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| Curtain Up, Unova League!
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開幕イッシュリーグ・ヒガキ大会！サトシ対シューティー！！
The Isshu League Higaki Conference Gets Underway! Satoshi VS Shooty!!
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First broadcast
| Japan
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November 22, 2012
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| United States
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March 9, 2013
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Curtain Up, Unova League! (Japanese: 開幕イッシュリーグ・ヒガキ大会！サトシ対シューティー！！ The Isshu League Higaki Conference Gets Underway! Satoshi VS Shooty!!) is the 103rd episode of the Best Wishes series, and the 760th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on November 22, 2012 and in the United States on March 9, 2013.
Blurb
Our heroes have finally arrived in Vertress City, home of the Unova League, and Ash’s excitement is at a fever pitch! While they’re in the midst of marveling at the massive Unova League stadium, the familiar faces of several Trainers begin rolling into town with their own plans to compete—and to Ash’s dismay, Bianca’s entrance is as dramatic as ever.
Ash, Trip, Stephan, Bianca, and new friend Virgil (from the Pokémon Rescue Squad) are all raring to go—as is Cameron, who’s been camping out for three days in a tent with his Riolu to make sure he wouldn’t be late! However, no one told him he needed to register for the tournament, so Ash rushes his absent-minded friend over to Nurse Joy—mere moments after registration has closed. Fortunately for Cameron, Nurse Joy takes pity on him and lets him register anyway.
The next morning, it’s time to get started! Freddy the Scoop drops in by parachute to call the action, and starts out by announcing the rules: before the main event begins, Trainers have to get through the qualifying rounds, where they can only use one Pokémon each. Stephan wins his first match easily. Virgil and Bianca are struggling against their opponents—and Ash is paired up against his very first Unova rival: Trip!
Trip calls out his super-speedy Serperior, who handed Ash his defeat in the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup finals. This time, rather than relying on Pignite’s type advantage, Ash has chosen Pikachu to kick off his Unova League experience! But even Pikachu’s Quick Attack isn’t fast enough to hit Serperior, who dodges every move with serpentine skill. Finally, Trip has Serperior strike back with Dragon Tail—and it’s a direct hit! Will Ash and Pikachu be knocked out of the Unova League before they even get to the main event?
Plot
Ash and his friends finally arrive in Vertress City and they are all super excited as Ash states he's going to beat everyone and win the Unova league. After everyone arrives at the main arena they meet up with Stephan, finally pronouncing his name correctly, much to his surprise and excitement, although Ash and Iris both state they've been saying his name correctly all along. Just then Bianca shows up, once again knocking Ash into a fountain when she runs into him. While catching up with Stephan and Bianca, Ash sees a helicopter flying overhead with Virgil, Davy and Virgil's Eevee. Ash, Iris, and Cilan run over to Virgil excitedly and they explain to Stephan and Bianca that Virgil is one of the agents in a Pokémon rescue squad and that he works with the evolved forms of Eevee. After Ash and his friends register for the league they head to their hotel, but stop when they see a tent which belongs to Cameron and his Riolu. Cameron had been waiting for three days, but hadn't registered for the league, and when he reveals this to Ash, Ash panics and drags him to registration, although the registration period had just closed, but Ash and Cameron plead to Nurse Joy who makes an exception and lets Cameron register.
Later on, Ash and his friends come across Trip, who is much kinder than he had been in the past, which Iris points out after Trip leaves. Ash and his friends head to their hotel where Stephan is in the sauna, and everyone else is doing whatever they wish to do.
As the first day of the Unova league begins, Ash is paired up against Trip right away. Of course, Ash chooses Pikachu, and Trip chooses his Serperior. Although Ash has the type advantage due to Grass types being weak against Electric types, Trip and Serperior prove to be a tough match for Ash and Pikachu due to Serperior's incredible speed. At one point during the battle, Trip instructs Serperior to grab Pikachu which he does, and he then uses an extremely powerful Wrap on Pikachu, suffocating him to the point his face begins to turn blue. Ash tried to have Pikachu escape by using Thunder Bolt on Serperior, but the Thunder Bolt has no effect on Serperior due to him sticking his tail into the ground. Trip then instructs Serperior to squeeze Pikachu even tighter, which he does, and Pikachu even begins to have a hard time breathing. The episode ends with the narrator stating that Bianca, Stephan, Virgil, and Cameron have all successfully won their first round matches, and then questioning if Ash can pull through and win his first round match against Trip as well.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Ferrothorn (US and international) Audino (Japan)
Pokémon seen in flashbacks
Trivia
Errors
Dub edits
In other languages
Dutch
Finnish
German
Greek
Italian
Korean
Polish
European Spanish
Swedish
