DP052

← DP051 : Glory Blaze!

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

DP053 : Tears For Fears! →

Smells Like Team Spirit!

DP052   EP518 タッグバトル！ファイナル！！ Tag Battle! Final!!

First broadcast Japan October 25, 2007 United States February 1, 2008

English themes Opening Diamond and Pearl Ending

Japanese themes Opening Together Ending 君のそばで 〜ヒカリのテーマ〜 (Winter Version)

Credits Animation Team Iguchi Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Smells Like Team Spirit! (Japanese: タッグバトル！ファイナル！！ Tag Battle! Final!!) is the 52nd episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, the 518th episode of the Pokémon anime, and the last episode of the tenth season, Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl. It first aired in Japan on October 25, 2007 and in the United States on February 1, 2008.

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

Blurb

After a strange victory in the second round of Hearthome City's tag battle tournament, Paul has abandoned his Chimchar and Ash wants Chimchar to join his team instead. Team Rocket wants Chimchar's power for themselves, and they swoop in to steal it. Their hot air balloon getaway flames out when Chimchar toasts their balloon and happily returns to Ash. For the quarterfinals of the tournament, Chimchar will rest and watch Ash and Paul use Staravia and Torterra to battle Brock and his tag battle partner Holly, who are using Croagunk and Farfetch'd.

Unlike Ash and Paul, who are getting along just as badly as ever, Brock and Holly work well as a team. But against a powerhouse Pokémon like Torterra, even Brock and Holly are unable to win. Paul sneers at Ash for celebrating and thinks his Torterra was the only reason they won, but it doesn't matter now. Ash and Paul move on to face Dawn and her partner Conway in the final round. And for this battle, Ash chooses Chimchar and Paul chooses Elekid to battle against Dawn's Buizel and Conway's Heracross.

Dawn and Conway are good partners, too: they know how to work together and synchronize attack and defense. However, Conway's strategies didn't anticipate that Paul's Elekid would evolve into Electabuzz in the middle of the match! Buizel and Heracross do their best, but Electabuzz's power and Chimchar's Fire-type attacks win the day. Of course, now that he's evolved his Elekid, Paul couldn't care less about victory or the Soothe Bell prize. But Ash believes Paul's Chimchar will be a great addition to his team, and he's looking forward to the next Gym battle in Veilstone City!

Plot

Ash is kneeling down to the newly-released Chimchar. Impressed by the way Chimchar gives it its all, Ash tries to convince Chimchar to be on his team. However, a disgusted Paul tells them that as far as he's concerned they are a perfect match; a pathetic Pokémon for a pathetic Trainer. Ash tells Chimchar to ignore his former Trainer, and offers the chance to prove him wrong. Before Chimchar can accept, our heroes are attacked by Bullet Seed and Pin Missile. Chimchar is stolen by Team Rocket, the attackers. After finishing their motto, James tells Carnivine and Cacnea to use attack again as they attempt to escape. However, Ash is intent on rescuing Chimchar, and Chimchar takes action, using Flamethrower to destroy Team Rocket's balloon, but plummets to the ground. Ash manages to catch Chimchar just in time, and with the day saved, asks again if Chimchar would like to be on his team. Chimchar happily agrees, so Ash throws a Poké Ball into the air. Chimchar happily jumps up and smacks the button, and without any struggle, Ash catches Chimchar. Later that night, Ash contacts Professor Oak to tell him about what has been going on. After complimenting Chimchar, Oak states that Ash and Paul need to work together to win as much as Ash would with his Pokémon.

The next morning, the battles continue in the Tag Battle Competition. Dawn and Conway have already won their semi-final match, so the next match-up is Ash and Paul versus Brock and Holly. They each send out their respective Pokémon: Staravia, Torterra, Croagunk, and Farfetch'd. Ash commands Staravia to use Aerial Ace, Brock tells Croagunk to use Poison Jab, Holly's Farfetch'd uses Air Slash and Paul's Torterra uses Hyper Beam. All of the attacks are launched, but only Hyper Beam makes its way through, hitting Farfetch'd, as well as Staravia. However, Farfetch'd is knocked out in an instant. Holly apologizes for letting Brock down, but he tells her not to worry and tells Croagunk to use Brick Break. Ash tells Staravia once more to use Aerial Ace, trying to catch Croagunk off-guard. However, Croagunk slides under the immobilized Torterra, causing Staravia to miss and have to stop its attack. Croagunk jumps out from behind Torterra, landing a hit with Brick Break on Torterra's head. However, before Croagunk can use Poison Jab, Torterra is able to move again. Croagunk jumps backwards onto the tree on its back, and Torterra uses Leaf Storm, knocking Croagunk out, and giving victory to Ash and Paul. Ash congratulates Staravia on a good job, only for Paul to angrily comment that Staravia contributed nothing to the battle.

Returning to the Pokémon Center after the match, Nurse Joy tells Brock that Holly was so upset about losing that she left to go and train. Devastated by losing the one woman who liked him, Brock tells Ash to go and win the match. Finally, the final battle of Dawn and Conway versus Ash and Paul begins. Ash sends out Chimchar, Paul uses Elekid, and Conway and Dawn call out Heracross and Buizel. Ash's first attack is Flamethrower, followed by Elekid using Thunder. However, Buizel is able to counterattack Flamethrower with Aqua Jet, which in turn is countered Elekid's Thunder. Conway backs Buizel up by telling Heracross to use Revenge. Heracross gets in to take the Thunder attack, and uses the power of Revenge to attack Elekid. Next, Chimchar uses Dig as Dawn calls for Buizel to use Aqua Jet again. Elekid uses Protect, but at the last minute, Buizel heads skywards and Conway tells Heracross to use Feint to break the Protect, taking Paul off-guard. Buizel then uses Water Gun, hitting Elekid, but Chimchar finally hits Buizel with Dig.

Buizel counters with Aqua Jet, again hitting Chimchar. Chimchar quickly recovers and uses Flamethrower on Heracross, but Buizel jumps in front of Heracross and uses Water Gun. The attacks collide, causing an explosion. Elekid jumps through the smoke and uses Thunder Punch, while Heracross counters with Megahorn. Another explosion is created, sending Elekid flying backwards. Suddenly, Elekid begins to evolve into Electabuzz, shocking everyone. The newly evolved Electabuzz then begins to charge up its Thunder. In response, Conway tells Heracross to use Megahorn and Buizel uses Water Gun. Ash tells Chimchar to dodge Water Gun and to use Flamethrower on Heracross, while Electabuzz uses Thunder on Buizel. All the attacks collide, causing an explosion. Just when it seems like the battle is over, Buizel and Heracross are seen still standing once the smoke clears. However, Buizel gives his opponents a final smirk before they both fall to the ground, knocked out. Taking the win, Ash congratulates Chimchar, although Paul remarks that if Chimchar was any good, Heracross would never have got back up. However, Ash does not care what Paul thinks; as far as he is concerned, Chimchar did a fantastic job.

At the awards ceremony, Enta gets on stage to give Ash and Paul their Soothe Bells. Everyone applauds Ash and Paul, while Conway muses that for a tournament that was supposed to emphasize teamwork between Trainers, it was the team that co-operated the least that ended up winning. That evening, at the Pokémon Center, Ash and his friends discuss the battles that happened. Although Dawn is discouraged about losing, she promises to win her next Contest. Suddenly, Paul passes by, tossing his Soothe Bell at Ash, saying that he does not need it. Brock notes that for Paul, the tournament was simply an opportunity to power up his Pokémon, and as far as he's concerned, Elekid evolving was the only good thing to come out of the competition. Conway then suggests to Ash that he could next head for Veilstone City as it has a Gym, seeing as the Hearthome Gym is currently closed. The gang agrees that it is a good idea and therefore, with a new Pokémon on his team, Ash prepares to head to Veilstone City and hopefully earn his third Gym Badge.

Major events

Ash holding the Soothe Bell

• Chimchar joins Ash's party.
• Ash and Paul defeat Brock and Holly in the semifinals.
• Conway is revealed to own a Heracross.
• Paul's Elekid evolves into an Electabuzz.
• Ash and Paul defeat Dawn and Conway in the finals, winning the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition and receiving a Soothe Bell each.
• Paul gives his Soothe Bell to Ash.
• Ash learns of a Gym in Veilstone City and decides to head there next.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Paul's Electabuzz

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Dawn
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Nurse Joy
• Professor Oak
• Paul
• Conway
• Holly
• Enta
• Black Belt

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Piplup (Dawn's)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Mime Jr. (James's)
• Staravia (Ash's)
• Turtwig (Ash's)
• Chimchar (Ash's; new; formerly Paul's)
• Buneary (Dawn's)
• Buizel (Dawn's)
• Croagunk (Brock's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Carnivine (James's)
• Elekid (Paul's; evolves)
• Electabuzz (Paul's; newly evolved)
• Torterra (Paul's)
• Farfetch'd (Holly's)
• Heracross (Conway's)
• Slowking (Conway's)

Trivia

• Music from Celebi: The Voice of the Forest is used as background music.
• Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia: Stunky
  • Pokémon senryū: スカンプー　すかんあいてに　においプー Sukanpū, sukan aite ni, nioi pū
• This is the season finale of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl.
• This episode concludes the three-part Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition arc.
• This episode's English dub title is a reference to the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. The name of this song is often mistaken as "Smells Like Team Spirit".
• This episode, along with Tag! We're It! and Glory Blaze, was aired as a 90-minute special on February 1, 2008 on Cartoon Network.
• All of Ash's, Dawn's, and Brock's Pokémon were shown over the past three episodes apart from Happiny.
• This is the last episode where Pokémon USA's voice actors dub at TAJ. Beginning with the following episode, DuArt was used as the studio to record and distribute the anime.
  • This is also the last episode to have background music produced by 4Kids Entertainment.
• This is the last episode where Michele Knotz voices James's Mime Jr.
• The time between the original Japanese airing and first English dub airing of this episode was the shortest of all episodes at the time when this episode aired in English, with only 99 days between them. The record was later broken when A Unova League Evolution! aired.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		雙打對戰！最終對決！！
Czech		Týmový duch
Dutch		Dat is pas teamspirit!
Finnish		Ryhmähenki haisee!
European French		Il y a comme un esprit d'équipe dans l'air
German		Mit Vollgas ins Finale!
Italian		La finale di Cuoripoli & Vittoria sudata
Korean		태그시합, 평온의 방울은 누구손에?!
Polish		Nie ma jak praca zespołowa
Portuguese	Brazil	Tem Jeito de Espírito de Equipe!
	Portugal	Espírito de Equipa!
Russian		Командный дух
Spanish	Latin America	¡Espíritu de compañerismo!
	Spain	¡Sintiendo el Espíritu de Equipo!
Swedish		Chimchars revansch
Thai		แท็กแบทเทิล! ไฟนอล!

← DP051 : Glory Blaze!

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

DP053 : Tears For Fears! →

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