To celebrate the Pokemon anime’s 20th anniversary, we’re recapping an episode of the series every Saturday!
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Episode Title: Challenge of the Samurai!
Original Air Date: April 22, 1997 (Japan); September 11, 1998 (US)
Episode Synopsis: Ash and Misty encounter a Weedle in Viridian Forest, but Ash’s attempt to catch it is interrupted by Samurai, a boy dressed as a samurai. Samurai challenges Ash to his first “official” Pokemon battle. Ash’s Pidgeotto loses to Samurai’s Pinsir, but Ash’s Metapod “beats” Pinsir by breaking the spikes on Metapod’s hard shell. Samurai sends out his own Metapod, leading to a multi-hour standoff between the two cocoon Pokemon. The battle is broken up by a swarm of Beedrill, who were roused by the Weedle Ash failed to catch earlier. One of the Beedrill takes off with Ash’s Metapod, but the rest of the group flees safely to Samurai’s cabin deep in the woods. The next morning, Ash attempts to retrieve his Metapod from a large nest of Kakuna in the forest, but he’s interrupted by Team Rocket, who rouse the Beedrill once again. Ash dodges the Beedrill’s attacks and rescues Metapod, which then evolves into Butterfree after it protects Ash from a Beedrill’s attack. Butterfree then puts the entire swarm of Beedrill to sleep with its Sleep Powder attack. Samurai complements Ash on his skills and shows Ash and Misty the road towards Pewter City.
Ash’s Episodic Moment of Idiocy: Ash checks his PokeDex to see what the angry swarm of Beedrill are instead of grabbing his Metapod and running for the hills.
Characters Introduced: Samurai
Locations: Viridian Forest
“Challenge of the Samurai” is the first ‘character of the day’ episode, in which Ash and his friends meet a character, usually with a Pokemon problem of some sort, whom they befriend and then promptly never see again.
Samurai serves as Ash’s first official Pokemon battle opponent to help introduce viewers to what a Pokemon battle is supposed to look like. He’s a bit of an idiot like Ash, and he’s also not very good at battling. After all, Samurai racked up three consecutive losses to Gary and the other two (always unnamed) Pokemon trainers from Pallet Town.
Samurai also blames Ash for the Beedrill swarm, which I always felt was a little unfair. After all, it was Samurai who assaulted Ash with a sword in the middle of the woods, causing Ash to temporarily forget about the Weedle he was trying to catch. If people aren’t supposed to be distracted by strangers attacking them in the woods with weapons, then the world of Pokemon is a lot more intense than we’re originally led to believe. Ash admitted culpability to the Beedrill swarm later in the episode, because he hasn’t gotten accustomed to Misty’s constant browbeating.
Ash does get a stronger Pokemon out the whole ordeal, as Metapod evolves into Butterfree to save Ash. Butterfree plays an important role during these early episodes, at least until Ash significantly expands his Pokemon team after clearing Cerulean City.
Join us next week when Ash tries to earn a Gym Badge!
