EP043

← EP042 : Showdown at Dark City

Original series

EP044 : The Problem with Paras →

The March of the Exeggutor Squad

EP043   ナッシーぐんだんだいこうしん！ Nassy Squad Big March!

First broadcast Japan May 7, 1998 United States October 30, 1998

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ポケットにファンタジー

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda Storyboard 井硲清高 Kiyotaka Itani Assistant director 井硲清高 Kiyotaka Itani Animation director 山本郷 Gō Yamamoto Additional credits

The March of the Exeggutor Squad (Japanese: ナッシーぐんだんだいこうしん！ Nassy Squad Big March!) is the 43rd episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 7, 1998, and in the United States on October 30, 1998.

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

Synopsis

The gang find themselves in a town on the same day as a carnival. Excited to party, Brock and Ash change into funny outfits and start dancing. Misty and Pikachu, embarrassed, walk away, go on some rides, and eat some ice cream. Soon after, Misty notices a woman shouting at a man with an Exeggcute. The woman shouts something about a payment the man owes her, shoves him back into a box, and walks away. Misty asks the man if everything is alright and he asks her if she'll be his assistant for his magic show, since his previous assistant just quit. He introduces himself as Melvin and conjures some flowers and flags. Misty agrees to help him, but just for the day.

Misty is forced to wear a leotard adorned with Goldeen fins and is embarrassed, but, luckily, only four people showed up to the show. Unfortunately, Ash and Brock arrive and Ash laughs at her while she is on stage. Melvin then starts to juggle his Exeggcute and everyone, even Misty, thinks it's boring. Melvin then pulls out a wand and a tiny flame comes out; the crowd falls back and make exclamations like "That was pathetic!" He tries again, and a huge jet of flame comes out. Misty tells him to be careful, but he's so thrilled the trick actually worked that he doesn't listen to her and the sprinklers go off in the building. Melvin is fired because of the stunt and wants to give up all his dreams, but Ash and co. promise to give him some tips.

Ash performs his own trick involving a "magic" box with fire and water "magically" shooting out of the top, but it really just contains Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. The three Pokémon get into a fight inside the box and subsequently ruin Ash's trick. Ash says that Melvin's Exeggcute doesn't do much, so it uses Hypnosis on him. Brock and Misty wonder why Ash is acting so dopey, especially after he follows Melvin's command and spins in circles while acting like a Bulbasaur. After Melvin realizes how he can control Ash, he and Ash sneak away from Brock, Misty, and Pikachu.

Melvin then commands Ash to pull him into the Leaf Forest. Team Rocket sees Melvin and Ash and starts to follow them. Brock and Misty are out looking for Melvin and Ash when Misty then realizes that Ash was hypnotized under the effects of Hypnosis. The Leaf Forest is full of Exeggutor, which Melvin has Ash weaken; Melvin then catches the entire mob of Pokémon. Team Rocket make an entry and say their motto, then tie Melvin up. His Exeggcute evolves into an Exeggutor, and then uses Hypnosis on Team Rocket. The other Exeggutor copy this and end up hypnotizing each other, causing them to go on a rampage toward the town. Jessie, James, and Meowth are hypnotized into believing they are Exeggutor, and follow the heard. Brock and Misty show up and wake up Ash and Melvin, who were trampled by the marching Exeggutor. Ash is no longer hypnotized.

The four of them head for town, where they see that the carnival has been almost entirely destroyed, and discover the Exeggutor mob is turning around and coming back their way. The carnival owner tells them he's planted a time bomb so that when the Exeggutor come back, they'll be blown up. Ash, Brock, and Misty are of course opposed to this, so they decide to try to stop the Exeggutor before they reach the bomb. Ash sends out Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander in an attempt to stop the heard. Squirtle and Bulbasaur's attacks don't have much of an effect. Ash calls those two back into their Poké Balls, and orders Charmander to attack. The Pokémon's fire attacks successfully stop some of the Exeggutor. It quickly becomes exhausted, however, and the Exeggutor keep charging forward. Misty tries to convince Melvin to use his fire trick to stop the Exeggutor, and, although he's positive he'll fail, he tries anyway. The trick ends up working, and together with Charmander, they stop the Exeggutor. Melvin's Exeggutor returns to him, resulting in Melvin running up to it and giving it a hug. The time bomb then goes off just a distance away, and, to their relief, no one gets hurt from the blast. Suddenly, Charmander evolves into Charmeleon and shoots a flame at Ash's face. Team Rocket gets carried away by the Exeggutor, and the gang continue on their journey.

Major events

• Ash's Charmander evolves into a Charmeleon.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Charmeleon (Ash's)

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Melvin

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Exeggcute

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Charmander (Ash's; evolves)
• Charmeleon (Ash's; newly evolved; debut)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Exeggcute (Melvin's; evolves)
• Exeggutor (Melvin's; newly evolved)
• Exeggutor (Melvin's; multiple; new)

Pokémon seen at the carnival:

• Venusaur (living debut)
• Butterfree
• Oddish
• Machoke
• Bellsprout
• Ponyta
• Dodrio
• Chansey

Trivia

• This is the last episode to air in syndication in the US. Due to this, there was a near four month gap between this episode and The Problem with Paras as a result of Pokémon being moved to the Kids' WB! lineup.
• Early in the episode, Ash and Brock are wearing party outfits. Brock's outfit, which has pink frills for the sleeves and the cuffs of the pants, has large similarities to his future Takeshi's Paradise outfit, including the maracas he holds. The outfit from this episode thus may have served as inspiration for the later outfit.
• This is the first episode in which one of Ash's Pokémon evolves in the same episode as another character's Pokémon.
• This episode is featured on the Volume 9: Charmander copy of Pokémon All-Stars.

Errors

• When Exeggcute evolved into Exeggutor, the upper lip of the head on the far right wasn't fully colored in.
• Exeggcute evolved without a Leaf Stone, which is needed to evolve in to Exeggutor

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		椰蛋樹軍團大前進 / 椰蛋树军团大前进
Czech		Pochod Exeggutorů
Dutch		Op de Loop voor de Exeggutor Bende
Finnish		Exeggutorit vauhkona
European French		Un Pokémon tout n'oeuf
German		Angriff der Kokowei
Hebrew		שעטת האקזקיוטורים she'atat haExeggutorim
Hungarian		A nagy Exeggutor-menet
Italian		Il mago Melvin
Portuguese	Brazil	A Marcha dos Exeggutors
	Portugal	A Marcha dos Exeggutors
Russian		Марш Экзегуторов
Spanish	Latin America	¡La marcha del escuadrón Exeggutor!
	Spain	¡La marcha del escuadrón Exeggutor!
Swedish		Trollkarlen Melvin

← EP042 : Showdown at Dark City

Original series

EP044 : The Problem with Paras →

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