IL016: Pokémon Shipwreck

Pokémon Shipwreck (ポケモンひょうりゅうき) is the 16th episode of Pokémon: Indigo League.

Synopsis
The heroes and Team Rocket find themselves in an sinking ship and agree to work together. Though everyone manages to get free, James sees his Magikarp is useless and abandons it. This causes Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados, who is not happy to be treated that way.

Episode Plot
This episode takes place the day after the last one. At the start of the episode, a police boat pulls up close to where the St. Anne sank. Officer Jenny steps out onto the deck of the boat and makes a small speech about how they just discovered that Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie, and James didn't make it off the ship safely. She tosses a bouquet of flowers into the water and she and the other officers salute and one plays a trumpet as the flowers sink into the water.

Meanwhile, inside the ship, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu are trying to wake Ash up. Ash wakes up and wonders why everyone is on the ceiling. He realizes that he is the one on the ceiling because his jacket is caught on the end of a table. He falls off the table and lands on Pikachu. Misty points to the porthole and Ash sees fish swimming outside. He realizes that the ship has sunk with them still on it.

The scene cuts to Team Rocket, who have just woken up and noticed that they are underneath stoves and they are burning. They jump out and they run over to some broken pipes, which they use to put out the fire. They run out into the hall and notice everything is upside down. Meowth says the ship must have capsized and sank. James starts panicking and Jessie calls out Ekans and tells it to use Acid to open up a hole in the floor. Meowth tries to stop her, but its too late. The Acid attack opened up a hole and lets in a jet of water. They try to stop the jet but they fail and the jet drowns Team Rocket away.

Meanwhile, Ash and his friends run out into a stairwell, but they are forced to stop because of the water. Misty says that it will take a while for the ship to fill up with water, but they must still hurry. Ash wants to dive down to the deck but Brock says its too dangerous, because if they come across dead end when the dive down to the deck with no way back for more air, they will be done for. Misty sends out Goldeen to look through the water. Goldeen finds Team Rocket, unconscious, which surprises Goldeen.

Ash and his friends wait for Goldeen to come back. Goldeen comes back, pushing Team Rocket along with it. Team Rocket wakes up and challenges them to a battle, sending Ekans and Koffing out. Ash sends out Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur while Brock sends out Geodude. The ship starts to tip and tilt side to side. Misty tells everyone to recall their Pokémon and the ship stops tilting.

Misty wants them all to work together, but they don't want to. She makes them all shake hands and form a temporary alliance. Ash shakes Jessie's hand, Brock shakes James's hand, and Pikachu shakes Meowth's paw but ends up shocking him, getting Pikachu a lecture from Misty. Misty says she knows the blueprints of the ship because she made a model of the ship once and says they should go up to the bottom of the ship and cut a hole in the hull to escape. They head to a broken staircase and Brock sends out Onix and tells everyone to use Onix as a staircase to get up.

The lights in the ship start to fail as the group heads down a hallway. Ash brings out Charmander to help everyone see where they're going. They enter the next room and find they can't cross it because the ceiling of the engine room is on massive fire by some unknown cause and a large gap with stairs out, cutting off the pathway to the engine room. Ash gets a brainstorm after Pikachu gives his brain a jump-start Ash sends out Bulbasaur and tells Bulbasaur to use Vine Whip to make a bridge for everyone to cross. Ash, Misty, and Brock start to cross but James is too afraid. He tells Jessie and Meowth to leave him behind. Jessie slaps him and tells Bulbasaur to bring the vines back.

They all safely make it to the engine room, even though Team Rocket is worn out. Ash brings out Charmander to cut a hole in the hull by using Flamethrower. Misty reminds everyone to strap themselves to a water Pokémon, but Team Rocket doesn't have any Water Type Pokémon. The hull opens up, sends out a waterfall. Ash recalls Charmander, since Charmander is running away from the water. Ash and Pikachu strap themselves to Squirtle, Misty straps herself to Goldeen, and Brock straps himself to Starmie. While Ash and friends swim out of the ship to safety, Team Rocket is stranded. James starts laughing and holds up his Magikarp's golden Poké Ball. They try to escape with Magikarp, but discover that it can't even swim. The water picks up the ship and carries it into a trench.

Ash and his friends climb onto a small raft and they wonder what happened to Team Rocket. Brock suggest that they find dry land. Ash sends out Pidgeotto to look for it. Pidgeotto finds Team Rocket floating on the surface of the ocean, still strapped to Magikarp, and surprises Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto brings them back to the raft and Ash, Misty, and Brock think that they have died and attempt to give them a burial by pushing them back into the water. Jessie and James wake up in time and, in surprise, Ash and friends think they are zombies. Meowth, who was pushed in the water, starts yelling for help. Pikachu snaps his fingers, upset Meowth isn't dead.

They are all forced to stay on the raft for the night and they wake up very hungry. Ash, Brock, Jessie and James think about what to make from Magikarp. Meowth attempts to eat Magikarp, but only breaks his teeth because Magikarp is nothing except scales and bones. James, mad that the Pokémon isn't even good as food, kicks it off the raft and says he doesn't want to be its trainer anymore. Magikarp evolves into Gyarados. Misty gets Goldeen, Starmie and Staryu and everyone starts pushing raft as fast as they can to get away from Gyarados. Gyarados stops chasing them suddenly. Everyone thinks its tired, except for Misty. She remembers hearing sailor stories about Gyarados' Dragon Rage. The waves pick up and more Gyarados come. They start whipping up a water cyclone. The Gyarados head to the raft. Brock tries to flee again, but Misty says it's no use, that no one has ever survived a Dragon Rage attack. The cyclone hits the raft. Ash and his friends try to hold on, but they go spinning off.

Pokémon
Gyarados (James')

Move

 * Dragon Rage
 * Acid

Quotes

 * "At first we thought all the passengers had gotten safely off the ship, but we have just discovered that five people are missing: Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie and James. It makes all of us sad to think that these young Pokémon trainers have had their promising careers cut tragically short. May these flowers honor your memory." - Officer Jenny's eulogy


 * "Hey, are you feeling ok Ash?" - Brock
 * "Pikachu." - Pikachu
 * "What? Oh brother. What're you talking about "Am I feeling ok"? You guys are the ones who're upside down." - Ash
 * "You're definitely the one upside-down." - Misty


 * "Something's really burning!" - Jessie
 * "You picked a bad place for a nap." - Meowth


 * "We've got to abandon ship immediately!" - James
 * "I'm afraid it won't be so easy to get off while the ship's underwater." - Meowth
 * "AHHH! THE SHIP SUNK! WE'RE DOOMED!" - James


 * "AHHHH! Zombies!" - Ash, Misty and Brock
 * "Who are you calling zombies?" - James
 * "We are not zombies." - Jessie


 * "Somebody help! My fur is getting wet." - Meowth
 * "Chu!" — Pikachu, snapping his fingers.


 * "How will you battle it?" - Brock
 * "My strategy is... RUN AWAY!" - Misty


 * "Hey Brock, Misty, Pikachu! Whatever happens, don't let go!" - Ash

Trivia

 * This episode was storyboarded by Osamu Inoue.
 * Fish that aren't Pokémon appear in this episode.
 * They also appeared in The Water Flowers of Cerulean City.
 * The "Who's that Pokémon" of this episode is Magikarp.
 * This is the first episode that Ash uses a Bird Pokémon for long range surveillance.
 * This is the first episode to showcase Pikachu's hatred towards Meowth.
 * Brock made a reference to Noah of Noah's Ark.
 * Also, the narrator made a reference to The Titanic.
 * Although Misty's Goldeen has, on several occasions, been shown to be extremely weak out of the water, in the water here, it's strong enough to carry Jesse, James and Meowth, and even throw them clean out of the water.
 * Jessie and James made a reference to the movie The Poseidon Adventure when Ash's Bulbasaur was letting everyone cross its vines. The St. Anne also capsizes, trapping a small group of survivors inside, as happened in the movie.
 * This is the first time Ash, his friends and Team Rocket form a truce.
 * When Jessie and James were thinking of their lives, James mentions Jessie's another name, Jessica.

Mistakes

 * When Ash and co. get hit by Gyarados' Dragon Rage, Team Rocket yells 「 やなかんじ！」 "Yana Kanji!" "Bad Feeling!" in their Japanese voices, which is the Japanese equivalent of "Team Rocket is blasting off again!".
 * During the scene when the Pokémon are running back and forth to give the ship more balance, Brock yells for Geodude to come back, part of Ekans can be seen to the left of Brock, even though Ekans just went to the other side.
 * On a related note, after Brock tells Geodude to come back, the scene moves outside the ship for a few seconds, and then back in, and when it returns to the inside, Geodude is on the same side as all the other Pokémon, when it should be with Brock.
 * When James shows Jessie and Meowth the gold-plated Poké Ball containing the Magikarp he bought in the last episode, the ball doesn't have scratch marks anymore (Meowth had scratched the front of the ball out of anger at James in the previous episode).

Dub Differences
In the original, Misty threatened Team Rocket that she'd throw them back in the water if they didn't call back Koffing and Ekans, while in the dub she asked them if their lives were more important than a Pokémon battle.