EP008

← EP007 : The Water Flowers of Cerulean City

Original series

EP009 : The School of Hard Knocks →

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 are on their way to Vermilion City. Misty wants to see the luxury cruise ship docked there, and Ash plans to win his third badge.

Ash's Pidgeotto defeats a Rattata, making Ash's 10th victory. The Trainer admires Ash's two badges, leading Misty to muse that giving Ash the badge may have been a mistake. The Trainer points Ash to A.J.'s unofficial Gym, where A.J. trains "savage Pokémon." A.J. has "never lost a single match," a challenge Ash cannot resist. Misty comments that he is getting a big head. Brock replies and says that his brain is still the same size. Pikachu nods his agreement.

The sign outside A.J.'s Gym indicates that he has a record of 98 wins to 0 losses, but that his gym is not licensed by the Pokémon League. As Misty twits Ash over his swelled head, A.J. walks up and challenges Ash to a battle. A.J. snaps a whip, making Ash jump. He says that he plans to start competing for badges after his 100th win. Ash smugly tells him that he has 10 wins and two Gym badges, at which point his nose begins to grow, a Japanese sign for arrogance (this is a reference to a Japanese legend that arrogant people become long-nosed demons called Yamabushi Tengu after death). A.J. insults the gyms, calling them "Failure City" and "Wimpsville," angering Misty and Brock.

A.J. summons his Sandshrew. Misty reminds Ash that Pikachu's electricity is useless against a Ground Pokémon, but Ash nastily rejects her advice. He summons Pidgeotto. Brock notes that a Flying Pokémon should have the advantage. However, Sandshrew rolls itself into a ball like an armadillo and hurls itself into the air, striking and eliminating Pidgeotto.

Ash calls out Butterfree. Ash orders a Stun Spore attack, but A.J. cracks his whip and Sandshrew digs underground, avoiding it. It bursts out of the ground, eliminating Butterfree.

Ash wants Pikachu to fight, but Pikachu grabs hold of the edge of the playing field and refuses to go. Pikachu ThunderShocks Ash to make him let go.

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

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

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

Ash asserts 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 attempts to pick up one of Sandshrew's dumbbells, but falls backward under the weight, as Sandshrew did rapid alternating curls.

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

A.J.'s Pokémon are all exhausted. A.J. insults Pikachu, and Ash takes a swing at him, dumping them both into the pool. Pikachu tries on the strength intensifier, but it fits badly and pulls him into a ball. Sandshrew giggles at Pikachu and rolls itself into a ball as well.

Team Rocket rolls into the tent inside a rubber ball, but they grab Sandshrew by mistake. A.J. ends the rest break and realizes that Sandshrew is missing. He releases Pikachu from the harness, but Pikachu doesn't know where Sandshrew is, either. Ash suggests that he ran away, because he saw how much better Ash treated Pikachu. A.J. flips out, insisting Sandshrew would not have ran away after all they'd been through together. He sends his other Pokémon (three Rattata, a Butterfree and a Beedrill) to look for Sandshrew.

James and Jessie argue over who had to carry the bag, when Sandshrew bursts out, surprising them. Meowth grabs Sandshrew's tail in his teeth as he starts to dig.

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

Ash wakes Meowth and gets a claw swiped across his face. Meowth realizes he is facing a lot of angry Pokémon and their Trainers. He is 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 calls it "second-rate," earning A.J's ire. He challenges them to a battle. As usual, Jessie summons her Ekans and James uses his Koffing. Sandshrew takes them both out, then takes out Meowth while the cat Pokémon tries to bite his armored skin. Team Rocket's three Pokémon concede when Sandshrew uses a Fissure attack.

This being A.J.'s 100th win, they now leave 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

• Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know Wrap.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, 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

• The English version of 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. In the Japanese version, she simply remarks that it is amazing A.J. can control Sandshrew with the crack of his whip.
• This episode is the last in which Ted Lewis plays the voice of James.
• 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.
• This episode is the first one to feature a one-hit knockout move.
• Earlier in the episode Team Rocket express an interest in Sandshrew. However later on they say they take no interest in A.J.'s "second rate" Sandshrew.

Errors

• Sandshrew hits Butterfree with Dig, despite the fact that Butterfree, as a Template:Type2 is immune to a Template:Type2 move such as Dig.

Dub edits

• The sign over the Gym is heavily edited:
  • The text is translated.
  • The background changes from plain white to a gray 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

Language		Title
Arabic		الطريق إلى دوري البوكيمون
Mandarin Chinese		邁向神奇寶貝的擂台之路
Czech		Cesta do Pokémonové ligy
Dutch		Op Weg naar het Pokémon Kampioenschap
Finnish		Matkalla Pokémon-liigaan
French	Canada	En route vers la Ligue de dressage
	Europe	Le chemin qui mène à la Ligue Pokémon
German		Harte Schale - weicher Kern
Hebrew		הדרך לליגת הפוקימונים haderech leligat haPokémonim
Hungarian		A Pokémon liga
Italian		Impegnati e vincerai
Portuguese	Brazil	O Caminho para a Liga Pokémon
	Portugal	O Caminho para a Liga Pokémon
Russian		Дорога в Лигу Покемонов
Spanish	Latin America	¡El Camino a la Liga Pokémon!
	Spain	El camino hacia la Liga Pokémon
Swedish		Vägen till Pokémon Ligan

← EP007 : The Water Flowers of Cerulean City

Original series

EP009 : The School of Hard Knocks →

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