Pokemon S01E87-89 Review: Form Differences

Pokemon, Episode 87: The Crystal Onix; Episode 88: In The Pink; Episode 89: Shell Shock 

Episode 87: The Crystal Onix
Another trio of episodes, and it's not like I'm trying to rush through these things, it's just that... well, they're not very exciting. None of them are flat-out bad, I don't think, and most of the Orange Islands episodes so far have been relatively solid, but we've moved far beyond the time when just 'okay' plots have lost their novelty. They're entertaining as much as they basically are neat episode-of-the-week episodes, but ultimately... m'eh?

Episode 87, "The Crystal Onix", attempts to put a little twist on the currently marketable 150 Pokemon by spotlighting... Onix, a Pokemon that has been the main focus of episodes at least twice -- when Brock used it back during the Pewter gym challenge, and the Bruno episode. What's wrong with spotlighting, oh, I don't know, someone far more under-appreciated like, oh, Cloyster or someone? Anyway, in a setup that's going to be increasingly familiar, Ash and company arrive in Town-of-the-Week (Sunburst Island), meet the character-of-the-week (the glassblower Mateo and his sister Marissa) and discover that they've been looking for MacGuffin Plot Device Pokemon for years (the titular Crystal Onix), and in the span of 20 minutes, Ash and company stumble their way into finding and resolving said plot device.

It's just that while the concept of a Pokemon variant itself is neat, the presentation of the episode itself is pretty lackluster. The titular Crystal Onix is kind of just there, and sure, it's pretty dang cool to realize that it's basically a water-dwelling Onix that makes use of its crystal colouration to camouflage itself in a lake, and that it apparently is... immune to water and vulnerable to fire? What, is it secretly Steel-type? (It'd be a neat foreshadowing to Steelix in that case) But ultimately the Crystal Onix is just there.

Mateo and Marissa aren't particularly interseting characters either, with the whole gimmick about Marissa's message in a bottle feeling pretty much padding, while Mateo's motivation of wanting to see the Crystal Onix to get some inspiration ending up feeling hollow. The episode kind of wants to frame it so that Mateo only gets the inspiration he so desperately needs to make a life-like crystal Pokemon sculpture, but also goes out of the way to show off that he is already a pretty good crystal-sculptor beforehand, so it's kind of a bit confusing just what he got out of the encounter with the Crystal Onix. Either a "the skill was in me all along!" moral or Mateo actually being a shitty sculptor beforehand that improves would've gone a long way in making the storyline more coherent.

Team Rocket's also there, trying to capture the Crystal Onix after hearing rumours while working off a debt for smashing some of the crystal sculptures of a different store (in what's even more padding), but ultimately this doesn't come up to much. I do commend the episode for using some rather unconventional Pokemon -- guest star of the week Mateo actually gets to fight the Crystal Onix with his Cloyster and Charmeleon, a bit of a rarity for someone not in the main cast to even do anything. Tracey's Marill makes its debut in this episode, and I do like the brief bit of Venonat fucking up with its radar eyes, and, of course, James' Victreebel chomping down on the poor sod's head. Ultimately, it's a decent episode and I'm being kind of nitpicky, but it does feel like it's missing an extra oomph for it to actually be a good or great one.
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Episode 88: In the Pink
This episode, "In The Pink", feels like a different draft for "Crystal Onix", but instead of a single weird Pokemon, this time we get a whole island of different Pokemon. All the Pokemon in Pinkan Island are coloured pink, because of a unique fruit that grows there. It's not quite similar to the Crystal Onix or Valencia Island's patterned Pokemon, because the episode establishes that the pink colour is temporary (Ash's Pikachu gets his cheeks and tail temporarily bleached pink) but it's... it's a neat enough story, I suppose. There's some ham-handed moral about exploiting Pokemon and shoving them in cages and forcing them to perform while maltreating them like circus animals, a sentiment that kind of rings hollow considering the whole point of Pokemon is, well, capturing and collecting creatures. It's okay for them to be in Pokeballs, but not in cages, I guess? I dunno. The moral about poachers is given via a very preachy Oak segment that I felt would've done better if it had been integrated a bit better with the obligatory "Team Rocket tries to steal Pokemon" part of the episode.

Thankfully, awkwardly discussing the moral implications of poaching strange variations of living creatures just to exploit them isn't the only thing that this episode has going for it, because for the first time since ever, Misty and Togepi have a storyline that doesn't involve Togepi running off and getting into hijinks... it's Misty trying to teach Togepi moves, and trying to figure out why the little egg pixiebaby doesn't even know one. After an adorable flashback to Misty's disastrous attempt to teach Togepi Headbutt, this sort of plays in the background as something that kinda bothers Misty... but, of course, the audience knows that Togepi is able to unleash Metronome by wagging its fingers just right, and throughout the episode that's sort of what Togepi does, pulling off convenient moves like Teleport and Barrier to pull out heroes' fat out of the fire.

There's a fair bit of neat scenes in this episode too. I still find Tracey's gimmick of sketching Pokemon while measuring them with his binoculars to be absolutely stupid -- exemplified even further by the fact that he's making black-and-white sketches of alternate-coloured Pokemon. But the bit with them hauling a trapped Rhyhorn out of being stuck on a cliffside, or the sequence with Jenny using a lassoo and a jeep to subdue a Nidoking are both pretty neat. I also do love the brief bit with Team Rocket's Lickitung being surprisingly effective and adorable as it just waddles around with the same pose before being spooked off by a Nidoking. The brief imagination spot with Team Rocket opening a pink-themed Disneyland is over-the-top but also fun, featuring the return of the dolled-up Weezing and Arbok we've seen before in the past. Team Rocket truly loves their giant snake and their tumour-gas-bag, it's neat.

Anyway, this one was another one that's also all right. By virtue of having a lot more moving parts and a far more fun ending conflict with the Nidoking, I think I like this episode a bit more than "Crystal Onix".
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Episode 89: "Shell Shock"
"Shell Shock", the next episode, is... a weird one. In it, our heroes land at yet another island, called Fukuhara Island #4, where a news reporter is following an palaentology team headed by a Nurse Joy, in search of fossils of Kabuto, and apparently they are investigating claims that this might lead them to the secret of Kabuto Oil, which is apparently some sort of fountain of youth serum or whatever. It's kind of neat, and I kind of appreciate the episode having the gimmick of cutting to the news reporters hamming things up. It's just such a shame that the dub doesn't quite have the high energy needed for the gag to work, but I appreciate the effort.

Of course, as the excavation team moves through the island, a lot of falling rocks nearly murder them if they don't come equipped with a small private army of Machokes and Rhydons. This Nurse Joy doesn't want to confirm to her family's Chansey exclusivity, and good thing for her. Team Rocket spies on this all from their Karpmarine, and decide to steal the fossils for their own.

Turns out that the sabotage effects are done by a crazy local called Umberto, who screams bloody murder about a prophecy that the moon will glow red and sink the island into the sea if these dang outsiders don't leave. Okay, Mr. Crazy Doomsayer Man, maybe you'll make a better point if you haven't been trying to kill these people with falling boulders. What would happen if Nurse Joy didn't have a handy squadron of musclebound Pokemon with her? Now if this was a Godzilla movie or Ultraman episode, this would be a setup of the silly archaeology crew unleashing some sort of long-sealed monster and the crazy kook is the one they should've listened to all along... except in this episode's case, nothing really makes much sense.

The excavation team find a cave with walls and floor and ceiling all covered in Kabuto fossils, but Team Rocket show up with their bombs that cause a collapse of the cave. Out of nowhere, a blood moon appears, and apparently the light from the moon... causes the Kabuto to come to life? I do like the explanation that all the Kabuto 'fossils' are actually just them in hibernation, entering a rock-like state, but the explanation as to why the blood moon suddenly appeared, why the Kabuto responded to it specifically, or why there's even a prophecy in the first place is never explained. Besides, the whole bit about 'scavengers'... really doesn't ring true; Joy's team never really wanted to exploit the fossils, just maybe collect a couple and put it in the museum.

Of course, apparently the entirety of the island is made up of hibernating Kabuto, and despite Team Rocket only collapsing the cave on the bay, this causes a chain reaction that causes all of the Kabuto to break free and cause the island to collapse, because the foundation of the island is built on dormant Kabuto. Okay, sure. Umberto's stupidly-specific-for-no-logical-reason causes everyone to run into the forest and make a raft out of the trees, which, again, doesn't really make a whole lick of sense. Who makes these prophecies anyway? The humans escape, the gigantic cluster of Kabuto disappear deep beneath the ocean, and there's a vague attempt to make it all look like the story of the episode makes sense with Joy shrugging it as the true meaning of the "Kabuto Oil makes you live forever" bit at the beginning and how the news reporters decide to keep it secret to protect the Kabuto... who's swam off into the deep ocean anyway, plus Fukuhara Island's freaking gone, so fat good keeping the story secret is going to do.

The story and the premise of the plot are genuinely decent -- the idea of these supposedly-extinct Pokemon actually just being in hibernation is a very cool one. So is the idea that these creatures are actually forming the backbone of an island. But the execution is so piss-poor and tied to a prophecy that doesn't make sense and a character of the week that's particularly obnoxious, which makes this one feel a lot weaker than it should've been.

Featured Characters:

• Episode 87:
• Pokemon: Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Onix, Meowth, Venonat, Marill, Cloyster, Arbok, Victreebel, Staryu, Charmeleon
• Humans: Tracey, Ash, Misty, James, Jessie
• Episode 88:
• Pokemon: Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Rhyhorn, Jigglypuff, Meowth, Exeggutor, Rhydon, Primeape, Vileplume, Bellsprout, Mankey, Caterpie, Weedle, Venonat, Nidoran F, Nidoran M, Paras, Diglett, Pidgey, Oddish, Poliwhirl, Scyther, Geodude, Pidgeotto, Electabuzz, Rattata, Arbok, Weezing, Victreebel, Lickitung, Nidoking, Dodrio, Muk, Psyduck, Marill
• Humans: Ash, Tracey, Misty, Officer Jenny, James, Jessie, Professor Oak
• Episode 89:
• Pokemon: Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Growlithe, Machoke, Kabuto, Meowth, Rhydon, Squirtle, Goldeen, Staryu
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Tracey, Nurse Joy, Jessie, James

Random Notes:

• Marill makes its debut in the anime as yet another pre-Generation-II preview Pokemon! Remember when these were a thing? That the anime would debut brand-new Pokemon months before the actual Gold and Silver games came out? I think this makes Marill the fifth Generation II Pokemon to show up after Ho-Oh and Togepi; plus Snubbull and Donphan in the Mewtwo movie.
• It's kind of odd that Ash's Pokedex has Marill's data, despite all the talk about only having the data of 150 Pokemon. We'll just chalk it up to inconsistency, but I'm surprised the anime doesn't try to hype up Marill as yet another rare, unknown-in-Kanto Pokemon like they did Togepi. 
• It's this batch of episodes that really establishes Victreebel chomping down on James's head any time he sends it out as a running gag, huh?
• Episode 88 has a lot of adorable scenes -- Misty teaching Togepi headbutt is one, and Lickitung's hilarious 'get in and get out immediately' caper into the Nidoking's lair is fun. 
• Oak identifies Jenny's group on Pinkan Island as "Rangers", predating the concept of Pokemon Rangers by half a decade. Interestingly, the way Jenny defeats the rampaging Nidoking non-lethally -- by spinning around it with a lassoo -- would be eerily reminiscent of the whole gimmick of the NDS Pokemon Ranger games, where you hav to spin around a rampaging Pokemon with a device to calm it down. 
• Nidoking is immune to Pikachu's thundershock! Hooray, did the Pokemon anime team finally figure out "Ground is immune to Electric" bit? Not quite, because the cast identifies it as Nidoking just ignoring the damage thanks to rampaging. Dang it, anime team!
• The Pink Pokemon are even more proto-Shiny Pokemon, aren't they? I'm actually surprised the anime crew didn't bring up the Pink Butterfree that Ash's Butterfree shacked up with. 
• Tracey is all panicking when Ash finds out that he's also sketched Officer Jenny, so I guess Tracey's also a bit of a pervert? It's pretty tame compared to what Brock gets up to, though, and it's just not played up at all that everything around Tracey just feels underwhelming. 
• Errors:
• No one really documents the changes for the Orange Island episodes and I'm a bit too lazy to look for the Japanese versions, but I can spot errors! Misty calls out Starmie instead of Staryu in episode 88 -- Starmie's left in the Cerulean Gym, of course. 
• Episode 87 has the Charmeleon's final attack identified as Ember, but the animation is pretty obviously Fire Spin. Fire Spin spins around!
• Tracey identifies the Rhyhorn as being 8 meters long... which is very likely a flub. While the anime portrays Rhyhorn as being pretty much bigger than the game's length of 1 meter (3 feet), sizing Rhyhorn up to the size of a real-life rhinoceros, it's closer to 8 feet than 8 meters, and that's being gracious.
• Not sure if it's a dub addition or not, but I do really appreciate episode 89's narrator noting how every episode starts the same with the scene of Team Ash on top of Lapras and bemoans the fact that the narrator isn't allowed to have any fun.