EP075

← EP074 : All Fired Up!

Original series

EP076 : Fire and Ice →

Round One-- Begin!

EP075   ポケモンリーグかいまく！みずのフィールド！ Pokémon League Opens! Water Battlefield!

First broadcast Japan December 17, 1998 United States October 30, 1999

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending タイプ・ワイルド

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 横田和 Kazu Yokota Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda No additional credits are available at this time.

Round One - Begin! (Japanese: ポケモンリーグかいまく！みずのフィールド！ Pokémon League Opens! Water Battlefield!) is the 75th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on December 17, 1998 and in the United States on October 30, 1999.

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

Synopsis

Ash was preparing to battle in the Indigo League. He learned that he must first pass through four preliminary battles on four unique battlefields (Grass, Water, Ice and Rock) to qualify for battling inside Indigo Stadium. He met Nurse Joy at the local convention Center, and found that he was assigned to battle on the Water field later that day against a Trainer named Mandi, who referred to himself as "Mandi the Astounding."

Since he was assigned to the Water field, Ash planned to rely on Squirtle for the battle. When Misty and Brock suggested that Squirtle might not be enough, Ash decided to recall Krabby from Professor Oak's lab to boost his team. Misty was worried because Ash had never used Krabby before, but Ash was confident.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket was posing as a news crew to try and find rare Pokémon to steal. However, they were not having much luck.

Ash's battle on the Water field was about to begin! Misty and Brock took special seats behind Ash's podium on the battlefield to act as his "coaches" during the fights. Ash sent out Krabby right away, and Mandi used Exeggutor. Krabby jumped into the pool but Exeggutor used its Psychic ability to create a whirlpool, revealing Krabby's hiding space. Mandi then ordered an Egg Bomb, knocking Krabby into the whirlpool and preventing it from using any attacks. Ash tried to recall Krabby, but the whirlpool prevented him from doing so. Suddenly, Krabby escaped from the vortex! Ash ordered Krabby to use ViceGrip on Exeggutor's leaves, stopping its attacks. One Stomp later and Krabby was the winner!

Krabby stood triumphant over Exeggutor and.... evolved! Ash excitedly checked Dexter for information on his new Kingler. Mandi, still confident, sent out a Seadra. Seadra used Agility to dodge Kingler's Water Gun, but Kingler managed to slow it down with a Bubble attack and then knocked Seadra out of the fight with Crabhammer.

Mandi, undaunted, sent out his last Pokémon — Golbat! Brock worried that this could be bad for Ash; Kingler was weak against air attacks. Golbat managed to evade Kingler's attacks, dealing a great amount of damage in the process. But Ash remained firm and ordered Kingler to use Hyper Beam. Kingler's shot hit Golbat dead-on, knocking it out and winning Ash his first Indigo League victory!

Major events

• Ash's Krabby evolves into Kingler.
• Ash's Kingler learns Hyper Beam.
• Ash wins his first round match using only Kingler.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Ash's Kingler
• Seadra

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Professor Oak
• Mandi
• Trainers

Pokémon

Who’s That Pokémon?: Nidoran♂

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Krabby (Ash's; evolves)
• Kingler (Ash's; newly evolved)
• Mr. Mime (Mimey)
• Exeggutor (Mandi's)
• Seadra (Mandi's; debut)
• Golbat (Mandi's)
• Pidgey (Mandi's; multiple)
• Pidgeotto (unnamed Trainer's)
• Raticate (unnamed Trainer's)
• Sandslash (unnamed Trainer's)
• Gloom (unnamed Trainer's)
• Venomoth (unnamed Trainer's)
• Tentacruel (unnamed Trainer's)
• Seaking (unnamed Trainer's)
• Moltres (flashback)

Trivia

Errors

• In the dub, after Mandi summoned a flock of Pidgey during his magic trick, Meowth referred to the Pidgey as Pidgeotto.
• When a random Trainer is showing off his Pokémon to Team Rocket, he holds up a Poké Ball containing a Raticate, yet a picture of a Venomoth appears. When he holds up the Poké Ball containing Venomoth, the next scene shows him staring at Team Rocket's camera, with his mouth not moving when he says "And a Venomoth!" in the dub. In the Japanese version he only showed off one Pokémon and a Venomoth.
• When Mandi's Golbat used Double Team, it looked more like Teleport.
• Right after Ash defeats Mandi, the black background of the big screen disappears when the screen changes to congratulate the winner.
• Brock claims that Kingler is weak to air attacks. However, being a Water-type, Kingler is not weak to Template:Type2 moves.

In other languages

• Finnish: Ensimmäinen erä alkaa
• French: Ligue Pokémon, 1er tour
• German: Ring frei zur Runde 1
• Hebrew: סיבוב ראשון sivuv rishon
• Italian: Quando si scatena l'azione!
• Portuguese (Brazilian): Começa o Primeiro Round!
• Spanish:
  • Iberian Spanish: ¡Comienza la primera ronda!
  • Latin American Spanish: La primera ronda... ¡Comienza!

← EP074 : All Fired Up!

Original series

EP076 : Fire and Ice →

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