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| Season | Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension (Season 11) · Lake Valor & the Wallace Cup arc (DP073–DP079) |
| Episode | Season 11, episode 26 · English episode 541 · Japanese episode 545 · Bulbapedia code DP078 |
| English title | Pruning a Passel of Pals! |
| Japanese title | 激闘！それぞれのバトル！！ Gekitō! Sorezore no Batoru!! — “Fierce Fighting! Respective Battles!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 8 May 2008 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 27 September 2008 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kaze no Messēji (Message of the Wind), PokaPoka-VERSION. – Mai Mizuhashi |
| English opening | We Will Be Heroes – Kirsten Price |
| Previous episode | Staging A Heroes’ Welcome! (DP077) |
| Next episode | Strategy With a Smile! (DP079) |
Plot episodeAsh loses to KyleIce Aqua Jet
Pruning a Passel of Pals! is the 26th episode of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, the eleventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 541st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 545, Bulbapedia code DP078). It first aired in Japan on 8 May 2008 and in the United States on 27 September 2008. It falls within the season’s Lake Valor & the Wallace Cup stretch (EP73–EP79).
Synopsis
In their room at the Lakeside Resort, May, Dawn and Zoey talk Contests: Dawn explains that her mother’s Top Coordinator title inspired her, and May admits that she had trouble with Pokémon at first before she grew to love performing. A crash interrupts them as Ash, dreaming of a tough battle, falls out of bed. Unable to sleep, he takes Pikachu for a walk along Valor Lakefront and praises Buizel’s progress, feeling that the Cup is helping them both grow, when a whirlpool forms on the lake and a glowing projection of Azelf rises and sinks back into the water. Ash rushes back to tell the others, and Piplup wakes him with Bubble Beam. Dawn recalls the Mesprit she saw at Lake Verity, May and Zoey mention legends about Lake Acuity near Snowpoint City, which Zoey reveals is her hometown, and Brock wonders whether it all connects to the legend of time and space. Dawn decides to tell Professor Rowan.
The Battle Stage begins with Dawn’s Buneary against a Coordinator’s Wailmer. Wailmer’s Brine flings Buneary into the air, costing points, but Buneary recovers with graceful backflips, drains its opponent’s points with repeated Bounces, spins out of Surf to counter with Dizzy Punch, watches a Hidden Power rebound onto Wailmer and freezes it with Ice Beam as time runs out. Ash and Buizel beat a Kecleon, Zoey’s Shellos downs a Mareep with Mud Bomb and May’s Skitty wins with Blizzard. Jessie, furious at her elimination, reinvents herself as the reporter “Jessadia”, and Dawn and Pachirisu win their next round against a Pelipper. Then Ash faces Kyle and his Lanturn. Lanturn’s Charge costs Ash points, Buizel’s SonicBoom knocks Lanturn into the air, and a charged Thunderbolt leaves Buizel paralysed before Lanturn adds an Ice Beam. Kyle remarks that Ash is predictable because he has only used Buizel.
Ash responds with an improvised Ice Aqua Jet, spinning through the Ice Beam, which impresses Wallace and May, but Lanturn’s Hydro Pump hits home and its Thunderbolt cancels Buizel’s Water Pulse in a downpour of spray. When time runs out Kyle is ahead on points, and Ash is out of the competition. Jessadia interviews him, praising the Ice Aqua Jet until Ash fidgets on camera, and Marian compliments her coverage. Zoey and Misdreavus win their match, and May sends out a surprise, her Bulbasaur having evolved all the way into Venusaur in Johto, to win hers. Back at the hotel, Ash shrugs off the loss, glad that Buizel has perfected its Ice Aqua Jet, and promises to cheer the others on. Brock points out how tough the semi-finals will be: May against Zoey and Dawn against Kyle. The next morning Dawn sends out Piplup in a Foamy Seal, Kyle answers with Crawdaunt, and the first semi-final begins.
Major Events
- Wallace Cup Battle Stage. Ash loses to Kyle’s Lanturn in the quarter-finals
- Buizel perfects its Ice Aqua Jet
- May’s Venusaur revealed
- Jessie reports as Jessadia
- Azelf’s projection rises from Lake Valor
- The last appearance of May’s Skitty, Wartortle, Munchlax and Venusaur
Pokémon making their anime debut
Azelf#0482 · DP078
Captures and evolutions
Bulbasaur → Venusaur#0003 · May · evolved twice off screen in Johto
Trivia
- The English title plays on a group of friends cut down one by one in the Battle Stage.
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The Japanese Battle Frontier and Johto League background music
Part of our Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.