Double-Time Battle Training! (623)

[halloweenghost]

not bad.. was an ok episode. liked the news on sinnoh now where paul was interviews on him getting his 8th badge

the ice fire combo looked good.

nice to have an episode where team rocket does not but in.

[the1stpkmnfan]

This was a pretty great episode!

Of course at the beginning, Ash and Dawn argue about not getting there on time for Zoey's last contest. And then we just happen to see Candice right next to them. Surprising, but since this is Zoey's chance to get her 5th and Final ribbon, and how they're close friends, Im not surprised then. :P

But actually, Im glad to see Zoey won her 5th ribbon still. Now shes off for the Grand Festival!

Candice is so happy, she threw a party for her. :P Kinda made me baffel during that dinner party, where Ash said that that Tamato treat was hot but also cold, but what Candice explained about it made sense I guess. xp Might be hinting out something. :O

Meanwhile, the next morning, apparently Paul has got all 8 badges, and is ready for the league. Oh boy, looks like he means business. Cmon Ash, just one more for you. xp

Onwards, we get to Dawn's training before the Daybreak Contest. When Mamoswine froze Piplup, made me kinda chuckle, Im so horrible. xp But I thought that was a small hint for Dawn's new technique. ;p

Then seeing Candice giving out an idea to work out that Ice Shard, along with her Abomasnow, it looks pretty cool. Trying to do so, this time with Mamoswine and Pachirisu, didnt work out so well. I felt a bit bad that Pachirisu got piled up with all the small ice shards in the end when it couldnt get out of the Ice cycle all around it.

Then trying out with Mamoswine and Cynadquil, after thinking about the Tamato treats from before, I think Dawn has got it. Fire and Ice this way looks more promising. And now, battle with Zoey, with her new Pokemon! Kirlia and Leafeon. Leafeon looks pretty sweet in the anime.

After a few tries, Dawn got a good result, Flaming Ice. It was definitely a pretty combo, but shame it didn't last so long. Letting Zoey win this battle once again.

Oh well, it was still a great discovery over the new combo. And it was all a great episode! Cant wait to see the next episode, and later on the Daybreak Contest, from all this excitement and planning.

[KGB13]

This was a pretty good episode and the first one I've ever watched raw in japanese, I also watched the dub this morning. I like Dawn's Mamoswine and Cyndaquil strategy and I think it will be great when she masters it. And like others have said, I didn't like the fact they both got taken out so easily by Zoey's Kirlia and Leafeon either.

[Dattebayo]

A fire/ice combo is unheard of, but it almost worked. I can understand why people rarely go to Snowpoint City because it's located at the coldest region of Sinnoh, and others from warmer regions will question why those people ever decided to build a city there. Another face palm moment is when they showed Kirlia's data even though they already did that in Hunter J's first episode.

[WaterDragon trainer]

This episode was good. Spicy ice cream bars sound very odd to me. It was cool to see a Leafeon in the show. Dawn's "flame ice" technique was awesome. It was hilarious to see Team Rocket get blasted off by Wobbuffet.

[the1stpkmnfan]

And yet, Candice says people rarely comes to her Gym, but we'll still see a LOT of people competing in the League. Oh yeah, forgot that there is possibly more than 8 gyms in Sinnoh, like Barry's one badge that doesnt exist in the games. Poor Candice though. D:

[A_Merry_Snowrunt]

It was simply remarkable to witness such a fiery and ice combination. It was nice to see the cool hot blooded Candice again and also seeing Leafeon for the first time. I also heard the background theme for route 26 during Dawn's practice performance.

[SmartD]

It was a good episode. We get to see Candice again and a new contest technique. It's a good techinque so far, I wonder if it will be ready for the next contest.

[ash_forever]

To be honest I haven't made up my mind yet what to think of this episode.
On the one hand I've always wanted to see episodes in which our heroes actually train their Pokemon or come up with new ideas at least.And in the early days of Pokemon I was constantly complaining about the lack thereof. So, great to have plenty of those episodes in the Sinnoh saga finally! Now, if Dawn can invent new names for combinations, so can I and thus I'd like to call this kind of episode "strategical episode" (not filler). We definitely need more of them, so Sinnoh, keep it up!
On the other hand, the physics and logic in this episode was partly horrible! As a skilled observer and great fan of the Pokemon battles, I'm used to scrutinize every episode. Therefore I concur with Sleet wholeheartedly when he/she said:

-Somewhere, a physics professor is crying. And, if there were such a thing, a move namer is too. "Flame ice?" Really?
...
I have to say "flame ice" is the dumbest contest move I've yet to see. Even considering how over-the-top impossible it is, since that's pretty much the norm at this point, it looks silly and I can't even think how something that slow is expected to hit anything.

Firstly, how is it possible that pieces of ice which were at least as big and heavy as hailstones can swirl around for such a long time as if they were light snowflakes?
Secondly, how can an Ice Shard crashing into that swirling "cloud of hailstones" create an explosion which finally creates an iceberg-like something?
Thirdly and lastly, how come Cyndaquil can spin inside that iceberg? Sure, Flamewheel must have created some kind of hollow space inside the ice that made it possible for Cyndaquil to spin around, but even under the influence of fire, ice doesn't usually melt THAT quickly.

All in all, the idea of featuring an actually creative training session of our heroes was just great. Unfortunately, this great idea was ruined by the writers themselves who included battles strategies and ideas that defied all physics. So my résumé is half :-) and half :mad:

5.5/ 6 put of 10 points

[Commander L. Halsti]

When I saw Dawn's new move, I ROFL-ed. ˝Freezing steam-powered baklava˝ would be my name.

[Jigglypuff5000]

Nice episode. Thought that fire / ice combo looked awesome. Should be a winner for Dawn come the Grand Contest.

Though, having come into DP at the very beginning and then to have come back in the last fifteen or twenty episodes I didn't have a clue who Zoey was - but come on, she sounds like a guy... That irked me [but not as much as my first [and probably last] animé hearing of Gliscor in the precious episode, admittedly].

[Brumrha]

- What? We're at a "gouge-your-eyes" fest already? Where the @#%$ is Dawn?!!
- Apparently, this is actually not the kind that Dawn is planning to participate in, so for this one, she is merely spectating.
- However, Zoey is in this contest, & in the finals, she is facing off against a Shuckle. You know, the Rock/Bug hybrid that's slower than molasses in January & is able to turn any berry into juice. You don't know?! Well of course you don't, seeing as how you people are all %$@#ing Dukes & Duchesses of Amnesia!
- Zoey's Glameow managed to blow that thing away like it's no thing to them, thus netting her the win. Thus, my opinion about Shuckle still stands; it is still a piece of &#$%, & whoever catches these things & use them in their endeavors have an IQ in the negatives.
- What's even more shocking is that this is Zoey's fifth & final win, so now she's qualified to participate in the "Razzle Dazzle" festival! Uh oh...
- The other something that's of interest is that Candice is here with her as well. Doesn't she have a gym to look over?? Well... turns out that she doesn't give a horse's %@$ about it anymore, seeing as how most everybody in Sinnoh is a cold-blooded lizard(wo)man; if they set foot on even the "outskirts" of Snowpoint, they will instantly get Frostbite, even if they have the proper winter attire.
- To celebrate Zoey's victory, Candice is holding a feast of sweet treats, & the whole gang is invited to this as well. So, everyone eats until they are in a sugar coma. "However..." I will argue with Juputoru over one detail: This is not enough to give them all Diabetes! In order to get Type 2 Diabetes, you'd have to eat this stuff non-stop for an extended period of time, & for this, I'm talking about years.
- What the hell is going on with Ash? Did he bite into something that's practically a blazing inferno?
- Turns out that I'm spot on; the treat that he was eating in particular happens to have a Tamato Berry jelly filling inside this Ice Cream delectable, which Candice claims that it's a Snowpoint specialty.
- Next day!! Dawn is up & about training her Pokemon for her next "gouge-your-eyes" fest. Here's the twist, though: it's supposed to be a double contest. That most definitely complicates things...
- Unhindered by this fact, Dawn continues on using Mamoswine & Piplup. Whatever idea she came up with, we'll never know; as Mamoswine used her Ice Shard, it wound up engulfing Piplup in a case of ice. Friendly fire, goddammit!!!
- Candice decides to step in with her Abomasnow to help. She has Abomasnow use her Ice shard, then has her break it up, & then has her blow it in circles around her, thus creating a huge spectacle that's "gouge-your-eyes" worthy.
- With this, Dawn decides to replace Piplup with Pachirisu. She followed her instructions to a T, but there's another problem: Pachirisu doesn't know what to do afterward. Thus, the end result is that Pachirisu ends up getting buried in a pile of ice cubes. At this point, I'm doing everything I can to not laugh like Aku at Dawn & her feeble attempts.
- Then, Candice gives her some more help: sometimes, the things that aren't supposed to go together, end up mixing well.
- With that in mind, she decides to use Cyndaquil, but as soon as the Ice Shard cubes get blown her way, the ice melts & makes her life miserable.
- In a desperate gambit, Dawn asks Zoey for a double fight, in which she obliges with her Kirlia & Leafeon.
- They try again, but this time right after the icy glitter surrounds Cyndaquil, Mamoswine uses another Ice Shard, with drastic results: it ends up encasing Cyndaquil in a shell of ice, thus making a wonderful spectacle of fire & ice. Now, who said that fire & ice don't go well with each other, hmm?
- Cyndaquil uses Flame Wheel & goes after Zoey's team, but right before making contact, the shell melts, thus weakening Cyndaquil's attack, in which they dodge.
- Leafeon & Kirlia both use Magical Leaf, which surrounds Dawn's team, & Kirlia uses Psychic to send them flying towards them at full force. The result? They both get instagibbed.
- During all this time, TR is silently observing them, Jessie in particular. However, they can't intercept the gang, seeing as to how Jessie would like to improve her chances of getting into the "Razzle Dazzle" Festival herself.
- So in preparation for the contest, she uses both Yanmega & Wobbuffet. Yanmega uses Silver Wind, Wobbuffet uses Mirror Coat, & what happens afterward is some more friendly fire that sends them off into god-knows-where.

My take on Dawn's "Fire & Ice" spectacle:
- Probability to gouge someone's eyes out, A.K.A. the style: Thumbs up!
- War-zone Potency: Thumbs down!
- Execution: meh...

So basically, she needs to polish that thing up a bit in order to have that net her a win for her. Speaking of which, Dawn has now fallen behind Zoey. Since she's pulling through loss after loss after bitter friggin' loss, she needs to get her act together if she plans on catching up with her, & I do find that sad...

[Rebeccag]

Good episode i liked it. Great to see Candice again and Zoey got her 5th ribbon as well
The bars looked good and I agree somethings dont work but sometime they do. I like the idea oif Dawns new move as well but I laughed at piplup getting trapped in the ice though
I thought jessie thought of a new move but it was also funny to see them getting blasted off by Wobberfet though

[Typhlosion Trainer]

Good episode. I did think the idea of the fire in ice combo was pretty good.

[celebitrainer]

Interesting how Candice was able to give such good advice for Dawn's contest practice, considering the fact that she is the gym leader while Zoey is the coordinator. Still, it seems like she had already had plenty of practice with that Ice Shard-cyclone trick.
I also found it neat how Mamoswine was able to break the Ice Shard with its tusk and still propell it forward towards Pachirisu/Cyndaquil.

[Painkiller2001]

Anime-Leafeon looks terrible. No wonder they waited so long to debut it.

I think Leafeon looks fine.
And, this is it's debut in the show? I kept thinking thinking that I saw it at least one other time in the show...

[Lance The Champ]

Paul sure has earned all 8 badges in a short time... Hope Ash soon catches up

[TurtwigFan1]

Good episode, love Dawn's Fire-Ice combination - it was really pretty and should be a winner for her at her next contest. Nice to see Candice again, gotta love her Kee-Eye ;D Seeing Zoey again was also fun.

[G50]

This episode was good. It was great to see Leafeon for the 1st time. It was cool to see Kirlia again. It was cool to find out that Zoey had won her 5th ribbon already. The practice double battle between Mamoswine and Cyndaquil vs Leafeon and Kirlia was very cool. It was interesting to find out that Paul had already won his 8th badge. Mamoswine and Cyndaquil went down very easily. The Fire-Ice combo looks really cool.

69/100

[Littlemyuu]

Leafeon looks soo cute =3 i always like the battles from May and her Rivals =D

[wobbanut]

Ah, seriously Ash, when are you ever going to learn, DO NOT eat the tamato berries! LOL I don't have a lot to say about this episode, but I like that they introduce the new contest move here for Dawn with her pokemon getting encased but not frozen in ice. I like the crystal chandelier better that was introduced the following season, but both were definitely impressive combinations.

7/10

[pokemonsquared]

uggh again zoey shows off her unbeatable uberness. She's almost as much a sue as Soledad.

Otherwise 9/10