Pokemon S01E29 Review: Eye of the Tiger

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 29: The Punchy Pokemon / Fighting Pokemon, the Great Battle

Not the most exciting episode, I suppose? We get another Pokemon release with Primeape being released a couple of episodes after Ash caught it, and unlike Butterfree, we... we really didn't get to see anything out of Primeape. The episode where Ash catches him mostly involves just slapstick comedy, and this episode has a very bare bones "Ash jumps to help catch Primeape, causing him to trust and listen to him afterwards" plot that honestly felt redundant considering Ash ends up leaving Primeape behind a couple of minutes after that. Honestly, even showing Primeape fight as part of Ash's team for a couple of episodes would've gone a long way at making Primeape feel like an actual character. Instead, it's just a pretty bizarrely paced sequence all around.

Honestly, probably the standout scene for me is the scene at the beginning where they meet a Hitmonchan that they think is a wild Pokemon, and then Ash suddenly gets in the mentality of teaching Pikachu how to box, complete with a fun, extended sequence of Pikachu with boxing gloves being absolutely ADORABLE. From how he mimics Ash's boxing gestures, to him ineffectually struggling against Hitmonchan's reach, to eventually just doing a 'rocket punch' that involves jumping onto Hitmonchan's face...

Unfortunately, though, the rest of the episode is just... it's not bad, honestly, and I don't have any complaints about it unlike some of the more filler-y "character of the week" episodes, but it's just utterly un-engaging. Ash and company meet up with Anthony/Anoki, Hitmonchan's trainer, who is super-obsessed with winning the P-1 Grand Prix; while his daughter wants our heroes to take her father down a notch because he got way to obsessed with it.

The tournament itself is pretty fun, from what little we see of it, but Fighting-types just punching and bouncing around isn't quite as dynamic or interesting as later seasons would be, particularly with this season's relatively low budget. Team Rocket somehow overpowers an beats up a massive man with a trenchcoat, steal his Hitmonlee, and use it to participate in the Grand Prix. We get the aforementioned Ash-rescues-Primeape scene, and a running theme is Anoki telling everyone that "strong men need to know when to admit defeat", something that he tells Brock, and later does himself when Hitmonchan is overwhelmed by Team Rocket's Hitmonlee. Of course, the main reason why Hitmonlee won is because Meowth is sneaking under the ring and use some glue to trap Hitmonchan's feet, but... but no one notices? Sure, maybe during the fight no one sees, but surely after the fight is over they'd realize that Hitmonchan's feet is glued to the spot.

We also get an utterly bizarre and needlessly over-dramatic sequence of somehow Manami jumping into the ring to stop them from hurting his dad's Hitmonchan, and his dad jumping into the ring after her. The animation budget's clearly gone to animating the actual fighting Pokemon, so this sequence just feel bizarrely static, not helped by the sheer ridiculousness that apparently Hitmonlee's hi-jump kick moves so slowly that these two people could jump into place.

The final fight, of course, ends up being between team Rocket's Hitmonlee and Ash's Primeape. Team Rocket's attempts to cheat ends up being foiled by Pikachu, who adorable goes off to investigate Meowth dicking around under the fighting stage by himself after being ignored by Ash. It's adorable. Primeape beats Hitmonlee with a Seismic Toss, and Pikachu causes Team Rocket to get sent blasting off again with their own device.

And then, genuinely apropos of nothing, Anoki asks Ash if he's willing to give Primeape to him, because he'll train Primeape to become a P1 Grand Prix Champ, which is... it honestly comes out of nowhere. Maybe a superior episode would show how much Primeape likes the competition of this tournament or something, but both the characters-of-the-week and Primeape himself are so flat that  we really don't learn anything significant about them as characters. It's... it's honestly pretty anticlimactic. I'm not the biggest fan of Primeape, but it's honestly a pretty wasteful use of what could potentially be an arc that could be as memorable as Butterfree or Lapras.

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Hitmonchan, Pikachu, Hitmonlee, Machoke, Machop, Machamp, Primeape, Meowth, Geodude, Poliwrath
• Humans: Misty, Ash, Brock, Jessie, James

Assorted Notes: 

• The whole concept of a Fighting-based gym that isn't counted in the official rankings is probably a reference to the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City in the games. 
• Brock enters Geodude into the P-1 Grand Prix, and... and Geodude's not a Fighting Pokemon. 
• So... so what's the deal with Hitmonlee, anyway? Did Team Rocket straight-up steal it, changing ownerships and everything? Because Hitmonlee seems pretty happy to listen to Team Rocket even after the deception's over. No one ever mentions what happened to Hitmonlee's trainer either. Maybe this Hitmonlee is just a dick? 
• During the montage, Primeape somehow manages to scratch the SHIT out of a poor Machamp's face. I know Primeape is able to learn Scratch and Fury Swipes in the games, but even then, it's still weird since Primeape's hands are very glove-esque. 
• Dub Edits: 
• The dub adds a lot more hints about Ash coming back for Primeape, with Anthony's line being more along the lines of "let me train your pokemon for a while" in the dub, whereas the original was more final, with Anoki's line being "why don't you give Primeape to me?" The only reference of Ash returning for Primeape was a generic parting/meeting speech by the narrator at the end of the episode. 
• Jessie's fantasy, being surrounded by a harem of pretty boys in briefs, is turned to her wanting to 'throw a party for her close friends', which... which still doesn't really make the implications any more family-friendly, honestly. 
• A dub error includes Rebecca referring to Anthony as her "brother" instead of her dad at one point.