ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
549: Arriving in Style!	554: Yosuga Korekushon! Pokémon Sutairisuto e no Michi!	Bitter Prune vs Successful Youth			Dawn takes part in a fashion show and a bitter old woman destroys a young, talented rival	One half fashion genius, one half fashion disaster	The fashion industry is a massive hypocritical quagmire

Today finds the twerps in.... HEARTHOME CITY! Holy shit! They're back already! It didn't take 25 episodes and Ash wants his Gym Battle NOW! Goddamn yes, they're....



But it's fucking CLOSED! Ash can't believe the Gym is closed again and Dawn can't figure it out either. But as Brock tries to figure it out, a limo pulls up and a cute young lady steps out with an elegant Lopunny, both of which capture the romance filled eyes of Dawn and Brock.

I'll leave you to figure out who and what for, Gentle Dodgers.

The girl has recognised Ash, who won the Hearthome Tag Battle, and tells him the Gym Leader Fantina is away on a training mission to develop a whole new battling style. Brock rushes in to tell her he made it into the top four, and Croagunk slides into view, jab at the ready to check Brock's prostate.... until the lady cluelessly asks if he was in the contest "too" and all Brock's romantic dreams fade, much to Croagunk's creepy delight.

Dawn is still drooling; she can't believe it's really HER! Ash, clueless of course, asks just who HER is, and discovers she's Paris, a world famous stylist! Oh Lord, a rich chick called Paris with a pretty animal in tow - the social commentary is devastating.

Ash still doesn't know what a stylist is (despite meeting several in his time), so Dawn shows off a magazine with Paris on the cover. Ash remains in the dark, while Buneary rushes up to inspect Lopunny, Paris checks Buneary out and Dawn introduces herself while Croagunk just STARES at a devastated, ignored Brock crouching alone in the corner.

Spotting that Dawn is a coordinator, she asks if Dawn would like to sign up for the "Hearthome Collection". It is a Pokémon fashion show open to the general public that lets little girls dress up their Pokémon with their own designs.

If Dawn was developed enough to have an orgasm, she'd be having one right now.

Paris asks Ash to take part with Pikachu as well, and as he continues to look cluelessly on, hidden away in a darkened canvas tent we find Team Rocket observing it all on a closed circuit television. James is sitting, Meowth is standing, and for absolutely no reason Jesse is on all fours with special attention being made to draw the curve of her buttocks under the thin sheet of material clinging lovingly to her curves.

Well okay maybe there is A reason.

Jesse is disgusted in Paris, who does she think she is? Leaping up and spreading her thighs, she declares that she could defeat Paris with only a fraction of the fashion accessories that James could "provide" for her. Hahaha, oh James.

She might be insane, but are you going to argue with those spread thighs?

Surprisingly, James is all for it, exposing nipples and painting his face as he declares he's up to the challenge of easily locating a bunch of fiddly fashion accessories.

Elsewhere the twerps are signing up at the local Poke Centre, when the cooing of fangirls catches their attention. They're mooning over a cackling blond bitch called Koko (LADY Koko!) with a posse of icequeen's behind her. Dawn doesn't know who she is, so a little girl tells her she's some super rich celebrity who can afford to buy all the best fashion designers in the world. Koko is here because she heard Paris would be here, and she means to take this "local" contest global. Buneary steps up to touch her dress and Koko snaps at it not to fondle her with filthy paws (Brock wasn't anywhere near her!), then laughs at Dawn for thinking of competing with "just" a Buneary.

Well this just pisses off Edna Mode!

Wait... what the fuck is Edna Mode doing there?

Edna growls that Koko's sense of fashion is gaudy, though she has plenty of Poke Stylist Secrets up her sleeve. Dawn asks if she could learn just one of her secrets but Edna grumpily tells her that is for her to know and Dawn to find out. As she walks away, she asks if Dawn has even been in a Pokémon Contest, then mutters that Coordinators and PokeStylists are all the same.

Was that... was that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?

Later that night, Dawn is sitting outside going over designs, while Ash has apparently shit out something retarded and gotten Brock to sew it up for him, giving Brock something to be doing while the girls don't call. Brock offers Dawn assistance and then she hears Ash waffling on about Pikachu's costume back inside, and Dawn finally realises just what Edna was saying all along. Stylists and Coordinators ARE all the same! She picks up her pencil and starts sketching again.

The next day, the Mayor - Enta - is acting as their MC, pretty much guaranteeing his re-election, and introduces the judges, including Paris and Edna herself, only her name is Madam Hermione!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Who's the next judge? A huge New Yorker made out of orange brick whose name is Draco Snape?

Oh, there are only two judges. That's odd, if there were only going to be two, you would think it was because Hermione dies.

The show starts with a girl dressed as a Bellossom with a... Bellossom. Yeah. Then a Magikarp and a guy with a necklace, and all kinds of lame ass shit that gets worse and worse until it reaches critical mass.



Oh my gentle Jesus.

Hermione blames Ron and Harry for this mes.... Hermione blames Paris for this mess, saying her success has made too many people focus on gaudy accessories and hotel sex videos. Mayor Enta introduces Entry 18, which is Ash and Pikachu, and they emerge from behind the thundering clouds and.... I.... what the.... this isn't... no.... oh my God..... oh my God.

The crowd just stares agape, even James thinks this is the most homosexual thing he has ever seen, and that's BEFORE Pikachu starts beating a drum on its back with its own tail. Ash tells Pikachu not to be embarrassed though, they're the stars, and they perform a pretty light show using Thunder, sending arcs of electricity up over the stage and leaving sprinkles of light to fall through the air. The crowd isn't laughing anymore, Paris is pleased, and Hermione manages to find a friendly (and familiar word), declaring that this wasn't bad, even though it's obvious he "doesn't quite get it."

Oh Ash.

Brock settles down beside James not recognising him, and when he hears James reluctantly praising the costume design, he thanks him and tells him he worked all night on them. James is taken aback, but when he realises that "the tall twerp" doesn't know who he is he relaxes and compliments him again, while Brock just kind of sits there staring at him in what is a very awkward scene you can't help but feel isn't going to end with a very uncomfortable make-out session.

Backstage, Jesse is determined that her outfit needs to be more "showy", and that's just what we get. As James brags to Brock that coming out next is the apex of his designing career, the camera opens, and James discovers what horrors Jesse has wrought.



Oh surely it can't be THAT bad? Can it?



Oh.

James declares his finest work has been reduced to subway graffiti and that Jesse and Wobbuffet look like they kissed a make-up truck, Brock adding that the truck was going fast. But Brock assures him that underneath the garish makeup, the accessories themselves are perfectly designed to bring out Wobbuffet's inner beauty. A snivelling, sobbing James jumps on Brock, but it's merely to cry and thank him for his sensitivity than the make-out we were expecting. Brock is totally coming on to him though, he just doesn't realise it because he's so terrible as come-ons that when he finally gets one right, it's unconscious and to a dude.

And then it is Koko's turn.

She emerges with a Mismagius, which floats into the air and grows creeping tendrils of white and then lights them up with Psi-Wave. The crowd is enraptured, Paris loves it, but Hermione seems less than impressed and James is outright livid, proclaiming the tawdry display an insult to the designer community. Brock thinks it won't be easy for Dawn to follow, especially with Ash in a loincloth hanging out behind her.

All Dawn's fears seem to disappear when she is called out though, and her and Buneary step out in plain white dresses with a blue necklace. She tells Buneary to imagine it on a snowy white mountain and play, using Ice Beam to create flows of ice to dance about in because BUNEARY is the star of the show, not the fashion.

Not much of a fashion show then is it.

James and Brock hold hands (snicker) and the crowd cheers (for Dawn, not James and Brock "finding" each other), and shortly after the top three picks are named - Ash, Koko and Dawn! Jesse is horrified, none of those are how you say her name!

The three finalists will be awarded Winner, First and Second Runner Up, but Koko is arrogantly confident that the others are only there to make her look good. James could care less though, stomping angrily through the corridors backstage declaring furiously that he's going to skewer Jesse.

She's been wanting you to do that for YEARS!

But when he spots her coming the other way with Meowth, he remembers that she's his Bitch Goddess Queen, and it looks like she intends pegging him! They argue over whose blame it is, but her giant head soon puts him in his place, including a lame attempt to point out as she stomps away that it really IS her fault.

Like a malevolent God, Jesse turns her attention and favour (and potential rage) to Meowth, saying that now she's out of the contest, it's time for revenge! And Meowth's her man! Well... cat.

Just as Mayor Enta is about to announce the awards, the roof to the stadium opens (bit of luck that!) and Team Rocket hover in on a bizarre purple blonde haired robot butterfly.... thing.

"You know you could use a little make-up too!"
"Please, a pompous platitude coming from you," mumbles James quietly.
"On the wind!"
"What's the point," sighs James.
"Yoohoo!" screams Meowth, making up for James lack of enthusiasm with a double dish of his own.
"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!"
"Wow I'm so excited, can you tell by my face," deadpans a thoroughly unimpressed James.
"A rose by any other name's just as red."
"I knew that I should have stayed in home in bed."
"Mmmmmmmm, Jesse!" kisses Jesse.
"James... poor me!"
"It's Meowth, to a T!"
"Putting the do-gooders in their place!"
"Goody," sighs James,"Team Rocket!"
"In your face!" finish Jesse and Meowth together.

Hermione is furious, demanding they take themselves, their robot and their terrible puns out of there! Team Rocket send out metallic claws to grab all of Koko's accessories, but Buneary slaps ONE of the claws away and the others just kind of hang around doing nothing. Piplup tries to headbutt one away and succeeds only in getting a headache and shaken around by the paw until Lopunny uses Hidden Power to stagger the Purple-Bot, then Lopunny and Buneary both bounce and send it flying backwards and exploding, sending Team Rocket blasting off - Jesse furious, Meowth miserable and James just resigned to it all.... he even calls Jesse a big wiener!

The contest starts up again, and Ash is awarded the "Special" Uniqueness Prize.... which is really just a Certificate of Participation that they give to all the lame kids. He's happy though, like a dumb dog with a stick, while Koko is supremely confident that she will be the big winner. And it's announced, the winner is... DAWN! Because if there's anything more likely to win a fashion show than garish accessories and pomposity, it's putting on a simple white dress and pretending you're "expressing inner beauty".

Inner beauty. At a fucking fashion show!

Buneary doesn't care though, all it knows is that it won, and it means to celebrate!



Sorry Piplup, you're not invited to this party.

Koko throws a temper tantrum, but Hermione insists that the Accessory Award is perfect for her since she only showed off her accessories, not her Pokémon....

HANG ON A FUCKING SECOND! SHE DID SHOW OFF HER FUCKING MISMAGIUS! THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF HER PRESENTATION! PARIS EVEN FUCKING TELLS DAWN THAT SHE MADE GREAT USE OF HER ACCESSORIES!

But that's not important, this is a "message" episode, so all that matters is having the arrogant rich bitch hoisted by her own petard. She's just lucky she didn't end up windmilling her arms wildly and falling into a small amount of water.

Dawn and Buneary are presented with their tiaras while Ash hugs his "uniqueness" award, and Dawn tells Hermione she still has a lot of work to do for Pokémon Contests. But now she's a bit more confident, because she's got a goddamn tiara! Fuck yes!

So the episode ends with a bitter dried up on prune of a fashion editor giving out the awards to a novice stylist purely because of a pretentious "less is more" attitude and to get back at a pretty girl who has been very successful despite not going along with her own rigid and fixed ideas of what is "correct".

So this was pretty much a picture perfect representation of the fashion industry!

BEST QUOTES

"Are we EVER going to get a Gym Battle here?" "Dawn? That's me!" "With your make-up you were the big wiener."

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