Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 60: Beach Blank-Out Blastoise; Episode 61: The Misty Mermaid
Yeah, from here on out I'm moving to having two episodes in a review permanently, I guess.
"Beach Blank-Out Blastoise" is sort of an underwhelming episode, and it's one that I feel is sort of a formula that's going to be repeated a bit frequently in some of the show's less-fondly-remembered segments. Like the Johto era! Which... which admittedly isn't a segment of the Pokemon anime I've watched in a long time, so my memory might be inaccurate, but it sure feels like the sort of forgettable episode that's just there to sort of 'debut' a new Pokemon in a throwaway, standalone storyline. Insert a Jigglypuff-song sequence to either kick-start or wrap-up your plot as needed.
And that's honestly sort of the entirety of the episode. After Cinnabar Island, Ash and company meet a Wartortle, who's arrived from an island shaped like a tortoise shell, in search for help because all of the Squirtles and Wartortles in the island has fallen asleep, and so has the big boss Blastoise. So after Ash's Squirtle puts on his badass sunglasses, our heroes travel there, and so do Team Rocket in their fancy Gyarados submarine-mecha.
There's some sort of sleeping sickness among the turtle Pokemon, and Ash and Squirtle end up succumbing to it, but after a while it becomes very clear that it's freaking Jigglypuff, stuck inside Blastoise's cannon, and apparently the little puffball is somehow still singing while stuck, creating this aura of sleepiness that extends all around Blastoise. Team Rocket tries to steal Blastoise with their Gyarados mecha, Ash's Squirtle gives a rousing speech to make the other turtles rescue Blastoise, then Pikachu and Squirtle zap Blastoise so hard he wakes up and launches Jigglypuff our of the cannon. Blastoise then fights the Gyarados mecha, Team Rocket blast off again, and Jigglypuff does the face-scribble gag to end off the episode.
That's the entire episode, stretched over 25 minutes, and I know that the past three episodes have been a bit more content-packed than usual, but man it really feels like there's nothing interesting happening in this episode in particular. I realize that they probably wanted an episode to focus heavily on the third starter evolution (since Charizard and Venusaur both had an episode) but man, "Bulbasaur's Secret Garden" set up Venusaur and the Bulbasaur society as this pretty cool, mysterious plant-creature society and ended up with Bulbasaur learning Solarbeam. The various Charizard episodes set him up as Ash's most powerful flying fire-breathing lizard and had him go through cool action scenes. Blastoise... sleeps for three-fourths of his debut episode. Overall, highly forgettable.
Episode 61, "The Misty Mermaid", is another one that focuses on Misty and her nasty, passive-aggressive asshole sisters as we do a bit of a backtrack through the previous parts of Kanto en route to Viridian City. After finding out that Horsea's not feeling well and requires a bigger pool to swim in, they sort of drop by Cerulean City... only to find out that Misty's three bitchy sisters have set up this huge underwater ballet play and basically passive-aggressively pressure Misty into helping them out as the star role, because after all it's "for the good of Cerulean" or whatever. The three sisters' assholishness end up being a bit more exaggerated in the English dub with, like, such a grating stereotypical dumb valley girl, like, accent, like, and it actually works in making them a bit more unlikable.
Basically, Misty's sisters and her friends sort of shanghai her into helping out in the performance, which at least gives us some decent visuals as Misty swims around both her and her sisters' water-type Pokemon. Team Rocket shows up to steal Cerulean Gym's water Pokemon, although this time around they ditch the giant water-draining vacuum in favour for some Swan-Lake inspired crossdressing costumes and a whole lot of flair, and, of course, the audience thinks that Team Rocket's part of the show. That's the entire crux of the episode -- Team Rocket shows up to steal the Pokemon, but because of their hamminess, the audience think Team Rocket's part of the show.
Misty ends up commanding the gym's water pokemon to battle against Team Rocket (well, mostly Arbok, because neither Weezing nor Meowth are willing to duke it out underwater) and we do get a relatively interesting fight in that everyone has to keep holding rebreathers or whatever? Despite this being theoretically a Horsea spotlight episode, poor Horsea ends up being relatively useless and completely overwhelmed by Arbok, while Misty ends up using the gym's Seaking and Seel to fight. Seel ends up even evolving throughout the battle, defeating Team Rocket and freezing them solid after its evolution. Our heroes rescue the captured Pokemon, evacuates the pool, and then Pikachu thunderbolts the pool to send Team Rocket blasting off again.
The show ends up as a success, but good luck replicating that exciting show without a way to evolve a Seel and without the massive hamminess and conflict that Team Rocket brings to the table. Misty ends up being somewhat-pressured by her sisters to leave Horsea behind in the gym. At least with Horsea, there's the fact that it was clearly not doing very well earlier in the episode, but then her sisters make Misty leave behind Starmie too, and... and it feels like honestly kind of a dick move on their part that no one calls them out on. I'm genuinely not sure what this is for -- it's a pretty poor exit episode for Horsea and poor Starmie hasn't even been around for much.
And honestly, between this episode and James getting Victreebel in the Breeding Center episode, it really does strike me just how terrible this show is at showcasing recurring party members, huh? If there's one thing that the later seasons really ended up being good at, it's making it a huge event whenever a Pokemon ends up joining or leaving the main cast's party. When I first watched this episode as a kid I even missed out that this was Starmie's exit, considering how half-hearted it was done. And, yeah, none of Misty's Pokemon other than Psyduck really have much of an interesting personality, but that's more because the show really makes it a point to not use them a lot, huh? Kind of a shame.
I kind of want to say that I liked "Misty Mermaid", but I really don't. The plot's pretty bland, the animation's very inconsistent (Seel spinning around Arbok's cool, though) and overall I'm just not a fan of it.
And that's honestly sort of the entirety of the episode. After Cinnabar Island, Ash and company meet a Wartortle, who's arrived from an island shaped like a tortoise shell, in search for help because all of the Squirtles and Wartortles in the island has fallen asleep, and so has the big boss Blastoise. So after Ash's Squirtle puts on his badass sunglasses, our heroes travel there, and so do Team Rocket in their fancy Gyarados submarine-mecha.
There's some sort of sleeping sickness among the turtle Pokemon, and Ash and Squirtle end up succumbing to it, but after a while it becomes very clear that it's freaking Jigglypuff, stuck inside Blastoise's cannon, and apparently the little puffball is somehow still singing while stuck, creating this aura of sleepiness that extends all around Blastoise. Team Rocket tries to steal Blastoise with their Gyarados mecha, Ash's Squirtle gives a rousing speech to make the other turtles rescue Blastoise, then Pikachu and Squirtle zap Blastoise so hard he wakes up and launches Jigglypuff our of the cannon. Blastoise then fights the Gyarados mecha, Team Rocket blast off again, and Jigglypuff does the face-scribble gag to end off the episode.
That's the entire episode, stretched over 25 minutes, and I know that the past three episodes have been a bit more content-packed than usual, but man it really feels like there's nothing interesting happening in this episode in particular. I realize that they probably wanted an episode to focus heavily on the third starter evolution (since Charizard and Venusaur both had an episode) but man, "Bulbasaur's Secret Garden" set up Venusaur and the Bulbasaur society as this pretty cool, mysterious plant-creature society and ended up with Bulbasaur learning Solarbeam. The various Charizard episodes set him up as Ash's most powerful flying fire-breathing lizard and had him go through cool action scenes. Blastoise... sleeps for three-fourths of his debut episode. Overall, highly forgettable.
Episode 61, "The Misty Mermaid", is another one that focuses on Misty and her nasty, passive-aggressive asshole sisters as we do a bit of a backtrack through the previous parts of Kanto en route to Viridian City. After finding out that Horsea's not feeling well and requires a bigger pool to swim in, they sort of drop by Cerulean City... only to find out that Misty's three bitchy sisters have set up this huge underwater ballet play and basically passive-aggressively pressure Misty into helping them out as the star role, because after all it's "for the good of Cerulean" or whatever. The three sisters' assholishness end up being a bit more exaggerated in the English dub with, like, such a grating stereotypical dumb valley girl, like, accent, like, and it actually works in making them a bit more unlikable.
Basically, Misty's sisters and her friends sort of shanghai her into helping out in the performance, which at least gives us some decent visuals as Misty swims around both her and her sisters' water-type Pokemon. Team Rocket shows up to steal Cerulean Gym's water Pokemon, although this time around they ditch the giant water-draining vacuum in favour for some Swan-Lake inspired crossdressing costumes and a whole lot of flair, and, of course, the audience thinks that Team Rocket's part of the show. That's the entire crux of the episode -- Team Rocket shows up to steal the Pokemon, but because of their hamminess, the audience think Team Rocket's part of the show.Misty ends up commanding the gym's water pokemon to battle against Team Rocket (well, mostly Arbok, because neither Weezing nor Meowth are willing to duke it out underwater) and we do get a relatively interesting fight in that everyone has to keep holding rebreathers or whatever? Despite this being theoretically a Horsea spotlight episode, poor Horsea ends up being relatively useless and completely overwhelmed by Arbok, while Misty ends up using the gym's Seaking and Seel to fight. Seel ends up even evolving throughout the battle, defeating Team Rocket and freezing them solid after its evolution. Our heroes rescue the captured Pokemon, evacuates the pool, and then Pikachu thunderbolts the pool to send Team Rocket blasting off again.
The show ends up as a success, but good luck replicating that exciting show without a way to evolve a Seel and without the massive hamminess and conflict that Team Rocket brings to the table. Misty ends up being somewhat-pressured by her sisters to leave Horsea behind in the gym. At least with Horsea, there's the fact that it was clearly not doing very well earlier in the episode, but then her sisters make Misty leave behind Starmie too, and... and it feels like honestly kind of a dick move on their part that no one calls them out on. I'm genuinely not sure what this is for -- it's a pretty poor exit episode for Horsea and poor Starmie hasn't even been around for much.And honestly, between this episode and James getting Victreebel in the Breeding Center episode, it really does strike me just how terrible this show is at showcasing recurring party members, huh? If there's one thing that the later seasons really ended up being good at, it's making it a huge event whenever a Pokemon ends up joining or leaving the main cast's party. When I first watched this episode as a kid I even missed out that this was Starmie's exit, considering how half-hearted it was done. And, yeah, none of Misty's Pokemon other than Psyduck really have much of an interesting personality, but that's more because the show really makes it a point to not use them a lot, huh? Kind of a shame.
I kind of want to say that I liked "Misty Mermaid", but I really don't. The plot's pretty bland, the animation's very inconsistent (Seel spinning around Arbok's cool, though) and overall I'm just not a fan of it.
Featured Pokemon:
- Episode 60:
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Wartortle, Squirtle, Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen, Horsea, Meowth, Blastoise, Jigglypuff
- Humans: Brock, Ash, Misty, Jessie, James
- Episode 61:
- Pokemon: Horsea, Pikachu, Togepi, Seel, Meowth, Goldeen, Seaking, Starmie, Staryu, Shellder, Arbok, Weezing, Psyduck, Squirtle, Dewgong
- Humans: Misty, Ash, Brock, Misty's Sisters, James, Jessie
Random Notes:
- It's always implied that all Pokemon could understand each other, particularly in "Island of the Giant Pokemon", so it's a bit odd why Pikachu ends up calling out Squirtle to communicate with Wartortle.
- Arbok is able to fight underwater, while Weezing just floats straight to the surface. When you think that Weezing's a bag of poisonous gas, it makes sense! Plus, some snakes can swim. So. (Less sensible is the fact that Psyduck can't breathe underwater, although it's easily just rule of funny.)
- Speaking of Arbok and Weezing, it's been a while since we last saw them, hasn't it? Team Rocket's relied more on random gadgets and mechas for the past couple of episodes.
- More real-world fishes are seen in the Cerulean gym in the background.
- Dub Changes:
- Nothing too major in episode 60, I think the most significant one (if you can call it that) is that the original argument between Team Rocket is who gets to keep Blastoise, not who gets credit for it.
- The lines about James asking if they could 'steal men's clothes next time' and his insistence that he did modern dance as a kid are all included in the dub. Original-Japanese Kojiro has absolutely no problems with crossdressing at all.
- In episode 61, we get a bit of a recurring observation from Ash how odd it is that a Pokemon gym also doubles as a water show stage.
- The dub title of episode 60 is a reference to "Beach Blanket Bingo", which is a reference that I am pretty sure went through the heads of an exact 100% of the children watching this episode air in 1999.
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