An Epic Defense Force! – Pokémon Rival Destinies Episode 34


Season	Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies (Season 15) · Virbank City & the eighth Badge arc (BW080–BW084)
Episode	Season 15, episode 34 · English episode 735 · Japanese episode 740 · Bulbapedia code BW082
English title	An Epic Defense Force!
Japanese title	映画対決！出撃イッシュ防衛隊！！ Eiga Taiketsu! Shutsugeki Isshu Bōeitai!! — “Movie Showdown! Sortie, Isshu Defense Group!!”
First aired (Japan)	7 June 2012 · TV Tokyo
First aired (US)	6 October 2012 · Cartoon Network
Screenplay	Shōji Yonemura
Opening / ending (Japan)	Besuto Uisshu! (Best Wishes!) – Rica Matsumoto · Mite Mite☆Kotchitchi (Look Look☆Here) – Momoiro Clover Z
English opening	Rival Destinies – Alex Nackman & Kathryn Raio
Who’s That Pokémon?	Krookodile (US)
Previous episode	Crisis at Ferroseed Research! (BW081)
Next episode	Rocking the Virbank Gym! Part 1 (BW083)

Plot episodeMeloetta debutsLuke’s film wins

An Epic Defense Force! is the 34th episode of Pokémon: BW Rival Destinies, the fifteenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 735th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 740, Bulbapedia code BW082). It first aired in Japan on 7 June 2012 and in the United States on 6 October 2012. It falls within the season’s Virbank City & the eighth Badge stretch (EP80–EP84).

Premiered on 6 October 2012, the last new episode before Black 2 and White 2 reached North America; in Japan, Meloetta’s last appearance (BW097) had aired that same week.

Synopsis

In Virbank City, Ash and his friends help the young director Luke make a monster movie for the Pokéstar Studios film competition, while a mysterious invisible Pokémon begins to follow Ash. Luke, in town for the studio park’s opening, is entering the contest and asks the group to star in his film; his arrogant rival Jules boasts that his own action films will make Luke’s look dull.

Every entrant must use the same props, so Luke casts Ash as the hero, Cilan as the villain and Iris as a priestess. Fetching an airplane prop from a warehouse, Ash saves a briefly visible Meloetta from a falling plank, and it vanishes, while Team Rocket are also hunting it.

Jules’s film shows him and his Krookodile destroying a Mecha-Tyranitar. Luke’s casts Ash, Pikachu and Pignite as the Unova Defense Force against a Mecha-Tyranitar controlled by Cilan’s alien, while Iris and Zorua play twin priestesses whose tears turn Luke’s Golett into the giant Golurk that saves Pokémon Island. After a moment of silence the audience gives it a standing ovation, Luke wins the trophy, and the group heads for the Gym as Meloetta watches Ash.

Major Events

Meloetta debuts. Virbank City’s Pokéstar Studios
Luke’s monster film beats Jules’s
Meloetta starts following Ash, the first event-only Pokémon to debut outside a movie
Team Rocket’s new operation
Luke’s last physical appearance
MGM-logo and Godzilla parodies
The last US episode before the English release of Black 2 and White 2
TV debuts of Meloetta (Aria Forme) and Krookodile