Pokemon S01E04 Review: Harden Your Metapods

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 4: Challenge of the Samurai

This is perhaps one of the first 'filler' episodes featuring a character of the week. Most anime, especially those not adapted from manga, like to make use of these, but Pokemon would make use of characters of the week to a pretty absurd degree.

We start off still in Viridian Forest, with Ash making bad puns involving a cow hoodie, and then he immediately tries to continue his catch 'em all mission when he sees a Weedle. In an adorable bit, Pikachu goes straight to bed on a futon he has nearby, but as Ash is about to capture the Weedle, he gets interrupted by a random Samurai kid swinging around a sword, demanding to know if he's a kid from Pallet Town. Claiming to be the Samurai that "trains the trainers of the forest" (what?), Ash rightfully calls out Samurai for interrupting his capture of the Weedle, but the Samurai is just... the Samurai's just an asshole, isn't he?

We do get a pretty badass fight, with the Samurai summoning Pinsir, a hideous giant bug monster that as a kid I thought was the coolest, most badass looking Pokemon. (As an adult, my opinion is still mostly the same). Pinsir faces off against Pidgeotto, but Pidgeotto is not in peak condition due to the recent battle it's been through against the Weedle, and gets summarily tackled to defeat by Pinsir. Poor Pidgeotto, it seems that your job is to, well, job in a fight.

Ash then sends out his Metapod, and after a brief, horrifying imaginary bit of the Metapod being sliced in half by Pinsir's pincers, Ash tells Metapod to harden, which... breaks poor Pinsir's tiny horns. Apparently this counts as a defeat, and the Samurai boy recalls Pinsir to send out his Metapod, leading to a hilarious Metapod battle where the two of them just use Harden and are unable to move. It's... it's ridiculous, honestly, and Misty points this out while randomly lounging in a bikini on a beach chair while she and Pikachu sips cocktails. It's bizarre.

Meanwhile, we get a brief cut-away to Team Rocket, also hilariously, running around with a cardboard 'armoured van' to protect themselves from the Beedrills of the forest. Yep, they've definitely embraced their role as more comedic antagonists.

Of course, said Beedrill swarm attacks the idiots fighting with immobile Metapods, and now I know where my bee phobia stems from. The Samurai recalls his Metapod and just runs away because he's kind of an asshole, while Ash just stands there gawking at his pokedex which tell him that, hey, Beedrills are mean motherfuckers. Gee, you think?

The Beedrills kidnap Ash's Metapod, and we get a pretty neat bit where Ash tries to recall Metapod into his pokeball, but the beam isn't automatic and Ash keeps missing. Misty drags Ash away to follow the Samurai into his protected cabin, even though Ash wants to go back after Metapod. They stumble into a big tree in the middle of the forest covered with Kakuna, but Ash's shouting ends up causing the Kakuna to notice them with their creepy eyes, and then the Kakuna burst out of their cocoons and evolve into Beedrill, leading to another chase through the forest. They end up hiding in Samurai's cabin, leaving Metapod stranded in the Kakuna tree.

Of course, Samurai boy has the gall to blame Ash for not catching the Weedle, allowing it to go back and warn its hive, but we're honestly forgetting that everything that transpired is sort of Samurai's fault, with his stupid interruption of Ash's capture in the first place. Samurai then tells them about how he's defeated by the Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle Pallet Town trainers that passed through the Viridian Forest, and then calls Ash kind of a loser... even though Ash technically fought Samurai boy with a severe handicap since his Pidgeotto was wounded, and he didn't even use Pikachu.

Anyway, Ash might not be smart, but he is definitely willing to put things right as daybreak approaches, and he crawls towards the huge Beedrill/Kakuna tree, but he gets interrupted by Team Rocket, who, despite Ash's warnings, launch into their dramatic motto complete with Power Rangers colourful smoke explosions behind them. The Beedrill swarm is triggered, and Ash does a duck-and-roll to get past the Beedrills... who apparently can only fly straight. We get a brief comedy bit of Team Rocket pulling out their cardboard 'armoured van', which is eaten by Weedles, and they're forced to escape.

Ash reaches Metapod on the base of the tree, and asks Metapod to get into the pokeball, and Metapod... refuses! Metapod might not be as expressive as Caterpie, but he's clearly pissed off and/or disappointed in Ash, and as a lone Beedrill attacks, Ash just carries Metapod and runs away, and I do like how Ash initially tries to make excuses, blaming the samurai (I mean, he's not wrong), before finally breaking down and apologizing. This touches Metapod so much that he ends up somehow somersaulting and breaking Beedrill's drill-hand (ouch). Despite having a gash on his body, though, it turns out that it is Metapod's time to evolve... and he evolves into his final form, Butterfree!

And Butterfree just uses Sleep Powder to cause the entire Beedrill swarm, and the Weedles, and Team Rocket, to sleep. It's a bit of a silly "new character gets an overpowered ability for his first appearance", but eh. Ash and Misty leave Samurai after a good-natured farewell, and we get one last gag of Team Rocket trying to hide as Kakunas with cardboard costumes, before accidentally waking up the Beedrill swarm.

Ultimately, I feel like the episode really could've highlighted Ash's irresponsibilities a lot more, because I genuinely feel that all his fuck-ups in this episode wasn't actually his fault. Ash does a lot of stupid shit in the anime's later episodes, but I feel like this episode tries to make an "Ash does a mistake, and admits his mistake" moral bit, but honestly, he tried his best and was physically forced into battle by Samurai, and later physically puled along by Misty to escape the Beedrill swarm. I know that Pokemon isn't meant to be the most intellectually-stimulating anime or whatever, but I do feel like this particular episode honestly feels a bit off, particularly with an unlikable guest star of the week. 

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Weedle, Pidgeotto, Pinsir, Metapod, Meowth, Beedrill, Kakuna, Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Butterfree
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Samurai Boy, James, Jessie

Assorted Notes: 

• Yeah, this episode kind of turned into a bit of a meme thanks to the silliness of two boys shouting at their Metapods to Harden, particularly with the random panning scene of Misty in a bikini and a beach chair next to them. Oh, innuendo.
• Like Caterpie's evolution in episode 3, both Beedrill and Butterfree evolve from their respective cocoon stages by bursting out of the cocoons, like real-world insects. This is something that we won't really see in the future, even with these particular species of Pokemon. 
• The pokedex notes that Metapod will always evolve into Butterfree after exactly a week, so apparently Ash and Misty has been wandering aimlessly in Viridian Forest for a week without any sort of progress?  
• That one Beedrill sleeping in the foreground uses his two spear-arms as a pillow and that's such a cute image. 
• Dub Changes:
• I've always wondered about Ash donning a random cow hoodie in the beginning of the episode, making a lame "COW-terpie" pun... and always assumed that there was a joke lost in translation. Turns out that the actual pun in the Japanese version is equally lame and as much of a non-sequitur, with Misty shouting "Mushi" (bug) repeatedly throughout the entire scene, and Ash randomly saying "Ushi" (cow).