Pokemon S01E13 Review: His Crab is Bigger

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 13: Bill's Lighthouse / Mystery of the Lighthouse

As a kid, I'm pretty sure this was my least favourite episode. It didn't have much action, it didn't have much comedy, and it didn't even spotlight a Pokemon properly. And looking at it now... it was very much intended to be a filler episode, huh? Like, even the first part of the episode with the long recap with a lot of reused cutscenes and the slo-mo segments of Ash charging at Krabby seemed to be pretty obvious budget-saving techniques.

But I'm genuinely curious just how utterly bizarre this episode is. The first short scene deals with Ash discovering about the whole Pokemon transport system, and in a rarity for this show, we actually get a guest star of the week that's actually a character from the games, and he's not a gym leader! Hell, Bill (or Masaki) is even a character involved with the Pokemon transport system. Maybe we'll learn... something? Nope, we just get a bizarre whale-calling episode with high-handed dialogue that honestly feels pretty redundant. Like, the episode isn't super bad, but it was pretty boring.

Anyway, we start off with the trio having a brief argument with the narrator about whether Ash legitimately caught all six of his Pokemon, which gets Ash to go off and catch something 'on his own', even though... he kinda did that with Caterpie, at least? We get the longer-than-it-needs-to-be segment of Ash catching a tiny Krabby on the beach, at which point Misty and Brock tells Ash about the whole transport system thing. Apparently the pokemon transport system automatically transports any pokemon you catch to the researcher that issued you the pokedex, because of official league rules.

Ash is worried about whether Krabby will get to Oak safely, and this eventually leads to finding a place to call Oak from (because in the 90's, cell phones are a fantasy and pagers are a luxury), leading them to a nearby lighthouse. We get a pretty long conversation at the door between the owner of the lighthouse, Bill, and our heroes trying to get permission to enter and use their phone, which just screams "we need to fill an episode's quota of scenes".

And then Ash calls Oak, where he is eating and we get some jokes about food and Krabby resembling food (I definitely could go for some crab right now). We get the hilarious joke of Gary's Krabby being way bigger than Ash's. Ha! And Gary has caught 45 Pokemon, and whether that means 45 individual creatures or 45 pokedex entries, it's still a lot more than Ash. Dick-measuring contest!

Then Bill shows up in this bizarre Kabuto outfit, and apparently he's trapped in this poorly designed cosplay suit and was just waiting for someone to come and free him. This is a complete non-sequitur that tells us nothing other than Bill is really into Pokemon research... but dressing up as a prehistoric horseshoe crab monster really isn't something I'd call proper research protocol. Or a healthy one. I suppose this is meant to be an adaptation of that segment in the game where Bill gets accidentally fused with a Pokemon in a science experiment accident, but it is such a bizarrely dumb way to adapt it.

We then get these grandiose speeches from Bill about how there should be more than just a mere 150 Pokemon in the world I know the episode was made when the franchise was small, but... HA! And about how researchers and trainers are similar because they seek to find the heart of Pokemon and stuff.

And then we get the really bizarre 'meat' of the episode, so to speak, where apparently Bill is using this cloudy day to try and meet a lonely, mysterious giant Pokemon that's apparently the last of its kind, and he's using this kinda-sorta whale sound to try and attract it. It's a giant Dragonite, or represented by one (the episode is ambiguous), and we get some scenes that went on for a bit too long focusing on the song Bill is using to summon the Dragonite-Nessie-Cthulhu mythical Pokemon.

Team Rocket, who's mostly irrelevant this episode (and I do love them, but they're ccompletely bland in this one) has been trying unssuccessfully to climb the cliff, but they see Maybe-Dragonite and just BAZOOKA THE FUCK out off it, causing the Maybe-Dragonite to rampage, knock Team Rocket away, and destroy part of the lighthouse before leaving. And then we get some more talk from Bill about how being a pokemon lover is great and stuff, and our heroes leave.

And... and, boy, it's kind of a pointless episode, huh? I love the Krabby dick joke and all, but it honestly feels like this episode could've been more. Even as a mysterious "there is more to this majestic world than we know" episode, it lacks any sort of oomph, and honestly just feels half-assed. Not a fan of this one for sure.

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Krabby, Meowth, Dragonite
• Humans: Ash, Brock, Misty, Professor Oak, Bill, Jessie, James

Assorted Notes:

• I try to limit myself in noting the pokemon's Japanese names, but I really, really find it adorable that Krabby's original Japanese name is quite literally just "Crab".
• So do trainers without pokedexes allowed to carry more than six pokemon? Because I'm pretty sure not that many people walk around with the pokedex... or do they? Misty seems pretty savvy in knowing how it works. Lots of questions on how this system works (what if you lose your pokedex? Why do the bad guys also seem to be restricted to this? What about 'pet' pokemon?) but it's a "accept it and move on" situation, I suppose. 
• It's a blink and miss moment, but among the carvings of Pokemon on Bill's lighthouse door is Mewtwo, who canonically shouldn't exist yet. Hell, Mewtwo being couted among the '150 Pokemon in the world' is already a headscratcher, although it's something that most early pokemon media tend to screw up -- the Adventures manga did the same thing.
• This is the only time where Bill is depicted to have green hair. In all other material -- manga, TCG, future games -- his hair is green. Or, for that matter, for Bill to be portrayed without addressing the fact that he build the pokemon transporter system.
• I'm legitimately not sure if the huge Dragonite shadow was meant to be a stand-in for a mysterious unseen Pokemon, or if it was just legitimately a particularly gigantic Dragonite. As a kid, I thought it was just straight-up a Dragonite, and was definitely confused when Dragonites showed up later on and they're not Godzilla-sized.   
• Dub Changes:
• The Japanese dialogue has Misty ask Ash a question more along the lines of "should all six of your pokemon be considered 'caught' or not", with Ash handwaving it as being close enough, whereas the dub has Misty straight-up accusing Ash that all six followed him... when this really is only applicable for Pikachu and Squirtle, and arguably Charmander.