15. Battle Aboard the Saint Anne 6/10
Jessie, James and Meowth get orders from their boss to give away lots of free cruise ship tickets to trainers, so they can get them all in one place and steal Pokemon. Ash-tachi are given some, of course, and on board, are happy to find something like a Pokemon Convention! Shops selling Pokegoods, people battling and comparing Pokemon... Ash eagerly goes into battle, and is almost winning with his Butterfree against a man's Raticate, but the man stops the battle.
Instead, he asks if Ash would like to trade Pokemon. He says that it's a good way to make new Pokemon friends. Ash reluctantly trades Butterfree for Raticate. Meanwhile, James is conned into buying a 'Pokemon gold mine' (read: ripoff), aka Magikarp for a lot of money. Jessie gets angry at him for using part of her paycheck to pay for it. But no time to worry about it; Team Rocket has to launch into an attack. They, and a lot of formerly-hidden Team Rocket flunkies, attack the trainers and steal lots of Pokeballs.
Ash urges the trainers to fight back, and Pokemon of the same type (like, 10 Pikachu) fight together. When there is a swarm of Butterfree fighting, Ash goes to send his out to join them, then remembers he traded it... But no matter. Team Rocket is beaten. But now, with the effects of the battle, the ship has been damaged and is beginning to sink.
Ash won't leave the ship until he has Butterfree, his first Pokemon who he cares for, back. He manages to get the man to trade back. Then he drops the Pokeball and goes chasing after it... Meanwhile, James is chasing after his Magikarp's Pokeball, which he dropped. He needs to keep it so he can sell it back and have Jessie not kill him. But the ship jolts, and sinks, with our heroes and Team Rocket still trapped inside...
Jessie and company seem to have an exalted rank over other Team Rocket members. Cool. Also, the ship's captain is really, REALLY cool. ^_^. I seem to have written more for this summary. Dunno why.
16. Pokemon Shipwreck 9/10
Ash-tachi and Team Rocket reawaken. Jessie uses Ekans' acid to tear a hole in the bottom of the ship so they can escape. Poor strategy, as that part of the ship fills with water quickly, almost drowning them. Meanwhile, Misty sends her Goldeen to try and find an exit, and it encounters the drowning Rockets. Goldeen sweatdrops, but manages to bring them back onto a dry part of the ship, where Ash and company wait.
After initial hostility, they realise they have to co-operate. This basically means Team Rocket tags along uselessly but don't try to steal Pikachu. ^_^. Misty leads the group because, being a water buff, she has some knowledge of the structure of the ship. They overcome various difficulties using Ash's Pokemon (Charmander to light a dark hallway, Bulbasaur's vine whip to cross a burning room), and get to the hull of the ship, where Charmander burns a hole in it. Everyone ties themselves to water Pokemon so they can swim up and out. But Team Rocket have no water Pokemon.
James remembers his Magikarp. However, it's not strong enough to pull them all out (it can barely swim -_-;). So the trio end up almost drowning again. On a floating piece of driftwood, Ash-tachi wonder why the Rockets haven't surfaced. Then Ash sends Pidgeotto to look for dry land, and it returns with Team Rocket. -_-; The group floats on driftwood for ages, and hungry, try to eat Magikarp. -_-; But it's inedible. Fed up with Magikarp's uselessness, James kicks it away and it evolves into Gyarados. The angry Gyarados uses dragon rage and sends everybody flying...
This was my favourite episode for a long time. But I watched it too often and overdosed on it, so now I do not like it so much. But this was the first episode I saw where I realised Team Rocket had Pokemon too. And where I first saw Jessie's Ekans, which I liked from the start! I really like episodes in which Team Rocket and Ash work together, or at least have the Rockets show up and DO SOMETHING other than go blasting off...
17. Island of the Giant Pokemon 10/10
Ash and his friends land awkwardly on an island. Pikachu is not with them, and Ash realises that half his Pokeballs are missing! Team Rocket, landed elsewhere on the island, find their own Pokemon missing, including Meowth. Meanwhile, Pikachu has found the Pokeballs of Ash's other Pokemon and opens them, pulling Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle together. They go looking for Ash, although Bulbasaur thinks he has abandoned him. The others try not to think of it, since they have been abandoned before.
Pikachu-tachi meet up with Ekans and Koffing. Meowth orders the two to attack Pikachu, but they refuse, because he's not their master and they are only bad if their masters are being bad. The two sides group up (Meowth a little reluctantly, heh) to find their masters, while their masters are looking for them (well, Jessie and James are being bad trainers and are doing no such thing -_-;).
But, there are more difficulties than that. Giant Pokemon are on the island, which chase the Pokemon and scare them. In escaping, they finally meet their masters, who are also escaping. To cut a long story short, in the way they escape, they succeed in beating the giant Pokemon. Problem? This island was a Pokemon theme park, the giant Pokemon just mechanical tourist attractions... the park is owned by Giovanni, who is NOT thrilled....
This episode had the Pokemon speech subtitled. Since it's a novelty (would be kinda tedious having it all the time, would get less interesting I think, since you can mostly tell what the Pokemon say anyway in other eps), it made the episode really good, to tell what the Pokemon's personalities were. Squirtle was gutsy and a bit of a smart-alec (Squirtle's cool). Bulbasaur was mistrustful and cynical. Charmander was cautious, kind and trying to keep everyone together. Pikachu was determined, sympathetic and the leader of the group. Ekans was the leader of it and its partner, who wanted nothing but its master, and Koffing was the slightly slow complement. And Meowth was... Meowth.
18. Tentacool and Tentacruel 4/10
Ash and company come to a place called Porta Vista, which is being attacked by Tentacool. On the way, they are warned of this fact by a friendly Horsea, and save a shipful of people who were attacked. On the shore, an old bag, Nastina, offers them a reward for getting rid of the Tentacool. They are damaging the opportunity for her to set up the sea-side hotel she wants to.
Team Rocket steps in first, and dump stun sauce in the water to paralyse the Tentacool, so they can steal them all, and voila, everyone's happy. However, it doesn't work. The stun sauce ends up angering a Tentacool and causing it a mutant evolution, into a GIANT Tentacruel. Tentacruel uses Meowth to speak, and tells the people that it will destroy their world as they destroyed its - the sea. But Misty manages to pacify it, promising that from now on, humans and sea creatures will respect each other's worlds. Then Misty gets the Horsea from before as her own Pokemon.
Misty's time to shine, since the episode is about water types. Not a bad episode. Not a good one either. Tentacruel speaking through Meowth was creepy. o.O;
19. The Ghost of Maiden's Peak 9/10
The gang, and Team Rocket, arrive at Maiden's Peak, where a festival is being held. Brock and James both briefly spot a beautiful girl, who they immediately fall in love with. An old lady warns them that a beautiful girl will bring them to ruin, but they can't listen, they're already wayyy smitten. Later, they hear a tale of the rock that stands on Maiden's Peak - it is in the shape of a maiden, which is how the plateau got its name. This lady stood, waiting for her lover to return to her, and waited so long that she turned to stone.
A painting of the girl when she was alive is shown, and it's exactly the same as the girl James and Brock saw! But she has been dead for thousands of years... the two hormone-driven guys don't care, and go as if in a trance to the rock. Later, Jessie/Meowth and Ash/Misty are looking for their friends, and run into each other. Finally, they find Brock and James, babbling incoherantly about loving the maiden. Pikachu shocks some sense into them.
The old lady they met before says she can sell them anti-ghost stickers, which will prevent the maiden from being able to take them. The maiden, every year, comes and targets guys, apparently. The gangs plaster the stickers all over the lady's shrine, and all over James/Brock. But a strong wind blows all the stickers away instantly, and the maiden appears. She says she has been waiting so long that she will take James and Brock. Jessie runs in to save James, and Ash's Pokedex suddenly picks up that the maiden is actually a Gastly - a ghost Pokemon good at hypnosis and creating illusions.
They fight Gastly without success, because it changes forms easily to suit its opponent. But then, the morning comes, and Gastly cannot stay in sunlight. It leaves for another year. This Gastly is actually helping the REAL maiden's ghost, in keeping her legacy alive (and making a few bucks on the side by disguising itself as the anti-ghost-sticker-selling lady). Ash-tachi and Team Rocket enjoy themselves freely at the festival.
I loved this episode. James and Brock clutching at each other, both simpering and lovestruck (er, not with each other, I think). Another one where Ash-tachi and the Rockets exist within the same space for more than ten seconds without killing each other. Very entertaining. ^_^.
20. Bye Bye Butterfree 5/10
It is the Buttefree's mating season, so Ash lets his out of the Pokeball and encourages it to find a nice girlfriend. Brock hires them a hot air balloon, like many other Butterfree trainers, and they hover in the air near the swarm of many Butterfrees. However, when it finds a cute pink Butterfree that it loves, she will not love him back. Butterfree is depressed, but Ash-tachi encourage it and it goes to try again.
Good thing that it does! Team Rocket swoops in in a helicopter and with a long butterfly net (ingenious, aren't they) collect all the Butterfree - except Ash's. How convenient. Butterfree flies after the pink Butterfree, desperate to save it, and Ash-tachi follow it. After a battle, Butterfree manages to free all its trapped kin, and with the help of Misty's Pokemon, send Team Rocket outta there. The pink Butterfree is now willing to go with Ash's, and Ash, being a sympathetic trainer, allows it to leave, even though he is sad, remembering all their times together.
This is one Pokemon episode to make me cry. I think I was a little too sentimental that day. Oh well, at least I'm not the only one. *grins*
The story so far: Ash has now developed his main team of six Pokemon, and has won his first three badges. Heading on from Vermilion...
