BW073

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Best Wishes series

BW074 : Battling the Leaf Thieves! →

Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown!

BW073   EP730 決戦ドンナマイト！ナゲキVSダゲキ！！ The Decisive Donamite Battle! Nageki VS Dageki!!

First broadcast Japan April 5, 2012 United States August 4, 2012

English themes Opening Rival Destinies Ending

Japanese themes Opening ベストウイッシュ！ Ending 七色アーチ

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura Storyboard 川田武範 Takenori Kawada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane No additional credits are available at this time.

Screenshots on Filb.de Preview thread on BMGf Closed Original review thread on BMGf Dub review thread on BMGf

Commanding the Clubsplosion Crown! (Japanese: 決戦ドンナマイト！ナゲキVSダゲキ！！ The Decisive Donamite Battle! Nageki VS Dageki!!) is the 73rd episode of the Best Wishes series, and the 730th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on April 5, 2012 and in the United States on August 4, 2012.

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

Blurb

The semi-finals of the Clubsplosion Battle Tournament are about to get under way, with Stephan and Sawk versus Bianca and Emboar battling first. Although Bianca and Emboar have been victorious twice in a row, a massive Karate Chop from Sawk eliminates them from the tournament, sending Stephan into the finals.

Next up is Ash and Scraggy versus Montgomery and Throh. Right away, Scraggy seems intimidated by the hulking Throh, and can’t seem to concentrate on its Focus Blast. The attack misses over and over again, and when Montgomery finally tells Throh to attack, its overwhelming power quickly ends Ash and Scraggy’s bid for the finals.

So, after all their tension outside the arena during the first several rounds, Stephan and Sawk are going up against Montgomery and Throh for the title—an aggressive and fairly even matchup! Throh’s power is fearsome indeed, and there are several instances when it seems Sawk is under threat from Throh’s Circle Throw. But on Stephan’s command, Sawk manages to drop and roll away from the grapple, avoiding most of the damage.

Finally, just as Throh has Sawk in a powerful Bind, Stephan calls for Sawk to use Bulk Up, which frees it from Throh’s grip—and then it unleashes a powerful Close Combat with its buffed-up muscles, giving Stephan and Sawk the win. And the wish Stephan made at Mistralton Tower has come true!

After celebrating with their friend, it’s time for our heroes to resume their journey to the Icirrus City Gym, where Ash hopes to win his seventh Gym Badge!

Plot

Don George announces the beginning of the first semi-final battle between Stephan and Bianca, angering Stephan after mispronouncing his name. Sawk runs into the stadium and pumps up, as Bianca enters on time and without tripping over herself. Sawk begins the battle with Bulk Up and Emboar uses Hammer Arm, but it dodges the attack. Sawk hurts Emboar badly with Karate Chop. Emboar unsuccessfully uses Hammer Arm again, as Sawk then attacks Emboar with Close Combat. Emboar retaliates by throwing him. Sawk then uses Bulk Up to power up again, as Emboar uses Flamethrower but misses. Sawk then uses two successive Karate Chops to knock Emboar out and win the match.

Don George announces the next Semi-Finals match, between Ash and Montgomery. Scraggy tries to use Leer on Throh, who however terrifies him by glaring. Scraggy runs back to Ash as Throh makes a gesture, telling him to come closer. Scraggy fires several Focus Blasts that miss, as Throh remains still. Throh moves towards Scraggy to use Superpower and Scraggy tries to fight back with Hi Jump Kick, but is lured into Throh's Circle Throw. Scraggy uses Headbutt on Throh but it does little damage, allowing him to use Superpower and throw Scraggy again. Scraggy fails to land another Focus Blast and Throh finishes him off with a Seismic Toss, allowing Montgomery to move to the finals with Stephan. During a lunch break, Bianca rubs Sawk's arm and admires him before hugging him. Stephan and Sawk are served an easily digestible meal, as they chow down quickly. During their lunch break, the group realizes that Throh is hiding another attack from them, and presume that it will not be used until the finals.

As the final tournament battle is about to begin, Stephan and Montgomery enter the stadium with their Pokémon. Sawk begins with Low Sweep but Throh uses Circle Throw to throw him to the ground with Sawk able to land on his feet and avoid damage. Sawk tries to use Karate Chop on Throh but is grabbed while Throh is on his knees, and Throh uses Circle Throw on him again. Throh grabs Sawk with Bind and takes him to the ground. Sawk uses Bulk Up, and then Close Combat to escape Bind. Sawk's next Low Sweep hits its mark, but Throh uses Superpower to throw him to the ground. Throh tries to hit Sawk when he is on the ground, but Sawk dodges the attack. The audience claps and cheers with excitement and Burgundy is jealous of Cilan's battle evaluation skills. Sawk bulks up but Throh grabs him and brings him into the air to do a Seismic Toss. Sawk is able to slip out of Throh's grip but they both hit the ground hard. Stephan as well as Ash and his friends yell for Sawk to get up. Both Throh have trouble getting up. Throh moves in to finish off Sawk with Bind, but Sawk uses Close Combat. Sawk respectfully bows to Throh and walks away as Throh faints from exhaustion.

Stephan and Sawk hug each other after their victory. Stephan and Sawk acknowledge the crowd after they are announced as the winners of the championship. Montgomery respectfully shakes Stephan's hand to congratulate him on the win. Stephan is handed the sign with the year's supply of vitamins and he shows it to everyone in the stands. Don George tells the crowd to give a big round of applause to Stephan, who is furious due to the mispronunciations. Ash and his friends say their goodbyes to their rivals and head off to Icirrus City. To finish off the episode, the narrator mispronounces Stephan's name which makes him mad.

Major events

• Stephan defeats Bianca and advances to the final round.
• Montgomery defeats Ash and advances to the final round.
• Stephan defeats Montgomery in the final round, winning the Clubsplosion tournament and a year's supply of Vitamins.
• Stephan leaves the group.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Iris
• Cilan
• Don George
• Freddy O'Martian
• Bianca
• Stephan
• Burgundy
• Georgia
• Montgomery
• Referee

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Throh

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Axew (Iris's)
• Scraggy (Ash's)
• Emboar (Bianca's)
• Sawk (Stephan's)
• Throh (Montgomery's)

Trivia

• Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster: Deerling
• Stephan breaks the fourth wall, doing so at the end of the episode when he tells the narrator that he's pronouncing his name wrong.
• This is the first episode of the Best Wishes series to have the same Who's That Pokémon? in both the original and international versions and is also the first to have the same one since Pokémon Paparazzi, 675 episodes ago.

Errors

• Sawk's forehead appears larger than normal in one scene.
• While Stephan and Sawk are hugging each other, Sawk has four fingers on his right hand when he should have only three. His fingers are also missing their patterns.
• The stand that Stephan and Sawk were standing on after he won the Clubsplosion tournament appeared to be big enough only to hold two people while Don George and Freddy O'Martian stood on the ground next to the stand. As the camera pans out giving a full view of the battle field, however, the stand is dramatically larger, appearing like a stage, and Don George and Freddy are standing on it along with Stephan and Sawk.
• Deerling appears in its spring form despite them all being shown in summer form as of The Four Seasons of Sawsbuck!
• When Bianca is asking Ash where they're heading now, Burgundy appears with the thin eyebrows, just like Bianca's.
• In the dub, Burgundy says she is going to be an A-class Connoisseur when the correct term for females is A-class Connoisseuse.

• 

  Sawk's extra finger

• 

  Burgundy's eyebrows error

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		決戰東·喬治格鬥大會！投射鬼對打擊鬼！！
Dutch		Aanspraak maken op de Explodon Kroon!
Finnish		Ottelupamausyleisöä huudattamassa
German		Wer gewinnt die Explodon-Krone?
Greek		Ο Νικητής του Τουρνουά Ντοναμίτης!
Italian		Il vincitore del Torneo Donamite!
Korean		결전 돈너마이트! 던지미 VS 타격귀!
Norwegian		Krever klubbsplosjonstronen!
Polish		I Niech Zwycięży Najlepszy!
Portuguese	Brazil	Comandando o Clube-Explosão!
	Portugal	O Campeão do Clubestrondo!
Russian		Борьба за корону Донамита!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Comandando la corona de la Clubexplosión!
	Spain	¡Imponiendo la corona del Clubombazo!
Swedish		Härre på klubbsplosions-skutan!

← BW072 : A Clubsplosion of Excitement!

Best Wishes series

BW074 : Battling the Leaf Thieves! →

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