Pokeblock, Stock, and Berry
"'Scuse me, coming through! Watch where I'm going, 'cause I'm sure not!"
Score: 5/10
At Lilycove City, the heroes come across a poster for another pokemon contest, and May declares her intent to enter it. Whew, I was afraid there for a second that she was just going to pass by it and be all "Nah."
While walking in the city, they come across a berry salesman, who specifies "strawberries" as a type of berry even though it's actually not. Yep, they've reached "Lilycove's famous berry market." I'll be honest. I never thought that could be a thing. Don't get me wrong: there are two different stores within ten miles of me that sell nothing except calendars, so I can believe it, I just never thought of it before.
They meet an obnoxious (meant to be lovable, but she's just obnoxious) girl named Kelly and her Grumpig, the two of which will be entering the contest the next day. After about three minutes of talk, Ash declares that "Well, looks like they're rivals now!" No doubt for two episodes, like all of the contest rivals except Drew.
Brock mentions that they're going to an omelet restaurant, but Kelly awkwardly insists that that particular restaurant is awful (I know what you're thinking, but it doesn't come up again) and takes them to her mom's home/shop, where they sell pokeblock. After eating, Ash goes off to train Swellow to learn aerial ace, something that he has shown absolutely no interest in in previous episodes.
Swellow tries, but it's really bad at it. Fortunately, Ash bumps into "Vladimir the Attacker," an old man who goes by "Ralph" now, who can "teach any pokemon any attack." He takes them to his home, where he has a training course set up specifically to teach pokemon aerial ace. Imagine if Ash had wanted to learn an obscurer move, one that Ralph didn't happen to have a course set up for. He shows Ash and Swellow how to do it using his Pidgeotto (that sounds nothing like Ash's Pidgeotto did). After some training, we cut back to what's really interesting:
May learns how to chop berries in the pokeblock shop and mix them up. Her attempts are awful, but they're cut short when Team Rocket steals Grumpig. Combusken stops them with such ease and efficiency that May decides to use it in the next contest even though she has never put it through any training at all. Come on, May, Combusken is great and all and it's probably the second or third most powerful pokemon and of the heroes have (after Grovyle and Pikachu), but you haven't trained with it at all.
Jessie also learns of the contest and bullies James into letting her use Chimecho for it. Why does she want to use Chimecho? Because she thinks that Dustox is too overused, and she needs something new. Hey, I have an idea. How about you use Meowth? He'd be guaranteed to ace the first round of the contest, and while he can't fight at all, he can still fight better than Chimecho, which knows healing bell and like nothing else.
Cut to... the contest? Well that was fast. Ash dodges having to watch the contest by wanting to go teach Swellow aerial ace, but I bet he just didn't want to watch.
In the locker room, May and Kelly wish each good luck, while Jessie presses Chimecho again a wall and insists it win.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger: May sends out Combusken in the first round of the contest, but its fire spin rages out of control and is about to hit her when the episode ends. Well that's what happens when you don't train it at all and then have it use a complicated move, you dumb piece of crap.
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005