HS17

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Those Darn Electabuzz!

HS17   ナナコとリザードン！炎の猛特訓！ Nanako and Lizardon! Super Hard Training of Flame!

First broadcast Japan September 21, 2004 United States September 23, 2006

English themes Opening Pokérap GS* Pokémon Chronicles theme* Ending

Japanese themes Opening None Ending マーチングマーチ* ポケッターリ　モンスターリ

Credits Animation Team Koitabashi Screenplay 園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda Storyboard 入好さとる Satoru Iriyoshi Assistant director マキノ吉高 Yoshitaka Makino Animation director 金子匡邦 Masakuni Kaneko No additional credits are available at this time.

Those Darn Electabuzz! (Japanese: ナナコとリザードン！炎の猛特訓！ Nanako and Lizardon! Super Hard Training of Flame!) is the 17th Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station side story episode and the 17th episode of Pokémon Chronicles. It first aired in Japan on September 21, 2004, in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2005 and in the United States on September 23, 2006.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

After the Electabuzz's 10th loss in a row, Casey is upset about the fortunes of her favorite baseball team. With star pitcher Corey Demario sidelined by a shoulder injury, there's no relief in sight for the Electabuzz! But when Casey sees a runaway Charizard in the park, she realizes its Trainer is none other than Corey Demario himself. During his recovery, he's helping out his father, a Pokémon rancher. The Charizard, Don, really belongs to a boy named Benny, but Corey raised it—and now he's trying to help Don, who's so insecure it can't even fly or use Flamethrower. Naturally, Casey offers to help Don regain its righting spirit.

Back at the ranch, Corey's dad tells Casey that Corey's arm is fine, but Corey's lost the confidence to go back to pitching. Helping Don was supposed to help Corey too, but the plan hasn't worked, so now it's up to Casey. Casey starts by making everyone do some cheerleading, then orders Don to battle. Corey's father sends out his Ampharos, but Don is soundly defeated since it can't fly out of the way or attack with Flamethrower. When Casey blames Don for the failure, Corey comes to his old friend's defense and swears he'll help Don himself. That's exactly how Casey wanted him to react, but will it work?

Up in the hills, Corey encourages Don to fly, but Don loses altitude halfway across a river canyon and ends up clinging to a tree. When Corey tries to help, he falls off a cliff himself and becomes trapped on a ledge. Casey finds the two of them and climbs down to help Corey, but she too falls off the rocks! Corey pitches a rope to her and pulls her to safety, but Don can't help either of them: Don freezes up whenever it sees water. So Corey tells Casey to get on his back, and he starts to climb out of the canyon himself. However, a sudden storm has made the rocks slippery, and this time Corey and Casey slip and fall into the raging waters below.

Don leaps into the water to save them, then soars into the sky and takes Corey and Casey for a ride. It even has its Flamethrower back! Soon Corey is back on the pitcher's mound, as good as ever, with his friend Don flying overhead for support. Now that's Electabuzz spirit!

Plot

Casey watches the Electabuzz in their latest baseball match, their team leading 3-2 with the bases loaded. With a full count, the pitcher throws a pitch that the batter hits for a game winning grand slam, meaning the Electabuzz lost yet another game. Casey is left disappointed and longs for the return of the star pitcher of the team, Corey Demario. She goes to sit on a park bench, still mulling over the Electabuzz's 10-match losing streak.

As a Charizard named Don runs towards her, Casey orders her Pokémon to stop it, but they are knocked out by Don. It almost knocks Casey out when its owner manages to save her at the limit. He apologizes to her, but Casey is left stunned as she recognizes her rescuer as Corey Demario. Still amazed she asks him about his shoulder. He tells her that it is taking a long time to heal. He tells her that he has been helping his father Shigeo with his ranch during the recovery. Casey introduces herself when Corey's younger brother Benny shows up. He reveals that Corey gave his Charizard to him. Next, Don is seen being afraid of Casey's Pokémon to which Corey explains that Don isn't fit to battle because it hasn't used Flamethrower for a long time. Also, Benny says it forgot how to fly. At that moment, Casey quickly agrees to help him train his Charizard to breathe flames and to fly. She proceeds to sing the Electabuzz theme song. Upon hearing the song, Charizard stands up and Casey starts talking to it. Corey thinking the song helped it, orders Don to use Flamethrower. Attempting to do so, Don only manages to release a small patch of smoke. Casey encourages it to try again and with tears in its eyes, Don forces itself to do it but with no chance of success. Due to its failure, Don turns back and runs off with Benny following it. Corey asks Casey to join him along with his brother and his father for dinner at his father's ranch.

At the ranch, Casey sees a large collection of Corey's photos playing with the Electabuzz. While talking to Shigeo, Casey learns that Corey's shoulder healed months ago but he deliberately did not go back into baseball because he lost his confidence. Benny shows up and Shigeo tells him that Casey is going to help Corey and Don get their fire back. The following day, Casey starts instructing Don, Corey, and Benny. Shigeo spies on them behind a tree hoping Casey will succeed. Next, Casey tells them to shout out all their insecurities. She starts saying a line with the others repeating after her. After that, she instructs them to shout at the same time. Next, she informs them that an important step is cheerleading. They seem reluctant but nevertheless, they all dress in cheerleading costumes and start practicing. Don seems joyful and starts jumping in the air. Upon seeing this, they all encourage it to start flying. It manages to fly about one meter before it quickly falls down. Casey tells Don to try again, and it gains some height each time. Corey is reminded of his attempted comeback, where he was criticized by his teammates. He soon snaps out of it. Casey advises him that Don must battle in order to regain its confidence.

Corey and Benny disagree, saying Don isn't ready to battle, but Casey insists and Shigeo shows up with his Ampharos. Corey is the judge of the match. Ampharos starts with Tackle and hits Don. Casey orders Don to use Flamethrower but fails. Ampharos prepares its Thunder Punch when Casey tells Don to dodge it by flying. It fails again and it is hit by Thunder Punch, losing the match. Casey congratulates Shigeo and his Ampharos for winning the match and starts to be mean to Don. Benny and Corey intervene saying that it is her fault for not giving it the proper training. Corey argues with Casey, which encourages him to train Don himself. As Don and Corey rush over to the mountains for some training, Shigeo congratulates Casey on stoking their spirits. She admits she may have been a bit too harsh, but was pretending to be a horrible coach to Don on purpose.

After three hours everyone becomes increasingly worried as Don and Corey have failed to return home. Benny says that his older brother would have gone to Bloom Canyon, so Casey sends her Pokémon out and tells them to scout the area. Beedrill, having found something, leads Casey to find Don hanging on a tree branch and Corey on a small patch of land just a couple of meters above the water. She scolds Don for not using its wings to help Corey, but Corey explains to her that Don as a Charmander fell into a lake and became afraid of water. Casey starts climbing down the cliff, but an unexpected fierce storm unleashes and the wind blows her away. Corey throws a rope and she manages to grab it while he begins pulling her up.

She hops on his back and he begins climbing up against the strong wind. Corey slips on a rock and they both fall into the water getting caught in a whirlpool. Upon seeing this, Don overcomes its fear of water, dives down, and then takes Corey and Casey up in the sky. As they are on its back, Don reveals it has regained its fire. Corey also makes a surprising change, and with his Electabuzz spirit sparked once more, he plans on making a return to baseball.

Later, Casey, Shigeo, and Benny watch Corey's latest baseball match. As he prepares to throw the ball he sees Don flying above the stadium. Corey marks the target and the Electabuzz win the game.

Major events

For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, please see the timeline page.

Characters

Humans

• Casey
• Corey Demario
• Benny Demario
• Shigeo
• Harper
• Baseball players and fans

Pokémon

• Meganium (Casey's)
• Beedrill (Casey's)
• Elekid (Casey's)
• Charizard (Corey's; Don)
• Ampharos (Shigeo's)

Trivia

• This episode aired between AG094 and AG095 in Japan.
• In the Japanese version, Casey reads the title card of this episode.
• The English dub title is likely a reference to the musical comedy Damn Yankees.
• The nickname of Corey's Charizard, Don, is likely a reference to Charizard's Japanese name, Lizardon.
• Casey pronounces Elekid's name as "El-ek-id", with stress placed on the "ek". Casey is the only character to pronounce Elekid this way, all other characters pronounce it as "El-e-kid", with stress placed on the "El".
• Usually, in the 9th inning with less than three runs, a team would bring out their closer on the mound, not letting the starter in as the pitch count would be too high to continue pitching. Corey is left on the mound after loading the bases in the 9th inning which would have brought out the closer. Also, he allowed five runs in which the bullpen should be out earlier in the game.
  • Despite allowing five runs and loading the bases in the 9th inning, the announcer states that "he pitched an incredible game".
• This is the last appearance of Casey in an animated series-related episode.
• Ready Go! is used as background music for this special.

Errors

• The episode menu in the UK DVD release misspells this episode as "Those Darn Electabuzzi".
• After Corey's flashback, he and Benny are still wearing the cheerleader uniforms, but seconds later they are suddenly in their normal clothes.

Dub edits

• The narrator reads the title card instead of Casey.
• A seven-second scene of Don looking at Corey and Casey, then breathing a powerful Flamethrower is cut from the dub.
• Casey mentions that she owns a Rapidash and a Magmar in the dub. However, neither of those Pokémon are referenced in the original Japanese version. Instead, she says Fire-type Pokémon hate water.
• In the original Japanese version, at the end of the episode, Casey pops up after the "To be continued" screen to cheer on her team. This is cut from the English dub.

In other languages

Language		Title
European French		Ces sacrés Élektek
Italian		Una sferzata di vitalità
Portuguese	Brazil	Esses Electabuzz de uma figa *
	Portugal	Azarados Electabuzz
European Spanish		¡Esos Malditos Electabuzz!

← HS16 : Luvdisc is a Most Splendored Thing

WPBS side stories

HS18 : The Search for the Legend →

← HS16 : Luvdisc is a Most Splendored Thing

Pokémon Chronicles

HS18 : The Search for the Legend →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.