EP008: Difference between revisions

The Path to the Pokémon League

EP008   ポケモンリーグへのみち Road to the Pokémon League

First broadcast Japan May 20, 1997 United States September 17, 1998

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ひゃくごじゅういち

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 鈴木敏明 Toshiaki Suzuki Assistant director 鈴木敏明 Toshiaki Suzuki Animation director 志村隆行 Takayuki Shimura Additional credits

The Path to the Pokémon League (Japanese: ポケモンリーグへのみち Road to the Pokémon League) is the eighth episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 20, 1997 and in USA on September 17, 1998.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

Ash, Misty and Brock were on their way to Vermilion City. Misty wanted to see the luxury cruise ship docked there, and Ash planned to win his third badge.

Ash's Pidgeotto defeated a Rattata, making Ash's 10th victory. The Trainer admired Ash's two badges, leading Misty to muse that giving Ash the badge may had been a mistake. The Trainer pointed Ash to A.J.'s unofficial gym, where he trained "savage Pokémon." A.J. has "never lost a single match," a challenge Ash could not resist. Misty said, "He's getting a big head." Brock replied, "Yeah, but his brain's still the same size!" Pikachu said, "Pika pika," while nodding his agreement.

The sign outside A.J.'s gym indicated that he has a record of 98:0, but that his gym was not licensed by the Pokémon League. As Misty twits Ash over his swelled head, A.J. walked up and challenged Ash to a battle. A.J. snapped a whip, making Ash jump. He said that he planned to start competing for badges after his 100th win. Ash smugly said, "I have 10 wins, and I have two Pokémon badges," at which his nose began to grow, a la Pinocchio. A.J. insulted the gyms, calling them "Failure City" and "Wimpsville," angering Misty and Brock.

A.J. summoned his Sandshrew. Misty reminded Ash that Pikachu's electricity is useless against a Ground Pokémon, but Ash nastily rejected her advice. He summoned Pidgeotto. Brock notes that a Flying Pokémon should have the advantage. However, Sandshrew rolled itself into a ball like an armadillo and hurled itself into the air, which struck and eliminated Pidgeotto.

Ash called out Butterfree. Ash ordered a Stun Spore attack, but A.J. snapped his whip and Sandshrew dug underground, avoiding it. It burst out of the ground, eliminating Butterfree.

Ash wanted Pikachu to fight, but the Pokémon grabbed hold of the edge of the playing field and refused to go. Pikachu ThunderShocked Ash to make him let go.

Team Rocket was spying on the match from a tree nearby. They decided they wanted to steal A.J.'s Sandshrew, then spend a moment critiquing his wardrobe. James clobbers Meowth when the Pokémon criticized his style.

Ash accused A.J. of cheating, as he obviously would have won in a fair fight. He demanded that they rematch at another location, but A.J. told him to quit whining.

Ash overheard A.J. training his Pokémon, yelling angrily and cracking his whip. Ash intervened to stop A.J. from hurting the Pokémon, but A.J. told him to mind his own business. His Sandshrew was wearing a "strength intensifier" invented by A.J. himself. It enabled the Sandshrew to withstand the weakening effects of the water. A.J. said he's tougher on Sandshrew than his other Pokémon because it was his very first.

Ash asserted that a great Pokémon Trainer should make friends with his Pokémon. He asked Brock's input, who only wants to know what kind of food A.J. is using. A.J., like Brock, mixes his own food to a secret recipe. Pikachu attempted to pick up one of Sandshrew's dumbbells, but fell backward under the weight, as Sandshrew did rapid alternating curls.

Team Rocket was crouched behind A.J.'s tent, checking the equipment for their latest plan to catch Pikachu. They argued over rewriting their motto.

A.J.'s Pokémon are all exhausted. A.J. insulted Pikachu, and Ash took a swing at him, dumping them both into the pool. Pikachu tried on the strength intensifier, but it fitted badly and pulled him into a ball.

Team Rocket rolled into the tent inside a rubber ball, but they grabbed Sandshrew by mistake. A.J. ended the rest break and realized that Sandshrew was missing. He released Pikachu from the harness, but Pikachu didn't know where Sandshrew was, either. Ash suggested that he ran away, because he saw how much better Ash treated Pikachu. A.J. flipped out, insisting Sandshrew would not have ran away after all they'd been through together. He sent his other Pokémon (three Rattata, a Butterfree and a Beedrill) to look for Sandshrew.

James and Jessie argued over who had to carry the bag, when Sandshrew burst out, surprising them. Meowth grabbed Sandshrew's tail in his teeth as he started to dig.

Ash was trying to convince A.J.'s Pokémon to leave with him, but they ignore him. Suddenly, Sandshrew burst from the ground with a dazed Meowth still biting its tail. Watching A.J. and his Pokémon, Brock pointed out how deeply A.J. cared for them; this explained their loyalty to him despite his tough training methods.

Ash waked Meowth and got a claw swiped across his face. Meowth realized he was facing a lot of angry Pokémon and their Trainers. He was trying to figure a way out of the situation when James and Jessie began their standard litany. Jessie tells A.J. that taking his Sandshrew was a mistake; James called it "second-rate," earning A.J's ire. He challenged them to a battle. As usual, Jessie summoned her Ekans and James used his Koffing. Sandshrew took them both out, then took out Meowth when the cat Pokémon tried to bite his armored skin. Team Rocket's three Pokémon conceded when Sandshrew dug until the ground split.

This being A.J.'s 100th win, they now left to begin earning badges. Like Ash, he too wants to be "the world's greatest Pokémon Master." They part as rivals, agreeing to meet in the future at one of the League competitions.

Major events

For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• A.J.
• Unnamed Trainer

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?: Sandshrew

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Butterfree (Ash's)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Ekans (Jessie's)
• Koffing (James's)
• Sandshrew (A.J.'s)
• Butterfree (A.J.'s)
• Beedrill (A.J.'s)
• Rattata (A.J.'s, three)
• Rattata (unnamed Trainer's)

Trivia

• This episode is one of the few times a real animal is mentioned. Misty claims that A.J. controls Sandshrew with the crack of his whip just like a lion tamer.
• This episode is technically the first filler episode in the series. More technically, it is the first episode not obviously set within a location from the games.
• The "Strength Intensifier" appears to work similarly to the Macho Brace introduced in later generations.
• Sandshrew uses Defense Curl in this episode, though it could not learn that move until the second generation.

Errors

Dub edits

• The sign over the Gym is heavily edited:
  • The text is translated.
  • The background changes from plain white to a grey that fades into white.
  • The numbers are made into a dot-matrix format. In the original, they were in a 7-segment LED format.
  • The number of losses (0) is added.
• A sign inside the tent saying "Fight! Work Harder!" is changed to a picture of a Poké Ball being hit with a whip.
• Team Rocket experiment with a different motto:
  • Japanese:
    • Jessie: "We are the pretty thieves"
    • James: "Target: Pikachu!"
  • Dub:
    • Jessie: "Team Rocket will do what it has to do"
    • James: "To snatch that little Pikachu"
• At the end, a five second panning of the battle field is cut by three seconds and replaced by a three second clip from earlier in the episode.
• The scene where Pikachu's holding a pillow is different between the two versions (mostly due to the fact that it's an untranslatable pun). The original version had Ash telling A.J. that Sandshrew (known as Sand in the Japanese version) is not a sandbag, Pikachu mistook sandbag for pillow since zabuton (pillow) and the Japanese word for sandbag sound similar. Ash then shouts at Pikachu for not taking him seriously. In the dubbed version, however, it was rewritten to have Ash mishear A.J. thinking he said pacing, not passing, and thus get stammered with Pikachu's pillow. It is believed that Ash said padding and not pacing.

In other languages

• Arabic: الطريق إلى دوري البوكيمون
• Czech: Cesta do Pokémonové ligy
• Dutch: Op weg naar het Pokémonkampioenschap!
• Finnish: Matkalla Pokémon-liigaan
• French: Le chemin qui mène à la Ligue Pokémon
• German: Harte Schale - weicher Kern
• Hebrew: הדרך לליגת הפוקימונים haderech leligat haPokémonim
• Italian: Impegnati e vincerai
• Portuguese (European and Brazilian): O Caminho para a Liga Pokémon
• Spanish:
  • Iberian Spanish: El camino hacia la Liga Pokémon
  • Latin American Spanish: ¡El camino a la Liga Pokémon!

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.