Pokemon S01E81-83 Review: Oak's Parcel

Pokemon: Episode Orange Islands, Episode 81: Pallet Party Panic; Episode 82: A Scare in the Air; Episode 83: Pokeball Peril

Kind of busy IRL, so have a bunch of old articles I never posted and only edited recently.

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So... yeah. The Orange Islands arc. I have to confess that I don't remember much of it, beyond the Lapras arc and the Dragonite fight at the end? This is about the time that I sort of didn't get any real new VCD's of the show, and the best I could hope for was maybe to catch the show on air... which isn't something I could do every day. This is actually the first time that I actually watched all three of these episodes, and for the longest time I only knew about these episodes from Serebii.net synopsis pages.

And, uh... the set-up for Ash leaving Kanto to go off on some journey through the Orange Islands is sort of just pretty random, huh? "Pallet Party Panic" sort of shoehorns two entire episodes' plotlines together, and it's... it's just kind of there. The first part of the episode is admittedly a nice, necessary thing to cap off the Indigo League as Pallet Town's residents throw a party for Ash. The Team Rocket spicy takoyaki bit is dragged out longer than it should, but I did like the little gag with the transforming food stand, the instant-deploy Meowth balloons, and the bit with the show acknowledging that Charizard's a massive asshat. Not enough of an ass to let Pikachu plummet to his death, but enough to still disobey Ash and wreak havoc and only fight when his favourite cake gets destroyed. Anyway, Team Rocket's bomb assault doesn't work on Charizard and he sends them blasting off again.

There's a bit of random intermezzo scene where Oak tasks Ash and company to head to Valencia Island in the Orange Archipelago to pick up a mysterious Pokeball that can't be transported digitally. Okay, we have our quest, as little as this is honestly going to matter down the line. Our heroes and Team Rocket both find their way into a forest and basically find themselves smack dab within a bird gang war, where a bunch of Pidgeys and Pidgeottos are hiding in a tree while a massive Fearow leads a gang of Spearows around. Turns out that Ash recognizes the Fearow as the very same Spearow from episode one, and this Fearow has a bit of a blood-feud against Ash.

The conflict, though... isn't all that interesting. After Fearow attacks Ash and drops him into the Pidgey tree, Ash realizes that the Pidgeys and Pidgeottos are being afraid and being bullied by the Fearow, so Ash unleashes his Pidgeotto (which the episode flip-flops on building up... it's less powerful than Charizard, but it's way more obedient) who fights the Fearow and gets knocked on the ground. And then Pidgeotto evolves into Pidgeot. We get a pretty dang cool bit where Ash rides around on Pidgeot and even tries to capture Fearow mid-air -- Ash forgets that he can capture wild Pokemon so many times in the series that it's nice to see this little bit shown on-screen. Pidgeot showing off his strength ends up causing the flock of Pidgeys and Pidgeottos to join in the fight and they drive away Fearow's flock. Ash then parts ways with Pidgeot, releasing it and leaving it to protect the Pidgeys and Pidgeottos in the forest from the Fearow.

And... I dunno. It's the third Pokemon Ash has released after Butterfree and Primeape, but unlike those two, Pidgeotto/Pidgeot hasn't really been shown to develop much of an emotional attachment to the local Pidgey squad or anything, and I really wished they had cut the Team Rocket spicy takoyaki bit short in order to facilitate a better exit for Pidgeotto. As it is, it feels like the two plots are just glued together and as an exit for one of Ash's longer-running Pokemon, it's kind of a poor one? Granted, the show really forgets Pidgeotto exists most of the time, but he deserved a better exit, y'know? At least it manages to reach its final form and show off some badassery, for what little it means.
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Episode 82 is... complete filler, even by Pokemon standards. We do get to see Giovanni, though, which is a neat treat, including the surprisingly dark bit of Giovanni assigning Jessie, James and Meowth onto the 'Dirigible Brigade', when he's planning to basically have the blimps crash to cash in on the insurance policy. The show straight-up implies that Giovanni is willing to let three of his employees die in an insurance fraud... forget the genetic experimentation and Pokemon trafficking, this is a true villain!

The episode itself is just there, y'know? Ash and company win a lottery to get a blimp ticket, Team Rocket and their disguises ham it up and get Ash to ride their ramshackle blimp, Jigglypuff gets on (groan), we get some 'oh what terrible service' hijinks as the blimp literally falls apart, and there's some bland not-comedy bit of Jigglypuff sneaking on-board and stumbling around covered with a sheet and everyone thinks it's a ghost. There's a battle against Team Rocket that involves a hilarious bit of Geodude clashing against Weezing, culminating in Geodude tossing Weezing like a goddamn boomerang, sending the poor tumourous gas bag zipping around and ripping holes in the blimp. Oh, and also Togepi escapes and walks around like the fool baby that it is, while Jigglypuff threatens to put people to sleep at a precarious time. Both "Togepi escapes!" and "Deus ex Jigglypuff" are starting to get old and repetitive (and we're barely out of Kanto, oh no), and it's just a huge eye-roll now whenever they resort to any of these.

That's it. That's the whole episode. It's pretty dang boring, and I really think they could've thought of a dozen different ways to spruce it up.
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83 finally lets us enter the titular Orange Islands as Ash and company crash-land on Valencia Island, the first of many islands. They meet up with Professor Ivy, who enteres the scene on a skin-tight one-piece while cavorting in the water with a Gyarados. Brock's smitten instantly, but only for that one moment -- while the decision to leave Brock with a bunch of ladies is an... interesting one, at least the show doesn't make it look like Brock's trying to stay behind to mack on the sexy professor but out of genuine admiration for Ivy's scientific dedication, while also proving that Brock's kinda serious about wanting to be a 'pokemon breeder' by knowing all about the food that Butterfrees would like or whatnot. And also because he's found a new batch of people to be a parent to, I guess, since Ivy and her triplet assistants are apparently shit at house-cleaning.

It's a pretty cool introduction to Ivy, though, actually showing her interacting and trying to study Pokemon, instead of the doddering gag that is Professor Westwood from a couple of episodes back. Ivy's shown swimming with a Gyarados, feeding the various Pokemon of Valencia Island, observing a Vileplume's sporing rituals and rescuing a Raticate from the spore... we're not going to see Ivy a lot after this, but it's still neat to actually show a Pokemon Professor actually being like Poke-biologist or whatever, y'know? Oh, yeah, and the Orange Islands have 'regional variants' with differently coloured Pokemon, and they did this some 18 years before the games even thought of it.

We also get the set-up of the GS Ball. It's never explained how Ivy got it, just that it exists, it is gold and silver (well, gold and white, but Brock wants to be dramatic) and it has letters engraved on it, and also it can't be transported or opened. Ivy hands it off to Ash to bring it to Professor Oak. Oh, a fetch quest, except it's a bit farther than the parcel you had to deliver from Viridian City's mart in the games.

After the aforementioned Vileplume incident, Brock... decides to stay behind with Professor Ivy, serving as both their assistant and their multi-purpose housetaker. It's a bit of an awkward exit, but unlike Pidgeotto, it's handled with a fair bit of buildup that lasts throughout the episode as Brock is clearly enamoured with Ivy's lab and what they do.

Oh, and we get a B-plot of Team Rocket fixing their blimp because they are so convinced that this is the most important thing that Giovanni has entrusted them, and we sort of shoehorn a three-minute "let's try to get Pikachu again through a metal cage" plot at the end of the episode, which is ended with yet another instance of deus ex Jiggly.

Episode 83 sort of kick-starts our Orange Islands journey proper, after 81 is more of a coda to the Indigo stuff and after 82 being filler. It's a pretty interesting leg of the Pokemon anime's history as they're clearly trying to do something different, shuffling around the cast members and working off of a bunch of brand-new concepts that're not based on anything in the games. The results are... going to be interesting, because I certainly watched some of the Orange Islands episodes, not a lot of them really ended up sticking out to me.

Featured Characters:

• Episode 81:
• Pokemon: Oddish, Diglett, Poliwag, Butterfree, Voltorb, Bellsprout, Mankey, Raticate, Togepi, Pikachu, Onix, Vulpix, Psyduck, Zubat, Staryu, Geodude, Goldeen, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pidgeotto, Charizard (flashback and present), Meowth, Arbok, Pidgey, Spearow, Fearow, Mr. Mime, Pidgeot
• Humans: Misty, Brock, Ash, Professor Oak, Delia, Jessie, James
• Episode 82:
• Pokemon: Togepi, Pikachu, Meowth, Arbok, Persian, Jigglypuff, Arbok, Weezing, Geodude, Bulbasaur, Zubat, Vulpix, Onix, Squirtle, Staryu, Psyduck
• Humans: Brock, Misty, Ash, James, Jessie, Giovanni
• Episode 83:
• Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Chansey, Gyarados, Cloyster, Poliwhirl, Magikarp, Meowth, Vileplume, Paras, Nidoran F, Nidoran M, Weepinbell, Raticate, Butterfree, Onix, Geodude, Zubat, Vulpix, Jigglypuff, 
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Brock, Nurse Joy, Ivy's Assistants, Professor Ivy, Professor Oak, James, Jessie

Random Notes:

• It's a bit... complicated because Pokemon isn't divided into 'seasons' traditionally, but "Pallet Party Panic" is recognized as the official start of the Orange Islands Arc (or Episode: Orange Islands as the Japanese calls it). It's kinda weird, but I'm just going to continue using the Japanese 'season' system because that's how most websites order it and it's easier to track. 

• The English dub makes its first theme song change in these three episodes, changing "Pokemon Theme" to "Pokemon World" -- although this was only done on the DVD versions. 
• One thing that does catch me slightly off-guard in these three episodes is how much Ash, Misty and Brock love to pull out all of their Pokemon out of their balls -- they do this a lot in later seasons, but in the Kanto season, usually only one or two Pokemon get sent out other than Pikachu and Togepi. I guess they now have the budget to animate a bunch more Pokemon on-screen? (Also, hey, Zubat! The show-makers remember it existed!)
• So the Orange Islands are basically completely random new islands created just to fill up episodes as the franchise slowly moves to the release of Gold & Silver. The concept of an archipelago of islands near Kanto would be revisited, in some way, with the Sevii Isles in FireRed/LeafGreen. 
• Episode 83 introduces to us the concept of alternately-coloured Pokemon and regional variants. It took the games nearly two decades after this episode's debut to introduce regional variants as a proper mechanic into the game! Of course, Valencia Island's regional variants are basically slightly different swirls and patterns, which actually sort of fits more to the likes of something like Shellos or Vivillon. 
• The GS Ball that's introduced in episode 83 is... well, we'll discuss it later on if it ever becomes relevant, but let's say that this is supposed to lead to a huge, huge arc that's meant to tie with an event for the games, a way to obtain the mytical Pokemon Celebi... but the anime wouldn't quite follow through with it. The GS Ball would be explored to a slightly better degree in Japan's version of Pokemon Crystal via a telephone event, and in the Adventures manga. 
• Episode 81 establishes that, yes, despite Kingler and Muk being available, Ash still only carries five Pokemon on his person. Why be such a dick to Kingler and Muk, Ash?
• Gary's noted to be off on another Pokemon journey. Maybe he's gone off to Johto or something. 
• Episode 83 has Professor Oak... uh... what is he doing to that Magikarp? Is he really studying the brain waves or something? That's actually kinda funny. 
• Dub Changes: [These are going to be a lot less, because, uh... I'm lazy]
• Thanks to a dub flub, in episode 81 Professor Oak refers to Professor Ivy as a 'he', but none of the other characters' dialogue have this error. This error obviously didn't happen in the Japanese version. 
• Ash never says "I'll come back for you" in the Japanese version, making the farewell a bit more definitive in the Japanese version. 
• Episode 82 was briefly renamed 'Spirits in the Sky' thanks to the 9/11 incident, although the original title would be used in later broadcasts. 
• Thanks to stock footage usage, Brock and Misty toss out a less amount of Pokeballs than the Pokemon they send out.