New episode title(s) has/have been added to the database. Title: ソムリエ対決! イシズマイVSフタチマル!!/Sommelier taiketsu! Ishizumai VS Futachimaru!!. Please comment below! Thanks, your friendly PM.Net AnimeBot

I really enjoyed this episode, for two reason mainly:

1) first of all, looks like Dent get a bit more love than Takeshi did in the previous series, which is definitely a great thing. Looks like he's gonna get some proper character development, and he's even got a real rival, but not the same kind of rival as Satoshi, hopefully.
I'm really looking forward to the next appearance of that semi-French-speaking sommelière in the next episodes!

2) It's really nice to see Dent having a battle, even if the outcome was totally predictable (come on, Satoshi having to replace all his Pokémon?)... actually, that might even be the reason I found the battle so interesting. Dent sure have a nice way to battle. A bit like Takeshi, in a way.

So far, this new series really hasn't been disappointing as far as the characters are concerned. Each one of the three main characters seems to have some proper character development this time, and none of them looks like a different version of a previous character. But more importantly, none of the characters seems to be left behind, semi-ignored by the writers.

And looks like it was Mamepato that Satoshi traded for Kurimuru. Good choice, in my opinion. The bird Pokémon was getting a bit old, since we've had during the two previous series already.

I really can't wait for the next episode. This new duck-like Pokémon seems really hilarious.

I wasn't a big fan of this episode at all. I really didn't like the character of Cabernet but I know a lot of people thought she would be a good rival for Dent. I guess my dislike with her is the entire idea of Pokemon Sommeliers as it just seems to be a bit too annoying to me. I did like the part where Satoshi's Pokemon kept attacking her when she was doing the tasting of his Pokemon.

Well, if there's something I didn't like about here, it's:

1) her chara-design... somethings looks kinda off with her hair
2) her pseudo-French.

'Bonjour. Tasting time, s'il vous plaît'...

... Err... I'm French, and I've got no idea what she means by that. I can understand what it means, if I take each bit separetely, but it simply doesn't make sense as a sentence. Never heard anybody talking like that. I know, it's something the Japanese tends to do often in songs and other things, but sometimes it can be really awkward... like this time.

Yeah we were kinda discussing the whole 'French' aspect the other day and it didn't seem like she was truly 'French' and the only thing we could think of is because she is a beginning Sommelier she had to learn some of the French terms associated with being a Sommelier. Though I found it more of a turn off and was probably just a way to make it seem cool the the Japanese that she was using a different language unlike Melissa who was supposed to be a French native (though they butchered her in the dub).

This episode was pretty good. Easily the best Cilan ep of BW, (better than his previous two or three eps), and much better than any Brock ep in DP.

They're really putting effort into Cilan and making sure he doesn't wind up like Brock did. Its also nice to see his goal properly stated and a good battle to boot.

It also surprises me that Cilan is getting much more attention than Iris is. I would have thought it would be the other way around. Either way you can tell that Cilan is a lot more than "just another Tracey" which is what people thought he would be.

Pretty sure Cilan and Iris are intended to be a better take on Misty and Brock, which makes me think that Misty/Brock won't ever appear in the anime ever again.

Yeah, I agree, she doesn't look (even remotely) French at all. Her name doesn't sound really French, though it's hard to tell, because the Japanese often come with some nice oddities when trying to imitate foreign names. It's definitely because of that sommelier thing they made her talk "Frenchishese".

And come to think of it, the very concept of Pokémon sommelier does seem a bit weird (though I kinda like it... I love Dent's comments in Pokémon battles, which are quite different from Takeshi's). I mean, a sommelier (in French), is sort of a Wine Expert, who knows which kind of wine to chose to go with certain dishes, etc... I agree this may sounds rather strange for lots of people, though I'm sure it doesn't for most of the Japanese audience (too young to know about sommeliers, anyway).

That whole sommelier thing sure is a nice example of modern 'exoticism'.

By the way, who's that Melissa character? I don't remember a character that was supposed to be a French native. (If it's in the US dub, then there's no way I could've known about it anyway).

Melissa is her Japanese name: http://www.pocketmonsters.net/characters/Fantina

Well from the earlier discussion here about her French just got a lot worse with the airing of the English dub. The VA for Burgundy pronounced 'sur' as 'sir' and then they added a bunch more French that actually detracted from the character as it didn't seem to fit at all.

They were also very inconsistent with the translation usage of 'tasting'. They used three different translations in this episode alone. First it was 'It's evaluating time!' instead of "It's tasting time!', then during the battle Burgundy and Cilan refer to 'taste' as a 'recipe' and then finally near the end Burgundy gets mad at Cilan's 'lectures', which in that case was his 'tasting' explanations.

Link to edits and notes: http://www.pocketmonsters.net/episodes/1235#Edits