Another post for the "reviewing/commenting on an episode almost a week late" pile!
-Shuckle! Pity this isn't going to be as zany of an ep as the only Shuckle episode ever back in Johto.
-Oh hey, Zoey's doing things.
-Dawn is apparently angry that they're late getting into the audience.
-CANDICE FROM NOWHERE. Quick, shove S.Suikun back into his Candice Decontamination Room! (aka "the basement closet")
-Pretty Princess seems confident that her Shuckle's going to win. BUT SHE IS GOING TO BE WRONG.
-I distinctly remember Shadow Claw not turning into a projectile attack in the past. Oh well, moves are never consistant in this show.
-And so, Zoey wins a ribbon in her blue terrible outfit. it's so baggy for an anime outfit
-Zoey makes a thank-you speak for Candice. Aww.
-Dawn asks the perfectly valid question of "is it really alright for you not to be at Snowpoint gym, Candice?" (at least she's asking something with the words "Candice", "Snowpoint gym", and "alright" in it. Hell if I know that much Japanese, but I can fill in the blanks, dammit!) Candice seems to think it's fine, but something about her responce surprises Our Heroes.
-Why yes Candice, victory parties are ALWAYS a good idea! Especially when they start off with CGI party poppers!
-Everyone is going to leave this party with diabetes.
-OH GOD ASH IS DYING
-Or maybe he just burnt his tongue.
-Apparently pastries with a super hot filling are a Snowpoint specialty.
-Ash either ate so much that his stomach got bigger or else he's pregnant. I'm leaning towards the male pregnancy option, because that makes more sense than Ash being a glutton.
-Zoey goes into the guys' room. Where the hell is Dawn?
-Zoey has the same question I do!
-Oh, she's training. Of course.
-Aw, Buneary and Pachirisu think they'll get to do something for a change. How adorable.
-PAUL IS ON TV! And his interviewer said something about the Shinou League!
-Cyndaquil looks so goddamned out of place in Dawn's team. It's so...Johto. When everything else isn't.
-Candice still doesn't care that she abandoned her gym. She's too busy being excited by Dawn and Zoey's rivalry!
-Haha, Piplup got frozen solid by Mamoswine.
-Oh god, they're going to use Cyndaquil because its back fire means it won't get frozen by Mamoswine, aren't they?
-Candice, despite not being related to contests in any form other than her friendship with Zoey, is really effing good at this "appeals" thing.
-You know, I like Piplup, no matter what all of SPPf seems to think of it Mostly when the writers remember to let its proud side show, since that's always hilarious. It's so angry that Dawn's not giving it a chance in her practice appeal with Mamoswine!
-Dawn starts by imitating Candice's appeal, but makes it cooler by adding LIGHTNING! Too bad Pachirisu is too much of a pansy to go through with the rest of the appeal.
-And now Pachirisu got crushed under a bunch of ice. Yay!
-Cyndaquil is PSYCHED to do something for the first time since it was caught way back in September!
-Dawn doubts that Cyndaquil would be useful in combination with an Ice type because...they're DIFFERENT, dammit!
-Hey, remember the stupid cold-on-the-outside, hot-on-the-inside pastry we wasted 3 minutes on near the beginning of the ep? Yep, Dawn got an idea from that. And from Zoey combining Ground and Electric attacks at some earlier ep.
-Zoey gets challenged to a double battle!
-Zoey sends out Leafeon(great, another goddamned why-do-we-keep-getting-these-things, they're-not-original-at-all, I-hate-everyone-who-wants-even-MORE-of-them, Eevee evo. Just what the doctor ordered to get me to take those 4 bottles of sleeping pills.) and Kirlia(awesome, a Pokemon we've barely seen until now!)
-Cyndaquil does a flame wheel within the Ring of Icy Death that Mamoswine creates, which makes it steam, and then...rain! I'm loving all the cartoony "oh god what have I gotten myself into" expressions in this episode, by the way.
-Dawn decides to get past this problem by thinking REALLY HARD about hot-on-the-inside pastries(not THAT way, you sick, sick, sick pervert!)
-I'll admit it, seeing a small anteater spinning in place, on fire, in the middle of a block of ice is really cool.
-Wait, that's not just a block of ice. IT'S AN ICE TANK.
-Until Cyndaquil breaks it.
-Zoey is bored of Dawn's failure, and ARs the anime to OHKO both of Dawn's Pokemon.
-Jessie is really happy about all that for some reason.
-Well, having Wobbuffet bounce off Yanmega's Razor Wind was a good idea in theory...
-And the ep ends with everyone being really pumped up(Dawn about winning her ribbon, Ash about...his next badge, I guess?, and Candice about rivalries)
Only one question remains after all this. Did Candice ever bother to go back to the gym she carelessly abandoned? (on the bright side, this explains any time Ash got to a Gym and the Leader wasn't there. They were off on the other side of the continent watching a friend do something and not giving a crap about the gym.)