I dislike the idea of Hikari and Aipom as well. I wouldn't exactly be furious about it, but it just doesn't seem right to me. Especially since Aipom was so eager to remeet Ash and get him to capture her before and during the Grand Festival.
Anyways, Nozomi being so annoyed by Ash entering the Contest actually made me like her more - the opposite of what I expected.
I dunno, she just seemed horribly bland to me in DP011 and nearly bored me to tears with her oh-so-calm voice and the oh-so-calm attitude with this oh-so-flawless appeal...this time, she actually gets some personality! It was really interesting to see how passionate she is about Contests, since she only scoffed at Ash because she had the impression that Ash was ignoring the difference between Gym & Contest Battles. And it was nice of the script writer to show her realize her mistake without having her directly apologize to him.
On a side note, Ash is just so cute. He wasn't bothered at all when Nozomi got angry at him - gotta love the way he said, "Never mind!" after she was so grumpy at him. And after his loss against her, he just remained nice and wished her luck for the upcoming battles. =D
Hikari's mother is extremely strict in my opinion. But then again, whatever she tells her daughter, it seems reasonable and...intelligent, to say it in a stupid way (...???).
- Hikari shouldn't apologize for her loss to her mother, but rather to her Pokémon
- Stop crying and instead think what she had done wrong in this Contest and what she could improve on
- Talk to her new friends instead of calling her mother to constantly inform her about losses/wins
Pleased by the fact that Jessie got so far in the Contest. I almost burst with laughter at Masukippa's "WOAAAAAH!" when Nyarumaa first hit it with Shadow Claw though.