Japanese Title: The Croagunk Festival of the Pastoria Great Marsh!?
Original Airdate: June 5, 2008
US Airdate: November 15, 2008
If you look closely you can see a great Croagunk hat.
After a while of traveling, Ash and friends finally make it to Pastoria City where he hopes to earn his 4th badge. They quickly meet the Gym Leader Crasher Wake who unfortunately couldn't do a gym battle today due to being busy with the annual Croagunk Festival which he later invites them to see. Which Croagunk will win be crowned this year's Diamond and Pearl Champion?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: Brock is the main protagonist of the episode naturally due to being the only one in the group with a Croagunk to enter in the festival.
- Adults Are Useless: Zig-zagged. While Crasher Wake is no help in stopping Team Rocket from taking the crown due to somehow forgetting to bring his team from the Gym, Nurse Joy and her Croagunk Crissy manage to save the day with Ash.
- All Love Is Unrequited:
- Unsurprisingly Nurse Joy doesn't share Brock's feelings of love.
- Crissy isn't interested in Craig due to her not loving him.
- Breather Episode: After the previous episode had Chimchar go berserk after using Blaze and the next episode is the long awaited 4th Gym battle between Ash and Crasher Wake, this episode acts as this as all that occurs is Ash and his friends get acquainted with the Gym Leader and have fun at a festival.
- Combat Medic: Nurse Joys typically aren't up to battle they focus more on healing trainer's Pokémon. Pastoria City's Joy however is more than capable of lending a hand in a crisis as Crissy's Vacuum Wave effortlessly trashes Team Rocket's mecha Croagunk.
- Dark Horse Victory: Brock and Hamilton compete for the Croagunk Championship and for Nurse Joy's Croagunk Crissy. After all that's said and done, a unanimous vote declared Crissy as the winner of this year's festival.
- Epic Fail: Meowth, dressed as a Croagunk, tries his strength at the Brick Break portion of the Croagunk contest, and breaks his hand instead.
- Establishing Character Moment: Crasher Wake's first notion after meeting Ash and the others is to scream his name and he's the Gym Leader of Pastoria while doing a pose showing his Large Ham nature.
- Festival Episode: Unsurprisingly since its even in the Japanese title. Before their 4th Gym battle, they'll relax a bit at he Pastoria City festival.
- Humongous Mecha: Team Rocket once again brings a mecha but this time its the shape of a giant Croagunk.
- Irony: Despite this town being famous for raising Croagunk, none of the audience or judges seem to be able to identify a fake one despite it looking noticeably different than the others.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Crasher Wake's impulsiveness to get Ash and his friends to go to the festival as soon as possible caused him to forget his Pokémon at the Gym. As a result he had no choice but to ask the contestants to help defeat Team Rocket.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Meowth wears a Croagunk costume to enter the festival competition which makes him obviously look different than the other Croagunk and yet not only do they not realize he's not a Croagunk, but they actually end up liking him instead.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Meowth was quick to point out how if they just used the Mecha from the start, they would't need to go through the trouble of making Meowth look like a Croagunk and he would't have gotten his arm busted attempting to break bricks.
- Talent Contest: The Crogunk Festival is a competition to show who's the best Croagunk to be crowned the king and Diamond and Pearl Champion.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Hamilton is presented as an antagonist in the episode due to insisting his and Nurse Joy's Croagunk's be wed. Aside from being somewhat smug he's not a bad guy as he treats his Croagunk well, doesn't hesitate to help stop Team Rocket when they attempt to steal the crown and even acts as a Graceful Loser admitting Crissy deserved the crown more than Craig. By the end of the episode he Brock and Nurse Joy have become friends and even danced together during the final parts of the festival.
- Worf Had the Flu: A Team Rocket attack, a gym leader decides to interfere because it will ruin the festivities, and...Crasher Wake remembers that he left behind all his Pokémon at his gym.
- You All Look Familiar: Lampshaded by Ash and Dawn as the judges and audience continue to say how one of a kind the contestants are despite them all looking the same.
