 |
|
| Season | Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension (Season 11) · Hearthome Collection & the Summer Academy arc (DP086–DP091) |
| Episode | Season 11, episode 37 · English episode 552 · Japanese episode 556 · Bulbapedia code DP089 |
| English title | Up Close and Personable! |
| Japanese title | 研究発表「湖の伝説」！ Kenkyū Happyō "Mizuumi no Densetsu"! — “Research Presentation: "Legend of the Lake"!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 14 August 2008 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 10 January 2009 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Yukiyoshi Ōhashi |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together2008 – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kaze no Messēji (Message of the Wind) – Mai Mizuhashi |
| English opening | We Will Be Heroes – Kirsten Price |
| Previous episode | Camping It Up! (DP088) |
| Next episode | Ghoul Daze! (DP090) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeSummer Academy, part 2
Up Close and Personable! is the 37th episode of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, the eleventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 552nd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 556, Bulbapedia code DP089). It first aired in Japan on 14 August 2008 and in the United States on 10 January 2009. It falls within the season’s Hearthome Collection & the Summer Academy stretch (EP86–EP91).
Synopsis
On the third day of the Summer Academy, Professor Rowan and Yuzo send the students to study a Water-type Pokémon at the lake, with two rules: no catching and no leaving the area. By the shore, Pikachu is entranced by a flash of light from across the water and starts walking towards it until Ash stops him. Ash and Angie take a Lanturn-shaped pedal boat to the far shore, and Dawn and Brock follow in a second boat. Ash picks a Dewgong to sketch and Angie a Sealeo, but the two Pokémon swim off in opposite directions and their Trainers collide chasing them. Dawn sketches a Gorebyss and Brock a Chinchou, and unhappy with their drawings, the friends dive into the lake to watch the Pokémon up close. Back on the bank, as they write their reports, another blue flash hypnotises Angie’s Shinx, which wanders away, and later Piplup is entranced too until Dawn pulls him back.
Conway relates a legend that Pokémon vanish whenever a blue light flashes, and, partly to spend time with Dawn, he joins the group as they follow the light, even though it risks losing points. A heavy downpour drives them into a cave, and deep inside they find a green-lit cavern with a pool from which a Lumineon leaps. Conway explains that the light from a Lumineon’s tail fins can hypnotise Pokémon. Angie finds Shinx by the water and shakes it awake, and Brock points out that Lumineon do not usually live in caves, so the group decide to make the mystery the subject of their report. Meanwhile Jessie, still disguised as Jessilinda, hears about the Lumineon from James and Meowth and sends out Yanmega to catch it, ignoring the rules entirely, until Conway’s Slowking throws her and Yanmega out of the cave with Psychic. The commotion frightens the Lumineon away.
Ash and Buizel dive into the pool to search for it, and Ash discovers an underwater tunnel. Brock works out that the tunnel connects the lake to the cave and that the Lumineon swims through it to feed on the algae growing on the cave’s rocks, which explains the mysterious flashes. When the class reconvenes, the group present their Lumineon report and earn a perfect 10, but Professor Rowan deducts four points for leaving the lake without permission. Jessie and Conway each lose four points too, though Conway admits the penalty was smaller than he expected. The friends are disappointed about the points but agree that the discovery was worth it, and the day ends with all the students cleaning the classrooms. Ash’s Dewgong sketch is the first drawn by a main character other than Tracey, and this is the only Summer Academy episode in which Jessie’s Wobbuffet or any of Ash’s Pokémon besides Pikachu appear.
Major Events
- A study of the lake’s Water types
- A Lumineon that hypnotises Pokémon from a cave
- Conway joins the search
- Ten points for the report, minus four for leaving the lake
- Lumineon’s TV debut
Pokémon making their anime debut
Lumineon#0457 · DP089
Trivia
- The English title plays on “up close and personal”.
- The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Sinnoh story.
Part of our Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.