"Pokémon: Fighting Tournament" (Vol. 10)

Tenth volume with another episode talking about environmentalism (toxic waste).

Fighting Pokémon Hitmonchan runs on the road training its jabs and boxing when a cute girl behind a tree looks on....and quickly hides when the trio show up. Ash sees Hitmonchan and wants to capture it with the aid of Pikachu, but Pikachu isn't confident. Ash trains Pikachu some boxing techniques, then finally confronts Hitmonchan for a fight. Toying with its sissy hits, Ash then commands Pikachu to cast Rocket Punch and does! A man, named Anthony, steps forward getting Hitmonchan to fight back. Hitmonchan's flurry of punches leaves Pikachu immobile.

"Fighting smart hurts less than fighting stupid."
- Anthony

The cute girl, Rebecca, steps forward in front of Anthony, her father, to come home and to put Pokémon training aside. Anthony says he won't come home until he's grand champion of the P1 Grand Prix—a fighting tournament for fighting Pokémon. After the exchange, Rebecca asks for the trio's help to which Brock, flirting again, immediately offers without a second thought. Helping Rebecca's family out, the trio then arrive at Fighting Spirit Gym seeing the poster ad for the tournament. Offering to help, Brock offers to use his Geodude while reminding Ash he can use Primeape. On the other hand, Team Rocket also see the ad for the tournament, hoping to win the championship belt, selling the belt and then using the money at an all-you-can-eat buffet! I sure like to join Meowth and James on that idea!

"Honey baked ham! Mousse, leg of lamb! Strawberry jam!"
- Meowth

"Sirloin steaks! Chocolate cakes!"
- James

As for Jesse, she plans to use the money for existential vanity, treated like a queen. Typical girl stuff.

Tying up a trainer hostage, TR steal his Pokémon: a Hitmonlee! The stage is set for the P1 Grand Prix Tournament with Anthony and Hitmonchan as returning champions, going up against Giants [Team Rocket] and Hitmonlee. Two new trainers step up, Ash and Brock, while Ash senses something suspicious about their opponent. The match begins: it's Machop versus Primeape—summoned by Ash! No time wasted and Machop throws a quintillion punches against Primeape; Primeape attacks with a Mega Kick but it gets blocked! Machop grabs Primeape's foot ready to cast it's special attack: Seismic Toss! Hoping to catch Primeape, Ash runs and trips breaking Primeape's fall. Primeape realizes the sincerity of Ash, and now falls under his command from now on. Back on the ring, Primeape is commanded to cast Scratch attack, then casts Mega Kick! Primeape wins! Next match is set for Hitmonlee and Geodude. Already, Hitmonlee casts a flurry of kicks leaving Geodude in the dust without a slight chance. With Ash winning, he advances to the final match awaiting his opponent in the semi-finals: the match between Hitmonlee versus Hitmonchan. Meowth immediately lays in the match-fixing scheme by spewing glue on the canvas floor to which Hitmonchan steps on and gets stuck! Hitmonlee's mega kick gets stopped and blocked by Anthony with an interruption from Rebecca (gosh, what a whiny crybaby that girl was, let alone ruining the match). Convincing his father to come home, Rebecca finally convinced Anthony to come home forfeiting the match. And what do you know: it's Team Rocket's Hitmonlee versus Ash's Primeape. Hitmonlee attacks with more kicks but Primeape blocks it, then attacks with its punches! Looking to rig the match again in their favor, Meowth deploys a device underneath the canvas capable of casting 100,000 volts of electricity. The plan is to get Hitmonlee to jump, then Meowth activates the device electrocuting Primeape. Overhearing their plan, Pikachu tries to warn Ash but he's too busy, so the yellow rodent sneaks underneath the canvas to see what Meowth had set up. Going according to plan, Hitmonlee then jumps and Jesse presses the button but nothing happens! Primeape then casts Mega Punch; Hitmonlee fires back with a Mega Kick but Primeape grabs its foot ready to cast Seismic Toss, Machop style! Ash and Primeape win! Angered at Meowth, Jesse didn't know why the feline's plan failed....until Pikachu picked up the device and handed it to Meowth. The device activates and electrocutes TR, blasting them off again! Anthony congratulates Ash's win and kindly receives Primeape promising to train it well. Primeape says its last goodbye realizing Ash's care and dedication to it, as the trio walk on to their next destination.

Gringy City is a dark and depressing place where few people live and ocean waves smell like sludge, and that's where the trio arrive at. Pikachu is suddenly coming down with the flu as the trio are being watched by a mysterious Magnemite. As always, Team Rocket see the trio run to the nearest Pokémon Center from the sewer. With Meowth running the plans, Jesse and James reluctantly swim into the sewage river to get to the Pokémon Center to snatch more Pokémon. As the trio rush to get Pikachu's treatment, Nurse Joy points out Pikachu's cheeks spewing sparks—a sign of a cold. In the ocean comes a flock of Grimers running and blocking the water flow from the aqueducts, cutting off power from the all electricity-stricken buildings. With Jesse and James still swimming, the electricity was cut off and aren't getting any air from their astronaut-like suits! Meowth panics! Nurse Joy shows the trio the intensive care room filled with Pokémon in critical condition because of the electrical black out. Daringly, the trio head to the power plant but Pikachu didn't want to stay at the Pokémon Center, running into Ash wanting to tag along. Entering in the plant, the trio sees a Magnemite following Pikachu! Freaked out by it, the trio see something....unusual: Magnemite has the hots for Pikachu.

"If it were an animal Pokémon, I could understand. But how could an inorganic Pokémon, like Magnemite, fall in love with an electric rodent?"
- Brock

A strange phenomenon indeed, Brock. However, I feel there's a little more that meets the eye. And no, it's not that.

Suddenly, the trio smell something unpleasant: from the ceiling, it's a Grimer! More Grimers fall from the ceiling led by its evolved form Muk! Not able to stand the awful smell, the trio run, run, run! They immediately crash into the plant's employees also looking to escape, when they too run from the gang of Grimers! All the folks run safely into the control room, but the Grimers try to tackle the door open and breaks it! Pikachu, under the weather, steps up to battle by casting Thundershock....but no good! An emergency has been quickly been called, when a flood of Magnemites and Magnetons, its evolved form, show up to the rescue! All together they cast a thunder attack eliminating the gang of Grimers, plus the Grimers blocking the water! The electric turbines and generators are back up and running again! After that, one lone stench-laden Pokémon, Muk, still wants to attack and battle Pikachu when its "friend" Magnemite comes over to help Pikachu attack it....and does! Weak from the attack, Ash does the logical thing: throws a PokéBall to catch it, and does! Happily catching it, the folks joke about how they could still smell Muk from the PokéBall. Outside where everything is running and back to normal, Pikachu finds that Magnemite isn't 'interested' in it anymore. One power plant employee explains why Pikachu's magnetic sense, oozing from its sickness, was what caused Magnemite to fall in love with it. However, now that Pikachu is 100%, Magnemite doesn't like the mouse anymore. On the other hand, TR is still continuing their plan to catch more Pok´mon using a gigantic U-shaped magnet from their submarine, when they pulled up millions of Magnemites and Magnetons causing the submarine to tip over! Onward, Misty mentions about the city periodically cleans their ocean water for better electricity making for a cleaner environment and a more 'green' living. To finish off this adventure, Professor Oak receives a new Pokémon from Ash, to which it has been a while. Oak sees he caught a Muk and stinks up his lab!

Lost again, Ash is in search for the next gym—Fushia Gym. Team Rocket are having a very nice lunch, but Meowth refuses as he's exercising. TR's lunch is interrupted when they hear a huge blast shaking the land up! Along the road, the construction workers drive along but the blast caused a massive wreckage! A construction worker claims they can't finish the Gaiva Dam because the underground is filled with swarms of Digletts. Looking to award trainers with a cash prize, the construction worker hopes to get folks to eliminate the Digletts. 'Lo and behold: Gary makes an appearance with his female fans in hopes to win the prize. While Ash wallows in envy and disgust, Brock is trying to get the numbers of one of the girls (never turns down an opportunity, that Brock, huh?). After the call to get rid of the cute, but vicious, underground moles, a flock of Digletts approach the crowd of Pokémon trainers. Gary is the first to step forward to summon a Pokémon....but it doesn't come out! A Diglett kindly returns the PokéBall back to Gary. Everyone pitches in and summons ALL their Pokémon but all refuse to come out! One by one, out of kindness, the Digletts return the PokéBalls to their rightful owners. Relaxing at the hot springs, which was actually part of the cash award, Misty tries to figure out why the Pokémon didn't come out. Ash asks Pikachu as to why. Meanwhile, looking to upgrade their fighting spirit and attack strength, Jesse and James hug their Pokémon hoping to evolve. Their tears land on their Pokémon's body leading them to evolve! Jesse now has Arbok and James has Weezing. Back to the trio, they learn that the land being built on by construction workers are preserved, occupied and taken care of by Digletts and its evolved form Dugtrios.

"I guess we humans still have a lot to learn from the ways of the Pokémon, right Ash?"
- Brock

You're right, Brock. The construction worker, who desperately wanted to eliminate the "mole-y" pests, officially cancels the project building the dam.

What do you know: TR shows up with their newly evolved Pokémon and look to battle the trio and the Digletts & Dugtrios, but get defeated! The moles defeat TR and Jesse finds that the project, held with a cash prize, was canceled the whole time. The trio then stroll on to their next destination.

"And everyone learned that when you do a little digging, you can find something good wherever you look."
- Narrator

This volume does not include a PokéRap. Near the end are commercials for Pokémon Red & Blue for Game Boy, Ranma ½, "The Dog of Flanders," and "The New Adventures of Kimba: The White Lion."

The first episode of this volume continued on with the story, especially when Primeape finally realizes how much Ash has always been behind it. However, if anything, family comes first. Ash and Primeape's time was short-lived but Primeape sure will remember this for good.

The second episode is something we're currently dealing with, even at the time of this writing. The episode speaks out on a city that's barren and requires clean air and a cleaner environment. With what? Electricity. Health risks and even lives are at risk without the aid of electricity—a source we take for granted. Because of the idea of environmentalism stamped onto this episode, debates have sparked about the burning of fossil fuels, reducing the uses of everyday items like plastic shopping bags, papers, reducing industrial waste and producing more electric/'green' cars. Being the skeptic that I am, is it really helping, or is it a marketing ploy from the environmentalists to extract every last penny from us? I used to work as a cashier for a dollar store, and my coworker and I gave each other odd expressions when a customer said she didn't want plastic bags, which we gave for free that time, because she's "worried about the environment." There exists plants that can poison, give allergies, and even kill organisms that come in contact with it, should we preserve and care for those? Climate Change is the top threat to humanity [currently] and if these weather changes ruin our environmental surroundings, then what's the use? I can understand moving toward producing better ways to preserve the usages of electricity and water, but going toward a point where everyone has to change their way of living is too far. Every country has more than enough people who disagree with the laws in their rightful cities/states/countries, and adding more control against us citizens is obnoxious. I can hear the message stated by this episode on why it's important to preserve and take care of the place you reside in, but what I think is this: if you have it, use it—use it for what it's worth. No organism on this planet will last forever, and neither will our own planet, which will turn to toast billions of years from now, when our Sun expands to a SuperGiant eating away Mercury and Venus. Anything encased in this Universe of ours will bow out, even Time. While making our resources convenient for survival, use it if you need it. You paid for it, you earned it, so it's yours.

Third episode is another preservation-messaged presentation, only this time it's animals' habitat. Interesting timing being that this was released in 1999, it's still a concern today. With the rise of entrepreneurial business buildings, new land needs to be discovered and occupied. Here the construction workers hope to build a dam but it's right on the land of Digletts and Dugtrios, where the swarm kindly sway away visitors from their soil. Even though there's nothing more fun than an African Safari, various educational documentaries teach about the lives of these animals and the protecting of their land from intruders, human or otherwise. Scientists and biologists may likely not recommend eliminating animals from their land for us to occupy, but perhaps I wouldn't be surprised if such an issue goes viral. When did an animal government order all animals to attack us humans, or at least command us, to stay away from their land? In our species as humans, war is already a problem; Immigration is a problem; Issues like geopolitics causes parties to argue endlessly; Women's rights, gay rights, and in the future, transgender rights (oh man), are becoming problems. However, because we humans can track our own suffering and learn from our everyday mishaps, we're still able to continue on, live better and smarter. If we go on to occupy the animals' land, will they get angry? Nope, it'll be the other humans....and vegetarians/vegans. Depending on the person, other people can also be a pain in the ass, and animals make a great escape eliminating loneliness. Only problem is some people take this connection "too far," and I mean, TOO FAR if you know what I mean....and it's DISGUSTING AS HELL! WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?! I don't care if it's a 'beastly' fetish of theirs, but holy crap man, it's DISGRACEFUL AND GROSS! If I had a reason to support PETA, it would be that. Like environmentalism, I've placed a wall between myself and these social issues. I do have a say for these things, but to expect that someone will come and disagree to prove me wrong is just another situation to sleep on. This is why I find that I don't like people asking for my opinions if they're only going to disagree and continually argue.

Now you know why I'm not a fan of politics.

Who's That Pokémon? Answers:
Ep.028 - Hitmonchan
Ep.029 - Magnemite
Ep.030 - Diglett

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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