Episode 23 "Haunter Versus Kadabra"
Armed with a new Ghost Pokémon called Haunter, Ash returns to Saffron City for a rematch with Sabrina. When he goes in to fight Sabrina, however, Haunter has disappeared! Ash and the others run away, but Misty and Brock are transformed into dolls by Sabrina's power. Ash is again rescued by the man who saved them earlier, and he reveals himself to be Sabrina's father (although Ash is too dense to get the hints). After having a little fun with Team Rocket, Haunter rejoins Ash, but he seems unwilling to fight Sabrina. Ash convinces him, however, and they go back to Sabrina's gym one last time. Haunter disappears again, and Ash surrenders, prepared to be turned into a doll. Pikachu defends Ash, however, and fights valiantly against Kadabra. Haunter appears as the battle wears on, and by teasing Sabrina, he breaks her emotionless state and causes her to laugh. Because Sabrina's mind is controlling Kadabra, the Psychic Pokémon can no longer fight, rolling on the floor in laughter. Sabrina's father awards Ash with the Marshbadge, and they leave town in peace.
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Episode 24 "Primeape goes Bananas"
After a conversation, Ash is depressed to learn that his fellow trainers from Pallet Town are already a badge ahead of him, and that they have all caught many more Pokémon than he has. When a Mankey appears, attracted by the scent of Brock's lunch, Ash decides he wants to catch it. When he fails to do so, Mankey is infuriated, and steals Ash's cap; Ash desperately tries to retrieve it, since it is an official Pokémon League cap, but fails to do so. Team Rocket shows up again to catch Pikachu. They anger Mankey, who evolves into Primeape, an even more violent Pokémon. Ash is determined to defeat the angry Pokémon and capture it. He sends Charmander, who uses his Rage attack to get stronger as Primeape attacks him. Eventually, Primeape is defeated, and Ash captures him, adding to his collection.
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Episode 25 "Pokémon Scent-Sation"
Arriving in Celadon City, Brock, Misty, and Pikachu stop in a perfume shop. Ash is not impressed, however, and ends up insulting the local gym leader, Erika, who is also a perfume maker. He is forced to work with Team Rocket in order to sneak into the Celadon Gym so he can battle for the Rainbowbadge. Jessie and James, meanwhile, are trying to steal the secret perfume formula of the Celadon Gym and use it to make lots of money. Ash has his battle with Erika, but during the battle, Team Rocket sets off an explosion which sets the gym on fire. Ash helps Erika and the others to save the Pokémon in the gym, including Erika's own plant-Pokémon, Gloom. She gifts him with the Rainbowbadge to thank him for helping to save her friends.
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Epidode 26 "Hypno's Naptime"
Children are disappearing from the city that Ash and his companions arrive in, and Pokémon are becoming lethargic and inactive. Tracking the source, the gang discovers Drowzee and Hypno, two psychic Pokémon who can hypnotize people and Pokémon alike. Misty gets affected by Hypno, and starts to believe she is a Seel. Her friends chase her as she runs into a park, where they find the other children, who all believe they're different Pokémon. With the help of Drowzee, Ash and Brock manage to heal all the children and Pokémon. One Pokémon, however, a duck Pokémon named Psyduck, decides to follow after them and become Misty's Pokémon, much to her disgust...
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Episode 27 "Pokémon Fashion Flash"
While travelling through the city, Ash and the others enter the fashion district. Brock drags everyone into a salon owned by Suzie, a Pokémon breeder like himself. Her Pokémon, Vulpix, is one of the most beautiful Pokémon in the world. Misty, however, is more interested in a Pokémon makeover for Psyduck, which is available at the new Salon Rocket. Unbeknownst to them, however, Salon Rocket is operated by Team Rocket, who intend to make lots of money (again). They kidnap Misty; Psyduck goes for help, and Ash and Brock rush to her rescue. Team Rocket's Pokémon nearly defeat Pikachu and Geodude, but Suzie intervenes, and with Vulpix's help, she completely blows Team Rocket away. Suzie decides to go on a journey to learn more about Pokémon breeding, and leaves Vulpix in Brock's capable hands.
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Episode 28 "The Punchy Pokémon"
During their travels, Ash and his friends encounter Hitmonchan, a fighting-type Pokémon, who will be entered in a Pokémon fighting competition called the P-1 Grand Prix. Rebecca, the daughter of Hitmonchan's trainer, wants Ash and the others to defeat her father so that he'll come home instead of spending all his time training Pokémon. Team Rocket wants to enter the competition as well, and steal a Hitmonlee, another fighting Pokémon, in order to enter the battle. The competition is long and difficult, but after Team Rocket defeats Hitmonchan, their Hitmonlee and Primeape, Ash's entry in the competition, reach the finals. Team Rocket tries to cheat, but Pikachu prevents them, and Primeape wins the battle, winning the championship. Anthony, Hitmonchan's trainer, offers to train Primeape to be the ultimate champion; Ash accepts, and he and Primeape say their goodbyes to each other.
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Episode 29 "Sparks Fly For Magnemite"
In Gringy City, an industrial burg, Pikachu falls ill and is rushed to the Pokémon Center by Ash and his friends. Nurse Joy believes he simply has a cold, but suddenly the power goes out. The city power plant has shut down for unknown reasons. Ash and the others rush to the power plant to find out the reason why. While there, they discover that Magnemite, a mechanical Pokémon of the electric type, is following Pikachu around as though it were in love. The cause of the power failure is an abundance of Grimers, sludge-based Pokémon who have clogged up the water intake for the power plant. Led by a powerful Muk, the Grimers nearly take over the whole plant. However, hordes of Magnetons, led by the Magnemite and which live in the plant, attack the Grimers and drive them back. Pikachu and Magnemite team up to defeat the powerful Muk, and Ash captures it, adding to his collection. Power is restored, and Pikachu recovers from his illness; it seems that he was over-charged, and the extra electricity that was making him sick was used up in the battle.
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Episode 30 "Dig Those Diglett"
En route to Fuchsia City, Ash and his friends encounter a construction project in the middle of the forest. A dam is being built here, but the project is threatened by Digletts, cute mole-like Pokémon who live underground. The tunnels they dig are disrupting the construction project. Dozens of Pokémon trainers are called in to assist in removing the Digletts, including Gary and his admirers; whenever the trainers try to call forth their Pokémon, however, they refuse to come out. Eventually, all the trainers give up and go home. Ash and the others, remaining behind, discover that the Digletts are only trying to save their home from destruction, as the dam's completion would mean their home would be washed away. The trainer's Pokémon realize this, and refuse to help harm the Digletts. The project's leader decides to stop the project, but Team Rocket and their recently-evolved Pokémon, Arbok and Weezing, intervene. With the help of the Digletts, Team Rocket is beaten back again, and Ash and his friends continue on to Fuchsia City.
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Episode 31 "The Ninja Poke-Showdown"
Near Fuchsia City, Ash, Misty, and Brock encounter a strange Japanese castle. Inside, they discover that the castle is actually the training grounds for a clan of ninja Pokémon trainers, led by Koga, the Fuchsia City gym leader. Team Rocket appears to try and steal more Pokémon, but Misty's Psyduck ends up saving the day, despite his headache. Ash defeats Koga's poison-type Pokémon in a difficult battle, and they continue onwards to the Safari Zone.
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Episode 32 "The Flame Pokémon-athon"
On the way to the Safari Zone, Ash passes through a ranch owned by Lara Larame, a famous Pokémon breeder. She intends to race her fire Pokémon, Ponyta, in a Pokémon race in a few days, but a rival breeder named Dario has other plans. He hires Team Rocket to ensure his victory in the race. They end up causing Lara to break her arm, and Ash has to take her place in the race. The race is long and fierce, with Team Rocket's booby traps catching many of the participants; in the end, however, Ash's determination to win the race for Lara causes Ponyta to evolve into Rapidash, and he beats Dario by a "nose".
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Episode 33 "The Kangaskhan Kid"
In the Safari Zone, Ash and his friends are mistaken for poachers; the real poachers, however, are Team Rocket, and they almost capture a whole herd of Kangaskhan. The Pokémon are saved by a young boy, Tomo, the Kangaskhan Kid. His parents appear at the Safari Zone, looking to take him back, after losing him in the park many years ago. The Kangaskhan Kid is unwilling to leave his new foster Pokémon-parents, however. Eventually, after Team Rocket tries again to capture the Kangaskhans, the boy's parents decide to stay with him in the Safari Zone, so that everyone will be happy.
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Episode 34 "The Bridge Bike Gang"
After having braved the perils of the Safari Zone, Ash and his friends finally get back to civilization and find that a bridge that was on Brock's map has been finally completed. However, they soon discover that while cars currently can't go on the bridge, only pedestrians and bicyclers can zip across it. Ash and his friends go to the Pokémon Center, and they find out that Nurse Joy needs to have some medicine delivered to Sunny Town, on the other side of the bridge. They borrow bikes from the Pokémon Center and try to cross the bridge, but they're soon assaulted by gang of hoodlums on bikes who challenge them to a Pokémon.
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35-Ditto's Mysterious Mansion
While travelling, Ash and his friends get caught in a thunderstorm and they find refuge in an old mansion. There they meet Duplica of House Imite (pronounced "e-me-té"), a Pokémon trainer who owns a Ditto, a Pokémon who can transform into an exact copy of his opponent. Duplica's Ditto's eyes can't seem to transform right, though, and she's trying hard to train him so he could. However, Team Rocket shows up and steals Ditto in the hopes of presenting their boss with a copied Dratini* so they can stay in good standing, and because they force him to transform perfectly, Ditto finally manages to do a perfect transformation. Duplica, Ash and his friends manage to catch up with Team Rocket and get back Ditto (after doing a total parody of their speech), and they leave House Imite to continue on their journey.
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Electric Soldier Porygon (a.k.a. The Seizure Episode)
This Episode did not air in America.
Ash and his friends are traveling when Pikachu complains that he wants to rest. They bring Pikachu to a Pokémon Center, where they find out that it's having problems because the monster-ball teleporter's out of order, causing them to get mixed-up along the way. The kids later go to the mansion of professor Akihabara, the one who created the teleporter system, to investigate the cause of the problems, and they get caught by the professor who forces them to enter an oversized monster-ball transporter! While they're trapped, he explains that he found out that some "strange people" broke into his mansion, stole the prototype for a CG-Pokémon, Porygon, went into the computer network and blocked the information highway that carries monster-balls to their destination. Before they could protest, Akihabara sends a non-prototype version of Porygon to help them, and transports them into the network.
Ash and the others appear through a worm-hole in the computer system, but unfortunately the hole was several feet from the "ground". Porygon enlarges itself and flies down to save the kids and Pikachu, and as they're flying over the network, they see what's causing the monster-ball mix-up; the strange people are the Team Rocket (gee, what a surprise), who've set up roadblocks on the highway to block the flow of monster-balls. James and Jessie send Weezing and Arbok to fight Porygon, but Porygon counters by mimicking Weezing's smog attack; they then send the prototype Porygon to fight Ash's Porygon, and while the fight's going, the kids and Pikachu try to remove the barricades blocking the highway.
Meanwhile, back at the Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy hired a computer consultant to put an anti-virus in the system, which unfortunately can't tell the difference between computer code and human beings. Team Rocket gets hit by the anti-virus program, taking out their Porygon, and Ash and the others manage to save them before the anti-virus attacks them again. (James: "I'm a human, not a computer virus! Help!!!") Everyone manages to escape in the nick of time thanks to Pikachu, but Akihabara's lab gets blown up in the process, destroying the human-sized transporter.
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36-Pikachu's Good-Bye
While travelling through the forest, Ash and his friends discover a pack of Pikachus. Ash's Pikachu is overjoyed, but when he tries to make friends with the others, they run away. It seems that these Pikachus are afraid of humans and tame Pokémon (but since when has Pikachu ever been considered tame?); even when Pikachu manages to win the trust of a few of them, Ash's presence frightens them away.
One of the baby Pikachus follows them, however, and falls into a river. Pikachu dives in to save him, and both are saved by the Pikachu pack. Now that Pikachu is a hero, the others take him in gladly, and Ash lets him stay with the others, despite his own worries and loneliness. In the night, the entire pack, including Pikachu, is captured by the Team Rocket in a electricity-proof net. They almost escape, too; Pikachu chews his way out of the net and distracts the Team Rocket long enough to let Ash and the others rescue the pack. Pikachu deals with the Team Rocket, and he becomes a true hero to the pack.
Ash, on the other hand, comes to a difficult decision; since Pikachu is so happy with his fellow Pokémon, he decides to leave him behind. Brock and Misty are startled, and when Pikachu comes out to ask what Ash's doing, he tells Pikachu that he'd be happier with the others than with him. Ash runs away, leaving his best friend behind in shock...
As he runs, he remembers all the good times, and not-so-good times, he had with his friend Pikachu. From the time they first met... to the battles they fought long after... and all the happy times in between. Brock and Misty catch up to him, but Ash has made up his mind, and there's no changing it. The sun rises slowly, and someone casts a shadow over Ash, he looks up.
Pikachu is standing at the top of a hill, with the pack behind him. They cheer him on, as a hero, and Pikachu gives them his goodbyes. Then he runs towards Ash, looking happier than ever before. Ash smiles as he realizes that his friend doesn't want to leave him...
"Pikapi! (Ash!)" "Pikachu!" The two are reunited, and they hug each other for a long time... Welcome back, Pikachu! We all missed you!
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37-The Battling Eevee Brothers
Ash and his friends find a Eevee that's been abandoned by her owner from Stone Town. They soon find out that Mikey, her owner, intentionally hid her away so that he wouldn't be forced to evolve her at a party that his three brothers planned. Each of his brothers has a different evolution of Eevee - Jolteon, Vaporeon and Flareon - and they believe that Mikey should evolve his Eevee and they push him to do so. Team Rocket shows up and steals Mikey's Eevee and all the evolved Pokémon at the party, and before they try to experiment with Eevee and evolution stones, Ash, his friends and the brothers attack them but get defeated. Mikey then attacks with his Eevee and manages to defeat Team Rocket, and his brothers accept that he wants to keep his Eevee just the way she is.
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38-Wake Up Snorlax
Hungry and tired, Ash and his friends arrive in a small town in the hopes of finding some food, but they soon find out that the town's river has run dry and no food can be found. They discover that it's because a Snorlax is blocking the river, and try as they might, they can't get it to budge from its spot. Team Rocket spots the Snorlax and want to capture it to try to present something to their boss, and they team up with the "brats" to try to get it out of the way, but no matter what they try, they don't manage. They find out that an old hippie who they met outside of town has a Poke-Flute that can wake up the Snorlax, so Ash and his friends find him and persuade him to wake the Snorlax, who they discover actually owns the sleeping Pokémon. The Snorlax wakes up, and eats the thorns blocking the river, saving the town.
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39-Showdown at Dark City
Ash and his friends arrive in Dark City, only to discover (much to their discomfort) that wandering Pokémon trainers are not welcome in town. Two rival gyms, the Yas and Kas Gyms, are fighting to become official Pokémon gyms, and their battles have spilled into the streets of Dark City, causing a great deal of damage and fear among the citizens. Ash and the others, deciding after encounters with both gyms that each are little more than gangs of greedy bullies, work with the townsfolk to ensure that both gyms get a lesson in what it really means to be Pokémon trainers. And once again, Team Rocket gets the short end of the stick...
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40-March of the Exeggutor Squad
It's carnival time, and Ash and Brock get caught up in the fever! Misty, on the other hand, is more reserved, and while avoiding the parades and festivites, she gets roped into helping the hopeless magician Melvin with his act. His only Pokémon, the egg-like Exeggcute, doesn't do much to interest the crowds... but when Ash falls prey to the Pokémon's hypnotic powers, Melvin uses him to capture a whole herd of Exeggcutor, tree-like Pokémon with even stronger hypnotic powers. As usual, however, Team Rocket shows up to interfere, and when things go from bad to worse, it's up to Melvin and Ash's Charmander, who evolves into Charmeleon, to save both the carnival and the herd of Exeggcutor from disaster.
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