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| Unfair-Weather Friends
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お天気研究所のポワルン！
Powalen of the Weather Research Center
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First broadcast
| Japan
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July 1, 2004
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| United States
|
June 18, 2005
|
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Unfair Weather Friends (Japanese: お天気研究所のポワルン！ Powalen of the Weather Research Center) is the 83rd episode of the Advanced Generation series, and the 357th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 1, 2004 and in the United States on June 18, 2005.
Synopsis
Ash and company are seen walking down a road. A sunny day turns to rain, then to thunder, and finally snow. The explanation? Castform, the Weather Pokémon. Castform begins to lead the group to safety when the weather turns sunny again. Castform's form changes with the weather.
They find a couple of researchers at an institute. Brock, as usual, goes into his pretty-girl-trance at the sight of the female scientist (who happens to have a Ditto), but something's wrong. Brock can't quite explain it, but he doesn't feel as gaga for this lady as he does for other ladies. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is snowed in, and appear to be enjoying themselves. Or at least Meowth is; Jessie and James blame the crazy weather patterns on Ash and company.
The researchers show Ash and the others their weather control machine. Team Rocket later find the machine and immediately make ill-fated plans to use it for nefarious ends. Team Aqua arrive on the scene soon afterwards, and in full force. Of course, they also want the machine. Team Rocket are clearly upset by the presence of Team Aqua and perform most of their motto before being clamped in restraints.
The researchers and Team Rocket are held captive together shortly. Oddly enough, the female scientist claims to have never heard of Team Rocket; perhaps this is because they're in Hoenn, and Team Rocket is Kanto-based. Jessie and James suck in their stomachs and the restraints loosen. Team Aqua begins powering up the weather control machine, but it appears as though they simply wanted data from the machine and not the machine itself. The data they're interested in relates to a local Legendary Pokémon.
Ditto runs off with the Pass Card for the data. Ash and company, watching all the action from the outside, vow to protect the machine from Team Aqua and Team Rocket. The Pass Card is intercepted by Ash and the others. Everyone but Ash and Pikachu flees, and Pikachu knocks out the Team Aqua grunts with a couple of lightning bolts. The plan is apparently to delete all the data from the main computer, which is now under guard by Team Aqua.
Ditto then copies Castform and lures the Aqua guards away. Ash links up with Ditto (disguised as Castform) and runs away. Team Aqua have apparently copied all the data to a disk and deleted it from the computer. While running out of the room, the Team Aqua guards run into Ash and Ditto (Castform). Ash is embarrassed that he never noticed a thing. After a quick fight inside, Ash and Ditto run outside to challenge the remaining Team Aqua members.
The weather control machine is brought out and a lightning bolt strikes Team Rocket instead of Ash and company. A demonstration of power, apparently. Fearing for the others, Millie (the female scientist) hands over the Pass Card. Unbeknown to the Team Aqua members, the data doesn't exist! Then Millie jumps to the top of the machine. Everyone looks at her, surprised. And we learn that Millie isn't really a woman after all. He's really Brodie, a member of Team Magma. This explains Brock's lack of a reaction to Brodie's disguised form earlier.
May gets involved in the battle, but Combusken doesn't have enough power to battle Brodie's Ditto. He escapes with the data and, for a change, the bad guys win this round. The real Millie then arrives on the scene, all ready for her first day at the institute. Brock does his patented pretty-girl-trance. As it turns out, the data isn't completely lost. It's in hard copy but it will take a long time to re-enter.
The episode closes with another scene of Team Rocket freezing in the snow.
Major events
Debuts
Humans
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Koffing
Trivia
- Full of Summer!! replaces Smile as the ending.
- This episode, much like Now That's Flower Power and Love, Petalburg Style!, was named similarly to a Johto episode in both the English dub and the Latin American Spanish, and Spanish Dub.
- This episode's title is based on the phrase "fair weather friends", which is also the basis for the similarly named Johto episode.
- This is the first time more than one transformation of two different kinds of Pokémon are seen: Castform transforming into its other forms, and Ditto transforming into a Castform. Also, Ditto is the first Pokémon to go into nested transformations (transforming into another form without going back to its original form).
- This is the first time that the Hoenn Pokédex is referred to as "Dextette" in the series in reference to it's female voice (the former male equivalent always being referred to as "Dexter").
Errors
- When Team Rocket is complaining to Team Aqua about being captured, Wobbuffet is nowhere to be seen.
- Right before Millie commands her Ditto to transform, Castform's lower body is the wrong shape.
Dub edits
In other languages
- Chinese: 天氣研究所的漂浮泡泡！
- Finnish: Sääsota
- French: L'art de faire la pluie et le beau temps
- German: Der Mann mit den 1000 Gesichtern
- Hebrew: משחקי מזג האויר miskhakei mezeg avir
- Italian: La macchina del meteo
- Portuguese (Brazilian): A Máquina que Controla o Tempo
- Spanish:
- Iberian Spanish: Amigos del mal tiempo
- Latin American Spanish: ¡Amigos del injutsto clima!
