Bye Bye Butterfree (Japanese: バイバイバタフリー, Hepburn: Bye Bye Butterfree) is the 21st episode of Pocket Monsters of Pocket Monsters (1997 series), Season 1 of Pokémon the Series, and Pokémon: Indigo League of Pokémon the Series: The Beginning.
Synopsis[]
As they journey toward Saffron City, our heroes come to a path that continues along the side of a sheer cliff. When the party sees a flock of Butterfree flying above the ocean, Brock, as a Pokémon breeder, explains that it is the Butterfree's egg-laying season. In order to continue their posterity, Butterfree find mates during this season and cross the sea together. Ash releases his Butterfree, sending it off toward the flock. His Butterfree performs a dance to attract a pink Butterfree, but is brutally rejected. Ash, Misty and Brock try to encourage Butterfree, but Butterfree can't recover from the shock of rejection. Just then Team Rocket arrives to poach the Butterfree. Ash's Butterfree tries to prevent the capture of his fellow Pokémon with very little success. Determined to free them and win the heart of the pink Butterfree, he battles Team Rocket with the strength and courage of a Pokémon in love. Can Ash's Butterfree rescue his fellow Butterfree Pokémon and win the heart of his pink Butterfree? If so, will he leave Ash, his beloved Pokémon trainer, to follow his love and fulfill the Butterfree destiny?[1]
Episode plot[]
Love is in the air in a literal fashion as our heroes walk along a cliff on their way to Saffron City. In the skies above the sea, a large Butterfree gather to find a mate with trainers riding in Hot Air Balloons to watch. Ash decides to let his Butterfree out to look for a mate, but it has no luck. As Brock puts it, none of the other Butterfree are "its Type". Butterfree seems to get down, but Ash encourages the pokemon to keep trying. Other trainers are also releasing their Butterfree, including a girl that Brock seems to fall head over his heels for. Ash allows his Butterfree to keep trying. Butterfree eventually finds a Pink Butterfree that it falls in love with. However, as it approaches the Pink Butterfree, it refuses his advances with a slap of its wing. A disheartened Butterfree then flees the rejection into the forest. They decide to go help it and give it advice. Ash tells it to show off a little and prove it's strong. Brock then puts a scarf on it. Butterfree tries again to no avail. Suddenly though, Team Rocket shows up to take all the Butterfree. Misty furiously tells Team Rocket that the Butterfree are trying to find love but Team Rocket just states so are they. After catching almost all of the Butterfree they land at a warehouse in a canyon. The heroes hurry and break through the warehouse windows to save the Butterfree. As the heroes take care of Team Rocket, Butterfree smashes the net holding the Butterfree. James attempts to stop this, but Butterfree knocks him away, catching the eye of the Pink Butterfree. Team Rocket attempts to use a helicopter to reclaim the Pokémon, but instead they are driven off by a thundershock. Soon Pikachu and Butterfree return to the balloon and the Pink Butterfree blushes at Ash's Butterfree and does the courtship dance. At sunset as the Butterfree begin to set off, Ash realizes that he has to say goodbye to his Butterfree, Brock says they need to cross the ocean together, even Misty admits she'll miss Butterfree. When Brock tells Ash it's time, he asks the Pink Butterfree to take care of his Butterfree since it means so much to him, she agrees and begins to fly off. Butterfree tears up but Ash assures Butterfree they'll meet again someday bidding farewell to each other as Butterfree flies of with its love to start their new family. As they fly off, Ash remembers all of the fond memories he made with it, from catching it as a Catterpie to evolving it into Butterfree to all the times they had together and he is brought to tears from that moment. He wishes it goodbye as they fly off into the sunset. Brock assures as that he raised Butterfree to be brave and showed how brave he was as well.
Quotes[]
- "Prepare for trouble." - Ash
- "And you can make it triple." - Misty
- "To protect the world from devastation." - Brock
- Ash and Misty: "To unite all peoples within our nation."
- "This was just..." - Jessie
- "...Too good..." - James
- "...To last." - Meowth
- "You got that right." - Ash
- "Pika!" - Pikachu
- "We're defending the beauty of truth and love!" - Misty
- "Let's do it!" - Brock
- "We gotta stop that!" - Meowth
- "It's gonna shock us!" - Jessie, James, and Meowth
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode where Team Rocket's Motto gets ripped off.
- This is the first episode where a main character releases a Pokémon.
- This episode is the first one where Team Rocket have thoughts about boss' fantasies, where they think about stealing Pokémon and giving them to Giovanni.
- The English Title is a play on the musical Bye Bye Birdie.
- This episode introduces the concept of differently-colored Pokémon.
- This episode contains a montage of Ash's Butterfree, from when he first caught it as a Caterpie, to its evolution into Metapod, to its final evolution of Butterfree and every battle they were in. The Pokémon Theme was played in the background when Ash said goodbye to Butterfree.
- "Who's that Pokémon?": Butterfree (JA, EN and KO)
- The song played in the beginning of the Butterfree Montage is called "Tears After Cloudy Weather."
- When Team Rocket flies away in their helicopter with all the Butterfree they captured, a Jigglypuff hot-air balloon can be seen.
- This is one of the episodes in which the title is the same in both English and Japanese.
- This episode marks the first time we see Pokémon pairing up and then starting their own family as they have a long journey to get to.
Mistakes[]
- In the scene with Team Rocket falling into the canyon, Jessie's nose and the capital "R" on her shirt are missing also, one of James' sleeves keeps getting miscolored every second it shows them falling.
- When Team Rocket gets into their helicopter for the last time, Jessie's lipstick is missing.
- In a shot with Pikachu talking to Butterfree, the white spot on Butterfree's eye is red.
Dub differences[]
- The banner that had Team Rocket's motto had the text was edited out in the dub.
- In the dub, Brock says that Ash raised Butterfree to be courageous and that he believes Ash has shown himself to be courageous too, to which Ash thanks him. In the original version, he says that people can take care of Pokémon but cannot reproduce them, to which Ash agrees.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ (n.d.) . "Bye Bye Butterfree | Pokémon TV (pokemon.com)". From The Official Pokémon Website | Pokemon.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024.
