Episode Guide #033 - #040 The Kangaskhan Kid The Bridge Bike Gang Ditto’s Mysterious Mansion Holiday Hi-Jynx Snow Way Out! Pikachu’s Goodbye The Battling Eevee Brothers Wake Up Snorlax! The Kangaskhan Kid Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Mankey, Venomoth, Victreebel, Vileplume, Bellsprout, Tangela, Weedle, Kangaskhan, Meowth, Venonat, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander Story: The group think they’re in the Safari Zone, but are actually in a Pokémon preserve. Team Rocket aim to snatch the rare Kangaskhan, but are beaten. Shortly after, two people arrive and inquire about a boy that Ash and the others saw during the battle. The child’s name is Tommy (or Tommo as he is currently known), and he lives with a herd of Kangaskhan. Tommy/Tommo was lost in the preserve 5 years ago, and the good guys agree to help the parents find their son. He’s soon found, but doesn’t remember his real parents until his dad whacks him on the head with his cane, he starts to remember, but hurries off to save the Kangaskhan from Team Rocket again. Ash and Tommo confront the robot Kangaskhan and together they beat it back, but even in flames, Team Rocket keep on going and threaten everyone. But Tommy’s parents drive their helicopter straight into the robot and destroy it, but seemingly destroy themselves with it. Tommy cries out for them, but they survive, and decide that if Tommy doesn’t want to leave the Kangaskhan, then they’ll live with them too so that they can be a family. My favourite Quote: (Tommo is staring at Misty) Misty: “What’s the matter?” Tommo: “You people or Pokémon?” Misty (getting angry and clubbing Tommo over the head with her fist): “Eh?! I’m a person ya creep!” Things I’d like to point out: Lies, lies, lies! Both from the narrator and the Pokémon crew. Ash and Co have not yet reached the Safari Zone, but another Pokémon reserve; they finally reach the Safari Zone in another missing episode (“The Legend of Dratini”) which originally followed this one. The fact that it’s missing can’t be covered up, as the significance of the episode is referred to in “Showdown at the Po-ké Corrall”. But I can sum up what I’ve heard for you: Ash and Co go to the Safari Zone, Ash catches a Tauros, but every time he throws a Safari Ball at another Pokémon, a Tauros runs by and is caught, presumably to be together as a herd. Team Rocket aim to steal Dratini, but first they must force the warden to reveal its location by means of torture. In a later incident, Ash ends up diving into a lake to retrieve the bombs that Team Rocket threw in to blow Dratini out, Dratini evolves into Dragonair, saves Ash from drowning, and Team Rocket are defeated by their own explosives. The reason why this episode didn’t make it is because there were too many realistic guns (being used by Team Rocket to threaten the warden (and vice versa, but with Ash on the receiving end as well), which wouldn’t be teaching kids the right thing. As a result, many people were deprived of seeing a Dratini in action for many many months. I think Jenny is exaggerating just a bit, that the Kangaskhan never stop charging when they’re surprised, they have to stop somehow to eat and do other necessities. It’s sort of a first and a last for Team Rocket to bring Pokéballs, they should bring them more often, it’s one thing to trap a Pokémon, but if they caught it in a Pokéball, it might work for them, and not try to escape them. Tommo is obviously based on Tarzan, but when did he learn to swing around trees, that’s a monkey trait (or an Aipom trait in the Pokémon world), a Kangaskhan wouldn’t be able to do that because they’re clearly too heavy. Also, Tarzan lived in the jungle, while this similar character was raised in a preserve. As I suspected, Tommo insulted Misty’s girl parts in the Japanese version, this is why she hit him so hard in response (see “My favourite Quote” of this episode for the English dubbing). This is game related too, if all Kangaskhans are female, then how do they have babies, unless they are bred with other Pokémon? It’s a good thing that Tommy’s parents survived, seeing as Team Rocket did also. It would change the bad guys too much if they actually killed someone with their actions. Oh, and Tommy cried so much, he should have dehydrated, but that’s Japanese cartoons for you. Who’s That Pokémon?: Kangaskhan Cameos in Pokémon Journey: None, but in the missing episode “The Legend of Dratini”, the warden is said to appear, presumably Mr Slowpoke, who in Pokémon Journey, currently serves as a warden in the Safari Zone, and is one of Tetsubo’s great uncles (Chapter 39). The Bridge Bike Gang Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Meowth, Golem, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Cloyster, Psyduck, Shellder Story: The group arrive in a town, and need to cross a large bridge to get to Sunny Town, but only people with bikes can cross it at the present time, Misty of course nags at Ash about destroying hers. At the Pokémon Centre, luck strikes, as Nurse Joy needs medicine delivered to Sunny Town on the other side of the bridge, and bikes are available. They are stopped by a bike gang who want a Pokémon Battle, which is interrupted by Team Rocket, who, because of their past in the gang, gain full support from their old friends. The police cause the gang to withdraw, but Jessie, James and Meowth come after the guys again in the middle of a storm. Ash and the others make a leap of faith across an opening bridge, and with help from Team Rocket’s heads (literally), they get across in time to save the sick Pokémon. The bike gang makes Ash and Co their new heroes, and escort them to the Pokémon Centre to heal the sick Pokémon. My favourite Quote: Chopper: “You ain’t gonna cross this bridge without a proper introduction.” The Bicycle Gang: “That’s right!” Ash (stepping forward): “Uh, hello!” Misty (stepping forward): “It’s a pleasure.” Brock (stepping forward and grasping Chopper’s hand): “Very nice to meet you.” All three (on their bikes in the background, ready to leave): “See you again sometime!” Things I’d like to point out: The final wrongful act of the narrator, he says that the group have fond memories of the Safari Zone in their minds, only, we, the English speaking viewers never got to see it! They tried too hard to hide the true Safari Zone episode (“The Legend of Dratini”), and ended up making it obvious that they had something to hide. I believe this is the first time Misty pulls Brock’s ear to get him away from a girl, although it could easily have been because she wanted to leave more than thinking it better to remove Brock from a female as she increasingly does so throughout the series. The bicycle song is used for the first and only time throughout the series, taken straight from the game and redone, it’s nice that a great deal of game music have been made into good quality songs for the series (which includes the main theme and battle songs among others). Bulbasaur’s Vine Whip should have worked on Golem, but if it had a level advantage, then it’s forgiven, but why oh why did Ash use Charmander rather than Squirtle, the only reason it won was because the red hot Golem burnt the gang members. Ash or Misty kind of bent the rules, Ash and Chopper agreed to a Pokémon Battle, and so, Chopper should have had a second Pokémon to use, if it was a team battle, then Ash and Misty are still in the wrong; using three Pokémon against the gang’s two. Misty was asking for humiliation, the Scratch attack not working might have been unforeseen, but why did Misty think Tail Whip would have been any different than what happened in the Fuchsia Gym (“The Ninja Poké-Showdown”), her Psyduck simply can’t perform an effective Tail Whip. Ash is the last person Jessie should call a nerd, nerds are known to study hard and Ash barely studies at all, even with the interesting subject of Pokémon. According to James in a later episode, he flunked out of Pokémon Tech and then joined the bicycle gang, but what made him and Jessie leave to join Team Rocket if they were so admired here? Ash makes a reckless move when he jumps across the bridge, if he had time for a Pokémon Battle, then surely he had one minute to take the safer option and wait for the bridge to lower, they’d be fish food if it wasn’t for Team Rocket, who don’t need concern since they always bounce back. A small point but this is the first time the final battle music from the game is played. The bike section wasn’t planned too well, to have a bridge but no shelter for cyclists would provoke people into trying what Ash did, there’s not even a warning light or a gate, so I wouldn’t be surprised if people repeated Team Rocket’s situation. And if I’m not mistaken, they not only fell into the water, but were hit by the passing ship. The gang sure aren’t too loyal, when Jessie and James took a fall; they were cheering Ash and his friends for making it across. When Brock is slapped by Tyra, Chopper’s red hair turns totally black; did the rain wash off his hair dye or something? Who’s That Pokémon?: Cloyster Cameos in Pokémon Journey: Chopper, Tyra and their Pokémon appear in Chapter 28, where they compete against Rush’s motorbike gang, Tetsubo and his friends manage to side the two together. Ditto’s Mysterious Mansion Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Ditto, Bulbasaur, Machoke, Electrode, Voltorb, Meowth, Weezing, Dratini, Pidgeotto, Zubat Story: The group dash into a mansion to avoid a storm, and meet Duplica, master of impersonations, and her Ditto, who can transform into any Pokémon, but hers can’t change its face. Ash underestimates Ditto’s true strength, especially when it becomes clear that Ditto can use all the attacks that Ash’s Bulbasaur can. Duplica tells of her hobby of performing to passers-by, and how they don’t like an imperfect transformation. Jessie and James steal Ditto, and plan to change it into Dratini to present to the Boss. When it imitates Meowth, Team Rocket scares it into transforming perfectly, and Ash and the others defeat Team Rocket soon after, by using another ability of Ditto’s, the ability to transform into objects. Ash and the others depart from Duplica’s, and Ash ponders Ditto’s possibilities, and about getting his own Ditto someday. My favourite Quote: Ash (referring to the Team Rocket motto, having recited it with his friends and Duplica): “Now I know why they like saying all that dumb stuff so much; it’s fun!” Things I’d like to point out: Ash’s gloves disappear on the way to the Imite House but reappear as they enter. Another drawing error unless Ash didn’t want his gloves to get wet. It’s pretty obvious that Duplica is based on the Copycat who lives in Saffron City from the Pokémon games. Duplica has most probably never met Ash before, so how did she get the exact jacket so quickly, and to raise more questions, how did Duplica get that cap? Did she send away millions of postcards to win it like Ash did (as told in “Primeape Goes Bananas”)? There are only meant to be 100 of them in the world. Funny how Duplica has the clothes but not one black spiky wig considering she has wigs to imitate everyone else. Duplica can be forgiven for not knowing that Transform isn’t actually exclusive to Ditto, as the rare legendary Pokémon Mew can also learn it. When Duplica shows off her imitations, the voice of Jenny is a dub from a previous episode; however I’m pretty sure the Joy voice and the Duplica voice are one in the same so imitating the nurse isn’t too hard a stretch. In the flashback, when Ditto transforms into Voltorb, its mouth appears on the white lower area, then changes to the upper red area when you next see it, then the white again. Technically, James’s claims that they Team Rocket haven’t been able to capture Dratini are true, but it happened in one of the missing episodes, but on the other hand, Team Rocket haven’t captured any Pokémon, or least, not long enough to give to the Boss. When Team Rocket act out how they figure the Boss will react to the capture of Dratini, Meowth acts out his fantasy of replacing Persian, also, Jessie in the role of the Boss somehow makes her voice low and echoed like he does, which probably means they have never heard the Boss’s true voice as revealed from “The Battle Of The Badge” onwards. Since when did Dittos develop such a long tongue, it had transformed into a book, so the only explanation is that Jessie’s first love had a tongue that big, but it’s very unlikely. It’s strange that Ditto was able to speak humantalk, just because it changed into Team Rocket’s Meowth, it has been said that Meowth used all his experience points to learn how to talk, so the series has every right to do this as a Ditto’s abilities are equal to the Pokémon’s that its imitating, however, it should have indicated it was Duplica’s Ditto. But Ditto only speaks this the one time, and the fact that it can transform into objects makes the possibilities for this Pokémon’s use endless, although I can imagine some evil uses of having a Pokémon with the potential of Ditto. I can’t go against the object transformation idea, as I have explored Ditto’s possibilities a little in Chapter 30. Ash must be really bad at those games where you hide a ball under one of three cups, when Ditto transformed into Pikachu, it remained on the right side, and didn’t move at all, yet, Ash couldn’t tell one Pikachu from another. Following this episode originally was another one that never made it out of Japan, the episode is called “Electric Soldier Porygon”, and in it, the group enter a Pokémon transport system with the help of Porygon to stop Team Rocket’s meddling, but Joy hires someone to fix the system which puts everyone in cyberspace in danger. The reason this one didn’t get out of the country was because the flashing lights from Pikachu’s electricity and explosions from missiles gave some kids epileptic fits; a pretty valid reason. Simpsons made reference to this event with a spoof Japanese show involving robots with flashing eyes. This means we’ll probably never see Porygon in the series or even Porygon 2, but at least you get to hear Porygon’s voice in the Who’s that Pokémon section of “A Way Off Day Off”. Who’s That Pokémon?: Ditto Cameos in Pokémon Journey: Duplica and Ditto appear in Chapter 30, where history apparently begins to repeat itself. She takes on the form of Tetsubo Capture but knew what he looked like from the Cerulean Water Theatre play he was in. Holiday Hi-Jynx Pokémon seen: Meowth, Jynx, Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, Staryu, Starmie, Goldeen, Psyduck, Lapras, Weezing Story: The story begins with Team Rocket aiming to kidnap Santa Claus, because Jessie had a horrible experience when ‘Santa Claus’, or put correctly, a Jynx, stole her doll from her. Meanwhile, Ash and friends spot a Jynx and battle it, but it can’t be caught, because it belongs to Santa Claus, this Jynx got lost when the ice it was on broke away when she was cleaning Santa’s boot, so the good guys decide to escort Jynx back to the North Pole. When the going gets tough, Lapras appears to guide them, but Team Rocket appears and snatches Jynx, but later discover the real Santa Claus. Still, they trap Santa and attempt to steal all the presents (like every villain does in these holiday specials), and Jessie explains to Santa about why she’s doing this. The Jynx scans her mind and brings back her doll, as it turns out, she took the doll to be fixed by Santa in his sleigh on the same Christmas Eve it was taken, but they couldn’t return to Jessie because she stopped believing in him. Still, she and Team Rocket try to escape, but Santa’s Jynx use Psywave to bring back the sub and return the presents, oh, and blow up the sub too. Santa is able to deliver the presents, and Team Rocket is given the gift of a good night’s sleep, thanks to Jynx. My favourite Quote: Jessie: “Better not cry, Santa Claus is coming... with us!” Things I’d like to point out: This episode was originally shown out of sync with the storyline as was the following episode “Snow Way Out!” since Togepi isn’t around yet and Charmander has yet to evolve at all. The room that Team Rocket starts the episode in looks exactly like the room in Jessie’s flashback; even the bed and white dresser look identical. But as seen in the following episode (“Snow Way Out!”), this isn’t Jessie’s home, the mansion is only used for this festive episode and I don’t think Jessie could have afforded to live in this house anyway, young or old since Jessie was poor as a child (check “Snow Way Out!” for one reference), and Team Rocket don’t have the money to live in a house (as seen in many episodes). The only reason I can think Jessie/Team Rocket could afford to live here is because it’s built on the edge of a cliff and could collapse at any time. I shouldn’t be making excuses for them, the dark mansion is only used to give Jessie a home with a chimney so the Jynx could come down it, and perhaps to pretend that Jessie was rich and spoilt since it’d be harsh for Santa to steal off such a poor and underprivileged girl. The title is read by Jessie for the first time. The title is an obvious pun of “No Way Out!” Jessie’s suspicion of Santa Claus being a Jynx is ridiculous, Meowth refers to Santa Claus as a ‘he’ but Jynx is clearly female. Surely now is not the time to let Psyduck out of its ball to sit there and be useless, isn’t letting it stand on the raft just ensuring that the Water Pokémon would tire out quickly? This Lapras is the only one of its kind that uses telepathy to talk back to humans in their language, pretty much only to fill in a character space for this festive episode. This is a general comment about Christmas specials, not just Pokémon, why do people claim that Christmas will be ruined if some bad guy steals all the presents from Santa, or prevents him from delivering them. Children do tend to get gifts from their parents, friends and family; if Santa couldn’t deliver presents, it wouldn’t mean the end of Christmas, nor a bad one. When the Jynx came to Jessie’s house ten years ago, it noticed her doll was broken and took it to be fixed, but why didn’t it just drop off Jessie’s presents? And why did she take the doll without leaving any indication that she had and that the doll would be returned. Had Jessie not deliberately been up that night she’d have thought her doll was lost and that she’d been a naughty girl not to have gotten any presents. Either way it’s just not proper conduct for a helper of Santa. And since when did Santa have the right to fix presents? I know the rules are bent by replacing elves with Jynx and reindeer with Ponyta (Stantler later on), but Santa shouldn’t be able to bend the rules like he did. On the other hand, he does have a lot of travelling to do, so perhaps it helped Santa pass the time. Santa claims he couldn’t return the doll to Jessie because she stopped believing in him, but that’s not how it is, Jessie believed two things, that Santa Claus was a Jynx, and that he was a thief, but she still believed he existed, are the rules of Santa Claus that particular that you can’t believe that Santa Claus is something that he’s not? There are some errors when Team Rocket attempt to escape; firstly the Gyarados submarine goes in reverse... slowly, hardly the correct way to escape with the world’s Christmas presents. Secondly, Lapras’s Ice Beam hits the side of the sub and encases it in a shell of ice, but the inside is full of frozen ice as well, last is the fact that when Jessie summons Weezing, it actually listens to her when she’s not its master. The Jynx presumably all help out Santa in delivering presents, but none are seen on his sleigh when he takes off (and a Jynx Does go from the sleigh to Team Rocket’s place on two occasions throughout this episode). Also, Santa’s sleigh is way too small to carry the huge pile of presents seen earlier, but then again, the whole concept of flying reindeers carrying a world’s supply of presents and delivering them all in one night is ridiculous, still, I’m sure everyone has thought about that at one time or another. Let’s just hope that Pokémon doesn’t decide to do an Easter episode, or some other holiday special. How come Pikachu gets a present but not the other Pokémon? As seen next episode, Jessie as a young girl is completely different to the way she’s portrayed in this episode, the true storyline has Jessie as a poor girl who’s quite happy with what little she has (she ate meals made of snow after all), but in this episode, she’s a little brat who expected lots of presents from Santa. Although a poor girl might feel entitled to lots of presents, it’s pretty clear that Jessie’s character was altered for the sake of being the bitter villain who tries to steal Christmas. Who’s That Pokémon?: Pidgeotto Cameos in Pokémon Journey: None. Snow Way Out! Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Meowth, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Onix, Vulpix Story: Ash leads his friends up a cold mountain to continue his quest, Team Rocket follows them but run into trouble of their own. Pikachu gets lost in a blizzard and Ash separates from the group to find it, and barely manages to save it. Ash takes refuge in a cave for the night, and ends up prioritising the Pokémon’s warmth over his own, but they refuse to stay in their Pokéballs and crowd around Ash for the night. In the morning, Ash is reunited with Misty and Brock, who luckily found an underground hot spring to stay in. The good guys find Team Rocket’s balloon, and use it to travel the rest of the journey through the cold terrain. My favourite Quote: Brock: “If the sun’s up there about three o’ clock, according to my calculations, that means...” Ash and Misty: “What, what does it mean?!” Brock: “We’re lost.” (Ash and Misty fall in disbelief) Things I’d like to point out: This is where it’s revealed how poor Jessie was, to have to eat snow as a child proves that, but is snow a substantial meal? Probably not, so how did Jessie survive on such food? This is the only time we see Jessie’s mother, but her face isn’t revealed. Why did Pikachu take a fall, we clearly saw it grab Bulbasaur’s vine, as it fell, it should have held on tight. This, I believe, is the first of Pikachu’s many impressions; it does a very good impersonation of Brock this episode. Why does the igloo that Team Rocket take refuge in disappear a scene later? It can’t have been hot enough to melt it as Team Rocket was suffering to brace the cold, and there was no reason for them to leave it. Who’s That Pokémon?: Muk Cameos in Pokémon Journey: None, but it’s safe to say that this is the same icy mountainous area that is close to Delft Town, where Tetsubo and Scott braced the cold to rescue the Gym Leader Lorelai in Chapter 31. Pikachu’s Goodbye Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Meowth Story: While the group takes a well deserved break, Pikachu discovers more of its kind, and struggles to be accepted by them. It saves a young Pikachu from going over a waterfall and is welcomed into the group. Ash contemplates leaving Pikachu with its own kind, and Team Rocket snatches all the Pikachu. As always, they are outsmarted and defeated, and Ash makes the decision to leave Pikachu behind. But Pikachu doesn’t want to stay, the other Pikachu cheer for Ash and Pikachu, and the two are reunited and leave together. My favourite Quote: Meowth: “It’s a Pika-palooza!” Jessie: “We’re at the ‘Pika’ our powers.” James: “’Chu’ can say that again, Jess’.” Things I’d like to point out: Misty says she’s never seen so many Pikachu in one place, but the amount of Pikachu in the Viridian Pokémon Centre must have been close to it if not more. When Team Rocket first saw Pikachu, they were not interested at all; it was Pikachu’s power that attracted them to chasing down Pikachu, what makes them think that the wild Pikachu will be worth anything to the Boss, unless he plans on selling them all to little kids? Misty congratulates Brock’s food and that local vegetables are the reason it’s so good. Um... they’re eating out of cans, so unless the labels state the vegetables come from this area or the group are recycling tin cans as plates, this is a stupid error. “... Pikachu Insulated Seizure Net.” Kind of a bad choice of words considering the missing episode “Electric Soldier Porygon” caused around 800 seizures in Japan not too many episodes back. With only Pikachus around and Meowth of Team Rocket in plain sight, this episode goes down as having the least different kinds of Pokémon seen. Who’s That Pokémon?: Pikachu Cameos in Pokémon Journey: None. The Battling Eevee Brothers Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Eevee, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, Cloyster, Vileplume, Starmie, Victreebel, Exeggutor, Raichu, Ninetales, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Meowth, Horsea, Psyduck, Weezing, Pidgeotto, Squirtle, Arbok Story: As the good guys move forward, they discover an Eevee, tied up and abandoned; they take it back to its home in Stone Town, where a garden party is being held at a large mansion, where many people can evolve their Pokémon through Evolution Stones. They return Eevee to its trainer Mikey, who is angered by the fact that they brought it here. This is because his brothers want him to evolve Eevee today, and are pushing him to making a decision about which Pokémon to evolve it into. Misty comforts Mikey, and insists that he confront his brothers and tell them that he doesn’t want to evolve Eevee at all. Before he can, Team Rocket steal many Pokémon and escape, but thanks to Misty’s Horsea, everyone is able to track Team Rocket down and confront them. The brothers’ ‘Eons are defeated, but Mikey has his first battle, and Eevee finishes off Team Rocket in one go, thus, proving he doesn’t need to evolve his Eevee in order to win. My favourite Quote: Jessie: “I guess we’ll just have to settle for little Eevee.” Misty: “Forget it you old hag, we won’t let you do that!” Jessie: “Wh, wh, what... did you just call me?!” (Jessie screams and breathes fire from her mouth in anger) Meowth: “Wow, Jessie just evolved into a Flareon!” Things I’d like to point out: Mikey’s brothers must be real fans of their Pokémon to have their hairstyles look like them, and don’t tell me they were naturally born that way, their names must also have been changed to suit their Pokémon as they’re called Rainer, Pyro and the unnamed Jolteon trainer (it was dubbed Sparky in one version of the Pokémon comics but in Pokémon Journey, I’ve chosen the more appropriate Storm, seeing as the name Sparky is taken by a certain Pikachu). Mikey is the only brother with a realistic hairstyle and name, his hair is only a little like his Pokémon by coincidence. Ash and the others don’t want to evolve their Pokémon because it’ll change them, but a sensible trainer (for instance, Tetsubo) would bring up the point that evolving a Pokémon too soon erases their opportunity to learn certain attacks. Pokémon should be able to evolve at some point, but not until they’ve learned all their attacks and reached the point that they want to evolve. The three brothers don’t seem to have access to Moon Stones, which evolve four kinds of Pokémon, what sort of evolution party doesn’t include all the stones, including rare ones? In the fanfic they’ve somehow come across them to account for all Pokémon since they try to evolve one of the main characters’ Clefairy among other Pokémon. Misty shouldn’t be allowed to have Psyduck, she punches it in the head because it simply wanted to eat a sandwich from the tray she offered Mikey (who only ate one). Misty refers to Pikachu’s battle in “Electric Shock Showdown” since it’s very significant with Pikachu being a stone-induced evolving Pokémon. Once again among the food are real life animals, funny how Pokémon are usually valued and the real animals are either prey for Pokémon, food for people or just plain forgotten about. It’s a little too coincidental that each member of Team Rocket wanted to evolve Eevee into an ‘Eon that is coloured similar to them, and as for using all three Stones at once, is that feasible? “Rage, Tackle attack”? A big no. Rage needs to take in some damage before it can power an attack to a higher strength, even when you include the new rules to Rage in the Gold and Silver games, Rage only enhances a Pokémon’s strength when it is hit. And what happened to the Take Down that Mikey previously initiated? In the photograph at the end, the Raichu’s white stomach has vanished; it’s now orange like the rest of its body, similar to Pikachu. Who’s That Pokémon?: Eevee Cameos in Pokémon Journey: A very significant yes: Storm, Rainer, Pyro and Mikey star in Chapter 32 with their Pokémon (now available to read in comic form). Wake Up Snorlax! Pokémon seen: Pikachu, Meowth, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, Snorlax, Horsea, Arbok, Weezing, Pidgeotto Story: Ash and Co meet an old hippy, who plays some music for them, but asks for food afterwards. They get to town, but there’s a severe lack of food due to the river being blocked up. The group investigate, and discover a huge Snorlax blocking the river flow, and try their hardest to move it, Team Rocket also tries, but to steal it, but Ash and the group willingly let them try, only, they fail. Both teams realise that the hippy’s Pokéflute can wake up Snorlax, and chase him down. Snorlax wakes up and eats the thorns that are now blocking the river, so that it can flow, and the town’s water and food is restored. My favourite Quote: (After Snorlax shows discomfort from being kissed by Meowth) Misty: “It looks like it’s been poisoned.” Brock: “How’d you look if you got kissed by Meowth?” Ash: “I’d look for a new mouth.” Things I’d like to point out: The tune that the old hippy plays is the Pokéflute music used in the game. Ash can’t catch Snorlax while it sleeps, but in a later episode, it’s because Snorlax sleeps that Ash is able to catch it. I suppose it’s got to be a forced sleep rather than a voluntary one since the game sort of runs on this principle, as did I in Chapter 29. When Arbok is flung into Team Rocket, and they are swept into the tornado, Arbok vanishes, while Team Rocket spins around and around until the whirlwind disappears. I would think that Snorlax should be a little more particular about what it eats, in the future, some Snorlax chow down on fruit and other goods, why does this one settle for eating sharp thorns? Team Rocket complain about how Snorlax is asleep again, but when the old hippy says he’s going to wake up another Snorlax, Team Rocket completely lets it go, and try to catch the sleeping Snorlax. They have got to seize opportunities when they come their way. Who’s That Pokémon?: Snorlax Cameos in Pokémon Journey: None, but Tetsubo is up against the same problem in Chapter 29: A Snorlax blocking the path ahead, plus the old hippy is mentioned by Scott in his Gym logs, and in Chapter 29, since his song is recorded and played back to this Snorlax. Episodes #025 - #032 Episodes #041 - #048 Back to the Episode Guide Movie and Mini-movie Guide Back to the Pokézone