Pokemon S01E06 Review: Faux Origin Story

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 6: Clefairy and the Moon Stone

A bit of a weird episode, honestly. It's an episode that stars a location from the games, in this case, Mt. Moon. Brock, acting as the older kid in the group, tells them about how Mt. Moon is named after a meteorite that fell on the mountain... and they quickly see a poor scientist being attacked by a swarm of Zubat. I do like the hilarious bit where Misty tells Ash to stop looking at the Pokedex and rescue the poor man, and Ash uses Pikachu to shock the Zubats away.

And this scientist, Rikao (Seymour in the dub), is... I dunno. He's another guest-star-of-the-week that I dislike, even as a kid. He's loud and obnoxious, making this hyperactive and bizarre moment where he has this whole bit of standing on an imaginary cliff praising the sun and talking about virtues and the bond of companionship between human and Pokemon. What the hell? I love hammy characters, but this is just... this is just dumb.

The setup for the episode's conflict is interesting, with Rikao showing our heroes that people, in search for the Moon Stone, have disturbed the ecology of Mt. Moon. Setting up lights and shit have caused the Zubats to be driven out of their habitat, and we get to see Paras and Sandshrew basically having their internal clocks out of whack. It would be very interesting, wouldn't it, to follow this storyline? Even if they didn't think of taking down the electric lights or calling the police, it's actually the basis of a pretty nice "respect nature, kids" moral.

But nope, this whole thing ends up being thrown out of the window, as Rikao himself gets distracted and talks about his idea that Pokemon arrived on a space ship, based on a theory he has since he was a kid, and that ship is the real Moon Stone. We will never really have any confirmation in the anime (Arceus notwithstanding) about the origin of Pokemon, and this is just such a bizarre bit, but at least our heroes sort of treat Rikao as a bit of a nutjob. We then get distracted by the Pokemon that's going to be spotlighted for the week, Clefairy, who's jumping around with a small fragment of the Moon Stone.

Team Rocket, of course, shows up, as they're hunting the Moon Stone, and we get a double battle! Koffing and Ekans face off against Butterfree... and Zubat? Apparently Brock caught a Zubat off-screen when Pikachu was shocking the whole swarm, and no one notices? Eh, sure, whatever. A Supersonic attack from Zubat causes Koffing and Ekans to fight among themselves, and then knock Jessie and James and send them 'blasting off again'... but Meowth sneaks away and attacks the Clefairy. And it's finally Misty's turn to be a badass, six episodes into the series... and she calls out Staryu, who quickly fills Meowth with water and sends him flying into the air.

After a brief bit of showcasing Brock's home-made Pokemon food, which is a nice bit of character building, our heroes are led by the Clefairy we befriended to witness their ritual in a separate cave where the Clefairies basically worship the moon, as well as a massive Moon Stone. It's... it's kinda bizarre, especially with the Pikachu charades, and Rikao spouts a lot of his theories. I'm not sure about this part of the episode, honestly, because while I do like that it preserves a sense of ambiguous mystery regarding the Clefairy, Rikao's blathering over the scene honestly just ruins this whole scene for me. Thankfully Team Rocket arrives, and Rikao's foolish attempts at trying to contribute ends up with him face-first on the dirt.

It's round two, and Ash and Brock call out the big guns -- Pikachu and motherfucking Onix. Team Rocket uses Koffing's smog as a distraction, though, covering everyone's vision as they steal the Moon Stone by digging through the ground, and then sliding away on it with some jury-rigged platform. Of course, Onix is a giant rock snake, and Brock just sics Onix, telling him to burrow through the ground and stop Team Rocket. And it's really hilarious to see Onix just burst out of the ground and shatter Team Rocket's escape attempt. Sure, Onix gets actually whacked to the ground by Koffing of all things. That Koffing is a badass!

Of course, the Clefairies end up being convinced to actually do something, and when they move their fingers, they unleash their Metronome attack that basically causes the earth to crack and a giant pillar of red flame to send Team Rocket blasting off again. The Moon Stone is shattered, but the fragments cause some of the Clefairies to evolve into Clefables, and we then see the entire Clefairy/Clefable tribe worshipping and dancing around a mountain of Moon Stone shards. That's... that's the conclusion of the episode, with Rikao remaining to live with the Clefs, and the team arriving near a sign to Cerulean City.

Ultimately, this is the first of the episodes that probably fall into "filler" category where we don't get any sort of significant two-parter or Pokemon capture or Pokemon evolution. Ash and company meets a guest star of the week, finds a problem that tends to focus on a particular species of Pokemon, Team Rocket tries to screw things up, and everything ends up resolved by the end. I'm a bit more in-depth because this is one of the earlier episodes, but as we go on (and especially if we ever reach Orange Island and the Johto seasons) I'm probably going to lump a lot of these 'filler' episodes together.

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Zubat, Paras, Sandshrew, Clefairy, Meowth, Koffing, Ekans, Butterfree, Zubat, Staryu, Onix, Pidgeotto, Clefable
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Brock, Rikao, Jesse, James

Assorted Notes: 

• So Paras apparently plant their mushrooms in the soil for some reason? I don't think this is actually mentioned anywhere outside of this episode. 
• We get a double battle, with a proper 2-v-2 fight. Actual double battles won't be a thing in the games until Generation III. Ash also sure got over the whole 'league rules say it's a 1-v-1 fight!' deal from episode 3 pretty quickly, huh?
• Staryu says HYAH. I'm not sure how you get "Hyah" from either Hitodeman or Staryu, but I love it. 
• This episode marks the debut of the little star glint that Team Rocket turns into when they 'blast off again' (or 'this feels bad', for Japanese purists), which is certainly thematic for a Clefairy-themed episode. 
• Dub Changes:
• There's a brief little pun with Pikachu pulling Ash's hair, because kami is a homonym that can mean hair or god in Japanese, leading to them to realize that the Clefairies apparently worship the giant Moon Stone like a god. All reference to religion is removed from the dub.