Pokemon: Season 2: Strange Moments

This past summer, I did two posts on the first season of the ‘Pokemon’ anime; ‘Pokemon: Indigo League’. The first was a regular review but for the second post, I decided to do something a little different. So I made a list of all the strange moments that I came across while watching the show. ‘Pokemon’ is already a fairly weird show, but then you come across all sorts of weird moments while watching it from strange continuity errors to acts of pure stupidity committed by the characters. Due to the positive response I’ve seen from that first ‘Strange Moments’ post (it being one of my most viewed posts on this site), I decided to do a sequel post for season 2 of the show, titled ‘Adventures on the Orange Islands’. In this season, Ash Ketchum, after competing in the Pokemon League, heads to the titular Orange Islands in order to pick up a mysterious Poke Ball for Professor Oak but then heads off to compete in the Orange League joined by Misty and their new friend Tracey (after Brock decides to stay behind). Thankfully, this season was much shorter than the first one, with just 36 episodes total compared to the 82 (!) episode first season. However I ended finding almost just as many strange moments in this must shorter season than I did with the much longer first season. It just goes to show you that this show can be really, really stupid at times, even though it will no doubt invoke a lot of nostalgic memories for those who were watching it when it first premiered. So now without further ado, let’s delve into the strangest moments of Season 2 of the Pokemon anime.

Though before I get to the strange moments from this season, I just want to quickly delve into three aspects of the show in general first because I’m not really planning on doing another one of these.

ASH’S AGE

The ‘Pokemon’ anime has been on for a very long time, with over 850 episodes released since 1997 along with multiple movies and TV specials… and yet throughout it all Ash is still somehow just 10 years old. He’s surely been out on his Pokemon journeys for more than a year now and each episode seemingly takes place over the course of one day (or sometimes longer like a week)… so why the hell is he still 10 years old? There has been some speculation about this whole scenario with one common theory being that Ash actually ended up in a coma after he and Pikachu ended up in that incident with the flock of Spearow in the pilot episode, with those behind this theory stating that this resulted in the show becoming much more different than what it was originally. Now, Ash was able to live out his fantasies of being a Pokemon trainer and ‘escape reality’. And this also ‘explains’ some of the oddities of the universe, like how there are multiple Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys, how Pokemon trainers can start as young as 10 years old and of course why Ash is still frigging 10 years old after 18 seasons of the anime. I know this all sounds incredibly grim but I must say I kind of believe it considering that Ash should seriously be older than 10 now given that’s he’s been through at least six regions of the Pokemon universe, something that clearly must have taken a few years to complete. Well in the end that’s just one of the many oddities that have defined this show since the beginning.

CHARIZARD’S DISOBEDIENCE

A common running gag in the early seasons of Pokemon began when Ash’s Charmander evolved into Charmeleon and then Charizard soon after. However while Charmander was very obedient towards Ash, it wasn’t so compliant once it evolved, resulting in one of my favorite images of this show where it, as Charizard, just lies down to rest clearly not giving a single f*** about anything Ash tells it to do. This is very much in line with an aspect of the games in that some Pokemon may not listen to their trainers if they lack the proper experience, primarily through the number of badges that they have (for example, winning the Cascade Badge in Kanto will result in all Pokemon that are up to Level 30 obeying you). Now this primarily occurs with Pokemon that were acquired through trades (which does makes sense considering that you’d probably not encounter a Level 40 Pokemon at the beginning of the game) and because I never really did a lot of trading whenever I was playing the games, I never personally experienced this that much.

However the anime hasn’t really been as clear in showing how this whole concept works. In the episode ‘The Problem with Paras’ from the first season, one of the characters note that obedience is based on whether or not the Pokemon respects their trainer. So you’d think that this can be earned through winning badges, right? Well, by the way it was done in the anime that really wasn’t the case. Charizard continues to disobey Ash up until the episode ‘Charizard Chills’ from this season when Ash spends many hours trying to warm Charizard up after it had gotten frozen in a battle. By that point, Ash had already beat all of the Gym Leaders in Kanto, finished in the Top 16 of the Indigo League, and had already won against three of the Gym Leaders in the Orange Islands. And in the games all Pokemon will obey the trainer after they acquire all eight badges within a certain region. It made me wonder how experienced Ash really was if Charizard continued to disobey him even after he had clearly gained quite a lot of experience over the course of his journey… but then again, there’s the whole thing about him still being 10 years old so hell, that might be the reason for all of this.

WILL TEAM ROCKET EVER WIN?

We all know how the Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth continually try to capture Pikachu (or sometimes another special Pokemon that appears in certain episodes) and are always foiled by Ash and his friends, ‘blasting off’ after every loss (‘Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again!’). But you know something? As I was watching through this second season, I found myself actually starting to sympathize with these guys. I mean I know they’re the bad guys and what they’re doing, stealing Pokemon for criminal purposes, is morally ‘wrong’. But in all seriousness, tell me I’m not the only one who actually wants to see them succeed for once. I don’t care if they win in one episode but then that victory ends the following episode. I just want to see them win just once, not just because the whole concept of them always losing has become incredibly clichéd and tiresome but they’re actually now my favorite characters in the entire show. That and as this season went on, I continuously found myself getting much more irritated by Ash and his friends primarily due to all of the stupid things they did (many of which you’ll no doubt see in just a few moments). And unfortunately, our favorite Team Rocket trio has still been unable to capture any Pokemon since they first appeared in Episode 2 of the first season of this series, which is now in its 18^th frigging season. Sigh… well, ultimately this is just one of the major examples of how the show can be incredibly routine and banal at times which can sort of be expected given that it’s been on for so long and will probably continue to run as long as there are new Pokemon games.

So now it’s time for the main event as I go through the weirdest moments that I noticed while watching Season 2 of the Pokemon anime.

POOR TEAM ROCKET DISGUISES- MULTIPLE EPISODES

Last time, I pointed out the numerous times that Ash and his friends were fooled by Team Rocket whenever they were in disguises. Now some of you will note that they’re always fooled by Team Rocket’s disguises but I mainly focused on the occasions where they were fooled by some incredibly poor disguises that should’ve clearly made it obvious that it was Team Rocket. Seriously, sometimes they didn’t even change their rather distinctive hairstyles. Thankfully this didn’t happen as much this season so I’ll just start things off by getting this bit out of the way. This happened four times this season, three of which were back-to-back occurring in the first three episodes of the season. In ‘Pallet Party Panic’ they disguise themselves as food salesman (shown above in the same image I used in the previous ‘Strange Moments’ post) and then they pretend to be blimp workers in both ‘A Scare in the Air’ and ‘Pokeball Peril’ (I’ll get more into that bit of repetition in a little bit). Finally, they disguise themselves as a married couple in the episode ‘Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon?’, an episode that, for the record, revolved around a ‘romance’ between a Male and Female Nidoran. Once again, it really makes you wonder how stupid Ash and his friends are if they continue to fall for Team Rocket’s tricks whenever they’re wearing incredibly poor disguises.

OAK CONFUSES A WOMAN’S GENDER- PALLET PARTY PANIC

This season officially begins with Ash returning home after competing in the Pokemon League where he comes home to find a big party is being held in his honor. After the party, and the usual bit of stopping Team Rocket from stealing Pikachu, Ash, Brock, and Misty are summoned by Professor Oak who asks them to do something for him; travel to Valencia Island in the Orange Archipelago to pick up a mysterious Poke Ball (referred to as the ‘GS Ball’) from his colleague Professor Ivy. However, Oak actually refers to her as a man the first time he mentions her. Not only that but just a few seconds later, Misty properly refers to her correct gender. Given the fact that these two Professors live in different locations, that’s probably the reason why Oak forgot about Ivy’s gender. But then there’s also the fact that in the Pokemon games that allowed players to choose to be either a boy or girl trainer, Oak famously asks the question ‘Are you a Boy or Girl?... that and he also forgets the name of his grandson Gary in the games where he’s the main rival. So figuratively speaking, our favorite Pokemon professor might have a memory problem… along with being unable to distinguish males from females.

IMPROPER CARE OF YOUR POKEMON- A SCARE IN THE AIR

There’s been some controversy surrounding the whole concept of Pokemon being ‘forced’ to fight for their owners against their fellow Pokemon. Heck, the main villains of ‘Pokemon Black and White’, Team Plasma, are focused on ‘liberating’ Pokemon from humans; seriously, that’s their villainous plan. I’m not going to say anything more about this scenario but I do want to point out one rather disturbing instance in the anime where Ash, a genuinely nice/caring trainer, was arguably ‘abusing’ his Pokemon. In the episode ‘Scare in the Air’, Ash and his friends start prepping for their journey to Valencia Island and he and Pikachu pick up some supplies from a grocery store. But after they come out, we see poor Pikachu struggling to hold onto the bags that he’s carrying as we even hear him squeal in pain as he lifts the bags… and for the entire duration of this scene, Ash doesn’t even notice any of this and just talks with Misty and Brock, ignoring his pal Pikachu like a total a-hole. Seriously, Ash, you need to learn to take better care of your Pokemon… otherwise I’m going to start to question who the real villains of this show are.

ASH AND MISTY FALL FOR THE SAME TEAM ROCKET TRICK TWICE- A SCARE IN THE AIR, POKEBALL PERIL

'A Scare in the Air'

'Pokeball Peril'

Remember earlier when I said that Team Rocket twice tricked Ash and friends by disguising themselves as blimp workers? That’s because Ash and co. fell for the same damn trick in the span of just two episodes. First, in the episode ‘A Scare in the Air’, they decide to take a blimp (or a Zeppelin to be more specific) to Valencia Island to save time after winning free tickets. But as it turns out, Team Rocket ends up getting assigned to operate one of the organization’s blimps, the same one that Ash, Brock, and Misty just so happen to be taking to Valencia. The usual hi-jinx ensues and the blimp ends up crash-landing on Valencia. So then after they acquire the GS Ball from Professor Ivy, and Brock decides to stay with Ivy so that he can become a better breeder, Ash and Misty head back to Pallet Town. How so? By blimp again, even though the first time ended as a total disaster (Misty even acknowledges this). But they do it again and once again are tricked by Team Rocket, hi-jinx ensues (again), and the blimp crash-lands (again). Now I can get over the fact that Ash and Misty were fooled by Team Rocket given that they always get tricked by them. But what I can’t get over is their stupidity in deciding to travel by blimp again even after their disastrous first trip. Not only that, but just one episode after the first blimp episode, which ends in near-identical results. Oi!

UNNECESSARY USE OF THE POKEDEX- MANY, MANY EPISODES

Last season, the one recurring plot-point that annoyed me the most was whenever Ash and friends were fooled by Team Rocket whenever they were wearing lousy disguises. But this season something else really started to piss me off and that was whenever Ash uses the Pokedex to identity a Pokemon. Now of course this is a common reoccurrence in the anime as the Pokedex is used whenever Ash came across a new Pokemon but this season the Pokedex was used for identification purposes way too much as Ash sometimes used it on a Pokemon that he either A.) already identified via Dex or B.) already came across in a previously episode. You want to know how many times this happened this season? 14 times!!! I’m not joking; there were 14 instances where Ash identified a Pokemon that he already came across in an earlier episode; Drowzee (‘Pikachu Re-Volts’), Snorlax (‘Snack Attack’), Gastly and Haunter (‘A Shipful of Shivers’), Farfetch’d (‘A Way Off Day Off), Magnemite and Magneton (‘Git Along, Little Pokemon’), Wartortle (‘The Pokemon Water War’), Gloom (‘Pokemon Food Fight’), Tentacruel (‘Viva Las Lapras’), and Voltorb, Electrode, Diglett, and Dugtrio (‘The Underground Round Up’). This has to be some of the poorest continuity that I’ve ever seen in any show. You’d think that Ash would recognize all of these Pokemon given the fact that he’s seen them all before but NOPE!

NOT REALIZING WHAT HAPPENED- IN THE PINK

A new running gag that started up this season was that Ash, Misty, and Tracey continuously failed to realize that Togepi had gained a new power, ‘Metronome’, which it acquired in the episode ‘Pikachu Re-Volts’ from a Drowzee. The gang constantly denies this by saying that ‘Togepi is too young to have learned any moves’, even though sometimes it’s so frigging obvious that Togepi was the one who used that move. The most frustrating instance of this occurred in the episode ‘In the Pink’ where Ash and friends arrive at Pinkan Island, where all of the Pokemon there are Pink due to the fruit that grows there (hence the title of the episode, ‘In the Pink’). Ash, in his usual stupidity, ends up angering a Rhyhorn that begins to charge at them. Togepi ends up saving the day by using Metronome to teleport them away as they then wonder what just happened, not believing Togepi did it even though it was the only one of their Pokemon that was out at the time other than Pikachu, who clearly couldn’t have used that attack. So in other words, they should’ve clearly realized that it was Togepi… but they don’t. Idiots!

ASH FORGETS WHAT A BOMB IS- SHELL SHOCK

In another act of stupidity, in one episode Ash and the gang are trapped within a cave of Kabuto fossils by Team Rocket, who toss down a bomb. It gets tossed around for a few seconds until Ash catches it and then he stands there like a total dumbass looking at it until he finally realizes that it’s going to explode and he tosses it away. At least this allows me to use this next joke…

…Heh Heh, that never gets old!!

ANOTHER INSTANCE OF FLIPPING THE BIRD (LITERALLY THIS TIME) - BYE BYE PSYDUCK

Oh boy…

Seriously, will animators ever learn to be careful when drawing characters with only three fingers? Because when they point, they do so with their middle fingers resulting in awkward images like this involving a Golduck.

FAILING TO CATCH SNORLAX PART DEUX- SNACK ATTACK

In the episode ‘Snack Attack’, Ash and friends come to a group of islands that contain groves of ripe Grapefruits. But then trouble ensues when they discover that a Snorlax is on the island and is eating all of the Grapefruits, resulting in the gang trying to stop it before it eats the whole supply. They try multiple ideas to try and stop Snorlax but all of their plans end up failing… which wouldn’t be that big of a problem with me had a similar situation not occurred in a previous episode of the series, ‘Wake Up Snorlax!’ which also revolved around the gang having to deal with a Snorlax causing problems. In that episode, it was blocking a river to a village and it was defeated by waking it up with a Poke Flute. And while technically the situation in ‘Snack Attack’ is different as the Snorlax is already awake in this episodes, Ash and Misty still should’ve remembered what had happened the last time they dealt with a Snorlax… or at least figure out the solution that ends up working first; using Jigglypuff to make it fall asleep. But they don’t and the Snorlax ends up eating most of the Grapefruits on these islands. Way to go, idiots!

ABOUT VENONAT- TRACEY GETS BUGGED

Misty hates bug Pokemon, so you can guess she wasn’t too pleased when the gang arrives on Murcott Island, an island full of bug-type Pokemon. But she still ends up going with Ash and Tracey and after Tracey brings out his Venonat, Misty remarks that ‘At least it isn’t a Bug Type!’… Yeah, about that…

…There’s no way else to put it. Misty was straight-up…

BEST DAMN HAIR GROWTH EVER- A WAY OFF DAY OFF

In the previous episode ‘Tracey Gets Bugged’, Team Rocket tried to steal a group of Scyther, with Jessie particularly obsessed with capturing them after one of them had cut off a good chunk of her hair. Of course this plan fails and all three of them lose most of their hair before they’re defeated. But then, in the next episode ‘A Way Off Day Off’, they’re shown with all of their hair again. It’s not indicated that they’re wearing wigs so clearly their hair must have grown back, which then begs the question… how much time has passed since the last episode? Because I know for a fact that hair doesn’t grow back in just one day. It takes some time for that to happen but according to this episode it hasn’t been too long since the last episode, meaning that Team Rocket have had the best damn hair re-growth out of anyone I’ve ever seen, real or animated.

NETFLIX FORGETS SOMETHING + A TOTAL LIE- THE MANDARIN ISLAND MISS MATCH

Okay this isn’t actually something about the show itself, this is in regards to a rather interesting thing that happened to me when I was watching this season. As I noted before, the first season of Pokemon was added to Netflix some time ago but instead of just putting it all into one season, they split it up into two ‘seasons’ and also included some, but not all of, the episodes from Season 2, meaning that I had to go to YouTube to watch the remaining episodes of season 2. But after watching ‘A Way Off Day Off’, I proceeded to start the next episode which started off with the narrator stating that Ash had just come from a victory over a Trainer named Prima. At first I thought to myself ‘Who the hell is Prima?’ but then I realized the problem; I had skipped over an episode, ‘The Mandarin Island Miss Match’, in which Ash has a battle with one of the members of the Kanto Elite Four, Prima (those who’ve played the Kanto Pokemon games will recognize her as Lorelei). This episode isn’t featured on Netflix, which I’m guessing is because Prima owns a Jynx, which as I mentioned before attracted a lot of controversy over its design. The episode ‘Stage Fight’ is also not available on Netflix, probably for the same reason. Also, the narrator claims that Ash defeated Prima in a Pokemon battle which, for the record, is a total lie.

AS PRETTY AS A TENTACRUEL- CHARIZARD CHILLS

This episode begins when Ash and friends are almost run over by a boat owned by a boy named Tad, who comments that Misty is ‘pretty’ but when angry, she looks like a Tentacruel. But then Misty starts to gush over how she wishes she could be ‘that pretty’… and for the record, she’s referring to the Tentacruel, a Pokemon that for the record is viewed as ‘ugly’ by a lot of people. Misty even references this at one point. Well, Misty, all I can say to this whole thing about you wanting to be as pretty as a Tentacruel is… Eww!!!

POKE BALL DURABILITY- POKEMON FOOD FIGHT

In this episode, Ash gets into a battle with a kid named Gulzar who wears plants on his head (just go with it, folks) and during that battle, Ash sends out Snorlax (the same one from ‘Snack Attack’). But during this process, Snorlax’s Poke Ball ends up getting broken, resulting in Ash and friends having to transport the incredibly heavy Pokemon to a Pokemon Center that is over a nearby mountain. As you may have guessed, hi-jinx ensues but I have a question. How exactly can a Poke Ball get broken? I mean from the looks of it, they seem to be pretty durable so that they wouldn’t break that easily. And yet in this episode, Snorlax’s Poke Ball is damaged just by having it fall onto a rock. At this point in time, we don’t really have a firm grasp on what these Poke Balls are made out of but this episode seriously makes me question whoever made the decision to make the Poke Balls out of… whatever the hell they’re made out of if they can be broken that easily. Oh yeah, there’s also this hilarious image of Snorlax eating the flowers off of Gulzar’s head.

…Animation can be weird sometimes…

A LACK OF CONFIDENCE AND FORGETTING A PREVIOUS EPISODE- POKEMON DOUBLE TROUBLE

In this episode, Ash and friends arrive at Kumquat Island, where Ash faces off against Luana, the fourth Orange Island Gym Leader. But before they land, Misty and Tracey start to question whether or not Ash can beat the Gym Leader, resulting in Ash yelling at them for not having any faith in him. And you know something… he’s totally right!! I mean, all throughout these first two seasons of the show, there have been numerous instances where Ash’s companions, namely Misty, doubt his chances to win in big Pokemon battles. Seriously, what kind of friends are Misty, Brock, and Tracey if they just spend most of their time criticizing Ash who for the record has been able to do quite well for himself as a Pokemon trainer? Oh yeah, I forgot, these are the same a-holes who let him get captured by Team Rocket and didn’t do a damn thing about it in the episode ‘It’s Mr. Mime Time’. Seriously Ash if I were you, I’d consider getting some new friends. Then again, I also think it’s time for the show to switch its main protagonist but that’s a different story.

This episode also apparently forgets about what had happened just a few episodes earlier in the episode ‘Charizard Chills’, where Ash finally gains control of Charizard after it had been so disobedient towards him ever since it had evolved from being a Charmander. But in this episode, Charizard ends up being hard to work with again when Ash learns that this final Gym Battle is a Double Pokemon Battle, where Trainers use two Pokemon each at the same time (something that would later be implemented into the video games). Ash uses Charizard and Pikachu as his two Pokemon in this battle but for some reason he initially faces some problems as the two have a hard time working together. I’m kind of baffled by this because shouldn’t Charizard be over this by now? I mean, didn’t we just have an entire episode based around him finally gaining respect for Ash after he had worked all day and all night helping him? Ugh… Remember in my original review of the first season where I said that one of the biggest problems of the show is that it does a really terrible job when it comes to story and character progression? This is one of the prime examples of that problem which is why it comes off as being so repetitive at times.

Charizard: F*** you, Mickey!

NO COMMENT- THE WACKY WATCHER

…I don’t even want to know… How can a Magikarp even get into someone’s pajamas? Oh s***, now I’m thinking about it. MOVING ON!!

WHAT’S UP WITH ELECTRODE- VIVA LAS LAPRAS

Electrode is the Pokemon featured in the ‘Who’s That Pokemon’ segment of the episode ‘Viva Las Lapras’ but does Electrode look different to you? What the heck is up with that weird expression? Usually Electrode has something like an ‘evil grin’ but here that’s not the case. This is the only time I can think of where Electrode look like this. Why?

BROCK AND VALENCIA ISLAND- A TENT SITUATION

When Ash and friends first came to Valencia Island, Brock decided to stay behind and work with Professor Ivy to gain more experience as a Pokemon Breeder. But then when Ash, Misty, and Tracey finally return to Pallet Town after Ash wins the Orange League Championship, Brock’s suddenly back and whenever Professor Ivy is brought up, he gets all gloomy telling them to ‘not mention that name’, not giving a reason why. I mean, I think we all know the reason behind Brock’s return; Ivy dumped him. But why does he go into a fetal position every time her name is brought up? Dude, you’ve gotten dumped by a whole bunch of girls (that’s one of the funniest parts of the show), so why is this one such a big deal? Ah well, that’s Brock for you… just don’t mention Professor Ivy around him, okay?

Don't worry man, happens to all of us!

So that’s it folks, all of the strange moments that I came across while watching Season 2 of the Pokemon anime. Like I said earlier, I’m not planning on doing any more of these but I do want to thank everyone who made the first ‘Strange Moments’ post so popular. I have to say these have been some of my favorite posts to do on this site as they did allow me to re-watch a classic show from my childhood.