Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 030: "Batoru Gaaru to Asanan!  Arashi no Naka de!"

("The Battle Girl and Asanan!  Inside the Storm!)

American Episode 302: "A Meditite Fight!"
Orchid-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  Buby
Pokémon Dare Da?  None (Japanese), Mudkip (American)
Japanese Air Date:  June 19th, 2003
American Air Date:  May 8th, 2004
Important Characters:  Shinobu (Shana)

While training his pokemon for the upcoming rematch against the Muro Town Gym Leader, Satoshi is approached by the Battle Girl Shinobu.  The young girl, who proclaims that she's both Touki's apprentice and his girlfriend, challenges Satoshi to a pokemon battle.  The battle commences, pitting Satoshi's Pikachu against Shinobu's Asanan.  Satoshi is doing pretty well until Touki interrupts, warning the young trainers that a massive hurricane is approaching!  Everyone decides to take shelter in a nearby cave, where Touki explains to Satoshi and his friends that he isn't dating Shinobu and that she isn't his apprentice.  He also explains that while fighting to the best of one's ability is important, the bond between a trainer and his pokemon is even more precious.  The storm subsides, and the next morning Shinobu and Satoshi have a rematch.  Satoshi easily beats the headstrong Battle Girl, and after he wins he asks Touki for a rematch.  The Gym Leader agrees, and he leads the group to the cave where the gym match will take place.  To be continued!

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Thoughts
Well, the long-awaited rematch is nigh, so you know we're going to get an episode leading up to the big event.  This episode serves that purpose, but until the very last scene, the episode feels like another throwaway episode.  Shinobu just wasn't that interesting to me, and the majority of the episode felt disjointed to me. 

The cave scene is probably what threw me off so much.  Touki talking about Shinobu's faults while she's sitting within earshot was bad enough, but his random ramblings about the environment just helped destroy the scene.  There's so much the anime producers could have done with the scene, like reveal why Shinobu made the claims that she did, but instead we're left with the characters having the most inane conversations. 

On the dub side of things, there's nothing too special to report, though I did like one of James' lines.  His "Even drama queens need a complete breakfast!" made me chuckle, and I'm glad that 4Kids knows how to use the Rocket-Dan to spice up otherwise boring episodes.

Cut--6 seconds altogether
All the edits in this episode are time cuts.  Whoo.

The first two seconds of the episode are cut.

Two seconds are cut right after Kids' WB!'s final commercial break.

Finally, two seconds are cut from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.

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