DP102

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Diamond & Pearl series

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Shield with a Twist!

DP102

EP568

ヨスガジム戦！ＶＳメリッサ！！
Yosuga Gym Match! VS Melissa!!

First broadcast

Japan	November 13, 2008
United States	April 18, 2009

English themes

Opening	We Will Be Heroes
Ending

Japanese themes

Opening	ハイタッチ！
Ending	あしたはきっと

Credits

Additional credits
Animation	Team Iguchi
Screenplay	冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard	浅田裕二 Yūji Asada
Assistant director	浅田裕二 Yūji Asada
Animation director	岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane

Screenshots on Filb.de

Shield with a Twist! (Japanese: ヨスガジム戦！ＶＳメリッサ！！ Yosuga Gym Match! VS Melissa!!) is the 102nd episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 568th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on November 13, 2008, in the UK on April 16, 2009 and in the United States on April 18, 2009.

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

Synopsis

The episode starts with an image of a Drifblim shaped balloon and pans out onto the Hearthome Gym, it then cuts to a bird’s eye view of the battlefield inside. Ash stands with Pikachu on the right side of the screen. The well dressed referee introduces the battlers. The doors opposing Ash open and reveal Fantina surrounded by white light, she spins on one foot, announcing her excitement for her rematch with Ash and putting her foot down right on her side of the field and lets out a small chuckle. Ash gladly shouts across the room to her and tells her she will not beat him this time, clenches his fist and exclaims he’ll have his fifth badge soon. Fantina chuckles again and exclaims she’ll not give up the Relic Badge easily. The narrator introduces the episode and it cuts to the title sequence.

The screen tracks downwards over a huge lake and a small town called Majolica Town. James excitedly points out that a contest will be held today. He, TRMeowth ([[{{{2}}} (move)|{{{2}}}]]) and Wobbuffet stair at the poster of Marian contemplating a scheme. Jessie, dressed as Jessilina, stand upright with her Yanmega beside her cockily names herself top coordinator and they rush of to get her second ribbon leaving James, Meowth and Wobbuffet behind.

Back at the gym, Ash calls to Barry, who is sitting in the stands with Dawn and Brock telling him to “watch and learn”, Barry replies that he “already knows what a loser” he is. The referee announces the rules and exclaims that the match will be 3 on 3. Fantina calls upon her Gengar which floats above the battle field, genteelly bobbing up and down in mid air. Dawn scans it with her Pokédex and Ash calls out his Buizel; anticipating Hypnosis, the move Fantina used to defeat his three Pokémon in their rematch. Dawn and Piplup cheer Buizel on and Ash encourages his, mentioning the special training he and his Pokémon had done. Unable to contain her excitement, Fantina prepares to start. Gengar squares up to Buizel and the referee begins the match.

Ash commands Buizel to use Aqua Jet which Gengar doges with amazing speed, Barry jumps up and says he had to deal with the same moves and Brock worries about the ability Levitate that most Template:Type2 Pokémon have. Fantina boasts about her Pokémon’s movements and tests Ash’s skills, asking how he’ll handle it. Ash orders SonicBoom which misses Gengar and hits the gym wall. Fantina cockily suggests there is not much of a battle to see and flamboyantly spins and calls out, calling her Pokémon “Gengar the Great”. Gengar intimately circles Buizel with incredible speed and shoots upwards. Fantina called her attack and Gengar swooped down and used Shadow Punch. Buizel attempted to doge the attack but as Fantina pointed out to Dawn, Shadow Punch always hits its target. Fantina tells Gengar to use Hypnosis which Ash excitedly replies by telling Buizel to spin on its back and use Water Gun, forming whips of water, flying in all direction and destroying the Hypnosis and trapping Gengar. Dawn cheers far Ash and Buizel as Barry is impressed to see this new move. Fantina calls out to Gengar, telling it to stay still or it will be damaged by the water whips. Brock and Dawn joyously note the qualities of Buizel’s move and Barry suggests to Ash he should keep that strategy up. Gengar lands on the ground opposing Buizel and Fantina complements Ash’s technique, naming it the Counter Shield, which Ash then agrees with her that that is its name. Fantina orders Night Shade and Ash tells Buizel to counter with Water Pulse, both Pokémon are hit but only Buizel is able to get up. The referee calls out Buizel to be the victor and Ash recalls it. Barry is angered by how easily Ash won the first round, exclaiming he was unable to beat one of Fantina’s Pokémon. Fantina calls back Gengar and compliments Ash, much to Barry’s disgust as he had received no compliments in his battle with Fantina.

Meanwhile, at the contest, Marian is complimenting all the Pokémon who have preformed and then she introduces the next coordinator, Jessilina. Jessilina walks on stage blowing kisses to all the audience while James, Meowth, Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. cheer for her. She releases Yanmega from its ball along with a bunch of hearts created by the seal on her Ball Capsule. Yanmega starts with Silver Wind which blows Jessilina’s ribbons out of her hair so that it waved beautifully in the wind, making the audience fall in love with Jessilina and Yanmega's beauty. James and Meowth complement her to themselves as she sings for all to hear.

Back at the gym, Ash vows to make quick work of Fantina’s other two Pokémon. Fantina calls upon Mismagius and tells Ash that it can’t learn Hypnosis, this surprises Dawn and Barry, Barry thinks that Fantina is putting herself at a disadvantage but Brock tells him it is common for gym leaders to share their techniques because their goal is to test the challenger. Ash reminisces the time Mismagius battled Zoey, so he could be prepared for the attacks it knew. Knowing he’d have to deal with the Template:Type2 Magical Leaf as well, he sends out his Template:Type2, Chimchar . They start with Flame Wheel, which Mismagius doges with speed like Gengar’s, but Chimchar turns around and jumps towards Mismagius still using Flame Wheel, much to Fantina and Barry’s surprise. Fantina orders Psywave which stops the Flame Wheel and sends Chimchar plummeting to the ground, while Brock and Dawn heed the power of Template:Type2 moves. Ash tells Chimchar to spin and use Flamethrower which makes a fire Counter Shield. Mismagius tries deflecting it with Psywave but gets hit regardless; Fantina then tries Magical Leaf which is also deflected by the Counter Shield, but not before stopping Chimchar’s Flamethrower. Fantina then exclaims she had learned everything about the Counter Shield when he used it before. Ash tells Chimchar to use Flame Wheel again and Mismagius uses Dark Pulse, but Chimchar counters with a Counter Shield while still using Flame Wheel. Mismagius destroys the Counter Shield with Psywave, but is then hit hard by Flame Wheel. Mismagius is announced unable to battle and Chimchar celebrates with Ash, Barry then comments on how much happier it seemed with Ash then it was with Paul.

Back at the contest, Mr. Contesta presents Jessilina her second ribbon. Her teammates in the audience are overjoyed to see her win the Majolica ribbon.

Straight back to the gym battle, Fantina calls upon the Pokémon that beat Pikachu, Buizel and Chimchar in her last battle with Ash, her Drifblim. Fantina warns Ash Drifblim is stronger and more beautiful than ever before and he sends Pikachu into battle. They start with a Thunderbolt Counter Shield that directly hits Drifblim and paralysis it, but Drifblim blows the electricity away with Psychic and Fantina reminds Ash that “all good things must come to an end”, suggesting the Counter Shield has out grown its use. Drifblim then conjures up a Will-O-Wisp and Fantina tells it to use Psychic to control the Will-O-Wisp. Drifblim span the ghostly blue fire around itself, making its own Counter Shield. Pikachu tried knocking it away with Thunderbolt but Drifblim’s counter shield, which Fantina called a “Counter Counter Shield”, was to powerful. Fantina then went on to explain her Counter Shield’s superiority and that it will last much longer. Drifblim throws the Counter Shield at Pikachu, it surrounds him and Drifblim grabs him by the cheeks and uses Hypnosis, putting Pikachu to sleep, Drifblim finally blows him away with Ominous Wind rendering him unable to battle.

Hoping to deflect Will-O-Wisp, Ash sends out Buizel again. Ash orders a spinning Aqua Jet which destroys the Counter Shield that Drifblim had threw at it and hit Drifblim hard. Fantina quickly catches on to Ash’s strategy and orders an Ominous Wind attack which destroys the Aqua Jet. Buizel lands on the ground and is told to use Water Pulse, which gets countered by a Will-O-Wisp attack. Once the blinding light had cleared, Drifblim grabbed Buizel by the cheeks, used Hypnosis and smashed him to the ground with Psychic, leaving Ash with only one Pokémon.

Chimchar is sent out again for the final battle. Drifblim instantly makes starts making Will-O-Wisp, while Chimchar uses Flame Wheel; Drifblim hits Chimchar with the Will-O-Wisp and stops the Flame Wheel. The match of Fire-type moves gives Ash an idea, he orders Chimchar to use Flamethrower, which collides with Drifblim’s Counter Shield; absorbs it, turns the Flamethrower purple and hits Drifblim with the power of Flamethrower and its own Will-O-Wisp attack. Chimchar then doges an Ominous Wind with Dig, comes up behind it, grabs it and smacks it to the floor. Drifblim then turns around to use Hypnosis, but Chimchar is too quick and uses a close-range Flamethrower which knocks it out. Much to Barry’s surprise, Ash had won the match. Fantina picked up her Drifblim and gave it high praise.

Outside, Fantina congratulates Ash and his Pokémon and awards him the Relic badge.

On the balcony of the Pokémon Center, later that night, Ash asks what Barry will do next. He replies that he’ll go train on Iron Island as he trained their before and was able to win a badge from the Canalave Gym. Dawn pointed Iron Island out on the map and Ash decided to go to Canalave City for his next gym battle, suggesting they should all go together. Barry says if Ash wins there he’ll start thinking of him as a real rival. The narrator then closes the episode.

Major events

Jessie wins her second Contest ribbon with her Yanmega.
Ash has an official Gym battle against Fantina and wins, earning his fifth gym badge, the Relic Badge.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Ash
Dawn
Brock
Jessie
James
Fantina
Barry
Zoey (flashback)
Marian
Contesta
Sukizo
Nurse Joy
Gym referee
Audience

Pokémon

Trivia

The English version of this episode first aired in the UK on April 16, 2009 along with Jumping Rocket Ship!.
As of this episode, every member of Ash's Sinnoh team, other than Gliscor, has been used in at least two gym battles, and Grotle, Pikachu, and Buizel have been used in three. This also includes Aipom, who is no longer a member of Ash's team.
Music from Pokémon Heroes is used as background music.
This is the first episode where a Pokémon Contest and a Gym Battle are depicted in the same episode.
Jessie is not seen in her standard Team Rocket uniform throughout this episode, instead remaining in her Jessilina disguise for the Majolica Contest.
- This episode is one of the few where Jessie's hair is seen down.
An earlier episode has a similar title to this one.
The Contest featured in this episode is the only one in which none of Ash's friends participate in while Jessie does.
This Gym battle is similar to Ash's Gym battle with Morty in From Ghost to Ghost.
- Both were Gyms that specialize in Template:Type2 Pokémon.
- Ash and the Gym Leader had a 3-on-3 battle.
- Ash used the region's Template:Type2 starter Pokémon.
- Pikachu was used, and it did not win a single match.
- Both gym leaders had a Gengar, which did not defeat any of Ash's Pokémon.
- Ash used the same Pokémon to defeat the previous Gym Leader's Pokémon, and used it again to defeat the leader's main Pokémon.

Errors

Drifblim is a dual Ghost/Flying type. Dig is a Ground-type move. Dig should have not been able to hurt Drifblim.
Ash tells Chimchar to continue using Flamethrower in one scene, however, Chimchar is using Flame Wheel.

Dub edits

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		緣之道館賽！VS梅麗莎！！
Czech		Nelehký zápas
Dutch		Iets In Z'n Schild Voeren! *
Finnish		Hyökkäys on paras puolustus!
European French		Un bouclier à l'épreuve des flammes!
German		Drei gegen drei!
Italian		Il controscudo!
Korean		연고체육관 시합! 지우 VS 멜리사
Polish		Z tarczą czy na tarczy?
Portuguese	Brazil	O Escudo!
Portuguese	Portugal	A Melhor Defesa É o Ataque!
Latin American Spanish		¡Protegidos con un Escudo!