Welcome to Bulbapedia, the free Pokémon encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Create your account and get started with editing pages!
staging.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net

EP009

From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Jump to navigationJump to search
← EP008 : The Path to the Pokémon League
Original series
EP010 : Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village →
The School of Hard Knocks
EP009.png
  EP009  
ポケモンひっしょうマニュアル
Pokémon Victory Manual
First broadcast
Japan May 27, 1997
United States September 18, 1998
English themes
Opening Pokémon Theme
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening めざせポケモンマスター
Ending ひゃくごじゅういち
Credits
Animation Team Ota
Screenplay 首藤剛志 Takeshi Shudō
Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada
Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada
Animation director 玉川明洋 Akihiro Tamagawa
Additional credits

The School of Hard Knocks (Japanese: ポケモンひっしょうマニュアル Pokémon Victory Manual) is the ninth episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 27, 1997 and in the United States on September 18, 1998.

201
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
201

Synopsis

As the episode begins, Misty and Ash are fighting about her broken bike again. In an effort to get them to cool off, Brock pulls a table and some chairs out of his backpack, with all the necessities to set it for a nice afternoon cup of tea. Brock sends Ash to collect firewood to make tea and crepes.

As Ash and Pikachu wander around the forest, they encounter a group of boys in suits. One of them is running on a treadmill, while the rest are gathered around, quizzing him about various Pokémon. He misses a question and is rejected by the other boys. Ash jumps in to defend him. The boys reveal that they are students of Pokémon Technical Institute, a boarding school which educates Pokémon Trainers. They leave, stating they don't want to fight. As Brock reads from the school's brochure, Pikachu started the treadmill and tries to keep up. The school trains its students without sending them to collect Badges, and guarantees entry into the Pokémon League upon graduation. Brock leans on the treadmill, speeding it up, which sends Pikachu flying. The school is expensive, and therefore populated with rich kids.

The student who was being bullied, Joe, defends his "friends," who were trying to help him. He explains that he sometimes pretends to know less than he really does because the questions get so much harder. Ash is very upset at this brutal "tutoring" system, and demands to meet the student in charge, with plans to stop it. The head student of the beginner class is a girl; Brock and Ash drool over her photo, which makes Misty angry. Ash refers to Misty as "someone who treats you bad and looks even worse", which makes her even angrier.

Team Rocket reveal that they both flunked out of Pokémon Tech. Being led there by Ash has brought back some bad memories for Jessie and James, but Meowth cheers them up.

Joe leads Ash and his friends to the head student Giselle's study area. He says it's overall skill as a Trainer, not any one battle, that determines success at Pokémon Tech. He says that even though he's the weakest student in his class, he's still better than someone with two Badges. Misty takes offense, and Joe said he's familiar with her Gym; he usually beats her preferred Water Pokémon on the simulator. Misty demands a real battle, and Joe tells her, "You'll be sorry."

Misty calls her Starmie, while Joe calls a Weepinbell, a Grass-type Pokémon which will have an advantage over Misty's water type. Nevertheless, Starmie beats the Weepinbell. Giselle walks in and chastises Joe for not realizing that Starmie's real battle experience would give it an advantage. She calls him an embarrassment to the school. Brock and Ash swoon over the very pretty Giselle. Even James, who is looking on with Jessie from a tree outside, is taken with her. Giselle continues to upbraid Joe, and threatens to withdraw the help of the other students.

Misty challenges her, saying that a true friend wouldn't walk away from a friend in need of help, and that Giselle's beauty is only skin deep. Giselle accuses Misty of being jealous. Giselle summons a Graveler to challenge Misty's Starmie. Although Rock Pokémon are weak against water Pokémon, Giselle says that hers is so advanced it will be able to win. The Graveler smashes into Starmie, shattering its core, and it is thrown out through a window and into the pool.

Giselle said that a Pokémon is only as good as its Trainer. A weak Pokémon can still win if it's better trained. Ash jumps in, saying there's more to training Pokémon than levels. He says that he has two Badges, and Giselle says that he's still a beginner. When he reveals that he's been on his quest for 2 months, she is shocked that he has not yet trained his Pikachu into a Poké Ball, and snidely remarks, "Maybe your Pokémon are training you!"

Ash says that his three Pokémon are his friends. Giselle is surprised that he had only three; most beginners have six. She attributed his two Badges to luck. She is also surprised that he chose Pikachu as his starting Pokémon, as they are known to be hard to handle. She is amazed at Ash having two Badges, given how little he knows, and laughs at him. At this point Pikachu becomes angry as well, and Ash demands a battle. Giselle summons Cubone. Ash calls for a shock attack, but Cubone deflects it, to his dismay. Giselle calls for a Leer attack, but Pikachu responds by making funny faces at Cubone. The two Pokémon get into a close-range staring contest, until Giselle calls for a Bone Club attack; the bonk on the head staggers Pikachu. She then calls for a Bonemerang, which knocks Pikachu out cold. The next time the Bonemerang is launched, Pikachu jumps over it, and twists the skull on Cubone's head backwards, so it can no longer see. Pikachu then pummels the Cubone, finally ducking away as the Bonemerang comes back to take out its master. Giselle is amazed that Pikachu has won without using electricity, and stunned that she has lost.

Team Rocket takes advantage of everyone's distraction to appear with their motto. The Tech students recognizing them as bad guys who flunked out, attack Team Rocket en masse, causing them to flee.

Joe decides to leave Pokémon Tech and return home to start over like Ash did. Joe asks if he can keep Giselle's picture; she said she has one of him, because they are now friends. Perhaps one day they'll meet in the Pokémon League.

Ash demands to know why he and Misty aren't friends like that; she responds that it's because Joe doesn't owe Giselle a bike!

Major events

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Cubone


Trivia

  • This is the only time where Rachael Lillis provided the voice of Pikachu during the entire episode.
  • This is Eric Stuart's first full episode voicing James. He had previously taken over for Ted Lewis towards the end of the previous episode.
  • This is the first episode in the anime where the fourth wall is broken. At the beginning of the episode, Brock breaks up an argument between Ash and Misty by commenting that they're running late and have to start the show.
  • This episode's dub title is a reference to the saying, "School of Hard Knocks".
    • This is also the first episode to have the title be a play or a reference on something.
  • The weather conditions mentioned by the announcer in this episode were both later introduced in the games: fog and snow.
  • This episode is to date the only time in which Brock falls for a girl who is visibly younger than himself and Ash falls for a girl at all.
  • This is one of the very few episodes in the anime where the fact that Pokémon learn certain moves on certain levels is mentioned.
  • The battle simulator looks similar to the battle screen in the games.
  • The scenes where Pikachu battles Cubone are used in first Pokémon opening in South Korea.
  • Though Giselle is shocked that Pikachu had won without using electricity, it would have been ineffective anyway.

Errors

  • In the German dub, some Pokémon are called by the name of their evolutionary relatives. Starmie was accidentally called by Staryu's German name and Weepinbell was called Victreebel's German name.
  • Right before Meowth blasts off, James's glove is black.
  • When Giselle is telling Ash how Pikachu should be kept in a Poké Ball, there is a close up of Pikachu; during this, Pikachu says its name, but its mouth does not move.
  • When Giselle is laughing after telling Ash about Pikachu, Pikachu jumps between Ash and Misty and Starmie's leg from the star on its back is missing.
  • When battling Cubone, Ash calls out shock attack when he means thundershock.

Dub edits

The deleted shot
  • Right before the title screen appears, Misty hits Brock in the head with a log. This was cut from the dub because of the direct violence controversy that started with EP001.
    • Also in that same scene, Brock mistakenly said "To be continued" instead of saying to see the episode. This is the reason why Misty hit Brock with a log later.
  • This episode contains many paint edits:
    • When talking about tea, Brock pulls out a wooden cup that has some Pokémon names written (Lizardon, Hakuryu, Kentauros and Dodo). In the dub, it is a can with pictograms. Ash is later seen drinking from the cup unedited.
    • Similar to the above edit, Brock's bottle of "Mt. Moon Spring Water" had a picture of a mountain painted over the Japanese text.
    • Misty's note about the Pokémon Seminar was originally full of Japanese text. In the dub, it has a black-and-white picture of the school at the top of the paper and some blurred-out French text on the bottom.
    • Joe's picture of Giselle had a note from her in the upper-right hand corner. This was erased in the dub.
    • The sign at the top of the door after the commercial break says "Training Room". The dub replaces the text with five Poké Balls which light up.
    • In the Japanese version, the simulation states the move used on the lower-left hand corner. In this case it was Razor Leaf. The dub adds another health bar over it.
    • However, the kanji on one student's book is left unedited.
  • Computer effects were added in the dubbed version, specifically into the scene where Joe was showing them the virtual training center.

In other languages



← EP008 : The Path to the Pokémon League
Original series
EP010 : Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village →
Project Anime logo.png This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.
Retrieved from "https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/w/index.php?title=EP009&oldid=1879233"