Pokemon Episode 64 Analysis: It’s Mr. Mime Time

CotD(s): Stella – The ringleader of a traveling circus, Stella’s main act is with her Mr. Mime. Despite her kind demeanor normally, she’s an extremely harsh Trainer, whipping her Pokemon into shape and working them into the ground.

Reappears?: No.

Pokemon: Mr. Mime. It’s also implied that she owns all of the Pokemon in the circus such as various Ponyta, Rapidash, Machoke, Tangela, Exeggcute and Dodrio.

Returning Characters: Delia

Captures…?: Delia’s Mr. Mime, Mimey, debuts in this episode as a Pokemon that randomly came upon her house and bonded with her after she was so nice to it and fed it. She officially adopts it in this episode, but, strangely, it’s been kinda-ish confirmed that Ash actually caught this Mr. Mime offscreen at some point, because it’s frequently listed as one of the Pokemon Ash has caught. It’s very unclear whether Ash captured it to give to Delia so Mr. Mime could have a Pokeball to return to, even though it’s always out of a Pokeball, or if Ash caught the Mr. Mime and Delia just cares for it.

I was surprised to find this information on Mimey’s page. I always, always assumed Mr. Mime was just a Pokemon Delia adopted and never once thought it was a Pokemon Ash captured. Mr. Mime never even seemed to like Ash all that much. It’s possible that they just keep mistaking Mr. Mime for a Pokemon of his since it stays at his house.

Plot: After obtaining his eighth Badge, Ash heads back home to talk with Professor Oak about the upcoming Indigo League conference – most specifically where and when it even is.

Ash is so excited about finally going back home that he starts sprinting as he nears Pallet Town. He’s stopped dead in his tracks by an invisible wall, and the trio wonders what it is and who put it there. They glance upwards to see a Mr. Mime climbing the invisible structure, and, with a tip from Dexter, they realize it must have been the one to create it.

Excited to capture such a rare Pokemon, Ash readies his Pokeball, but he’s stopped by a girl in circus garb named Stella who asks if she can capture it herself. Ash doesn’t want to as he saw it first, but Brock forces him to step aside because he’s smitten with the girl.

Stella pathetically tries to capture Mr. Mime without attempting to battle it first, and the Mr. Mime gets away. She brings Ash, Misty and Brock to her circus where she works as ringmaster. She explains that she actually already has a Mr. Mime that she uses in her shows. The problem is that it refuses to perform anymore. It’s become a lazy slob after Stella worked it too hard to train it for circus shows.

However, Stella has a plan. She’s going to capture a new Mr. Mime, work with it instead of her own, and hopefully her Mr. Mime will get so jealous that it will start performing again. Brock, in an effort to win over Stella, tells her he’ll provide her with a Mr. Mime. However, he doesn’t plan on capturing one – he’s going to use Ash in a Mr. Mime costume instead.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket stops by a secret Team Rocket base in the forest to have a video call with Giovanni to apologize for the destruction of the Viridian Gym. He doesn’t want to hear anything from them besides capturing rare Pokemon, so he immediately sends them on their way. After the call ends, he states that it doesn’t matter how rare the Pokemon they might catch are – they’ll never be as rare as the Mewtwo before him.

As Jessie, James and Meowth figure out where to get some rare Pokemon to please their boss, a flier lands in their hot air balloon for the Pokemon Circus with the rare Mr. Mime front and center.

Back at the circus, Ash makes for a really convincing Mr. Mime in the costume Brock obtained, but he’s anything but happy about needing to humiliate himself in a Mr. Mime costume in front of everyone to go through with Brock’s little plan. He’s especially mortified when Stella starts training him and proves to be an absolutely hellish Trainer who literally whips him into shape.

At the circus, Stella and Mr. Mime!Ash enter the ring and prepare for their act, with Ash’s mother surprisingly in the audience watching them, but the lights suddenly cut out and Team Rocket enters the scene. They kidnap “Mr. Mime” and leave on their balloon.

Delia meets with Brock and Misty after Team Rocket makes their getaway knowing that Ash has been captured, but she’s not concerned because she knows Team Rocket will let Ash go once they realize he’s not a Mr. Mime. Misty, Brock and Stella agree, and Delia invites them all over to her house for a nice home-cooked meal while they wait for Ash to come back.

Meanwhile, Ash is tied up at Team Rocket’s little cabin hideout, but manages to wiggle out of his ropes and reveal himself to the trio. Annoyed above all else, Ash simply steals their hot air balloon and leaves, enraging Team Rocket.

A Mr. Mime shows up at Delia’s house as she bids Brock, Misty and Stella goodbye after their meal. She assumes this Mr. Mime is Ash, so she makes him up a nice lunch. When Ash returns to his house in his Mr. Mime outfit, Delia is thoroughly confused, but Ash clears everything up by taking off his mask and explaining the situation.

Delia is able to convince Mr. Mime of going down to the circus to take Ash’s place and help out Stella.

However, the circus is soon attacked by Team Rocket in a tank with missiles that shoot nets over all the Pokemon. The circus employees try to escape with the remaining Pokemon, but they’re all captured in nets. Stella makes off with Mr. Mime, who is touched at her display of caring.

Team Rocket chases after Stella and Mr. Mime but are suddenly stopped by the appearance of Ash, who has caught up to them in the Meowth balloon with his mother and the other Mr. Mime. Ash reunites with Pikachu and they launch a Thunderbolt on the tank. However, Team Rocket reveals that the tank is made of rubber – electricity won’t stop it.

Realizing he has no other option, Ash calls out Charizard to use his flames to melt the tank, but Charizard won’t listen. Delia calls upon the Mr. Mime that she befriended to help her son, and it does. It uses its Light Screen ability to make impenetrable invisible walls to stop Team Rocket in their tracks. Team Rocket opts to go around the wall, but Stella’s Mr. Mime, now jealous of the other Mr. Mime, rushes in to help, making another wall to stop Team Rocket’s tank.

Together with the other Mr. Mime, they create an unbreakable enclosed tower of invisible walls, trapping Team Rocket for good…..until, of course, they try to blast their way out anyway with a barrage of missiles that only results in blowing themselves up and blasting them off.

Mr. Mime returns to Delia, and she reveals that she’s nicknamed it Mimey.

Stella also reunites with her Mr. Mime and gives it some positive words of encouragement, making Mr. Mime once again motivated to perform.

Later, at Ash’s house, Mr. Mime is shown helping Delia out in the kitchen as she cooks. Delia has happily adopted the stray Psychic Pokemon as a new member of the family.

———————————————-

– The title of today’s episode is “Mr. Mimie Time” on the title card…..

Even if I wanted to be nice and say this was in reference to Delia’s Mr. Mime later being called Mimey….it’s spelled Mimey not Mimie.

– Ash was about to try capturing Mr. Mime without battling it first……..

– Okay, even Stella tried to capture it without battling first. Do you two need to go back to Pokemon 101?

– While Mr. Mime are not found anywhere in the wild in Gen I, you do obtain a Mr. Mime via trading with an NPC on Route 2. Applying a bit of continuity, you would indeed take Route 2 to get from Viridian City to Pallet Town, but Ash said he could see Pallet over the horizon, which he really shouldn’t because they’d arrive at Pewter City first. I don’t say this to be nitpicky, I just thought it was interesting.

– Intentional jealousy storylines are always kinda iffy. Yeah, bringing in a replacement and trying to make her Mr. Mime jealous could motivate him to show up the new Mr. Mime and perform….or it could just feel like it’s easily replaceable and give up even more. Or it could not care because, with a replacement, it wouldn’t be pestered so much to perform….

Also, Misty, dear, maybe not use Ash’s jealousy of Gary as evidence that this plan will work. I can think of zero times when Ash’s jealousy of Gary has actually made him better as a Trainer. He gets worked up, sure, and he strives to be better than Gary, but he doesn’t tend to do much to back it up. He gets upset that Gary is further along in his journey than him so he spends forever and a day getting to places that should be very closeby, taking numerous detours in the meantime, getting lost along the way and never improving his navigational or survival skills. He gets upset that Gary has more Pokemon than him, so he captures like one new Pokemon and sends it Oak, never to train it. He gets upset that Gary has more Badges than him, so he’s like ‘Okay I have eight Badges now…..let’s go home.’

– What is up with Stella’s hand in this shot?

– This episode also ties in with the first movie briefly by showing Giovanni after he speaks with Jessie, James and Meowth, explaining how they’ll never find a Pokemon as rare as Mewtwo. The shot then shows Mewtwo in his armor in front of him.

Also, something weird I just noticed….when does the movie really take place in the series? Because these last two episodes and the one following this buildup to the movie – it’s almost immediately after we see Mewtwo in the next episode that the movie seems to takes place. However, Ash and the others are still on their journey in the start of the movie, but they’re back in Pallet/going to the Indigo conference at this point. Did the movie technically start after the Indigo League ended?

– Also, yeah, they BLEW UP GIOVANNI’S GYM and he still won’t fire them.

– Brock’s plan is actually kinda dumb. That Mr. Mime costume is ridiculously good, admittedly (where the hell did he get that?) but Ash can’t use Mr. Mime’s abilities. How can he make Mr. Mime jealous when he can’t do the same things a Mr. Mime can do?

– Brock’s justification for not being the one in the suit makes sense (he’s too tall) but Misty’s is that she’s too cute to wear something covering her face? Come on, Misty….

– Ash: “I won’t do it. I’m not gonna dress like a clown.” You should say that BEFORE you put the costume on. Also, it is a little funny that Mr. Mime is based on a mime but looks more like a clown.

– Okay, so he’s not actually making the invisible walls, he’s just miming for real…so why do you need the Mr. Mime costume? I’d think Mr. Mime would be jealous of any being taking its spot if it’s just doing his non-powered act better than him.

– I actually feel really bad for Ash here. He’s being forced into this dumb outfit for a dumb plan while also being screamed at and whipped at every two seconds by Stella while she tries to train him to do Mr. Mime’s act. She clearly acknowledges that her strict training method is what caused Mr. Mime to quit in the first place, even Ash points this out in inner monologue when he’s being trained, but she still decides that’s the best way to train Ash? He’s also a stranger, and a small boy, and someone who was kind enough to humiliate himself for her sake. Yet she’s still cool with treating him like this.

– This episode’s plot heralds back to AJ and his strict form of Pokemon training. However, whereas in that situation where it was just that AJ was hard and strict but he and his Pokemon understood each other and loved one another, so the harsh Training wasn’t cruel like Ash perceived, Stella……I guess doesn’t have that level of understanding with Mr. Mime or it’s simply a case of some Pokemon not taking well to that type of training. I totally get that. Pokemon and people work in similar ways. Some people and Pokemon take to strict methods of learning quite well while others learn through various means and methods and don’t respond well to such harsh tactics.

– Stella’s a ringmaster whose regular design is a ringmaster outfit, but when she’s first shown on stage she’s wearing a clown outfit……..okie dokie.

– Team Rocket introducing themselves with a trapeze act and a human (or….cat) cannonball act was actually pretty cool. The amount of trust Jessie had in James to not drop her or miss is impressive, even if they did end up falling.

– Stella stops Ash from explaining that he’s not a Mr. Mime to Team Rocket because it would ruin her plan…..but….so would Ash getting kidnapped…

Brock also only grabbed Stella to get her out of the way of the net, even though Team Rocket clearly just wants “Mr. Mime” and would probably just let Stella go if they accidentally grabbed her. He could have easily grabbed both of them….

Everyone’s being awful to Ash today.

– Delia DOESN’T CARE THAT ASH GOT KIDNAPPED just because she assumes they’ll let him go when they realize he’s not a Mr. Mime? I mean, yeah, sure, they probably would, like I said about Stella, but they’d probably steal all of his Pokemon first. Or, since they have more of a vendetta against him, they might use him as a hostage to get Pikachu or something. In a darker show, they’d probably beat him up just for petty revenge. You’re his mother, dammit. These are actual criminals who have used guns and BOMBS in the past. Have some concern.

Also, nice emotional manipulation to have Delia clearly worried before the commercial break but then just like “Oh then there’s nothing to worry about!” with a big smile after they return from the break….

She doesn’t even want to go after him. She just wants to make Brock and Misty some food back at her place. Even in the best of scenarios, like they’d let Ash go without issue and not even steal his Pokemon, he was still kidnapped. That’s still something terrible happening to him.

And Brock and Misty instantly stop caring after that too and go to eat at Delia’s without Ash. Even without being kidnapped, it’s rude as hell to eat a home-cooked meal at HIS HOUSE without him. Why is literally everyone so awful to Ash today?

Stella doesn’t even seem to care despite the fact that it was her fault this all happened in the first place (and Brock’s, but she was the main cause).

I’d say it’s even weird that the audience gives zero fucks. A Mr. Mime was kidnapped in front of their eyes, the circus was canceled for the day because of it and no one is expressing any concern.

– Stella apparently changed back into her ringmaster outfit during the commercial break and between Delia’s lines.

– Why did they gag Ash when they think he’s a Mr. Mime?

Also, I find it pretty ironic that Mr. Mime isn’t a silent Pokemon….

Also also, Ash could have easily started talking and revealed who he was immediately considering the gag is over his Mr. Mime head not his actual mouth….

– They realize Mr. Mime is a Psychic Pokemon, right? As in, tying it up would do pretty much nothing?

– The Team Rocket theme plays when Ash reveals himself because the original version had him starting to recite Team Rocket’s motto, but he didn’t in the dub, which is disappointing.

– Oh my god, Team Rocket actually believes Ash is still a Mr. Mime even after he takes his head off…..There are no limits to the stupidity of these three.

– Ash: “I’m not a Mr. Mime! I just play one on TV.” I’m assuming this is a fourth wall break, because I don’t think the circus is televised.

– Ash stealing Team Rocket’s balloon is one of the funniest and kinda badass things he’s ever done. Leave it to an episode where Ash is actually being kinda cool and very tolerable for everyone to treat him like garbage.

– Delia: *sigh* “I’m getting worried about Ash. I hope he’s alright.” Oh I’m so worried several hours after witnessing my son’s kidnapping. After all that time enjoying a nice visit and meal with his friends, he hasn’t come home yet. Golly. I hope he’s just hit traffic or something.

– So Delia knows from like 150 feet away that a Mr. Mime at a circus was Ash in a costume for no reason besides, I guess, mother’s intuition, but she instantly believes this real Mr. Mime is Ash when it’s right in front of her face…..Even when it’s talking, like they bought a costume that has an animatronic mouth or something. Then she believes the mouth is able to eat? Just how stupid is….I guess everyone in this show?

– Also, just to be nitpicky, I’d assume any mother, especially one as overbearing as her, would demand he take off the mask and costume before eating anyway just to be polite.

– Ash is pretty good at piloting that hot air balloon.

– Delia: *upon seeing Mr. Mime and Ash in his Mr. Mime costume in the living room* “Does Ash have a twin brother?!”

YOU’RE. HIS. MOTHER. I don’t even think I need to explain the layers involved in the stupidity of that line. Holy shit, Delia. Grow a brain cell.

– Delia: *when she realizes the Mr. Mime she’s been talking to wasn’t Ash* “I thought it was strange that you ate so nicely.”

Everyone is being SO AWFUL to Ash today. What is happening?

– He can’t even catch a break with Mr. Mime. He asks very nicely if Mr. Mime will come with him to help his friends at the circus, and it refuses, but Delia easily coerces it to go.

– Where the hell were they storing that tank? They parked their balloon right next to their little cabin and there was nothing else around. I won’t bother asking how and why they have a frickin’ tank on hand in the first place because this is Team Rocket. I will ask why they didn’t use the tank the first time they showed up, though, and why didn’t they steal all of the circus Pokemon the first time as well?

– I refuse to believe a Machoke isn’t strong enough to pull up that net…..

– I refuse to believe that that net is strong enough to trap three huge trucks moving at high speeds….

– I do think the little periscope camera Team Rocket has is cute and funny, though.

– Stella’s Mr. Mime instantly forgives her and turns around just because she gave it a piggyback ride to get away from Team Rocket? I guess that’s not the silliest “Trainer does something for the Pokemon so the Pokemon instantly changes their tune” story element we’ve seen…..

………Why wouldn’t she just return it to its Pokeball and carry it away?

– Stella: “Ash!”

Brock: “Hey Ash!”

Misty: “You’re just in time!” Screw you all! You didn’t even wonder where Ash was when Team Rocket returned. For all you knew, he was dead. You all suck.

– Jessie: “Your electric attacks won’t work! This tank is made of rubber!” It…..is? It clearly looks like it’s made of metal. Rubber doesn’t typically shine like that. How is it even functioning if it’s made entirely of rubber? You could have just said it was some vague electricity resistant armor or coating or something.

– Ash choosing Charizard here actually is smart because, of all his Pokemon, he’s the only one who’d be able to destroy a tank made of rubber as the fire would melt it…..However, of course, he won’t obey. I won’t ream into him for this like I usually do, because he admitted it was a long shot and this was his most logical play, honestly. Plus, too many people have been giving Ash shit today, so I’ll give him a break.

– How does Mr. Mime stand on the walls or climb up them like Spider-Man?

– One thing that has always stood out to me about this episode is the massive Light Screen tower. I dunno why that’s stuck with me over the years.

– Stella: “See, Mr. Mime? You can do so much if you just try!” That was never the problem. The problem was you being too much of a hardass that nothing was ever good enough for you. It only became a lazy couch potato because it was tired of trying so hard for nothing but demands for perfection and yelling and screaming in return. She does apologize for being so rough in the next line, but this particular line rubbed me the wrong way a little.

It turns out that there’s likely a reason this line seems odd. In the original, Stella (Atsuko, in the Japanese version) believed she spoiled Mr. Mime too much and it made him lazy. 4Kids probably kept this line without realizing it didn’t make sense given how they altered the script. I don’t know why they changed the reason why Mr. Mime became lazy.

– How long do those walls stay up exactly? Like, is the wall from the start of the episode still in the road? Because that’s dangerous.

– Brock: “Heh, that Mr. Mime is getting to be like a member of the family.”

Misty: “Only this member of the family has manners and helps out in the kitchen.”

Seriously, why is everyone being so awful to Ash today?

———————————————

Overall, I didn’t dislike this episode, but it wasn’t all that great. It has a very basic plot, and Brock’s little plan to make Mr. Mime jealous was both cliché and shaky. We never did see what the plan was for Ash during the show. Stella just kept telling him to do pantomime, which, sure, fine, that’s something a person can do, but does she really have her Mr. Mime do nothing else in her shows besides stuff a normal person can do?

Ash was surprisingly quite tolerable in this episode, even if he did send out Charizard again. The only thing I really want to ding him for in this episode is trying to capture Mr. Mime without battling it first. We’re 64 episodes in, he has eight Badges, he knew this was a rare Pokemon, there’s just no excuse whatsoever.

However, he did get some good lines and was pretty alright for most of the episode. That’s why it’s such a damn shame that everyone was, for some reason, treating him so poorly today. It was a non-stop barrage of either insulting him, tormenting him or not giving a single shit about him. He was kidnapped by people who have tried to kill them before, and they just brush it off like it’s no big deal – even his own mother.

As for Mr. Mime…..eh. I bounce back and forth between liking Mr. Mime and finding it cute to thinking it’s super annoying. I’m glad Delia has some companionship at home now, and I think a Mr. Mime is, oddly, a great fit for her since it is able to do so much around the house. However, I’m also glad Ash didn’t technically catch it (or, at least, decide to keep it with him?) because I can’t imagine having much patience for it over time. It popping up every now and then when Delia appears is enough.

Next time, Ash finally sees Professor Oak in order to learn more about the Pokemon League. Gary shows up to visit his grandpa at the same time as he also prepares for the Indigo League conference.

….Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

An Absurdly Deep Dive into the History of 4Kids | Part 2: Pokemon – I License You! (1998-99)

To say 4Kids lucked out beyond belief with Pokemon is an understatement. Their existing deal with Nintendo was already very lucrative, but they truly didn’t know full-blown success until Pokemon came on the scene. The Pokemon games had already gained massive success in Japan, due in part to the fact that there were two different versions of the game, Red and Green, and, later, Blue and Yellow, prompting consumers to buy the entire set, or at least Red and Blue or Red and Green, to complete their Pokedexes. It also prompted a lot of socializing with other players since, if you couldn’t afford to buy the other game, you could trade Pokemon with someone else who had the other version.

The game series was certain to be a success in America, and it was, but it was slightly preempted by the anime. Just 20 days prior to the release of the games in North America, on September 8, 1998, 4Kids premiered their first ever venture into English dubbed anime with the premiere of Pokemon.

The first episode of Pokemon that aired in the United States was not actually the first episode in order. To help draw attention to the show and create tension, 4Kids released Battle Aboard the St. Anne with altered narration from its future normal broadcast cut which indicated this was a special preview of the show. At the end, the narrator wondered if the kids would make it through the shipwreck and explained that the viewers would see the start of Ash’s journey the following day when the series would properly start.

While I understand what they were doing, this is a little messed up. ‘Will this group of small children die a horrible death via drowning!?….Anyway, here are the goofy adventures of how these small children started their journey!’ Admittedly, that would make my suggested trolling of them just showing the funeral part of the next episode, cutting to black and rolling the end credits a hundred times funnier. ‘And that’s how these small children got here…..and then they died. The end!’ (Thanks to Bluebaron on Twitter for reminding me of this preview.)

Pokemon quickly became 4Kids’ most popular franchise by several miles, and it would retain that title over the entirety of 4Kids’ life. Being completely fair, 4Kids didn’t dub the series themselves at first. They only produced the dub. 4Kids didn’t have their own dubbing studio at the time nor did they really know how to dub anime, so they contracted out TAJ Productions to do the dubbing work.

TAJ originally started out as a music production company, but they eventually started creating English dubs and other post-production work for anime, video games and cartoons after doing several related projects for clients.

It’s unclear exactly how much 4Kids controlled in regards to the dubbing job. According to Bulbapedia, TAJ was responsible for the casting, script adapting, voice recording and mixing. Everything else was handled by 4Kids Productions.

Considering that 4Kids has an extremely distinct editing, writing, dubbing and production style, it can be assumed that TAJ was following a lot of orders from 4Kids when they were adapting the scripts. Pokemon is known for being one of 4Kids’ most loyal adaptations, all things considered, especially in the early years, and I think a good chunk of credit for that goes to TAJ, especially considering that they were responsible for casting, which meant that they were originally the ones who brought in what would become 4Kids’ dream team.

TAJ dubbed seasons one through five of Pokemon, as well as several anime series 4Kids had acquired the rights to over the years (and one live-action show), but, in 2003, 4Kids would take dubbing duties away from TAJ when they created their own dubbing studio. 4Kids would dub Pokemon for three more seasons until 2006 when The Pokemon Company would take the international rights to Pokemon back and dub the series themselves under Pokemon USA.

Funnily enough, in 2006, PUSA hired TAJ once again to help with the production of the dub from their first outing with the special, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon, through seasons nine and ten and Movie 09. However, on January 2, 2008, TAJ announced that they were losing Pokemon again when PUSA decided to hire DuArt Film & Video as their dubbing studio for season eleven and Movie 10 onward. In 2013, dubbing responsibilities would be handed over to Iyuno-SDI Group, who dub the series to this day.

One of the aspects that 4Kids had full control over was the music, leading them to create what is one of the most beloved English dubbed anime theme songs of all time with the first Pokemon season’s theme song.

And you can bet your ass that 4Kids loved it some music, eventually selling many of their in-house recorded songs for their properties on standalone soundtracks or compilation albums. 4Kids knew how to make music that was marketable. No matter if it was genuinely great as Pokemon’s first theme or as cringe-worthy as One Piece’s theme song, they always knew how to make earworms. Nearly all of their tracks still stick with many of their fans to this day. Even if we all make jokes about 4Kids and their rapping, there’s no denying that they definitely knew how to make music that was at least catchy and, at most, truly good.

There’s definitely some criticism to be had in that regard, though, as, for the most part, changing all the music for Pokemon or any other show or movie was entirely for their own profit. Selling a soundtrack they made for the property makes them much more money than if they tried to sell the original soundtrack, if they were legally allowed to do so in the first place. Instead, they would choose to remove a great bulk of the music from any property they had, Pokemon included, for many years, and made their own soundtracks and CDs that they could sell and make profit from. Little to none of the revenue from those CDs would need to go back to the original owners since 4Kids made the music on their own and only used the logos and other imaging from what they licensed to sell the product.

4Kids, under LCI, had also partnered with Hasbro to make them the main toy licensee for Pokemon while also signing on a reported “over 100” domestic licensees for other products, including Kraft, General Mills, Welch’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Scholastic and American Greetings. They were going in hard with Pokemon once they knew what they had on their hands.

In November of 1999, 4Kids needed to take Pokemon to the next level with the premiere of their first ever dubbed theatrical movie, Pokemon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, as well as their first Pokemon Short, Pikachu’s Vacation.

And it was…….a complete mess. 4Kids decided to absolutely mangle the movie from what it originally was. They removed the 20 minute long backstory segment of Mewtwo and the other clones. They changed Mewtwo’s motivations to make him, as Norman Grossfeld, President of 4Kids Productions at the time, stated “clearly evil.” This change included making Mewtwo want to completely destroy the world when he didn’t in the original so American audiences wouldn’t be confused by the morally ambiguous Mewtwo who was struggling with existentialism and self worth in the Japanese version.

As mentioned before, they also completely rescored the movie to, quoting Grossfeld again, “better reflect what American kids would respond to.” while also including numerous American pop music tracks, several songs of which have absolutely nothing to do with the movie, lyrically. I’d say the most confusing track on the CD is ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ by M2M. There’s 100% no romance in here, so it feels completely out of place.

While the pop music thing was obviously done for the sake bolstering soundtrack sales, the score, which would be released on its own separate CD, didn’t need to be made, and the comment about creating a new score to better suit an American audience makes no sense. This statement has no studies or anything to explain why they didn’t think American children responded well to Japanese music, especially orchestral music that had no vocal track. If they wanted to make English versions of the songs with lyrics, fine, completely understandable, but they didn’t, because they very, very, very rarely ever did that, especially in their early years. It’s pretty clear that they were just trying to cover up the fact that they wanted to sell their own soundtracks to the movie. This is especially true since, as Dogasu notes, the orchestral background tracks they omitted from this movie are kept in the dubbed versions of future episodes.

However, replacing the score and nearly all music for their properties will very much become the norm for 4Kids from here on out, whether they actually went ahead with a soundtrack release for the property or not.

Oh and, something interesting that I found while researching for this retrospective – 4Kids recognized that they made the Pokemon identification errors with Pidgeot being called Pidgeotto, Scyther being called Alakazam and Sandslash being called Sandshrew, but they left in the errors on purpose. Why?

According to the audio commentary, they wanted kids to notice….for some reason? I dunno, to make them feel smart or something? They also thought it was plausible for Team Rocket to make those identification errors since they’re dumb.

……Of course that doesn’t change the fact that only two of those misidentifications were Team Rocket’s doing. The third, Pidgeot/Pidgeotto, was done by it’s own Trainer, and with a Pokemon that we’ve seen many times before since Ash has one, which is completely inexcusable if not downright insulting. It’s clear that 4Kids just realized the errors too late and didn’t care enough to fix them or own up to them honestly.

They probably should have been a little more careful with their identifications considering we were literally being taught how to correctly identify every single Pokemon in existence by their silhouette in every episode of Pokemon with the ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ segment. This really was just a gold star moment for 4Kids in regards to both being incompetent while also being disrespectful to their audience.

4Kids would continue to frequently make Pokemon misidentifications, most notably and most commonly in their movies and short films. So either they continued to do this on purpose for no other reason besides to make them look foolish or they seriously didn’t notice nor care until it was too late – and even then they still didn’t really care.

My money’s on the latter, especially considering that they practically flaunted how little they really knew of Pokemon and how little they cared about making mistakes in this realm when they made the ‘Trainer’s Choice’ segment during Advanced Challenge. ‘Trainer’s Choice’ was a multiple choice question game for viewers to play during commercial breaks that replaced ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ in the English dub while the Japanese version had removed the ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ segment and replaced it with a normal eyecatch.

Over the course of the use of this segment, 4Kids made many errors, some more obvious than others. Some of them were misunderstandings of Pokemon types, what had advantages over what, ignoring that some Pokemon had immunities to certain types, while many other mistakes were just flatout embarrassing like frequently misspelling Pokemon names, sometimes giving Pokemon other Pokemon’s names (like mislabeling a Beautifly as a Nuzleaf and then later mislabeling a Sealeo….as a Nuzleaf), and, of course, the most famous Trainer’s Choice mistake, claiming Arbok evolved into Seviper.

To 4Kids’ credit, they did hire someone during Advanced Battle to handle the segment who seemingly knew more about the franchise that 4Kids had owned the rights to for about seven years at that point. Lawrence Neves was credited as handling the segment from then on, and the mistakes lessened by a significant amount, but some fairly obvious mistakes and even another name misspelling remained until the segment was finally removed after PUSA took over.

The film had additional issues in that it was originally released in widescreen in Japan, but the English version had to use a 4:3 aspect ratio, which caused some issues with the cropping and required some additional edits to keep characters in frame when they were talking, but this was more of an issue with Warner Bros. that would be a continued problem for several movies. In 2016, this issue was fixed for this movie as it was finally released in 16:9 widescreen.

Audiences also didn’t appreciate that the English movie was trying extremely hard to jam an anti-violence message down viewers’ throats when it’s based on a series centered entirely around battling captured monsters who utilize incredibly violent and dangerous abilities in battle. All of that seemingly made okay because the Pokemon fighting in this movie during the clones vs. originals match were doing so without the aforementioned dangerous abilities – they were punching, kicking and slapping, which is much less harmful.

They did imply that this was worse because, unlike in Pokemon battles where Trainers or Pokemon will usually stop when the match is clearly decided, they were intending on fighting to the death in the movie’s battle. Still, it came off as largely hypocritical and most likely 4Kids’ desperate attempt to placate parents’ groups who had come to lambaste Pokemon as a whole for being a series about ‘glorified cock-fighting’ that solved most problems with violence.

Even the short, Pikachu’s Summer Vacation, the title of which had been shortened to Pikachu’s Vacation, didn’t get away without being sufficiently messed with. While some edits are understandable, such as changing the Japanese text to English, and removing the end credits to be included in the movie’s end credits to ensure parents didn’t walk out of the movie thinking the short was the entire movie (This was seriously was a viable concern. Some people have stated that, even with the credits removed, some parents tried to leave after the short was over, thinking the short was the movie, and their kids had to convince them to stay.) some changes were not. The most notable being changing the narrator from a gentle woman, voiced by Satou Aiko, to the Pokedex, for some reason, as well as changing the entire score, again, and messing up the opening credits.

While Pikachu’s Vacation didn’t retain the end credits, they did keep the opening credits, and they not only got names wrong, but they wrongfully attributed some credits to the incorrect people. You can see an entire Japanese/English breakdown on BulbaGarden here.

Problems with the movie and short aside, 4Kids knew a major marketing opportunity when it saw one. This was not only their first theatrically released movie, but it was also their first theatrical movie release of a majorly popular franchise when the movie already proved to be crazy successful in Japan. They went hard with their marketing. They not only had the normal trailers and newspaper spots, but they also hooked people in by offering exclusive Wizards Black Star promotional Pokemon cards in select theaters that showcased Pokemon from the movie and short, such as Pikachu, Mewtwo, Dragonite and…..Electabuzz? …Electabuzz wasn’t in the first movie….?

*one Google Search later*

Okay, according to Bulbapedia, an Electabuzz was in the movie as a Pokemon belonging to one of the Trainers in the wharf (Not one of the three who made it to New Island). I honestly didn’t believe that, so I re-watched that scene, and yup. There it is.

That is literally the only shot of that Electabuzz. It doesn’t even reappear in the end when they’re back in the wharf after having their memories erased. There are so many more Pokemon I can think of that were more prevalent in the movie that would have deserved that exclusive card spot much more than Electabuzz, but I guess they just liked Electabuzz, and I can’t say it wasn’t in the movie.

Nintendo of America or 4Kids or both made a deal with Burger King to produce toys based on the first movie that would be distributed in Kids and Big Kids Meals – little Pokemon plushies that were encased in plastic Pokeballs that doubled as keychains. Oh and there were also the INCREDIBLY COOL 23 karat gold plated Pokemon cards that you could purchase separately at Burger King.

There were six different variations to collect – Mewtwo, Togepi, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, and, for some reason, Poliwhirl. Again, I didn’t believe Poliwhirl was in the movie. But, again, technically it was. In the same panning shot where you see Electabuzz briefly, you also see Poliwhirl from the back.

*shrug*

I guess I should also question Jigglypuff’s inclusion, but it was an established semi-regular character in the show so it’s not that questionable. Also, maybe it counts by proxy because there was a Wigglytuff in the movie.

I had several toys from this, including two of the gold Pokemon cards (Jigglypuff and Togepi) and one of the plastic Pokeballs with which I got a little stuffed Meowth.

Sadly, the plastic Pokeballs were later found to be a suffocation risk, which resulted in the deaths of two children. On December 11, 1999, 13-month-old Kira Alexis Murphy suffocated in her playpen after half of the ball stuck over her nose and mouth. Burger King eventually recalled the toys, but they were heavily criticized for acting too slowly – at first refusing to recall the toys after the initial death because they didn’t want to incite a panic in their customers. It wouldn’t be until another child nearly died from suffocating on the toy that Burger King agreed to recall them. Even then, they tried to keep it lowkey until the US Consumer Product Safety Commission pushed them on the situation.

To their credit, after that push, they did launch a pretty massive recall effort with commercials explaining the situation airing on TV, offers to exchange the Pokeballs for free small fries, warnings all over Burger King itself as well as the trays, bags and items and even a dedicated 800 number to call for information. However, even with the recall efforts, another child, four-month-old Zachary Jones, wound up dying a month later from suffocating on a Pokeball.

Burger King would eventually get sued by the families of the victims, which was settled for an undisclosed amount, and they quickly made changes to their safety practices and warning labels to prevent future incidents from happening ever again.

Upon the release of Pokemon The First Movie, despite the various issues, it was immediately a massive hit. In Japan, it was the second highest grossing film of 1998, grossing ¥7.6 billion. It debuted at number one at the box office in the US with $10.1mil on opening day, was the only anime film to ever achieve such a status until 2021 when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train debuted in America, was the highest-grossing movie based on a video game until 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and finally wracked up $85.7mil after closing on February 27, 2000.

In fact, it was such a highly anticipated movie that kids were actually skipping school in droves on the Wednesday that it initially premiered, feigning sickness, and it was so widespread of an issue that it came to be known as the Pokeflu.

Despite being so successful with audiences and financially, it wasn’t nearly as well received by critics, and the entire accolades section of the Wiki, barring one entry, is nothing but nominations for the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, which was pretty much just the Razzies before they became a thing.

The movie was nominated for Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing More than $100 Million Using Hollywood Math (Takeshi Shudo), Worst Screen Debut (for all 151 Pokemon), Biggest Disappointment (Films that Didn’t Live Up to Their Hype) (Toho (the original Japanese distributor of the movie) and Warner Bros.), and it won Most Unwelcome Direct-to-Video Release (All nine Pokemon videos released in 1999, including this movie, which is weird because Pokemon The First Movie obviously wasn’t direct-to-video….) The only good award it won was the Animation Kobe award for theatrical films, and, being fair, that was purely a Japanese award for the Japanese version.

The Indigo League series of the Pokemon TV show as well as the first Pokemon movie cemented 4Kids as being a staple in the childhoods of an entire generation, no matter if 4Kids cared about such a thing or not. Truth be told, looking back, the first Pokemon movie’s complete mutilation was a huge warning sign of things to come for the company. It was the first window into their true views on their audience and their level of respect for their licenses. However, as children, fans simply didn’t tend to notice nor care. In fact, many, like myself, were most likely completely unaware of most of the issues with the movie until they were well into adulthood, if they ever learned about them at all, and by that point 4Kids was already long gone.

Still, even I treasure the first seasons of Pokemon and the first movie no matter what 4Kids did to them. Being so tough on the first movie when I initially reviewed it actually hurt my heart because of how beloved it was and still is to me. It’s a terrible commercialized shell of what it once was, but I’d still easily sit down, watch it and enjoy it right this second, just as many other people who were fans as children can also attest.

Pokemon was certainly the goose that laid the golden egg for 4Kids. Financially, they were growing quickly as a result. In just the three months of 1998 that Pokemon had been on the air and the video games and TCG had been in stores, 4Kids enjoyed a 46% jump in revenue from $10,116,800 in 1997 to $14,767,429 in 1998. And for 1999, revenue jumped 310% to $60,482,269. Their net income skyrocketed over these three years from $739,135 in 1997 to $2,743,069 in 1998 and an impressive $23,638,426 in 1999.

One last note for 1999 before we move on – there was a lawsuit where 4Kids as well as Nintendo and Wizards of the Coast were named as defendants. The plaintiff, the law firm of Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerachon, on behalf of all Pokemon trading card consumers, sued them, claiming their trading cards were illegal gambling, especially in regards to some packs containing rarer cards than others. The lawsuit was requesting an unspecified amount be paid back to consumers in monetary damages.

In a funny turn of events, the aforementioned law firm that started the lawsuit backed down when they realized that 4Kids was actually one of their clients. Even though they had withdrawn, reportedly three other law firms were continuing with the lawsuit. According to the financial report for 2000, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice because the plaintiffs couldn’t or wouldn’t prove why their case shouldn’t be dismissed due to lack of standing. It was appealed, but the appeal was denied in 2002, and the dismissal was upheld.

Next – Part 3: 4Kids 2000

Previous – Part 1: 4Kids as a 4Baby

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 44 Analysis – The Problem with Paras

CotD(s): Cassandra – An herbalist like her grandmother, Cassandra’s greatest dream is to evolve her Paras and use Parasect’s mushroom spores to make a miracle potion to help all Pokemon across the world.

Reappears?: No.

Pokemon: Paras and later Parasect, along with a Persian.

Plot: The group comes across a small village, and they decide to stop there to load up on Potions and Antidotes. When they approach an herbalist’s shop, they’re challenged by the owner’s granddaughter, Cassandra, to a Pokemon battle.

She sends out her Pokemon, Paras, to battle Ash, but he’s perplexed to find that Paras seemed extremely scared and unwilling to battle. Cassandra says she wants her Paras to evolve into a Parasect as soon as possible so she can harvest the spores from its mushroom to use in a miracle potion that will restore defensive power, attack power, concentration, determination and even make Pokemon smarter.

Ash realizes that Paras cannot withstand the full force of his team, so he tells Pikachu and Squirtle to go easy on it, essentially letting it win, in order to gain easy experience and evolve.

Despite a dinky spark from Pikachu and a little squirt of water from Squirtle, Paras is still easily toppled each time. Ash decides to try Charmeleon, but is shocked to find that it refuses to obey his orders, blasting Paras with a powerful Flamethrower and Tail Whip before burning Ash.

He’s able to get Charmeleon under control with the help of Pikachu, but Paras has run off in a panic.

Meanwhile, Meowth is obsessed with helping Cassandra achieve her dream since she cared for him earlier. He was suffering from a fever, and she was kind enough to stop and make him some medicine. After the fever was relieved, he found himself smitten and swore to help Cassandra.

As Paras runs away, Meowth takes the opportunity to nab up Paras and help him evolve by ‘training’ him with Arbok and Weezing. He knocks them both out himself and pretends Paras did it, then pretends to be knocked out by one measly attack, which instantly boosts Paras’ confidence.

They’re successful in their plans, but leave Ash to finish the job when they reunite Cassandra with Paras. Pikachu willingly falls to Paras, but Ash tries Charmeleon again afterwards.

It doesn’t go well.

Cassandra’s grandmother reveals that Ash is too inexperienced, making Charmeleon no longer respect him. Charmeleon won’t obey Ash at all now and starts rampaging. Paras tries to run, but Team Rocket arrives and cheers him on, revealing to Cassandra that they’ve been secretly training Paras. Suddenly, Paras manages to instantly knock Charmeleon out with a poke to the stomach. This last bit of experience allows Paras to evolve into Parasect.

Charmeleon gets up, blasts off Team Rocket and attacks again, but is put to sleep by Parasect’s Spore attack, allowing Ash to finally recall him.

Cassandra bids farewell to Ash and the others. Soon after, Team Rocket lands in front of her shop so she decides to patch them up. Meowth happily believes she’ll make him the company mascot now, but she refuses, stating she can’t take him away from their job as ‘superheroes,’ the cover story they gave her before. Her grandma finds a Persian outside that she claims she’ll use as a surrogate for him before sending him on his way.

————————–

– It’s the return of the completely useless maps.

Are they in a golf course?

– Narrator: “It’s a quaint, cute place. But it’s so small, it doesn’t even have its own Pokemon Gym.”

They very rarely ever visit a place that does have its own Pokemon Gym. Just ask literally every region they’ll visit in the future. About 95% of the places they visit are Gym free. Size doesn’t have anything to do with it, either. They’ve been to massive cities that don’t have Gyms, and some Gyms are in small rural towns.

Ash: “There’s no use stoppin’ here if they don’t have a Gym.” Again, you guys stop at many places that don’t have Gyms. If you didn’t, this series would be much shorter.

– Ash: “I’m dyin’ for a cheeseburger.” 4Kids and their hard-on for cheeseburgers again.

Misty: “No way! I want to go to a nice restaurant!” This place is described as being a very dinky little backwoods village. What makes her think they have a nice restaurant?

– I am finding the sudden shifts in quality for Team Rocket’s disguises to be off-putting. One episode, they’ll have great outfits and tons of props, the next they’ll be crawling on the ground in plain view while holding up small branches pretending to be bushes.

– If Meowth’s head is so hot that it burns Jessie’s hand, through a glove no less, he should be dead.

– James: “Wait a second, Jessie. If we leave Meowth here, he could collapse from that fever.”

Jessie: “Don’t worry. He’s still got eight more lives left.” I know you guys are meant to be villains, but holy shit, you’re legit saying you don’t care if Meowth dies.

– And thus begins Meowth’s very uncomfortable crush on the human girl, Cassandra.

I get that Meowth is just not used to people being nice to him, but why does his appreciation need to be in the form of a crush? At least Cassandra doesn’t return his feelings or anything, but it’s still awkward. Between this and the crush Chikorita will have on Ash, it’s getting really weird in Pokemon. Oh well, at least I don’t believe there’s anything else like this in the further future—Oh hey, I didn’t read up on the Bulbagarden comparison for this episode.

Let’s see…Hmmmhmhmhm.

“This was years and years before the Diamond & Pearl games dropped that bombshell about humans marrying pokemon, by the way!” The….what?

Original Japanese Text in Diamond and Pearl: ““Sinnoh Folk Story 3” There once were Pokémon that married people. There once were people who married Pokémon. This was a normal thing because long ago people and Pokémon were the same.”

…..My God….so many people on DeviantArt must have had a field day with this.

– It was nice that Cassandra helped Meowth, but she is leaving him, happily, in the hands of people who denied being his Trainers and nearly left for him dead, verbally expressing that they didn’t care if he died.

– I’m just going to condense some of the biggest problems with this episode so I don’t clutter up the post with pages of material.

Major Problem A – Who Gives a Crap About the Paras Line?

Oh my god, a handshake! Don’t kill me!

Personally, I don’t find it ugly or anything (Well, Parasect is a little) but you’d be hardpressed to find anyone who would either put them on their favorites list or use one on their team in the games at any point in time.

They’re not the worst Pokemon in the world, but they are a major liability being both Grass and Bug (Not one but two x4 weaknesses? Oh boy!) their stats are far from impressive and they’re really only even a little useful if you focus on status effects.

Major Problem B – Pokemon Specific Episodes Are Meant to Celebrate the Focused Pokemon.

Yay Paras!

Like the Paras line or not – this episode makes a Pokemon with a terrible rep look even worse. An incredibly weak Paras, even moreso than you’d think, is such a pathetic sack of crap that even minor non-attacks knock it flat on its ass.

Put it this way – if you encountered this thing in the wild in the games and wanted to capture it for some reason, all you had were off-brand Pokeballs and you knew every attack of any Pokemon you owned was too powerful for it and the game included a ‘breathe gently on it’ option – if you used that option, it would probably die.

When Paras is finally fake winning battles, the thing gets an ego the size of Kanto and starts picking fights with other Pokemon. So either Paras is a drama queen little wimp or an ego-centric asshole. Why would I want to root for this fungus covered dick?

Not only that, but Cassandra purely wants Parasect to use as an ingredient in potions. She doesn’t even have anything interesting to say about Paras. She’s laser focused on Parasect.

This has nothing to do with what Paras wants or highlights anything special about Paras or even Parasect, and it’s all about what the spores from Parasect’s mushroom MIGHT be able to do. Not what it’s been proven to do. What it could possibly maybe do – which is highly unlikely anyway because, bloody hell, she basically wants this ‘miracle potion’ to do everything short of solving the debt crisis and curing death. And, as we can see in the series, that potion never happened so, in hindsight, this whole episode is a waste of time and a complete waste of an attempt at cleaning up the Paras line’s horrible rep.

Major Problem C – The clusterfuck that is experience, levels and how they’re applied in regards to battles in the anime. Notably the biggest and most discussed problem of this episode is how experience is being portrayed here.

The plot goes that Cassandra is trying to get her Paras to evolve, but can’t since it doesn’t have much experience and its level is low. She tries to get it to win battles, but it’s so embarrassingly weak that she can’t win.

Ash decides to let Cassandra win by making her Pokemon do such lame attacks that, logically, should defeat no Pokemon. Ash is unsuccessful at this, but Team Rocket has better luck by knocking out their Pokemon behind Paras’ back and pretending it did it. It can be argued that the one battle it legit won was against Charmeleon, but let’s save that little nugget for later.

The point is, experience was fabricated and ‘levels’ were gained through fake battles, which ultimately let Paras evolve into Parasect. After The School of Hard Knocks, it seemed like they were dropping the idea of an experience system that was close to what the games had, especially since Ash’s Pokemon should be well into evolution by now if we estimate their levels.

However, now it seems like it’s back, at least in a sense. They’re not talking about levels, but they are clearly talking about experience as if it’s a quantifiable concept that can be measured and gained explicitly through battle.

That’s all well and dandy, but the idea of faking battles for the sake of evolution is just unreal. Experience, in a more subjective view, is much like how you’d gain experience in anything in real life. You learn, you build muscle, you get a little faster, you get a little stronger, you get better at developing strategies etc. Somehow, that translates to a Pokemon’s body or spirit or whatnot affirming that they’ve reached whatever point is deemed necessary for it to evolve, and it does so, if the Pokemon wishes (They use their internal B button if they don’t.)

If it is as such, experience should not be able to be gained in such deceptive manners, unless, somehow, the concept of experience is all in the Pokemon’s head, which just creates more confusion. No timid Pokemon in existence would ever evolve, and egotistical Pokemon could evolve without barely a battle under their belt.

In a less realistic but, given the games, understandable viewpoint, experience is something quantitative that we can measure in numeric units, which means this plan still shouldn’t work. Experience points, whatever they are, should only be able to be gained when legit battles are won. I’m not sure how the body or whatever is distributing these points would be able to tell the difference, but, logically, that’s the way it would go.

The only game canon thing I can think of that skirts around this rule is the item Exp. Share, which grants a Pokemon experience whenever another Pokemon on your team wins a battle. I have never been able to come up with a logical explanation behind how that device works and it’s not anime canon as far as I can see, so it’s hard to work that into this discussion.

It just doesn’t seem right in any way that Paras is able to fabricate experience by faking battles – Which leads us into the next issue.

Major Problem D – The Ethical Ramifications of Faking Experience.

I’m certain that Ash and the others don’t see much harm in throwing these battles because it’s not like Cassandra is trying to win a contest or do anything official – she just wants a Parasect to make medicine. However, ethically, this practice would be ludicrous.

If it were that easy to gain experience, surely becoming a Pokemon Trainer would be a gigantic pain in the ass. If you wanted to be legit, you’d have to face Trainer after Trainer of cheaters who have massive teams of level 100s that they got by playing ‘Pokemon Battle Theater’ for a few days.

And just forget about getting into the Pokemon League. Afterall, I doubt they’d have any method of determining if a Pokemon got their experience through legitimate battles or fake ones. Imagine how easy it would be if you wanted to be a professional baseball player and you reached pro level in skill by playing against two year olds in strollers while you play teeball with a bat the size of a pizza peel.

Let’s not leave out Team Rocket, who would’ve easily taken over the world by now with an army of level 100 powerhouses that they obtained in a few weeks.

Major Minor Problem E – Why Can’t Cassandra Just Find a Wild Parasect?

They’re not exactly the rarest Pokemon ever. Or maybe find a Paras that is not a complete spineless wuss and train that to evolve. Paras definitely aren’t too rare, and I assume she lives in an area where they are indigenous because she has one.

For that matter, if Parasect’s spores are so well-known for their medicinal properties, surely it’s sold commercially. Given the commonality of the Paras line, I can’t imagine it’s that expensive either.

Major Minor Problem F – The Unsettling Connotations of This Evolution.

The unsettling aspect of this situation comes in Paras’ evolution. It’s not being forced to evolve or anything, but there is a question of whether Paras might be afraid to evolve, which is why it seems like such a wimpy drama queen in battle.

Why might this be? Have you ever read the games’ Pokedex entries for Parasect? Most of them explain that, after evolution, the mushroom on its back grows so large that the bug ‘host’ is drained of energy, loses consciousness and its control over its thoughts and body while the mushroom controls the ‘host’ for the rest of its life.

Yup. The mushroom is basically a parasite (name makes more sense now) and once Paras evolves, it becomes a mushroom zombie. That is one of the most horrifying ramifications of evolution I’ve ever heard.

– Cassandra: “Good luck, Paras! All the Pokemon on earth are counting on you!” All the Pokemon on earth? You’re being about as dramatic as Paras is about to be.

Also, this thing is so skiddish that it ran away from Pikachu for saying ‘hello.’ You really want to pile on the pressure by saying that all of the Pokemon on earth are counting on it?

– Paras is certainly a good Pokemon to have. Look at it roll over and faint after receiving an electric shock so weak that I probably get more amperage flowing through my body when I rub my stocking feet on the carpet. It’s understandable, given that Electric types are ½ as effective on Paras.

– I would applaud Ash for actually researching Paras and deciding to go down the route of a weak type matchup to make it easier to let Paras win…..but…..let’s not waste it. In about two minutes, it will not matter.

– If you ever had any doubt that Paras was faking – just look at its match with Squirtle. Not only are Water moves not very effective against Grass types, but it was a piddly Water Gun. Give the Electric type some credit – even static shocks hurt a little bit. In the case of Squirtle, his attack was so weak, there’s more pressure and water coming out of the water fountain in a middle school hallway. Either Paras is more fragile than an egg made out of a teenager’s feelings or he’s faking it.

– Ash: “I choose you, Charmeleon!” You….dumb….ass…mother…fucker.

This is why I chose not to praise him for looking up type disadvantages with Paras, ‘Hurr durr, if I can’t lose with a Pokemon who’s got type disadvantage, let’s go for my newly evolved soon-to-be dragon who has a quadruple type advantage! HURADURRDURR!’

Granted, Pidgeotto wouldn’t be any better (well, maybe, considering he at least listens to Ash) but why not give Bulbasaur a go before trying this stupidity? Or maybe letting Misty and Brock try? Outside of Vulpix and Zubat, all of their Pokemon have type disadvantages with Paras.

– Some people apparently believe that Charmeleon’s personality shift happens here due to Ash telling Charmeleon to go easy on Paras, making Charmeleon lose respect for Ash, but I call bunk.

First of all, he was misbehaving the instant he evolved. This is the first we see of Charmeleon straight out disobeying Ash, but blowing fire in his face isn’t something a well-behaved and trained Pokemon would do.

Second, this one incident is definitely not enough to warrant a year or two of misbehaving and assholery.

Third, the old lady later says that Ash simply doesn’t have the experience to handle Charmeleon, but that’s another thing I’m calling out. If we’re still bringing experience and levels into the equation, Ash has more than enough experience as a Trainer to handle a Pokemon who is either level 16 or nudging level 36. Game-wise, even getting the Cascade Badge (which allows full control of Pokemon up to level 30) should be enough to handle Charmeleon, and, if not, the Rainbow Badge (up to level 50) would definitely allow it.

Just to make this scenario more realistic, let’s assume it’s the experience level of the Trainer to get the Badge and not the Badge itself that allows for this.

Charmeleon is acting as if evolving gave him amnesia. He either doesn’t remember or doesn’t care about his past with Ash anymore and that pisses me off to no end. Evolution should not be an excuse to change Charmander’s personality this much.

If winning over the misbehaving Charizard was end-game, they should’ve had Charmander be a difficult brat from the start, which would’ve been believable given his past with Damian. Maybe have him have a bad attitude, but still obey Ash, then when he evolved he started disobeying? They could have had a perfect foundation for this plot, but it’s like they were making it up as they went. This whole extended plotline just seems like it was built on poor writing and planning. The fact that we’ll have to deal with this misbehaving crap until late Orange League is ridiculous.

– Paras is still in the match after getting a full-blast Flamethrower to the face. He was faking before.

– Ash: “I was so happy when Charmander evolved, but now I’m not so sure I was ready for it.”

I give him props for owning up to his shortcomings and inexperience, but I immediately take them away in hindsight because Ash will never learn from this. He will just continue to use Charmeleon and Charizard and expect that each time he does so he will behave and listen even when he does jack to train him.

– There are many reasons to call foul on Paras evolving, but there’s another reason I just realized. Charmander evolves into Charmeleon at level 16. Paras evolves into Parasect at level 24. No way do I believe Paras’ level at the start was even in the double digits, so I’m left to believe all these fake battles gave it ridiculous amounts of experience, surpassing nearly 40 episodes of legitimate experience with Charmander. That’s a load of crap.

– Meowth: “I can’t do that unless you lend me Arbok and Weezing.”

James: “What do you need those two for?”

Meowth: “Because losing battles is their specialty.”

Jessie: “He’s got a point.”

James: “They’re bigger losers than the guy who invented homework. How did we get stuck with such rejects?”

First of all, nice line about homework, 4Kids. You’re really connecting with the youth.

Second, damn, you two are being really mean today. Arbok and Weezing are two Pokemon that I would actually understand not obeying orders. They live in poverty, probably starve all the time considering the main three can barely keep themselves fed, (Come to think of it, outside of Island of the Giant Pokemon, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Arbok or Weezing eat.) and have to listen to their Trainers constantly call them worthless.

– Paras is not only a drama queen wimp and soon to be egotistical jackhole, but it’s also an idiot. How can it really be falling for these fake battles when it’s literally just standing there covering its eyes?

Meowth’s not being subtle in the fact that he’s the one knocking Arbok and Weezing out. The only reason he’s getting away with it, even a little, is because Paras keeps covering its eyes. But even that shouldn’t work entirely because Meowth practically shouts what he’s doing as he does it.

– Meowth pretends to be knocked out by Paras. Why couldn’t they have commanded Arbok and Weezing to fake it too? They just hurt their Pokemon for no reason.

– Ash: “It’s Paras!”

Misty: “How’d it get up in that tree?”

Gee, I dunno, Misty. I’ll have to contact an etymologist about this, but I have certainly never heard of a bug climbing a tree.

– Ash: “Remember, Pikachu, go easy on it!”

Better yell that right as the battle begins with Paras five feet away so Paras will never hear you say that and catch onto what you’re doing.

– Paras is a douche for stabbing Pikachu’s tail when it had its back turned. Not cool.

– Ash: “Charmeleon! One more time!”

You.

Dumb.

Ass.

Mother.

Fucker.

Take this in, ladies and gentlemen, because this is but the first of many, many, many times this complete braindead imbecile will just up and expect Charmeleon/izard to obey him when fuck all has changed between now and the last time he tried.

Can we get a flashback, by the way?

Ash: “I was so happy when Charmander evolved, but now I’m not so sure I was ready for it.”

Boy howdy, I sure am ready after, hm let’s clock it….five minutes and ten seconds of doing absolutely nothing.

This occasion is ten times as stupid as it is normally because Charmeleon was the one who made Paras run off in the first place, AND there’s still that glaring x4 weakness thing he’s not paying attention to.

What was so wrong with re-selecting Squirtle or letting Bulbasaur have a try or giving Misty and Brock a try? Logic in this episode does not exist.

– Ash: “Hey, what’s the matter? Charmander was always totally obedient.”

…..Do…you have amnesia? Is amnesia contagious? If telling Charmeleon to let Paras win before did have anything to do with it misbehaving at all, doing it again is just going to make it worse. Even if it didn’t, he still has amnesia for obvious reasons.

– Misty: “Charmeleon won’t obey Ash.”

You sure are a quick study, Misty.

– *Paras one-hit KO’s Charmeleon by poking it in the stomach*

Hmmmm *dials phone*….Yeah, hi, is this every manure company in the world?….Ah, yes, I’d like to order all the bullshit…..What’s that? This episode gained sentience and already ordered it all? Okay.

– Charmeleon immediately gets up and smacks Team Rocket away with its tail. Either it was faking, which is unlikely, or this episode is forgetting that being knocked out takes a lot out of you.

– Why are Ash and Brock so impressed by the Spore attack? How many times have they seen a Pokemon be instantly paralyzed or fall asleep due to one spray of a powder or spore attack? In fact, you almost never see them needing more than one spray. Either the move is avoided, blown away or it hits, and if it does the effect is immediate and strong. I have yet to see a ‘weak’ powder or spore attack. I’ve seen one instance of a ‘more powerful’ Sleep Powder in the Soul Badge episode, but that was in regards to its…force? And ability to blast through a Gust attack.

– Misty: “Looks like you need to evolve into a better Trainer, Ash.”

Ash: “Next time, I’ll be fine.”

Wipe that smirk off your face and go train your Pokemon, you ninny.

I have no qualms about not giving him those props for owning up to his shortcomings because he doesn’t even go the rest of the episode before basically saying ‘Yeah, I don’t need to train anything. He’ll obey me next time.’

Also, minor note, but Misty’s entire role this whole episode has been to either fight with Ash or insult him. Seriously, nearly every line directed at him has been super bitchy. I didn’t bring it up because, being honest, I feel he deserves it today, but wow. Who the hell wrote this episode?

– Ash: “Well, losing on purpose is the toughest thing we’ve ever done.” He says, again, five feet away from Parasect. Though, being a mushroom zombie, it probably doesn’t care.

– I should really keep a tally of instances where people who should be questioning a talking Meowth aren’t.

– Meowth: “I guess it’s only natural to make me your company mascot–”

Cassandra: “NEVER! I’D NEVER TEAR YOU AWAY FROM TEAM ROCKET!” Why does she seem so pissed at this comment? She is practically screaming this line.

– If Cassandra’s shop needs a company mascot, why would it not be the obvious choice of Parasect? And why is she so willing to adopt this Persian as the mascot? Paras just…’went through all that trouble’ to evolve for Cassandra and she’s going to be using its spores for her miracle potion. Persian have nothing to do with medicine yet she’s instantly into this Persian.

——————————-

The Problem with Paras? More like The Problem with Everything in this Episode!

Pbbtbbtttthahahahaha….ha….that was funnier when I thought of it before writing this.

While March of the Exeggcutor Squad may be infuriating and filled to the brim with terrible, at least it has a few good or funny moments. This is the first episode I remember watching where I can barely think of even one slightly positive thing to say about it.

The faces that Jessie and James make, as well as their tones of voice, at the start of the scene where Meowth is trying to convince them to help him are a little humorous. It’s a teensy bit funny when Squirtle and Pikachu do their pathetic attacks.

The end.

Everything else is just awful.

Ash is being a major league hall of fame idiot. Misty’s being a bitch. Misty and Brock were basically talking backgrounds. Charmeleon officially starts his assholery here. Paras is boring. This Paras is terrible in regards to every facet of its personality. Parasect is creepy and tragic. Cassandra’s nice, I guess, but has a hair trigger temper. The grandma, despite rightfully blasting Ash a couple times, seems out of place and unnecessary in this episode. The plot and story are nonsensical garbage. The experience and levels and everything related to it are nonsensical here and continue to muddle the concept in the anime universe. Meowth’s crush is creepy. Team Rocket’s being assholes. Even the animation was notably much worse than it normally is.

Paras and Parasect may be far from impressive Pokemon, but I think they deserved more than an episode that makes them look like ultra weak chickens who are only useful for the mushroom that inevitably takes over their brains and turns them into zombies.

Next episode…..Jigglypuff’s debut. I don’t have much against the episode, that I recall, but this begins the start of an annoying unfunny running gag that, not lying, is STILL going on to this day. Yup, they brought him back for several episodes of Sun and Moon. Just…wow.

Previous Episode…..

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 21 Analysis – Bye Bye Butterfree

CotD(s): None, though I guess you could say that the pink Butterfree, Ash’s Butterfree’s mate, is kinda one.

Departures: Ash’s Butterfree.

Reappears?: No 😦 Though, to be fair, he does appear in some of the future Japanese OPs and EDs. He also appears in some flashbacks.

Final Farewell: I feel like Ash’s Butterfree had more room to grow, but definitely would’ve stagnated quickly. Plus, Butterfree’s main goal in life was to be a Butterfree. He already achieved that goal, so setting him free and letting him settle down with a mate instead of spending his whole life at Oak’s is the best option for him. We miss you, Butterfree.~

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock are continuing their journey to Saffron City when they approach a large cliff overlooking a vast ocean. Nearby, they spot a massive swarm of Butterfree, and Brock explains that they have gathered for the season of love – a time when Butterfree mate and lay their eggs across the sea. Ash asks if his Butterfree should go too, and Brock explains that if he doesn’t do it now, Butterfree will never have babies.

The group rents a hot-air balloon, and Ash sets Butterfree off to find a mate. As many other Trainers join them in the air to release their Butterfree, Ash’s Butterfree is finds no luck in love in the swarm. He finds an attractive pink Butterfree and falls head over heels, but his courtship dance is met with a swift smack to the face.

Embarrassed and dejected, Ash’s Butterfree flies down to land. Ash and the others follow and find Butterfree sulking under a tree. Ash, Misty and Brock proclaim that the best way to win over the lady Butterfree is by showing his awesome moves and abilities. With a spiffy new yellow ribbon around his neck and a new approach, Butterfree is off again to find love.

As he makes his attempts, the pink Butterfree gives him the cold shoulder again.

Suddenly, a helicopter appears, revealing Team Rocket pursuing their latest target – the Butterfree. They dispatch a huge net and start capturing the Butterfree. Ash and the others find that they’re not of much help in taking them down in their slow hot air balloon. Ash’s Butterfree makes a valiant effort to take out the helicopter, but to no avail.

Team Rocket leaves the area with their catch, but Ash’s Butterfree, now exhausted and roughed up, is hot on their tail. Ash and the others try to keep up as best they can. They lose sight of Butterfree, but he returns to ask them for their help. Team Rocket has holed up in a warehouse in the middle of the mountains and are enjoying their sizable Butterfree catch.

Ash, Misty, Brock and Butterfree burst into the warehouse and start battling Team Rocket. While they’re all distracted, Butterfree sneaks away and busts open the cage holding the Butterfree. The Butterfree manage to escape out the door, but Team Rocket gets back into their helicopter to catch them again.

Ash and the others try to pursue them in their balloon, but they’re lagging way too far behind again. Pikachu and Butterfree team up to attack the helicopter and with a swift Thundershock, Team Rocket is sent blasting off.

The pink Butterfree, enamored by his heroics and dedication to protecting her, reciprocates Ash’s Butterfree’s courtship dance and they become mates.

Later, at sunset, Ash tearfully bids his Butterfree farewell, knowing he has to set him free in order for Butterfree to mate and start his new family. With the sparkles of the sunlight on the Butterfree’s wings seeing them off, Butterfree also says his goodbyes to his Trainer and friend and sets off to start a new life and a new family.

———————————————–

– Bye Bye Butterfree For the love of God, put a spoiler tag up. Being fair to 4Kids, this is the exact same title as the Japanese version.

– Futurama made this episode distracting for me. I keep thinking back to Dr. Zoidberg dancing on a rock and battling Fry to the death for his potential mate, haha.

– Wow, Rachel Lillis, you’re not even trying to hide the fact that you’re putting on a bad southern accent to play that Butterfree Trainer that Brock liked, are you?

– Brock: *trying to prod Butterfree to mate with a pretty girl’s Butterfree* “Don’t you get it? If two Butterfree fall in love, their Trainers can meet and they can fall in love too!” Soooo….you want that girl to fall in love with Ash?

– I didn’t remember that the pink Butterfree straight up slapped Ash’s Butterfree. A simple ‘I’m not interested, thank you.’ would’ve sufficed, Bitch-erfree.

– Ash: “Do you think Dexter could tells us how to get that Pink Butterfree to be its mate?”

Misty: “Dexter’s never been in love.”

Yeah, but it might have valuable information on Butterfree mating habits.

– Misty: “You’ve got to be assertive! Love is all about attacking your opponent first. Get in a quick punch and surprise them, and when they’re still weak take the lead and you’ll beat them hands down! Trust me, I know!”

What the fuck?

Brock: “You mean it?”

Misty: “Sure do! That’s love!”

Brock: “ARGH I WISH I’D KNOWN THAT SOONER!”

??????

– Ash: “Now remember, this time just have confidence in yourself!” But he didn’t seem to have confidence issues the first time. In fact, wasn’t it Butterfree’s persistence that got him slapped?

– It bothered me for years that Team Rocket was flying such a long blank banner from their helicopter that the shot focuses on for so long. It wasn’t until I read Dogasu’s comparison on this episode that I finally realized the original shot had text on it. For those curious, the banner just has a transcription of their motto in the original version. Kinda pointless since they’re announcing their motto over the helicopter’s PA system, but at least it’s something to READ.

– Ya know, in a real situation with a helicopter flying around a swarm of Butterfree….let’s just say there’d be a lot of dead Butterfree.

– James: “It’s those little twerps again. No matter where we go, those kids are always in our way.”

You’re following them.

– James: “Ahahaha, nothing but net!” Oh, 90’s.

– Ash, even if the Stun Spore coated the helicopter…..what then? You can’t paralyze a helicopter.

– And a helicopter wouldn’t be able to fly that close to all of those balloons without a bunch of corpses peppering the landscape below.

– So, is there some reason none of the other Trainers in the other balloons are lifting a finger to help out their Pokemon/the Butterfree as a collective? Either none of them have Flying Pokemon that can help or they’re all jerks.

– Yes, Misty, Ash shouldn’t let out any other Pokemon to help Butterfree because he’s trying his best to take down the helicopter. Wouldn’t want to bruise Butterfree’s pride and, I dunno, save those Butterfree.

Granted, Pidgeotto probably wouldn’t be able to do much in the first place.

– Okay, now is there any particular reason none of the other Trainers are trying to follow the helicopter? I’m just going to assume the jerk thing.

– I will never not love Ash, Misty and Brock doing Team Rocket’s motto.

– HOLY CRAP! They left in, untouched, Starmie getting smacked by a sledgehammer? Ow. They even left in the sound effect. Owww.

– Is a spurt of water like a Hyper Potion to a Starmie? Also, where the hell did Misty randomly get a high-powered portable water hose?

– So it’s not okay to send Pidgeotto off to try and help because it would damage Butterfree’s pride, but Pikachu can save the day no problem? Is it because the pink Butterfree is attracted to him now?

– Though I’ll forgive that last note because that scene of Pikachu about to shock Team Rocket is hilarious.

– And the episode just cuts off after that. Nothing else happens. Well that was a good episode. I really enjoyed it. Next episode–

Dammit, NO. I don’t want this. You’re not gonna make me tear up again.

Don’t play the song. Please, God, why?

*sniff* I hate this show! Leave me alone!

————————————-

This really was a great episode. Outside of some wonky animation, it was a very fitting departure for little Butterfree. It mostly hit all of the right notes, had some pretty funny and touching writing, and the ending still gets to me. Maybe it’s just nostalgia gnawing on my heart, but I really can’t help but well up when Butterfree finally flies away.

And, as much as I rag on Ash, you do have to appreciate how brave he was to let Butterfree go. Caterpie was the very first Pokemon Ash ever caught. He has a status rivaling that of Pikachu at this point in the series. But he realized that Butterfree going off and having a family was more important than staying by his side. One of the harsher realities of life is knowing when it’s better to let go of someone you love if it’s for the betterment of their lives, no matter how much it hurts you in the process.

We may never see Butterfree again officially, and, oddly enough, I’m okay with that. He never does outright promise or say that he’ll see Butterfree again. He just says Butterfree may come back to visit them sometime maybe, which I think is a statement that he really doesn’t believe and moreso just hopes. Butterfree’s story ended and while it would be nice to see him again someday with little baby Caterpie (who would long since be Butterfree of their own by now), I’m fine with just leaving him on the horizon.

Bye bye, Butterfree.

Next episode, another of my favorites and definitely one of the weirder episodes of the series, the battle against Sabrina of Saffron City. Ash’s first failure to get a Gym Badge.

Previous Episode….

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 17 Analysis – Island of the Giant Pokemon

CotD(s): None

Plot: Following the events of the previous episode, Ash, Misty, Brock and Team Rocket are hurdled through the sky by Gyarados’ Dragon Rage attack. Ash, Misty and Brock manage to survive the fall and find themselves on a beach in the middle of nowhere. Worse yet, Pikachu is missing and so are Ash’s Pokeballs.

Team Rocket also managed to survive the attack. Not surprising, considering they get blasted off every week, but they find that Meowth is missing as well as Jessie’s Ekans and James’ Koffing.

Pikachu finds the Pokeballs of Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur, and the group tries to find their way back to Ash and the others. Meowth, Ekans and Koffing later join them, avoiding the conflict of their Trainers by claiming that Pokemon are only bad when their masters are.

Later, they discuss their situation by a campfire, but are interrupted when a giant Rhydon starts attacking. Meanwhile, Ash and others also find themselves on the receiving end of an attack from a giant Zapdos while Jessie and James end up at the mercy of a giant Moltres.

The Pokemon all gather at a local Slowbro’s food stand to lament in the loss of their Trainers over dinner.

The next morning, everyone, Pokemon and human alike, prepare to set out to find each other. Jessie and James use the telephone booth that they found earlier to contact Giovanni and ask him for assistance. However, since Jessie and James screw off and do their motto first, he quickly hangs up on them. They decide to pull themselves along by the phone cord in hopes of reaching the phone company.

Meanwhile, the Pokemon try to get some help from the local giant Pokemon by approaching the evolved forms of Squirtle and Bulbasaur, Blastoise and Venusaur respectively, hoping to establish a familial connection. However, their efforts are in vain.

Team Rocket escapes from a giant Kabutops and Pikachu in a railcar, but panic when the railcar ends up traveling back the way they came. Luckily, the phone cord James has been carrying wraps itself around the giant Kabutops’ leg and drags it with the car. Ash, Misty and Brock end up falling into the railcar when it crashes into the bridge they were standing on, and the resulting carnage grabs the giant Pikachu along for the ride as well.

As their paths converge, Ash catches sight of his Pokemon being chased by the remaining giant Pokemon. They manage to jump into the cart, but there’s a problem. They’re out of control and will inevitably crash soon. The cable snaps, and the cart is hurdled through the air, causing it to crash into the Zapdos, which is revealed to be a giant robot, same with the other giant Pokemon on the island.

The group finally plunges into the water, and a passing ferry reveals that the island is actually a theme park called Pokemon Land, which Giovanni owns, and he’s none too happy about his park being destroyed.

Later, Ash and the others get back on their journey and arrive at the beautiful beach town, Porta Vista, ready to take a well-deserved vacation after everything that has happened to them lately.

————————————————————

– I find it weird that Ash, Misty and Brock stayed together after that, especially since they made a big to-do in the beginning of the episode about them losing their grips on each others’ hands, same for Jessie and James, yet Ash’s Pokeballs and Pikachu got flung however many miles away.

Also, we saw Staryu, Starmie and Goldeen get taken up in the cyclone as well yet they’re never seen being recovered in the start of the episode. Guess they died and Misty caught new ones while they were looking for the other Pokemon. Convenient as they’re right by the water.

– We’re STILL using the Pokemon logo to say ‘Pokemon’ in the title screen?

– I love how that Krabby finds two dead bodies in the sand and his first reaction is ‘Sweet! I get to pinch dead bodies!’

– So Jessie got her Ekans for her birthday and James got his Koffing for Christmas…..I guess that begs the question of who gave them those Pokemon?

– Irrelevant but the random phone booth on the beach reminds me a lot of Digimon. This probably preceded Digimon, but still.

– While this episode does have the charm of finally understanding what the Pokemon are saying, I’m disappointed in several aspects.

1) They never do an episode like this again. I can’t imagine the chore of reading subtitles would be that big of an issue, and this provides so many opportunities for new stories. Plus, actually being able to understand the Pokemon sometimes allows us to better understand their personality traits. Like, gee, it sure would be nice to get to know Pidgeotto’s true personality.

2) Pidgeotto and Butterfree, as well as all of Brock’s Pokemon, are missing from this episode. It’s a little more understandable that Goldeen, Staryu and Starmie are missing, considering they’re corpses in the sand now, plus Goldeen wouldn’t have been able to travel on the land, and hearing Staryu’s ‘Hiya!’s and Starmie’s ‘*sighs*’ would’ve been grating.

3) Come on, give Pidgeotto some love.

4) I really would’ve liked to have heard how Butterfree felt after being traded. I’m sure he’s somehow aware he was traded and that must be emotionally trying to be suddenly taken away from your Trainer and given to some stranger. It was only for a short time, but it’s an emotional and psychological aspect of the show that I would’ve liked some insight on. Imagine if you were best friends with someone and suddenly they decided to trade you to some weird man for a giant rat that you were beating up earlier.

– Slowpoke will never not be entertaining to me.

– This episode also further highlights Charmander’s kind personality before he suddenly shift gears as Charmeleon and Charizard. Now I really want an episode where we get subtitles in the scenes where Charmeleon and Charizard are being dicks for the sake of comparison.

Squirtle and Bulbasaur’s personalities are further explored here. Squirtle is playful and a bit mischievous while also being laid back. He also has plenty of faith in Ash as he refuses to believe that he would forget about them.

Bulbasaur shows that he may still have a bit of a bitter aftertaste in the thought of trusting humans as he’s the one who suggests that Ash forgot them in the first place. Even after the others try to convince him otherwise, he only says that ‘maybe’ Ash isn’t that way. I really really really want to know what Bulbasaur’s backstory is after hearing him speak, since he seems to have a very interesting past. Too bad they’ll never explain….

Charmander visibly gets worried at the prospect of Ash abandoning them. This doesn’t really show that Charmander distrusts Ash, but that he’s still worried about being abandoned given his past with Damian. He also comforts Ekans and Koffing by assuring them that Jessie and James are looking for them, even though, by all intents and purposes, he has every reason to believe that they’re mean enough to abandon their Pokemon.

However, I do have to point out the depressing fact that Jessie and James really aren’t concerned about Ekans and Koffing or even Meowth for that matter. They acknowledge that they’re missing, but after the initial scene, they never bring them up again. Their whole focus after that point is getting off the island, not looking for their Pokemon.

– I like how Charmander’s using his tail flame as a lantern again.

– Meowth: “That means I can finally get my revenge!” Revenge…for….what? Saving your ass from drowning in the hallways of the St. Anne? Helping you find a way out of the sinking St. Anne? Saving your ass from drowning in the ocean? Letting you share a raft with them? Sure Pikachu was disappointed that Meowth didn’t die in the ocean (Which, by the way, is still messed up, Pikachu) but Meowth didn’t see that little snap of his fingers.

– You really gotta love Koffing’s perpetually doofy grinning face.

– I kinda call BS on the whole ‘no Pokemon is bad, they only have bad Trainers’ thing. Considering Pokemon seem to all have their own personalities, temperaments and most of them seem pretty intelligent, it’s unrealistic to assume that there’s not at least a few jackasses in the bunch.

I guess Meowth’s self-analysis also combats this, but Meowth’s shown time and again that he’s not all that bad.

– It’s nice that we also get a look into the personalities of Ekans and Koffing because, let’s face it, they don’t get really any focus, character-wise, at all. Until much much much later anyway. All we know about them is that they’re Team Rocket’s Pokemon. Although, I do find it weird that Ekans and Koffing have such an odd manner of speech. They’re not dumb, they just talk like cavemen.

The fact that Koffing and Ekans are actually quite kind Pokemon is both surprising and a welcome twist. It would’ve just been every other Pokemon episode just with the Pokemon acting out the human parts if Koffing and Ekans ended up being evil.

– I believe the whole ‘My master’s not around’ thing that Meowth says is dub-exclusive, but I do have to consider the theory that he was once Giovanni’s Pokemon, considering he’s always saying how he wants to be ‘top cat’ again.

– That cutaway to Ekans and Koffing drinking tea is hilarious.

– Squirtle incorrectly says ‘our masters are gone, too.’ Since the only Pokemon there are Ash’s, it should just be ‘Our master is gone too.’ Yay grammar!

– I love Bulbasaur’s face in this shot.

Looks like he’s doing a Ricky Ricardo impression.

– These giant Pokemon are robots. So why are they not only on, but also actively traversing the island in the middle of the night?

– Okay, letting the giant Pokemon robots wander the theme park on off-hours….I can stomach that, even though it would be a huge safety risk, liability and drain on power. But why the hell would you give these robots working attacks?

Zapdos has lightning shooting from it, Blastoise can use Hydro Pump, and Moltres and Charizard can use Flamethrower. What’s even worse is that they’re actively seeking people out to attack.

I would say this is just a Team Rocket scheme, but they’re trying to make legitimate money off the place. Having a bunch of patrons killed in your theme park by giant flame-wielding, water shooting, lightning spouting Pokemon is a good way to lose money on all sorts of lawsuits, get time in prison and possibly get the organization investigated.

– I love how 4Kids doesn’t cut out the scene where Bulbasaur and Meowth are very obviously drunk.

– Also, it’s very trippy to see a scene where a bunch of Pokemon are wallowing in depression while also getting drunk. It’s even worse considering that 4Kids doesn’t add any subtitles here. The Bulbagarden comparison noted that it’s all mostly incoherent stuff in the Japanese version, but seeing it without any subtitles is just weird, especially considering how long they linger on the final shot.

– I like how the music for the Team Rocket theme is coming from the phone, that was funny.

– It’s nice that Squirtle and Charmander are courteous enough to call for Misty and Brock too instead of focusing their attention on Ash.

– I love Bulbasaur trying to play the stoic tortured hero in an effort to avoid talking to Venusaur.

– There’s no way that dinky railcar has enough power to pull a giant robot Kabutops…

– Notice how the Pikachu robot is the only one not chasing or attacking anyone? Wouldn’t want to besmirch Messiahchu’s good name.

– Why the hell would there be a random loop-de-loop in an otherwise normal set of train tracks?

– Despite not actively looking for them, James’ face when he gets Koffing back is pretty heartwarming. Too bad Jessie’s too out of it in panic to care about Ekans. It’s made up for when you see them both crying happy tears later on. Ekans’ smiling and content face as Jessie pats him just makes it all the better.

– I love how Team Rocket is obviously disappointed that Meowth came back. It’s a bit mean, but it’s played up for laughs and you know they really care about him.

– The scene where James, Jessie and Meowth predict what will happen as they go out of control is just great. They’ve become so good at being failures that they can accurately predict every single thing that will happen during the crash.

—————

All in all, this was a really great episode. Disappointed and confused on some levels, but it’s a great break from the norm, explores territory we haven’t explored before (and never will again….) and has plenty of heartwarming and funny moments. It’s actually a lot better than I remembered as I thought the St. Anne trilogy petered off at this episode.

Next episode is the infamous first banned, yet not really entirely banned, Beauty and the Beach episode. Will FiddleTwix go the extra mile and review the original version to get all that James boobage the audience wants so much? Find out next time on Pokemon Ball Z!

Previous Episode….

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 11 Analysis – Charmander The Stray Pokemon

CotD: Damian – A pile of dog crap that calls itself a Pokemon Trainer, Damian uses and abuses his Pokemon like tools. He doesn’t even care if one of his most loyal Pokemon dies if they’re seen as weak and useless in his eyes. He’s one of the few examples of a bad person in the Pokemon world who really doesn’t get much in terms of comeuppance outside of getting a quick burn by Charmander. Also, for some reason, he’s Australian in the dub.

Reappear? No, thank god. However, it should be noted that he does appear, in a more polished fashion, later on in Best Wishes! in a flashback.

Pokemon: He has lots of Pokemon according to his Pokeball count. He used to own Charmander, but he’s not seen using anyone else.

Captures – Ash’s Charmander: Charmander has a rough backstory in that he was previously owned by a Trainer who only cared about power in a Pokemon. He didn’t care about befriending them or respecting their feelings at all.

His Trainer, Damian, left him to die on a rock by tricking him into thinking he’d return, but Charmander refused to leave, fierce in his loyalty to his Trainer. After realizing how much of an ass Damian was, Charmander decided to be Ash’s Pokemon since he and his friends made the effort to rescue him. Despite being a fiercely loyal and powerful Pokemon in Ash’s roster, he eventually developed severe behavior problems when he evolved into Charmeleon and eventually Charizard.

Plot: Still lost in the woods on the way to Vermilion City, Ash and the others come across a Charmander laying on a rock. Ash is excited to capture one, but Misty and Brock point out that it’s in rough shape. Ash must forego a battle, and it will need to go to a Pokemon Center immediately after Ash captures it. Ash attempts the capture, but Charmander swats the Pokeball away. He tries again, and is able to get it into the ball, but the capture is unsuccessful.

In an effort to figure out what Charmander’s deal is, Pikachu speaks with it. Through charades, Pikachu tells Ash that Charmander actually has a Trainer, and he’s waiting on the rock for him to return. Under the realization that the Charmander has a Trainer, the group finds it best to leave it be while hoping the Trainer returns soon.

Later, Ash, Misty and Brock reach the Pokemon Center just in time to dodge a storm. Meanwhile, Charmander tries its best to keep its tail flame lit since extinguishing it results in the death of any of the Char evolution line.

Brock continues to worry about the Charmander, and his worries are soon realized when a nearby Pokemon Trainer, named Damian, starts openly bragging about how he abandoned his Charmander for being too weak and laughs about how he tricked him into thinking he’d come back for him.

Brock, enraged by Damian’s cruelty, walks up to him and demands that he go back and get Charmander. Damian vehemently refuses, and a huge battle between Ash, Misty, Brock as well as Damian and his friends nearly starts before Nurse Joy shows up and reminds them that Pokemon battles are not to be used to settle personal disputes.

Damian and his friends leave, and Brock and the others rush off to save Charmander before his tail flame goes out.

Charmander is suddenly attacked by a flock of Spearow until he is saved by Ash, Misty and Brock. They barely make it to the Pokemon Center in time, and Joy gets to work on treating Charmander.

After several hours of tense waiting, Joy emerges to share the good news that Charmander will be fine after a night of rest. The next morning, the group realizes that Charmander escaped from the Pokemon Center in the middle of the night to go back to the rock to wait for Damian. Ash and Brock want to go get him back, but Misty and Joy explain that they can’t force Charmander to go with them or forget Damian. Brock and Ash resign, and the group leaves the Pokemon Center hoping that Charmander will soon realize that Damian’s not coming back and eventually return to the wild.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket uses their super duper new hole-digging machine to create another pitfall trap for the group in order to capture Pikachu. They capture Ash and the others in the hole while Team Rocket captures Pikachu in a rubber balloon.

As they’re about to leave, Charmander shows up and demands that they release Pikachu. When they refuse, Charmander Flamethrowers them and they run away.

Damian suddenly returns for Charmander after seeing it defeat Team Rocket. He claims that his abandoning him was for the better since it toughened him up and made him a worthwhile Pokemon without him even needing to bother raising it.

Brock and the others try to convince Charmander that it’s not worth going with Damian since he only cares about winning matches and doesn’t care about Charmander. Damian tries to force Charmander back into his Pokeball, but Charmander swats it away with his tail, causing it to smack into Damian’s face.

Damian attempts to throw out numerous Pokemon to force Charmander to go back with him, but Charmander and Pikachu deliver a nice dose of Flamethrower and Thunderbolt to Damian, causing him to run away.

Once Damian is defeated, Charmander turns to Ash and Brock. Brock decides to step aside and let Ash capture Charmander since he knows he’ll raise it well and have plenty of great matches with it (Well, half of that statement was true anyway). Ash captures Charmander, and they all continue on their journey to Vermilion City with their new fiery friend by their side

——————————————–

– We’re still using the Pokemon logo when we say ‘Pokemon’ in the title screen? I really thought that was a one or two-shot deal, yet it continues…

– Seems really weird to me that Ash and Misty are considering battling Charmander to capture it when they are already well aware that it’s weak and/or sick/injured. That’s like seeing a weak deer in the forest, wondering how to get it to a vet and then thinking it’d be a good idea to sic a coyote on it to make it easier.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to try and get the local Nurse Joy out to treat it? Or maybe try to find an Officer Jenny to help get to a Pokemon Center considering these types of things seem to be somewhat under her job description? They have several options available to them, but they just decide that, since Charmander’s being so difficult, that they’ll just leave it there.

– Misty: “I think this Charmander has an attitude problem.” Wha….no way. There is no way that they actually foreshadowed Charmeleon and Charizard’s behavior problems this early….No way….right? Hm.

– Brock: “Hey Ash, why don’t you try to figure out what Pikachu’s trying to say?” Hey Brock, he was totally already doing that. Pay attention.

– While I love Maddie Blaustein’s portrayal of Meowth, she is just so awkward as Damian. And I don’t know why he was made to be Australian either.

– I know that Damian is a totally over-exaggerated antagonist, but I really do hate this guy. If you really want to piss me off as quickly as possible, animal (or in this case, Pokemon) abuse will do the trick. Laughing about animal abuse will make a few veins in my face pop up to say ‘hi’. Laughing about the possibility that the animal is dead (which they actually do here, holy crap) is an instant white hot flash of rage.

– Not only all that, but he pronounces Charmander as ‘Charminder,’ and that bugs me a lot more than it should.

– I know its still early in 4Kids’ career, so hearing ‘die’ over and over in this episode shouldn’t be that noteworthy, but it does seem like Charmander is the exception to the rule when it comes to talking about death.

– Ah, the 90’s, when ‘nerd’ was a valid random insult. Nowadays you have to go on the Internet and find a poorly prepared troll to get that insult thrown at you.

– I honestly don’t know why Brock and the others are trying to demand that Damian take Charmander back. It’s quite obvious that this guy is a complete asshole who likely abuses what Pokemon he actually keeps, if his laughter at abandonment and possible death by neglect are any indication. Why would they want Charmander to go back with him? He abandoned him. Just go back and get him. I know Charmander’s super loyal and wants to stay on that rock no matter what, but if it’s a matter of life and death, just go and grab him.

– Speaking of which, how do wild Charmander deal with nearly dying at every rain shower?

– Nice faces in this shot.

>^<

– Okay, is there ever an instance where Spearow aren’t a bunch of complete jerks? I am legitimately curious.

– I don’t know why, but it’s bothering me that Team Rocket’s voices aren’t muffled in those anti-Pikachu suits.

– I get the science behind the rubber balloon capturing Pikachu, to a degree, but how is it following him? Static?

– Ah, it’s so nice to see that it’s never too early in the series for Ash and the others to completely forget that they have other Pokemon besides Pikachu. Bulbasaur could Vine Whip them out of the hole. Pidgeotto could pop the balloon and tear holes in Team Rocket’s suits, which they aren’t even wearing after they capture Pikachu, so that makes it even easier. Onix could make a staircase/ladder out of the hole. Staryu or Starmie could fill the hole up with water with their Water Guns and they could swim out. That would take a long time, but I needed another viable example.

– Another instance of the skeleton showing up when someone’s electrocuted.

– What the….did Damian’s other Pokemon just disintegrate after the Flamethrower and Thunderbolt? One second he’s holding like 100 Pokeballs over his head, defying the laws of physics I think, then after the attack the Pokeballs are just gone.

– Ash’s first capture not involving a battle. Definitely won’t be the last.

—————————

Two down and one to go in the Kanto starter trilogy, and this episode, despite being the most memorable, does have a few big problems with it. It is really weird that they set up the entire episode like Brock will get Charmander in the end, yet Ash gets it. Why? Because he kept his tail flame from going out. Yeah, he deserves Charmander for holding a jacket over his tail and watching it. I’m not saying it wasn’t kind, I’m just a little confused.

Brock was the one who carried it away. Brock was the one worrying like crazy over it, even when Ash and Misty had mostly gotten over it. Brock was the one who nearly beat up Damian and demanded he return to Charmander. He was the one we kept cutting away to with worrying thoughts of Charmander. Misty had about as much to do here as Ash did, so why does Ash get him?

One reason – because Brock is or will eventually become such an inert character that Charmander would rarely come out and we’d never get Charizard. Giving him to Ash is the only way that we’d see Charmander on a regular basis and eventually get Charizard.

Even so, why couldn’t they have had Charmander and Brock have a little bit of a friendship? A special connection? Something? Brock and Charmander don’t act any more friendly to each other than Brock and any other of Ash or Misty’s Pokemon.

Also, this episode just really brings to light the confusion behind Charmeleon and eventually Charizard’s later behavior issues. Ash and the others were Charmander’s supposedly first loving connections with humans, and it was one of Ash’s most loyal Pokemon. Then it evolves into Charmeleon and suddenly its entire personality changes. It becomes an insufferable ass who constantly reminds us that Ash is an idiot Trainer.

I mean, neglect, abuse and abandonment would probably do a number on you, emotionally and mentally, but it was just so jarring. No other Pokemon I can think of had such a drastic change of personality merely because of evolution, but then again I haven’t remained current on the series in years.

It is a thing in the games that training a Pokemon with a level higher than your training abilities, indicated by your Badge numbers, will mean they will disobey you. Though that’s something I never had happen since I don’t think I ever entered into that situation (I always went for Badges underleveled or just at the proper level, and I never grinded much nor traded). However, Ash gets all of his Badges, goes through some of the Indigo League tournament and even some of the Orange League before Charizard finally listens, but that’s a mini-rant for another day.

Finally, while I can believe full heartedly that people this asshole-ish exist, Damian is a really bad character. He’s so hammy, they’d probably serve him for Christmas dinner. His dialogue, the way he looks, the way he acts, especially his voice, just everything. Also, early Kanto seems to have a real issue with horrible accents.

I do like this episode, though. I love Charmander, the story is believable, sad and memorable, and it was a darker episode than normal dealing with possible death, Pokemon abandonment/neglect/abuse and even a near fist fight. It’s just not a great episode as a whole, though.

Next episode, the end of our Kanto starter trilogy – the Squirtle Squad! Prepare for a really silly threat, a weird hostage situation, darker themes yet again and the first appearance of unedited guns on Pokemon!

Previous Episode….

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 10 Analysis – Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village

CotD(s): Melanie – A sweet girl, but terribly boring, Melanie is the caretaker of a Pokemon village that consists of only one house. She nurses sick and injured wild Pokemon back to health with the hopes of releasing them back into the wild.

Reappears?: No

Pokemon: Technically none, though she is the caretaker of many.

Captures: Ash’s Bulbasaur – Quite the serious and protective Pokemon, Bulbasaur is one of Ash’s longest staying Pokemon in his team besides Pikachu.

Plot: Lost in the forest yet again, Ash and the others take a break when they stumble upon an Oddish. Ash and Misty both want to capture the Oddish, and Misty shoves Ash aside to capture it herself. She pits her Starmie against it and manages to weaken it. As she’s about to capture it in a Pokeball, the ball is suddenly batted away.

A Bulbasaur appears to protect the Oddish from the capture, and it quickly does away with Starmie. Ash, excited about a new prospect of capturing a Bulbasaur, sends out Butterfree to attack.

Butterfree uses Sleep Powder only to have it blown back in his face by Bulbasaur’s breath. Butterfree tries to continue battling, but a quick Tackle also takes care of Butterfree. Bulbasaur and Oddish take the opportunity to run off.

Ash is disappointed that he couldn’t capture Bulbasaur, but is excited under the belief that there are likely others in the forest to catch. As they continue on their path, Ash and the others cross a bridge that isn’t shown on their map. The bridge suddenly collapses under their feet. Ash and Misty manage to hang on, but Brock falls into the rushing waters below.

Ash and Misty pull themselves up and quickly rush to find Brock’s corpse—I mean totally alive body, but Misty is caught in a pitfall trap. Surprisingly, Team Rocket is not behind the trap, and Ash and Misty continue to look for Brock.

They spring yet another trap, which lands them in a net stuck in a tree. They see the same Bulbasaur down below who gives them a glance before walking away.

Later, Brock returns safe and sound to save Misty and Ash from the trap. Brock explains that he was saved from the river by a beautiful girl named Melanie and brings Ash and Misty to her Pokemon village where she nurses sick and injured Pokemon back to health in the hopes of returning them to the wild some day.

Ash, Misty and Brock decide to help out at the village for a while, and Misty makes amends with the Oddish she attacked earlier. While Misty is talking to Oddish, Ash pops up to tease her, causing Misty to yell at him. Bulbasaur suddenly Tackles Misty and knocks her to the ground.

Ash, fed up with Bulbasaur, decides to finish their battle from earlier, but Melanie stops him. She explains that Bulbasaur has offered to be the guardian of the entire village, and he only acts so aggressively when he thinks someone is a threat to the Pokemon there. When Misty yelled at Ash, Bulbasaur took that as a threat to Oddish and started defending it.

Bulbasaur tries to push Ash away, and Melanie explains that Bulbasaur doesn’t like Pokemon Trainers and is trying to make them leave. Ash understands Bulbasaur’s feelings and admires its bravery and resolve.

Team Rocket shows up, using a giant flying baseball stadium with a giant vacuum hose, and they start sucking up all of the Pokemon in the village. Brock, Melanie and Misty take all of the Pokemon into the cabin, but Oddish nearly gets captured.

Its saved by Bulbasaur, and Ash assists it in carrying Oddish back to the cabin. Bulbasaur and Ash team up to take Team Rocket down with Bulbasaur swatting away the vacuum hose and Ash using Pidgeotto’s Gust to combat the vacuum winds and create a tornado to whisk Team Rocket away.

After Team Rocket has been taken care of, Melanie offers to have Bulbasaur go with Ash to be on his team. She states that, while Bulbasaur is a great and brave Pokemon who has done a lot for the village, he’s very much restricted there and has no real opportunity to grow. In addition, his fierce protection of the village Pokemon makes them feel so safe and relaxed that Melanie finds it difficult to return to them to the wild back where they belong.

Bulbasaur agrees with the arrangement on one condition – Ash has to beat Bulbasaur in a battle and capture him fairly. Ash excitedly agrees and the match begins.

Ash uses Pikachu against Bulbasaur, and after some failed Vine Whips, Bulbasaur gives Pikachu a head-on Tackle. Before he has a chance to recover, Pikachu is hit by another Tackle, but manages to regain his composure in mid-air, responding with a Tackle of his own.

Bulbasaur attempts Vine Whip again, succeeds in wrapping Pikachu up with the vines and slams him repeatedly into the ground. However, Ash strikes back by having Pikachu use Thunderbolt on the vines, sending the shock through them and into Bulbasaur. Ash uses this opportunity to use a Pokeball on Bulbasaur and manages to capture it.

Melanie thanks Bulbasaur for everything its done for her, the Pokemon and the village, and bids it farewell while Ash promises to take good care of Bulbasaur. The group departs from the village with their new friend back on their journey to Vermilion City.

————————————

– Why does Misty want to catch Oddish? It’s a Grass type – isn’t she all about Water types? This is made even more confusing when she tries to justify it by saying the Oddish was near water when they found it and Water is her specialty, thus she should have it. By that logic, any Pokemon that drinks water is one Misty has dibs on.

– This is the first of many instances of this happening, but why does Ash need to whip out his Pokedex to see what an Oddish is? Despite never encountering one in the series thusfar, he had an Oddish doll in his room. I assume having a toy of something means you know what it is.

– Also, this is one of those capture attempts that just seems cruel. Oddish was minding its own business drinking water when Misty’s Starmie Water Guns the hell out of it, then, as its trying to run away, Starmie Tackles it. 😦

– Huh, yet another instance of Ash seemingly showing interest in pretty girls, even though he doesn’t know what Melanie looks like.

– Okay, look, I really respect Melanie for what she does. Creating and maintaining a Pokemon sanctuary of sorts with absolutely no financial benefit on her part is really great and respectful. I can understand wanting to keep Trainers away from the Pokemon in her village so they don’t get attacked or captured, but is there really no better way to do that than setting dangerous traps?

The pit in the ground and the net, I guess those aren’t that bad because as long as she checks them very regularly they probably won’t result in serious injury or death. But the bridge being rigged? That’s really dangerous! What if a handicapped person or a person who can’t swim was going across that bridge? Even someone who can swim would likely have trouble staying afloat in that current.

Considering the bridge wasn’t even on Brock’s map, I can only assume that she built the bridge just to dump people into the river. And what if she forgot to check the traps, which is implied by Melanie’s dialogue where she acts surprised that the traps actually worked? People could end up in those traps for days or weeks and end up dying in them. What if random Pokemon stumbled across them? They’d get hurt or die.

This is just such an overall terrible and dangerous idea, and it really could’ve been avoided by putting up a lot of signs that explain what this area is and telling Trainers to please not catch Pokemon there. Or maybe marking Pokemon who are staying at the village with a little collar that explains where they are and requests not to capture them.

Actually, she could just ask all of these Pokemon to go into Pokeballs. That way, they’d be officially captured and no other Pokeball would be able to capture them, until they’re released anyway.

– I’m actually kinda glad this is one of the only times Brock gets so embarrassed when talking about one of his crushes. The way he keeps smacking Misty for teasing him about it would probably get really old, though. Also, why are we able to see Misty get punched in the top of the head twice full out. but Ash getting slapped by Misty in the first episode had to be censored.

– Nice coloring error on Meowth’s ears when they get caught in the net.

– Let’s address this line that I had to write earlier –

“Team Rocket shows up, using a giant flying baseball stadium with a giant vacuum hose, and they start sucking up all of the Pokemon in the village.”

Team Rocket’s not exactly known for making sense most of the time, and they are infamous for creating huge outlandish contraptions out of nowhere, but I just have so many questions.

1 – This is pointless to ask but where did they get an enclosed baseball stadium?

2 – How is it flying using about four or five balloons?

3 – Why a baseball stadium? That has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of the episode or anything related. It’s not like they stumbled upon a baseball stadium earlier or anything either. There’s nothing but woods as far as the eye can see. This would’ve been fine in a much later episode with…..She who shall not be named until Johto, but just why here?

4 – Why is the big threat of this baseball stadium two huge vacuums? What do vacuums have to do with baseball?

– Okay, I’m no scientist or meteorologist, but I’m gonna call BS on the ‘creating a tornado with a vacuum and high wind’ thing. From what I can gather, twisters are caused when two winds blowing at different speeds at two altitudes meet. This causes the initial spinning effect. Other factors such as updrafts cause an increase in the spinning speed, and if the spinning gets fast enough, it will cause a funnel cloud which will touchdown on land.

Blowing air into a vacuum should logically cause the air being blown into it to just get sucked up without any noticeable effects, right? Or if the gust is powerful enough I assume the vacuum effect would get nullified.

I will admit that, if Ash meant to do that, then that is a really cool use of Pidgeotto for a change instead of its later usual shtick of popping Team Rocket’s balloon.

– Wait, why does Misty want to battle Bulbasaur now? Not only does it tarnish Melanie’s speech about Ash being the best candidate to help Bulbasaur grow, but it also, again, makes no sense. Bulbasaur is a Grass type not a Water type – why does she want it? In addition, Bulbasaur has been nothing but aggressive towards her this whole time with ruining her capture, glaring at her while she was in the trap and then Tackling her later. Why does she suddenly want it? Because the water is nearby?

– Huh, I wasn’t expecting a new and very clean capture attempt animation.

– Holy crap, that wild Staryu grew like five feet in 15 minutes!

Granted, picture two is the closest to the size we know of Staryu, taking from Misty’s Staryu, but it’s been consistently like a foot tall the whole episode. I assumed it was a baby, but apparently it’s a mutant super Staryu.

—————————————-

Ah, the Kanto starter arc. I think most people agree that, in order, the best episodes are Charmander, Squirtle then Bulbasaur, with most of the debacle going on between Charmander and Squirtle’s episode positions, but we’ll jump that hurdle when we get to it.

Bulbasaur’s episode, to me, is perfectly fine. I can’t really think of anything seriously wrong with it – it’s just not horribly interesting is all. It doesn’t have the excitement or fun of Squirtle’s episode, and it doesn’t have the emotional impact of Charmander’s, which is a shame because, like I said, out of all of Ash’s original team, Bulbasaur stuck around the longest with him being a regular member through even half of Johto. He also has a great English voice even if it’s a little rough here.

I would’ve liked less time to be spent with the traps and more time to be spent on exactly why Bulbasaur dislikes Pokemon Trainers. He doesn’t have to have the same abusive Trainer backstory of Charmander, but maybe explain like a bunch of troublemaker Trainers frequent the woods or something and they tend to harass the Pokemon. That would both explain why Bulbasaur dislikes Trainers and why the traps are so necessary.

It’s a shame because Bulbasaur is such an interesting Pokemon in terms of its personality, and you really have to wonder what happened to him to make him that way, but we never get told.

Next episode, Kanto Starter Arc Part 2 – Charmander’s Debut! When the group spots a weak Charmander on a rock, they soon come to realize that it belongs to an abusive Trainer who left it there stating that it would return some day but really had no intentions on doing so. When a rainstorm threatens Charmander’s life, they have to move quickly to keep Charmander’s flame from dying out.

Previous Episode….

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 9 Analysis – The School of Hard Knocks

CotD(s): Joe – A student of Pokemon Tech, Joe’s skills are graded as being on par with someone who has two Badges. Despite this, he frequently makes himself seem less skilled than he is, somewhat embarrassingly so, in order to prevent being forced to work even harder than he already is by his fellow students. Joe has a big crush on one of Pokemon Tech’s beginner class’s best students, Giselle.

Reappears? No.

Pokemon: He is only shown using a Weepinbell, but it’s unclear whether it’s actually his or the school’s.

Giselle – An egotistical (and bitchy) girl that all the guys pine after, Giselle is the top student of the beginner class of Pokemon Tech. She looks down on Joe and even the three Ashketeers believing herself to be much more knowledgeable and skilled than they are due to her high scores and impressive knowledge of Pokemon.

Reappears? No.

Pokemon: Giselle is seen using both a Graveller and a Cubone, but, again, it’s unclear whether these Pokemon belong to her or the school.

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock wander through the forest (get used to that sight) through a dense veil of fog. As they stop for a rest, Ash goes off to find some firewood and stumbles upon a group of kids ‘testing’ another kid, named Joe, on Pokemon trivia while he runs on a treadmill.

Joe falters throughout the test and ends up failing. Ash and Misty run to his defense, but the other kids snub them and go back to their school – Pokemon Tech.

Brock and Misty explain that Pokemon Tech is a prestigious school for aspiring Pokemon Trainers. If they graduate, they are allowed immediate admittance into the Pokemon League without traveling to get the eight Badges necessary.

Ash, enraged at the school for being a shortcut for rich kids to get into the Pokemon League without doing the real work of traveling and learning by doing, demands to go to the school only to have the fog clear revealing that they’ve been feet from the school the entire time and that the school was the one emitting the fog.

Joe explains to the group how difficult the school is and the hierarchy of their classes. Beginner class students are equal to someone with two Badges, intermediate is equal to four and advanced is equal to six while graduates are equal to eight. While Ash, again, tries to defend his method of training and boasts that he has two Badges, Joe says even he at his moderate level in the beginner group is better than someone with two legit Badges. He even believes Misty, a Gym Leader, is a pushover because she specializes in Water types and has beaten them in simulations several times.

Misty gets up to the plate at this statement and demands to have a real Pokemon battle for the Cerulean City Gym’s honor. Joe uses a Weepinbell, banking on the type advantage, while Misty uses Starmie. Despite the type advantage and Joe’s confidence, Weepinbell is defeated easily, much to Joe’s confusion.

The top student of the beginner class, equal to someone with three Badges, and creator of the harsh training techniques that go on at the school, Giselle, shows up. She explains that, even with a type advantage, Misty’s a Gym Leader, thus her Pokemon are stronger and have more battle experience, which made the battle one-sided.

She further proves this by knocking Starmie out, literally, with a Graveller. Sharing his exploits as a Trainer, Ash tries to prove himself only to be mocked for his lack of progress over two months and seeming lack of skill and knowledge of Pokemon.

Angered at her insults, Ash challenges Giselle to a match. Pikachu vs. Cubone. The match is pretty one-sided with Cubone easily coming out on top each time. However, Ash basically tells Pikachu to go ballistic since he believes the use of Cubone’s bone is underhanded. Pikachu, with some trickery and a hearty can of whup-ass manages to beat Cubone and prove Giselle wrong.

Team Rocket show up to cause trouble, but are easily taken care of by the students of Pokemon Tech with a barrage of Pokeballs.

Giselle has learned her lesson and so has Joe. They agree to start their own journeys and finally become friends. With hopes of battling each other again in the future, the group leaves the school and continues on their journey to Vermilion City.

———————————————

– Nice paint job on the cup, 4Kids. How many highlighters did it take for you guys to do that?

– Student 1: “We don’t fight.”

Student 2: “Fighting is for cavemen. We’re not in the stone age, ya know?”

You guys are aware that you’re in a school dedicated to teaching kids on the art of Pokemon battling IE fighting, right? Or is fighting only sophisticated when you’re making animals do it?

– Oh come on, guys. I know text is evil and everything, but you can at least make an effort at making the blurred out replacement text look A LITTLE like the words Brock is supposedly reading.

Let’s see if I can decipher any of that. Ahem….Po limo ice…..gurdooh cul. Outside of Po from Kung Fu Panda wanting a limo made of ice, it’s complete gibberish.

– So wait, Pokemon Tech can control the weather? Slow your roll, Kanto, Castform won’t be around for a few more years.

– I really do like the idea of a Pokemon school that allows you to bypass all the traveling. It appears to be really difficult, so, while it’s technically a shortcut, it’s by no means easy. The fact that only rich kids can attend kinda rubs me the wrong way, though.

My main problem with this is, how do the students get the Pokemon? You need to actually have legit experience TRAINING a Pokemon and catching them to be a good Pokemon TRAINER. Do they just get Pokemon handed to them by the school or are there times when the students are sent off to catch and train their own Pokemon? Because it really seems like it’s 99% books and simulations and 1% actually dealing with live Pokemon.

– Joe’s logic, all of it, is just stupid.

He fakes being less intelligent than he is to keep the other kids from working him even harder, which makes a little sense. But then he turns around and says they’re still his friends, even in spite of how they treat him, because it was only through their help that he learned as much as he did.

If he’s thankful to these guys for helping him learn so much through their harsh teaching methods, why is he pretending to be less intelligent to prevent them from giving him even harsher training methods? It makes it sound like pure laziness not avoidance of kinda bullying.

He then says that he doesn’t leave Pokemon Tech because his parents work hard to scrape together the tuition to let him go to Pokemon Tech. Yeah, hi genius. If you work harder, get smarter and improve your grades or moreso your Badge ranking, you can graduate earlier and make it so your parents won’t have to scrape together this cash anymore. I thought you were pretending to be dumb.

– Ladies and gentlemen, one of the only times that Ash ever shows romantic interest in a girl and probably the absolute only time it’s ever been so blatant.

– Ah and also our first ever glimpse into Team Rocket’s continuously fuddled backstory. Good times. How did Jessie even get into Pokemon Tech if she was poor? Continuity! Get it? Poor continuity? Yeah, you get it.

– While I really like the simulation looking like the actual game, I kinda wish they had added more detail to the screen to make it feel more genuine.

– Let’s react to the crushes on Giselle here, assuming she’s ten.

Joe – Fine.

Ash – Fine

Brock – Ehhhhh

James – EUGH.

– I don’t think I’ve really hated a character in Pokemon, outside of Pokemon abusers, more than I’ve hated Giselle. Casey pisses me off, but she’s just really really really annoying. Ash makes me rage sometimes, but he has his moments.

Every time Giselle’s on screen, I feel like slapping her in the face. What’s worse is the fact that she beats Misty so badly and Ash is the one who has to knock her down a peg. Are we really at the point where we’re saying Ash is better than Misty? Nine episodes in? Really?

And is she really justified in thinking Ash to be pathetic for having two Badges and three Pokemon two months into his journey? I mean….yes, it is pathetic, but considering they’re in a school where I assume at least a year of work needs to go into moving up a rank, judging mostly by the guy who was held back a lot, doesn’t that mean they work for over a year just to merely meet the criteria for four badges? And another year for six? And yet another for eight? The more I think about this school, the more it seems less like a shortcut and more like a longcut.

It really seems like this school would be more suited for making Pokemon Researchers instead of Pokemon Trainers.

– No, Ash, just because a Pokemon has moves that are fairly unique to itself, like Cubone’s bone abilities that are fully legal under the authorization of the Pokemon League, does not mean you can make up crap as moves and call them legal. Even if they do look like legit moves such as Bite, Hi-Jump Kick and Fury Swipes, Pikachu doesn’t ‘know’ those moves legally, so it’s technically not fair. That’s like something Team Rocket would do.

– I know Giselle had to change her tune by the very end, but I find it ridiculous that she pulled a complete 180 just because of one loss. You do not spend 10 minutes doing nothing but gloating, mocking other people’s abilities, showing off, being a complete bitch and being so high up on a pedestal that you’re leaving the atmosphere and then become a nice girl after one match that was really won on sketchy terms anyway.

– In spite of wanting to continue going to Pokemon Tech to make his parents proud and prevent them from wasting their hard earned money, Joe decides to drop out and start his Pokemon journey. Well, hopefully they’ll save enough money from not needing to take care of him anymore that they’ll claw themselves up out of debt. Yay!

—————————–

All in all, this episode is not as good as I remember it, which is a shame. I really do like the idea of a Pokemon School where you can bypass the traveling and Gym matches if you graduate. It’s a very realistic idea that I can see being implemented in this world. Despite the fact that it’s so damn expensive and may actually take much longer than a regular Pokemon journey would, I can imagine that most parents wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of their ten year old child going traveling on their own to fight super powered monsters. A school that achieves the same thing is a good alternative.

While I was watching this episode, I mused about a spinoff show which would take place in a school. Like a slice of life with Pokemon. Think about it. New environment, new story structures, new characters, consistent side characters, few to no CotDs, and we could implement cool new aspects like fun challenges and tests, festivals, tournaments etc. Yu-Gi-Oh transitioned to a similar concept just fine, and you can’t tell me a nice change of pace from the stale formula we’ve had for over 15 years wouldn’t be welcome.

I also liked the rare exploration of Pokemon levels, something that is still debated to this day in regards to the anime, and the poke at the actual games with the simulator.

However, I don’t like Joe. He’s really bland and a bit dim. I hate Giselle with all my heart and soul, the battle between Cubone and Pikachu seemed a bit screwed, and the ending both in terms of message and Giselle’s big revelation seemed really predictable and corny to me.

In addition, Team Rocket’s appearance was even more pointless than usual. We only learned that they went to the school, got the worst grades and then they pop up at the very end, do their motto and get hit with a bunch of Pokeballs before running off.

This episode even had worse animation that usual. I did like a few shots that seemed different in terms of Pokemon’s usual style like the shot of the broken window and Misty holding Starmie, but the shots of the boys walking away in the fog and Team Rocket’s final scene were horribly animated. It’s almost like they weren’t done animating them, to be honest. It just seems like a bunch of keyframes made into a slideshow.

Next episode is the beginning of the Starter Trilogy: Part 1 – Bulbasaur.

Previous Episode…..

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Pokemon Episode 2 Analysis: Pokemon Emergency!

Poses for picture – still can’t get a clear shot of their faces.

Character Debuts:

Officer Jenny: Despite the seeming lack of police assistance in actual emergencies most of the time, there are cops in the world of Pokemon. Most of them, the prominent ones anyway, are Jennys. In practically every town ever, there is an Officer Jenny. They all look exactly the same and are somehow all related to each other. Officer Jenny is sometimes accompanied by a Growlithe.

Nurse Joy: Just like the Jennys, there are also identical Joys who are all related to each other in every Pokemon Center in every town. Nurse Joys are usually assisted by Chansey. I honestly don’t know why none of these Nurse Joys ever wanted to go the extra mile and become a Pokemon Doctor, but whatever.

Team Rocket: While Team Rocket as a whole is a large organization, it usually merely refers to the trio of Jessie, James and Meowth. Jessie is a vain and greedy woman who rarely has a moment of kindness. She also seems to hold the most power in the group and kinda acts as the main leader since James and Meowth are regularly frightened by her. Jessie used to be a very poor and kind child, but the rest of her backstory is a big web of mess.

James is slightly nicer when the situation calls for it, but he is also very vain and greedy. Unlike Jessie, he was actually born into a filthy rich family, but ran away from home because he didn’t want to be forcibly married to the obnoxious Jessibelle.

Meowth is one of the few Pokemon in the world who can talk, and this is made even more impressive since he’s also one of the few who can talk without the assistance of psychic powers. He taught himself how to speak human language and walk on two feet in order to impress a female Meowth named Meowsy, but his efforts ultimately made him even less appealing in her eyes, and he eventually went on to join Team Rocket.

Plot: Ash takes an injured Pikachu into the local Pokemon Center for treatment, but the place is soon attacked by the malicious Pokemon thieves, Team Rocket. Ash as well as the girl he met in the previous episode, Misty, try to battle them, but to no avail.

Instead, the Center’s backup electrical supply, a team of Pikachu, shock the trio, and their electric power brings Pikachu back to peak health somehow. In order to take them out fully, Ash uses Misty’s broken bike to generate power through the headlight and power up Pikachu enough to deliver one final Thunderbolt, causing the entire Pokemon Center to explode by igniting the gas from one of Team Rocket’s Pokemon, Koffing.

Team Rocket take note of Pikachu’s incredible power and vow to capture it no matter what. Meanwhile, Ash continues on his journey by heading through Viridian Forest, which leads directly to Pewter City, the site of his first Gym match. Misty follows him, determined to get Ash to pay for her ruined bike. As they travel through the Viridian Forest, Ash spots a Caterpie and readies a Pokeball for its capture.

——————————————-

– The title card is looking a bit more normal, but they still use the Pokemon logo to say ‘Pokemon’.

– Oh….so I guess, from what Dexter says anyway, that the function of the Pokedex in the anime is really more for the Trainer’s benefit in providing information and advice and not keeping a log while trying to see and capture all of the Pokemon, IE Completing the Pokedex. Hmph.

– James in episodes 2 – 8 isn’t voiced by his most notable voice actor, Eric Stuart. He’s instead voiced by Ted Lewis who does quite a few roles in 4Kids productions such as Tracey and Giovanni in Pokemon, and Bakura and Bandit Keith from Yu-Gi-Oh. He does have really good range, and he fits the role pretty well here, but I can see why they’d replace him with Eric Stuart if his role was going to become more comical later.

– Likewise, Meowth also has a different voice actor in the earlier episodes, episode 2 – 31, Nathan Price, who does the role more low-key than Maddie Blaustein will later on. I honestly can’t decide which voice I like better. Maddie’s is more fitting for the comical parts while Nathan is better at being more sly. Plus, Maddie says ‘Meeeowth’ a little better.

– I will take a minute to enjoy the more serious Team Rocket for this episode. I do love them as comic relief, even if their shtick does tend to get real old, but it would be nice if they were an actual threat.

– Why did Jenny feel the need to jump her motorcycle into the Pokemon Center? Yeah, risk more injury to the already injured Pokemon. And it really took them until nightfall to get there? How big is this city?

– It’s weird to me that Pikachu is so injured after just taking a few Pecks by a couple Spearow, especially given that he’s strong against Flying types.

– Nurse Joy’s a bit of a bitch here. People must come there all the time with Pokemon at least in Pikachu’s condition, considering how many attacks there are in Pokemon and the fact that their lot in life is usually to fight, yet she chews Ash out for letting Pikachu get moderately hurt when she doesn’t even know how it happened. That’s like a doctor yelling a parent for letting their kid scrape their knee.

– Why is the Pidgey that comes out of the cuckoo clock green?

Must be all that awful hospital food.

– And here we get the only mention ever of Ash’s deadbeat not-caring-whatsoever-about-his-family dad. I would complain about this, but at this point does anyone really care who Ash’s dad is? Yes, it’s a mystery, but no answer will really be fulfilling now. Plus, he’ll just be a target for hatred considering he never seems to talk to or otherwise communicate with Ash or Delia. I do not believe for a second that they always talk off-screen or never ever managed to bump into each other during their journeys.

– It took four days for Ash’s dad to get to Viridian City?…..Why? Jenny said all of the other Pallet Trainers had already passed through. What was keeping him so long? Maybe I’m wrong about Ash’s dad. Maybe he’s like Flint and completely sucked at Training and was too ashamed to show his face around his family again. There. That’s a suitable story for Ash’s dad. You’re welcome.

– Delia: “Spreading your wings and soaring like a Spearow!” Uhh, I’d change your wording, Delia, considering the main reason he’s feeling like crap right now is because of a flock of Spearow.

– Delia: “And are you changing your underwear everyday?” He hasn’t even been gone a full day yet. Are his underwear made of the same material as the notes in Inspector Gadget and they’ll blow up after a period of time?

– The Legendary Pokemon on the board at the Pokemon Center are interesting. Ash believes the blue bird is the one he saw earlier, but it’s an Articuno not a Ho-Oh.

Ho-Oh won’t be introduced until Johto. I’m not even sure what this really indicates. Did Ash just think it was the same because the outline is kinda similar or the anime creators screwed up?

I would think he’d believe Moltres looks more similar given the coloring. Also, for some reason, Arcanine is up there. I know that he’s given the moniker of ‘legendary,’ but why? Is there a legend about Arcanine somewhere? Because he’s just the evolved version of a fairly easy to find Pokemon.

– Oh my God, there’s text everywhere. I feel so unreasonably happy.

– I still find it funny that Oak’s all ‘There’s no way you saw a Legendary Pokemon’ here and yet not a year goes by now where Ash doesn’t see/battle with/spend time with a Legendary Pokemon. It’s so common now that he’s become totally used to it.

– Misty: “You’re what happened to my bike, you little loser! This is what happened to my bike after you stole it to save your Pokemon!” Yeah, he sure is a loser because he cared more about his Pokemon’s well-being than a hunk of replaceable metal. Can you get less annoying soon so I can start hating Ash, please?

– Misty: “I don’t want any of your lame excuses, Kid! Just gimme a new bike right noooooooooowwwwwwww!!” First of all, kid? He’s the same age as you. Second, nice tantrum.

– What ‘procedure’ was Joy performing anyway? She put on rubber gloves, went in and came out with Pikachu having a lightbulb on its head while connected to some black box and some electrical box but no bandages or anything else on its body. He got Pecked a few times, he didn’t have his electricity sucked out him.

– Ash: “Listen, I’m sorry about your bike. But I’m going to need some time to make things right.”

Misty: “NO WAY! I FELL FOR THAT LAST TIME!”

Fell for what? He said he’d bring it back someday and accidentally got it destroyed. He hasn’t even been gone a full day, so he could’ve been intending on giving her a replacement bike someday. Though, considering how crazy expensive bikes are in the Pokemon world, I can kinda understand her anger.

– They have radar that detects aircrafts in Viridian City? Ones that can specifically identify the craft as belonging to Pokemon thieves? Where are these in future episodes?

– I am weirded out beyond belief by those Pikachu in the Pokemon Center. They not only chant, but they hold out their paws like robots and have mouths that are way too big.

– Why do they need to be on a treadmill anyway if they produce power on their own?

– The hell is up with the eyes on that Pidgey?

Can Pidgey not look normal today?

– It’s amazing that Team Rocket is so intimidating during the early episodes that all of the Pokemon actually refuse to fight because they’re so scared just by seeing Ekans.

– I still don’t understand why Misty let Goldeen out. Either this was poking at the fact that all Pokeballs look identical and thus it must be hard to determine who’s in what without customizing them or she’s just an idiot.

– Misty: “You know as well as I do that a Water Pokemon can’t battle on land. I was just warmin’ up!” There are so many things wrong with that.

Let’s start with, no, only SOME Water Types can’t battle on land. How were you ‘warming up’ by letting out a Pokemon that you knew couldn’t battle on land? Did you need to warm up your Pokeball throwin’ arm? Even if it was a distraction or something, what good would that do considering they’re standing in front of the only exit?

– Oh, I guess it wasn’t the only exit……There were no other visible doors to that room besides the one Team Rocket burst through and were standing in front of the whole time, but whatever. Still didn’t do much because, after Ash and Pikachu escape, they’re immediately followed by Team Rocket.

– Why did Pikachu even need hours of ‘treatment’ if just being dogpiled and shocked by a group of Pikachu seemed to make him good as new?

– How did any of them survive that explosion? Pikachu’s in the ICU for being pecked by a few birds for a second or two yet is perfectly fine when in a building that just exploded and created a fire so big it looks like it took out a city block.

– How did Team Rocket get away?

– Now that I’m really thinking about it, Pikachu’s attack really isn’t a decent reason for them to be so insanely obsessed with catching Pikachu. It was essentially given a buff to begin with in regards to the bike and the only real reason anything substantial happened was because of the reaction with Koffing’s gas.

– I can’t believe it took me so long to question this, but isn’t it impossible for Team Rocket’s balloon to be ‘popped’ and send them flying all over the place? Wouldn’t it just gently float down? It’s not a helium balloon.

– How is the computer perfectly fine? They’re literally sitting amongst the rubble that once was the Viridian City Pokemon Center with a desktop computer that’s not even dirty.

I didn’t know Nokia made desktop computers.

– Narrator: “Will Ash capture the Caterpie?” Seeing as how the next episode is titled Ash Catches a Pokemon, I’ll go ahead and say no.

——————————————–

This episode was pretty okay. It was sillier than I remember it being, and I already remembered it to be a tad silly. Team Rocket pose a threat for a change, but they don’t even go the full episode without being downgraded to comic relief. Plus, I do have to say that the start of their obsessive mission was just not really worth it.

I’m starting to think that after a certain point, catching Pikachu was no longer about catching it for its power or rarity but purely because of a personal vendetta.

Misty’s still annoying here, and Ash is still relatable and likable, even if he still has a lot to learn.

I also really like the linear set up of the first handful of episodes. I miss having an actual story instead of ‘Leave home on journey’ ‘Go to Gym’ ‘filler’ ‘Gym’ ‘filler’ ‘another Gym’ ‘filler’ etc etc etc. The only times filler isn’t really filler in later episodes is usually just when Ash catches a Pokemon – those incredibly rare occasions. Plus, after he gets his party filled, he hardly ever gets more.

Certain aspects are still bugging me like mentions of Ash’s dad, knowing they go nowhere, another mention of the other two Pallet Trainers, that also goes nowhere, but it’s still pretty decent.

Next episode, Ash Catches a Pokemon. Caterpie joins the group (Oh sorry, spoilers!), one of the rare times Ash catches a Pokemon without needing to spend an entire episode bonding with it. We also get the rare treat of him catching two Pokemon in one episode, marking Pidgeotto’s debut. I really love Pidgeotto – hate how he gets treated over the series. We also have a cute little episode just getting to know Caterpie and seeing it trying to bond with Bitchy—Err, Misty.

Previous Episode…

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥