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| Season | Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · On to Saffron City: May’s first Kanto Ribbon arc (AG137–AG145) |
| Episode | Season 8, episode 52 · English episode 417 · Japanese episode 421 · Bulbapedia code AG145 |
| English title | Pasta La Vista! |
| Japanese title | 格闘道場！サトシＶＳハルカ！ Kakutō Dōjō! Satoshi Tai Haruka! — “Fighting Dojo! Satoshi VS Haruka!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 29 September 2005 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 July 2006 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Masashi Sogo |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · Pokémon Kazoe Uta (Pokémon Counting Song) – Akiko Kanazawa |
| English opening | Unbeatable – David Rolfe |
| Pokémon Trainer’s Choice | Which one does not evolve? (Wynaut / Absol / Snorunt) → Absol |
| Previous episode | A Hurdle for Squirtle (AG144) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeSeason finaleLast 4Kids episode
Pasta La Vista! is the 52nd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 417th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 421, Bulbapedia code AG145). It first aired in Japan on 29 September 2005 and in the United States on 8 July 2006. It falls within the season’s On to Saffron City: May’s first Kanto Ribbon stretch (EP137–EP145).
The last episode dubbed by 4Kids and the last new Pokémon episode on Kids’ WB, shown on 8 July 2006 after a week with no new episode; Spain had premiered it on 25 June 2006. It did not air on Cartoon Network until the Sun & Moon era.
Synopsis
Before leaving Saffron City, May shows off her new Ribbon. She and Brock head to a noodle restaurant famous for its “Battle Noodles”, while Ash and Max go to a free Fighting-type demonstration at the Pokémon Dojo, the dub’s name for Saffron’s Fighting Dojo. At the restaurant the chef, Kyle, is dragged away by a girl named Terri before he can serve them, and May and Brock follow. Team Rocket set up a noodle cart, then abandon it to go after Ash and Max, leaving Meowth to run the business alone. At the dojo, the elderly Master Hamm signs Ash and Max up as students on the spot and sets them to scrubbing floors with Pikachu as their very first task.
Terri arrives with Kyle in tow, and the story comes out: Kyle is Master Hamm’s son and refuses to take over the dojo because he wants to make noodles, and Terri, the dojo’s only remaining student, warns that it will close otherwise. Hamm proposes a battle to decide the matter: if Kyle loses, he must take over. When Hamm’s back gives out, Ash offers to fight in his place, so Kyle recruits May, who agrees in exchange for a bowl of the famous Battle Noodles. Ash trains with Hamm’s Hitmonlee against the dojo’s Hariyama, and May with Kyle’s Hitmonchan against Breloom, to the strains of the theme song “Ready Go!”. The two friends will be battling each other, each with a borrowed Fighting-type.
The formal match is interrupted twice. First Team Rocket try to steal the Fighting-types, until Terri’s Hitmontop frees Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan with Rapid Spin; then the roof caves in and the trio return in a noodle-bowl mecha that nets both Pokémon. Hitmontop’s Mega Kick smashes the top of the mecha and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt blasts Team Rocket away. Kyle explains that he only wants to make noodles as good as his father’s, and Hamm gives his blessing, handing the dojo to Terri, whose dream it always was, and admitting that his own secret dream is to sell noodles from a mobile cart. The battle is never finished, but everyone, May included, gets what they wanted, and the group set off for the Battle Arena. It is the last episode dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment and the last to air on Kids’ WB!.
Major Events
- Master Hamm, Kyle and Terri
- Ash and May’s battle with borrowed Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan is never finished
- The group leave Saffron City for the Battle Arena
- Season finale
- Last episode dubbed by 4Kids and last aired on Kids’ WB
- Last Pokémon Trainer’s Choice
Trivia
- The English title plays on "hasta la vista", perhaps chosen to mark the end of the 4Kids dub.
- The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Sign text replaced with an invented script, which Dogasu calls 4Kids’ “final paint edit”
- The last 4Kids time cut
- The Fighting Dojo becomes the “Pokémon Dojo”
- Ramen becomes “noodles”
- Ready Go! plays over the training scenes in Japan, removed from the dub
Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.