it?  The series is almost over.

Then again, it's not like this episode wasted the time it used.  Nothing felt too rushed, and I feel like the battle had a really great flow to it.  I do wish Dodaitoise had lasted longer than it did and am disappointed that it never got a single non-Rocket-Dan win since it evolved, though.  It's a shame that, despite the leaps and bounds the writers have made with this series when it comes to storytelling, they still haven't figured out how to treat each pokemon equally.  Buoysel didn't do much better, but it at least got to KO one of Shinji's pokemon.  With Dodaitoise, one wonders why it was even brought to the battle in the first place.

I also found myself focusing a lot of my attention on the scenes featuring Takeshi, Hikari, and Jun.  If you ever want to see some examples of the animators cutting corners, check out how many times Hikari claps her hands, or how Takeshi has his arms folded for pretty much the entire episode.  Jun's pretty animated (both literally and figuratively), but the other two barely move an inch throughout the episode.  It's really pretty hilarious.

I also laughed at the scene where Glion uses Stone Edge on Tekkanin because it looks like the attack misses and hits the audience instead.  It doesn't, of course - it probably only hits the ground somewhere off-camera - but it's still amusing to think about.

The English version continues to ignore the fans and replaces the Japanese music even though I can't think of a single person who actually prefers TPCI's score to Miyazaki Shinji's stuff.  I know of people who hate the dub music, and I know of people who don't really care one way or the other, but I can't say I've ever come across anyone who actually loves the dub-only music and wants to hear it more often.  And you never hear anyone say that they outright hate the Japanese music or that they think the dub does a much better job of scoring the show.  So, you know, what gives?  Who in the world is going to complain if we get an episode that keeps 100% of the original background music?

Dialogue Edit
After Buizel (I'm still not used to that ridiculous spelling even after all these years) gets knocked out:


In the Japanese version, Jun implies that the effects of Toxic Spikes will continue for the entire match, not just "a long time."

After Ash calls on his Torterra to face off against Paul's Drapion:


Reiji actually addresses Satoshi directly, as if he's trying to give him advice.  Reggie, on the other hand, seems to be talking to himself.

After Torterra gets knocked out:


Shinji's first line here is that his two pokemon were willing to go down in order to help Shinji determine what Satoshi's line-up is.  Y'know, almost as if they volunteered to be the fall guys or something.  This is a pretty remarkable moment in Shinji's development since it shows us that despite all the shit he puts them through, his pokemon still care about him.

The dub has Paul say that he let Ash take out Aggron and Gastradon, which, while still true, doesn't really convey the same messages that Shinji's line in the Japanese version does.

The dub also replaces Avant - Groudon's Theme (Track 13 on the The Seven Nights' Star of Wishing, Jiraachi soundtrack), an awesome piece of background music whose absence more or less destroys the entire scene.

After recalling Gliscor:


The part that gives Satoshi the idea about how to get rid of Toxic Spikes is "battlefield," not "upside down."  This is why, in the scenes that follow, he attacks the battlefield instead of, say, trying to turn it upside down.

After Infernape gets rid of the Toxic Spikes by firing off a Flare Blitz:


Satoshi's first line is that he's no longer scared of Toxic Spikes.  Which is kind of a weird way of saying "they're no longer a threat to us," but whatever.

Shinji replies by saying that the way he got rid of Toxic Spikes is just the sort of thing he'd come up with.  The dub, which has so far been doing everything in its power to avoid having Paul show any signs that he respects Ash, suddenly decides to have Paul compliment his opponent directly instead of the more indirect compliment his Japanese counterpart gives.  Huh.

Shortly after:


This is one of those cases where the translation could have gone either way.  In the Japanese versions of the games, the Ability the English versions of the games call "Speed Boost" is known as kasoku (かそく), or "accelerate."  The line said by Jun in the Japanese version is Moshikashite, ano Tekkanin, kasoku dekinai janai ka? (もしかして、あのテッカニン加速できないじゃないか？), I line I would have translated as "Maybe that Tekkanin can't speed up anymore?"

TPCI took the use of the word kasoku to be a direct reference to Tekkanin's Ability instead of a regular, non-capitalized word like "accelerate."  Which sort of reminds me of the whole Bulbasaur Whirlwind thing from back in Kanto, when 4Kids would translate fuki tobashi as "Whirlwind" instead of the more logical "blow (it) away."  While it may seem like the line in this episode is a reference to the Ability, given the context in which it's being used, I don't really think the original writers intended to make it seem like Abilities are something that one can "use."  Nor do I think they're trying to tell us that the ability (lowercase) to use an Ability (uppercase) is something that can be taken away.  So, I would have used "speed up" or "accelerate" instead of "Speed Boost."

After Jessie drinks some juice:


Ha ha, Meowth and James are going to charge Jessie for three drinks, because they hate her!

Originally, Nyasu states that the drink Musashi just consumed will be coming out of her paycheck.

After Gliscor lands a hit with Giga Impact:


Close, but not quite.  In the Japanese version, Takeshi tells us that Mitsuzoh knew that Giga Impact has that drawback of leaving its user vulnerable and therefore taught Glion how to get out of the way immediately after using it.  The dub sort of says the same thing, but it doesn't really give us the feeling that the Air Battle Master purposely worked with Glion to make allowances for a weakness the way the Japanese version does.

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