October 4th episode titles revealed

[Cybersai]

Such a long wait for the next Contests...and they waste Kinoshita on it...

Not to mention making it only 1 part. I agree with Piplup too, they sort of hyped up the Hearthrome Contest like it would be something special, (during the Zoey/Shellos ep), and now that we know that she and Nando will be competing...they're going to rush the whole thing into 1 ep?

I guess they're doing it purposely this way because they don't intend Dawn to win, and she may even get knocked out early on while the finals is Zoey Vs. Nando.

Either way I'm annoyed that Contests are still rushed when they shouldn't be, considering that they've become such a major plotline in the anime in recent years, they're still treated as second fiddle to Gyms which is odd considering Dawn's spotlight.

I guess no matter how much focus a female character gets in the anime, they're still treated as throw-away compared to Ash and his Gyms.

 

[Duckgon Z]

Not to mention making it only 1 part. I agree with Piplup too, they sort of hyped up the Hearthrome Contest like it would be something special, (during the Zoey/Shellos ep), and now that we know that she and Nando will be competing...they're going to rush the whole thing into 1 ep?

I guess they're doing it purposely this way because they don't intend Dawn to win, and she may even get knocked out early on while the finals is Zoey Vs. Nando.

Either way I'm annoyed that Contests are still rushed when they shouldn't be, considering that they've become such a major plotline in the anime in recent years, they're still treated as second fiddle to Gyms which is odd considering Dawn's spotlight.

I guess no matter how much focus a female character gets in the anime, they're still treated as throw-away compared to Ash and his Gyms.

It's young boy action adventure anime's world.

We get Nando and Zoey in one episode? Bitching. I guess Kenny'll show up at the next contest, the Grand Festival, or was just a 2 ep CoTD. Tag Battle sounds interesting, maybe Dawn or Brock might enter?

 

[Lucifer Angel]

Finally they make it to Dawn's second ribbon attempt and Ash's third Gym battle.

 

[Nando]

NANDO!

Keep in mind, all we've seen of Nando's collection thus far is Budew/Roselia (or Roserade by now?) and Sunflora. I fully expect to see at least one or two new Pokémon of his this time.... by the Grand Festival I predict he will have at least Cherrim and maybe Leafeon.

That statement "Such as Zoey and Nando" makes me wonder. It obviously implies that they're not the only ones....but who else?

I also have a feeling we're going to see Paul in the Hearthome tag battle episode.

 

[Cybersai]

It's young boy action adventure anime's world.

Yeah, but the writers should have changed that since Ash hasn't been the sole focus of the show since the end of Johto. I realize why the writers still sideline Contests for Gyms, (simply because Gyms are more important in the games), but they're starting to give the newer female characters almost as much screentime as Ash, yet their tournaments don't reflect that.

Heck, I remember back when the Hoenn GF was first revealed in Japanese episode titles people wondered why it was only 3 eps long compared to Ash's leagues.

 

[Adamant]

unlike Nanako, we've actually seen his progress

Nanako did say she had aquired 4 badges in Johto when Satoshi bumped into her before the league, I believe. Of course, shortly after that, the writers sent her to Kanto for no other reason than to participate in crappy specials, but...

As for the length of this episode, 2-part conests generally use one episode to introduce the new rival coordinator or Harley's scheme of the day - since we already know the rivals Hikari will fight against, and none of them are prone to pulling anything like Harley would, there isn't really that much they could fill that first episode with. This is going to be mostly a battle episode.

 

[Rocketshipper]

they're starting to give the newer female characters almost as much screentime as Ash, yet their tournaments don't reflect that.

But remember, Hikari is probably going to get a few more contests this region than May did in Hoenn or the BF. With May, they waited until after Ash's second badge to start up the contest arc. This time they started the contests first. If they keep the same alternating pattern from before, and if they want Hikari and Ash to finish their quests at relatively the same time, it has to mean more contests (and more losses :/ ). also, this is only the 3rd official contest this region, and as Adamant mentioned, there don't appear to be any new rivals or situations this time that would really need a two parter. The other regions had a few single episode contests as well. I think it's too early to declare the contest arc as "rushed"

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

But in the next episode they find the gym... if Fantina was in the contest Ash probably would ask her to battle immediately after the contest
I don't think it's possible for Fantina to enter without anyone mentioning she's the gym leader

Not if she didn't reveal herself to be the Gym Leader. Thats happened many times before, with Gardenia most recently if memory serves correct.

 

[Cybersai]

I understand, Rocketshipper, but since we've had many fillers lately it wouldn't have killed them to make this Contest 2-parts considering the build up and characters involved.

When you have to rush appeals and like 4 battles into a single episode, things get a bit cramped. You would think they learned this after some of the previous 1-episode Contests. It won't matter much though if the writers have Dawn KO'd right away and focus on Nando/Zoey, which is probably what they'll do anyway.

It just takes away from Dawn's co-star status when the character is still reduced to a second fiddle when sized up next to the amount of screentime Ash gets in comparison, and essentially shows that there never will be a "true" co-star in the anime until they start getting near equal attention.

We've had Ash for 10 years and he'll be here for the rest of the series, we'll have Dawn for probably 4 or so years at the most, you'd think they wouldn't shortchange the characters who are only here for a limited amount of time.

 

[Piplup]

It's totally irritating me when some people compare May and Dawn to characters like Misty/Brock in terms of importance because May and Dawn are clearly much more comparable to Ash than to them that we call main characters only because they're stuck there every episode without doing anything

Even if it's hard for some to accept it Ash is NOT the only hero of the show anymore - and that does NOT say that he gets less of screen time... as said before if someone still gets a little more it's Ash so Ash fans shouldn't fear (and if somethings disappears because of the heroines it's more fillers that we would get without them)

Ash May and Dawn all three are the heroes of the show - want it or not

May wasn't handled good because that was the first time the writers had to make a heroine with equal importance to Ash
Dawn obviously benefits from being the second heroine and she is handled MUCH better than May (you can even just compare their introduction to the show: May got a few seconds at the beginning of AG1 than back to Ash while Dawn got the whole first episode of DP to herself)

I also think it's obvious that is why the Japanese version decides to make a new series:
"Pocket Monsters" the hero is Ash and the plot is gyms
"Advanced Generation" the heroes are Ash AND May and the plot is gyms AND contests
"Diamond & Pearl" - the heroes are Ash and Dawn and the plot is gyms and contests

When Pokémon started it was aimed at boys - thats also why you could only play as a boy
Later they understood a lot of girls also like Pokémon so they added the option to play as a girl
So they also wanted to reflect that in the anime - they only had one hero with plot that is aimed at boys so now they decided to make an equal heroine with plot of her own that will be aimed at girls

I'm a boy but prefers contests more so I don't say girls can't like gyms and vice versa but you must agree that is what they are trying to do
This is also the reason why Ash isn't interested at love at all while May obviously was in love with Drew and I guess the same will happen with Dawn and Kenny (only 2 episodes with him and we already got Dawn asking if he's surprised by her dress or something like that and he blushed... and also was happy after she beat him and said something like "oh well")
And both May and Dawn (especially Dawn) are girly girls

Also note that the text that appears at the beginning of the openings in the japanese version that is supposed to explain what the show is about and who are the heroes- they always wrote there about "Ash" and thats it even in AG
But now in DP they actually bothered to change that text after 10 years and changed "Ash" to "Ash and Dawn"

And it also seems to me Dawn's Piplup is "the new Pikachu"
It's obviously Dawn's "star" Pokémon like Pikachu is to Ash and it appears almost every episode
It also looks like it won't evolve and I guess thats why Kenny got Prinplup (which if I'm right about not evolving they even used the same plot with Pikachu/Raichu to let Piplup prove itself)

In the movies Ash was ALWAYS the hero even in AG except for movie 9 that I'm yet to watch but from what people say even in that Ash stole May's spotlight at the end
And while I also didn't got to watch movie 10 from the summary at serebii it seems like (obviously spoilers for the movie from now... why there isn't a spoiler tag here?) Ash and Dawn got totally EQUAL roles - the only thing Ash got that Dawn didn't was that little dream or whatever that probably was a few seconds
They both were the heroes of this movie and at the end that was not Ash and Pikachu saving the world but those were Ash&Pikachu AND Dawn&Pachirisu
Not to mention that if the summary is telling us all than except for the scene that all the Pokémon are out of their pokéballs Ash only used Staravia and for a little scene while Dawn used all of her Pokémon
(of course all of that is from reading a summary and might not be the best way to judge a movie but until it's possible for me to watch it I'm going by this... not to mention a lot of the pictures to advertise the movie featured Ash and Dawn together and they also get featured together in a lot of other things)

The last AG CD had on the cover both Ash and May
The first DP CD had on the cover both Ash and Dawn (and they bothered to delete Paul from that picture... and didn't add Brock...)
Dawn is on the center at the eyecatch while Ash is on the side like Brock
Pokemon.com also said somewhere on their site about DP that "Ash won't be the only star of the show now...."
Pokeani while not an official site (I bring that only because some people even believe their age assumptions and to show how easily the Japanese fans understand that while I'm probably going to be attacked like when I tried to explain this at serebii -_- ) wrote for each character its position on the show and both Ash and Dawn described there as the heroes


So even if a contest got to be one episode it's still doesn't say much about Dawn/contests' importance
To be fair Ash's real gym battle with Gardenia was also one episode only (I wasn't complaining about it because at least Gardenia got 2 more episodes... and Ash didn't do anything more than the other characters in those first Gardenia episodes so Ash's second gym battle also was one episode like this contest)

Also if to count the number of gyms/contests-
Hoenn:
8 gyms and 8 contests (1 May didn't participate but they HAD to make such a contest to get May decide to be a coordinator + 5 wins + 2 loses)
The gyms got the league as a conclusion and the contests got the Grand Festival
Kanto:
6 battle facilities + 6 contests (1 lose + 5 wins and I also didn't count the unofficial contest at the end of AG and the May/Drew contest battle)
The battle frontier conclusion was the battle pyramid and the contests again got the Grand Festival
So in AG we got excatly the same number of gyms/contests
In DP currently we got 2 gyms and 2 contests + unofficial contest... and if to already count DP48-49 than thats 3 contests

Also note how even if you ignore gyms and contests completely it's still clear that Ash and Dawn are the heroes and the ones who get most of the screen time
They are the heroes- the characters who advance the plot (gyms/contests) and they are also the ones to usually get the spotlight even in filler episodes that doesn't have anything to do with the plot



Sorry for getting off topic
I know I'm going to get attacked now but I really want people to understand this or AT LEAST to make some people that call Dawn a "side character" (and yes there are people that do this... even Brock or Tracey doesn't deserve to be called like that X_X) to stop call her like that and to stop complaining about how much spotlight she's getting because she IS supposed to get it

I'll be damned... this makes Naoshi's third appearance, and he's actually competing against Hikari in a Contest. Maybe I was wrong on my assumption that he was just another beginning trainer that recurs throughout the region but ultimately doesn't amount to shit (like Nanako and Kiyo)...

From DP4 I always said he'll be a rival to both Ash and Dawn (and the idea of one rival to both heroes is really interesting and new)
I can't understand why people thought he won't... I believe the writers learn from their mistakes and I think they proved it a lot of times

(and last time, he was actually a little ahead of Satoshi rather than being waaaaaaay behind like Nanako and her pathetic badge count at the end of Jouto, while at the same time being tied with Hikari in ribbon count).

If I remember correct he only have 1 badge (from Gardenia- and remember this isn't the games where there are only 8 leaders and a set order to fight them) and 1 ribbons (I also think he said he participated at 3 contests but won only one)
So at that time (Ash still had only one badge) Nando had equal amount of badges and ribbons to Ash and Dawn

It would be nice if we saw him go against Satoshi more, but unfortunately, there isn't any competition to collect a badge compared to a ribbon

Maybe we'll get to see Nando in a gym battle like with Paul?

well, fortunately, he has that Kimawari (one of the many Jouto Pokemon that've been neglected up to this point, I might add),

I think Sunkern was even more neglected... they could give him a Sunkern that later would evolve

I guess they're doing it purposely this way because they don't intend Dawn to win, and she may even get knocked out early on while the finals is Zoey Vs. Nando.

She also didn't win her first contest and that was 2 episodes
I think any contest should be at least 2 episodes and even more (3-4) wheter she win or lose
Even 2 episodes contests get a little rushed... they didn't even let us see Dawn's first contest battle! that was totally stupid thing to do... all we got is one shot of a frozen Bidoof... at least with May we actually saw her first contest battle
I also think this is a problem the writers have with any kind of tournamet: contests, grand festival, league and even random tournaments like the one we'll get in DP49 - the writers never let us see all of the battles (and the performance of less important characters in contests) in those tournaments... they prefer to rush everything to the least amount of episodes they can

Finally they make it to Dawn's second ribbon attempt and Ash's third Gym battle.

No
That will be Dawn's third contest but she is likely to lose so no ribbon
And as the summary says the gym leader isn't at the gyms and by the games Ash should battle her only after he'll get 4 badges and until now they always followed this (Viridian, Jasmine, Norman)

by the Grand Festival I predict he will have at least Cherrim and maybe Leafeon.

Doing both gyms and contests will be hard enough
I think he shouldn't make this even worse and get only grass type Pokémon

since we already know the rivals Hikari will fight against, and none of them are prone to pulling anything like Harley would, there isn't really that much they could fill that first episode with

Training (if Dawn won't train a lot she won't be able to even get to the battle round as proved by DP41)
Meet the other characters and talk with them and also get to see Nando and Zoey meet for the first time
The performance round
This could easily be 2 episodes at least... especially since this is a special contest (that I can't even continue and call that "special contest" if that only one episode)

but since we've had many fillers lately

We didn't
Not even one of the 20 first episodes was a filler
Almost all of the episodes had at least something small but still kinda important
Also I don't like it how people automatically think filler=bad
DP39 and DP43 (Pikachu (AND PIPLUP!! >< ) in charge & Mismagius) prove this

We've had Ash for 10 years and he'll be here for the rest of the series, we'll have Dawn for probably 4 or so years at the most,

I'm not sure
There is a huge chance of Ash winning the Sinnoh league (probably Ash/Paul will be the last battle that would also change Paul) and than challenge the elite four
If he beat Cynthia I think that might be a possible conclusion for Ash (and they do call her "champion master" so if Ash will win I guess that means now he is the master and that was his goal)
Also if Ash really does reach his goal that does NOT says Dawn won't be able to stay... at such case they might actually keep Dawn (and use her to remind sometimes the other characters and even visit them) and make the hero of 5th generation the new gym challegner
While thats not likely it is possible... because this is the first time we got a hint Ash might win the league (if he won't than why they bothered to tell us who win the league can battle the elite four?) and to battle the elite four is a possible conclusion... but we'll have to wait and see
I just don't want Dawn to leave without any conclusion like how they stupidly did to May (they also could easily make 26 episodes series about May in Johto and show only her contests and GF and some other important stuff but didn't... I don't want Dawn to be the same)

 

[Nando]

I remember Nando saying he had two badges and one ribbon, but he only described his recent battle with Gardenia.

 

[Yamato-san]

me too. Not only that, but I think he outright said he got the Coal Badge along with the fact that he just defeated Natane.

 

[FabuVinny]

Finally they make it to Dawn's second ribbon attempt and Ash's third Gym battle.

Oh, you can be sure that Fantina's absense will continue until Ash wins his Gym matches against Maylene and Crasher Wake. Maybe Dawn will see Fantina in a contest on the way back to Hearthome?

In the movies Ash was ALWAYS the hero even in AG except for movie 9 that I'm yet to watch but from what people say even in that Ash stole May's spotlight at the end

That pretty much disproves your point. Even in May's movie, Ash becomes the hero. Max even did better than May since he was actually there in the climax of his movie.

Honestly, May and Dawn may be above Brock, Misty, Max and Tracey in importance but the stars of the show are still Ash and Pikachu.

 

[Cybersai]

but the stars of the show are still Ash and Pikachu.

Dawn and Piplup are pretty much the closest to Ash and Pikachu than any other character though. They really are promoting Piplup as a star of D/P, much more than any other starter Pokemon ever got.

 

[FabuVinny]

They are certainly closer to Ash's position than May was. If Dawn gets her own movie, then it will be interesting to see if she gets to keep the hero role.

 

[Platina Berlitz]

The 11th Pokemon movie could have Dawn and Phoine, but that would be a rip of the 9th movie, but it may be a legend from the 5th generation, too

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

The 11th Pokemon movie could have Dawn and Phoine, but that would be a rip of the 9th movie, but it may be a legend from the 5th generation, too

The 11th movie will have Regigigas (and possibly Shaymin)

 

[Platina Berlitz]

Well then, Dawn and Shaymin and she has to save Shaymin from the villian of that movie

 

[AtoMan]

The 11th Pokemon movie could have Dawn and Phoine, but that would be a rip of the 9th movie

Which was ripped off 6th movie... huh, Do not want.

 

[Nando]

It's pretty easy to predict that 11 will be Shaymin (with Regigigas) and 12 will be Arceus. I wouldn't be surprised if the inevitable Arceus movie has Team Galactic as the antagonists either.

By the time Movie 12 is released in 2009, we'll likely be gearing up for the earliest information about Gen 5, so capping the DP Generation with Arceus will be a good way to go out.