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| Season | Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension (Season 11) · Pastoria & the Fen Badge arc (DP080–DP085) |
| Episode | Season 11, episode 30 · English episode 545 · Japanese episode 549 · Bulbapedia code DP082 |
| English title | Cream of the Croagunk Crop! |
| Japanese title | ノモセ大湿原のグレッグル祭り！？ Nomose Daishitsugen no Guregguru Matsuri!? — “The Gureggru Festival of the Nomose Great Marsh!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 5 June 2008 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 15 November 2008 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together2008 – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kaze no Messēji (Message of the Wind), PokaPoka-VERSION. – Mai Mizuhashi |
| English opening | We Will Be Heroes – Kirsten Price |
| Previous episode | Chim – Charred! (DP081) |
| Next episode | A Crasher Course in Power! (DP083) |
Plot episodeCrasher Wake debutsCroagunk Festival
Cream of the Croagunk Crop! is the 30th episode of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, the eleventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 545th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 549, Bulbapedia code DP082). It first aired in Japan on 5 June 2008 and in the United States on 15 November 2008. It falls within the season’s Pastoria & the Fen Badge stretch (EP80–EP85).
Premiered on 15 November 2008, after the out-of-order Ranger two-parter; Pokémon.com’s official order places this episode before DP071.
Synopsis
Arriving in Pastoria City, Ash and his friends meet the masked Gym Leader Crasher Wake, who is on his way to the Great Marsh. When Ash asks for a battle, Wake explains that he has business in the marsh and invites the group along. After a tram ride they reach an open field at sunset, where glowing eyes in the grass turn out to belong to dozens of wild Croagunk. Following a stream of Trainers and their Croagunk, they arrive at a giant Croagunk temple, where Wake explains the Pastoria Croagunk Festival: its winner is crowned Champion of the Great Marsh. Brock breaks up an argument between Nurse Joy and Hamilton, whose Croagunk, Craig, won last year’s title and who wants Craig to marry Joy’s uninterested Croagunk, Chrissy. Smitten with Joy, Brock proposes a marriage between their own Croagunk instead, and his Croagunk Poison Jabs him and drags him away.
Team Rocket also arrive at the marsh, and James remembers how, as a boy, he rescued Carnivine from the mud there. That evening the festival offers Croagunk biscuits and Croagunk-shaped fireworks, and Wake referees the contest, judging it alongside Nurse Joy. In the first round the contestants crouch and croak on stage, though Ash and Dawn cannot tell one from another, and Brock’s Croagunk impresses the judges. Then Team Rocket send Meowth onto the stage in a Croagunk costume; the crowd loves it, but Hamilton is unimpressed. In the brick-breaking round, Brock’s Croagunk shatters every brick with Brick Break, while Meowth only hurts his paw. The championship bout is fought in a boxing ring between Brock’s Croagunk and Craig. Craig opens with Cross Chop, and the two trade blows so evenly that Dawn cannot tell which is which.
Suddenly Team Rocket appear in a giant Croagunk robot whose tongue snatches the crown and traps both fighters. Ash wants Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but Dawn stops him for fear of hurting the Croagunk, and Wake realises that he has left his Poké Balls at the Gym. The other Croagunk charge the robot and are swallowed into its belly, until Chrissy batters the machine, and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt finally ends the assault and blasts the trio away. Wake recovers the crown, and the crowd agree that Nurse Joy’s Chrissy has earned the championship. Impressed by Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, Wake accepts Ash’s challenge for the next day, and the night ends with everyone joining a traditional Bon Odori dance to the strains of the Pokémon Ondo. Hamilton and Craig were redesigned, and some lines re-recorded, after the first Japanese broadcast, most likely because they parodied the famous frog character Dokonjō Gaeru.
Major Events
- Crasher Wake debuts. Pastoria City and the Croagunk Festival
- Brock’s Croagunk reaches the final
- Nurse Joy’s Chrissy is crowned Champion of the Great Marsh
- James remembers rescuing Carnivine as a boy
- Hamilton and Craig were redesigned after the first Japanese broadcast
Trivia
- The English title plays on “the cream of the crop”.
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- An edit made in Japan: after the first Japanese broadcast Hamilton and his Croagunk were redesigned, some scenes re-animated and their lines re-recorded, probably because they parodied the frog of Dokonjō Gaeru
- The Gureggru-yaki become “Croagunk pie”
- Team Rocket’s Japanese blast-off puns are reduced to a single “Cro-junk”
- Crasher Wake’s boastful ore-sama is lost
- David Brimmer and Jason Griffith return to the dub
- Dogasu’s Backpack: “It kind of sucks that Gureggru’s awesome Japanese voice is dubbed over”
- The Pokémon Ondo for the Bon Odori dance
Part of our Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.