Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 088: "Banana Namakero En no Kabigon!"

("The Kabigon of the Banana Namakero Garden!")

American Episode 360: "The Garden of Eatin' "
Orchid-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  Pokémon Senryuu Contest information
Japanese Air Date: August 5th, 2004
American Air Date:  August 27th, 2005
Important Characters:  Makkii (Marcel)
Important Places:  Banana Namakero En (Banana Slakoth Garden)

On the way to Minamo City, our heroes come across a Banana Namakero Park.  The gang wants to see the park for various reasons, but when they approach the gate, they find that it's closed!  The gate is unlocked, however, so Haruka decides to run in, followed by the others.  Suddenly, the ground starts to shake!  A man named Makkii leads Satoshi-tachi to a building, where he reveals the cause of the earthquake; a Kabigon!  The giant pokemon wandered into the park and has started eating all the bananas, disrupting all the Namakero in the park!  Satoshi decides that capturing the Kabigon would be the best way to deal with it, so he engages in a battle against the large pokemon.  Satoshi is defeated when Kabigon uses Yawn attack, so after he wakes up, a new plan is devised - have one of the Namakero in the park evolve into Yarukimino!  The idea is that when the pokemon evolves, it will gain the Vital Spirit attribute, which makes it immune to Kabigon's Yawn attack.  After finding a Namakero willing to train, Satoshi has his pokemon battle with the pokemon, one after the other, until it gains enough experience to evolve.  The gang takes the newly evolved Yarukimono to the spot where Kabigon is and starts a battle.  As predicted, Yawn attack has no effect on Yarukimono, and before too long Kabigon is defeated.  Makkii captures Kabigon with a Monster Ball and decides to use it as an attraction to his Namakero park!  Now that the park's Kabigon problem is solved, Satoshi and his friends are able to continue on their journey to Minamo City.

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Thoughts
Well, this episode was a bit better than the last one.  The Banana Namakero Park (which seems to be based on the Banana Wani Garden in Atagawa) was an interesting attraction, and I always like it when they incorporate attributes into the show. 

Thankfully, the AG Movie 02 pimping that the show has been doing ends with this episode.  After the Bakuuda episode (with the kids all watching movies), the Lunatone episode (featuring a pokemon who comes from space, like Deoxys), and this episode (featuring the evolved form of Gonbe, who debuts in the Deoxys movie), it'll be nice to see an episode that doesn't shove the second movie down our throats. 

The dubbed version is the same as it always is.  It's annoying that they decided to make Makkii French (even though he's very clearly voiced by an American doing a bad impersonation of a French accent), but unfortunately, this sort of racist stereotyping in a 4Kids dub is nothing new.

Cut--1 second
A second is cut from the shot of the sign for the Banana Namakero Garden that starts off the episode.

Side Note
You know what I'm surprised didn't get edited in this episode?  Sakaki's pajamas during the Rocket-Dan's Boss Fantasy.  His pajamas are covered with the letter S (for Sakaki), and I'm surprised that 4Kids didn't change all of them into G's (for Giovanni).  Huh.

Cut--2 seconds
After Kabigon attacks everyone with its Yawn attack, we see a bird's eye view shot of everyone sleeping, and then we see the Rocket-Dan's balloon flying through the air.  In the dub, that bird's eye view shot is shortened by two seconds.

Dialogue Edit
Team Rocket gives this to us:


I swear to God, 4Kids, you'd better not do a damn thing to Harley when he makes his debut in the show.

Cut--2 seconds
The group shot of everyone right before Kids' WB!'s commercial break (the same shot that was shortened above) is shortened by two seconds again.

Cut--4 seconds altogether
Two seconds are cut from the shot of the garden's gate right after Kids' WB!'s final commercial break.

Then, a two-second fade to black is cut right before the Rocket-Dan's motto at the end of the episode.

And...the TO BE CONTINUED... screen wasn't shortened at all!  When was the last time that happened?

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