The second-to-last Diamond and Pearl episode, Pokemon Doctor - Brock!, just finished airing in Japan. I thought Brock would be leaving in this episode so I stayed up late to watch it and prepared my update, but nope, he's leaving in the next episode. A summary of what happened is below just 'cuz. Following the episode, a new preview for Best Wishes aired. One of the scene shows Mijumaru battling Dento's Yanappu, and for one small shot, you can see Ash standing behind the Water Pokemon; this probably means he is going to own it. Forum mod Viper.Fox has uploaded a video of it to YouTube which you can see below.

The official TV Tokyo website also just updated with Team Rocket and Giovanni's new uniforms, as you can see to the right (click the thumbnail for a larger image). This is the first time Jessie and James are getting changes to their uniforms, though it's only a color change from white to black. According to the website, Giovanni has sent them to Isshu for a special mission: to gain control of Isshu (oh noz!). They are "Advanced Troops" because they are the first from Team Rocket to enter the region.

• The episode starts out with Ash, Brock, and Dawn on a ship. Dawn asks Ash and Brock what they're going to do now that the Sinnoh League is over and they respond that they're both going back home to Kanto. Dawn says she's going back home too but asks them if they'll stop by her house first.
• A whole bunch of Baby Pokemon run on to the deck and a girl runs after them. She slips on the deck but Brock saves her. She thanks him and tells Ash and crew that she's a Pokemon Nursery School teacher.
• Team Rocket is following the ship in a submarine and angers a bunch of Tentacruel. They try to escape but ram the ship in the process. The Tentacruel pursue them and come on to the ship.
• The Tentacruel fire a Poison-type attack at Ash and crew and poison Pikachu.
• Elsewhere on the ship, the Baby Pokemon are fighting off the Tentacruel. All of them are hit by the Poison attack and a Pichu in the group is badly Poisoned.
• The Tentacruel corner Team Rocket and for some reason return to the ocean (...missed why).
• The teacher appears and tells Brock she needs help - all of her Baby Pokemon were Poisoned.
• Since there are no medical facilities on the boat for Pokemon, a guard takes them to storage to look for Berries. Happiny assists in looking for them. However, they do not find the right Berries.
• An old woman appears and offers a cookie... perhaps a Lavacookie? Brock tries to heal all the Pokemon with Berries they get from somewhere.
• Nurse Joy appears over video phone and says she'll heal Pichu when they get to the Pokemon Center but that it's up to Brock to help it now.
• Pichu isn't responding to the treatment so they try to setup a steam room. Pikachu tries to shock Pichu to health but no luck.
• Brock's Happiny evolves into Chansey! She uses Softboiled and Pichu is healed.
• The ship arrives in Twinleaf Town. Nurse Joy tells Brock he would make a great Pokemon Doctor, to which he says, "To work with Nurse Joys all the time?!" He also says he still has a lot of studying to do. At the end of the last episode, Brock was wondering about his goals, so they're obviously foreshadowing his departure.
• Dawn's mom greets Ash and crew. They're going to stay at Dawn's house for one more episode so they can all be together one last time.

Be sure to watch the new Black and White videos in the previous update!

Thanks to Josuke from Portugal, we now have a photo of the next set's prerelease event sleeves! The sleeves feature Celebi and were accidentally mixed-in with the sleeves given out at Undaunted's prereleases. This same situation happened earlier this year when Entei, Suicune, and Raikou sleeves unexpectedly appeared at HeartGold & SoulSilver prereleases and later turned out to be the prerelease sleeves for Unleashed, the following set.

Update #2 (2:30 AM) - In further examining the videos, it appears there could be a new Pokemon chasing Chillarmy in the third video at 1:15. I thought it was just the Bug / Grass Pokemon Kurumiru at first but it doesn't quite match up to its design upon closer inspection. Also, we did not notice before that in the same video Pokabu uses a new attack called Heat Stamp which has 10 PP. | Update #1 (9:45 PM) - Added two new videos below.

Several new Black and White commercials are available to those who have Japanese Wiis and will soon air on TV; someone has posted them all on YouTube, as you can see below. The first video show many new scenes: at 0:20, what is that object on display? Skeletal remains? Of Zekrom? Is the medieval-y Team Plasma trying to revive the Dragons (/speculation)? At 0:55, we see Iris, a character previously thought to be animé-exclusive. Could she be a special character in the games, like a Gym Leader? Starting at 2:04, we see more story-related scenes such as a man holding a crown followed by N in the wild as a child with a Hihidaruma. And check out the awesome battles between Reshiram and Zekrom! The second video states that there will be over 100 new Pokemon in the games while the third video doesn't reveal anything significantly important.

Thanks to Strike LV.X, we now have a larger and more revealing image of the Journey Partner Promo Collection advertisement: it reveals the new card layout for the BW era. The Pokemon stage tab has been moved to the left of the Pokemon name while the name itself has been moved more to the right. While it is hard to see, it appears Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost are all on the bottom-left of the card while the PokeDex entries are now on the right rather than along the bottom of the card. Click the thumbnail below for a larger scan.

Sorry for the lateness of this update - I was asleep. :p

A smaller version of CoroCoro, CoroCoro Special, was released in Japan today and has revealed that double and triple battles in Black and White will feature new combination attacks. If you select two or more specific attacks in a specific order, they will produce a new effect. The scan that was leaked reveals three new attacks that can be used in this way: Grass Oath, Fire Oath, and Water Oath. Using Grass Oath followed by Fire Oath produces a field of fire that damages your opponents (produce the greenery, then burn it). Combining Fire Oath and then Water Oath creates a rainbow in the sky which boosts the secondary effects of your teammates' attacks (shoot fire, wet it, produce steam, then rainbow!). Using Water Oath followed by Grass Oath creates a wetland field that lowers your opponent's speed (wet the ground, throw greenery on it, wetland!). To what extent this new combo feature will be available for attacks is unknown, but we will obviously find out in a few weeks when the games are released. Thanks goes to Heerosferret for the translations and Karubiimunomono for the information!

For those of you who invest in our forums, remember that the mod application is due tonight!

Pokemon Sunday just finished airing and showed a few clips from Black and White's Battle Subway; you can watch a low-quality video of the segment below. They revealed that if you keep winning battles in the Battle Subway, a new character named the Subway Master appears presumably to challenge you (seen at 0:30 below). He is apparently the Palmer of the Battle Subway. Until the release of Black and White, Pokemon Sunday will be revealing something new about the games at the end of each episode. Next week they will be showcasing Pokemon Musicals.

Following yesterday's Pokemon episode a new preview of Best Wishes aired, as you can see below from Filb.de. In addition to revealing that Dento owns the Grass Monkey Pokemon Yanappu (0:41), further providing evidence that he may be a Grass-type Gym Leader, it also showcased an updated art style for the show. Ash's eyes are more distinct than ever before, a far cry from the days where the character designs featured very skinny eyes. The scene starting at 0:06 is a throwback to the very first episode of the show and the very first scene of Ash, as seen here starting at 2:12. Looks like we're truly seeing a refresh of the show! The first episode of Best Wishes will premiere September 23rd on TV Tokyo; before then, Pokemon Doctor - Brock will air September 2nd in which Brock will obviously leave followed by Memories are Pearls! Friendship is a Diamond!! on September 9th where Dawn and Piplup will say sayonara as well.

And in case there was any doubt (or you haven't been reading our news stories), the cast of Best Wishes is Ash, Pikachu, Iris (and her Kibago), and Dento. Since this is the first time in the series Brock can no longer serve any promotional purposes for the games (since he appeared in Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, all of which were out or upcoming during the Original Series, Johto, Advanced Generation, and Diamond and Pearl), he was replaced by the new fifth generation Gym Leader Dento. Since male fans apparently need a new girl to look at every generation, Dawn was replaced by Iris. And since Ash and Pikachu will never leave the show, they of course stayed.

Additionally, the TV Tokyo website updated its Black and White section with new videos. Most importantly of all, the site revealed that Best Wishes will be a much faster-paced saga than previous Pokemon incarnations, which is of course highly welcomed! Quite honestly, it looks like the people behind the show are doing everything they can to refresh the animé, and it looks as if Best Wishes is going to be extremely exciting to watch!

In addition to the two-pack Undaunted blister with Plusle and Minun, a three-pack blister will soon be available in the States with two booster packs of the set, a Platinum-series pack, a coin, and either a Lapras or Shuckle promo. Thanks go to Kees from the Netherlands for the scans below! As with all set-related blisters and promos, they may take a while to appear in local stores.

HGSS Promos

1. Ho-Oh
2. Lugia
3. Pikachu
4. Wobbuffet
5. Hoothoot
6. Noctowl
7. Feraligatr (Prime)
8. Meganium (Prime)
9. Typhlosion (Prime)
10. Latias
11. Latios
12. Cleffa
13. Smoochum
14. Lapras
15. Shuckle
16. Plusle
17. Minun
18. Tropical Tidal Wave (from 2010 Worlds)
19. More to come: Raikou, Entei, Suicune
20. More to come: Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr

Small product images have leaked of the upcoming Journey Parter promo collections that we first reported on back in June. As we stated before, the collections feature each of the starter Pokemon, though they will not contain their evolutions like we previously believed; instead, they will feature Black and White Pokemon that have been advertised this summer. Each collection features three cards, all holo: Journey Partner Tsutaaja comes with Tsutaaja, Munna, and Gear, Journey Partner Pokabu has Pokabu, Shimama, and Mamepato, and Journey Partner Mijumaru contains Mijumaru, Meguroko, and Zorua. Each package costs 280 yen and will be released on September 18th. Like with the first cards of any generation, each card features stock Ken Sugimori artwork. Thanks goes to Bangiras for translating this information!

As a side note, in October and November, the BW Starter Sets will be released as well. Despite all these side products, there is still no information regarding the first TCG set of the "Pokemon Card Game BW" era! Guess we'll have to wait a little longer for word on the set...

The Undaunted Redshark release is now available for download! Redshark allows you to practice the Pokemon TCG on your computer and against friends online. It is the only fan-made program created specifically for the Pokemon TCG. You can download the Windows installer below; unfortunately, the Mac installer is not ready due to technical difficulties and may not be available for a few weeks. Sorry Maccies! Just another reason to switch to Windows. :D

[Windows Download (3.70)]