DP053

← DP052 : Smells Like Team Spirit!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP054 : Once There Were Greenfields →

Tears For Fears!

DP053   EP519 ヒコザルの涙！ Hikozaru's Tears!

First broadcast Japan November 8, 2007 United States April 12, 2008

English themes Opening We Will Be Heroes 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 松井亜弥 Aya Matsui Storyboard 小山賢 Masaru Koyama Assistant director 小山賢 Masaru Koyama Animation director 広岡歳仁 Toshihito Hirooka Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de Original review thread on BMGf

Tears For Fears! (Japanese: ヒコザルの涙！ Hikozaru's Tears!) is the 53rd episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 519th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was originally scheduled to air in Japan on November 1, 2007, but was delayed to November 8 due to baseball. It aired in the US on April 12, 2008. This episode is the start of the eleventh season, Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension.

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

Blurb

As our heroes head towards Veilstone City, Ash's new Chimchar struggles to adapt to its new surroundings. Everything is the complete opposite of life with Paul: mealtimes are fun and everyone treats each other with friendship and kindness! Chimchar still has vivid memories of the lonely and harsh treatment it received from Paul, so this sudden reversal of fortune is nearly too much to take. When Ash even praises Chimchar after it loses a practice battle with Dawn's Piplup, Chimchar breaks down in emotion.

Meowth, who's searching for Team Rocket after their group was split up by some rampaging Zangoose, sees this scene and has a pang of sympathy for Chimchar. That night, Chimchar can't sleep and it finds Meowth sitting in the moonlight. Meowth isn't in the mood for a fight; instead, it gently tells Chimchar to make the best of its new life. Of course, all bets are off the next morning once Meowth rejoins Jessie and James: they catch Dawn and Brock by surprise, then try to steal all of their Pokémon by trapping them in giant canisters!

But when the Zangoose show up, Team Rocket has to hide in the canisters for their own protection. Ash and Chimchar reach the scene and realize the Zangoose are about to knock the canisters off a cliff! Chimchar has encountered Zangoose before and it's still afraid of them. Ash knows this, so he encourages Chimchar and gives it the confidence it needs to take on and defeat the Zangoose. With everyone safe and sound, it's three cheers for Chimchar, who finally feels like a part of its new family!

Plot

The episode starts with Ash, Dawn and Brock settling down for lunch while still on the road to Veilstone City. The gang decide to let their Pokémon out for the day, and soon everyone is starting to set up for lunch... everyone except Ash's newly obtained Chimchar who is confused on what to do since everyone is in a happy mood. It remembers meal times with Paul, which involved Paul feeding Chimchar directly from a tin while angrily telling it to hurry up. As everyone else begins eating, Chimchar has to be prompted by Ash making it clear the Pokémon is having trouble adjusting to its new circumstances.

Team Rocket also have their respective Pokémon out of their Poké Balls eating with them, however meal time is interrupted when Seviper notices that three Zangoose are heading their way. They begin fighting furiously and Seviper, despite attacking with venom at its mortal enemies, finds itself outnumbered and outmatched. Jessie returns Seviper to its Poké Ball but it refuses to give up and comes straight back out. Jessie continually tries to get Seviper back into the Poké Ball but to no avail. Then the wild Zangoose send Team Rocket "blasting off again" with Meowth landing in a different area from Jessie and James.

With most of their Pokémon lounging about, Ash and Dawn go for a sparring match all watched by Meowth as he looks for his teammates. Ash uses his Pikachu and Dawn uses her Buizel. After a tough match, the two compliment their Pokémon and Chimchar is reminded again of how it once managed to defeat Elekid during training, but still got scolded by Paul since it didn't access Blaze to do it. Ash and Dawn decide to have another battle using different Pokémon, as Ash selects Chimchar to battle against Dawn's Piplup. Despite putting up a tough fight against Piplup, Chimchar loses the battle causing it to be reminded of losing in the Tag Battle Tournament and being cruelly released by Paul. Ash picks up Chimchar who expects to be criticized, however instead Ash congratulates it on a good battle. This is followed up by compliments from Dawn and Brock as well as cheering from all the other Pokémon. Chimchar is left very nervous and confused, and starts crying since it can't handle the drastic change from a negative owner to positive people. Ash is confused as to why Chimchar would cry when it's getting complimented, and Brock muses that Chimchar mustn't have got many chances to show any emotion while under Paul's ownership. Ash understands, and holds Chimchar while the Chimp Pokémon sobs its heart out. Meowth is also moved by this emotional display and, with tears in his eyes, leaves without incident to continue looking for Jessie and James.

Later, at night, Chimchar has a nightmare about having to fight under Paul's command battling a Graveler. Graveler jumps out against Chimchar and uses Rock Throw, sending boulders flying. Paul orders Chimchar not to move, as his way of trying to force Chimchar to access Blaze. Chimchar's nightmare then switches to the Zangoose fight when it was captured, still with Paul's screaming voice in its head. Chimchar wakes up and, unable to get back to sleep, goes for a walk.

Meowth is still looking for the rest of Team Rocket, when he crosses paths with Chimchar. After convincing it he doesn't want to fight, Meowth tells Chimchar that he knows what it's like to worry, and he dreams of the time when he and the others are finally able to successfully capture Pikachu as then he wouldn't have anything to worry about. Meowth then tells Chimchar it should stop worrying about the past, and instead look to the new, brighter future because it's a very lucky Pokémon. Meowth states to Chimchar that its new friends would do anything, even "give the clothes off their backs" if it really needed it before he leaves. Chimchar is left thoughtful at this new outlook. The next morning, all of the Pokémon start helping out preparing for a meal, and Chimchar is once again left unsure of what to do. Ash calls over to it, asking for help carrying some water from the nearby river to which Chimchar happily agrees to.

Later, in the daytime, Team Rocket is shown in their balloon, holding Meowth by his rear end with a "plunger". They state that were going to steal Ash's Pokémon and that meeting Meowth was just a coincidence, then goes through with their plan to capture Ash and his friend's Pokémon, by capturing all of the Pokémon that are out of their Poké Balls. As they begin to fly off, Dawn tries to make her Pokémon return into its Poké Ball, but fails. Meowth says the containers are protected from that possibility, so Dawn sends out her Piplup and commands it to use BubbleBeam while Brock orders Croagunk to use Poison Sting. This also fails.

Seviper gets out of its Poké Ball because it senses the three Zangoose once again. The gang of Zangoose climb up a tree to get to the level of Team Rocket's Balloon. Team Rocket's Balloon falls so Team Rocket ironically hide themselves within the containers that they stole Ash, Dawn, and Brock's Pokémon. However this backfires, as the wild Zangoose attack the container attempting to get to Seviper and pushing it close to the edge of a nearby cliff. Ash and Chimchar arrive back and see what's happening, and Ash tells Chimchar to help. However Chimchar is too frightened to fight the wild Zangoose. So Ash gives a little pep-talk to Chimchar, telling it that while he understands Chimchar is scared, the other Pokémon really need help. Chimchar is reminded of the kindness shown by Ash and the others, and Meowth telling it that the group would do anything to help it if they needed to. Ash tells Chimchar not to worry about the power of Blaze, as it just has to believe it can win. As a result, Chimchar becomes motivated to battle against his fear, the Zangoose. Chimchar uses Dig a few times to confuse the Zangoose and then uses Flamethrower to finish them off.

Team Rocket open the container from the inside and try to escape but Ash and Dawn command Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, Chimchar to use Flamethrower, Turtwig to use Razor Leaf, Piplup to use BubbleBeam, and Buneary to use Ice Beam to attack Team Rocket ending the episode by sending Team Rocket blasting off for the second and final time in the episode. Chimchar joins the other Pokémon in their cheering, and with its past completely fading away, the heroes' journey continues!

Major events

• Chimchar overcomes its fear of Zangoose.

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

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Dawn
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Paul (flashback and nightmare)

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Piplup (Dawn's)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Mime Jr. (James's)
• Aipom (Ash's)
• Staravia (Ash's)
• Turtwig (Ash's)
• Chimchar (Ash's)
• Buneary (Dawn's)
• Pachirisu (Dawn's)
• Buizel (Dawn's)
• Sudowoodo (Brock's)
• Croagunk (Brock's)
• Happiny (Brock's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Dustox (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Carnivine (James's)
• Elekid (Paul's; flashback)
• Zangoose (wild, group of three)
• Graveler (from Chimchar's nightmare)

Trivia

• Both the opening and ending animations have updated to move Chimchar to Ash's group, while Paul's Electabuzz has replaced Elekid in the opening.
• An instrumental version of Meowth's Song, music from Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea and an alternate cut of Together are used as background music.
• Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia: Garchomp
  • Pokémon senryū: ガブリアス　ガブリとくるぞ　かみくだく Gaburiasu, gaburi to kuruzo, kamikudaku
• James, Gardenia and Meowth narrate the next episode preview.
• This is the third episode where a character bleeds. The first was in Wake Up, Snorlax! when Misty scratched her shoulder while trying to get through the thorny bushes, and the second was in Ignorance is Blissey.
• This episode's dub title is a reference to the musical group Tears for Fears. It is the second time that the anime has referenced the group, the first being in Hocus Pokémon.
• This is the first episode to be dubbed at DuArt Film & Video, which had already dubbed The Rise of Darkrai.
• Kayzie Rogers returns as James's Mime Jr. (taking over from Michele Knotz) and Jessie's Wobbuffet, after archive sounds had been used for Wobbuffet's voice during season 10.
• This episode was released on DVD in England as a free gift with issue 59 of the Jetix Magazine.
• In the Nordic and Dutch dubs, starting with this episode, the title cards and "To be continued" messages are in their own respective languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch) instead of English. These dubs also received a new set of credits mentioning the dubbing staff.

Errors

Ash with scratches on his shoulder

• Ash's scratch disappears in the next scene.
• In the dub, the narrator says, "With the Eterna City Contest and Tag Battle behind them..." The group has just left from a Contest in Hearthome City, not Eterna. This may be due to script confusion, as the next episode features the Eterna Gym Leader, Gardenia.
• Jessie's Seviper's Japanese voice can be heard during the brawls against Zangoose.
• Meowth looks like he has an eyelash while he is in the tube with the rest of Team Rocket along with their Pokémon.
• In Chimchar's flashback of the Hearthome contest, Chimchar remembers Paul saying, "You are out of here!", when Paul really said, "You're out of here!"
• When Team Rocket blasts off for the last time, Wobbuffet is seen outside of his Poké Ball, yet when they blast off, the Poké Ball release noise is heard before Wobbuffet says his name.
• During Seviper's encounter with the Zangoose at the beginning of the episode the yellow markings underneath one side of Seviper's face disappears for a second.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		小火焰猴的眼淚！
Czech		Slzy strachu
Danish		Tårer og frygt!
Dutch		Tranen van angst!
Finnish		Pelon kyyneleitä
European French		Les larmes de Ouisticram !
German		Tränen der Vergangenheit!
Hebrew		הדמעות של צ'ימצ'אר
Indonesian		Air Mata Chimchar!
Italian		Lacrime di paura!
Korean		불꽃숭이! 눈물이여, 안녕!
Norwegian		Tårer av frykt!
Polish		Łzy Chimchara
Portuguese	Brazil	Lágrimas de Chimchar!
	Portugal	O Medo do Sucesso!
Romanian		Lacrimi de Supărare
Russian		Слёзы страха
Spanish	Latin America	¡Enfrenta tus temores!
	Spain	¡Lágrimas de Miedo!
Swedish		Skräckens tårar
Thai		น้ำตาของฮิโคซารุ

← DP052 : Smells Like Team Spirit!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP054 : Once There Were Greenfields →

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