EP044

← EP043 : The March of the Exeggutor Squad

Original series

EP045 : The Song of Jigglypuff →

The Problem with Paras

EP044   パラスとパラセクト Paras and Parasect

First broadcast Japan May 14, 1998 United States February 13, 1999

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 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 藤本義孝 Yoshitaka Fujimoto Assistant director 鈴木敏明 Toshiaki Suzuki Animation director 酒井啓史 Keishi Sakai Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

The Problem with Paras (Japanese: パラスとパラセクト Paras and Parasect) is the 44th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on May 14, 1998 and in the United States on February 13, 1999. It was initially intended to air in Japan on February 10, 1998, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.

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

Blurb

As our heroes continue their journey, Team Rocket never let up with their constant interception, but today something seems strange. The coin on Meowth's forehead is blinking red, indicating overheating. If something isn't done soon, Meowth may die, but James and Jessie don't know what to do. Just then, a young girl approaches. Unable to bear the sight of Meowth's pain, she pulls a bundle of healing herbs from her backpack, crunches them into powder and, mixing this with water, feeds it to Meowth. As Meowth drinks, the redness gradually fades from its face.

Plot

Ash and his friends arrive in Mossgreen Village, a village so small it doesn't have its own Pokémon Gym. Because of this, Ash feels that there's no reason to stop there. However, Brock reveals that their bag of Potions and Antidotes is empty, so they should stock up on supplies in town. Meanwhile, Team Rocket, hot on their trail, is about to make their move on Pikachu. Before they get far, however, they discover Meowth has fallen ill. Deciding that the loss of Meowth is worth the capture of Pikachu, Jessie and James begin to leave him behind; they are immediately scolded by a girl, who lashes out at them for abandoning their Pokémon (believing that Jessie and James were Meowth's Trainers). She then nurses Meowth back to health and, during this process, Meowth has fallen for the girl.

In town, the group arrives at an herbal shop to purchase their medicine. Entering, they find an old woman grinding herbs. When they request to buy some Potions and Antidotes, she offers them snake root that will cure insomnia and grow hair on their nose and tongue. The old woman is then scolded by the same girl who helped Meowth, her granddaughter, named Cassandra. Brock immediately falls for her, trying to make small talk about how he intends to be the best breeder, but Cassandra parlays the conversation into a Pokémon battle, which Ash accepts. At the battle, Cassandra sends out her Paras, while Pikachu leads off for Ash. However, before the battle, Pikachu tries to make friendly talk (in a show of sportsmanship), but it causes Paras to cower in fear. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is spying on the battle, intent on stealing Pikachu; Meowth is distracted by Cassandra, as he intends to repay her for healing him.

Meanwhile, Cassandra admits her ulterior motive in battling: she wants to make this Paras evolve so that she could use Parasect's mushroom to help develop a miracle Pokémon medicine. Paras is acting cowardly, fearful of battling. Agreeing to "throw the battle" by going easy on Paras, the battle gets off to a rocky start when Pikachu fires a small "static bolt" at Paras, which unfortunately knocks it out. While Cassandra tries to get Paras back into shape, Misty suggests Ash try a different Pokémon. As Paras is both a Bug-type and a Grass-type, Ash decides to send out Squirtle, for which Paras would be at an advantage. However, that does not go too well either, as Squirtle's weakened Water Gun, meant to just "sprinkle Paras' mushrooms a little", also manages to knock it out. Desperate to help Paras evolve, Ash sends out Charmeleon, despite the massive advantage it has, telling it to go easy on Paras. Charmeleon refuses to obey, gets too violent, and instead of doing an easy, soft attack, it launched a full-power Flamethrower at Paras before sending it flying by smacking it with its tail. This causes Paras to run away. When Ash tries to rein in Charmeleon, he too, is blasted in the face. Pikachu decides to hit Charmeleon with a Thunderbolt, enabling Ash to recall it. Ash can't believe Charmeleon is acting this way, as he was so excited when Charmander evolved, but apparently Ash wasn't ready for it. Misty tells Ash to deal with the problem with Charmeleon later and that they need to find Paras.

As Paras is running away, it bumps into Meowth, wanting to help Cassandra, tries to get Jessie and James to help Paras. However, they want to know what's in it for them. Meowth then explains that if Paras evolves, Cassandra will be able to make her miracle Potion which would be worth millions. Meowth then explains that once they help Cassandra, she'll make Meowth their company mascot. Jessie and James don't see where this would benefit them, but then Meowth explains that he would make them his business managers as he'll probably have a lot of money to manage. Fueled by greed, Jessie and James agree, asking Meowth how they'll make their millions. Meowth then explains that he needs Arbok and Weezing as "losing battles is their specialty". First, Arbok goes off against Paras, but before Arbok can go full-power on it, Meowth intercepts the attack, knocking Arbok down. Paras, believing it had defeated Arbok, is cheered by Jessie and James as if it had scored the knockout. This repeats itself with Weezing and with Meowth, causing Paras to get fired up.

Cassandra, with Ash and company in tow, manage to find Paras up a tree, and because of its visibly different mood, determine that it's raring to go. While Team Rocket is watching from a nearby bush (in the hopes that Ash would help them on their objective), Ash sends out Pikachu to battle again. Paras goads Pikachu closer and manages to prod him in the tail. As Pikachu prepares to retaliate from the cheap shot, he is reminded by Ash to throw the fight, so instead Pikachu falls over, feigning unconsciousness. Ash then sends out Charmeleon for another chance, but once again Charmeleon starts to disobey. Ash can't understand this as it was always obedient before evolving. The old lady, Cassandra's grandmother, then explains that if the Pokémon's strength is greater than the Trainer's skill level, it won't respect him and take orders. Cassandra asks that Ash call back Charmeleon, but it breathes fire on him again before turning towards Paras, who finds itself cowering in fear again. Team Rocket then comes out of hiding and cheers Paras on to win, only to be burned by Charmeleon. Charmeleon advances on Paras and is about to finish it off when Paras, in desperation, closes its eyes and throws out its pincer, which strikes Charmeleon in the stomach, causing it to collapse. Paras is surprised that it won. Soon after, Paras begins to evolve into Parasect. Everyone hails Parasect's success, including Team Rocket who feel they're about to board the "gravy train". Charmeleon, however, recovers and angrily sends Team Rocket flying by smacking them with its tail. It then turns back to Parasect for revenge. Cassandra attempts to protect it, but Parasect stops Charmeleon with its Spore attack, putting it to sleep and allowing Ash to recall it.

As Ash and his friends leave, they are thanked by Cassandra for their help. Ash is also reminded by Cassandra's grandmother that he'll never get control of Charmeleon if he doesn't improve his skill level. After the group leaves, Team Rocket drops in, and Meowth is nursed back to health once again. Cassandra is reluctant to let Meowth become the company mascot, not wanting to separate Meowth from the "heroic" Team Rocket. Meowth does not win the spot anyways, thanks to Cassandra's grandmother having found a Persian for the company mascot instead. As Team Rocket sulks off, their potential riches lost, Cassandra promises to treat the Persian like it was Meowth.

Major events

• Ash's Charmeleon starts disobeying him.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Parasect

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Cassandra
• Lacy

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Paras

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Charmeleon (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Arbok (Jessie's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Paras (Cassandra's; evolves)
• Parasect (Cassandra's; newly evolved; debut)
• Persian (Cassandra's; new)

Trivia

• After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:

Code	English title	Japanese title	Planned broadcast	Actual broadcast
*	Holiday Hi-Jynx	ルージュラのクリスマス	December 23, 1997	October 5, 1998
*	Snow Way Out!	イワークでビバーク	—	October 5, 1998
EP040	The Battling Eevee Brothers	イーブイ４きょうだい	January 6, 1998	April 16, 1998
EP041	Wake Up, Snorlax!	おきろ！カビゴン！	January 13, 1998	April 23, 1998
EP042	Showdown at Dark City	たいけつ！ポケモンジム！	January 20, 1998	April 30, 1998
EP043	March of the Exeggutor Squad	ナッシーぐんだんだいこうしん！	January 27, 1998	May 7, 1998
EP044	The Problem with Paras	パラスとパラセクト	February 3, 1998	May 14, 1998
EP052	Princess vs. Princess	げきとう！ポケモンひなまつり	March 3, 1998	July 9, 1998
EP053	The Purr-fect Hero	こどものひだよ！ぜんいんしゅうごう！	May 5, 1998	July 9, 1998

• This is the first episode to air on Kids' WB!.
• Although Misty is afraid of Bug-type Pokémon, she isn't scared of Paras.
• The English title for this episode might be a reference to the phrase "the problem with people".
• This is the second time Meowth is rejected in favor of a Persian.
• The book Charizard, Go! is based on this episode.
• The events contained within this episode confound the logistics of Pokémon battles, implying that experience points are rewarded based upon whether one is declared a winner, not upon whether one's actions throughout a battle cause them to become stronger. In this respect, it would appear that experience points are not an abstraction for the purpose of game mechanics, but an actual, concrete effect in the Pokémon universe. However, experience points are rarely brought up afterwards.
• This is the first time Ash attempts to lose a battle. This doesn't happen again until Some Enchanted Sweetening! with the similarly-typed Burmy.
• Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.

Errors

• Ash says Electric Shock instead of ThunderShock. This is most likely a translation error, as ThunderShock's Japanese name means "Electric Shock".
• As Ash recalls Charmeleon, the colors of the Poké Ball swap over between frames.
• Just after Squirtle uses Water Gun on Paras, Cassandra's shoes are pink.
• When Paras evolves into Parasect, Charmeleon isn't where it should be.
• In the Norwegian dub Persian is incorrectly called perser, which is a domestic cat breed. This mistranslation is due to both the Pokémon Persian and the domestic cat breed Persian are spelled exactly the same in English.

Dub edits

• The Japanese symbol for "medicine" on the front of Cassandra's shop is painted over in the English dub.
• At the beginning of the Japanese version of the episode, Ash wanted to eat hamburger curry, while Misty wanted to eat Katsudon. The English dub changes it so that Ash wants a cheeseburger, and Misty wants to eat at a nice restaurant.
• Jessie and James originally told Cassandra that they are travelers on an urgent mission, not superheroes.
• While Lacy offers Ash and his friends snakeroot in the dub, she originally offered them Magikarp whiskers instead.
• During Team Rocket's plan for Paras, Meowth turned into a real beckoning cat, which was cut from the English version.
• At the end of the Pokérap at the end of this episode, the Kids' WB! announcer at the time (Jim Cummings) dubbed over the voice that normally tells the viewer to watch for more of the Pokérap with, "Tune in next week and watch Ash, Misty, and Brock on their quest to become Pokémon masters! Don't miss them, the new ones are now only on Kids' WB!" When this episode was rerun on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and even when uploaded onto Cartoon Network Video, the Kids' WB! announcer's voice remained. Home video releases, streaming services and Disney XD don't have the announcer's voice.
• Lacy originally said that she got the Persian instead of having found it.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		派拉斯 跟 派拉斯特
Czech		Problémy s Parasem
Danish		Problemer Med Paras
Dutch		Het Probleem met Paras
Finnish		Paras-ongelma
European French		La potion miracle
German		Die Paras Problematik
Hebrew		שיקוי הקסם של פרס' shikui hakesem shel Paras
Hindi		Paras की प्रॉब्लेम Paras ki Problem *
Hungarian		Paras nagy problémája
Italian		Un Pokémon pauroso* Il problema di Paras*
Korean		진화해라 파라스
Norwegian		Problemet med Paras
Polish		Problem z Parasem
Portuguese	Brazil	O Problema com Paras
	Portugal	O Problema com Paras
Romanian		Problema cu Paras
Russian		Трусливый Парас
Spanish	Latin America	¡El problema con Paras!
	Spain	El problema con Paras
Swedish		Pokémon peppar Paras

← EP043 : The March of the Exeggutor Squad

Original series

EP045 : The Song of Jigglypuff →

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