Pokemon S01E105-108 Review: Charizard's Character Development

Pokemon, Episodes 105-108

Episode 105: Charizard Chills

Okay, this episode is one of the more significant episodes in the Orange Island episodes, for the simple reason that... -gasp- Charizard finally listens to Ash! Charizard being insubordinate is one of the biggest parts of the early seasons of the anime, particularly the late Indigo League season and almost the entirety of Orange Islands. It's an interesting quirk, and it's a neat show of how Ash's basically winging it through his Pokemon career and is nowhere as badass as he thinks he is. And this episode, "Charizard Chills", is... an interesting one. And certainly nowhere as badass or sad as I had remembered watching it in my childhood. 

Anyway, Ash fights Tad, who is some dude with a Poliwrath (the championship belt and title is a nice touch), and as with any time Ash gets frustrated in a battle, tosses out the big guns in Charizard. And Charizard naturally immediately disobeys Ash. Tad, pissed off at being made fun off, surprisingly goes in a particularly brutal (for this part of the anime) series of attacks and freezes Charizard solid with an Ice Beam, leaving Charizard freezing and shivering. The episode probably doesn't want to portray Tad as particularly unlikable... but he's kind of a twat for freezing someone else's pet dragon and leaving him to essentially freeze to death, yeah? 

And Ash ends up re-earning Charizard's respect by essentially giving it his all in trying to warm Charizard back up, and getting that tail-flame flared up again. It honestly doesn't quite reach the same emotional impact as the original Charmander episode, or, honestly, even the earlier Scyther episode in this season, but like Charizard, I did appreciate the effort. Ash gives a monologue about how he admits he's not the best trainer but he will keep trying, and both the speech and the gesture of trying to keep him alive all night ends up getting through. 

Then we get the requisite action scenes. Charizard lets Ash ride him when Team Rocket attacks, and learns Dragon Rage to blow up Team Rocket's mecha and save Pikachu. And... it's nowhere quite as spectacular as Charizard's Seismic Toss, but it's still pretty cool! We get the rematch with Tad, where Charizard ultimately follows Ash's orders (mostly in dodging) and ends up taking down Poliwrath with a Seismic Toss. And... and honestly, I did kind of like this episode a bit. The fact that the thing that humbles Charizard is quite literally a more powerful Pokemon is a nice touch, and of course it's Ash's commitment to caring for his friends that comes through. It's a nice showcase of what our dumb protagonist is all about, and the episode overall is nice even if it's not quite as super-dramatic as I half-remembered it to be. 

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Episode 106: The Pokemon Water War

A pretty generic episode-of-the-week... and honestly, one of the reasons why reviewing through Orange Islands episodes is a bit slow for me. If we ever do Johto (don't look forward to it) I honestly could do ten to fifteen episodes in a single page, I wager. 

Anyway, the Pokemon-of-the-week is the Squirtle evolutionary line, with Ash and company arriving and helping out the local firefighters, who use an army of Blastoises, Wartortles and Squirtles to put out fires. Ash's Squirtle gets into a rivalry with a scarfed Wartortle, and, naturally, Ash and company get roped into firefighting training. It's mostly pretty fun fluff as Squirtle tries to compete with the Wartortles. There are a lot of fun visuals in the training. 

The conflict of the episode happens when a successful Team Rocket raid has them abscond with Pikachu, Squirtle and the Wartortle squad, but Squirtle and Wartortle ends up working together to vomit up more water than they could possibly store inside their body (physicslul) and free themselves. I did like the fact that the heroes end up having to also deal with a fire at the same time, forcing the humans to split up their forces. Squirtle and Wartortle arrive in time, get Blastoise-shotted into the building and work together and earn each other's manly respect. Ultimately, not the most super-relevant episode, but not a bad one. 

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Episode 107: Pokemon Food Fight

This one, though, is kind of unmemorable. I just watched it and I don't even remember much about it. Basically, our heroes come across Gulzar, a bratty kid who is angry that they mistook his flower-headband (made of real flowers) as free-range flowers. He fights Ash with his Gloom, and after a bit of Poke-Ball mix-up, Ash ends up tossing out Snorlax to fight Gloom. Snorlax being Snorlax, he is unbothered by a Solar Beam, tries to eat Gloom, then does eat Gulzar's lunch. In the process, though, Snorlax's Pokeball is damaged, and our heroes have to push him up to the Pokemon Center. It's not the first time we get a 'ha ha Snorlax fat, get it moving' plot, and this one isn't even funny like the first two times. 

There's a conflict plot with Team Rocket, who holds the food hostage and sort of tries to get the other trainers to hand over Ash's Pikachu, but the annoying brat-of-the-week somehow warmed up to our heroes and speaks up for them. Meowth gets to fight in some sort of funky armour, but of course, Snorlax wakes up. Meowth's attacks literally bounce off his body, then Snorlax unleashes Hyper Beam and blows up Team Rocket... then eats all the food. No real conclusion there, just... Snorlax eats, then cut away to his ball being repaired. It's honestly boring, and the fact that we've had better Snorlax episodes before makes this kind of bland. 

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Episode 108: Pokemon Double Trouble

Oh, hey, a gym battle! The final Orange Crew gym leader in Kumquat Island, and, uh... the gym leader is a bizarre one. Luana is a lady with some issues. She hugs Ash and mistakes him for her missing son Travis. It'd be just eye-rolling if this was part of the plot, but the resemblance to the gym leader's missing son is a plot point that goes nowhere. So I dunno. Team Rocket attacks with a Mecha-Rhydon, but gets blown away by a Charizard/Alakazam team-up. 

Most of the episode is otherwise just the gym battle, which is... a double battle! Two full generations before it debuts in the games! It's a neat little 'variant' that's actually pretty fun, and the fact that the fighters need to pick Pokemon with good synergy is kind of displayed pretty well in the battle, even if it's a bit too on-the-nose. I do definitely believe that Ash will just toss Pikachu and Charizard (he listens to orders now!) into the ring without thinking about it... not realizing that Charizard's kind of a solo act, and Pikachu is a catty little bitch who gets angry when Charizard accidentally knocks it over early in the fight. 

Luana's Marowak and Alakazam has some really neat moves even if, again, they are honestly kind of overly-situational. We get some fun reactions from Pikachu (his shrug!) and some neat tricks like Alakazam psychic-moving Charizard into the way of Pikachu's Thundershock. But ultimately, seeing Charizard take a whole lot of hits, Pikachu helps out, and the two team up (mostly they just trick Marowak into bonemeranging his buddy)

Honestly maybe it's just because I'm slowly getting burned out by Orange Island episodes, but this one felt kind of perfunctory. The animation's kinda nice, at least, and it's nice to see Charizard being a friend with Pikachu.

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Featured Characters:

• Episode 105: Charizard Chills
• Pokemon: Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Poliwrath, Charizard, Meowth
• Humans: Ash, Misty, Tracey, James, Jessie  
• Episode 106: Pokemon Water War
• Pokemon: Togepi, Lapras, Pikachu, Staryu, Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise, Meowth, Weezing, Scyther, Venonat, Marill, Arbok
  
• Humans: Misty, Ash, Tracey, Officer Jenny, Jessie, James
  
• Episode 107: Pokemon Food Fight
• Pokemon: Togepi, Pikachu, Gloom, Squirtle, Snorlax, Chansey, Meowth
• Humans: Tracey, Ash, Misty, Nurse Joy, Jessie, James
• Episode 108: Pokemon Double Trouble
• Pokemon:  Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Meowth, Lickitung, Arbok, Weezing, Alakazam, Charizard, Raichu, Wartortle, Machop, Sandslash, Electabuzz, Poliwhirl, Marowak
• Humans: Ash, Tracey, Misty, James, Jessie, Luana

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Random Notes:

• Thanks to episode 105 showing that Charizard obeys Ash, this places the second Pokemon movie to take place after 105. 
• Whether it's just a reuse of an available model, Tad's Poliwrath does wear the same P1 Grand Prix belt that was showcased heavily in the Ash's Primeape episodes. 
• In the English dub, apparently the Pokemon world's version of "eenie meenie miney moe" is "Eevee Mankey Hitmonlee".
• I did like the continuity nod between 106 and 107, and the reason our heroes are stuck there is because a lot of damage has been done to Ascorbia Island by the fires. 
• Episode 108 actually shows off Double Battles a full three years before it became an official part of the games in Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire. It's not particularly revolutionary or anything, and we've had full-on rumbles between Team Rocket and Ash's squad before, but it is the first formal battle with two-on-two. Notably, Orange Island's double battles end when one Pokemon faints. 
• James yelling at Weezing to use Hyper Beam, knowing full well that his Weezing isn't trained to do it, is kinda funny. 
• Bonemerang shouldn't hurt Charizard! He's flying type! But I guess Pikachu's thunderbolt can zap Marowak, so clearly type immunities simply don't exist at all in this episode. 
• Dub Edits:
• Episode 106 cuts out a scene of Meowth scratching Jessie and James's faces and drawing blood, swapping it for still shots of stars on a black background. (Oh, and of course, the obligatory removal of all Japanese katakana from the flags that the Squirtles and Wartortles carry). 
• The international shot of episode 108 cuts a segment of the training montage, specifically a group of Pokemon at a fitness gym, because it shows Jynx in its original black-skinned design. 
• One of Marowak's attacks is mis-translated from Double Edge into Body Slam in the English dub, not that you can really tell.