Cooking up a Great Story! (492)

[wobbanut]

I really enjoyed this episode. It was nice that the girl was trying to make her aunt feel better by passing off Ash's Pikachu as her aunt's because her aunt's had gone missing. At least Pikachu was a willing sport about the whole thing, and the episode had a happy ending. It was a change from the usual story at least. It's also interesting that Team Rocket mentioned about making pokeblock since they hadn't introduced poffins into the show yet.

[(s.i.e)]

it's a cute episode i think, that other pikachu had a funny nickname if you ask me:P

[Littlemyuu]

Nice episode...i really liked it...Pikachu is just cute

[S.Suikun]

I admit; I totally cheated while rewatching this episode. I skipped around and probably reduced its length by 4/5. Thast speaks measures about how much I detest this episode, which not only continues to be Sinnoh's most awful outing, but is one of the bottom outings of the entire series. I'm actually gonna keep this short because it makes me so annoyed - awful plot, awful animation, awful COTDs, awful emotion, awful fight sequences, and a very standard use of TR. It's boring, it's sappy, it's cheesy, it's overdone, and it falls victim to every negative stereotype of this show that otherwise doesn't even apply these days. Back when this episode first aired, I did marvel over how long it had been since we'd seen Raichu, but Raichu would later get a far superior episode in the form of DP074. Overall, I'm thankful that an episode like this only comes along once in a blue moon. There might be two other episodes max in Sinnoh that I'm willing to give the following grade to:

F

[HoennMaster]

That's being nice, more like F -

[Willow's Tara]

I dunno, I kinda liked this episode, Pikachu looked cute when it was scratching its head but it could just be me I guess. I actually thought the reason Raichu wasn't around that somehow it died or something considering how old the aunt was, but the ending was nice.

[Ciccone]

Wasn't this called Cooking up a Sweet Story? I could have sworn the title was different. It was a boring filler unless you like happy endings, sort of. I was glad to see a Raichu though. They almost always appear in a Pikachu episode, but this time, the Raichu didn't battle Ash's Pikachu but helped save the day. A nice change there haha. Not too much going on though. 4/10.

[Ash-kid]

Ash's Pikachu behaved differently in this episode.

And i loved to see again Pikachu's big rival: Raichu.

6/10

[KGB13]

There wasn't much going on in this one but I like the fact the old woman wasn't some helpless old lady and was actually a decent battler. I'm happy she got her Pikachu back after it had evolved into Raichu.This episode was alright.

[wind21]

I'm skipping a review for dp 23, which is a filler episode.

I think the first half of this episode is worth watching, since it provides some interesting characterization for Ash. Just like a couple of episodes ago, he finds himself in an awkward situation: a girl COTD wants him to loan Pikachu for a few days to her heartbroken Granny, whose own Pikachu has run away. This should give Granny the inspiration she needs to compete in a some sort of baking contest, and once Granny has won the contest, then she'll be so happy that she won't mind if she finds out Pikachu is really Ash's. Seeing that Pikachu is up for the job, Ash says okay.

Granny is thrilled to see her Pikachu back, and the first thing that she must do now is start baking. She and Pikachu head off alone to get some berries, with the girl COTD telling Ash that Pikachu is needed to thunderbolt the berries. That's not something Pikachu has ever done, Ash worries, so the group head off after Granny. Well, Ash's intuition turns out to be right; Granny realizes that Pikachu isn't her Pikachu by the texture of the berries that Pikachu thunderbolts, but she doesn't let on right away. After a Team Rocket intrusion, she challenges Ash to a battle, and she doesn't let him weasel out of it. Ash is hesitant (this is probably a weakness in the episode; Ash and Dawn train their pokemon against each other frequently, so I'm not too sure why Ash would be bothered by battling Pikachu) but doesn't really have a choice. And he doesn't hold back; he actually uses a tactic here that he uses in the 2nd gym battle: ordering a barrage of attacks with the intent of moving his opponent rather than actually doing damage. Well, it works, and Aipom is about to land a clean focus punch on a defenseless Pikachu when Granny stops the battle. She then tells Ash he's a good boy, saying it twice, although he doesn't understand what she's talking about. It's an amazing scene; the tension is built by the COTD, who really feels for Ash (as long as you don't question why Ash would feel bad, like I pointed out before), and maybe from her reaction Granny determines that Pikachu is Ash's.

Later on, Ash and the group are together, and Ash begins to have serious qualms about what he's doing. He points out that Granny really cares for Pikachu; otherwise, she wouldn't have stopped the battle. There's no way Granny will be okay once she finds out Pikachu isn't hers. Girl COTD tells Ash to still wait until the baking contest is over, but Ash says he must tell Granny now-he's not helping her this way. I think the scene is amazing from Ash's standpoint, and it's in character for him since he's thinking more with his feelings than his head (again, I wish I could be that way). It also shows a bit of progression for him since the Hoenn days. I'm not sure which episode this is, but there was one where Ash was left in charge of starter Pokemon for a new trainer, and while he was on watch, the Torchic got loose and received so much exp. that it evolved into Combusken. So to avoid getting in trouble, Ash borrowed May's Torchic (w/o her knowledge) to pass off as the Torchic from the starter pokemon, and then he tried to convince the new trainer not to pick Torchic (I'm sure you know how that ended up; I'm glad Dawn never saw him act this way, and I think I'll try to forget it as well).

So back to this episode, Ash tells Granny what's been going on. Or at least, he's about to before she informs him that she already knew. But she's not surprised he tries to tell her, and maybe she knew he would. I hate to use cliches and things of that nature, but it's as Granny said earlier: Ash is a good boy.

[saar]

Well although Pikachu remembered everything, it was felt like it isn't. Aipom was a little bit stronger in that battle.

[Lance The Champ]

Aipom vs Pikachu... That was very interesting... That battle should have continued to the end

[G50]

This episode was ok... It was great that the girl was trying to make her Grandmother feel better by having Ash's Pikachu pose as her Grandmother's Pikachu that went missing. It was interesting to find out that her Pikachu evolved into Raichu and that the Grandmother already figured out that Ash's Pikachu wasn't her own. It's nice that Pikachu was a willing sport about the whole thing. The Pikachu vs Aipom battle was very cool, too bad it was never finished.

20/100

[Angel~]

This episode was kinda boring to be honest. It was interesting when Ash had to battle Pikachu though, I liked that. Abigail was a decent old lady.

[marioluigifan05]

I was looking forward to this episode when the commerical showed Ash battling Pikachu, but then the battle was stopped (Cartoon Network practially showed the entire battle in the commerical for this episode!). Disappointing, to say the least.

~marioluigifan05

[Brownie]

Cooking Up A Sweet Story!

This episode starts off with Ash and Dawn training, when a pretty woman (who Brock falls in love with, who didn't see this coming?) asks to borrow Pikachu. Plot convenience anyone?

Anyway, she leads them to a bakery, where her grandmother is, and it turns out she's been down ever since her Pikachu (named Sugar) just up and left. So they get Pikachu to pretend to be Sugar (Sugar scratched itself with its tail sometimes), and it works for a while. The old lady and "Sugar" then head outside to pick berries...yawn...boring. Team Rocket is shoehorned into the plot, of course, they blast off. Then the old lady asks for a battle, and Aipom is sent to battle Pikachu. The battle is pretty lame, and also short-lived (this is the best they can do with a premise of Ash battling his own Pikachu?). Just when it looks like Aipom has Pikachu cornered, the old woman stops the battle. Ash decides to tell her the truth, but Abigail already knew - Pikachu's method was different from Sugar's - Sugar wasn't strong enough to do it, so she left.

WHAT?! This makes no sense! Why couldn't Sugar just TRAIN? And also, how did she know that Sugar didn't just come back stronger? Ugh...back to the episode. An arm grabs Pikachu, and guess what, it's Team Rocket again. All attempts to beat them fail, until a Raichu, who is revealed to be Sugar, beats them up (Had enough plot convenience? Too bad!), and everything is back to normal. The episode ends with everyone eating cake, praising Sugar, and moving on...

They wasted Raichu's first DP appearance on THIS episode?!