Character Debuts:
Misty’s Sisters/The Sensational Sisters/Lily, Daisy and Violet: I really hate these three. They’re airheaded valley girls whose voices pierce my soul. Beyond that, what’s there to say about them?
They’re Misty’s three spoiled older sisters who partake in aquatic shows at the Cerulean Gym where they hail as completely ineffectual Gym Leaders to the point where I have no clue how the Cerulean Gym even became a thing. Either they inherited it or Misty must really be a lot more impressive off screen, which, considering post-departure episodes that feature Misty, is probably true.
They poke fun at Misty and treat her like an outcast, they may be fraternal triplets though I have no clue how such an assortment of hair colors (blue, blond, red and hot pink) can come from only two parents….They have no interest in battling, seem to suck at it when they do, and they hand Badges out like candy. I have no clue why Misty thought it was a good idea to leave the gym in their hands.
Reappear?: Yes.
Pokemon: The gym seems to harbor many Water Pokemon, but Seel, a Goldeen and later a Luvdisc seem to be the main ones.
Badge episode – Cascade Badge: Cerulean Gym
Leader: Misty
Plot: Ash arrives at Cerulean City to get his second Badge, but Misty’s been acting strange the entire way there. She desperately doesn’t want to go to the city but won’t give a reason as to why. She suddenly disappears, and the boys stumble upon a store that was recently burglarized. After being hounded by the odd Officer Jenny, they discover that the thieves took a giant vacuum with a giant hose and nothing more. Later, Brock wanders off to do something while Ash goes for his Badge.
He arrives at what he thinks is the Gym only to find three sisters performing a synchronized swimming show. He discovers that the girls actually are the Gym Leaders, and he challenges them to a match. However, they’ve recently been steamrolled by three Trainers from Pallet and only have a Goldeen to battle with, so they offer him the Badge without a battle.
He’s about to reluctantly accept when Misty comes out of nowhere to stop him. She announces that she is also one of the ‘Sensational Sisters’ of Cerulean City and one of the Gym Leaders, so she’ll battle Ash in their place.
Misty starts off with Staryu. Ash tries to start off with Pikachu, but he refuses to fight his friend. Instead, Ash uses Butterfree. He manages to put up a good fight, but Staryu knocks Butterfree into the water, making him unable to fly and unable to continue. Both of them recall their Pokemon for round two with Starmie battling for Misty and Pidgeotto for Ash.
Starmie struggles with Pidgeotto and nearly gets knocked out for good when Team Rocket shows up with the stolen vacuum. They suck up all the water in the Cerulean Gym’s pool along with a Seel. They nab Pikachu too, but he Thundershocks the water and subsequently Team Rocket and saves the day.
Afterward, Daisy gives Ash a Cascade Badge claiming he would’ve easily won against Misty’s all Water Pokemon lineup if Pikachu had decided to battle, and he saved their Gym so he earned it. Misty begrudgingly lets it pass, and Brock returns to join them as they bid farewell to the sisters and head back on their journey.
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– Haha, in the recap, as Ash runs away, you can see the Cerulean City sign back to Japanese. ….Eh, it’s a hollow victory in 4Kids’ early years.
– If it’s such a bother for Misty to go back home, why doesn’t she just…..not? I’m not saying she has to stop following Ash, but she could just say she has errands to run and go off into town while Ash gets his badge. Brock left, why can’t she?……Hey, why did Brock leave anyway? And why is he so sneaky about it? If they weren’t going to give a reason, then….just why? Less people to animate/draw?
– Wait, now Ash’s ID in Dexter has barcodes on it? I don’t get it.
– Ya know….the Boulder Badge doesn’t prove that Brock was the leader of Pewter City’s Gym. It just proves that he has a Badge. Ash has one too – can he show it off claiming to be the Pewter City Gym Leader?
– Brock knows the Cerulean Gym Leader and his ‘special move’? I guess that makes sense considering he’s a Gym Leader too, but why wouldn’t he say anything to Misty or Ash? Or is he under the assumption that someone else is the current Cerulean Gym Leader?
– Man, even when the Goldeen isn’t Misty’s, it’s still treated like garbage. Poor Goldeen….
– How can Goldeen be ‘the only Pokemon’ you have left if you obviously have a Seel?
– I really don’t get how any of these girls are Gym Leaders. Misty’s sisters are awful in battling, and Misty’s treated like she’s basically not much better than a novice and only recently decided to go off to hone her skills as a Trainer. How exactly did a Gym end up in their hands?
– Misty: *after Staryu is hit by Stun Spore* “Oh no! It looks like Staryu is in real pain!” But Stun Spore paralyzes you. Shouldn’t it actually be numb?
– Any particular reason Misty is speaking in third-person when she’s calling out her Pokemon?
– What’s the big deal if Pikachu gets sucked up into the vacuum thing? Seel did, and he just ended up outside….somehow. I think because the vacuum empties out through a hose outside, but then again I don’t know Team Rocket’s capture plan if it was that easy to get out.
– As much as I hate to say it, Daisy does have a point in saying that Pikachu would’ve won the match pretty easily for Ash if he was willing to battle. But the fact of the matter is that his refusal to battle is pretty much the mark of a bad Trainer.
Yes, Misty is Pikachu’s friend, but so is Ash and he’s battling her. It’s not like he’s ordering Pikachu to attack her physically, so I can’t see much of a reason as to why he refuses to battle, especially considering that he’s perfectly fine with said battle much later on in Johto.
Most of all, it’s another pity Badge…Ash claims he was close to winning, but not really. It was really a draw considering it was 1 to 1.
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All in all, I’m pretty torn about this episode. I usually like Badge episodes, but it’s a really polarizing match with the Pikachu factor and the tie. Misty’s sisters always annoy me, but they do have rare moments where they’re nice. Brock’s disappearance was just weird and his reappearance was just as jarring and rushed.
Next up, our first filler episode with AJ and the unofficial Pokemon Gym!
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The Anime Madhouse 
Nice analysis, though a few points were unnecessary and can be easily countered.
1) Misty never left the gym in their (Daisy, Violet, Lily) hands as it was implied that all 4 had an equal say in how the gym was run. However, Misty felt inferior to her sisters because of their relentless teasings and more likely because deep down she truly felt like she didn’t match up to them, with or without them teasing her.
2) Just like some humans aren’t pokemon trainers, some pokemon aren’t fit to do battle. Seel probably does performances with the sisters instead of being trained for battles. Misty was also eager to prove that she was just as good a trainer as her sisters which implies that they have a degree of skill. Their only reported loses were against Ash’s rivals, one of which was Gary who is quite skilled. The samari episode indicated that all three were much better than Ash, who Misty struggled with. All in all, we don’t kniw for sure how good or how sucking the sisters are but just because they’ve lost interest in battling, doesn’t mean they’re terrible. Don’t believe me? Ask Sabrina 😉
3) Can you really call the sensational sisters spoiled when their parents aren’t even around? No one is pampering them, they simply use their gym to perform water ballets and have gained world wide fame because of their skill in it. Given that, I don’t really see how they’re airheaded as they’ve displayed zero qualities of an idiot. “Valley girl” is a stereotypical label towards women who excessively use the words “like” or “totally”.
4) Misty has been shown to be quite vain herself multiple times throughout the series. Plus, I think its obvious that her sisters (lily in particular) tease Misty because they know exactly how she will react and its funny to them because she keeps stumbling to her own insecurities. She may be more tomboyish, but she is essentially as bad as her sisters.
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Fair enough. And you’ll find that I tend to pepper nitpicks throughout posts like these. They may not be necessary notes, but I just feel like including them. I might be slightly biased against them due to their seeming complete lack of caring for the Gym they care for. I mean, they still do battle I suppose since the reason they were giving out badges was simply due to the fact that they’ve gotten beaten so badly that they were out of battling Pokemon, but they pretty flippantly gave Ash a badge instead of asking that he return later when their Pokemon were better. If they don’t want to be Gym Leaders anymore, I don’t see why they don’t just quit or call Misty back to ask her to be leader while they run the shows. I don’t know if there’s some contractual obligation or if the Gym is a part of the family etc.
Also, isn’t one of the traits of stereotypical valley girls airheadedness?
Yeah, Misty is pretty vain. The Vulpix episode in particular raises that issue when she argues with Ash about what’s more important in a Pokemon; what’s on the inside or outside. While Misty didn’t say that what was outside was most important, she was making the case that appearance was very important to her. And the way that they act with Misty could very well be average sisterly jabs. I know I went through plenty of that with my sister. Though I am still a bit pissed that they completely ignored her opinions and feelings about leaving her journey much later on to take care of the Gym so they could take a cruise.
Thanks for your comments. I’m always up for discussion about these things, even if I’m wrong or not looking at everything objectively. 🙂
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