"Fishing! It's not as easy as you think! No it's nooooooot!"
Score: 5/10
The heroes are in an unnamed city when they run into Bianca, who, because Barry’s gimmick of running into people was so funny the first time, runs into Ash and knocks him into a river with a Frillish no one notices.
I very much like Ash’s response to her. Normally, Ash is always ready to forgive people and tell them it’s okay when they do whatever, but here he’s clearly annoyed with her but won’t actually say it. Anyway, Bianca tells the heroes about a fishing competition, so everyone decides to enter. Cilan is especially excited because he’s a master fisherman or something.
Unfortunately, the fishing competition is run by a disguised Team Rocket. Their plan? Let people fish up water pokemon (all of which are Basculin) and then steal them to use to conquer Unova. Yep. Team Rocket plans to conquer Unova with several dozen Basculin.
Good luck there, fellas.
The rules: catch yourself a water pokemon with a pokeball given out by Team Rocket. Apparently, Bianca has never before seen a pokeball in her life.
Team Rocket supplies everyone with rods, and Cilan selects a beginner rod for Bianca, but brought his own custom-made rod to use. That’s right, Cilan. Let your competition use the crummy mass-produced rods while you bring some unbeatable super rod to use, all while acting like a nice guy.
After some derpy Bianca moments in which she derps around, Cilan tells everyone about the world of professional fishing. I've got to tell you, I have been fishing. It is the most boring sport, and I’ve been to actual baseball games. I’ve been to cheerleading competitions (got dragged by my cheerleader sister). I’ve been golfing. I don’t give out “most boring sport” lightly, but fishing earned it. Anyway, Cilan catches a Basculin, but the rest of the heroes fail to catch anything at all. Bianca gets a huge bite, and Cilan helps her reel it in - it is the same Frillish from before, but it attacks Ash for literally no reason, so they’re forced to drive it away rather than catch it. Sorry, potential new pokemon! Trip already has you and you’re not marketable like the Snivy line, so there’s no room for multiples!
During the confusion of the Frillish fight, Team Rocket tries to escape with everyone's entries, but Frillish gets rid of their getaway boat (I guess it knew they were evil?). Team Rocket is caught and introduces itself, and after they explicitly say that they’re Team Rocket, Ash declares that they're Team Rocket. They try to escape with the pokeballs again, but Frillish steals the pokeballs and releases all of the Basculin. Thus, Team Rocket instead escapes with their jetpacks (instead of just using them to begin with?) while Bianca declares that with jetpacks and a name like “Team Rocket,” they must be rocket scientists. Bianca leaves to go get more gym badges, and the narrator claims the heroes protected the water pokemon when in fact they did literally nothing and Frillish was the hero of the episode.
I’m sorry, guys. I truly am, but…
I kind of like Bianca.
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Started: July 6, 2005