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

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 was first broadcast in Japan on May 14, 1998, and in the United States on February 13, 1999.

On their way to Cinnabar Island, Ash and the others meet up with Cassandra in Mossgreen Village. While there, she challenges them to a battle, hoping to evolve her Paras into a Parasect.

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

Synopsis

Ash and friends arrive in Mossgreen Village, a village so small it does not have its own Pokémon Center. Because of this, Ash and Misty have no intention of making a stop there, but are forced to do so by Brock, who reveals that they are out of potions and antidotes. Meanwhile, Team Rocket, hot on their trail, is about to make their move, but without Meowth, who has fallen ill. Deciding that the loss of Meowth is worth the capture of Pikachu, 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 this girl.

Back with Ash, they arrive at an herbal shop, where Brock intends to buy some medicine. When the old woman there offers something that slightly scares them, she is scolded by the same girl, 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, but Meowth is distracted by Cassandra, as he intends to repay her.

Meanwhile, Cassandra admits her ulterior motive in battling: she wants to make this Paras to evolve so that it could use Parasect's giant mushroom to help develop a miracle Pokémon medicine, but Paras is too cowardly to battle. Agreeing to "throw the battle" by going easy on Paras, the battle goes off to a rocky start when Pikachu fires a small "static bolt" at Paras, knocking it out. While Cassandra tries to get Paras back into shape, Misty implores Ash to try someone else. As Paras is both a Template:Type2 and a Template:Type2, 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 water, meant to just "sprinkle Paras's mushrooms a little", also manages to knock it out. Desperate to help Paras evolve, Ash sends out Charmeleon, but Charmeleon refuses to obey, instead opting to fire a full-power Flamethrower at Paras, and then sending it flying with a Tail Whip. This causes Paras to run away. While Ash tries to rein in Charmeleon, wondering why Charmeleon would disobey him when its pre-evolved form would obey, he too is burned in the face by Charmeleon, and Pikachu is forced to knock it out with a Thunderbolt.

As Paras is running away, it bumps into Meowth, who tries to get Jessie and James to loan him Arbok and Weezing to help Paras evolve. Unimpressed by Paras' performance against Ash and disinclined due to Meowth's motivation, they refuse, but Meowth manages to convince them that he could convince Cassandra to become their company mascot, where Jessie and James would be rich from having to manage Meowth's "business ventures". First, Arbok goes off against Paras, but before Arbok can go full-power on it, Meowth intercepts the attack, knocking Arbok down, and leaving Paras to lightly prod Arbok, for which Jessie and James cheer Paras on 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 it in the tail. As Pikachu prepares to retaliate from the cheap shot, it is reminded by Ash to throw the fight, so instead Pikachu falls over, feigning unconsciousness. Ash then sends out Charmeleon to be its next victim, but once again Charmeleon starts to disobey. Cassandra's grandmother warns Ash about Charmeleon not respecting him (and thus he is disinclined to obey), but Charmeleon nevertheless starts towards Paras, and Paras finds itself cowering in fear again. Despite both Ash and company and Team Rocket cheering Paras on (Team Rocket having been burned by Charmeleon in the process), Paras is able to prod Charmeleon in a critical spot just as Charmeleon is unleashing Flamethrower, causing Charmeleon to keel over in pain. This allows Paras to evolve into Parasect. As Team Rocket try to collect their "just reward", however, Charmeleon gets up in time to launch them with another Tail Whip. Intending to attack Ash once again, it is stopped by Parasect's Spore attack, putting it to sleep and allowing Ash to recall it.

As Ash and company leave, 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 Jessie and James, but Meowth does not win the spot anyways, thanks to Cassandra's grandmother having found a Persian 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.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Parasect

Characters

Humans

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

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

• This is the first episode to air on Kids' WB!
• Although Misty is afraid of Template:Type2 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.

Errors

• Tail Whip does not actually do damage in the games. (however, Charmeleon's tail is exceptionally strong, as Dexter stated in the previous episode)
• Ash says Electric Shock instead of ThunderShock.

Dub edits

• At the end of the Kanto Pokérap at the end of this episode, the Kids' WB! announcer 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 as they try 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, the Kids' WB! announcer's voice remained.

In other languages

• Brazilian Portuguese: O Problema com Paras
• Finnish: Paras-ongelma
• French: La potion miracle
• German: Die Paras Problematik
• Italian: Un Pokémon pauroso
• Latin American Spanish: ¡El problema con Paras!
• Iberian Spanish: ¡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.