DP053

Tears For Fears! (Japanese: ヒコザルの涙！  Tears!) is the 53rd episode of the, and the 519th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was originally scheduled to air in Japan on November 1, 2007, but was delayed to November 8 due to baseball. It aired in the US on April 12, 2008.

Blurb
As our heroes head towards Veilstone City, Ash's new Chimchar struggles to adapt to its new surroundings. Everything is the complete opposite of life with Paul: mealtimes are fun and everyone treats each other with friendship and kindness! Chimchar still has vivid memories of the lonely and harsh treatment it received from Paul, so this sudden reversal of fortune is nearly too much to take. When Ash even praises Chimchar after it loses a practice battle with Dawn's Piplup, Chimchar breaks down in emotion.

Meowth, who's searching for Team Rocket after their group was split up by some rampaging Zangoose, sees this scene and has a pang of sympathy for Chimchar. That night, Chimchar can't sleep and it finds Meowth sitting in the moonlight. Meowth isn't in the mood for a fight; instead, it gently tells Chimchar to make the best of its new life. Of course, all bets are off the next morning once Meowth rejoins Jessie and James: they catch Dawn and Brock by surprise, then try to steal all of their Pokémon by trapping them in giant canisters!

But when the Zangoose show up, Team Rocket has to hide in the canisters for their own protection. Ash and Chimchar reach the scene and realize the Zangoose are about to knock the canisters off a cliff! Chimchar has encountered Zangoose before and it's still afraid of them. Ash knows this, so he encourages Chimchar and gives it the confidence it needs to take on and defeat the Zangoose. With everyone safe and sound, it's three cheers for Chimchar, who finally feels like a part of its new family!

Plot
, and  settle down for lunch while still on the road to Veilstone City. The gang decides to let their Pokémon out for the day, and soon, everyone is starting to set up for lunch. However, is confused on what to do since everyone is in a happy mood. It remembers mealtimes with Paul, which involved Paul feeding Chimchar directly from a tin while angrily telling it to hurry up. As everyone else begins eating, Chimchar has to be prompted by Ash, making it clear the Pokémon is having trouble adjusting to its new circumstances.

also have their respective Pokémon out of their Poké Balls eating with them. However, meal time is interrupted when notices that three  are heading their way. They begin fighting furiously and Seviper, despite attacking its mortal enemies, finds itself outnumbered and outmatched. Jessie returns Seviper to its Poké Ball, but it refuses to give up and comes straight back out. Jessie continually tries to get Seviper to return, but to no avail. Then, the wild Zangoose send Team Rocket blasting off again, with landing in a different area from Jessie and James.

With most of their Pokémon lounging about, Ash and Dawn go for a sparring match - all watched by Meowth as he looks for his teammates. Ash uses his and Dawn uses her. After a tough match, the two compliment their Pokémon and Chimchar is reminded again of how it once managed to defeat during training, but still got scolded by Paul since it did not access  to do it. Ash and Dawn decide to have another battle using different Pokémon, as Ash selects Chimchar to battle against Dawn's Piplup. Despite putting up a tough fight against Piplup, Chimchar loses the battle, causing it to be reminded of losing in the Tag Battle Tournament and being cruelly released by Paul. Ash picks up Chimchar, who expects to be criticized, but Ash instead congratulates it on a good battle. This is followed up by compliments from Dawn and Brock, as well as cheering from all the other Pokémon. Chimchar is left very nervous and confused, and starts crying since it cannot handle its drastic change in environment. Ash is confused as to why Chimchar would cry when it is getting complimented, and Brock muses that Chimchar must not have got many chances to show any emotion while under Paul's ownership. Ash understands, and holds Chimchar while it sobs its heart out. Meowth is also moved by this emotional display and, with tears in his eyes, leaves without incident to continue looking for Jessie and James.

That night, Chimchar has a nightmare about having to fight under Paul's command battling a. Graveler jumps out against Chimchar and uses, sending boulders flying. Paul orders Chimchar not to move, as his way of trying to force Chimchar to access. Chimchar's nightmare then switches to the Zangoose fight before it was caught, still with Paul's voice in its head. Chimchar jolts awake and, unable to get back to sleep, goes for a walk.

Meowth is still looking for the rest of Team Rocket when he crosses paths with Chimchar. After convincing it he does not want to fight, Meowth tells Chimchar that he knows what it is like to worry, and he dreams of the time when he and the others are finally able to capture Pikachu, as then he would not have anything to worry about. Meowth then tells Chimchar it should stop worrying about the past, and instead look to the new, brighter future, because it is a very lucky Pokémon. Meowth states to Chimchar that its new friends would do anything, even "give you the shirts off their backs if they had to", before he leaves. Chimchar is left thoughtful at this new outlook. The next morning, all of the Pokémon start helping out preparing for a meal, and Chimchar is once again left unsure of what to do. Ash calls over to it, asking for help carrying some water, to which Chimchar happily agrees to.

Later, Team Rocket is shown in their balloon, retrieving Meowth by his rear end with a "plunger". They state that were going to steal Ash's Pokémon and that meeting Meowth was just a coincidence, then go through with their plan to capture the gang’s Pokémon while are out of their Poké Balls. As they begin to fly off with the Pokémon in canisters, Dawn tries to make her Pokémon return into their Poké Balls, but fails. Meowth says the containers are protected from that, so Dawn commands Piplup it to use while Brock orders  to use. This also fails.

Seviper, however, gets out of its Poké Ball because it senses the three Zangoose once again. The gang of Zangoose climb up a tree to reach Seviper, and rip the balloon apart, sending them crashing to the ground. Team Rocket decide to hide themselves within one of the containers, but this backfires, as the wild Zangoose attack the container, attempting to get to Seviper, and push it close to the edge of a nearby cliff. Ash and Chimchar arrive back and see what is happening, and Ash tells Chimchar to help. However, Chimchar is too frightened to fight the wild Zangoose. Ash gives a little pep talk to Chimchar, telling it that while he understands Chimchar is scared, the other Pokémon really need help. Chimchar is reminded of the kindness shown by Ash and the others, and Meowth telling it that the group would do anything to help it if they needed to. Ash tells Chimchar not to worry about the power of Blaze, as it just has to believe it can win. As a result, Chimchar becomes motivated to battle against his fear, the Zangoose. Chimchar uses a few times to confuse the Zangoose and then uses  to finish them off.

With the Zangoose defeated, Team Rocket open the container from the inside and try to escape, but Ash and Dawn command Pikachu to use, Chimchar to use Flamethrower, to use , Piplup to use Bubble Beam, and  to use  to attack Team Rocket, sending them blasting off for the second and final time. Chimchar joins the other Pokémon in their cheering, and with its past completely fading away, the heroes' journey continues.

Major events

 * Ash's Chimchar overcomes its fear of.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Paul (flashback and nightmare)
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Paul (flashback and nightmare)

Pokémon

 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (flashback)
 * (×3)
 * (nightmare)
 * (nightmare)

Trivia

 * Both the opening and ending animations have updated to move to, while Paul's Electabuzz has replaced  in the opening.
 * An instrumental version of Meowth's Song, music from Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea and an alternate cut of Together are used as background music.
 * Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia:
 * Pokémon senryū: ガブリアス　ガブリとくるぞ　かみくだく Gaburiasu, gaburi to kuruzo, kamikudaku
 * This is the season premiere of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension.
 * James, Gardenia, and narrate the preview for the next episode.
 * This is the third episode where a character bleeds. The first was in Wake Up Snorlax! when scratched her shoulder while trying to get through the thorny bushes, and the second was in Ignorance is Blissey.
 * This episode's dub title is a reference to the musical group . It is the second time that the anime has referenced the group, the first being in Hocus Pokémon.
 * This is the first episode to be dubbed at DuArt Film & Video, which had already dubbed The Rise of Darkrai.
 * Kayzie Rogers returns as James's Mime Jr. (taking over from Michele Knotz) and Jessie's Wobbuffet, after archive sounds had been used for Wobbuffet's voice during season 10.
 * This episode was released on DVD in England as a free gift with issue 59 of the Magazine.
 * In the Nordic and Dutch dubs, starting with this episode, the title cards and "To be continued" messages are in their own respective languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch) instead of English. These dubs also received a new set of credits mentioning the dubbing staff.

Errors

 * Ash's scratch disappears in the next scene.
 * In the dub, the narrator says, "With the Eterna City Contest and Tag Battle behind them..." The group has just left from a Contest in Hearthome City, not Eterna. This may be due to script confusion, as the next episode features the Eterna Gym Leader, Gardenia.
 * Jessie's Seviper's Japanese voice can be heard during the brawls against.
 * Meowth looks like he has an eyelash while he is in the tube with the rest of Team Rocket along with their Pokémon.
 * In Chimchar's flashback of the Hearthome contest, Chimchar remembers Paul saying, "You are out of here!", when Paul really said, "You're out of here!"
 * When Team Rocket blasts off for the last time, Wobbuffet is seen outside of his Poké Ball, yet when they blast off, the Poké Ball release noise is heard before Wobbuffet says his name.
 * During Seviper's encounter with the Zangoose at the beginning of the episode the yellow markings underneath one side of Seviper's face disappears for a second.

In other languages
Tränen der Vergangenheit EP522 DP053 DP053 DP編第53話 精灵宝可梦 钻石＆珍珠 第52集