Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 077: "Kyouteki!?  Mama-san Koodineetaa Toujou!"

("A Formidable Enemy!?  The Entrance of Mama-san the Coordinator!")

American Episode 349: "A Fan with a Plan"
Orchid-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  Alligates
Japanese Air Date: May 20th, 2004
American Air Date:  May 7th, 2005
Important Characters:  Tsukiko (Savanah), Hoshika (Sandra), PMDM (MFP)
Important Places:  Ruibosu Town (Rubello Town)

Satoshi and his friends are in Ruibosu Town, where a Pokémon Contest is being held!  The posters advertising the contest list it as being an R1 Contest, which means that contestants are required to have earned at least one Contest Ribbon before being allowed to compete.  Haruka, of course, meets the requirements, but Musashi does not.  As the Rocket-Dan hatch a plan to get a ribbon of their own, Haruka meets up with Shuu and a trainer named Tsukiko.  Shuu plans to compete in the contest with his newest pokemon, Amemoth, a pokemon who seems capable of performing some astonishing attack combinations.  Tsukiko, on the other hand, is a member of the PMDM (PokeMon Daisuki Mama-zu) who seems to be overwhelmed by the competition.  All of the Coordinators train with their various pokemon as they wait for the Contest day to arrive.  While Tsukiko and Haruka are having a practice battle, the Rocket-Dan use a mechanical claw to snatch Tsukiko's and Haruka's ribbons!  Tsukiko becomes enraged when the Rocket-Dan attack her daughter, Hoshika, so she has her pokemon wipe out the Rocket-Dan's balloon with a series of powerful attacks.  The ribbons are retrieved and the Rocket-Dan are sent blasting off again as the sun sets on another day.  What challenges await at the Ruibosu Convention tomorrow?  To be continued!

---

Thoughts
Hey look, a non-video game contest!  One thing I like about Haruka's journey through Houen is that she's not restricted to Contests that exist in the game, unlike Satoshi and his Gym Battles.  For whatever reason, the anime writers feel like they have the freedom to just make up new contests wherever they want, and I think that's great.  It gives the series a freshness that it hasn't had since the Orange Islands.

Tsukiko is probably one of my least favorite Coordinators (beaten only by Robert and the Rougela trainer later one), but that doesn't mean she's a bad character.  Giving her a daughter who feels obligated to help out with errands such as grocery shopping really makes the character that much more human, and it's nice to have that dose of realism in a show like this every now and then.

The dubbed version has a number of odd things about it, all of which I'll get to below. 

Cut--3 seconds altogether
Two seconds are trimmed from the opening shot of the episode.

Another second is whittled away from the shot of the Pokémon Center right after the episode's title screen.

Dialogue Edit
Random dialogue change:


Originally, Musashi was frantically going on about how she thought R1 stood for "Rocket Number One."  It's an amusing bit of dialogue that, for some reason, goes untranslated in the dub.

Later,

Brock:  "The ladies will love me!  A domestic god!"

Wow, I guess the word god is no longer taboo in the dub, huh?  That's the second time in three episodes that the word "god" has been thrown into the script for no reason at all.  Maybe Kids' WB!'s censors aren't as strict as we all thought, huh?

Next up,

Ash:  "Did you decide?  I mean, what kind of pokemon you're gonna use?"
May:  "Not yet.  Y'know, Skitty was great in the Fallarbor Contest, and my Beautifly's great no matter what.  But still, Torchic and Bulbasaur look really good too."

At first glance, that's a dialogue goof-up, right?  After all, May used her Beautifly in Fallarbor Town, right?  Of course she did.

The thing is, this goof-up is present in the Japanese version as well; all 4Kids did was translate it.  While 4Kids could have gone above and beyond the line of duty and fixed the error for the English version, you really can't be mad at them for this.  

If you want to be mad at 4Kids for something, be mad at this:

Side Note
And here we are, the most famous Trainer's Choice screw-up of all time:

Ash:  "Trainers, which one of these pokemon evolves into Seviper?"

When I first saw this, I thought that 4Kids would be clever and have Ash respond by saying that none of them are correct and that Seviper doesn't have a pre-evolved form (well, not yet anyway.  Who knows what Diamond/Pearl will bring us?).

Of course, as we all know, this didn't happen.  4Kids tried to tell us that Arbok evolves into Seviper, which is probably the most idiotic thing they could have done.  You think the other mistakes they've made in the past were bad?  This tops all of them.  Honestly, 4Kids, what the hell is wrong with you?  You've been working on this show for about seven years now and yet you're still making the most elementary mistakes?

I guess 4Kids got a lot of e-mails about this or something, because in the next season (Advanced Battle) they actually have someone listed in the credits as being in charge of the Trainer's Choice.  So I guess 4Kids learned their lesson and won't be making another mistake this embarrassing anytime soon.

Cut--2 seconds
4Kids protects the kids from the evil that is Japanese culture.  Right before this line in the dub:

Jessie:  "Hey Dustox, use Psybeam and knock her off her feet."

...there's a two-second shot of Musashi doing the bii-da thing that's cut from the dub.

Come on, 4Kids, make up your mind.  You cut these things out in some episodes and leave them in others.  Can't you guys be consistent with anything you do?

Oh wait.  I forgot who I was talking about.  Nevermind.

Cut--2 seconds
Two seconds are trimmed from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.

Previous Episode

Next Episode)