Pokemon S01E31 Review: Anticlimactic Evolution

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 31: Dig Those Diglett

A lot of these early Pokemon episodes (and honestly, a lot of 90's anime) have this message about not destroying the environment, Captain Planet style. I am all for teaching children to respect nature and not cause pollution and all... but at the same time, sometimes the episodes that focus on this moral ends up being so preachy and heavy-handed that it ends up feeling more like a lecture and less like an episode with a moral. This is one of those episodes. Pokemon already has a bunch of 'pollution is bad!' episodes with episode 30 dealing with a polluted town, and episode 19 literally having a giant jellyfish kaiju rampage to teach the humans a lesson... but this one just feels so preachy and bland. Perhaps the biggest offender is that two of the recurring Pokemon, Ekans and Koffing, have a dramatic evolution which ends up quite literally being swept under the rug.

Of course, our heroes are lost again (and so are the ever-following Team Rocket), when they encounter earthquakes, because apparently there are giant explosions of construction vehicles collapsing into holes, and giant rocks falling off of cliffs. Poor Team Rocket get their picnic lunch utterly ruined (they look so sad!) while our heroes find out that there's a construction project building a dam that's being sabotaged by a massive swarm of Diglett.

And as much as I don't really like the episode, I have to admit that be it in the Japanese or English versions, Diglett's voice and mannerisms are utterly adorable as shit. The foreman is such an exaggerated cartoon character that's all like "I NEED TO BUILD THIS DAM" and has put out an RPG-style call for local Pokemon trainers.

Which... brings us to a Gary appearance, and since the Beauty and the Beach episode was banned outside of Japan, it's Gary's first real role after Pallet Town. There's a fun bit where Gary ends up being such a hilarious nerd when he interrupts the foreman's mission statement to give an 'as we all should know' fact drop about Diglett, and how utterly ridiculous that you need so many trainers. Despite Gary's bravado, though, he and all the other trainers, including our heroes, find that none of their Pokemon want to exit their Pokeballs, and it's apparently in protest? Somehow every single Pokemon in that gigantic pile of Pokeballs realize the specifics of the situation, and is able to defy their trainers?

It's weird, and everyone else leaves other than our three heroes. Diglett returning the balls are adorable, though, and the Diglett would lead our heroes to see that, apparently Diglett and Dugtrio are basically protectors of nature, plowing the soil and planting trees and shit. Oh, and we get a gratuitous hot springs scene... although our three heroes are wearing swimsuits. In the Japanese version, though, Brock does lampshade how bizarre it is for them to wear those in a hot spring.

While all of this going on, James and Jessie are depressed that this potential big haul of Pokemon is spoiled by the fact that their Ekans and Koffing just aren't that good... so they want to to evolve their buddies. Experience in losing doesn't count, and we get a genuinely heartwarming moment where James and Jessie actually say about how they don't want their Pokemon to change... and then Ekans and Koffing evolve when tears land on them! Meowth does note that this is probably because it's already time, but despite being villains, Team Rocket has always treated their pokemon relatively well, so it would've been a pretty badass scene of the Pokemon appreciating their masters, good or bad.

And as the foreman is all morose and sad of his evil, EVIL industrialization, Team Rocket arrive and show off Arbok and Weezing... and quite literally get curb-stomped by an earth tsunami of Digletts and Dugtrios, who carry Team Rocket away and smash them onto the construction site, completely demolishing it. It's such an abrupt and anticlimactic end to what is otherwise a pretty decent evolution arc for the bad guys, and the whole "nature is good, you are bad for building a dam" moral gets hammered home so hard onto the one-dimensional foreman character. Honestly, between a very charismatic pokemon-of-the-week in Diglett, the evolution of Team Rocket's Pokemon and Gary's return, none of these are handled well, leading to a pretty bland and uninteresting episode.

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Meowth, Pidgey, Diglett, Rattata, Koffing, Ekans, Spearow, Caterpie, Pidgeotto, Psyduck, Chansey, Beedrill, Onix, Dugtrio, Oddish, Arbok, Weezing, Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur
• Humans: Misty, Brock, Ash, James, Jessie

Assorted Notes:

• The geography is all wrong unless our heroes get really lost, but this episode is very loosely based on the Diglett's Cave area from the games. 
• Gary doesn't name any of his Pokemon in either version of the episode, just shouting "go, my Pokemon!" which is probably because they haven't decided on what to give him yet. It's weird.  
• What is it with Japanese characters loving jailbait so much? Brock's line to Gary's harem of ladies is "I'll want to meet up with you in eight years", and while Brock's closer to their age than that old man from the banned episode, it's still a very bizarre line to see in such an otherwise kid-oriented anime. 
• According to Gary, Diglett can withdraw their head at the literal speed of light. 
• So this is where the "I've heard that when Pokemon evolve, their personalities might change" line originated from, not in reference to Pikachu turning into Raichu, but a rumour that causes James and Jessie to briefly regret trying to get Ekans and Koffing to evolve. 
• So apparently even though there's no real interim between the foreman's change of heart and Team Rocket's attack, they get thrown through a 'this project is cancelled' sign despite there being no reason for the foreman to have that sign up. 
• Dub Changes:
• The dam is called "Gaiva Dam" in the dub, which is such a hilarious way to sneak in a not-quite-appropriate-for-children pun. 
• James/Kojiro mistakes the explosions as someone filming an Ultra Sentai show, which, of course, is a reference to the Ultraman and Super Sentai tokusatsu series. 
• The dub has a famous mistake of accidentally mixing around Dugtrio and Diglett when Brock observes how they plow the land and plant the trees.
• When the foreman calls Ash, there is a pun on the number 'four' (shi) in the original Japanese, and the three people with -shi somewhere in their name ends up responding to it, with Satoshi (Ash) sulking because he's always ranked fourth, Takeshi (Brock) consoling Ash, and Musashi (Jessie) randomly going in and saying her name. The conversation between Ash and Brock is altered to be generic consoling without puns, which makes Jessie randomly going "Hi, I'm Jessie!" to be a non-sequitur. 
• The hot springs scene features a pretty neat change. The original Japanese has Brock doing the aforementioned lampshade of going into hot springs with swimsuit, since you're supposed to go into hot springs naked. The English dub changes it to Brock telling them to put on some clothes before going after the Diglett.