New episode title(s) has/have been added to the database. Title: フキヨセジムのエアバトル！挑戦者デント！？/Fukiyose Gym no Air Battle! Chōsensha Dent!?. Please comment below! Thanks, your friendly PM.Net AnimeBot

This episode was pretty enjoyable. I didn't really understand why the simulated battles were called "air battles" though.
I can see how Dent and Satoshi would oppose the style of the "battles" which occurred at the gym, although I also understand why Fuuro didn't want to participate in real Pokémon battles. It was weird how nobody seemed to have sympathy for her wanting to fly, even though she is a gym leader.
I felt really sorry for Dent watching him lose in spite of the fact that he was so enthusiatic about his point of view. He really seemed to have tried his best. Maybe if he had a fourth Pokémon and hadn't used Yanappu.
The animation for being burned looked really cool, and it was a shame that Thunderbolt didn't just take out the Swanna at the beginning. It was rather ridiculous that both times attacks collided in midair, the Flying-type would just fly out of the smoke while Dent's Pokémon would be fainted.
I hope Satoshi is able to defeat Fuuro. I look forward to seeing the obstacle courses shown in the preview.

Somewhat disappointing episode is somewhat disappointing. Not just because they actually made a fool of Dent, but more because they made it look like all Dent tried to do was for nothing. I really enjoy watching Dent do some battles, especially against another Gym Leader, so how the episode concluded really left as a rather bitter aftertaste for me...

Other than that, the fight was pretty cool, though I was quite surprised at how it actually turned out. You would expect someone who hadn't had a single battle in a rather long time, even a Gym Leader, wouldn't be that good... It was still rather enjoyable battle, and I hope we'll get to see Dent challenge other Gym Leaders in the future.



Well, she doesn't quite deserve much sympathy, even if I understand her desires. The thing is, she's a Gym Leader, so she has a great deal of responsibilities to assume.
The problem was not so much that she neglected her duties as Gym Leader to go fly in her plane, but rather than she gave badges without even doing a single battle, without checking whether the challenger actually deservers the badge. She was really being irresponsible by doing that, since:

1) challengers would believe they deserved that badge, while they really don't. Many of them will get a really harsh surprise at the next 'normal' Gym they go to...
2) it could be considered as fraud, as the badges are probably required to enter the Isshu League.

The thing is, you wouldn't allow someone to drive a car just because they've learned the rules of the road. They need to actually learn how to drive a car first. It's more or less the same story with this Gym.
If you've come to the point you're neglecting your duties as Gym Leader and you're just giving away badges for 'free', it's high time you actually contemplate quitting... (Yeah, I know I'm definitely taking this way too seriously, don't take this personally Takeshi ;))

But thankfully it never came to that, Furo finally came to its senses in the following episode. Guess she's found a way to deal with both her desire to go flying and her Gym Leader duties.

Personally I liked how Furo, contrary to most of the Gym Leaders, didn't battle the traditional way when Satoshi and the others arrived in her city. It's true that type advantages should influence quite a bit the outcomes of the battle, so it'd make sense that she used those "air battles" to save time for her flights on the plane. I could also understand Satoshi and Dent's feelings for this, since they never saw such quick and short "battles". I felt sympathy for both of the sides, actually.
I also liked the realism (at least for this series) of when someone (in this case, Dent), "tries to teach a lesson", and is the one to get defeated. Oh his priceless face after he lost :D

I may be in a minority here, but I think that the Gym Leaders should have some free time even with their job, in order not to get burned out by the constant battles and relax a bit. But then again, since she was a strong Gym Leader, it'd be no surprise that so many wanted to challenge her, that's why she developed that method (however insulting it is to the trainers' intelligence). What's a bit sad is that this issue isn't really addressed in the next episode...