Pokemon S01E36-37 Review: Training Wheels Bicycle Gang

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 36: The Bridge Bike Gang / Episode 37: Ditto's Mysterious Mansion

Not an episode I remember particularly well, and... and it's no real surprise why, honestly. It's another filler episode, this time featuring the Cycling Road from the games, and we get a brief prologue of our heroes really wanting to go on the road, but they don't have bikes (nice snide remark from Misty there). They're in luck, though, because Nurse Joy gives them a side-quest to basically deliver medication to Sunny Town across the Cycling Road, allowing them to borrow the Pokemon Center's bikes.

They're blocked by a bicycle gang, which is... which is an actually hilarious parody of a biker gang, who block their way for no real reason beyond being punks, and we get the requisite episodic battle. Which... it's honestly kinda nonsensical that Golem can somehow basically be immune to Bulbasaur, but somehow get turned into a burning ball by Charmander, but eh, whatever. The highlight of the episode has to be Psyduck doing his gosh-darned best when he comes up against the bicycle gang's Cloyster, and we get some amazing, hilarious expressions as he tries to tail-whip the Cloyster and proves utterly ineffective.

Team Rocket then shows up, and we get the revelation that James and Jessie are apparently the former big bro/sis of this particular gang, who respects them a lot -- we even get flashbacks to "Jessie the Chain" and... "Training Wheel James", and the straight-laced way that the one punk calls James awesome for riding with training wheels is hilarious.

The episode ends up getting resolved when a stormy rain happens, and Team Ash just continues to pedal through the rain and the storm, while the bicycle gang basically peer-pressure the very reluctant Team Rocket to show them how real bikers (bicyclers?) handle the storm. Jumping through one of those mechanized opening draw bridges that open for no real reason, our heroes knock Team Rocket into the river, and the gang turns to follow them because real bicycle spirit involves going through the rain and storm for a noble cause.

It's a simple, filler episode... I do like the random backstory given to the Team Rocket, and the bicycler gang is the right amount of bizarre exaggeration. As noted before, my personal highlight in this episode has to be the hilarious Psyduck/Cloyster fight.
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Another episode, another sequence of our heroes being lost and stumbling into a character-of-the-week. In this case, our heroes stumble into a mansion ran by Imite (Duplica in the dub) and her Ditto, a pink blob that can transform into any Pokemon. They are a pretty fun and charming set of guest characters. We first see Ditto transforming into a Pikachu with a hilariously fun face -- Ditto retains his dot eyes and a goofy mouth while transforming into anything as a 'bad habit', while Ditto's trainer Imite can quickly transform with clothes and wigs to resemble other people... like Ash. I absolutely found the hilarious line about how Brock notes that his 'manly intuition' could tell that the Ash impersonator is actually a girl. Less hilarious is yet another "I'll wait 7 years" jailbait line.

Ash ends up being kind of a dick, shrugging off Ditto's transformation abilities and noting how boring it is for a Pokemon that can't learn any new moves. Imite asks Ash for a match, and we get a Bulbasaur versus Ditto fight. Ash is utterly shocked that the real Bulbasaur end up losing when Dittosaur uses Vine Whip to go through the cloud of Razor Leaves and wrap around Ash's Bulbasaur. 

While Imite shows off her own transformation abilities, turning into Joy and Jenny, Brock comments that she needs more 'adult appeal' to properly impersonate them. Does... does he mean boobs? Okay, this one is sorta funny. Ash is actually somewhat depressed after losing to a copy, but the Brock quickly points out that Duplica didn't just win because she can copy anything, she won because she studied hard and know about Bulbasaur's moves to be able to counter what Ash did. We then get a flashback of Imite's dream, which is... stand-up comedy involving impersonations? Of course, Ditto transforms into a goober-faced Machoke and a Voltorb... and honestly, Imite really needs to learn some improvisation, as she can probably brush away the genuinely adorable Ditto face by making it part of the joke or something. 

Then Team Rocket arrives and kidnaps Ditto! Like, they literally just show up, do their motto, have Weezing throw up a smokescreen and abscond with Ditto. Our heroes literally do not react to this beyond "oh no, they got away!"

The scene in Team Rocket's hideout is utterly hilarious, though. James and Jessie, probably ignoring how valuable Ditto could be, tells Ditto to transform into the Dratini they failed to get a couple episodes ago (this is cleverly side-stepped by them just noting that Dratini is rare in the dub)... but then Jessie asks Ditto to turn into "what this man would be if he grew up". Apparently she carries around a photograph of her first love? Also... what are you planning to do with Ditto if he transforms into a full-sized dude, Jessie? I know Ditto can breed with anything, but...

Ditto, of course, completely misses the mark (or is a good troll) and turns into the picture instead of the boy, and later on turns into a book with a Ditto face instead of the Dratini pictured in the book. That's some fun bits over there. 

While Team Ash's flying members (featuring a vanishingly-rare appearance of Brock's Zubat!) scout out and look for Team Rocket, Ditto apparently is finally able to perfect his impersonation down to the facial structure, thanks to Meowth's threats. So, uh... the moral of the story is, if you're not good at something, find someone who can threaten you until you can do it perfectly? That's a bit weird, honestly, and probably unintentional.

But screw ambiguous morals, because Ash, Misty, Brock and Imite show up decked in Team Rocket costumes, and do a parody of the Team Rocket motto! It's glorious, it's hilarious, and I absolutely love Imite breaking the fourth wall by noting that she's "just a guest star". Jessie and James are livid... not out of embarrassment or plagiarism, but is angry that our heroes change the words in the motto to exorcise any evil words in it. Imite is quickly surprised that her Ditto is doing a perfect impersonation of Meowth (down to the voice?!) and thanks Team Rocket greatly for helping to train Ditto. Team Rocket claims that they are likewise touches, hands over one of the Meowths to Imite, before activating their hot-air balloon and floating away. Their entire house is a fold-away bit built around the hot air balloon, and that's just another layer of fun ridiculousness into this entire episode. 

Imite quickly figures out that the Meowth she's holding isn't Ditto, lobs Meowth onto the balloon, and recalls Ditto... who proceeds to transform into a god-damn ship cannon, launching Pikachu to zap away Team Rocket. After a little epilogue showing how Imite and the newly-confident Ditto reopening their little show stage mansion, we get the hilarious final scene of Jessie and James stuffing Meowth into a Dratini suit to send to the boss. 

Overall? I knew I loved Ditto because of this episode and the bizarre antics it got to, but I completely forgot how much I enjoyed this episode. The gags all land, both the ones that just play in the background or the ones that are actually shown. Imite is a rarity among guest stars in that she is likable and has a decent personality, and Ditto's a fun, fun concept. Easily one of the stronger episodes in this segment of the series, for sure.

Pokemon Index:

• Episode 36:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Meowth, Golem, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Cloyster, Shellder
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Brock, Nurse Joy, James, Jessie, Officer Jenny
• Episode 37:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Ditto, Bulbasaur, Machoke, Electrode, Voltorb, Meowth, Weezing, Dratini, Pidgeotto, Zubat
• Humans: Misty, Ash, Brock, Imite/Duplica, James, Jessie

Assorted Notes:

• The area of this episode is based on the game's Cycling Road, which connects Fuschia and Celadon in the games, and is also populated by biker gangs. 
• The Generation I game's cycling music is heard multiple times in the episode. 
• The episode marks the first time that Misty pulls Brock away by the ear when he's flirting with a pretty woman, something that would become a once-an-episode gag by the time we reach the Johto seasons. 
• Dub Changes:
• One that all dubbed anime have had problems with, James and Jessie are called "aniki" and "anego", which is a term for "big bro" and "big sis" (particularly often associated with punks and gangsters) that just doesn't translate particularly well to an English-speaking conversation. The dub gets around this by just having the bicycle gang give gang nicknames to everyone, but it does cause the final scene of the episode when they call Ash and Misty aniki and anego to lose a fair amount of its original impact. 
• While Ditto retaining his adorable dumb face while transforming is noted to be a quirk of this particular Ditto, this episode's apparently proven so popular that multiple Ditto TCG's and merchandise features a Ditto face whenever Ditto transforms into any other Pokemon. 
• Imite is based on the "Mimic Girl" in Saffron City from the games, who has a similar gimmick of transforming to your character and mimicking what you say until you give her a poke-doll. The Japanese version of the episode more explicitly notes this title, where the game tie-in is lost in the games. 
• "The Legend of Dratini" is, of course, referenced in this episode, but the dub cleverly changes it to just Team Rocket asking Ditto to turn into a rare Pokemon they've never been able to capture. 
• Imite knocking Ash's Pokeball away when he attempts to catch Ditto is possibly a homage to how the games would tell you that "the trainer knocked away the Pokeball" if you used a pokeball on a trainer-owned Pokemon. 
• Dub Changes:
• In the original Japanese version, when Ditto changes into a Voltorb and the audience heckles her, Imite quickly goes and says that Ditto meant to change into an Electrode (and there's an Electrode in the audience next to the heckler, which is why the joke works). The dub changes this to Duplica saying that it's for the audience to tell them apart.
• In the Japanese version, Duplica's part of the Team Rocket motto have her sheepishly note that she's a guest star, breaking the fourth wall. The dub changes the "I'm a guest, though" line to her saying Meowth's "dat's right!" portion instead.