There's No Place Like Hoenn
| Picture |
|
| Japanese Title |
| Petalburg Gym! VS. Vigoroth! |
| Episode Pictures |
 Yes |
| Who's That Pokemon? |
 Donphan |
| Hoenn Location |
 Petalburg City |
| Important Characters |
| Max (Masato), Norman (Senri), Caroline (Mitsuko) |
| Japanese Air Date |
| December 5, 2002 |
| American Air Date |
| November 15, 2003 |
| Title Pun |
| There's No Place Like Home |
| Events |
| Ash and May get to Petalburg City. Ash and Norman, May's Father, have a practice battle. Ash gets the PokéNavi. Max, May's Brother, joins the group. |
| Pokemon Debuts |
| Vigoroth |
| Pokemon Appearances |
| Pikachu (Ash's), Meowth (Team Rocket), Charizard (Ash's; flashback), Torchic (May's), Arbok (Jessie's), Wobbuffet (Jessie's), Weezing (James'), Blaziken (Harrison's; flashback) |
| Notes |
| If you use closed captioning, you can see that the woman who says the voice in Ash's (and May's) new Pokedex is named "Dextette." In Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, your character is Norman's son/daughter. |
| Video Edits |
| For the Kids WB! airing the entire episode was zoomed-in on; because of this, the entire outer border of every scene is lost throughout the entire episode. |
| Dialogue Edits |
|
When May tells Torchic to use Ember, she confuses it with Amber. In the original, she confuses Kinoko (Mushroom) with Hinoko (Ember), hence the mushroom icon in the dub. In the dub, Max keeps calling Ash "Alf" in reference to the 80's sitcom, while in Japan, he calls Satoshi "Satoru." |
| Paint Edits |
| In a Kids WB! exclusive edit, May's badge has a red rectangle on it as opposed to a Pokeball symbol like on her bandana. |
| Cut Scenes |
|
Total Time Cut: 8 sec James' head is caught on fire from a Torchic Ember; two seconds are cut.  Max is caught on fire this time by Torchic for three seconds. A second is cut out from the first scene after the last commercial break. Finally, the last panning shot has of the episode has two seconds cut out of it. |
The story starts off when Ash and May are headed towards a place called Petalburg City. Over there, Ash is looking forward for a Hoenn gym match. May and Ash slow down, as May seems like she's exhausted from their long walk. Ash seems eager to get to the gym. May and Ash enter Petalburg City (May sighs); May tells Ash before going to the gym that they must take a rest at the park. May asks Ash why he's so eager to enter the Hoenn Gym. Ash replies back that he wants to collect all 8 badges and enter the Hoenn League. Ash then wonders who the gym leader is, which causes May blush. Ash has a feeling that May seems to know the gym leader. Ash wonders if it could be May's boyfriend. Ash then asks May, but she pretends that she has never met him before. Ash then says aloud that he wants to get over and start the gym battle and leaves right away. May requests Ash to not go, but he walks off anyway.
When Ash arrives at Petalburg City Gym, Max seems surprised at the fact that he would choose to come there first. Max then asks Ash why he chose his gym and Ash explains before he can enter the Hoenn League he needs to get 8 badges. Ash wishes to see the gym leader. Max says aloud that he is the gym leader. Ash challenges Max in battle. Both challengers take their places; Max announces the rules of the Petalburg Gym. It seems Ash can't battle because all he has with him is his Pikachu, he wants a one-on-one Pokemon battle. Suddenly Ash end up getting into an argument with Max. Ash hears May calling him from outside. Ash wonders what she is doing there and walks out with Max.
Ash is in shock when he finds out May lives here along with Carolyn and Norman and her brother Max! Ash introduces himself and asks Max if he's a good gym leader. The parents glare at Max, including May. May then says that her father is the real gym leader. Carolyn is the one who sent May into this journey. Max introduces Ash to them. Max makes a mistake of calling Ash "the guy who lost in the second round". Ash corrects him and Carolyn gives Max a small lecture about pretending to be the gym leader. Carolyn ask May what happened to her bike. She nervously tells the story of what happened. Ash apologies; Norman forgives him, and says that Team Rocket was really to blame. Norman ask May what kind of Pokemon she got from Professor Birch. She immediately reveals her Pokemon, Torchic; Max seemed disappointed and claims she should have chose a Treecko. Torchic hears him and gets angry, pecking him hard. Norman and Carolyn are proud of May's chosen Pokemon; Max gets upset again.
Now we see Ash and company eating lunch. Ash explains about his journey and how he traveled strange places causing Max to get jealous. May brings up that Ash came because he wanted a gym battle. Norman asks Ash how many badges he has. Ash says he only has his Pikachu with him. Max interrupts and claims that can't be true, since Ash is so eager to battle there's nothing against the law of battling gym leaders just for fun. Carolyn figures out an idea that Ash could use Norman to train, which Norman accepts. When the battle ensues, Ash calls out his only Pokemon Pikachu, while Norman releases Vigoroth! Ash takes out his Pokedex and tries to see what Pokemon this is, while Vigoroth runs around the gym. Norman manages to calm his Pokemon down. Vigoroth then let out a loud cry which almost knocks Ash back. Ash begans thinking of a plan/strategy. Max, who is the ref. signals to start the battle. Vigoroth makes his move by using scratch; Pikachu avoids it. Vigoroth keeps on scratching, which causes Pikachu to become dizzy and confused. Pikachu fights back with Quick Attack, but misses.
Meanwhile, we see Team Rocket watching Ash's battle through a window. They realize that Norman's Vigoroth would be a great gift for the boss and plan to capture it along with Pikachu. Looking back at our match, Pikachu goes for a Thunderbolt attack, but misses again. Both Pokemon tackle each other with a Body Slam and Quick Attack. Carolyn realizes Ash is pretty good trainer, but May isn't sure. Max convinces her by reminding her how far he saw Ash get in the Johto League tournament. Vigoroth scratches Pikachu once again and finishes it off with a Headbutt.
Max and May gasp, as Ash grabs Pikachu to see if he's okay. It seems his condition isn't bad after all as it was when he first arrived in Hoenn. Norman compliments Ash on his battling skills, saying that he must get stronger and come back once more. Suddenly a big explosion is heard outside. Everyone runs quickly outside as Team Rocket emerge from the smoke. Carolyn asks if these are May's friends; May explains that Team Rocket are bad guys. Team Rocket demands that they give up Vigoroth and Pikachu. Team Rocket send out their Pokemon Arbok and Weezing; Weezing does Smokescreen, as Arbok Headbutts Pikachu. Vigoroth decides to help, but it can't see through Weezing's Smokescreen. Max figured out a plan; he suggests May to use her Torchic. May releases Torchic, but while she is thinking of what attack to do, Arbok attacks her Pokemon. Jessie gets ready to take Pikachu and Vigoroth, when Pikachu saves the day with a Thunderbolt attack, which accidentally hits Max. Ash runs to check if he is ok, which he is; meanwhile, Team Rocket escapes in Smokescreen. The goods news is that Pikachu and Vigoroth are safe, but May's Torchic is missing. As they search around their surroundings, Ash promises May that from experience, he can assure her that she'll get Torchic back. They began following the direction of Team Rockets balloon.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket's balloon lands in the woods, and they start to take out what they think is Pikachu, but instead of Pikachu, they caught Torchic by accident. Jessie seems to like Torchic's charming expression, but James doesn't think it would be good gift for the boss. They decided to think of a way to lure Pikachu.
Ash and company are searching through the woods and decide to split up. Norman will go with Carolyn and Ash will go with May and Max. Ash wished that he had his Noctowl with him. Max then takes out a magnifying glass and begins to search for footprints. May reminds Max that he wouldn't find footprints if they flew a balloon. Max then makes a foolish comment, as May and Ash sighs. May tells Max to hurry up before something bad happens to Torchic. Norman and Carolyn appear and give them good news that they found Team Rocket's balloon. They lead them to the balloon, but Team Rocket is missing. They find Torchic locked in a small cage, in what is obviously a trap. Ash and May foolishly run up to the cage and fall into a hole in the ground. Ash and May tell Norman and Carolyn to get the cage on the other side and they too fall into another trap hole. Team Rocket appears, reciting the motto as usual. As Ash makes sure May is okay, Arbok pounces into the hole! As Pikachu and Arbok fight. Ash and May call her parents for help. Norman and Carolyn easily climb out and helped Ash and May out. Norman takes out Vigoroth and easily beats Team Rocket with Headbutt. They quickly grab the cage, give it to may, then they open it and May begins to hug Torchic. Arbok seems coiled tightly around Vigoroth, so Ash has Pikachu Body Slam it. May tries to use Torchic and tells it to use Mushroom Attack, but Max corrects her, and she realizes that she meant Ember. This time she tells Torchic to use Peck, but Torchic attacks Max by accident.
Ash and Norman are still fighting with Team Rocket. Pikachu Headbutts Arbok and Vigoroth attacks both with Scratch and Tackle, which sends them back their balloon. Then finally Pikachu Thunderbolts them blasting them off again.
May apologizes to Torchic for letting it get taken by Team Rocket hugs Torchic again. Norman and Carolyn are glad to see that May and Torchic are back again. Later on Carolyn tells May that she needs to train harder. They decided to count it on Ash to help her train, which Ash agrees to. May begins to tell Ash everything that he needed to hear. Norman gives them a Pokemon Navigator. Max seems he knows how to handle it, so he'll be the one to keep an eye on it.
As the new group sets off, Max takes out the Pokenavi and checks it. It shows the nearest gym is in Rustboro City. Now our heroes are off to start a long journey though Hoenn with many more adventures to come.
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