Review S07 EP29: Love, Petalburg Style!

[Dogasu]

Japanese Episode AG 69: "Petalburg Gym Crisis! Household Crisis!"
American Episode 341: "Love, Petalburg Style"

Kids' WB!, 10:00am ET
Encore airing on Kids' WB! at 4:00pm ET
Now that Ash is in Petalburg City, he's looking for a rematch against the Gym Leader, Norman. But everything is delayed when the group is caught up in a family crisis that threatens the marriage of Norman and Caroline!! Is Norman cheating on his wife with Nurse Joy? Will Caroline leave him?

Post your thoughts about the episodes here. Please mark any spoilers for episodes not that have yet to air in America in spoiler tags.

 

[Dogasu]

Wow, so 4Kids completely got rid of the cheating husband aspect of the plot. According to the dub, Caroline's mad at Norman for no real reason, and I can't imagine this episode making any sense to anyone who hasn't seen the Japanese version.

They also used digital paint to edit Norman blushing in the Pokemon Center.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

That doesn't make any sense! Geez, people, they don't have a problem with Flint running off on his family, but they take away this?

 

[The Big Al]

Yup, it sucks. This is worse than it getting banned. (Which I guess when it first came out in Japan.) I was right that they wouldn't have any mention of the supposed affair.

 

[Rocketshipper]

>_< How can it be worse than getting it banned. Even an edited episode is better than no episode at all. But I don't agree about this episode anyway. Even if they never came out and specificly said that Norman was cheating, I think the implication was still there. Anyway, this episode was pretty good. The first part kind of dragged but after Brock-tachi decided to go to the Pokemon center and talk to Norman things picked up. There were a bunch of amusing lines in this episode. One of my favorites was...

James: I'm not sure what happened but I'm willing to take credit for it.

And Team Rocket's fantasy about the boss was very amusing. Meowth thinks Giovanni is depressed or something ^_^. Is it just me or does Norman's voice make him sound too young. He sounded like little Yugi for most o the episode. Anyway, I think this episode showed us what Ash's wife may go through when he gets married. Norman is almost as dense as Goku when it comes to relationships, lol. anyway, I give this episode 3 stars ^^

 

[Crystal Mew]

I don't see why not. Other cartoons have stuff like this in their shows, and if kids are too young to realize whats happening, then chances are, they aren't even concerned. so I fail to see the point of the dubbers always trying to "shield" kids from whatever the real plot might be.

 

[FireEmblemPride]

Really funny episode here.

So I'm assuming Brock met Norman before meeting up with Ash in the beginning.

 

[Dogasu]

Other non-affair-related observations:

-Why does everyone in Touka City seem to know Takeshi? He wasn't even with Satoshi when he went through the city the first time, so why does he act like he's good friends with Senri and Mistuko?

-Where the hell did Kenny come from? Was he in "There's No Place Like Hoenn?"

-Does anyone else think it's weird to hear Giovanni say "bummer"?

 

[Kasumi]

Oh noes! Let's protect our kids from things that happen in real life, like affairs and divorces! </sarcasm>

I wonder if there's any posibilities of 4Kids getting worst than this... >>;

 

[Kthleen]

That was fun. I give it an 8.5/10.

Is it just me, or did Ash's voice sound strange at the very beginning? It was deeper and had an otherwise unexplainably abnormal quality to it.
I liked how dense Norman appeared. That was funny and I liked seeing everyone facefault. I also liked the serious aspect of this episode, though the circumlocution was a teeny tiny bit annoying. I liked seeing Ash greet and sit with Slakoth, Vigoroth and Slaking. It was really nice. The first word I thought of was "communion". One thing that I found odd was how Ash told Norman, "Team Rocket's tryin' to steal some o' your Pokémon." He said it almost as if he were a somewhat shy little kid telling on a classmate. It wasn't his normal "those bastards... grr" voice. Does anyone know how Satoshi's voice is toned here? He looked weird while doing it, too. I also thought it interesting that Caroline said, "Good Lord!"

"Love doctor".... :XD2:

They also used digital paint to edit Norman blushing in the Pokemon Center.

-Why does everyone in Touka City seem to know Takeshi? He wasn't even with Satoshi when he went through the city the first time, so why does he act like he's good friends with Senri and Mistuko?

-Where the hell did Kenny come from? Was he in "There's No Place Like Hoenn?"

-Does anyone else think it's weird to hear Giovanni say "bummer"?

I noticed. I don't know why, but that was one of the main things I was looking for in this episode. o.o Perhaps it's just my silly selective memory.

Sounds like he either met everyone on his way to find Satoshi, or it's a plothole.

He was plucked from the dark abyss known as "where they hell did they/that come from?" I don't think he was in There's No Place Like Hoenn.

I didn't really notice.

I need to learn to be more aware. Anyway, I though the whole daydream was weird, especially Meowth's Gio voice and the way it seemed to change at the beginning. (It was higher, then next thing I know, I hear this noticeably deeper voice. Or maybe I'm just hearing things...?)

 

[YumeHeart]

I really liked this episode. So many great lines. And we now know that Nurse Joy is (in the dub) a licensed pyrotecnician! XD It struck me as odd that the press wasn't like, following Norman around saying they had a breaking gossip story that he was leaving his wife for Nurse Joy...you know, like the tabloids do to famous people in real life? xD

 

[Mario The World Champion]

I wonder if there's any posibilities of 4Kids getting worst than this... >>;

Just watch. 4Kids will sink to a new low very soon. I was looking forward to seeing this episode and the whole "Is Norman cheating on Caroline with Nurse Joy" storyline, but I was disapointed.

Probably would have made a good Jerry Springer episode.

 

[PokemonStarlight]

Other non-affair-related observations:

-Why does everyone in Touka City seem to know Takeshi? He wasn't even with Satoshi when he went through the city the first time, so why does he act like he's good friends with Senri and Mistuko?

Well on the Serebii forums, I asked that question (and so were some other people) and Geodude said something about how Brock, in order to find where Ash went, tracked him down and the gym was one of the places he went. Sounds like a good theory. I said that May and Max probably introduced him in an off-screen videophone conversation...

Anyways, I thought it was sort of interesting how Caroline said "Good Lord" when Team Rocket was attacking. Don't know why. I also thought it was sort of weird how calmly Ash told Norman that Team Rocket were trying to steal his pokemon. Usually in a situation like that, he says it in a angry tone. Very funny quotes in this episode. The funniest probably being when Norman was playing dumb in the pokemon center. I also liked this Team Rocket quote:

Meowth (referring to Jessie and James): "They're dumb and dumber. What does that make me?"
Jessie and James: "Dumber-er"

 

[Barb]

I loved Nurse Joy's remark, "Besides being a Pokémon nurse, I'm also a licensed pyrotechnician." XD

But I felt that 4Kids copped out on the Norman/Caroline family crisis. Although I thought that May's and Max's reactions were very close to what real kids their age might have said. But Norman's first reaction to Brock's telling him that there was a crisis and how he played dumb really angered me for some reason. I wanted to slap Norman. Seeing Slaking in action sort of made up for it.

 

[AK2AK2AK2]

my dad walked in and started talking during some of it, and I was wondering if anyone could write-out the dialogue of TR's second scene in the greenhouse. Including the Giovanni scene, from the beginning of the second green house team rocket scene to the end of it. Thanks a lot

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I'm wondering...would it be possible to find out if this is a 4Kids edit or a WB edit? Because this does kinda smack of a network intervention...

 

[Rushi-san]

This was a very good epsiode. I enjoyed it. It was like Norman was trying surprise Caroline by given her something. I knew there fishy going on. 4kids watered it down a little bit. I was looking foward of seeing the affair type thing. But it doesn't seen like it. I also liked when Ash was talking Virgorth and the other gorths. Also Norman battling Team Rocket. ^^

 

[pikapal]

It would have been better if they would have mentioned the word "affair" the title of the episode could have been "A Joyous Affair". I'm so sick of those Love ... Style titles they are on thier 3rd one. You can still tell Megan is not the VA of Caroline and Joy anymore. But I heard her voice in Sonic X and Shaman King today.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

I didn't think of that, Blackjack Gabbiani.

Hmm, maybe I should see if Mike Pollock's on AIM (I have his screen name), and ask him about that....

Do you think I should do that?

I mean, I know I don't have to, but I just wanted someone else's opinion on whether I should ask him about that or not.

Originally posted by Kthleen
Is it just me, or did Ash's voice sound strange at the very beginning? It was deeper and had an otherwise unexplainably abnormal quality to it.

Yeah, I also noticed that, and I thought it was really weird, Kthleen.

I mean, most of the time, Ash's voice pretty much stays the same. And when I first heard his voice in this episode, I thought it sounded a little bit different for some reason.

Originally posted by Kthleen
One thing that I found odd was how Ash told Norman, "Team Rocket's tryin' to steal some o' your Pokémon." He said it almost as if he were a somewhat shy little kid telling on a classmate. It wasn't his normal "those bastards... grr" voice.

I noticed that too. And I thought it was both weird and funny. I mean, it was weird, cause I wasn't expecting him to say it that way, and it was funny, just cause of the way it sounded. Anyway, when I first heard that, I tried to think of a reason why he'd say that line like that, and the only thing I could think of is maybe 4Kids made him say it that way, because they couldn't fit the lip flaps or something.

Anyway, here's my review of this episode:

I thought this episode was pretty good! And I also thought it was interesting how Ash was the first one to see Norman with Nurse Joy (since the others went home). And I liked the part when Brock, May, and Max left the greenhouse to go to the Pokemon Center, and then Vigoroth fell on top of Ash. That was really funny! I also liked how Norman and Caroline got into that argument, cause my parents argue a lot to. And I like it when I can relate to the episodes! Oh, and I really liked how May and Max reacted, cause like Barb said, real kids would've reacted in the same way. Anyway, I loved the part when Norman got really mad at Team Rocket, and Max said something like, "Why's dad flippin' out like that?". LOL. XD And I also liked it when Norman's Slaking used Focus Punch to blast off Team Rocket. That was really cool! And when Nurse Joy told everyone that she was also a pyrotechnician, I thought that was really funny. XD Anyway, I really liked the part when they did the fireworks. That was cool! And I also liked how Norman told Ash which Pokemon he was going to use in their gym battle, and then Max said something like, "You're not supposed to tell him". That was really funny! LOL. XD And I also thought it was funny how May couldn't decide who she wanted to win. XD Anyway, overall, this was a really good episode, and it had a lot of funny parts in it too.

Rating: 9 out of 10

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I didn't think of that, Blackjack Gabbiani.

Hmm, maybe I should see if Mike Pollock's on AIM (I have his screen name), and ask him about that....

Do you think I should do that?

I mean, I know I don't have to, but I just wanted someone else's opinion on whether I should ask him about that or not.

Would he necessarily know, though?

I was just thinking it does seem like more of a WB edit than a 4Kids edit simply because 4Kids *did* leave in things like how Flint had abandoned his family...but wasn't the show on a different network when that episode initially aired?