A Friend In Deed! (080)

[Ash-kid]

Great episode, richie was so smart..
And i loved how Ash and richie saved the pokemon from TR

[Charmed]

Great episode. Usually the League Rival type of character appear in the beginning of the League, not half-way through. I wish we could've seen Richie compete more.

I liked that Ash and Richie became instant friends through all the chaos Team Rocket caused by stealing their PokeBalls. Loved that they worked together to make a whole in Team Rockets truck.

Perfect introduction episode all around 10/10

[JohnLee]

Great episode. Usually the League Rival type of character appear in the beginning of the League, not half-way through. I wish we could've seen Richie compete more.

I liked that Ash and Richie became instant friends through all the chaos Team Rocket caused by stealing their PokeBalls. Loved that they worked together to make a whole in Team Rockets truck.

Perfect introduction episode all around 10/10

It's sad that we'll probably never see poor Ritchie again! He was awesome! I loved all of his pokemon. His pokemon reminded me of how Ash's pokemon probably could have been.

[AbsolKnight66]

Richie was one of the so and so characters if you like him or not. Evrybody pretty much hates him because he beat Ash, and has the same Pokemon as him. However, he also tried to save Ash. So, overall he was a cool character.

[KGB13]

I liked this episode, it was good. I love Richie's Pikachu because of it's cool little haircut and I like how unique Richie and his pokemon are. Putting those stickers on his pokeballs to tell them apart from others was genius!

[G50]

This was an ok episode. Richie was more fun to see in the later season. It was cool however to see him for the 1st time, his labeled pokeballs looked really cool and were very clever. It was cool to see Pikachu be able to sniff out Ash's Pokemon to help them escape. It was cool to see them become friends. Sparky definitely had a unique look.

14/100

[Aquarelle]

Richie annoyed me a lot. He seemed to be too similar to Ash for me to find him even remotely interesting. It was cool to see that he nicknamed all his Pokemon, though some of the names I found strange, like Zippo the Charmander (makes me think about orange juice for some reason O_o) and Happy the Butterfree (seems unoriginal and lame).

I liked the end of the episode, where Ash and Richie find out they're going to face each other. Five year-old me thought it was a really dramatic way to end the episode, and it made me want to see the next episode really bad.

[Sorotoki]

Can someone please explain how when the van was flying off the cliff Ash magically summoned Pidgeotto? He wasn't aware which pokeballs were his, so he must have gotten VERY lucky to grab Pidgeotto's ball.

[Vern]

Richie was terrible. I seriously disliked the guy since he seemed like "perfect Ash". Nothing much happened here really besides this guy debuting though. When I was younger I was really excited over this new rival but watching it again I feel exactly the opposite.

[deathseer]

A totally idiotic and contrived episode. Every moment just made me angry and realized why I hate Team Rocket and most of Kanto.

[Calamity™]

It's Diglett!
I think it's a bit stupid that people would just throw their Pokéballs in a bag with hundreds of others. It's even more stupid that Ash would let his Pikachu be tied up in a bag. I liked Team Rocket's little victory dance when they stole all them Pokémon.
I really liked Richie's character, he seems like an Ash without that annoying overconfidence. And he actually had a brain. The van scene was pretty good, and James' turn attack was obviously the best!

[Angel~]

I didn't mind Ritchie, I love the thought of him & Ash being best friends & I loved how they both worked together against TR.

[Caseydia]

Ash has a clone and it's better than him. Worst concept ever. But it happens. However, I don't get Team Rocket keeping ash from his match instead of just kidnapping his Pikachu would have done anything for them. That was just really crazy.

[7threst]

Ritchie was alright, but just his personality was pretty standard in my regard. He certainly was a rival, but it was nothing compared to what Gary and Ash had.

[AhTreyYou]

It would of been neat if Ash would of used someone else's Pokeball and a Machoke/Kadabra/Haunter/Graveler came out and evolved

[Demon Kitsune Yoko Kurama]

Oh Sparky. How I love it so. That hair is just too amazing. If only they had one in-game. But, the episode was good. Team Rocket was annoying.

[p96822]

Hmm... I never cared for the Richie saga. He was too boring as a character.

I agree with you there dude he is boring and they could have introduct him in filler and it could have been better