These donuts are great! This article is about an episode of the Pokémon anime that has not been dubbed into English. As such, its coverage may contain romanized Japanese names, rather than dub names.
BW032
Best Wishes series
BW034
BW033
BW033.png
BW033   EP690
ドラゴンバスター登場!アイリスとドリュウズ!!
The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!
First broadcast
Japan May 26, 2011
United States
English themes
Opening Black and White
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening ベストウイッシュ!
Ending ポケモン言えるかな?BW
Credits
Animation Team Kato
Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard 古賀一臣 Kazuomi Koga
Assistant director 古賀一臣 Kazuomi Koga
Animation director 夏目久仁彦 Kunihiko Natsume
No additional credits are available at this time.

(Japanese: ドラゴンバスター登場!アイリスとドリュウズ!! The Dragon Buster Appears! Iris and Doryuzu!!) is the 33rd episode of the Best Wishes series, and the 690th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on May 26, 2011.

201
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
201

Synopsis

Ash, Iris, and Cilan are walking down a road when they are stopped by a girl who claims to be the Dragon Buster, Langley, and wants to battle Iris after finding out that she is a Template:Type2 Trainer. The battle begins with Langley sending out her Beartic. After Ash gets his Pokédex information, the battle begins with Axew. He goes in for a Scratch Attack, but is quickly hit by Beartic's Slash. Beartic unleashes Icicle Crash, and Axew dodges all but one of them. The two counter each other with an Ice Beam and a Dragon Rage, but Beartic proves to be stronger and knocks Axew out. Langley demands that Iris sends out another Template:Type2 Pokémon, but Cilan informs Langley that Axew is her only Dragon-type Pokémon, causing Langley to insult Iris. This hits a nerve and Iris then sends out Excadrill, who, as usual, is in his drill-mode position. After getting knocked into a tree by Beartic's Slash, it gets up and gets ready to fight. Iris commands a Mud-Slap, but it uses Metal Claw instead, battling for itself, and not for Iris. Beartic uses Icicle Crash, and Excadrill knocks all of them out of the way. He dodges an Ice Beam by using Dig, which lands a direct hit. Excadrill uses Drill Run, but is knocked away by Beartic's Rock Smash, effectively ending the match. After making fun of Iris, Langley walks away.

Ash and Cilan ask if she's alright, but Iris is only worried about her Excadrill, saying she caught it as a Drilbur by her Dragon Village. We see a flashback sequence, with young Iris playing with a Deerling, Pidove, Patrat, Minccino, Sandile, Pansear, and Panpour. Deerling comes running with an injured Patrat on its back, and Iris follows to where it got hurt. She finds a Drilbur who has been stealing their berries, and is determined to catch it. But, every time she swings from a vine to kick it, she is hit by Drilbur's Metal Claw, and is dragged away by Deerling. One lucky time, she counters Metal Claw, and sends Drilbur flying into some vines, and gets tangled in some hanging right over a ledge. They break, and it falls, but is caught by Iris swinging on by. Thankful for its life, it agrees to go with her, and together they defeat many opponents, including Fraxure, Sandile, Watchog, and Darumaka. At some battle festival in her Dragon Village, it is up against a Druddigon, and isn't doing great against it. In the midst of the battle, it evolves into Excadrill, and defeats it with a Drill Run. Happy for their victory, they do a little dance. They are then introduced to the Dragon Master Drayden. Iris challenges him to a battle. He sends out his Haxorus, and she sends out Excadrill. His Metal Claw attacks seem to have no effect, and is whipped away by Haxorus's Reversal. Iris commands Dig, which also does nothing. Excadrill is surprised by this. When he performs a Drill Run, Drayden counters it with Rock Smash, and Excadrill faints. After this, Excadrill always curled up, never listening to Iris for many years. When Iris mentions the battle, it closes its eyes in agony.

Back in the real world, Cilan explains that it probably doesn't listen to her because since it was undefeated, after that one loss, it was ashamed of itself. Later that night, Iris is sleeping with Excadrill, still curled up. She mentions what Cilan said, and that she isn't disappointed in him at all, which causes Excadrill to cry under its armor. Later, it gets up and walks away from Iris, who wakes up and sees this. She finds it training in the forest, trying to learn Focus Blast, but it loses its sphere shape and turns into a blob, which explodes in its hands before it can release it. Iris volunteers to train with it, and it takes until sunrise to full master the move. As they are celebrating, Ash and Cilan find her, telling her it's breakfast time. They are surprised to find that Langley is at their breakfast table, and has eaten their food. They decide to have another battle again, Beartic versus Excadrill. They counter each other with Metal Claw and Slash, but Beartic proves to be stronger, knocking it away. Beartic uses Icicle Crash, and Excadrill dodges with Dig. Dig lands, and Excadrill releases its new Focus Blast, which hits Beartic down. It uses Drill Run, which also lands, but it uses Ice Beam while being hit. Excadrill falls, frozen in a block of ice. It breaks free to Iris's command. Beartic uses Icicle Crash, and Excadrill knocks some of them away with Focus Blast, but is still hit. Iris still has faith in him, and he regains strength to fight for Iris. Beartic uses Rock Smash, which Excadrill counters with Drill Run. Excadrill falls, fainted, but at the same time, Beartic faints, resulting in a tie. Langley insists that she is still the Dragon Buster, then she walks away. Even though Iris and Excadrill lost, they are still happy, and Iris says that they'll become stronger together. Having regained their friendship, Ash and co. all head to the Nimbasa City gym.

Major events

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Trivia

  • Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster: Basculin
    • The Live Caster for this episode features clips from BW037, which was originally the 26th episode of the Best Wishes series but was delayed until after this episode's first broadcast, and the clips shown were seen for the first time in this segment, almost a month before the episode eventually aired.

Errors

Dub edits

  This anime-related article is a stub. You can help Bulbapedia by expanding it.
BW035
Best Wishes series
BW037
  This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.