Pikachu in Pictures Chapter 2: I’m a Poké Watcher, I’m a Poké Watcher

While Chapter 1 of “Pikachu in Pictures” was easy for Wolfman to stomach, the second round proved itself an interesting challenge. He was confronted by a new arc, the “Adventures in the Orange Islands,” that he had seen but mostly forgotten. Unfortunately, that was itself challenged by yet another challenge in how “Season 2” of Pokémon also features the notorious end to the original “Kanto” arc. With only two episodes and a movie to show off the Orange Islands, and some iconic episodes to close out the original run, can he adequately cover it all?

(The answer is “yes, mostly,” to be clear. I ain’t gonna keep you in suspense)

Episodes Reviewed:

EP059: “Volcanic Panic” (August 20, 1998). While Ash licks his wounds after losing badly to Gym Leader Blaine, Team Rocket causes a volcanic eruption trying to steal Blaine’s Magmar. After seeing Magmar’s strength in stopping the eruption, unruly Charizard forgoes its disobedience long enough to beat its new rival in a rematch.
EP070: “Go West, Young Meowth!” (November 12, 1998). During a trip to run down Hollywood for a movie premiere, Meowth reminisces in his old stomping grounds about lost love and the history behind his ability to talk.
EP079: “Friend and Foe Alike” (January 14, 1999). Ash’s Pokémon League match against his new friend Ritchie is stymied from start to finish. He initially struggles with the idea of fighting a friend, spends the afternoon evading Team Rocket, shows up late, and loses ignominiously when Charizard takes a nap in front of a crowd of thousands.
EP084: “The Lost Lapras” (February 18, 1999). Ash and Misty crash-land on the Orange Islands to find an abused Lapras and Tracey, a Pokémon Watcher. After saving Lapras from roughnecks and Team Rocket, Ash—now with Tracey in tow—decides to travel the Islands, reunite the sea beast with its lost herd, and enter the archipelago’s Orange League.
EP096: “Meowth Rules!” (May 13, 1999). Meowth finds himself worshiped as an island’s patron god after being separated from Jessie and James. Wracked with paranoia, he persecutes his friends and foes before being exposed as unable to do the one thing demanded of the deity: perform an attack.

It’s been some time since I saw these episodes for the first time, and my memories of them are quite hazy—especially the “Adventures in the Orange Islands” arc that was where I drifted away from the show. This is the point in which Pokémon’s cultural saturation started to go down. It never stopped being big, to be clear; it’s still the biggest media property in the world. But it wasn’t a fad. I don’t think the Orange League caused that, nor Pokémon Gold & Silver having a mildly lesser commercial reception (not that it’d be easy to match Red & Blue). It just slowly subsided, because that’s what popular things do. And even that was just a bit.

Removed from that history (and the fact that I decided to watch only two episodes out of sixty, because not doing the Kanto episodes I included seemed insane), what I’ve seen of the filler arc is perfectly pleasant. More to the point, it’s a good extension of something those three Kanto episodes also showed, which is that “Season 2” of Pokémon is less a sophomore slump than something a bit more confident with its ambitions and with fewer avenues in which to direct them. Story structure has gotten more elaborate, tone’s a bit more varied, and it’s even willing to create an original region.

Image: The Pokémon Company. The iconic, inexplicably gritty “Go West Young Meowth.”

We’ve got episodes that are just about Team Rocket, with Ash only there for a contractually obligated appearance. One involves an island that worships Meowth. There’s a Gym Battle (the seventh) that makes some meta jabs at the “pity badges” the kid earned in the first season. The show even added Hollywood and a giant public tournament. The stuff I didn’t include had scenes that tied into the first movie, kaiju battles, and the predecessors to Pokémon staples like Shinies and regional variants. It’s only included in part here, but it’s also where the show went deep into the games’ intriguing idea of “Pokémon disobedience.” And from that, of course, we got the series’ first truly painful arc-ending loss.

Ash’s pathetic showing at the Pokémon League did stick in my craw at the time, as it did to everyone, but seeing it now makes me want to reappraise it a bit. Yeah, Ash’s affable and needlessly identical doppelgänger Ritchie is obnoxious, and yeah I missed the good episodes with his smarter tactics and a kickboxing Bellsprout, but it feels very true to where our hero is. He spent the series up till now dining out on personality and kindness over largely unimaginative strategy. Even in “Volcanic Panic,” which is held up as a classic despite having a fairly underwhelming battle, he basically lets Charizard take over. This way in over his head kid begging his teammate in front of thousands of people feels like a natural endpoint and a loss he desperately needed. It doesn’t make it any less hard to watch, of course, nor does it make Ritchie feel any less artificial of a character.

That also extends to Tracey Sketchitt, Brock’s temporary replacement. The franchise was still smarting from the “Jynx controversy” (in which a Pokémon with black skin, large lips, and extremely human hair was interpreted as a horrible racist stereotype), and the show’s writers were skittish Brock might also be perceived as offensive. And while he kind of is—not due to his darker skin color and always-closed eyes, to be clear, just his being as pushy towards women as Sam Malone—it also didn’t matter. People liked Brock’s older sibling energy and how it reigned in Ash and Misty. Someone with a personality that went only as far as his job was no replacement. And even when Brock actually became controversial, for just being a main character for too damn long, it’s not like anyone wanted Tracey to jump back in. His fate of being dumped at the lab with his hero Professor Oak was nice, but it was also as fair as he deserved.

Image: The Pokémon Company. And I can’t explain why, but he gives me “Renaldo from Steven Universe” vibes, and that’s never good.

Honestly, the most interesting newcomer here was Ash’s abused and recovering Lapras. Arguably the most important thing the series needs to explore is the myriad of potential relationships between Trainer and pet, and seeing the series depict the negative kinds was one of the more compelling aspects (it’s also something the cartoon explores much further than the games, which you don’t always see in adaptations like this). The idea of Ash raising a Pokémon that’s lost, hurt, and scared of humans—and only until they get it back to its flock—feels like a step up for him. Lapras was always one of Gen I’s best Monsters, and having a living boat gives the adventure more flavor. It’s sad I’ll get to see little of it, but I’ll only see less of it because it has an actual closed character arc the show held to. Once Ash set it free, it only showed up once years later, and only as a coda.

If the Orange Islands were a largely forgettable excursion, as I remember and as the fanbase seems to have defined it, it’s at least one with some new and more serious ideas. And it came off an extended first season that did push Ash in ways he needed to be pushed. I kinda got lucky here avoiding the chaff, but honestly a short filler region kinda works for Pokémon. Stakes are low, innovation is more tolerable, and we can do small, closed arcs. It might be good for the show to throw one in semi-regularly—though hopefully with a better batting average of high concept premises.

Movie reviewed: Pokémon 2000: The Power of One (July 17, 1999)

Wealthy collector Lawrence III throws the Orange Islands into chaos and enrages the Legendary Birds Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, all in the hopes of awakening and capturing the sea beast Lugia. Already journeying to each bird’s island as part of a local ceremony, Ash winds up braving the Pokémon, the villain, and a global storm caused by their battle to quell the fighting.

Now this is more like it! The Power of One is not great cinema, and relies too much on the kind of McGuffin retrieval that would power a video game, but after the boring and self-contradictory Mewtwo Strikes Back it works as a strong justification for putting Pokémon on the big screen.

Image: Pokémon Dungeon. The ongoing clash between Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno is striking in a different way from Mewtwo’s unstoppable psychic powers.

The biggest reason is the huge jump in scale. Mewtwo felt big, but New Island failed to really match it. Here there are four islands, a community with distinct traditions, a creepy flying castle, and a genuine sense of place. The culture of Shamouti Island isn’t deep, but the detailing makes it feel more real, important, and worth saving. And to really up the stakes, there are mass floods, a threat to the global ecosystem, and thousands of Pokémon making the journey as spectators. It’s overtly cinematic in a fun way. A lot of these elements were in the other movie; it’s just directed into something more cohesive here. I dunno if the animation is better or worse, but this direction also has the benefit of being nicer to watch. Out go the weird staircases, and in come the islands, waves, and anime rain.

While the plot of “Ash goes to collect the three doodads” is nothing special, I also do like the narrative structure, specifcally with how it deploys the antagonists. Smarmy Lawrence III is spooky because he’s not evil for power or wealth but the false idol of “ownership” (and hey, kids who gotta catch ‘em all, if you buy your ticket you can get the Ancient Mew card that started him on his path to darkness!). He’s certainly more evidence for my theory that these movies need to be about challenging the worst kinds of human / Pokémon relationships. But he’s also not even the active threat for most of the movie; that’s the war between the three birds and the storm they’re whipping up. It means that Ash and co. are fighting nature, monsters, and man all at once, and one never fully dominates the proceedings. This, of course, also helps make it feel more cinematic and grand than the show is capable of being.

Everything just feels better. The love triangle between Misty, Ash, and a movie character who’ll never show up again is overplayed, but all three slowly caring more about the islands does work. They all came in caring as little about the festival or its history as we did, but they came out invested. Team Rocket gets more to do than be an avenue for exposition, even helping save the day alongside dozens of Pokémon. The talking Slowking sage has a fun enough low key energy, like the Hydrox version of Luke in The Last Jedi. Brock gets a fun cameo. Even the English script, which is never great in these things, feels far more lively and animated.

Image: Pokémon Dungeon. Perhaps it’s the Zelda fan in me talking, but I’m also always a fan of diegetic and plot-relevant music in these kinds of adventures.

The Power of One did not replicate the success of Mewtwo Strikes Back, and I get why. While it’s gorgeous and grand, Lugia lacks Mewtwo’s iconic grossness and Nineties edgy alternative vibe, and Lawrence is an unimpressive villain who represents forces too nebulous to easily depict. There’s nothing as easy a pitch as the world’s two toughest monsters duking it out. And it was the second movie after one that did not do well with anyone who wasn’t a fan, condemning these movies to rarely bother reaching out to other demos. But I do think Movie Two more than eclipses Movie One as a film and a story. It has a greater grasp on the things it wants to say, more and more varied kinds of action, and a setting cool enough to be worth putting in the games.

Conclusion: I will say, I am a bit sad to have given myself this five episode limit. I remember the Orange Islands being largely forgettable, but it is a shame to not see Brock’s exit and return, Tracey’s role within the group, and especially Ash bonding with Charizard. I liked building a mini-arc about Ash’s beloved dragon that’ll be concluded next week, but seeing Ash finally overcome his weaknesses as a Trainer (and winning those crazier League battles) would’ve been nice. There wasn’t a lot of that here, mostly just well-needed growth. I also wish I’d gotten to see the weirder episodes of this era, the ones that featured rare or mutated species of Pokémon that presaged the series’ alternate and regional forms. That’s the kind of zany crap a disposable filler arc needs to do.

But that also means I skipped seeing how the Orange League was patient zero for the anime relying more and more heavily on a more boring kind of filler (which to be clear still very much existed in the Kanto era). Once Pokémon went from being a seventy episode show to a twelve hundred one, it was going to be awash in disposable, tossed off stories. Being a relatively unpolished children’s show meant to advertise a brand was only part of that. But I think a lot of viewers saw Ash’s way off day off for what it was: a show stalling for time while Game Freak struggled to make Pokémon Gold & Silver playable, then polished, then a set of classics. The stuff people remember—Lapras, Ash’s chosen one moment in the movie, the Crystal Onix—is in the minority. Mostly, it seems to be setting the stage for the supposedly barren Johto years.

Image: Bulbapedia. Crystal Onix is still really cool, though.

This means that this week wasn’t truly representative, not when I wanted to make sure I saw the ultimately more memorable and important Kanto episodes. And that’ll be true of the next three weeks, if less so (I made sure to pencil in two bad Johto episodes just to make sure I see some of the more notorious stuff). But there’s a benefit to that. Sure, I missed the cool-sounding island of pink Pokémon, but I also missed terrible-sounding characters of the day. And if not quite following my own goals in favor of something more entertaining isn’t fully “fair,” at least it’s not slogging through an unwatchable Kingdom Hearts movie. I find true comfort in that.

Errant thoughts:

This was my first time using the Pokémon TV app. It’s mixed, even beyond the content being limited to less than half of the show’s seasons. It seems like things go in and out of rotation way too often; Season 8 was added in August and isn’t here anymore. And the general UI and visual fidelity is surprisingly clunky.
The single craziest bit of history this week is that Lugia wasn’t added to promote an upcoming game; it was actually created for the movie. It was designed to be a Pokémon that could control and symbolize ocean currents and only added into the games after the fact. I know Audino was created so the Nurse Joys of Unova could have a new medical Pokémon, but it does make me wonder what (if any) other cases like these exist.
Much like with Mewtwo Strikes Back, the script of the movie was heavily edited in dubbing; in its case it deemphasizes themes of cooperation by largely inventing the “chosen one” plot point. It’s to the film’s detriment, but unlike the last one, there’s only so much you can do to edit that stuff out. Ash is still helped heroically at every turn.
- And on that note, was “no, but I have Krabbies!” an STD joke??? It’s no “and yes, I mean both kinds of crabs” (which once helped me win a Jackbox game), but damn.
Sistine Chapel-esque stuff in Lawrence’s ceiling. It’s probably for the best that he has as little screen time as he does, but like everything else his creepy, Miyazaki-esque flying museum of selfishness just adds a ton of color.
“Polkamon” was… not one of Weird Al’s best, is it? Good title, though, and at least he still has his roughly ten thousand other polka songs.
Blaine makes a salient point in “Volcanic Panic” about Ash potentially losing his Trainer license by having Pikachu fight in an active volcano. Hypocrisy aside, these kinds of legalities could be explored further. Ideally by someone with a better voice.
Even Ritchie’s nickname game is boring. “Happy,” “Sparky,” and… okay, “Zippo” is kinda good for Charmander. I mean, I realize I did Springsteen-themed names for two games in a row, but those are more fun and had more than enough material.
Weeks ago, in one of the Avocado’s Politics Threads, I compared Ash’s bout with Ritchie to a Ford Pinto crashing. That’s unfair having rewatched the episode. It’s more sputtering out like an Oldsmobile.
I really should take a moment to highlight “Go West, Young Meowth,” a neo-noir origin story about a cat learning to act like a human in a world that went from viewing him like a pest to viewing him like a freak. Genuinely amazing that this exists, and it’s as good a testament as any to Maddie Blaustein’s place as the best of the 4Kids actor staple.
You know, I kinda like “Pokémon World,” the Orange Islands’ English theme song. It’s not anywhere near the heights of “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” (which itself kinda blows “Aim to Be a Pokémon Master,” the original Japanese theme, out of the water), but it’s perfectly catchy. Oddly, the remix made for the film is a lot less so.
- Side note, but I deeply love that the list of Ash’s rivals in the new opening is just Gary, Ritchie, and a bunch of loser one-offs. Especially since the one at the top is THE SAMURAI and his amazing Pinsir.
Okay, here’s an embarrassing revelation: part of why I wanted to do the whole Charizard arc was because, as a kid, I had the Charizard, Go! children’s book that adapted Kanto’s Charizard episodes and ends on Ash punking himself at the League. I actually had a few of those. They were perfectly fine for what they were.
- Probably the best one was the one that was ostensibly adapting Ash’s last Gym badge (the one where Jessie and James sub in for Giovanni), but spent most of the time flashing back to Team Rocket defeats from other episodes. You know, to make sure we knew how real things were in that battle.
Oh, for the days when the Pokémon anime had to make a filler arc to afford the game-making side of the franchise time to polish their product…

Next movie: Pokémon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown: Entei

Next episodes: (again, using Bulbapedia because there are a lot of ways these episodes can be organized)

EP117: “Don’t Touch that ‘dile”
EP129: “Ignorance is Blissey”
EP134: “Charizard’s Burning Ambition”
EP146: “Tricks of the Trade”
EP155: “Forest Grumps”

Other movies watched:

Algie, the Miner
Friday the 13th Part 3[-D]
The Hunter
I Don’t Want to Be a Man
The Monster’s Christmas
Strange Impersonation

Other television episodes watched:

The Adventures of Pete & Pete 305, “Dance Fever”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 306, “Crisis in the Love Zone”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 307, “Last Laugh”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 308, “Allnighter”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 309, “Road Warrior”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 310, “Pinned!”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 311, “O Christmas Pete” (didn’t finish)
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 312, “Das Bus”
The Adventures of Pete & Pete 313, “Saturday”
Doom Patrol 405, “Youth Patrol”
Doom Patrol 406, “Hope Patrol”
Frasier 317, “High Crane Drifter”
Regular Show 202, “It’s Time”
Regular Show 102, “Just Set Up the Chairs”
Regular Show 414, “Sandwich of Death”
Regular Show 415, “Ace Balthazar Lives”
Regular Show 301, “Stick Hockey”
Regular Show 302, “Bet to Be Blonde”
Regular Show 323, “Replaced”
Regular Show 610, “Merry Christmas Mordecai”
Regular Show 611, “Sad Sax”
Regular Show 703, “The Lunch Club”
Regular Show 711, “Sleep Cycle”
Smallville 203, “Duplicity” (look, before we continue, I need to make something clear. I do not like Smallville. I do not endorse Smallville. It’s utterly awful, I’m hate-watching it, and only as part of a mocking group experience. Please don’t think, whenever and if ever you see that show being referenced in this series, that I’m the kind of man who chooses to watch Smallville because he thinks it’s good)
Smallville 204, “Red” (which I stopped a third of the way in, because hoo boy is there a line between joyful pure badness and actually offensive pure badness)
Smallville 211, “Visage”
The Venture Bros. 608, “A Party for Tarzan”