On Cloud Arcanine "Please, hold your Horsea!" Score: 5/10
The heroes stop at an extremely busy bakery in the middle of a forest (?!) when a wild Arcanine runs by. Ash declares it to be an Arcanine and then scans it with his pokedex even though Arcanine was Gary's third main pokemon and Ash definitely already knows all about them. May desperately wants to catch it, but Drew runs by and tells her that he's going to catch it. You know what that means: a race to find it.
Using Mudkip, the heroes actually find Arcanine first, but it simply runs away using extremespeed when May attacks. Ash declares that Combusken could never match extremespeed, and then apologizes.
The heroes decide to ask a hermit living in the forest for information on the Arcanine. He explains that Arcanine used to live in the nearby mountains, but it now comes by every day because there's so much good food and water.
The heroes decide to set up a trap: they know Arcanine likes Pecha Berries from a specific tree located in a small canyon, so Ash and Brock take one entrance and May and Max take the other, to box it in when it comes. I would have assumed something of Arcanine's size, speed, and demeanor, especially with fangs like it has, would be a carnivore, but okay. Ash and Brock box it in toward May, but she incompetently allows it to escape anyway.
For a third time, the heroes track it down and May attacks Arcanine, but Drew shows up, and Arcanine takes advantage of their arguing to escape. May declares that they must have a battle to see who gets to go after Arcanine, and sends out Squirtle to fight Flygon. Seriously? Why not use Combuskohokayyoujustlost. Drew tells May that she sucks and leaves, and hell, he's right. Why would you send your weakest pokemon to fight Drew's most powerful? In any case, all five of them follow Arcanine up a mountain and find that it has several Growlithe in a nest (because dogs build nests on mountaintops), and it's been bringing its puppies food. Of course, it doesn't explain how they're drinking, since they're stuck in the nest, but okay.
Both May and Drew decide not to catch Arcanine because it would break up its family. You would think statistically that at least one of the heroes' pokemon also had a family that they cruelly broke up ("Mommy? Where is daddy Corphish?" "Oh, he's with a trainer on a fun adventure that will take him around the world." "Is that why you have to work as a stripper?" "Shush, honey."), but I guess not.
Drew tells May to enter the upcoming Saffron City contest and walks away. Ash and Brock decline to mention the time the city's gym leader tried to murder them, and agree to take her there.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
In a forest, the heroes meet Mitch Mitchem, whose parents apparently hated their son and wanted to curse him with the worst name.
Major Major Major Major called.
He wants his title back.
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Oh, a big machine with flashy lights. A big machine like that has me written all over it. Well, okay, it doesn't. But give me time... and a crayon --11th Doctor
one thing i hate with the japanese anime is how ridiculous it sounds when they use some english phrase
like "thank you" except it sounds like "sank you" it sounds really dumb
Don't worry. I'm sure the Japanese are just as bothered by "kar-ee-oh-kee" and "mane-ga".
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Oh, a big machine with flashy lights. A big machine like that has me written all over it. Well, okay, it doesn't. But give me time... and a crayon --11th Doctor
I pronounce it like care-ee-oh-kee, but whatever. And Genesis's way of saying manga is what I use to, but I don't really distinguish the n much. More like how you'd pronounce the word mong.
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http://i45.tinypic.com/fpchec.gif http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9413/cutepuppy16.png - Number of people that D'awwed: 61
Sitting Psyduck "Psyduck is outta luck!" Score: 3/10
The heroes are sitting around when a Psyduck wearing an ascot shows up, chased by a Machop, Machoke, and Machamp. The heroes decide that this is definitely their business and tell them to stop. "Go Phanpy, my weakest pokemon!" After about a minute of this, Ash remembers that Pikachu can kick their asses easily and has it do so.
Cut to a girl named Emily in a carriage. She complains that the Machop pokemon couldn't find her Psyduck and tells them to look again.
Team Rocket steals Psyduck, and when the heroes fail to stop them, the Machop and friends show up and defeat them, as does Emily. She takes everyone to her mansion, and it becomes clear that Psyduck hates Emily's pampering, as she smothers it constantly. You may remember this plot from such episodes as the one with Madame Muchmoney and her Snubbull.
Psyduck watches Phanpy and Squirtle fight in the backyard, and clearly wants to join them, and Brock explains to Emily that Psyduck wants to try it even though a blind rhesus money could tell it wants to try.
Team Rocket attacks again, and Psyduck insists on battling. Although Emily is at first hesitant, she quickly gets the hang of things and starts commanding it competently. After they blast off, Emily decides that maybe one day she'll go on a journey of her own.
Jesus Christ, how many episodes have I called "the definition of filler" in the past?
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Hail to the Chef! "Fire spin, water gun, bring 'em on twice! But will they work? ... No dice!" Score: 4/10
Team Rocket comes across a restaurant celebrating its grand opening with free food in the middle of a forest (?!... again) where the cook is a Sneasel. Believe it or not, the waitress/owner, Rhonda, is actually surprised by a talking Meowth. This is like the fourth person who's been surprised by him in the entire show. Sneasel takes an instant dislike to Meowth, and they almost fight, but Jessie and James calm them down.
The heroes come across another restaurant where the cook is a Mr. Mime who uses its psychic powers to cook in front of the customers, owned by a waitress named Rhonda. As the audience, we see they're on opposite sides of the same building, but Team Rocket and the heroes don't.
Sneasel cooks up some food, and while Jessie and James love it, Meowth despises it. He quickly learns that Sneasel intentionally cooked good food for the humans and terrible food for him, and attacks.
Mr. Mime's food looks amazing and the performance is fun, but the actual taste is horrible and nearly chokes the heroes.
Meowth and Sneasel's fight spills into the other restaurant as they break a wall, and Rhoda and Rhonda (who are sisters) start arguing about taste versus appearance; Sneasel can actually cook, but it's kind of boring, while Mr. Mime is an expert showman, but can't cook for crap. They decide the only way to settle it is with a luxurious meal the next day. Everyone agrees to be a judge, and Meowth secretly plans to vote for Mr. Mime no matter what.
Rhonda asks Jessie and James for help in Sneasel's presentation because Jessie claims to be a top coordinator, while Rhoda asks Brock to give Mr. Mime cooking lessons.
The next day, Mr. Mime's performance is absolutely masterful, and Sneasel's performance is also pretty good. Before the contest ends, Team Rocket steals the pokemon and puts them in cages, rendering the entire "Meowth hates Sneasel" subplot a complete waste of time. Fortunately, Rhoda has Mr. Mime use trick to steal Jessie's key and give her a ladle (which is actually clever), releasing the pokemon. Rhonda realizes that Rhoda is more together than her and decides to give the entire restaurant to her sister, but Rhoda decides they manage the restaurant together even though they have opposite styles. Mr. Mime and Sneasel learn to work together on their performance and cooking, and the restaurant becomes amazing.
Okay, for the next filler episode, I'm just going to write "filler" but stretch out the I.
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GenesisSaga posted... Unacceptable. Actual writeup, please.
Caterpie's Big Dilemma "MmmMMMm!" Score: 3/10
Caterpie has a dilemma. Even by dilemma standards, it's unusually big. The heroes are able to triumph over the influence of Team Rocket and help it solve its dilemma through the power of friendship and believing in itself. Then Team Rocket blasts off again.
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The Saffron Con "Some may call it 'holding a grudge,' I call it 'revenge!'" Score: 6.2/10
The heroes have finally reached Saffron City, and May throws out her pokemon to tell them that they're finally here. Only Combusken actually cares, however, and then May remembers that she's never actually used Munchlax or Squirtle for... anything, really. Man, I hope she catches some new pokemon soon. Munchlax is comic relief when we already have Team Rocket, and Squirtle is just useless.
They decide to check out the stage in the arena for the next day, and find Lillian, Vivian's sister (the hostess in a dress from Hoenn). She uses her Espeon to test out the stage, and its performance really impresses Squirtle, who now desperately wants to compete.
May is worried about using Squirtle, realizing that although it's enthusiastic, it has absolutely no experience or training. Despite this, she wants to "use the new pokemon I've brought instead of falling back on the way I've done things before." I could explain the flaws in her logic, but honestly, I don't care enough.
We also learn that Harley will be competing, as will Jessie, who insists on using James' Cacnea. James is hesitant at letting Jessie use his pokemon even though, way back when the show started, Jessie commanded Weezing (and James Arbok) all the time and neither cared. He was hesitant with Chimecho, yes, but that was because Chimecho is fragile and Jessie is... Jessie.
Harley is also here, and again claims to no longer be evil. This time even the heroes suspect he's lying when he claims that coordinators can switch pokemon between round 1 and round 2, but Nurse Joy confirms it. Thus, May decides to use Squirtle and Combusken for the contest. Harley tells May that her Hoenn Contest Pass will allow her entry into Kanto contests, which we learn is untrue. Gee, I can't believe Harley is evil. Seriously though, I can actually accept the heroes believing Harley because I honestly think they're all not very smart. At the very most, only Brock has above a fourth grade education, and even that's unlikely because he also had a full time job at fifteen.
Jessie and Cacnea get into an accident and are taken to Nurse Joy (even though Jessie is also hurt, so they should take them to an actual doctor), which ultimately leads to Nurse Joy having to give her a haircut because Cacnea gets trapped in her long hair. James and Meowth decide to use the time alone to steal everyone's pokemon. Fortunately, Harley uses his Ariados to stop them. Squirtle then finishes them off with ice beam, a move no one realized it knew. Everyone wonders how Squirtle learned a complex move that's not even of its type, and the answer is "shut up."
The next day, May learns that her entry pass is for another region, and she realizes that -- surprise surprise -- Harley lied. I find it really hard to emphasize with her when she trusted Harley again. Fortunately, Lillian shows up and convinces the woman in charge of pass renewal and registration to fudge the numbers and give her a pass anyway, frustrating Harley and allowing May into the contest.
Despite all of my complaints, there actually is a lot of good build up in this episode.
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A Hurdle for Squirtle "A beautiful blend of love and high explosives." Score: 5/10
You know, this feels like a missed opportunity. They could have at least put Sabrina in the stands or something, maybe even made her a coordinator herself.
In the locker room, Harley tries to act nice to May again, but this time, even someone as stupid as she is can see through him.
Harley is up first, and a cotton spore/needle arm combo impresses the judges, and the episode goes out of its way to remind us that although Harley cheats, he's still legitimately skilled. Jessie and Cacnea also impress everyone by using pin missile as fireworks. Finally, there's May, and Combusken uses sky uppercut and fire spin to put May's bandana on her head without lighting it on fire, a trick that must have taken weeks of practice and was never mentioned ever before.
First up in round two: Harley versus Jessie, Ariados versus Wobbuffet. Harley realizes Wobbuffet will just counter anything, so he counters this by doing nothing, thus forcing both contestants to do nothing. Because neither will do anything, the judges dock them both points, declaring this "Not remarkable at all." Harley decides that defensive moves like string shot (which isn't a defensive move, but whatever) can't be countered, and he wins. Surprisingly, May defeats Nameless Dude, and the final comes down to the two of them.
Ariados versus Squirtle, and Squirtle starts off poorly, with Harley telling her that Combusken would have been a better choice, which is completely true. Ariados traps Squirtle in a web, but a lucky superpoweful ice beam freezes Ariados and frees Squirtle. Squirtle ultimately pulls off a comeback, and May wins.
Boring episode.
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Pasta La Vista! "Your customers are not as important as your family, Kyle, and you're just going to have to make a choice between the two!" "Fine, I already made that choice and it's noodles!" Score: 6.5/10
Ash and Max decide to go to the Fighting Dojo to watch fighting pokemon... fight, while Brock and May go to a noodle shop. When they reach the shop, the owner, Kyle, and his girlfriend? (it's not really clear if they're together or not) leave to go to the very same dojo.
Ash and Max arrive at the dojo, owned by Master ham, and so do Kyle and Terry and May and Brock following. We learn that Kyle is Master Ham's son, and he refuses to take over the dojo because he wants to run a noodle shop. His refusal frustrates his father, who wants to retire from fighting and pursue an unrelated dream that he won't reveal.
Finally, Kyle and his father agree to just have a pokemon battle, and if Kyle loses, he must take over the dojo. So he's going to prove he doesn't have to take over the dojo by showing that he's qualified to take over the dojo?
Master Ham sends out a Hitmonlee, and Kyle sends out Hitmonchan, which inexplicably has a heavy Japanese accent even though previous Hitmonchan didn't. Sadly, Master Ham can't finish the fight because his back goes out, so Ash offers to take over. When Kyle points out that it makes no sense for him to battle a replacement for Master Ham, they decide to replace Kyle with May. This is the kind of logic you would expect in an episode of The Angry Beavers.
May must now use Hitmonchan and Ash must now use Hitmonlee... even though neither knows anything about fighting pokemon. At this point, Terry reveals that she wants Kyle to take over from his father so she can marry him and run the dojo with him.
Before the surprisingly intense battle can end, Team Rocket attacks. Terry sends out her Hitmontop to stop them, and it's substantially more impressive than Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan.
With the battle ended prematurely, Kyle reminisces about how his father made noodles for him as a kid, and he has always wanted to create the perfect noodles as a result. Realizing that he was the one who set his son on his current path, Master Ham agrees to let him continue with his noodle shop, and Terry asks to take over the dojo. Now that he can retire, Master Ham reveals his own dream: to sell noodles. Yes, he was just a tremendous hypocrite this entire time.
Honestly? A solid episode.
And Season 8 is done.
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Jeff Zero posted... So this is when the VAs all change?
Yes. I haven't heard Jessie, James, and Meowth yet, though, nor have I heard the supporting cast (Jenny, Joy, Oak, Ash's mom, etc) or any of the pokemon.
I'll give reviews of the new actors when I update.
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Cool. Yeah, the newest episode of Pokemon I've seen was something involving a bunch of Clefairy and an airplane slated to crash or something. It was around two or three years ago since I don't have TV but that's when I discovered the new VAs. I was like "oh my god WHAT" so I looked up how it came about and all that.
I... did not care for the new Ash one bit. But I think, uh, I'd probably get used to at least everyone else.
-- Sir Chris Police ~Ace Detective in Homicide~ http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png "Thanks Punny!"
Bad news, gentlemen (and Genesis). My desktop is fried, and until my dad's Asian repairman friend (I seriously can't tell if he's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, I have no idea) can fix it, I can't continue to review more episodes. I'm also leaving on Saturday for a week long trip, and won't be able to review while out because I'm not sure if I'll have internet at all. Sorry.
When I leave, I'll need someone to bump the topic for me.
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Anagram posted... Lucario mistakes the queen for Lady Rin, the ancient queen, and ONCE AGAIN they call a queen a lady. Do they not know the difference? The terms aren't interchangeable.
I wouldn't swear to it, but I'm guessing that this is the result of translating Japanese literally instead of dynamically, kind of like every time "on(ii/ee)-san" is translated to literally mean "big brother/sister" when used for a non-relative (which has never happened in this show IIRC but is incredibly common.)
Cut to the heroes, who literally take time out of the journey to search for Pikachu and Mew to... take an impromptu hot spring bath.
You probably capped the wrong image, since the only obvious reason for this is "there wasn't enough May fanservice in this movie". Because she's totally only ten years old.
Wat.
Ash gives up being a pokemon master to become one of the world's only masters of aura.
No, okay, he doesn't.
Amazingly, Ash's ability to use aura has actually come up again in the anime twice. Yay continuity!
Charizard manages to grab it during a second steel wing, however, and use seismic toss. Articuno is unable to handle the 1-100 damage and finally collapses, and Charizard stands back up, victorious.
Seismic Toss has always been Charizard's kill move. I honestly cannot remember a single time that Charizard has failed to immediately win a battle after using Seismic Toss, because it flies in circles first and there's this symbolism with circling the globe. Have you actually never mentioned this, or was it just so long ago that I've already forgotten? (After all, the first time he did this was aBlaine's Magmar.)
Eventually he remembers that Grovyle is allowed to grass attacks
...Apparently everyone else was so caught up with your misspelling of Onix's name that they failed to catch this one.
In a forest, the heroes meet Mitch Mitchem, whose parents apparently hated their son and wanted to curse him with the worst name.
It's not his fault that his last name's Mitchem. I have a last name that would lend itself to similar shenanigans, and I kind of want to do that just so that when confused telemarketers call asking for (common first name that makes up the first two-thirds of my last name), I can respond by putting a two-year-old on the phone.
...the difference is that you can't really shorten "Mitch" any further, whereas if I were to actually have a son in the future and give him such a name, there's a convenient nickname that he could use to make it less blatant. Not that it's really all that weird since most surnames that contain common male names were in fact originally patronymics.
LOL. She actually looks like she could be eating something else there, possibly even a sandwich. It looks like there should be something long and thin there, and instead there's just these two rice balls.
What's the best way to put it to sleep? Putting on Avatar, of course: the visuals will be breathtaking but the plot and characters will be complete ****.
Wow random dig.
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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
Both May and Drew decide not to catch Arcanine because it would break up its family. You would think statistically that at least one of the heroes' pokemon also had a family that they cruelly broke up ("Mommy? Where is daddy Corphish?" "Oh, he's with a trainer on a fun adventure that will take him around the world." "Is that why you have to work as a stripper?" "Shush, honey."), but I guess not.
Drew tells May to enter the upcoming Saffron City contest and walks away. Ash and Brock decline to mention the time the city's gym leader tried to murder them, and agree to take her there.
I don't even want to know how a Pokémon could be a stripper. Wait...okay, now I have even worse ideas in my head. Dammit Anna!
Anyway, while it wasn't "family" in the traditional sense, I'm sure Ash's Bulbasaur probably applies. Actually, Squirtle even moreso--he left the Squirtle Squad without their leader!
And yeah, I'm sure Ash completely forgot about that incident with Sabrina. Besides, that happened years ago, back when he was 10 for the first time.
The heroes come across another restaurant where the cook is a Mr. Mime who uses its psychic powers to cook in front of the customers, owned by a waitress named Rhonda.
I thought Rhonda was at the restaurant that Team Rocket was at...
Caterpie's Big Dilemma "MmmMMMm!" Score: 3/10
Caterpie has a dilemma. Even by dilemma standards, it's unusually big. The heroes are able to triumph over the influence of Team Rocket and help it solve its dilemma through the power of friendship and believing in itself. Then Team Rocket blasts off again.
Looked up an actual summary of this episode, and...the only problem I see with this write-up is that 3/10 seems much too high.
I find it really hard to emphasize with her when she trusted Harley again.
I think you mean "empathize". And with that, I'm all caught up.
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Ulti (in one of his Post-Contest Analyses): God of War turned a 5 hour deadlock into a total laugher Anagram: Oh God, Tidus and Yuna were involved?
TsunamiXXVIII posted... I wouldn't swear to it, but I'm guessing that this is the result of translating Japanese literally instead of dynamically, kind of like every time "on(ii/ee)-san" is translated to literally mean "big brother/sister" when used for a non-relative (which has never happened in this show IIRC but is incredibly common.)
Quite possible, though I know nothing about Japanese other than "Roz Angerezu" is mispronounced in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
You probably capped the wrong image, since the only obvious reason for this is "there wasn't enough May fanservice in this movie". Because she's totally only ten years old.
Heh.
Wat.
I seriously did a double take when I saw that.
Amazingly, Ash's ability to use aura has actually come up again in the anime twice. Yay continuity!
I know. I originally made a joke about Ash never using it again, but then I checked Bulbapedia and learned it actually does come up again and had to rewrite the paragraph.
Seismic Toss has always been Charizard's kill move. I honestly cannot remember a single time that Charizard has failed to immediately win a battle after using Seismic Toss, because it flies in circles first and there's this symbolism with circling the globe. Have you actually never mentioned this, or was it just so long ago that I've already forgotten? (After all, the first time he did this was aBlaine's Magmar.)
Harrison's Blaziken. I just find it funny that seismic toss is its kill shot when it's basically something you teach to stall pokemon to make up for their inability to put EVs in offensive stats.
...Apparently everyone else was so caught up with your misspelling of Onix's name that they failed to catch this one.
>_>
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It's not his fault that his last name's Mitchem. I have a last name that would lend itself to similar shenanigans, and I kind of want to do that just so that when confused telemarketers call asking for (common first name that makes up the first two-thirds of my last name), I can respond by putting a two-year-old on the phone.
...the difference is that you can't really shorten "Mitch" any further, whereas if I were to actually have a son in the future and give him such a name, there's a convenient nickname that he could use to make it less blatant. Not that it's really all that weird since most surnames that contain common male names were in fact originally patronymics.
Look, I too have a parent who gave me a theme name. His middle name is A (my grandfather wanted Ames, my grandmother wanted no middle name, so they gave him just a letter), so he gave me the middle name of B, my sister C, and my second sister D.
LOL. She actually looks like she could be eating something else there, possibly even a sandwich. It looks like there should be something long and thin there, and instead there's just these two rice balls.
I know, right? The one time it's an easy shot to replace, they don't replace.
Wow random dig.
I seriously hate Avatar so much.
I don't even want to know how a Pokémon could be a stripper. Wait...okay, now I have even worse ideas in my head. Dammit Anna!
Mwahaha.
Anyway, while it wasn't "family" in the traditional sense, I'm sure Ash's Bulbasaur probably applies. Actually, Squirtle even moreso--he left the Squirtle Squad without their leader!
I meant more like the pokemon he catches without knowing first, like Krabby or Corphish. For all he knows, he's taking Krabby away from the collage scholarship it worked for years to achieve.
I thought Rhonda was at the restaurant that Team Rocket was at...
I don't know, I tried to make sure I got all of the instances right but I could have screwed up.
Looked up an actual summary of this episode, and...the only problem I see with this write-up is that 3/10 seems much too high.
I know, right? For every good filler episode, there are two or three of these.
I think you mean "empathize". And with that, I'm all caught up.
>_>... again.
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--
You should get at least one alt in the event you get warned or put into Purgatory. - Luster It's probably easier to just not break the rules. - SmartMuffin
Fear Factor Phony "If I were you, I'd paint a battery yellow!" Score: 0/10
Well, this episode is pretty awful by its own merits, but then you have the voice actor change. Now, I’m going to honestly – honestly – make an attempt not to let nostalgia factor in here and rate the new voices objectively. - Ash is mostly okay, but his voice actor lacks the same punch at the old one. Instead of sounding forceful when he talks, he just sounds like a kid. - Brock is fine. - Max is fine. - May sounds like a thirty year-old woman. - Meowth’s new voice is a little too scratchy, but it’s ultimately alright. - Jessie drops in and out of having an English accent, this is incredibly distracting. - But by far the worst of the new voices is James’. No longer is it camp gay, it just sounds like he’s yawning while talking… every single line.
Ergh.
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Sweet Baby James "Asking us to behave is like asking a baby not to cry! And we're babies, alright!" Score: 7/10
Munchlax is sick, and an old couple who happen to be wandering the field the heroes are in agree to let them come with them to heal it. Cut to Team Rocket, where Chimecho is also sick, and James spies a castle in the distance. He runs there (despite it clearly being many miles away and Chimecho not being well enough to make the journey, also, they have a balloon), and we learn the old couple are James' grandparents and the castle is one of his summer cottages. Yep, those classical European castles are just all over Japan. Also: James’ grandparents own a Mime Jr., which proceeds to spend the entire episode mimicking James’ movements.
James lies and claims Meowth and Jessie work for him to impress his grandparents, including claiming that he’s president of a major organization. They tell James that Chimecho is just exhausted, even though it's like the single pokemon in the series that engages in the least strenuous activities and it hardly does anything other than join in at the last part of the Team Rocket motto.
The heroes and Team Rocket bump into each other, and James convinces the heroes not to tell them the truth and to pretend they're all friends, even though James is supposed to be the president of a major company and the heroes are children so this would be incredibly suspicious.
James’ grandparents take everyone to the Pokemon House, which is like a greenhouse where they keep dozens of pokemon, including tragically revoiced Wooper. Jesus Christ, the old voice was amazing (WOOPA), this voice is just terrible (Woop-err?).
At night, James spends time with Chimecho and May with Munchlax, and Mime Jr. is impressed by how kindly James acts. Jessie and Meowth go around the castle stealing all of the pokemon, and James and the heroes confront them. Angered, James sides with the heroes and has Cacnea attack Seviper, and once again, it seems to be kind of implied James is a better battler than Jessie, and he blasts them off. I also think this is the only time in the series when only part of Team Rocket blasts off.
In the morning, the heroes leave, but Chimecho is still too weak to move. His grandparents tell James that he can't take it with him, and he has a montage of playing with Chimecho while a silly sad song plays in the background. FOREVER BEST FRIENDS, ME AND YOU! YOU NEED TO KNOW YOU'RE NOT ALONE I'LL BE BACK REAL SOON James decides to come back for Chimecho when it heals, which according to Bulbapedia, he never does. I choose to assume this means Chimecho dies off screen.
As James leaves, he drops an empty pokeball, and Mime Jr. catches itself so it can come with James and fill the “Unnecessary cute thing” slot.
Overall, a solid James-centric episode.
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A Chip Off The Old Brock "Bringing you tomorrow's evil technologies... today!" Score: 4/10
Ash and Brock are getting some training in of Grovyle versus Mudkip. Wow, uh, way to be fair, there, Ash. You're already the only professional battler in the group and you're using Grovyle against Mudkip? Well, Mudkip agrees with me about the unfairness of this and evens the scales by evolving into Marshtomp. Reinvigorated, Brock orders a mud shot, but the attack goes wild and hits a woman’s Flaaffy. She introduces herself as Mariah and takes everyone to a drug store run by her grandmother Katie (possibly the least appropriate name for an old lady ever), and a potion quickly heals it. Katie has an apprentice, McKully, who wants to be a great medicine… guy, but who kind of sucks.
Team Rocket attempts to steal the medicine by attacking McKully, and since Marshtomp is the most recently evolved pokemon, it's the one who gets to stop Team Rocket.
At night, McKully attempts to reproduce a complicated medicine Katie can create easily that heals electric pokemon, and fails completely. He tells the heroes that he thinks he'll never match Katie, but Katie comes in and tells him that only lacks confidence, when in fact he lacks experience. I mean, confidence is great and all, but I could into a laboratory and declare myself to be the best geologist ever and it won’t actually mean anything. I mean, Katie is like sixty years old, and McKully looks like he's sixteen.
In any case, Team Rocket attacks and steals the medicine again, and McKully helpfully tells us that "I remember those guys!" Yes, good, good, you have a functioning short term memory. I especially love how as Team Rocket steals all of this medicine, Ash's biggest concern is that James has a new pokemon in Mime Jr., as if this is a huge, game-deciding factor.
Marshtomp attempts to stop Team Rocket, but Team Rocket is prepared this time and reflects the mud shot back at Pikachu and Marreep. They're now injured and need some of the medicine, but while Mariah and McKully get to it, it's all been destroyed. McKully and Mariah find two of the necessary three ingredients to heal electric pokemon and attempt to mix it anyway.
It works, of course, and Pikachu and Marreep defeat Team Rocket. Why did the medicine work despite only having two of the ingredients? Because of McKully's "complete confidence." Wow. Wow. Imagine if they pulled that on House. “House, we can’t diagnose him without an MRI machine, but all of the machines in the hospital are broken! We can’t move him to another hospital because he’s too weak, and it’ll take too long to set up a new MRI machine. What should we do?” “He’s got a brain tumor.” “How do you know?” “I know because I’m House.” “Good enough for me!”
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
I never watched that episode but I watched the clip when he says goodbye to Chimecho.
It was actually genuinely sad when he said "I don't know how to deal with this". James is probably the only character who could pull that off though, given that it's JAMES
XIII_rocks posted... I never watched that episode but I watched the clip when he says goodbye to Chimecho.
It was actually genuinely sad when he said "I don't know how to deal with this". James is probably the only character who could pull that off though, given that it's JAMES
Yeah, that's a really good point. I should have mentioned it.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
