The latest episode of Pokémon Sunday, Blast Evolution! Goukazaru!! / The PokéSun Members Predict Satoshi's Strongest Pokémon Team / A Pokémon Battle with the Strongest of Satoshi's Pokemon! (爆進化！　ゴウカザル！！ / ポケサンメンバーがサトシのポケモン最強チームを予想 ／ サトシのポケモン・最強メンバーでポケモンバトル！, aired today in Japan.

Shoko-tan announced this weeks rerun theme, a continuation of last weeks theme, 'Sinnoh League begins! The Rival Shinji' (シンオウリーグが開幕！ライバルのシンジ！). Blast Evolution! Goukazaru!! from Pocket Monsters Diamond&Pearl was this weeks repeat episode. In this episode, Satoshi and Shinji continue their rivalry but Jun decides to get into the mix as well.

To mark Satoshi's entrance into the Sinnoh League starting on July 1st with DP183 - Begin! The Sinnoh League Suzuran Tournament!! (開幕！ シンオウリーグ・スズラン大会!!), the PokéSun members each decide to predict which Pokémon Satoshi should use on his team. The narrator then explains which Pokémon Satoshi currently has and which Pokémon are currently residing at Okido's Laboratory.


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Professor Red is the first one to reveal his picks for Satoshi's Pokémon team. The first Pokémon he chooses is Satoshi's Pikachu. As a fan of baseball, Red explains that you want one of your best players up first when batting and he likens this to how Pikachu is one of Satoshi's best Pokémon. Continuing the baseball theme, Red's next pick is Satoshi's Cotoise. Red explains that since Pikachu would be at first base, you need someone that can 'bunt' to advance the runner. Satoshi's Cotoise he figures would be great in the second position. The third Pokémon, or batter as he refers to them, Red chose Satoshi's Osubame. By this time Pikachu would be at second base and now someone needs to help advance the runner. Red explains that Osubame has the will-power and guts (こんじょう) to be in that position. For the 4th position, Red chose Satoshi's Kabigon and for the 5th position he chose Satoshi's Donfan because that's where you'de normally want your 'heavy hitters' when playing baseball. Kabigon and Donfan fit the bill and are quite powerful and tough. Finally, the 6th and final Pokémon Red chose for Satoshi's team was Heigani.

Next up to explain his picks was Golgo. Golgo recalled that Satoshi's main rival in the tournament is Shinji and explained that his picks would be based on matching up Pokémon he used during their full battle. Golgo's picks were purely based on matching up types to give Satoshi's Pokémon the advantage. He paired up Shinji's Eleboo with Satoshi's Dodaitose, Shinji's Dodaitose with Satoshi's Onigohri, Shinji's Manyula with Satoshi's Goukazaru, Shinji's Ringuma with Satoshi's Heracros, Shinji's Donkarasu with Pikachu and finally Shinji's Booburn against Satoshi's Buoysel. While the match-ups were all good in theory, Baba questioned Golgo's logic a bit stating that those matchups might not actually occur in battle. He shows Golgo that Shinji's Booburn has a type advantage against Satoshi's Dodaitose if they got matched up. Golgo begins switching the matchups a bit but it becomes quite evident that his strategy for Pokémon selection needed some work. Golgo's solution to the type mismatches was to say the famous words that were used in the 12th movie to communicate with Arceus; Overcome the law of time and space! (超克せよ！時空の定めよ！). He then places Arceus on the board stating that it can change to any type it wishes which quickly gets objections from everyone as Satoshi doesn't have an Arceus to use in the league.

Shoko-tan is the next person to reveal their picks. She suggests that Satoshi needs a "Dream Team" to use at the Sinnoh League in order to win. (サトシのシンオウリーグにも夢のあるドリームチームが結成されちゃうと思うんですよ！). Her first pick was Satoshi's Glion and she explains that it has gone to do some training after loosing to Hassam. Her next pick is Satoshi's Lizardon who also has been busy getting stronger by training as well. Her third pick was Satoshi's Zenigame because it's a Water type and that its a great leader. 4th, she chose Satoshi's Okorizaru and explains that its already the D-1 World Grand Prix (Ｄ－１グランプリのチャンピオン) Fighting Pokémon Champion which is reason enough to pick that strong Pokémon. Her final two choices were Satoshi's Butterfree and Satoshi's Laplace. Yamamoto question's Shoko's last two choices because Laplace and Butterfree were set free and are now wild Pokémon once again.

Robert are the last to reveal their Pokémon picks. First, they chose Pikachu because as they pointed out it has a special hidden talent. It's face it made of rubber and it can change its shape to confuse its competitors. The second Pokémon they chose was Satoshi's Fukamaru because it proven itself to be a strong Pokémon against Rocket Gang by eating their mecha and it will perfect Draco Meteor. 3rd, they chose Satoshi's Betbeton because its a strong Pokémon and no one can stand the smell of it. 4th, Satoshi's Bayleaf, 5th, Satoshi's Kingler and finally Barri-chan.

Using the Pokémon that they selected for Satoshi's team, Shoko-tan and Professor Red have a Pokémon Battle Revolution battle to see who's team would win. It became quite evident that between Shoko's Pokémon selection and battling skills that her "Dream Team" was vastly superior. She was able to beat Professor Red pretty quickly.

Near the end of the show, it was announced that Pokémon Black and White will be released in Japan on September 18th, 2010.


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Characters and Pictures from this episode have been added to the episode guide. You can also comment and discuss this episode on the forum. Also be sure to rate this and other episodes in the episode guide.

Oha Suta (おはスタ) - June 28th, 2010

As announced on Pokémon Sunday 297, the Japanese variety show Oha Suta (おはスタ) has revealed new information for the upcoming games. Ononox (オノノクス), Deathkarn (デスカーン), Dentula (デンチュラ), Doryuzu (ドリュウズ) and Moguryu (モグリュー) were all revealed during a brief clip. It was also announced that three-on-three battles will be included in Pokémon Black and White.


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Two new attacks were also revealed: Drill Liner (ドリルライナー) and Grass Mixer (グラスミキサー). A new battle menu option called Shooter (シューター) has been added but it is currently unknown what it does.


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More pictures from the Oha Suta trailer are available on the Imageboard thread.