This episode had better be goddamn awesome to make up for all the drama surrounding the Gliscor release & Gible capture.
-The main characters start off this episode by...being completely lost!
-A bright light goes up in the sky and explodes like fireworks, so Our Heroes decide to go that way because hey, why not?
-But wait, what's that rustling in the bushes? Why it's a...DRAMABOMB!
-AshnCo find an old lady and an Altaria that uses Draco Meteor, and gaze in awe...before realizing that they're right where the Draco Meteors are going to land. Amazingly, they don't die from the hail of energy.
-The old lady and Altaria are pretty calm about nearly killing two small children and one horny teenager.
-Blah blah explanations blah
-LANDSHARK FIN RACING THROUGH THE GROUND(which looks suspiciously like a bunch of yellow and brown generic background lines)
-"Ash:Hi gible, I'm Ash. *extends hand in greeting* Gible:...*CHOMP*" I like this thing already!
-That old lady's pretty agile.
-I like how they picked the least draconic Dragon Type possible to demonstrate Draco Meteor.
-Gible appears and tries to use Draco Meteor!
-But it fails and the energy ball falls right back down at AshnCo. The humans run away, and Piplup takes a direct hit!
-Why is Ash helping Gible learn Draco Meteor instead of, you know, the old lady who has experience teaching Dragon types how to use Draco Meteor?
-Another try, another failure with recycled footage of Piplup getting hit with the failed Draco Meteor.
-Gible wanders over to Ash, and...bites him in the head! I have no idea what's going through its head, but I love it.
-Where the hell did that rock come from?
-OH GOD IT'S RAINING ASTEROIDS TAKE COVER
-I get the feeling that this Gible is "special".
-Team Rocket!
-....MANENE EXISTS. IT WASN'T JUST A MYTH AFTER ALL! Now if only we could get a glimpse of the mythical Buneary...
-How, exactly, was Altaria expecting an Ice Beam to break it out of a plastic(?) ball?
-Brock's fallen so low as to become transportation for old ladies.
-TR flies over a mountain, but Gible knows the way! (or so Ash and Dawn would hope)
-Gible knew the way, alright...to a berry bush!
-Dear god, Dawn's facial expressions! "What do you MEAN I just got done running half a mile and now have to scale a cliff?"
-Dawn's apprehension at climbing that cliff was pretty justfied, what with her falling to her death a short time later. Luckily, Mamoswine turns out to be slightly softer than the ground.
-Ash almost falls to his death too(what is this, a PSA about the dangers of scaling cliffs?), but Gible saves him!
-Mukuhawk finds TR's balloon, which...launches a net at it! I LOVE THIS EPISODE!
-No, seriously, just WHAT is Altaria hoping to accomplish by using Ice Beam on its enclosure?
-Oh, it's the old "switch from cold to hot REALLY FAST to break things" trick.
-Gible is amazing. It ate an entire mecha in 20 seconds.
-I am loving the hell out of the facial expressions this episode.
-Gible still sucks at Draco Meteor. Although really, the falling ball of energy could be an attack in its own right.
-Aw, I was half-expecting Gible to bite Ash before it tried Draco Meteor again. PHYSICAL PAIN IS FUNNY, DAMMIT.
-And Gible is now able to use Draco Meteor. For some reason.
-Lookit Piplup taking all the credit for blasting off TR in its mind. That's one proud penguin.
-Gible decides to show off Draco Meteor again...and fails, with hilarious results. The animators ONCE AGAIN reuse the "Piplip freaking out before being hit by the ball of energy" animation.
-And the episode ends with Our Heroes heading off to Asasatustusdfsdgski Town for the next contest. But GIBLE IS STILL FOLLOWING THEM! *dun dun dun*
Great episode. The animation was hilarious, and I was not expecting Gible to be such a zoned-out Pokemon(which only makes it more amusing). I also have to agree with several other posters that it was great that TR was expecting Ash to have Staraptor look for them. The writers probably won't pull that one very often, but at least they thought of it this one time.