DP189 : The Semi-Final Frontier!
Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl
DP191 : Memories are Made of Bliss!
The Brockster Is In!
DP190.png
DP190   EP656
ポケモンドクター・タケシ!
Pokémon Doctor - Takeshi!
First broadcast
Japan September 2, 2010
United States January 29, 2011
English themes
Opening We Will Carry On!
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening 「サイコー・エブリディ!」(BAND VERSION)
Ending 君の胸にLaLaLa
Credits
Animation Team Kato
Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard まついひとゆき Hitoyuki Matsui
Assistant director すがやゆりこ Yuriko Sugaya
Animation director 武内啓 Akira Takeuchi
No additional credits are available at this time.

The Brockster Is In! (Japanese: ポケモンドクター・タケシ! Pokémon Doctor - Takeshi!) is the 190th episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, and the 656th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on September 2, 2010, and in the United States on January 29, 2011.

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

Blurb

On the ferry ride to Twinleaf Town, our heroes discuss their plans for the future. Realizing that they will soon be going their separate ways, Dawn invites them over to her house first, and everyone happily agrees. Also on the way, the group meets a Pokémon Nursery teacher trainee named Normajean, who is taking care of a group of young, cute Pokémon.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is hot on the trail of our heroes, following the ferry in their submarine. But they get off course when James spies his kind of treasure—a rare bottle cap—amidst a group of Tentacruel. They snag the bottle cap, and the very unhappy Tentacruel chase them right out of the water and onto the ferry, where they collide with our heroes! Ash and Pikachu try to drive the angry Tentacruel off, but Normajean’s young Pokémon are poisoned in the attack.

Springing into action, Brock attempts to heal the sick and injured Pokémon. The ferry’s passengers help him find some medicine, but not enough to cure everyone. Brock gets advice via video monitor from Nurse Joy, who is on her way by boat. She advises Brock to be persistent and do whatever he can to alleviate the suffering of the young Pokémon. Sure enough, Brock’s creativity and talent carry him through, and by the time Nurse Joy arrives, the Pokémon are as healthy as ever…and Brock’s Happiny, after helping him care for his patients, has evolved into Chansey!

Nurse Joy suggests to Brock that he’d be a great Pokémon Doctor, and he starts to think about a career path he’d never considered before. As the ferry approaches the Twinleaf Town seaport, Dawn spies her mother waiting there for her. We leave the group knowing that Ash, Dawn, and Brock will soon part ways, heading off to brand-new adventures!

Plot

With the Lily of the Valley Conference over, Ash, Dawn, and Brock are on a ship back to Twinleaf Town. Brock is seen brooding about something on the deck when he is interrupted by Ash and Dawn. Ash then notes that after landing, the group will have to separate. While Dawn returns to Twinleaf Town, Ash and Brock will be heading for a ship that will take them to the Kanto region. Once in Kanto, Ash will head home to Pallet Town while Brock will journey to Pewter City to visit his siblings. The group is a little sad that they have to part ways so soon so Dawn invites them over to her house and the others agree.

Their planning is interrupted when a Pichu climbs onto the deck, followed by a Cleffa, Igglybuff, Teddiursa, Azurill, Smoochum, and Wynaut. Pikachu and Piplup greet them but they are once more interrupted by a girl who joins them on deck. She scolds the baby Pokémon, telling them not to run off so easily in case they fall into the ocean. However, she accidentally slips but is caught by Brock. Brock tells her to be careful because the deck can be wet at times while the baby Pokémon laugh, much to the girl's embarrassment. When asked if all these Pokémon belonged to her, the girl reveals that she is an apprentice working at a Pokémon Day Care center and that these Pokémon are under her care. She introduces herself as Normajean. While Ash compliments on how cute the Pokémon are, Normajean complains that they hardly ever listen to her. Brock then tells her that she needs to have patience and that, after a while, the Pokémon will begin to listen to her. For a brief moment, Normajean seems to worship Brock because he sounds so much like other elders at the Pokémon Day Care. Dawn reveals that Brock wants to become a famous Pokémon Breeder and then the group introduces themselves to Normajean.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket are following the ship underwater in their Magikarp submarine when their metal detector suddenly goes off. They follow the signal to a group of Tentacruel and, there in the middle of the group, is a shiny object. The team immediately gets excited as they come up with ideas as to what the treasure might be: gold, silver, ruby, sapphire, diamond, pearl, or platinum. They then use the submarine to chase off the Tentacruel and pick up the treasure. However, they find the shiny object to be a rare bottle cap. While James is excited about this rare find, neither Jessie nor Meowth are hardly excited. They are just about to leave the premises when the Tentacruel come back, angry at both being attacked and having their bottle cap stolen, and begin attacking the submarine with their Poison Sting. Team Rocket attacks back and run off before the Tentacruel can do any more damage to their submarine. However, they were too concentrated on escaping that they fail to notice what's ahead of them and end up crashing into the ship Ash and his friends are on. This causes an explosion that rocks the ship. Ash and his friends then go out onto the deck to investigate, leaving Normajean and the baby Pokémon inside the cabin.

It is revealed that Team Rocket had survived the crash and are now hanging onto the sides of the boat. Just when they have climbed onto the deck do they notice that the angry Tentacruel have followed them. They start running only to bump into Ash and his friends. Dawn accuses Team Rocket to have caused the accident, to which they embarrassingly agree. They don't have much time to argue with one another as the Tentacruel suddenly jump onto the ship and begin attacking with Poison Sting. Ash tells Pikachu to knock back the stings with Iron Tail. The attack seems to be successful at first until Pikachu suddenly collapses, having been poisoned. Team Rocket then run off into the cabin while the Tentacruel chase after them. Ash is worried about Pikachu but Brock tells him that Pikachu will be fine. He then tells Ash and Dawn to follow the Tentacruel as he is worried that the Tentacruel will hurt Normajean and the others. While Ash and Dawn follow the Tentacruel, Brock feeds Pikachu a Pecha Berry to cure him of poison.

Meanwhile, the Tentacruel begin to attack the other passengers with their Poison Sting. They almost hit Normajean but the baby Pokémon leap up to defend. However, they are hit with the Poison Sting and are thus poisoned. Only Pichu still remains standing. It leaps up to attack the Tentacruel once more with a Thunderbolt to seek revenge for its fallen friends but is hit with a powerful Poison Jab that causes it to be poisoned too.

It is then revealed that the Tentacruel have Team Rocket cornered. Ash and Dawn arrive, soon followed by Brock. Brock notices that the crystal spheres on the Tentacruel are glowing a bright red and realize that they are angry. He demands Team Rocket to tell him what they did to cause the Tentacruel to become so angry. James pulls out his rare bottle cap in reply, only to drop it. The bottle cap rolls away and Brock picks it up. The Tentacruel then immediately turn to face him in anger. Understanding that the Tentacruel wants the bottle cap back, Brock runs off and tells the Tentacruel to follow him. James is sad at having lost his bottle cap but Jessie consoles him in a weird way by saying that it's more important that the Tentacruel are gone. On the deck, Brock throws the bottle cap into the ocean and the Tentacruel follow after their prize. Normajean then runs onto the deck, desperately telling Brock that the Pokémon have all been poisoned and needs his help.

Inside the cabin, the baby Pokémon are all laid out on the benches under blankets. It is clear that they are all suffering terribly from the effects of the poison. Brock examines them with a stethoscope and declares that, out of all the Pokémon, Pichu is the one that's suffering the worst. Normajean explains that Pichu had been hit with Tentacruel's Poison Jab. Dawn begs Brock to save all the Pokémon. Brock wants to help but say that he can't do anything because he has run out of Pecha Berries. Just then, the captain of the ship runs over and asks what happened. Brock asks the captain if the ship may have some Pecha Berries in its storage room, to which the captain replies that there are a few crates of berries. Whether or not they contain Pecha Berries he does not know, so he takes Ash and his friends to the storage room. Normajean is left to care for the Pokémon.

Inside the storage room, the group finds dozens of crates stacked and the captain leaves them to do the searching while he goes to contact Nurse Joy to send a rescue team. Brock sends out his Happiny to help with the search. Ash comes up with a Kelpsy Berry while Dawn finds a Durin Berry. However, none of them can be used to cure the poison. While Happiny is busy moving crates, she finds a door leading to another storage room. The group enters the second room, only to find Team Rocket busying chowing down on Pecha Berries. Brock gets angry and tells them they need the Pecha Berries to help cure the baby Pokémon. Team Rocket is hardly concerned and James tells them that they can use Pikachu to trade for the last Pecha Berry. Angered, Happiny uses Pound to send Team Rocket blasting off. The group gets the last Pecha Berry, but one isn't enough to cure all the Pokémon. They then split up and begin asking the other passengers to see if they have any Pecha Berries or Antidotes. The search doesn't prove to be too fruitful as Ash and Dawn only manage to get one Pecha Berry each while Brock has found a bag of Heal Powder. However, this still isn't enough. Brock looks like he's about to give up when an old lady interrupts them and gives Brock a Lava Cookie, saying that in her day they would grind them up and heal Pokémon with them.

Brock then sets to work cutting up the Pecha Berry and grinding the Lava Cookie into powder. He blends the ingredients together and feeds them to the Pokémon. Pichu, however, refuses to eat so Brock switches to a baby bottle. Several moments later, Brock feels Igglybuff's forehead to notice that its fever has died down. However, Pichu's fever still hasn't died down. Normajean asks for Brock to help but Brock sadly replies that he doesn't know how. The captain runs in to inform them that connection with Nurse Joy has been made, and Brock asks to speak with her. Through the video phone, Nurse Joy reveals that it'll take another two hours before their rescue boat arrives. In the meantime, she entrusts Brock to do whatever he can to help the Pokémon until she can get there. Her speech encourages Brock and he promises her to do whatever he can.

Dawn orders Piplup to use Whirlpool while Buneary uses Ice Beam to freeze the Whirlpool. Happiny then uses Pound to shatter the frozen Whirlpool into chunks of ice. The ice is then put into plastic bags and placed on the baby Pokémon's foreheads in an attempt to cool down their fevers. Brock notices that Pichu is having trouble breathing and asks Ash to increase the humidity in the air. Ash uses Buizel's Water Gun and Infernape's Flamethrower to create steam when the two attacks collide. Pichu's breathing has eased but its fever has not lessened at all; instead the fever seems to be getting worse. Brock asks Pikachu to share some of his electricity with Pichu.

Brock then tries to think of other ways to help and remembers that they had found Durin Berries in the storage room. He mixes Durin Berry with Oran Berry to create an energy drink. After the drink has been made and placed in the baby bottle, Happiny tells Brock that she wants to feed Pichu. However, Pichu refuses to be fed, even after multiple attempts at begging by the others. This causes Happiny to become really sad and she then evolves into a Chansey. Dawn scans Chansey with her Pokédex and Brock uses the Pokédex to find that his Chansey has learned Soft-Boiled. He then tells Chansey to use Soft-Boiled. The move completely heals Pichu and Brock looks not only relieved that Pichu has been cured but also very proud of his new Chansey.

Nurse Joy has finally arrived as Pichu runs to join the other cured Pokémon. Brock thanks Nurse Joy but Nurse Joy replies that Brock is the one who should be thanked. Normajean too thanks him and Pichu jumps into his arms to express its gratitude by rubbing against his cheek. The other Pokémon also join Brock to say their thanks. Nurse Joy notes that Brock has the potential to become an excellent Pokémon Doctor. Dawn comments that Brock will be able to stay with Nurse Joy forever if that happens and Brock immediately likes the idea. He holds Nurse Joy's hand as he thinks about the possible future of being with Nurse Joy. As always, Croagunk is there to ruin the dream as it uses Poison Jab on him. Dawn says that while Brock may have his weird moments, it is obvious that Brock cares very much about Pokémon.

Team Rocket is then shown to be stranded in the middle of the ocean on a makeshift wooden raft. Meowth is fishing with an Old Rod when the line suddenly begins to jerk and he pulls up a Tentacruel. The crystal spheres glow red once more as the Tentacruel becomes angry and Team Rocket runs away as it desperately treads water whilst leaving their raft and rod behind.

Back on the ship, it is now nearing evening and Brock is once more brooding on the deck as he thinks about the possible future of being a Pokémon Doctor. Ash and Dawn interrupt him once more as they thank him for the day's happenings and compliment his skills while Brock replies that he still has a lot to learn. They then see the dock to Twinleaf Town and Dawn sees her mother waiting for them.

Major events

 
Brock's newly evolved Chansey
For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Trivia

Errors

  • In the Hindi dub, Happiny is referred to as a male multiple times in this episode, even though she is a female-only species.
  • In the Portuguese dub, Brock says that Jigglypuff's fever was gone, but it was actually an Igglybuff.
  • Normajean's Teddiursa is seen using Pound despite not being able to legally learn the move in the games.
  • While Brock is examining the poisoned Pokémon, his face has Ash's skin color.
  • Before Happiny evolves, she was seen standing on the table. Afterward, she was standing next to the table.

Dub edits

  • In the English dub, when he is talking about the Team Rocket submarine's radar, Meowth says they will need treasure to pay for it. In the original Japanese version, he asks James where he got the radar.
  • In the English dub, while making all of the references to the Pokémon games, James mentions "black and white". In the original Japanese version, black and white aren't mentioned; instead, he orders the Tentacruel to get out of the way.
  • In the original Japanese version, after Pikachu gets poisoned, James makes a play on words with "poison" and "pitiful" by saying that the poison is the only thing pitiful (doku dake ni o ki no doku). "Doku" can mean poison and "ki no doku" can mean pitiful in Japanese. He also uses this pun later on in the episode. In the English dub, he just says "toxic twerp talk" in response to Ash saying Pikachu has been poisoned. In the later scene, he says to pass on the poison purée.

In other languages



DP189 : The Semi-Final Frontier!
Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl
DP191 : Memories are Made of Bliss!
  This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.