Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode BW 041:  "The White Hot Don Battles!  Emonga vs. Dageki!!"
American Episode 1441:  "The Club Battle Hearts of Fury, Emolga Versus Sawk!"
Pokémon Live Caster:  N/A
Japanese Air Date:  August 4th, 2011
American Air Date:  November 12th, 2011

The second round of the Don Battle continues with the match between Satoshi and Langley!  Just as Langley's Komatana is about to strike with Pincer Guillotine, Satoshi's Tsutarja uses Leaf Blade to repel the attack!  It then follows up with Leaf Storm, knocking out Langley's pokemon and earning Satoshi the victory.  The Don Battles continue with a contestant named Dino defeating another contestant named Antonio.  The third match is between Dent's Maggyo and Luke's Merlarva.  At first, it seems as if Dent's water-type pokemon has the upper hand against Luke's fire-type until the young filmmaker uses the explosion caused by one of Maggyo's Mud Bomb attacks to propel his pokemon into the air.  Merlarva then launches a Flamethrower at its surprised opponent, knocking it out and winning the match for Luke.  The final battle of the second round is between Iris' Emonga and Kenyan's Dageki.  Emonga's initial attacks fail, enabling Kenyan's Dageki to dish out a series of devastating blows to Iris' electric-type pokemon.  Just as it seems as though Kenyan is going to win, his Dageki succumbs to the effects of Emonga's Static ability and is paralyzed!  Emonga seizes this opportunity to strike back and defeats the weakened Dageki with a powerful Volt Change attack  The second round is now over, and the four remaining contestants - Satoshi, Iris, Luke, and Dino - all get ready for the semi-finals.  First up is Satoshi's Gamaragaru against Dino's Darumakka.  Who will move on to the finals and win the Don Battle?  To be concluded!

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Thoughts
The third episode of the Don Battle tournament!  Or, the episode where Dent talks too much and where Emonga obeys too much.

The battle between Dent and Luke was fine, but good lord did Dent yammer on too much.  I think there was only like a minute of actual battling with the rest being filled out by Dent babbling on about nothing.  Shut up, seriously.  I'm also a bit annoyed that this is the second episode in a row where Dent's pokemon learn a new move off-screen.  Why can't we ever see Dent raising his pokemon, ever?  Surely they can spare the screentime for something as basic as that if they're willing to waste it on him talking about aroma this and flavor that.

There seem to be three theories about why Iris' Emonga battles so willingly in its match against Kenyan's Dageki.  One, the writers suck at their job and just decided to have Emonga's disobedience problem fix itself off-screen.  Two, there actually was an episode where Emonga decided to start listening to its trainer that got skipped over because of 3/11.  Y'know, like maybe Emonga was in danger from a big tidal wave or something, and Iris jumped in to save it?  And then TV-Tokyo was like "hell no we're not airing that"?  Three, Emonga actually wasn't disobedient at all and the fans totally misinterpreted the character.  This third theory suggests that Emonga actually wasn't cantankerous, like Satoshi's Lizardon or Hikari's Mammoo; instead, it simply chooses to only participate in battles it knows it can win.  Which is still a form of disobedience, but whatever.  If this third theory is what they're aiming for, though, wouldn't you think the writers would have made this more clear?  I mean, "subtle" isn't really one of the things the writers of this series are known for.

The episode wasn't all bad, as it also gave us some great interactions between Langley and Cabernet.  Every time Cabernet said something insane or ridiculous or spiteful, Langley was there to bring her back to earth.  Finally, Langley isn't just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk; she's just saying the things that we would say if we were in her position.  The part where Satoshi is given Luke's camera to hold and then quickly forgets about it was another great little moment, and Tsutarja whipping Cabernet, a callback to her first appearance, was just icing on the cake.

I know that Sawk's name comes from the word "sock," as in the verb meaning to punch someone, but I can't listen to the characters in this episode saying its name without thinking about laundry.  But I do like to give the dub credit where credit's due.  For example, the "people keep mispronouncing Kenyan's name, isn't that hi-larious?" gag is made more bearable in the English version because they actually bother to change up his reactions every time it's done.  The Japanese version just had him repeat akusento chigau over and over and over, so the dub's variety here is much appreciated.  Also, the Pokédex manages to pronounce karate correctly, and the writers left in all the stuff about "going easy on a girl" stuff they usually like to cover up.  The episode is still brought down by the replaced music and some miscast voice actors, but the script, for the most part, is pretty solid.

Dialogue Edit
As is the case too often these days, the first line of the episode has a change:


The Japanese version tells us, for the third episode in a row, that "Don Battles" is short for Don Jooji Shusai Pokémon Batoru Toonamento Taikai (ドン・ジョージ主催バトルトーナメント大会), or "The Don George Pokémon Battle Tournament."  And, for the third episode in a row, TPCI neglects to adapt this for the dub.

After Ash is declared the victor:


Bel says that Satoshi really kept them on the edge of their seats, not that she was exhausted. 

Next, Dino is declared the winner of the second match of the second round when:


Team Rocket used to say this line back in the DP days, right?  "Pause for the cause?" 

Anyway, the first result in a Google search for the phrase "pause for the cause" brings up the Urban Dictionary page that defines it as meaning "To take a break from whatever you're doing to smoke marijuana."  So, I guess Sgt. Hatred there is telling everyone that he's off to smoke a fatty then?

Originally, Don George says they'll be taking a break.

Cilan starts talking about the food he made for Ash's Snivy:


Dent added chlorophyll to Tsutarja's food, not "extra vegetables."  Because feeding vegetables to a plant would be like feeding a cheeseburger to a cow, no?

After Georgia breaks up Iris' and Zorua's performance in front of Luke's camera


The dialogue's the same as the Japanese version's here.  I'm just bringing it up here because the way the line's delivered makes it sound like Iris is saying "she ruined the shit!" instead.  Seriously, listen to this part again and tell me that that's not what it sounds like.

The third battle starts with Cilan giving advice to Luke:


Dent's advice here is mostly the same.  The only real difference is that he tells Luke that he thinks about what kind of moves he can use to allow his pokemon to have an "enjoyable" battle, not "battle well."

A few lines later:


I'm only bringing this up because I think it's funny the dub basically had Burgundy call Cilan a dick.


Dent tells Luke that his Maggyo has the "aroma of the earth" rather than going with the rather generic "powerful" description.

After Cilan loses, Burgundy basks in her rival's defeat:


In one of the better moments of the episode, Cabernet does an unflattering impersonation of Dent.  Cabernet's voice actor, Hayama Ikumi, does a great job of altering her voice and putting on this cartoonish "snooty" voice, and it's hilarious.  The dub doesn't have Burgundy's voice actor do the same, unfortunately.

I'd put a clip up of the Japanese version on my DailyMotion account, but I've been having my videos taken down from them and don't really want to risk it. 

After Emolga's Static is activated:


There's a phrase in Japanese, aku'un ga tsuyoi (悪運が強い) that basically translates to "(she's) got the devil's luck."  Langley uses this phrase several times in the episode, minus the ga.  The English version changes this to just "lucky," presumably to avoid having any of its characters say the forbidden d-word.

Eventually, Sawk is unable to attack due to Static: 


Static, with a capital s, isn't something that "builds up" the way its lower cased counterpart does.  Originally, the announcer wonders if the effects of Static have finally kicked in.

After Iris is declared the winner:


Again, aku'un tsuyoi is changed, this time to "lucky break."

Finally, the line-up for the semi-finals is announced.  After Cilan wishes Luke good luck in his match:


Langley tells Iris that she'll pray that she isn't saved by the devil's luck next time.  This sentence has both the p-word and the d-word, so it got rewritten for the dub.

Also, what's with Georgia calling Iris "pudgy" here?  People said a lot of unflattering things about Iris' design when she was first revealed back in the summer of 2010 ("she looks like a witch!" or "she looks like a feral jungle child!") but "pudgy" wasn't one of them.  So what the heck?

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