TB016: Pokémon Shipwreck

"Pokémon Shipwreck"
Information
Series	Pocket Monsters, Pokémon the Series: The Beginning
Subtitle	Pocket Monsters
Season	Season 1, Pokémon: Indigo League
№	016
Opening(s) and Ending(s)	Japanese Opening Aim to Be a Pokémon Master Ending One Hundred Fifty-One Korean Opening Start of An Adventure Ending We Are All Friends English Opening Pokémon Theme Ending Kanto Pokérap
Staff credits	脚本(きゃくほん) (Screenplay) 武上純希 (Junki Takegami) 絵(え)コンテ (Storyboard) 井上修 (Osamu Inoue) 助手(じょしゅ)監督(かんとく) (Assistant director(s)) 井上修 (Osamu Inoue) 作画(さくが)監督(かんとく) (Animation director(s)) 江藤真澄 (Masumi Etō)
In other countries
Japan	Title ポケモンひょうりゅうき Airdate July 15, 1997
Japan	Title ポケモンひょうりゅうき Airdate July 15, 1997
South Korea	Title 탈출! 육지 찿아 삼만리() Airdate September 2, 1999
South Korea	Title 탈출! 육지 찿아 삼만리() Airdate September 2, 1999
Anglosphere	Title Pokémon Shipwreck Airdate(s) September 29, 1998 Notes ^ a: Signifies that it only applies to the US, UK, CA, AU, NZ and SG
Anglosphere	Title Pokémon Shipwreck Airdate(s) September 29, 1998 Notes ^ a: Signifies that it only applies to the US, UK, CA, AU, NZ and SG
Portugal and Brazil	Title(s) O Naufrágio Pokémon Airdate(s) May 31, 1999
Portugal and Brazil	Title(s) O Naufrágio Pokémon Airdate(s) May 31, 1999
Details
Main	Ash, Misty, Brock
Recurring	Jessie, James, Officer Jenny
Minor	Officers on the PM-16
Pokémon	Ash's Pikachu, Team Rocket's Meowth, Ash's Pidgeotto, Ash's Bulbasaur, Ash's Charmander, Ash's Squirtle, Misty's Goldeen, Misty's Starmie, Misty's Staryu, Brock's Onix, Brock's Geodude, Jessie's Ekans, James' Koffing, James' Magikarp → Gyarados (released), Gyarados (4x)
Badges or Classes
Major event(s)	Jessie's Ekans knows Acid. James' Magikarp knows Splash. James' Magikarp evolves into a Gyarados. James' Gyarados learns Dragon Rage. James releases his Gyarados.
Title cards
For other title cards, see here and here

Pokémon Shipwreck (Japanese: ポケモンひょうりゅうき, Hepburn: Pokémon Adrift) is the 16th 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

Our heroes are revealed in the middle of a trap concocted by Team Rocket. Luckily the Pokémon Trainers are able to pool their Pokémon resources and successfully battle Team Rocket and their evil crew. In the midst of the confusion on board, however, a tumultuous storm wreaks havoc on the cruise forcing everyone except Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu as well as Team Rocket to evacuate the sinking ship. Luckily, Ash was able to exchange Butterfree for Raticate before the ship went down, but now our heroes are forced to team up with their long-standing enemies in order to survive their life or death predicament.

Episode plot

The day after the previous episode, Officer Jenny and other Police Officers declare Ash, Misty and Brock dead, and hold a memorial in their honor. However, our heroes, alive and well, awaken and realize the ship has sunk. Elsewhere, Jessie, James and Meowth awaken and begin to investigate when Meowth explains that they've capsized and sunk. Jessie attempts to use her Ekans to cut a whole in the floor so they can escape, but water floods in. They attempt to stop it to no avail.

The heroes begin to search for a way to the deck but find the halls flooded. Misty sends her Goldeen to check it out, but finds a dead-end and an unconscious Team Rocket. Goldeen brings Team Rocket back with it, and this panics the heroes. A battle nearly breaks out, but the need to survive causes them to call a temporary truce. Misty, who had made a model of this ship in the past, says that they should get to the bottom of the ship, which is now above them, and cut through the hull to escape. Brock summons his Onyx to help them climb up to the bottom.

As the ship's lights fail, they find themselves across from the engine room, though there is too large of a gap to cross, and a fire below them. Ash tells Bulbasaur to use Vine Whip so they can cross over, but Team Rocket sees difficulty when James is too scared. Eventually, everyone makes it to the engine room, where Ash commands Charmander to use Flamethrower to cut a hole in the hull of the ship. Misty commands everyone to strap onto a water-type Pokémon and escape. The only Pokémon Team Rocket has that is water-type is Magikarp, but they're horrified to learn that it can't swim. Making it to the surface, Ash and the others can't find Team Rocket, so they assume the worst.

Not finding any land, Brock tells them the story of Noah's Ark, and how Noah would send out doves to find land, so Ash decides to do the same with his Pidgeotto. The Bird Pokémon goes out to search, but finds only Team Rocket. The heroes believe Team Rocket to have drowned, and prepare to bury them at sea, only for Team Rocket to wake up. Having no choice, they all decide to stay on the make-shift raft together to survive. The next day, everyone is starving, so they decide to eat James' Magikarp, but it is revealed that the Pokémon is inedible. James, upset with the uselessness of his Pokémon, kicks it into the sea, causing it to evolve into a Gyarados and attack them in revenge.

They attempt to escape from it with Misty's Water Pokémon, but the Gyarados summons others of it's kind and begins to use Dragon Rage with Misty noting a salor's legend, and how nobody has ever survived the attack before. As a cyclone forms, the heroes get swept up into it, and are separated from Team Rocket in the process.

Debuts

Pokémon

• Gyarados (James')

Move

• Dragon Rage
• Acid
• Splash

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

"Will someone tell me what in the world happened?" - Ash

"Just take a look out the window." - Misty

"Huh!? What? Fish swimming? This can't be... But that must mean that this ship has sunk!" - Ash

"Something's really burning!" - Jessie

"You picked a bad place for a nap." - Meowth

"Why is everything upside-down?' - Jessie

"The ship capsized and sank, while you two were sleeping." - Meowth

"Huh/What?" - Jessie and James

"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

Who's that Pokémon? (Magikarp)

• 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".
• "Who's that Pokémon": Magikarp (JA, EN and KO)
• 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 Jessie, 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 by another name, Jessica.

Mistakes

• It is unknown how the police knew that Jessie and James went down with the ship, and even more so that they knew them by name. Team Rocket wasn't even supposed to be on board, and their presence wasn't known until shortly before the sinking. The same thing happens with Ash, Brock, and Misty, as there was never a rollcall.
• 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 version, Misty threatens Team Rocket that she'd throw them back in the water if they don't call back Koffing and Ekans, while in the dub she asks them if their lives are more important than a Pokémon battle.
• In the original version, after kicking Magikarp into water James says that he hates it while in the dub he says "Good riddance, Magikarp!".
• In the original version, after Magikarp evolved into Gyarados, Misty says that she heard that Magikarp evolve into Gyarados. In the dub she says that James caused Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados.

Gallery

Jenny throws the bouquet

Ash is about to fall down

Ash sees the ship is under water

Jessie and James get burned

The hole causes the ship to leak

Team Rocket, surrounded by water

Goldeen found Team Rocket

Everyone slides down the floor

Pikachu zaps Meowth

The heroes go on Onix's back towards the upper parts

Bulbasaur made a bridge using Vine Whip

Misty goes up

James' Magikarp fails to swim out of the ship

The gang prays before pushing Team Rocket in sea

Pikachu snaps his fingers in disappointment, as he wanted Meowth to bite the dust.

Brock and Ash imagine some Magikarp delicacies...

... as do Jessie and James

The Gyarados chases the heroes and Team Rocket

Gyarados summoned more Gyarados

The heroes are blown away