Pokemon S01E72-73 Review: Dynamax Gengar

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 72: The Ancient Puzzle of Pokemopolis; Episode 73: Bad to the Bone

We're almost to the Indigo League Tournament, and we only have two more 'filler' episodes to slog through. Episode 72, "The Ancient Puzzle of Pokemopolis", is kind of a fun one, even if it's something that I've seen show up a lot of times in a lot of fiction. A bunch of archaeologists dig into an ancient ruin and unleash a sealed evil. The Mummy, Kamen Rider Kuuga, various different Ultraman series... hell, it's even been the plot of various more memorable Pokemon movies. In this case, Team Ash runs across an archaeological team who ignores the cryptic warning etched into the ancient temple of a fallen civilization, and then unleash a mysterious glowing orb that transforms into a giant Gengar who begins absorbing and trapping everyone around it. It's pretty neat, I suppose, and when members of our cast get trapped by the giant Gengar it's actually pretty neat.

And for the most part, "The Ancient Puzzle of Pokemopolis" is... it's serviceable. The visuals are pretty neat and unique for this period in the show's lifetime, and the little teleporting-around bit with the giant Alakazam as it unleashes psychic blasts at the giant Gengar is surprisingly well animated (before we default back to them just locking arms with each other). But the episode sort of suffers from going back to its Jigglypuff Ex Machina way to solve an episode, and this time around it's especially egregious since Jigglypuff just literally shows up in the third act with minimal build-up or tie-in. And then a giant Jigglypuff (Bigglypuff, according to the dub) also shows up because yeah sure why not? Throw in the fact that our character-of-the-week Eve has a pretty terrible French accent, and this episode isn't the best.

Still, the episode's got a bunch of fun moments, with the aforementioned battle being of note. I especially love the "oshit" faces that Team Rocket makes before Brock's Onix gets teleported into the same room as they are, or when Jessie chokes Pidgeotto and shakes him around for failing to save them, or the fact that the giant bell contains a giant brush for the ancient giant Jigglypuff to doodle with. I also love just how Ash just literally doesn't give a shit about the prophecy and brushes it off. Anyway, 72 is an all-right filler episode, it just has sort of a randomly tacked-on ending and a terribly dubbed guest star. I really don't have much to say here.
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Episode 73, likewise, doesn't really give me a whole ton to say. We get another character-of-the-week with a terrible faux-Asian accent (with some really odd pauses between words)... but other than that, I guess "Bad to the Bone" is another relatively all right episode. It's stand-alone, the story is nothing spectacular but solid enough to last 15-20 minutes, and we do get a pretty neat series of action scenes, even if most of it is just marowak turning the Focus Energy + Bone Club combo into what's basically a samurai's iai slash.

The plot's relatively simple -- this samurai dude Otoshi and his Marowak is one of the many trainers that are about to compete in the Indigo League, but because they're morons, they fall into Team Rocket's pitfalls and got their badge stolen. After an attempt to challenge Ash and getting their ass beaten by Pikachu and his rule-breaking Thundershocks that can affect Ground-types, Ash sort of does this noble thing of not caring if he's late for the Indigo League to help out this person in need.

While all of this is going on... there's some dissent among Team Rocket! Jessie does something slightly uncharacteristic, stealing the eight badges to participate in the Pokemon League herself, and there's this bit of Team Ash attacking James and Meowth only to find that they don't have the badges that they want to get back. Because that's not quite enough to fill up an entire episode, we get a bit where Otoshi's Marowak gets so disappointed in Otoshi, leaves him for a bit and leaves Otoshi with his shitty Doduo against Jessie's Arbok... before realizing that they are true companions or whatever and then runs back for the rescue.

It's just such a shame that like exactly 100% of the characters-of-the-week that show up in the Kanto sason saying that they'll see Ash in the Pokemon League, Otoshi never ever shows up ever again. Even if '90's anime crunch-time constraints mean that it's impractical to have a solid grasp on these characters, I'd at least appreciate it if dudes like Otoshi or Sandshrew Boy or those kids from the Pokemon Seminar or whatever had at least a cameo in the Indigo League arc, y'know?

Anyway, episode 73's all right.

Featured Characters:

• Episode 72:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Vulpix, Togepi, Jigglypuff, Meowth, Arbok, Gengar, Krabby, Muk, Onix, Pidgeotto, Alakazam
• Humans: Ash, Brock, Misty James, Jessie, Professor Oak
• Episode 73:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Mr. Mime, Bulbasaur, Marowak, Scyther (flashback), Raichu (flashback), Hitmonlee (flashback), Magmar (flashback), Meowth, Kadabra (flashback), Onix (flashback), Pidgeotto (flashback and present), Starmie (flashback), Venonat (flashback), Charmander (flashback), Weepinbell (flashback), Kingler (flashback), Rhydon (flashback), Charizard (flashback) , Arbok, Doduo, Nidoran M, Chansey, Hitmonlee, Flareon, Weezing
• Humans: Brock, Misty, Ash, Professor Oak, Delia, Jessie, James

Random Notes:

• Again Pikachu knocks out a Ground-type Pokemon with his Electric-type moves. Poor Marowak joins Brock's Geodude and Blaine's Rhydon in this regard. 
• Dub Changes:
• In the original Japanese version, Brock and Ash tell their Pokemon to use Quick Attack. the dub changes both usages into Agility -- which doesn't match the actual movement of the moves, since the two Pokemon are clearly attacking each other (Agility is a non-offensive move). Also, Vulpix is never able to learn Agility until, well, Generation VIII.
• The huge move that Pikachu uses to stun the giant Pokemon is Thunderbolt in the original, but translated as Thundershock in the dub.
• Brock specifically identifies Gengar's move that freezes them in place as the move Disable. 
• In the original Japanese version, James has straight-up Pokemon Trading Cards. Like, literal official Pokemon TCG cards (specifically, "Dark Primeape" from the Team Rocket expansion) drawn into the anime. The dub changes it to James having photographs of himself, which is still admittedly in-character, but the trading cards works so much better with James being a bit of a dork with a collection hobby.
• Otoshi's defeat to Ash is noted to be because Ash defeated his strongest Pokemon in the dub, whereas the original version had Otoshi be more explicit and note that since Marowak is his strongest, none of his others are going to stand a chance. 
• In the original version of 73, Oak was angry at Ash for not knowing the Pokemon League schedule. The dub makes the source of his anger be Ash nagging him for more tips to be a champion. 
• Despite being the first one absorbed by the Gengar core-device thing, Arbok's never actually seen throughout the rest of the episode. While it could be assumed that Jessie recalled it into the Pokeball, it's still kinda weird that the episode never mentions it.
• During the first Pikachu/Vulpix battle, Ash commands Pikachu to use the not-in-the-games "Electric Attack". This is not a dub gaffe, the original dialogue was dengeki (electricity), which is likewise not corresponding to an in-game attack.
• Oh, hey, it's the first appearance of James's bottle-cap collection, which will make sporadic appearances throughout the Hoenn and Sinnoh seasons. 
• Both Otoshi and the random trainer Jessie accosts have a different selection of badges, and only part of Otoshi's badge collection matches the standard eight game Kanto badges. 
• It's interesting that Jessie lobs a Pokeball at Otoshi's Doduo -- the show never goes either way, but do Pokeballs work on another trainer's Pokemon, too? I mean, in the games it's always been "the other trainer blocked the Pokeball", so maybe?
• In Otoshi's flashbacks, in addition to fighting Blaine's Magmar and Lt. Surge's Riachu, we get some... interesting Pokemon choices. He apparently fought a Scyther to win the Soul Badge, while Koga has always been a poison-type gym trainer. Otoshi also fought a Hitmonlee to win the Marsh Badge... but it's actually part of game canon that Saffron City used to have two gyms, a Fighting-type one and a Psychic-type one, and Sabrina just beat up the Fighting-type one. It could be that Otoshi won his badge from the Fighting Dojo. It seems like it's not something that the anime staff would reference, but on the other hand, it is a Hitmonlee paired with the Saffron City badge...