| Make Room for Gloom
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しょくぶつえんのクサイハナ
Kusaihana of the Botanical Garden
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First broadcast
| Japan
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October 29, 1998
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| United States
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October 4, 1999
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
| Animation
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Team Ota
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| Screenplay
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武上純希 Junki Takegami
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| Storyboard
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井硲清高 Kiyotaka Itani
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| Assistant director
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井硲清高 Kiyotaka Itani
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| Animation director
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酒井啓史 Keishi Sakai
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| Additional credits
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Make Room for Gloom (Japanese: しょくぶつえんのクサイハナ Kusaihana of the Botanical Garden) is the 68th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on October 29, 1998 and in the United States on October 4, 1999.
Blurb
Back in Pallet Town, Ash and friends meet Florinda who works at the local nursery. She's afraid that her Gloom is not evolving into a Vileplume because she's not training it properly. When Team Rocket bursts in and attempts to steal Gloom, everyone sees just how strong a Pokémon can become—through love.
Plot
Back home at Pallet Town, Mimey tickles both Ash and Pikachu with its broom, prompting Pikachu to electrocute Ash, which wakes him up. This also awakens Misty, who was sleeping in Ash's bunk. Later, during breakfast, Delia asks her son to help out with her garden, as he does not appear to be training for the Pokémon League. Not wanting to help out of concern that he would be left too exhausted to train afterwards, Ash leaves with Misty and Brock, claiming he had to train in the mountains. As they leave, Delia tells them to get three-to-four hundred pounds of fertilizer from the Xanadu Nursery.
The group encounters a greenhouse, which Ash tells Misty and Brock is the Xanadu Nursery, his old childhood stomping ground. He recalls that the owner had moved away when he was a child and he does not know the new owner. Brock peers inside and finds an attractive woman, but Ash only sees a Gloom. Misty tells Ash to turn around, though he replies that only one of the group will hallucinate at a time. They are interrupted by a gardener named Potter, who describes the Xanadu Nursery as a place that attracts Grass-type Pokémon. Upon hearing this, Ash sends Bulbasaur out to enjoy the place, while he and Misty explore. Brock then learns that the girl he saw was Florinda, the new owner of the Xanadu Nursery. Just then, Bulbasaur sniffs a bunch of Stun Stem, a plant that produces pollen that can paralyze, much like Stun Spore; this knocks it out cold. Florinda and Gloom appear, and Florinda advises Ash to take Bulbasaur with her to the house for treatment. Gloom, who has developed an immunity to Stun Stem by being exposed to it for so long, drips a milky white substance into Bulbasaur's mouth and it quickly recovers. As the two Grass Pokémon play, Brock and Florinda talk privately.
Florinda reveals that she inherited the family-run Xanadu Nursery, but she does not feel confident in her abilities because she is not able to make Gloom evolve, even with the help of a Leaf Stone. It is apparently not because of love, as Gloom is almost never gloomy. Just then, Professor Oak appears, revealing the Leaf Stone that Florinda had purchased is a fake. As everyone tries to help Florinda cope with the situation, Florinda describes the three people who sold her the false Leaf Stone, and it points to Team Rocket.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket themselves are at the nursery, looking for Pokémon to steal. After encountering the Stun Stem, they decide to harvest it instead, as it could help them. However, their thievery triggers alarms, and they are confronted by Ash, his friends, Florida, and Potter. Though Bulbasaur manages to tie them up, Meowth unleashes a bomb made of the stolen Stun Stem to incapacitate nearly everyone. With Florinda and Gloom the only ones left, Brock urges Florinda to attack, just as Team Rocket steals the paralyzed Pikachu. Jessie and James send Arbok and Weezing out to deal with Gloom, and they unleash a black cloud with their Toxic and Smog attacks. Florinda is surprised at Gloom's battling ability when it uses Double Team to get Arbok and Weezing to hit each other. Meanwhile, Pikachu bites Jessie's arm and frees itself, landing behind Bulbasaur. Meanwhile, Brock continues to coach Florinda, telling her that Team Rocket is now open to a more powerful attack. Though Florinda is not confident that Solar Beam will do the trick, Gloom sends Team Rocket flying with it.
Later, after everyone has been treated, Florinda thanks Brock, noting that Gloom is a strong Pokémon and that it does not need to evolve. Florinda states that now she has the confidence to run the nursery with a special someone, which causes Brock to fall over. Unfortunately, when he recovers from fantasizing, he finds that Florinda has already proposed to Potter and that they plan to run the nursery together. Brock is left feeling rejected, and Ash tries to console him, telling him that he will meet more women who will reject him. As Ash heads back to town with his friends, he is reminded that he has spent a day not training for the Pokémon League. However, he replies that there is always tomorrow.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Clefable (U.S. and international), Gloom (Japan)
Trivia
Errors
- When Team Rocket is stealing the Stun Stem, they are all shown to be wearing surgical masks. However, in the next scene, Jessie's mouth is seen moving, and the masks disappear completely in all scenes afterward.
Dub edits
- Pikachu's Jukebox: What Kind of Pokémon Are You?
- The "two eggs sunny side down" were originally sunny side up, and the "super secret recipe mystery omelet" was originally fried eggs with soy sauce.
- Ash's "really tough training" on the mountain was originally referring to him meditating under a waterfall.
- Delia asks for a cartful of herbs in the original as opposed to 300 or 400 pounds of fertilizer.
- In the original, Xanadu Nursery is named after Florinda Showers, being called Murasame (Showers) Botanical Gardens.
- Its name in English is a likely reference to one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most well-known poems, Kubla Khan, in which a greenhouse-like "pleasure dome" by the name is featured. In Japanese, murasame refers to an intermittent autumn rain which falls lightly and heavily in rhythmical spurts.
- As Ash and his friends are walking to Xanadu Nursery in the original version, Brock quotes the Chinese poem Spring View (春望) when referring to how run-down it is. Ash mistakes the thick grass and trees he speaks of as steak fries, prompting Misty to berate him for his gluttony. In the dub, he simply talks about how beautiful the garden is before they encounter Gloom.
- Ash's "misty over a gloom" comment that offended Misty was originally a misunderstanding of the words Kusaihana (Gloom's Japanese name) and kusai (stinky).
- Also, Ash's backstory of the garden's former owner moving away was dub-only.
- The signs explaining Pokénip and Stun Stem originally did not have their names written on them.
- Real world animals are mentioned in the dub: when Pokénip is described, it says that it has the same effect on Pokémon as catnip does on cats. In the original, it's only mentioned that it makes Pokémon feel good.
- Brock's comment about Gloom not getting "gloomy" was originally another Kusaihana/kusai pun.
- Florinda taught Gloom Solar Beam after she saw it in a magazine in the dub, but to honor her family in the original.
- Ash did not originally mention that "plenty of other girls [will] reject [Brock]" in the original. He merely tells him not to worry then reminds him they have to get herbs for Delia.
In other languages
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