Japanese Title: Fierce Battle in the Monster Ball Factory! Pikachu VS Nyarth!!
Original Airdate: June 25, 2015
US Airdate: September 5, 2015
A question never answered: What if one Pokémon (say, Pikachu) caught another Pokémon (say, Meowth) in a Poké Ball?
Our heroes have taken an exciting detour from their Anistar City journey: a visit to the one-and-only Poké Ball Factory! The three factory managers who offer them a tour look strangely familiar...It’s Team Rocket, of course, but by the time the villains reveal themselves, our heroes have handed over every one of their Poké Balls (plus Pikachu) and gotten themselves locked in a storeroom! When Pikachu escapes, a frantic chase ensues as Pikachu tries to rescue the case full of Poké Balls and Meowth tries to use Pikachu’s own Poké Ball to trap it!Finally, Meowth offers a challenge: if Pikachu can beat him in battle, he’ll give back all the Poké Balls. Meowth tries to pull a double-cross, but Pikachu’s Iron Tail takes him down, and Team Rocket goes blasting off again. And after freeing the real factory managers, our heroes get an official tour by way of thanks!
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Up to You: After everyone else is imprisoned, Pikachu is left to deal with Team Rocket alone, without even Ash to call his attacks.
- Ash Face: Ash and the other heroes after Clemont's malfunctioning device blast the door right off.
- Badass in Distress: Amusingly, all of the heroes' Pokemon but Pikachu this time round, plus their trainers.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Downplayed. Pikachu still beats Meowth, but it's the first time in over four series where Meowth successfully landed a hit, ending Pikachu's humilating Flawless Victory run against him.
- Bungling Inventor: Another time Clemont's inventions come in handy a way they aren't meant to. When the heroes are locked inside the factory, Clemont creates a makeshift invention to unlock the door. As expected, it malfunctions and blows the door straight off in an explosion. Ash is still impressed.
- Curb-Stomp Cushion: Compared to nearly all of their previous battles, it's implied Meowth actually got in a Fury Swipes against Pikachu. After the latter even flinches to one foot in pain, Meowth almost comes off pretty badass as he stoically withdraws his claws...before he faints inelegantly from being hit by Iron Tail.
- Determinator: Meowth takes a lot of assault from Pikachu to try and catch him this episode, and still seems ready to go by the time he's caused to blast off.
- Gullible Lemmings: Okay it's nothing out the unusual for the heroes to fall for a Paper-Thin Disguise by Team Rocket, but then to find nothing suspicious about putting Pikachu in a safety case which looks identical to the trio's recurring electric resistant traps. To add insult to injury, the dub version of Team Rocket's motto is pretty much a Lampshade Hanging about how exceptionally gullible the twerps were this time.
- It's Personal: After being given the runaround for most of the episode, Meowth becomes incensed in catching Pikachu (more so than usual).
- Last Villain Stand: After Pikachu trashes their escape vehicle, Meowth's had it and demands one final battle for possession of the twerps' Pokémon. Unsurprisingly, Meowth cheats, and loses.
- Near-Villain Victory: Team Rocket nearly make off with a mother load of stolen Pok eacute; balls plus all the heroes' Pokémon, par Pikachu.
- No OSHA Compliance: The face off between Pikachu and Meowth inside the factory, inevitably leading to a lot of conveyor belt antics. Both sides use the levers and functions to their advantage. Justified since Team Rocket captured all of the factory technicians.
- No-Sell:
- Wobbuffet par the course, using Mirror Coat against Pikachu's attacks.
- Later when the team's escape vehicle is later hit by a Thunderbolt attack. Meowth stands atop the wreckage completely unfazed.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Not only an episode where Team Rocket capture all the twerps' Pokémon and remain a threat from start to finish, but Meowth and Wobuffet's small skill boost is shown again, with Pikachu having a much harder time shaking them off. First time Meowth successfully landed an attack on Pikachu the entire series (after only 877 episodes of being blasted off by the electric mouse). Ash is actually wary about sending Pikachu to fight Meowth, something that would be considered a joke in previous seasons.
- Prehensile Tail: Meowth uses his to hide the Poké Ball behind his back before his face-off with Pikachu.
- Road Runner vs. Coyote: Meowth uses Pikachu's designated Poké Ball to try and catch Pikachu, leading to what becomes a near literal cat-and-mouse chase.
- Shout-Out:
- The chase formula with Meowth trying to catch Pikachu is very reminiscent to Tom and Jerry.
- Some of the slapstick caused by the factory conveyor belts and claws also looks based off of Looney Tunes cartoon "Baby Bottleneck".
- Single-Stroke Battle: Meowth calls for one to Pikachu in a rouse to catch him with his Pokeball. Pikachu dodges, forcing Meowth to quickly play it proper. Pikachu wins.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Meowth. While it's on par for the trio, this time he goes after Pikachu with nothing but a Poé Ball, and Pikachu's attacks that usually took him out easy only make him more angry and incensed on capturing him.
- Unishment: After Pikachu traps him in a Luxury Ball, Meowth prances out quite blissful from its pampering treatment, before realising he was duped again.
- Villain Ball: Team Rocket likely would have escaped with the Poké Balls if Meowth wasn't obsessed with capturing Pikachu.
