U.S. Episode # 77:

The Big Pi-kahuna  

The Pi-kahuna
    Ash and the group are jogging along Seafoam Island (even though it looks
a lot different from the game) when Ash runs into a traffic mess and he seems
to black out.
    He wakes up and sees a load of cars around him. Officer Jenny clears up
the hub-bub and she tells Ash to be careful. He asks why there are so many
cars with surfboards. She says it's because Humunga Dunga's coming. She
continues by saying that it's supposed to be a really big wave that a guy
named Jan rode on and he planted a flag at the top of a large rock in the sea.
    Ash gets an idea to go surfing and he gets on a surfboard and paddles
toward the ocean. Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and Togepi obviously decide to stay
on shore, even though Misty says,"Watch out, waves, 'cause here I come."
Pikachu looks at a cliff above the beach and sees another Pikachu, with blue
eyes and wrinkles. Its tail lifts up and glows, and a man inside a cottage on
the cliff says,"That's a big wave, but not the big wave." (The man, who's
name is Victor, is talking about Humunga Dunga, which is that wave that
Officer Jenny was talking about. Victor strives to ride it, but we'll talk
about this matter a little later.) Ash falls, and he's about to get up, when
he realises that he has a cramp. He yells, but Misty and Brock can't do
anything. Victor suddenly appears in the water, on a surfboard, and with his
wrinkled Pikachu on it. The ride the waves that come, and rescue Ash, who is
unconsious.
    Ash wakes up in Victor's little cottage on the cliff. Brock, Misty, and
Pikachu are happy that he's back, and they tell him that Victor was the one
who saved him. Ash thanks Victor, but Victor is modest and says to thank his
Pikachu, Pooka. Pikachu goes outside to see Pooka, and they begin to chat.
    Meawhile, Team Rocket comtemplates about snatching the Pikachus in their
Gyaraddos submarine.
    Ash, Misty, and Brock look at some photos up on Victor's wall. One is a
picture of him 20 years ago, and another from 40 years ago. And there is one
more picture. It is of Victor and Jan. Victor tells them about Jan. Jan was a
really good surfer. Victor began to surf because of Jan, and all along, Jan
was his idol. Jan watched Victor surf all the time, like he was his mentor.
Victor was very happy as a surfer. One day, there was a really big wave.
(Hint, hint, Humunga Dunga) Many people tried to surf it, but they were not
good enough. However, Jan had enough skills and not only did he ride it, he
stuck a flag, which had  his logo (a "J") on it, into a very tall rock in the
ocean. After riding Humunga Dunga, Jan gave Victor his surfboard. Then, Jan
decided to leave to surf the world. Victor kept practicing to be a good
surfer, but when the next Humunga Dunga came, 20 years later, Victor had
failed and he quit surfing. But one day, while Victor was on the beach, a
Pikachu (Pooka) on a wooden raft came to him from the ocean. And from that
moment, Victor began to surf again.
    Ash thinks that Victors past is really interesting and feels that Victor
will ride Humunga Dunga this time. Suddenly, they hear the Pikachus yelling
outside. Uh oh! Team Rocket has got them in a machine hand which comes out of
their submarine. Team Rocket says their little motto, but they get raised up
the cliff by geysers. They hold fans (or something) which squirt out water.
This scene is really cool because of all the water squirting out. Suddenly,
Jessie and James get dropped down on the submarine as Meowth stops the water.
Jessie yells something like "A twerp on the land is worth 2 Pikachu in the
hand", but I'm not sure.
    Team Rocket goes deeper in the water. They feel like they've accomplished
a lot. Eventually, they see real Gyaraddos lurking in the water. James says
that he's heard that Gyaraddos go to shallow water to lay eggs. Jessie and
Meowth become very nervous and they start to pedal to the surface. Some
Gyaraddos follow and one uses hyper beam until they somehow float their
Gyaraddos submarine in air. The hyper beam strikes, and Team Rocket blasts
off again!
    Ash, Misty, Brock, and Victor are in a speed boat in the water. Ash sees
the Pikachus in the air and he sends out Bulbasaur to rescue them with the
vines. But, Bulbasaur only grasps Ash's Pikachu and Pooka falls into the
water. Victor strips off his shirt, gets his surfboard, and jumps into the
water. He gets Pooka on the surfboard and suddenly, Pooka glows, which means
that Humunga Dunga is coming. Victor ponders about it, and suddenly, he sees
a big wave coming. It's Humunga Dunga! Victor unrolls his flag, and starts
riding the wave with Pooka. Up on the cliffs, Ash and the group spot Victor
and Pooka riding the wave. Finally, Victor reaches the rock and sticks the
flag in. Wow! The water floods the beach and knocks over a beach chair and an
umbrella.
    Victor comes back from the water and looks at the throng of people. He
spots a girl and a boy and he goes up to them. "You can do it too", he says,
handing them Victor's surfboard. "Oh....all right!", answer the kids in a
really pestering tone. Ash and the group smiles.
    Team Rocket's stuck between some Gyaraddos which are circling them
slowly. Too bad for them!

    This episode is not only a "classic", but it's story line is well planned
out. The only problem with it is that it's shown way too much, and now I get
bored. Still, that shouldn't be a factor. Let's see. The opening is a good
one, because it arouses suspicion, and even if you don't like I doubt that
you want him to get run over by a car. The Jan idea is very symbolical,
making him like this eerie figure. And Pooka; what does he mean? I thought
that he was like a pokemon version of Jan, but maybe not. Pooka is also a
strange symbol. Team Rocket's encounter with the Gyaraddos is really cool,
especially the hyper beam, which looks really neat. There was also the
surfboard thing. I noticed that when Ash went out to ride the waves, his
surfboard had a picture of a Psyduck. When they show Victor starting to surf
at a young age, his surfboard has a Pikachu on it. And Jan's has a "J" on it,
otherwise known as his logo. I'm pretty sure that this has a connection to
how good the surfer is. Ash sucks (no offense), Victor was pretty good, and
Jan was a legend. See a small relationship? It makes lots of sense. A problem
in this episode might be too little Misty, Brock, Togepi, or any pokemon
other than Pikachu. There is a little too much Pikachu, but it's not a
problem, because it adds flavor to the "surfing Pikachu" idea, and Pikachu is
a main focus anyway.
                        Grade: A- (This is a new system for me)

                            Chris L.

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    Ash, Misty, and Brock jog along the road near the beach. A car races by
Ash, and he gets disoriented by the exhaust fumes. He starts to cough, and
walks into the path of another car. The car stops, fortunately, but it causes
a massive traffic jam. Everyone starts to yell at each other, and Officer
Jenny approaches on her motorcycle. She clears up the jam, and everyone
continues on their way. Ash and his friends ask her why so many people are at
the beach, and why they have surfboards, and she tells them that Humunga
Dunga is coming. She explains that it's a huge wave that hits the island once
every twenty years. They look at the ocean, and see several surfers trying to
stick a flag or something into a large rock off shore a ways. Officer Jenny
tells them that they're trying to be surfing legends, like Jan. She goes on
to say that Jan was an excellent surfer who rode Humunga Dunga all the way to
the top forty years ago. His flag can be seen flying at the very peak of the
rock. Since then, everyone has been trying to match this feat, but no one
has. Ash decides to try surfing out for himself, and dashes out to the ocean.
 
    As Ash paddles out, Pikachu notices another, much older looking, Pikachu
sitting on a cliff not far away. This Pikachu perks up, and looks out at the
ocean, his tail starting to glow slightly. A man inside a cabin looks at him,
saying "That's a big wave all right, but not THE big wave." Ash does pretty
well surfing, but wipes out. Suddenly, his foot cramps up, and he starts to
flail about in the water. A wave crashes into him, and he his knocked
unconscious, face down in the water. Another, much larger wave approaches
him, but the man on the cliff, with the Pikachu on the tip of his board,
surfs by and scoops him up. He gives the Pikachu ("Pooka" as he calls him)
different surfing commands and they go towards shore. Ash wakes up just
enough to see the Pikachu sitting there, but drifts off again. Later, in the
man's cabin, he wakes up. Brock tells Ash that the man's name is Victor, and
Ash thanks him for saving his life. Victor looks out at Pooka, sitting on the
cliff again, and tells Ash to thank him. Pikachu dashes out to Pooka, and
joins him as he watches the sea. Team Rocket surfaces from the water in the
Gyarados sub, and sees the two Pikachu sitting there. They prepare to steal
both.
 
    Back inside, Misty sings Togepi to sleep, and Ash and Brock talk with
Victor. He tells them that he's had Pooka for twenty years, and remembers how
he found him. He was floating on a piece of board in the ocean and landed
right into his arms. They've been friends ever since. He says that Pooka is a
mysterious Pokémon, for he can feel the waves in his body. He can sense when
a big wave is coming and Victor tells them that they've ridden every big wave
for twenty years. Misty notices some pictures on a wall. One is of Victor and
Pooka twenty years ago, the other is of Victor forty years ago. Brock asks
who the person is in the third picture with Victor, and he tells them that
he's Jan, the surfer. He says that, when he was a kid, everyone wanted to be
like Jan. In fact, Victor himself started surfing so he'd be like him. He'd
try every day, and, through the support of Jan, he became better and better.
He tells them that he thinks Jan could feel the waves within him as well, and
always seemed to be waiting for something. One day, it came. It was the wave
Humunga Dunga. He tells about how Jan rode the wave all the way to the top,
and jabbed his flag into the peak of the mountain. He then says that, after
getting to shore, he gave his board to Victor, telling him that he could do
it too. He then set off in a boat to "surf the world."
 
    He then tells them that, twenty years later, he challenged Humunga Dunga,
but failed. After that, he got really discouraged, and didn't want to surf
anymore. Then, he got Pooka, and everything changed. He says that he and
Pooka have conquered every sort of wave together, and they're ready for
Humunga Dunga. Ash tells him that he believes in him, and they hear Pikachu
and Pooka cry out. They dash outside to see both in the clutches of the
Gyarados sub's grabbers. Team Rocket appears, does their motto, and set off.
They dive down, and Pikachu vainly tries to break through their glass cage.
Suddenly, out of the depths, come several real Gyarados. James says that he's
heard that Gyarados come to these waters every year to lay their eggs, and
they hate to be disturbed. The Gyarados slam the sub a few times, and Team
Rocket tries to leave. Unfortunately for them, the Gyarados aren't through
with them yet, and Hyper Beam them out of the water. On the surface, Ash and
his friends are in a motorboat searching for Team Rocket. The sub launches
into the air and breaks apart. Pikachu and Pooka break out of their cage, and
Team Rocket flies over the sea. Ash sends Bulbasaur out, and he catches
Pikachu with his vines. Pooka falls to the water, and Victor throws out his
surfboard, then dives into the water. The waves start to get rough, and Ash
and his friends are forced to return to shore. As soon as Victor saves Pooka,
Pooka starts to glow and bluish color. It's the big one, and it can be seen
coming over the horizon.
 
    On shore, Officer Jenny tells everyone to report to higher ground. Ash
and his friends are worried about Victor and Pooka, as they can't see them.
Suddenly, he notices them at the top of the wave, rapidly approaching the
rock. Victor readies his flag, and the board flies over top of the rock.
Victor jabs his flag into the rock, right next to Jan's, and everyone cheers.
The wave crashes, and Victor looks out at what he did. Ash and his friends
congratulate him, and he notices two kids standing among the crowd. "Hey, you
could do it too," he tells them, and gives them his board. Ash and his
friends smile.
 
    Later that evening, somewhere out in the ocean, Team Rocket sits and
waits as the Gyarados circle them. How are they going to get out of this one?

Trainer Dominic

www.pojo.com