Japanese Title: Pippi VS Purin
Original Airdate: September 10th, 1998
US Airdate: September 25th, 1999
The one where... The Clefairy are building a spaceship in order to leave the planet. Yeah.
Ash, Brock and Misty get sidetracked on their way to Viridian City when all of their belongings mysteriously disappear. While searching for their missing things, the group find themselves mixed up in a close encounter that's really out of this world!
Tropes
- Alien Abduction: Team Rocket, disguised as aliens, do this with Pikachu.
- Badass Adorable: Jigglypuff in this episode as it pounds mutliple Clefairy into submission with little effort. Same with the lead Clefairy who fights Jigglypuff to a stalemate.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Jiggylypuff, angered over the theft of its marker "microphone", boards the Clefairy's ship to demand it back. When they don't comply, things get violent, with Jigglypuff slapping seven separate Clefairys into unconsciousness. Then when it confronts the leader, they fight to a standstill.
- Cat Fight: While their genders are ambiguous, Jigglypuff and the Clefairy's battle comes off as this.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: At the end of Team Rocket's motto, one of the Clefairy humorously takes Meowth's place.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Oswald.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Jigglypuff fights the Clefairy with a slap battle, knocking out every single one.
- Delayed Reaction: It was only after the "aliens" took off did Ash make objections to them taking Pikachu.
- Full-Body Disguise: Subverted with Team Rocket's grey humanoid alien costumes; while they are covered from head to toe, it's still painfully obvious who they really are.
- The Greys: Team Rocket's latest costume.
- Here We Go Again!: When the Clefairys' spaceship crashes at a lakeside campsite at the end of the episode, they go out and start swiping objects again to rebuild it.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: The Clefairy leader is disringuished by a hairclip near one of its ears.
- Jabba Table Manners: Ash is a two-fisted ice cream eater.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Madeleine Blaustein's voice for Oswald sounds similar to that of Albert Einstein.
- Noodle Implements: The Clefairy are building a spaceship out of household objects like tennis racquets, baseball bats, pots, baby bottles, and ice cream cones.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: When disguised as aliens, Team Rocket say "Nomékop... Nomékop... Nomékop...", which is "Pokémon" spelled backwards.
- Skewed Priorities: The Clefairy steals the heroes' stuff. What's Ash's biggest concern? The ice cream.Ash: I didn't get to taste the chocolate!
- Something We Forgot: Ash and Misty have no scruples over abandoning Oswald on the Clefairys' ship.
