DP054

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Diamond & Pearl series

DP055 : Throwing the Track Switch →

Once There Were Greenfields

DP054   EP520 ナタネとサボネア！さよならは誰のため！？ Natane & Sabonea! Farewell to Whom!?

First broadcast Japan November 15, 2007 United States April 19, 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 十川誠志 Masashi Sogo Storyboard 於地紘仁 Kōjin Ochi Assistant director 宮原秀二 Shūji Miyahara Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Once There Were Greenfields (Japanese: ナタネとサボネア！さよならは誰のため！？ Natane and Sabonea! Farewell to Whom!?) is the 54th episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 520th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on November 15, 2007 and in the United States on April 19, 2008.

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

Blurb

Ash and his friends run into Gardenia, the Eterna Gym Leader, in the middle of her travels through Sinnoh. Gardenia is about to show off Pokémon battling with a friendly match, but Team Rocket interrupts to try and steal Pikachu! Of course, the minute Gardenia sees James' Cacnea, her love for Grass-type Pokémon blinds her to everything else, and suddenly James finds himself joining Gardenia in a tag battle against Ash and Dawn. Acting on Gardenia's advice, James has Cacnea try a new move, Drain Punch, but it only works once before Pachirisu and Aipom win the battle.

James turns down Gardenia's offer to train Cacnea, but it's still on his mind as he and Cacnea train hard to perfect this new move. Jessie and Meowth convince Ash and his friends to help Cacnea train, too! Dawn is understandably skeptical about helping Team Rocket power up, although Drain Punch still doesn't work even after Ash and his Pokémon help Cacnea train.

Gardenia returns in the middle of Cacnea's training battle against Ash's Aipom. Even though Cacnea battles with every last bit of its strength and beyond, it still can't pull off Drain Punch. Remorsefully realizing that he's just not skilled enough to bring out Cacnea's full potential, James stops the battle and tells Cacnea to go with Gardenia. He bids a tearful farewell to his Pokémon before running off, followed by Jessie and Meowth. But wherever he goes, James won't forget Cacnea and all their times together!

Plot

The episode opens with some young kids running out into a school yard and gathering around Gardenia. Ash and his friends then walk by and notice her. They greet her and Brock launches into a romantic story of how they could be together, but he is abruptly stopped by Croagunk. Gardenia then explains that she is promoting battling by having battles all over the area.

Team Rocket watch from nearby bushes and decide to steal Pikachu. They race out into the open and perform their motto. Jessie then sends out Seviper and James sends out Cacnea, which grabs on to him. Ash asks Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but before it can Gardenia is swooning over Cacnea calling it "cute" and "cuddly", the latter of which makes Dawn comment that Gardenia never met a Grass-type which she didn't fall in love with. James takes Cacnea off her telling her to grow her own. Gardenia asks to borrow it, but James refuses. The children then remind Gardenia that she is supposed to show them a battle. Gardenia then persuades James to join her in a Tag Battle against Ash and Dawn. Brock agrees to referee.

Gardenia sends out Turtwig to face Pachirisu and Aipom alongside Cacnea. Aipom starts with Swift, which hits Cacnea while Turtwig dodges. Cacnea then fights back with Pin Missile and Turtwig uses Leaf Storm. Both are dodged and Gardenia says that she had never seen such a gorgeous Pin Missile. Pachirisu uses Spark, which Turtwig dodges before hitting Pachirisu with Bite. Pachirisu then uses Discharge, which is dodged by all the others except Cacnea. Aipom uses Focus Punch and Cacnea counters with Needle Arm, which breaks through the Focus Punch and hits Aipom. Meowth comments that the Needle Arm was pretty good and Gardenia suggests that Cacnea should use Needle Arm again. Pachirisu uses Spark and James tells Cacnea to counter with Needle Arm, but Pachirisu dodges and hits Cacnea. Aipom prepares to use Focus Punch, and Gardenia suggests James should tell Cacnea to use Drain Punch, and then explains how it is performed. James does so and Cacnea hits Aipom with a powerful Drain Punch, surprising everyone except Gardenia.

While Gardenia was distracted with Cacnea, the others were taking advantage, and a cry makes Gardenia remember Turtwig just as it is hit by Pachirisu's Spark, knocking it out. Aipom uses Swift and James calls for another Drain Punch, but the move fails and Cacnea is hit. Aipom then hits it with Focus Punch as it tries to use Drain Punch again, knocking Cacnea out and ending the battle. The kids blame James for the loss. Gardenia says that she was right about Cacnea being strong enough to use Drain Punch. Dawn asks why it didn't work the other times, and Cacnea says it was an accident that it worked at all. Gardenia says that it was really because James and Cacnea weren't quite in sync. Gardenia then offers to train Cacnea, before heading to the Pokémon Center with the kids.

James and Cacnea are sitting on a hill overlooking the town when Jessie tells them to snap out of it. James then reveals that he isn't sure whether to give Cacnea to Gardenia or not. Cacnea then says that it would like to learn to use Drain Punch. The "twerps" then come up the hill, and Jessie suggests getting them to help Cacnea train. James and Cacnea start training, making Dawn comment that team Rocket do the right thing "once in a while", angering Jessie and Meowth. Ash and Pikachu offer to help them train. Dawn is doubtful, but James and Cacnea are delighted. Pikachu uses Quick Attack, which Cacnea counters with Needle Arm. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, which Cacnea dodges, causing it to hit James instead. Cacnea uses Needle Arm and Pikachu counters with Iron Tail, but Needle Arm breaks through it and hits Pikachu. Cacnea then tries Drain Punch, but it fails and Cacnea trips on a rock. Brock comments that the timing is still off.

Later Cacnea is using Carnivine and Chimchar to practice punching. One of Cacnea's punches then hits Chimchar in the face, so James then tells it to use Drain Punch, but the resulting Drain Punch isn't very strong. That evening James is pondering whether to give Cacnea to Gardenia, and then decides to have a training battle with Aipom. Gardenia comes up to watch. Aipom opens with Focus Punch, but Cacnea dodges and uses Needle Arm. They try again, but this time Cacnea misses and is hit by Focus Punch. Cacnea dodges another Focus Punch and counters with Needle Arm, before trying another Drain Punch, but it fails. Cacnea tries to counter repeated Focus Punches with Drain Punch, but is hit repeatedly. Cacnea is tired, and is still trying to continue, but James stops it and tells Cacnea to go with Gardenia. As he holds up Cacnea's Poké Ball he fondly recalls his time with Cacnea, and then says goodbye as the returns it. He then gives it to Gardenia and runs off crying, with Jessie and Meowth in hot pursuit.

The next day at the Pokémon Center the group say goodbye to Gardenia with Turtwig and Cacnea by her side while Team Rocket watch from the roof.

Major events

• The group encounter Gardenia again.
• Ash and Dawn have a Tag Battle with James and Gardenia and win.
• James's Cacnea begins to learn Drain Punch and he gives it to Gardenia 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
• Gardenia
• Children

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Aipom (Ash's)
• Chimchar (Ash's)
• Pachirisu (Dawn's)
• Croagunk (Brock's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's; given to Gardenia for training)
• Carnivine (James's)
• Turtwig (Gardenia's)

Trivia

• Professor Oak's Pokémon lecture: Weavile
  • Pokémon senryū: ながいつめ　ニューっとひっかく　マニューラよNagai tsume, nyū 'tto hikkaku, Manyūra yo.
• One of the boys calls Kojirō "Kosanji", which usually is used to refer to Kosaburō. In the dub, the boy calls James "Old man".
• The instrumental version of A Small Thing from Jirachi: Wish Maker and Team Rocket Forever are used as background music.
• Ash and Dawn narrate the next episode preview.
• Jessie breaks the fourth wall when she says to start up the season in style with the old get-up and go strategy. This is the second episode of the season.
• Dawn has her first battle with a Gym Leader.
• This is the second time Ash has rebattled a Gym Leader after winning their Badge. The first was against Wattson in Manectric Charge.
• This is one of the few episodes of the Diamond & Pearl series where Dawn's Piplup does not appear.
• Team Rocket doesn't blast off in this episode.
• When Gardenia is explaining Drain Punch to James, she mentions it is stronger than Needle Arm, which, at the time, was incorrect. Both Drain Punch and Needle Arm had the same base power of 60. After Generation V was introduced, however, the statement would then become true, as Drain Punch's base power was increased to 75, while Needle Arm's would remain the same.
  • If STAB is taken into account, this would still be incorrect as Needle Arm would have a base power of 90 when factored in.
• This is the final appearance of James's Cacnea

Errors

• Once again, the black part under Gardenia's mantle is invisible.
• After Cacnea is hit by multiple Focus Punches, Ash's Japanese voice can be heard.

Dub edits

• In the Latin American dub, James's Cacnea is referred to as female.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		菜種與沙漠奈亞！告別是為了誰！
Czech		Kdysi tu bývaly zelené louky
Danish		Engang var her bare marker...
Dutch		Zo groen als gras!
Finnish		Missä ruoho on vihreämpää
European French		Des plantes et des hommes !
German		Entscheidung des Herzens!
Hebrew		!גארדיניה וקקניאה! הפרידה
Italian		Addio, Cacnea!
Norwegian		En gang var det bare eng
Polish		Pożegnania nadszedł czas
Portuguese	Brazil	Era uma vez os campos verdejantes!
	Portugal	Verdes São os Campos! *
Russian		Молодо-зелено *
Spanish	Latin America	¡Qué verdes eran los pastos!
	Spain	¡Érase una vez unos campos verdes!
Swedish		En gång var här gröna fält

← DP053 : Tears For Fears!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP055 : Throwing the Track Switch →

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