The Winner by a Nosepass!

[Zak]

Right, the first Gym battle finally. Why the hell did J&J call the tunnel an "original plan"? Bugsy, Azalea Gym, anyone? But the battle was still good, even though Pikachu beat both of them, and it was mainly used as a promotion of Pikachu's Iron Tail. Still, I liked Nosepass, I totally forgot it could use an Electric attack. I must say, there was something original about TR this time, it was the way they blasted off! LOL it was only an accident too, and nobody even knew, hehe. Also, a bit more on Max and May's background... but I was surprised Norman never let his children watch a Gym battle... heck, when all others get audiences. Oh, and didn't they watch Ash fight Vigoroth? Or did that not count... anyways, I liked how Nosepass used a skill which wasn't an attack, i.e. being that Electromagnet in its nose to track down Pikachu.

7/10.

Oh well, don't worry, you won't have to wait very long 'till the next Gym!

~Zak

[AKA Pokemon Fan]

A great gym battle, among the Pikachu-centered gym battles it equals Surge, and the battle against Pryce.

Rock Tomb was awesome. Imagine an attack that makes the rock from under the earth rise up to trap your opponent.

And Geodude's Rock Throw was the best looking and most massive one the anime has ever shown.

This is also the first time we've ever seen Pikachu absorb an attack directed at it. I was pleasently surprised.

Possible dub error. Nosepass's Zap Cannon may have been mistranslated as Thunder Wave the first time it used it. We've seen Thunder Wave do damage before but thsi time it looked just like the Zap Cannon Roxanne ordered the second time.

In the same vein, was that really a Pound attack Treeko used, or are they confusing it with Slam? Or is it simply that Treeko can use Pound with either its arms or its tail?

And I too was surprised that Norman never let his children watch gym battles (Vigoroth vs. Pikachu wasn't an official match). However, I guess it is understandable because they are family. We all saw how Brock's siblings interfered with the battle when Ash was fighting his Onix. Norman probably just wanted to keep stuff like that from happening.

And we see May reveal her real dream. Just as well as Roxanne would have crushed her.8)

And lastly, Pikachu proves again it is no ordinary Pikachu. I loved how shocked Roxanne kept looking at Pikachu's abilities.

Roxanne: "In all our battles no Electric type has ever beaten my Geodude."

Roxanne: "An Electric type has never lasted this long."

[Zak]

Originally posted by AKA Pokemon Fan
Possible dub error. Nosepass's Zap Cannon may have been mistranslated as Thunder Wave the first time it used it. We've seen Thunder Wave do damage before but thsi time it looked just like the Zap Cannon Roxanne ordered the second time.

*Opens his Japanese copy of this one* Actually, that's correct. Good job, I probably would have missed that one if I were one of the dubbers. The first one that hit TR is what they called Thunder Wave, right? Well, they were both Zap Cannons.

Thunder Wave = Denjiha
Zap Cannon = Denjihou

After listening to them both, I heard a clear "o" sound at the end of both, and nothing similar to "a".

~Zak

[Entropy]

I somewhat enjoyed the epside. Once again, they butchered the episode, music-wise. They used a couple of the background music from the Japanese version of the 2nd movie in the original version. All well used, of course.

[Gravy]

The Winner by a Nosepass
And so, we reach Ash's first gym battle of the new Houen series. And of course, this is the episode in which we see Haruka admit she had no intention of competing for badges, but instead wishes to take part in pokémon contests. She also admits that she didn't like pokémon initially, but now realisies that they're not bad at all. Meh, makes me think she had a bad experience with a pokemon in the past...
I think putting Treecko in there was pretty pointless really. It lands a single hit, then shortly after is KO'd. Very dissapointing I must say, I always wanted the thing to at least defeat Geodude. That way we'd have got to see less of Pikachu. But, I suppose it put on with a good show using Thunder and such. But the fact it can still inflict damage on a ground type still irks me. They could have at least had Pika send a bolt flying into its mouth or something. That would have explained how it beat Geodude better IMO...oh well.
Nosepass just scares me. The way it uses its nose to lauch electricity, the way it can home in on a pokémon during a match. Everything about it is surreal. But, it did put up a good battle despite is oddness. Zap Cannon looked impressive, especially the way it launched TR out of that tunnel And Pikachu absorbing the shock and sending it back at Nosepass (right in the eyes >_<; ) was excellent. Iron Tail...that move is going to crop up a lot more, but doesn't put an end to the electricity ^_^0
8/10 for me...

Note: erm...right, they keep Typhlosion's japanese voice in the previous episode. Yet, they can't seem to keep Nosepass'? It actually says 'Nosepass' in the original for petes sake @_@

[Yoh Asakura]

Woo I missed it because I was asleep lolz I'll watch it on Sky Mix later =D

From what i've read it sounds like a good episode =)

[Pewter City Geodude]

Originally posted by Zak
I liked how Nosepass used a skill which wasn't an attack, i.e. being that Electromagnet in its nose to track down Pikachu.

2 words: Lock-On. Nosepass learns it, and it probably uses said electromagnet in order to perform the move, probably to great effect against Electric and Steel Pokemon for obvious reasons. I know Roxanne didn't specifically order it, but Brock didn't specifically order Onix to use Sandstorm in "Entei at Your Own Risk" either.