DP154

← DP153 : The Treasure is All Mine!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP155 : Double-Time Battle Training! →

Mastering Current Events!

DP154   EP620 エアバトルマスター登場！グライオンＶＳハッサム！！ The Air Battle Master Enters! Glion VS Hassam!!

First broadcast Japan December 3, 2009 United States April 24, 2010

English themes Opening Battle Cry - (Stand Up!) Ending

Japanese themes Opening ハイタッチ！ 2009 Ending ドッチ～ニョ？

Credits Animation Team Iguchi Screenplay 大橋志吉 Yukiyoshi Ōhashi Storyboard 大庭秀昭 Hideaki Ōba Assistant director 近橋伸隆 Nobutaka Chikahashi Animation director 木下和栄 Kazue Kinoshita Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Mastering Current Events! (Japanese: エアバトルマスター登場！グライオンＶＳハッサム！！ The Air Battle Master Enters! Glion VS Hassam!!) is the 154th episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 620th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on December 3, 2009 and in the United States on April 24, 2010.

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

Blurb

As our heroes continue toward Daybreak Town and Dawn's next Pokémon Contest, they find themselves lost in a deep forest. Suddenly, they come across a retired Air Battle Master named McCann, as well as his granddaughter, Maya, and McCann's Scizor. Even though McCann is now retired, he mentions that he still occasionally has an aerial battle with a worthy opponent...if he can find one. In an instant, Ash's Gliscor wants to have an aerial battle with McCann, who agrees. As the battle ensues, it becomes obvious that Gliscor knows little about battling mid-air. Afterward, Gliscor, Ash, and Dawn head out in the middle of the night for some training based on McCann's secret key to air battling-"reading the wind."By morning, with newfound knowledge and confidence, Ash and Gliscor challenge McCann and Scizor again! Ultimately, Gliscor is defeated, but shows much-improved skill in reading the wind, and Ash realizes Gliscor has learned a new move-Giga Impact!

Impressed by Gliscor's abilities, McCann offers Gliscor the opportunity to stay and train with him, to which Gliscor agrees wholeheartedly. Ash accepts Gliscor's decision, and our heroes head off once again on their journey as Gliscor stays behind for some sure-to-be amazing and comprehensive training with Mr. McCann!

Plot

While on the way to Daybreak Town, Ash and his friends seem to be completely lost, so Ash sends out Gliscor in order to check out the surrounding area. Along the way, they see a battle between a Chimecho and a Scizor. After the battle is over, they are introduced to the Air Battle Master, McCann, and his granddaughter Maya. The Scizor turned out to be McCann's and was helping the Chimecho, which belongs to Maya. After hearing about McCann's strength and skill as an air battle master, Ash decides to have an air battle with him: Scizor vs Gliscor. Ash wanted to test Gliscor's flying abilities and fought a one-on-one battle against Scizor.

Gliscor starts with a Steel Wing but Scizor quickly dodges. Then Scizor hits Gliscor with Metal Claw. As Gliscor is falling, Ash orders him to use the currents in order to regain its position. Then, Scizor hits it with a Double Hit. Gliscor tries a Sand-Attack but it's blocked by the currents. Scizor then hits Gliscor with a Metal Claw followed by a Double Hit. After it gets back in the match, Gliscor proceeds with a Fire Fang but Scizor avoids its attack by using Double Team. Then it tries a Steel Wing but Scizor dodges its attack again.

The scene turns for a short time to Team Rocket, having finally escaped from Jessiebelle from the previous episode, in their balloon who are searching for the twerps. Being inattentive their balloon hits a branch which makes it blow up and sends them blasting off.

The scene turns back to the two Pokémon's battle. Scizor hits Gliscor with a Hyper Beam and Gliscor tries to come back with a Fire Fang but is unable to do so as Scizor uses the currents to climb higher thus avoiding any possible counterattacks while it recharges. Then he comes down on Gliscor making a skip dive hitting it with Double Hit and knocking it out. Scizor is victorious, with Gliscor feeling terrible and ashamed that he did so poorly. Ash feels bad both for his own poor performance and that Gliscor is feeling so bad. McCann gives Ash some advice about how to "read" the wind and he offers the group to stay over for the night.

As the day went on, Gliscor was feeling bad; refusing to eat and unwilling to get into its Poké Ball. That night, when the group is sleeping, Pikachu wakes up and goes out where Gliscor is gazing at the moon. He tries to cheer it up while Ash shows up who also couldn't sleep feeling bad about his loss. Then he suggests doing some late training and trying to read the wind. Ash has Staraptor fly around with a rope tied to it so Gliscor can follow the wind pattern and how Staraptor flies.

Dawn wakes up and comes to help Ash train by giving him some shredded tin foil. She explains that if it is thrown in the wind, they can see the wind's direction and help Gliscor glide much better. So they release it into the wind. The tin foil pieces blow with the wind so Gliscor can see what direction the wind is going and follow it.

While training, Gliscor has a little run-in with Team Rocket and explains to Meowth that it's training so that it can defeat McCann's Scizor in a rematch tomorrow. Team Rocket's balloon is then blown away by the winds as they recite their motto. Gliscor proceeds with its training continuing to follow the tin foil as the sun rises. The next morning, Dawn informs McCann that they have been training all night, trying to read the wind and Ash challenges him to another air-battle. McCann thinks about his offer, while Maya convinces him to accept.

The battle begins and Scizor flies around using the currents. Gliscor successfully follows it trying to hit it with an X-Scissor but with little success. Then Scizor comes behind Gliscor trying to land a Metal Claw which Gliscor dodges. McCann acts surprised seeing it do so. Then he orders Scizor to use Double Hit. Gliscor uses the currents to climb but Scizor manages to land a hit on it. Gliscor quickly counters with a Sand-Attack landing a hit on its opponent.

Gliscor then hits Scizor with a Fire Fang which in turn hits it with a Double Hit. Gliscor uses Fire Fang again while Scizor tries to avoid it by using Double Team, but with no chance of success. Towards the end of an epic battle when things started to get shaky, Ash tells Gliscor to dig deep and encourages it to never give up. With that in mind, Gliscor begins to charge towards Scizor, and uses Giga Impact, revealing to have learned a new move. Then it climbs higher using the same strategy Scizor used in the previous battle to avoid damage while it recharges.

Gliscor proceeds to use X-Scissor, but Scizor's Metal Claw hits faster than Gliscor's attack. Ash orders Gliscor to use Giga Impact but Scizor hits it with a Hyper Beam before Gliscor is able to react. After an intense shot from Scizor's attack, Gliscor plummets to the ground, losing for a second time. Ash goes over to Gliscor, telling it that even though they lost, it has really improved and learned a new move as well.

McCann sees Gliscor's potential and tells Ash he is willing to train Gliscor, knowing that it had a lot of potential since it improved so much in a single night. McCann muses how it was like the day that he first met his Scizor. Suddenly faced with the possibility of separating from Ash, Gliscor thinks back to when it was captured as a Gligar and how Ash helped it evolve and trained it up until it even managed to win Ash his sixth Gym badge by defeating Byron's Bastiodon. Ash tells Gliscor that regardless of if he wants to continue travelling with him or remain to train, it's his choice. Gliscor gets teary for a few seconds, but then shakes them away and walks to McCann, indicating it wishes to remain. Ash assures Gliscor that he's fine as long as Gliscor is doing what it truly wants, and Dawn remarks that Gliscor has grown a lot from the babyish Gligar it used to be. McCann notes that Pokémon and trainer share the same desire to become as strong as possible, and Ash give McCann Gliscor's Poké Ball and asks him to take good care of his Pokémon. Team Rocket, who are watching from a distance, are moved to tears.

The gang later say their farewells to Gliscor, as Ash tells the Fang Scorp Pokémon that he is certain they'll meet again. With that, the group leave the area, as Gliscor flies above to see them off. It starts to cry, but then stops itself knowing it has a lot of work to do. The narrator concludes the episode noting that for many meetings there is also a parting, as Ash and Gliscor continue on their own journeys.

Major events

• Ash's Gliscor learns Giga Impact.
• Ash leaves his Gliscor with McCann for training.

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

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Dawn
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• McCann
• Maya

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Piplup (Dawn's)
• Staraptor (Ash's)
• Gligar (Ash's; flashback)
• Gliscor (Ash's; leaves)
• Scizor (McCann's)
• Bastiodon (Byron's; flashback)
• Chimecho (Maya's)

Trivia

• Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Examination: Ditto
• Dawn narrates the next episode's preview.
• Together With the Wind and music from Celebi: Voice of the Forest, Jirachi: Wish Maker and Giratina and the Sky Warrior are used during this episode.
• The English version of the episode uses a remixed version of I'll Always Remember You as background music.
• This episode marks the first time one of Ash's Pokémon has left his party mid-region since Bulbasaur... the Ambassador!, almost 400 episodes previously.
• Jessie's Wobbuffet doesn't appear in this episode.
• This episode resembles a similar episode, where a main character's Pokémon learns a new move and is left to train. That episode also takes place exactly 100 episodes previous to this one.
  • It also takes place 30 episodes after To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!, another episode where a main character's Pokémon is put under the training of another Trainer.
    • It also takes place more than 400 episodes after an episode with a similar name.
• The Finnish title is a word play. When someone is in a good mood one can say "Olen hyvällä tuulella", however, if translated literally, it can also mean "I'm on a good wind", since "tuuli" can mean both mood or wind in Finnish.

Errors

• Even though Ash learned how to take advantage of wind currents in PokéRinger competitions, he doesn't know the basics in this episode.
• In the Finnish dub, Dawn's voice was heard in one of Maya's lines.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		空中對戰大師登場！天蠍王對巨鉗螳螂！！
Czech		Mistr vzdušných proudů
Danish		En mester til lejligheden!
Dutch		Hoe de Wind Waait!
Finnish		Hyvällä tuulella!
German		Eine frische Brise!
Indonesian		Pertarungan di Udara! Gliscor Melawan Scizor!!
Italian		Padrone degli eventi!
Korean		에어배틀 마스터 등장! 글라이온 VS 핫삼
Norwegian		Mestring av dagens gren!
Polish		Opanować wiatr
Portuguese	Brazil	O Senhor dos Eventos!
	Portugal	Dominando os Acontecimentos!
Romanian		Vântul, Cheia Succesului
Russian		Куда дует ветер? Kuda duet veter?
Spanish	Latin America	¡Dominando los Eventos Actuales!
	Spain	¡Dominando las Corrientes de Aire!
Swedish		Ha koll på rådande händelser!

← DP153 : The Treasure is All Mine!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP155 : Double-Time Battle Training! →

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