EP103

← EP102 : The Mystery Menace

Original series

EP104 : Bound For Trouble →

Misty Meets Her Match

EP103   ユズジム！タイプバトル３ＶＳ３！！ Yuzu Gym! Type Battle 3 VS 3!!

First broadcast Japan July 1, 1999 United States September 9, 2000

English themes Opening Pokémon World Ending

Japanese themes Opening ライバル！ Ending タイプ・ワイルド

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda Storyboard 藤本義孝 Yoshitaka Fujimoto Assistant director 栗本宏志 Hiroshi Kurimoto Animation director 梶浦紳一郎 Shin'ichirō Kajiura Additional credits

Misty Meets Her Match (Japanese: ユズジム！タイプバトル３ＶＳ３！！ Yuzu Gym! Type Battle 3 VS 3!!) is the 103rd episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 1, 1999 and in the United States on September 9, 2000.

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

Synopsis

Getting a ferry from Trovitopolis, Ash, Pikachu, Misty, Togepi, and Tracey are finally going to make it to Trovita Island, which is surrounded by whirlpools and huge spiked rocks. Ash is determined to get his third Orange League Gym Badge. Suddenly, Pikachu spots a little girl and a Seel caught in the strong current, crying for help. Misty jumps into action by sending out Staryu and then swims down to rescue the girl. Ash joins in by sending out Lapras and helping Misty bring the girl up onto the surface. Meanwhile, a young man has been watching the whole thing, and is impressed by Misty's actions.

Team Rocket are not too far behind, and their submarine gets caught in one of the whirlpools.

While riding Lapras the rest of the way to Trovita Island, Ash and Misty ask the girl what she was doing out on the current. The girl, who introduces herself as Mahri, says that she and her Seel were just playing when the current sucked them in. Misty then tells Mahri to always be careful next time she goes swimming. As Lapras and the ship both arrive in port, the young man, who later introduces himself as Rudy, arrives to embrace Mahri, who is revealed to be his sister, and thank Misty for rescuing her by offering plenty of flowers. Rudy hands Togepi to Ash, and then dances with Misty. He compliments the young Template:Type2 Pokémon Trainer on her daring rescue of Mahri, and asks if she could train the other Pokémon trainers at his gym. Misty and Ash are both awestruck that Rudy is the Trovita Island Gym Leader. Ash wastes no time in challenging Rudy. After a war of words, Rudy tells Ash that if he wants to challenge him, he has to pass a small attack test.

The group head off to Rudy's speedboat, and Ash must knock down all the targets in order to challenge Rudy. Ash is successful with Pikachu on the first target, but Rudy is too busy looking at Misty instead of paying attention. Ash sends out Charizard. Ash, Pikachu and Tracey manage to dodge a Flamethrower, but Misty isn't as lucky and she gets charred. Ash quickly calls Charizard back, apologizes to Misty, then continues with the test.

Team Rocket show up again, meanwhile, Ash sees another target appear in front of them, and Squirtle destroys it with a Water Gun, causing a tree to fall and send Team Rocket flying. Ash then has an easy time using Pikachu, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur to destroy the remaining targets, and eventually passes the test. As night falls, Rudy schedules the gym battle for tomorrow, and invites Misty to join him and Mahri for dinner, leaving Ash, Pikachu, and Tracey high and dry.

A few minutes later, Ash is talking to Professor Oak on the telephone, and Oak wishes Ash good luck in his match with Rudy tomorrow. Tracey then butts in and shows Oak his latest Pokémon sketches, while Ash and Pikachu sit down to eat a takeaway meal.

Meanwhile, Rudy, Mahri, and Misty finish an exquisite dinner and head down to the gym to see Rudy's Pokémon working out by dancing to music as a way of improving their skills. Rudy and Misty get out on the dance floor, shortly followed by Mahri and Togepi. Rudy asks Misty if she would stay with him and Mahri forever. Given food for thought by those words, Misty stops dancing to think about it, while Rudy tells her to make her decision after the match tomorrow.

The next morning, Ash and Rudy are both ready to battle each other on top of one of the island's huge spikes. The spectators, Misty, Togepi, Tracey, and Mahri included, watch from a hot-air balloon, and one of Rudy's friends does commentary while riding a Pidgeot. As the match begins, Ash sends out Pikachu, and Rudy sends out Electabuzz, since both are Template:Type2 Pokémon. Pikachu tries to take down Electabuzz with a Thunderbolt and a Quick Attack, but Electabuzz defeats Pikachu with a ThunderPunch, giving the first victory to Rudy.

Meanwhile, Mahri asks Misty what Rudy said to her last night. Misty uneasily answers that it was nothing important, but obviously, she's still thinking about the offer from Rudy.

For the next round, both trainers will use Template:Type2 Pokémon, so Ash sends out Bulbasaur, and Rudy sends out Exeggutor, and asks for some music. Exeggutor easily avoids Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf attack by dancing to avoid the leaves, then knocks Bulbasaur down with an Egg Bomb. As it looks like Exeggutor is about to deliver the finishing blow, Ash quickly orders Bulbasaur to use Sleep Powder, which successfully puts Exeggutor to sleep, as well as cause it to fall off the cliff, knocking Team Rocket back down into the sea below. Bulbasaur rescues Exeggutor with its vines, and the second victory goes to Ash.

Now, in the third and final round, Water Pokémon will be used, so Ash sends out Squirtle, and Rudy sends out Starmie, as well as dedicating the final victory to Misty. Squirtle and Starmie both attack each other with Water Guns, and Rudy quickly plays some more music, causing Starmie to spin so much, it uses a Thunderbolt attack to knock Squirtle into submission, leaving Ash horrified. After thinking over the chance of a lifetime from Rudy, Misty finally makes her choice: she yells at Ash to win since he can release Squirtle's hidden power. Mahri is shocked, while Rudy loses his confidence after hearing Misty's words. Ash orders Squirtle to fight back. Squirtle escapes the Thunderbolt with another Water Gun, Withdraws inside its shell as it's about to fall off the cliff, then releases huge jets of water from its shell to fly back onto the battlefield. Misty realizes that Squirtle has now learned Hydro Pump! Squirtle uses its new attack and a Skull Bash to defeat Starmie, giving the final victory to Ash, who celebrates by dancing with Squirtle and Pikachu about how they need one more badge to get into the Orange League.

As the sun sets, Ash receives his Spike Shell Badge from Rudy, who also offers Misty one more bunch of flowers. Rudy is now convinced that Misty wants Ash, who doesn't seem to have a clue about it. And so, Ash, Misty, Tracey, Pikachu, and Togepi board Lapras and sail off into the sunset.

Major events

• Ash's Squirtle learns Hydro Pump.
• Ash battles Rudy and earns the Spike Shell Badge.

Debuts

• Rudy

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Tracey
• Jessie
• James
• Professor Oak
• Rudy
• Mahri
• Other Gym Trainers

Pokémon

Who’s That Pokémon? Scyther (U.S. and international); Pawou (Japan)

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Charizard (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Lapras (Ash's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Seel (Mahri's)
• Electabuzz (Rudy's)
• Exeggutor (Rudy's)
• Starmie (Rudy's)

Other Pokémon seen at Rudy's Trovita Island Gym:

• Pidgeot
• Ninetales
• Venomoth
• Alakazam
• Golem
• Hitmonchan
• Rhydon

Trivia

• The mystery Pokémon in Tracey's sketch that he was showing to Prof. Oak is Elekid. Tracey asks if it could be a new Pokémon and Prof. Oak laughingly disagrees. This was meant to be ironic because the viewers knew that Prof. Oak's observation was incorrect. That is because by the time this episode first aired, most people already knew Elekid was a new Pokémon because it was featured in the movie short Pikachu's Rescue Adventure. Rudy uses an Electabuzz during his battle against Ash (however, it was hinted in the previous episode's Oak lecture that Oak might have known about its existence, since he referred to it in the lecture about Pikachu's Rescue Adventure).
• The song used by Rudy to train his Pokémon is Pokémon (Dance Mix) (English dub only). The same song is also played at the background of Starmie and Squirtle's battle.
• This is one of the few episodes where Team Rocket do not interfere in Ash's adventures.
• Professor Oak's lecture: The Power of One. Oak talks a little about the movie. He introduces Lawrence III, and then talks about the tablet (the one containing the legend). However he says he cannot read the tablet, and he then tells viewers to watch the movie.
• The book The Four Star Challenge is based on this episode.

Errors

• When Ash is speaking to Mahri on Lapras after rescuing her, the lower jaw of Lapras is blue instead of cream.
• Rudy says that Ash must knock down all the targets during the attack test in order to battle him, but even though Charizard fails to hit a target, Ash still passes the test.

• This may have been because Rudy was paying more attention to Misty than to Ash's test.

• When Rudy's Starmie is knocked out, the point that droops down to symbolize its loss of power is colored gold like its middle part rather than purple.
• After Meowth sneezes and knocks Team Rocket's submarine into the water, they start spinning around and Jessie's boot isn't colored in.

Dub edits

• Charizard Chills!, Pokémon Water War, and Pokémon Food Fight were all aired before this episode in the U.S. This caused mass confusion to many American fans. The main one being is to why in the episode before, The Mystery Menace, the group was so close to arriving to Trovita Island and then, all of a sudden, Ash has his badge and is heading off somewhere else without the episode in which he fought the Trovita Island Gym Leader. However once the saga came out on DVD, they were put in the correct order.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		柚子道館類型格鬥三比三
Czech		Nápadník pro Misty
European French		Coup de foudre sous le soleil
German		Romantisches Insel-Abeneur
Hebrew		מיסטי פוגשת את המתחרה שלה Misty pogeshet et hamitchare shela
Hungarian		Misty hódolója
Italian		Lezioni di ballo
Portuguese	Brazil	Misty Encontra um Par
	Portugal	Misty Conhece o seu Par
Russian		Мисти делает выбор
Spanish	Latin America	¡Misty encuentra pareja!
	Spain	Misty conoce a su media naranja

← EP102 : The Mystery Menace

Original series

EP104 : Bound For Trouble →

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