Pokemon S01E41-42 Review: Pikachu's Ketchup Love

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 41: Wake Up, Snorlax; Episode 42: Showdown at Dark City / Showdown, Pokemon Gym

Another pair of filler-y episodes. "Wake Up Snorlax" is an episode I never remembered watching as a kid, and I remembered watching through the old VCD sets I own multiple times... and I never really remembered this episode at all. To be fair... it is a pretty unmemorable episode. We get our heroes arriving to town where it has ran out of food because the river ran dry, and our heroes and Team Rocket both go to investigate and find out that a fatty-fat-fat Snorlax is blocking the stream.

And we get some fun comedic moments, particularly from Psyduck and the attempts to wake Snorlax up, but it's... it's honestly not very interesting either. Psyduck is fun and makes a lot of funny faces, but it's honestly quite clear that we're just trying to stretch the plot that could be handled in five minutes to twenty-five. Of course, the solution turns out to be the random old man that both parties met in the beginning of the episode... who is apparently Snorlax's trainer, and knows that Snorlax can block the river? What a dick! No one calls him out on this, either.

I dunno. Thankfully Snorlax would fare better in later episodes when it's not stuck in such an utterly inane episode.

"Showdown in Dark City" is... the concept of it is certainly neat, with a pair of what are essentially gangs fighting for dominance in a city. Sure, the premise is paper-thin for a standalone episode, but I definitely found myself enjoying this one a lot more. From the running gag of Pikachu's love for his ketchup, to the nice little world-building of a Pokemon league official having to recognize a gym, to a bunch of assholes who just want to get the Pokemon gym name just to make money... The story of the episode is even a reference to classic Japanese film Yojimbo, which isn't necessary for your enjoyment of this episode, but it's neat to see all the nice touches that parody that movie.


The two parties that are fighting over dominance in this city and end up wrecking it regularly are led by trainers who have an Electabuzz and Scyther respectively, which is a neat little showcase of two of the then-non-evolving Pokemon lumped together near the end of the Pokedex. Between the always-hilarious ELEBLUBLUBLUBBUL voice that Electabuzz makes in both versions, to the awesome Iai-katana speed-blitz cuts by Scyther, the actual gang fights are admittedly pretty entertaining.

We also get to see some fun moments with the episode featuring the Kaz and Yas gangster members throwing out a bunch of random Pokemon into the fray, and while they don't really do much, I genuinely always love it especially in early seasons where the budget allowed them to use more than just one or two Pokemon outside of the regular cast. Hell, even Vulpix does something, blowing up Team Rocket and sending them running away from the cafe.

The Pikachu ketchup running gag, as mentioned before, is fun, even if it is admittedly silly that ketchup is apparently what coincidentally drives the two ace Pokemon of both gangs into a fighting frenzy. But his love for ketchup as he runs around the episode licking ketchup, and the utterly sad face he has when he uses it as a shield against Scyther (something that the Yaz gym leader thinks is Scyther being intimidated by Pikachu's strength) is hilarious.

But the comedic highlight of the episode has to be Ash and company giving fake names based on food. "OMURICE KETCHAPPU!" "CHICKENRICE SAUCE-KO!" "CURRYRICE CHUTZNYZAEMON!" Even the dub doesn't lose this joke, although admittedly hearing "Tom Ato, Ann Chovie and Caesar Salad" isn't quite as hilarious as the Japanese audio shouting "CHIKKEN RAISUU".

Nurse Joy pretending to be a cool background extra with a mask (including a hilarious visual gag where she forgot she has a mask on and drinks coffee without taking it off) and revealing herself to be the League officiator is pretty fun and a nice little background detail. Anyway, it's an episode where there clearly are a whole lot of plot holes and the silly tomato sauce bucket attack driving both Yaz and Kaz gym Pokemon to insanity is kind of silly... but the episode is certainly fun and has a fair bit of action in it. The moral of the story is... uh... don't fight for money? And settle Pokemon battles with Pokemon? It's entertaining, at least. 

Pokemon Index: 

• Episode 41:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Meowth, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, Snorlax, Horsea, Arbok, Weezing, Pidgeotto
• Humans: Brock, Ash, Misty, James, Jessie
• Episode 42:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Electabuzz, Scyther, Meowth, Weezing, Arbok, Vulpix, Machoke, Mankey, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Kingler, Raticate, Golem, Rhydon, Bulbasaur, Chansey
• Humans: Brock, Ash, Misty, Jessie, James, Nurse Joy

Assorted Notes: 

• So episode 41 is where the random "Arbok and Weezing" made huge kissy-faces scene from the Pokerap is from! That always bothered me. 
• The effect where Misty gets scratched by the thorns and bleeds is pretty horrible animation, huh? Also bad animation is in episode 42, where Electabuzz zaps his own trainer. 
• Pikachu and his ketchup bottle is adorable. I cannot stress this enough.
• Electabuzz is allowed to keep his utterly ridiculous voice in the dub. Bless the dub. 
• So ever wonder why "Cut" is often treated as a pretty badass move despite being a pretty bland Normal-type move in the games? Cut's Japanese name is Iaigiri, which refers to a trope in samurai movies (and anime) where a samurai warrior basically rushes forwards and cuts the enemy so fast that you only see him pulling out and re-sheathing the sword, something we see with Scyther this episode.  
• Dub Changes: 
• The episode 41 dub changes the bland poke-flute guy into sounding like a hippie, which... probably explains why he's so absent-minded. Good job, dub!
• References to real-world Italia when Ash says that his name is "Napolitan" (in reference to Spaghetti Napolitan) is removed in the dub.