Pokemon, Episodes 113-116:
Episode 113: Viva Las Lapras
"Viva Las Lapras" is an episode that I thought would be a lot sadder from what I remembered it being watching it as a kid, but comparing it to the other equivalent "Ash releases a Pokemon" episodes, particularly the famous Butterfree one... it just feels kind of obligatory? Even compared to Primeape or Pidgeotto. It doesn't help that Lapras himself doesn't really feel like an actual member of the party and more of a water taxi that makes funny noises every now and then.
Still, the episode itself does itself credit by calling back to Lapras's debut episode and Lapras's own pokedex entry about being endangered and fearful of humans. The episode itself is mostly fluff, fighting against a bunch of gag pirates and their Tentacruel armada, while Team Rocket muck around and try their best to be a 'third party' in the whole thing. Captain Crook is way too silly even by the standards of this show, and while the visuals are honestly all right, the episode itself feels like it's just going through the motions -- oh, Lapras is ostracized, then proves himself in battle, and gets accepted by its herd. It's not a terrible episode, but it just feels so... perfunctory, y'know?
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Episode 114: The Underground Round-Up
This one, meanwhile, is just straight-up a filler episode. It kinda feels like that Magnemite rancher episode, almost? I do know that a bunch of the Hoenn and Johto era episodes would have 'clones' of this episode's concept. A bunch of Pokemon rampage and cause havoc to human society, Team Rocket goes in to wreak havoc, while our heroes and a character-of-the-week try and find a peaceful solution.
In this case, it's a horde of Voltorbs and Electrodes that have taken up a town. A local Diglett rancher called Clint Eastwood Poncho tries to make tunnels to transport the Electrodes away to an open field to stop them from getting stressed and exploding themselves; while Team Rocket goes in with their ridiculous mecha and forces all the Electrodes to use Explosion and blow themselves up before transporting them.
And... and I know this is Pokemon, and no one dies in this children's cartoon, but I feel like a huge part of the conflict fell flat on its face when the Electrodes are just using a move that faints them? I feel like they could've added a couple extra lines from Ash and crew about how Team Rocket is hurting the Electrodes and whatnot. And there's not even considering the fact that Pikachu or Meowth or someone else could've talked to the Electrodes and actually communicate with them or something? Eh. I didn't mind this one as much, mostly because I liked the little random Togepi-befriends-a-Voltorb subplot.
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Episode 115: A Tents Situation
And then we have these two last episodes that close out the Kanto and Generation I chapters for the Pokemon anime. And... it's all right? Wrapping up the whole Orange Islands league five episodes before the end of the season is an interesting thing to do, and these episodes feel like they were just created to give the animators some time and to tie up some loose ends.
In the case of "A Tents Situation"... it's a cast reshuffling. As our heroes return to Pallet Town, Brock hangs out with the group, apparently having been dumped by Professor Ivy. There's a pretty fun little background recurring joke of Brock going into depression at any mention of the Professor's name, and in the first time since maybe his first appearance, the bland Tracey actually shows that he has some characterization by fanboying over Professor Oak. Oh, and both Oak and Mama Ketchum also show up and hang out with the cast; that's nice.
Again, there's honestly not a whole ton here other than making sure the cast knows that Tracey is very much a huge fanboy of Oak and wants to stick around with him. We get to see some of the Pallet Town residents like Muk, Mr. Mime, Kingler and the rest, and we get a fight against Team Rocket. Always nice to see Muk actually do something, too! And then, well, Gary shows up and uses his Nidoqueen to save the day, sending Team Rocket blasting off again, and the episode ends with the two rivals glaring at each other.
It's actually something that caught me by surprise, that Ash's going to get a Gary resolution after the Indigo League essentially cockblocked us by having Gary lose early. But...
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Episode 116: The Rivalry Revival
...but the actual fight in episode 116 lasts for maybe two, three minutes? It's Pikachu against Eevee, and after seeing Gary show off his other fully-evolved Pokemon, while Ash himself has newly 'mastered' Charizard... it's kind of a disappointment to see the Pikachu/Eevee fight be so mundane. It's just Quick Attacks and Double Teams, not the most interesting of Pokemon fights after more than a hundred episodes.
I do like that Gary has actually mellowed out a lot, being a graceful winner and no longer being as stuck-up as he was at the beginning of the series. Again, I kind of wish that Gary actually was allowed to be a more major recurring character (the Sinnoh seasons had very good rivals, or so I've been told) but for what we got, it's actually nice to see Gary's rather gradual increase in respecting Ash.
While the actual battle is kind of bland, I do like that Ash's defeat right after proving himself the champion of the Orange Islands League is the kick in the butt that makes him not rest on his laurels. Gary has gone off to the new Johto regions (beg your parents for that sweet sweet Gold & Silver versions, children!) to hone his abilities, and Oak sends Ash off to Johto to meet Kurt with the GS Ball. We get one last fight with Team Rocket in Kanto; the cast basically reverts back to the original trio of Ash/Misty/Brock, and... and as much as I don't hate Tracey, he is very one-note and bland, and Brock at least has a couple of neat recurring jokes. The Johto season will beat these jokes to the ground, but at least he's got something going on for him.
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And... and that's it. Honestly, doing these Orange Island episode reviews was pretty hard because... so many of them were pretty boring that it ended up being kind of an episodic summary. The last couple of episodes were somewhat interesting, but I think it's by virtue of the Orange Islands segment ending. And I feel like this is where I'll stop with Pokemon anime reviews. I will not be doing Johto, because I know that's a season that's... not the best in terms of non-repetitive content. I might do the two Kanto-era movies just for completion's sake, but if we're going to do Pokemon anime reviews on this site in the future it's probably going to be one of the seasons I haven't watched. XY/Z is apparently pretty great as far as action scenes go; Sun/Moon is apparently the cheeriest anime out there; and the Sinnoh season has a pretty neat rivalry subplot? I dunno. Even if I do Pokemon reviews in the future it might be in huge batches of ten episodes or something. We'll see.
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Featured Characters:
- Episode 113: Viva las Lapras
- Pokemon: Lapras, Pikachu, Togepi, Meowth, Tentacruel, Marill, Goldeen, Poliwag, Staryu, Squirtle
- Humans: Ash, Tracey, Misty, Professor Oak, Officer Jenny, Jessie, James
- Episode 114: The Underground Round-up
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Voltorb, Electrode, Diglett, Meowth, Dugtrio
- Humans: Ash, Misty, Tracey, Jessie, James
- Episode 115: A Tents Situation
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Jigglypuff, Mr. Mime, Muk, Snorlax, Vileplume, Dodrio, Rhyhorn, Tauros, Kingler, Nidorina, Nidorino, Lickitung, Victreebel, Nidoqueen,
- Humans: Tracey, Ash, Misty, Brock, Delia Ketchum, Professor Oak, Gary
- Episode 116: The Rivalry Revival
- Pokemon: Pikachu, Togepi, Eevee, Butterfree, Tauros, Onix, Parasect, nidoking, Venomoth, Machamp, Beedrill, Arcanine, Gyarados, Kadabra, Electabuzz, Rhydon, Rhyhorn, Mr. Mime, Scyther, Marill
- Humans: Gary, Ash, Brock, Misty, Tracey, Professor Oak, Kurt (picture), Delia Ketchum
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Random Notes:
- Ash's Lapras's mother has a slightly lighter skin compared to all the other Lapras in her pod. Shiny Lapras is actually purple, so this is just another case of the early anime giving alternate colours.
- In an error that I think is unique to the dub, the Pokedex says that Tentacruel's Poison Sting attack can paralyze its opponents instead of, y'know, poisoning it.
- Ash's Tauros is now in a regular Pokeball instead of a Safari Ball? I don't actually remember if Ash ever actually uses his Tauros ever again, so... eh?
- Ash and Gary fighting with Pikachu and Eevee is most likely a nod to Pokemon Yellow, where that game's incarnation of Gary/Blue uses Eevee as his starter.
- I completely forgot about it, but Jigglypuff gets a cameo in episodes 115 and 116... and doesn't even get to do her schtick! She gets to do it ad nauseam in the Johto seasons, though!
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