Staging A Heroes’ Welcome! – Pokémon Season 11, Episode 25

Plot episodeWallace Cup Performance Stage

Staging A Heroes’ Welcome! is the 25th episode of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, the eleventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 540th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 544, Bulbapedia code DP077). It first aired in Japan on 8 May 2008 and in the United States on 20 September 2008. It falls within the season’s Lake Valor & the Wallace Cup stretch (EP73–EP79).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

The day before the Wallace Cup, the group stroll around Valor Lakefront, where Brock flirts with a crêpe vendor until Croagunk jabs him and May jokes that Croagunk has taken over Max’s old job. Dawn’s nerves are getting the better of her appetite. Ash finally signs up for the Cup just as Zoey arrives, surprised that he is entering and even more surprised that Wallace himself suggested it, though she soon agrees that a Coordinator learns from ordinary battles too; Dawn introduces her to May. Jessilina also enters, still convinced that James and Meowth helped her win in Solaceon, and is stunned when James flatly denies it, meaning she won the Ribbon entirely on her own. On the morning of the competition, May fixes Dawn’s hair as Zoey remarks that Dawn was just as jittery at her debut, and the friends encourage her as Marian welcomes Wallace, who arrives with Milotic, and explains that the winner’s Aqua Ribbon is valid in every region.

May opens the Performance Stage with a surprise: her Squirtle has evolved into Wartortle on her travels in Johto. Released in a pink Foamy Seal, it skates over the water with Rapid Spin and finishes with an enormous Aqua Tail, impressing the judges, especially Wallace, while her family watch from Petalburg and Drew, Solidad and Harley from Ecruteak City. Jessilina’s Wobbuffet trips out of its Poké Ball, and when Jessie charges at it, its Counter launches her into the air to land on its head, leaving the audience speechless. Zoey unveils a new Finneon, which leaps from the water with Silver Wind, shows off its glowing fins with Safeguard and climbs its own Waterfall. Ash’s Buizel punches through an Ele-Seal, races across the pool with Aqua Jet, stops dead using its flotation sac and fires SonicBoom, ending with a Water Gun into the pool that sends up a huge splash. Watching on TV, Paul is unimpressed that Ash has entered a Contest at all.

Dawn grows so nervous she nearly freezes, until Piplup snaps her out of it with a Bubble Beam to the face. After a small stumble she sends out Ambipom in a shower of pink hearts, and it twirls through a Double Hit that shows off its tails, then uses Swift and a Focus Punch into the water to raise a sparkling fountain. Backstage, Zoey praises Dawn’s simpler, more natural style, and May is impressed by how well Ambipom works with Dawn after its trade and evolution. The judges praise the timing and charm, and Wallace notes the balance of power and technique. Still, Dawn frets about the results, remembering past disappointments, until May tells her to have faith in herself. Marian announces the sixteen Coordinators going through to the Battle Stage: Ash, May, Zoey and Dawn all make it, while Jessilina is eliminated. Thrilled, Dawn resolves to aim for the whole title. In Japan the episode aired in a one-hour special together with the next instalment.

Major Events

• Wallace Cup Performance Stage. Ash, Dawn, May and Zoey reach the Top 16
• Jessilina is eliminated
• May’s Wartortle and Zoey’s Finneon revealed
• Ash’s second and final official Contest, in his Contest outfit
• The anime debut of Waterfall
• Kyle debuts

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Finneon#0456 · DP077

Captures and evolutions

• Squirtle → Wartortle#0008 · May · evolved off screen in Johto

Trivia

• The English title plays on “a hero’s welcome”, for the Wallace Cup’s Performance Stage.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• May’s joke that Croagunk has taken over Max’s job replaces one about Brock never changing
• James’s “We didn’t do a bloody thing!” became “a single thing” on some prints
• May performs to I Won’t Lose!, Dawn to By Your Side and Ash to the Japanese Battle Frontier

Part of our Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.