Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 023: "Umibe no Abaremono, Heigani Toujou!"

("The Beach's Roughneck Heigani Enters!")

American Episode 295: "Gone Corphishin' "
Ookido-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  AG Movie 01 Preview
Pokémon Dare Da?  None (Japanese), Shroomish (American)
Japanese Air Date: May 1st, 2003
American Air Date:  February 21st, 2004

After meeting with the famous Pokémon Trainer Daigo, Satoshi-tachi decide to use the inlet he pointed out to them to begin his training.  As Satoshi and his pokemon use the waves of the ocean to train (in order to increase his pokemon's awareness of their surroundings), a mysterious force purloins the group's tent.  Assuming the culprit to be a burrowing pokemon, Satoshi and his friends set out pokemon food to lure it out, but the powerful pokemon sends the young trainers blasting off.  Next, the group digs a number of pitfalls to trap the pokemon, but they are only able to trap Musashi-tachi.  The Rocket-Dan are quickly blasted off by the mysterious pokemon, who is soon revealed to be a Heigani.  The crab pokemon proves to be very powerful, knocking out Pikachu in a short time, but Satoshi doesn't give up.  He sends his Kimori out to weaken the pokemon, and after a difficult battle Heigani is weakened enough for Satoshi to capture.  Satoshi now has his fourth pokemon, and now he's more determined than ever to win his rematch with Touki.

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Thoughts
This is a fun episode.  It's one of the more character-driven episodes in a while, and seeing the characters do more mundane tasks, such as the laundry and planning ahead for Pokémon Contests, really makes these characters seem more real.  This group of four trainers really work well off each other, and it's quite obvious that the anime producers are trying their hardest not to make any of the characters seem unimportant or one-dimensional (you know who you are, mid-Jouto Takeshi and Kasumi...).  I wish the Rocket-Dan were treated a little nicer seeing as how they got blasted off three times in this episode, but I guess the anime producers think that kids find Rocket-Dan abuse to be funny or something. 

The dub just has weird dialogue oddities, but otherwise it's your standard episode.  Corphish's voice is alright, and while it's not as great as Heigani's Hei Hei!, I'm sure we'll all get used to it in time. 

Cut--1 second
A second is cut from the very opening scene.

Dialogue Edit
Ah, we haven't had a good ol' fashioned dialogue mix-up in a while:

May:  "What can I do?  I've already done the choreography for the whole thing!  And, I even based the whole style of it on Steven's battling.  My pokémon's movements are nice and smooth!"
Ash:  "You're right!  Steven's fighting style could totally be used in a Pokémon Contest!"

So I know you're wondering...why the sudden Steven worshipping?  How would May base her pokemon's movements on a trainer who they've only see command an Aggron to use Hyper Beam? 

Originally, Haruka says that she based her pokemon's movements on Touki's (Brawly in the dub) fighting style, not Daigo's (Steven).  Both May's and Ash's lines are translated properly except for the name mix-up, so I'm guessing that whoever was writing the script that day had a brain fart and just wrote the wrong name down.  Oops.

Side Note
I think 4Kids may have given up on trying to come up with new names for the rice balls Takeshi likes to make:

Brock:  "Well, guys, our rice balls...are now slush balls."

This is the third time rice balls have been identified in this series, and so far the dub has kept the term "rice balls" in two of those instances (he called them sandwiches in "You Never Can Taillow").  So who knows...maybe the phrase "rice ball" isn't taboo anymore.

They also used the word "death" in this episode, and the words "heck" keeps popping up more often, so maybe the dubbers are trying to very gradually make the script a bit more mature-sounding?

Cut--1 second
A second is cut after the Who's That Pokémon? commercial break.

Dialogue Edit
I know that when you were watching Ash recite his little poem, you thought the image of the two Sandslash was just thrown in there at random:

Ash:  "What happened before/Will happen once more."

The original poem was Ni-do aru koto wa Sandopan ("The second time is in the Sandopan" or something like that).  Satoshi was creating a Pokémon Senryuu (a comical haiku) like Ookido-Hakase, so he used a pokemon's name in a punny way to make an observation.  This time, he uses Sandopan's name to make a pun, and that's why there was a picture of the two Sandopan shown as he says it.

Cut--2 seconds
The overhead shot of Forretress digging the pitfalls to trap Heigani is shortened by two seconds.

Cut--2 seconds
Two seconds are cut from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.  *sigh* Remember the days when they never had to make these kinds of time cuts?

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