"There's no such thing as a bad Pokémon?"
"Pokémon do bad things, because master bad."
"It can't be! My master's not around and I always seem to act like a rat!"
— Meowth and Ekans, debating on whether a Pokémon can be truly evil.
Japanese Title: Island of the Giant Pokémon!?
Original Airdate: July 22nd, 1997
US Airdate: September 30th, 1998
It's a BIGA-chu!
The one where... The Pokémon Speak is translated.
The twerps, Team Rocket, and all their Pokémon have been separated on an island apparently inhabited by gigantic Pokémon. But the humongous denizens are of little concern compared to the groups reuniting with their Pokémon.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Amusement Park of Doom: Pokémon Land, the titular Island, is supposed to be an amusement park. This does not help the trainers or the Pokémon at all, as the giants are frequently attacking and cause a hell of a lot of destruction in their wake. This also does not prevent them from being lost for almost three full days given the only really terraformed and pathed area is around the roller coaster seen in the climax.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: This isn't the Island of the Giant Pokémon for nothing.
- Black Comedy: When Ash's Pokémon wonder where Ash, Brock and Misty are, Squirtle jokingly suggests that maybe they were eaten by wild Pokémon. Pikachu and Charmander are not amused.
- Brick Joke: Pikachu and company ask a wild Slowpoke for help, but the only thing the Dopey Pokémon does is go fishing; the episode ends on the Slowpoke having evolved into a Slowbro.
- Contrived Coincidence: The two Pokemon that Ash still has on him are the flying types Butterfree and Pidgeotto.
- The Cynic: During the entire time they're separated from Ash, Bulbasaur assumes the worst - that he abandoned them. His attitude also rubs off on Ekans and Koffing, though Ash's other Pokémon don't believe it. Most notably Charmander, despite being abandoned by a previous master itself.
- Disaster Dominoes: At the climax, Team Rocket gets savvy about how their train car ride will end.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- This is the first and only episode to translate Pokémon Speak in subtitles.
- Given that Slowbro is really just a bipedal Slowpoke with a Shellder attached to its tail, its evolution shows exactly that, with Slowpoke realizing that a Shellder attached to its tail and starts saying "Slowbro" afterward. Later instances show Slowpoke lighting up like other Pokémon when it evolves, even if its body doesn't change much.
- Ekans and Koffing refuse to obey Meowth, making apparent that Pokemon can't be inherently bad. In later episodes, not only are several Pokemon shown capable of being cruel by their own free will, but other Team Rocket Pokemon are shown willing to listen to Meowth (though one could interpret it as Ekans and Koffing also getting sick of Meowth's Leader Wannabe attitude, which he slowly loses afterwards).
- Everyone Has Standards: After seeing a giant Rhydon approach them, Ash's and even the rest of Team Rocket's Pokemon bail without untying Meowth. Pikachu however goes back to release him, even if Meowth just gives him bluster. Noteworthy given Pikachu snarked disappointment about him surviving in the last episode.
- Eye Catch: The first instance of deviation between versions, Who's That Pokémon? is Slowpoke in the original and Slowbro in the dub.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, and Charmander do this to Meowth after Ekans and Koffing invoke Punch-Clock Villain on him.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Pikachu is Choleric, being the Hot-Blooded leader and taskmaster; Charmander, essentially a Nice Guy and the only Pokémon who consistently follows his lead, is Phlegmatic; Squirtle, a jokester who is fun to be around, but isn't as focused on the task at hand, is Sanguine; and Bulbasaur, the quiet and cynical one, is Melancholic.
- Friendly Enemy: Ash and Team Rocket's Pokemon cooperate with no hard feelings after getting separated from their trainers. Meowth remains The Friend No Body Likes and is tied up for the first half, though even then Pikachu does release him out of pity.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Giovanni plays this role for this episode as well as the series - he does nothing to place any of the characters in danger here, but it's revealed that Pokémon Land, the dangerous island amusement park this story is set in, was his property, possibly for schemes to steal Pokémon as well as money.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: After several episodes of Meowth posing as a Leader Wannabe, Ekans and Koffing make it clear they only put up with him so long as Jessie and James were around and gladly leave Ash's Pokémon (and later the giant Pokémon) to decide his fate.
- It Was a Gift: Jessie and James reveal that they respectively received Ekans and Koffing as birthday and Christmas gifts. In the original Japanese, they were Ghost Festival (chūgen) and Year-End (oseibo) gifts, both of which are seasonal events in Japan.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Giovanni refused to listen to Jessie and James' distress call, which eventually led to his multimillion dollar theme park getting totally destroyed.
- No OSHA Compliance: The island theme park has giant robotic Pokémon that threaten to electrocute, incinerate and crush the humans and their Pokémon. And that's not getting into the rail car with the faulty brake.
- Painting the Medium: When Jessie and James recite their motto to the Boss over the phone, their trademark leitmotif has its audio distorted, as though it is coming from the phone itself.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Ekans and Koffing, as shown when they encounter Ash's Pokémon along with Meowth. Meowth orders two to capture Pikachu, but they refuse. They only attack the group on Jessie and James' orders and are willing to have a nice dinner with Pikachu and his companions. When Meowth tries to get their help under the guise of being challenged by all of Ash's Pokémon, Ekans and Koffing are too busy having tea. It's a total "screw you" to the "Top Cat."
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: When the Boss gets a phone call at the end, he expresses out loud his shock and horror that Pokémon Land was totally destroyed, revealing to the audience that the theme park was funded by him and that he is a somewhat a public figure despite being the head of a criminal organization.
- The Reveal: Near the end of the episode, it turns out that they were stranded in a theme park, and that Giovanni, Boss of Team Rocket, had invested money in its construction so it can serve as a source of funding for his criminal enterprise.
- Robotic Reveal: The giant Pokémon were just large animatronics in a theme park. It's first shown when their roller coaster cart goes flying off the track and hurtles toward the giant Zapdos. It smashes through the Zapdos, with mechanical parts flying through the air, to which Brock realizes they were really mechanical Pokémon, after which the malfunctioning Zapdos falls to Earth and explodes in front of the other damaged robotic Pokémon.
- Rollercoaster Mine: Subverted in that the mine cart our heroes and Team Rocket turns out to actually be part of a roller coaster ride at Pokémon Land
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Why a bunch of robots intended to entertain visitors to an amusement park would need to shoot real fire and electricity is never explained.
- The Team: This episode establishes the group dynamics of Ash's main Pokémon. Pikachu is the cheerful optimistic Leader. Charmander is a thoughtful Number Two and The Lancer. Squirtle is a street-wise trickster variety of The Smart Guy, and Bulbasaur is a stoic Gentle Giant Big Guy. They keep this dynamic until Charmander evolves and becomes a Red Oni to Pikachu's relative Blue, the reverse of what's seen here.
- Undying Loyalty: Pikachu believes correctly that Ash won't give up looking for them. Charmander also maintains this position, despite having been abandoned by it's previous trainer.
- Despite Leader Wannabe tendencies and being more annoyance than actual help in previous episodes, Jessie and James are still relieved to see Meowth at the reunion in the car.
- The Unreveal: After Ash and the others crash into the water after their roller coaster ride, the next we see of Ash and his friends is a Jump Cut of them walking along a path to a beach-side city, with no explanation as to how they got there or how they were separated from Team Rocket.note
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jessie is scared of roller coasters.
- You No Take Candle: Ekans' and Koffing's subtitles come across as this.
