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| Challenge of the Samurai
|
サムライしょうねんのちょうせん！
Challenge of the Samurai Boy
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First broadcast
| Japan
|
April 22, 1997
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| United States
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September 11, 1998
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
| Animation
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Team Ota
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| Screenplay
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園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda
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| Storyboard
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鈴木敏明 Toshiaki Suzuki
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| Assistant director
|
大原実 Minoru Ōhara
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| Animation director
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平岡正幸 Masayuki Hiraoka
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| Additional credits
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Challenge of the Samurai (Japanese: サムライしょうねんのちょうせん！ Challenge of the Samurai Boy) is the fourth episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on April 22, 1997 and in USA on September 11, 1998.
Synopsis
Ash, Misty and Pikachu continue their travel through the Viridian Forest on the way to Pewter City. Suddenly, Ash spots a Weedle and decides to catch it. He tries to use Pikachu against it, but it is more interested in sleeping than battling, so he sends out his Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto manages to defeat Weedle but just when Ash is about to toss a Poké Ball to capture it, a person dressed as a samurai arrives on scene. The samurai asks Misty if she is from Pallet Town and when she replies in the negative, he turns to Ash. The wild Weedle escapes and the samurai rebukes Ash for it. The two then engage themselves in a Pokémon battle.
Ash uses his Pidgeotto and the samurai battles with his Pinsir. The two battle for some time and finally, Pinsir manages to defeat Pidgeotto. Ash then sends out his Metapod. Metapod breaks Pinsir's pincers with Harden and wins the round. The samurai then sends out his Metapod! The two Metapod continue to harden themselves leading Misty and Pikachu to wonder whether the match would ever finish. Suddenly, a swarm of Beedrill arrive and lift Ash's Metapod away. The samurai takes Ash, Misty and their other Pokémon to a safe place.
In the samurai's hiding place, the samurai furiously rebukes Ash for putting his Metapod in danger. Ash kept mum and promises to himself that he would find Metapod the next day and look after it from then on. During the night, he is unable to sleep and can only think about his Metapod.
The next day, the group start their search for Metapod. They soon find it on a tree among many Kakuna. Ash joyously goes to Metapod to take him back in his team but upon seeing a look of sorrow in Metapod's eyes he realizes that he has lost its trust. He apologizes and promises to take better care of it, regaining its trust. With its faith renewed, Metapod saves him from an attacking Beedrill. It then starts glowing and evolves into Butterfree. Ash happily looks at his first fully-evolved Pokémon and even Misty doesn't feel her normal fear of bugs, going so far as to call it beautiful.
Ash and the others are then once again attacked by the swarm of Beedrill, but this time, Ash is prepared for them. He orders his newly evolved Butterfree to use Sleep Powder, which puts the bee-like Pokémon to sleep. They then escape from the area.
Later, Ash and Samurai part as friends, but promise to battle again. He and Misty then go on and finally reach the end of the Viridian Forest. Ash runs at full speed towards Pewter City to earn his first Gym Badge, with Misty close behind.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Metapod
- *Unknown before The Ties that Bind.
Trivia
- This is the first episode in which Ash participates in a "fair" battle.
- This is the first time the lines "Prepare for trouble! / And make it double!" are included in Team Rocket's motto.
- The character Samurai is based on the Bug Catcher trainer class.
- In this episode, Metapod's and Kakuna's evolutions are depicted as their shells cracking and their evolved forms emerging, leaving behind an empty carapace. In later episodes, however, Metapod and Kakuna are shown to evolve like any other Pokémon.
- When Ash, Misty and Samurai are settled down for the night and Ash is shown to be awake and worrying about Metapod, "Satoshi" (Ash's Japanese name) is seen to be written on his sleeping bag.
- Ash tries and fails to capture a Weedle; however, he would later succeed in capturing its second evolution only to give it away shortly thereafter.
- In that episode Ash once again tries and fails to capture a Weedle.
- This marks the first time that Ash has two Flying-types in his party at once.
Errors
- When Ash sets out the next morning to look for Metapod, Meowth kicks Ash in the head and scratches him. After he starts crying Jessie and James are shown on top of the cliff above him. Ash runs off after they recited their motto, during this time Meowth was still next to him. When the camera cuts to Jessie and James jumping off the cliff and running after them, Meowth is shown jumping off with them.
- In one scene, when Ash is arguing with Samurai, his gloves disappear.
- Samurai's Pinsir used Tackle in this episode, a move it is normally incapable of learning.
Dub edits
- Ash getting in a cow costume and suggesting that a bug is a "cowterpie" makes more sense in the Japanese pun: Misty says "Mushi! Mushi! Mushi! ...Mushi!" which means "Bug! Bug! Bug! ...Bug!". Ash then says "Ushi?", meaning "Cow?".
- The word "Mika" on Jessie's Kakuna disguise is painted out in the dub.
In other languages
- Arabic: مغامرة تحدي الساموراي
- Czech: Zápas se samurajem
- Dutch: De Samoerai Uitdaging!
- Finnish: Samurain haaste
- French: Le défi du Samouraï
- German: Die Herausforderung
- Hebrew: אתגר הסמוראי etgar hasamurai
- Italian: La sfida del Samurai
- Mandarin: 武士少年的挑战
- Portuguese (European and Brazilian): O Desafio do Samurai
- Spanish:
- Iberian Spanish: El reto del Samurai
- Latin American Spanish: ¡El desafio del Samurai!
