There's No Place Like Hoenn! (279)

[faintattack]

the best episode and the has the best team roket theme

e.g. of a team roket theme http://www.angelfire.com/ar/pokefan/.../trfashion.wav !!!!!!!!sorry this will not work!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edwardel]

Max is so cruel to moronic Ash. Poor TR, they almost had it this time.

[Legendary Dragonite]

This is something that occured to me a while ago...

Think back, if you will, to the episode in the first season where Ash meets his Primape. Primape, at first, steals his hat and Ash freaks out. He has a panic attack and goes on to explain how special the hat was,"how only a few of them had ever been won or sold, or something like that..."

Yet in this episode"or the one before it", he willingly trades in that hat for the new one, without even noticing at all. As far as I know, that new hat had no meaning at all.
Why would he always freak out in the past if it even left his head for a second, just to end up leaving it at home?;
"Sorry, it was the previous episode, but regardless..."
149;

[JONNO.FRESH]

I dunno y. Why dont u ask the writters?

Anyway an alright epi. Could of been a lot better.

[Some_Random_Person]

I like this episode, I thought Ash was being a lot smarter by warning the others about the pitfalls. Max calling Ash 'Alf' was funny too! I wonder what would happen if Team Rocket decided to take May's Torhchic away...

[ShinyManafi]

Very funny when Max kept getting Ash's name wrong, lol

[AshfanGirl20]

Yah man this episode was funny. I don't like Max but he was ok here. I laughed every time he called Ash name wrong, loved Ash expressions when Max did. And when Ash warned every one about Team Rockets traps, too funny.

[penngrade6]

Max's debut appearance was pretty good, with him pretending to be the gym leader. I loved Ash's reaction when Max thought Ash lost in the second round when he really lost in the second round of the finals. It was cute when May blushed when Ash guessed the gym leader was her boyfriend. The battle between Vigoroth and Pikachu was okay, it could have gon better.

[Battra]

I great episode even though I don't really care for Max in the series or when he joined the gang at the end of the episode I think he did get a nice introduction in this episode. Max was really annoying in this episode harassing Ash about the Silver Conference until Ash demonstrated his skill in his battle with Norman, also got a laugh out of Torchic attacking Max the first time and seeing Ash with a sarcastic smile on his face that really made the scene all the much better. I like May's parents they really get developed in this and later episodes as a very close family one of the few we see in the main series for the main characters.

[mewtwos]

It was a good episode.
This episode was funny because of max.

[Jesse GS the II]

My copy of this one is sans subtitles, thus allowing me to focus much more on the voice work and the animation. There are a lot of great poses and cycles in this one - a few of the sequences that stood out:

- Haruka hemming and hawing on the playground trying to avoid the subject of the Touka Gym
- Satoshi's reaction to Masato reminding him of how he lost the Jouto league
- Masato getting attacked by Achamo (any of the times it happened)
- Musashi and Kojirou taunting Haruka shortly after reciting their motto
- Masato trying to find clues regarding the Rocket-dan's whereabouts, then throwing a tantrum after Haruka hits him in the head

And the Pikachu vs. Yarukimono battle was pretty well-drawn too. Solid poses and movements all around.

I've mentioned before how Haruka is one of my favorite characters, but I like the rest of her family too. Senri and Mitsuki aren't too well-defined at this point, but they do show signs of the likeable personalities they'll show in their return appearances. And Masato is my idea of a lovable brat, the type who talks big but doesn't have any of the skills to back up his claims. His trait of actually enjoying being attacked by Pokémon is good for a laugh, too.

This episode sets up a plot thread that doesn't really get resolved - Haruka's badge case. In future episodes, I don't recall Haruka ever telling Senri that she decided to become a coordinator instead of a trainer, and I think it would have made an interesting episode to see her struggle with the notion of letting her father down in his hopes of passing the gym leader job onto one of his kids. I can't figure out why they never played this up...

[Cobalt_Latios]

This is something that occured to me a while ago...

Think back, if you will, to the episode in the first season where Ash meets his Primape. Primape, at first, steals his hat and Ash freaks out. He has a panic attack and goes on to explain how special the hat was,"how only a few of them had ever been won or sold, or something like that..."

Yet in this episode"or the one before it", he willingly trades in that hat for the new one, without even noticing at all. As far as I know, that new hat had no meaning at all.
Why would he always freak out in the past if it even left his head for a second, just to end up leaving it at home?;
"Sorry, it was the previous episode, but regardless..."
149;

You do realize that the writers were counting a lapse of about 4 seasons to hopefully "forget" about miniscule details like the forementioned. Kind of like how they're able to make characters simply forget things even happened, despite the fact that they have in fact occurred.

And Ash's wardrobe change was merely to help him look... mature in a way.

It's been quite a while since I've even seen this episode, but some rather new post have made me take a look back at this.

I have to say, for only being about 5-6 episodes since the Silver Conference, the writers were awfully quick in bringing it back up. The choice of character to make that reference makes it funny as hell though.

The classic sibling relationship between May and Max is one of the few things that remains consistent for most of Advanced/AC/AB. BF not as much. I still like how his attitude as a smart guy attitude tends to make him very curious just the same; living it really isn't the same as actually experiencing it.

There's one thing that I noticed about the few episodes between his departure from Kanto, to his first Sinnoh capture; he's so used to calling upon certain Pokemon, that it's become second nature. This changed in Sinnoh obviously, which shows that he become accustomed to a different style, and that the writing is also changed as well.

And last, if not least was something that I just now realized was somewhat similar to another Kanto episode: When Ash goes to challenge the Petalburg gym, but as it turns out, it isn't the first gym, May leaves early on. It then turns out that she is in fact Norman's daughter (and those who played the games as a girl obviously knew that in advance). The same sort of thing happens with Misty, albeit it turns out that she is the Gym Leader (or at least in the games...).

Not a bad episode, really starts thing off and gets you ready for what's to come ('course, the badge case May gets won't be lasting too long...), and introduces everyone to... well, almost everyone.

edit: let me be clear, I am talking about the dub, alright.

~C_K~

[Tadashi]

I can explain that, in the Japanese version, Ember is called Hinoko (literal:child of fire). May in the original told her Torchic to use Kinoko (Mushroom). So it's a visual pun...that 4Kids tried to get around. They have that as an avatar now you know!

That makes actual sense now... I don't think 4Kids got around it very well, though ^^;

Oh man, Max was so weird. He was like... some strange fanboy. But I liked the way he & Ash argued. Good friends, there ^^

Good episode overall ^^

[TurtwigFan1]

I very much liked this episode. Max was funny and I loved when Ash got the sarcastic smile on his face, he looked so funny!

[Igottapoo]

This was a pretty good battle and episode. Max is kind of annoying.

[(s.i.e)]

i liked this episode but it could be better, it was good to see max in this episode though.

[Littlemyuu]

Nice episode, its fun that Max knows about Ash's battles from the past

[Ash-kid]

What a pity that Ash did not won Norman,or not battled him 2 on 2.

[Hibachi]

I thought it was odd how May never told Ash ahead of time that Norman was her father. It almost seemed like she was avoiding the gym just like Misty tried to do. I was surprised that Max knew right away who Ash was from watching him at the Silver Conference. I thought Norman's Vigoroth was really strong. It is too bad that Ash didn't have three pokemon at the time. I felt bad for poor May. She barely knows anything about pokemon training and then Team Rocket steals her Torchic. Thankfully she was able to recover it. I was shocked when Norman asked if Max could travel along, and frankly I was disappointed. I thought Max was very annoying.

[BogleDominic Crazy Anime]

Nice episode. Max is annoying and his dad is great.

[Sonic Boom]

I was going to ask about the mushroom scene, since I can't find subbed episodes for the life of me, but it seems that it's already been cleared up a while ago ^^;

"It's pretty bad for kid who made it only to the second round of the Johto League Championships."

"Not bad for a kid who lost in the second round."

"Of course! After all, he DID make it to the second round of the finals!"

Oh man, that made me laugh when Max kept bringing that up to Alf. He had no respect for Alf when they first met. Poor Alf.

Then there's Alf bringing up all of his Johto Pokemon, and regretting ever leaving them at Oak's lab. You'd think that since he willingly made himself leave them there, he would remember that important piece of info each time the situation was brought up before he tried to send them out.

Vigoroth's pretty powerful for a Pokemon with average base stats. It slammed Alf's Pikachu right into the wall and caused a dent in it. Alf's got a lot of work to do to get his Pokemon up to snuff to take on the wild sloth next time around.

And Torchic has it out for Max, obviously. He never gave the poor guy a break. XD

Overall, 8/10. Alf got to meet Max and the folks, Max joins up with Alf and May, and they each get a badge case and the parents' blessing. Nice way to tie up the familial connection May has with them.

[Charmed]

Just like Misty, May wanted to avoid going to the Gym since a relative of hers is in charge. Ongoing trend?

Max was annoying. He thought he knew so much about Pokemon, but he couldn't even remember Ash's name. At least Torchic "peaked" his head.

The mushroom scene's joke was lost in translation. Glad Max went along with Ash and May though. He could provide some comedic relief later. 5/10

[KGB13]

I like Max a lot and thought he was funny, especially when he knew so much about Ash but kept getting his name and rank in the pokemon league wrong. Great episode.

[saar]

I think it was Arbok and Weezing's last battle VS Ash and co.
The way Norman Ko'ed Ash and Pikachu just showed how many training Ash should do to defeat this big guy, Vigoroth.

Max being in the show was a good part. I love the fight he had with Torchik.

[Jorah]

Max making fun of Ash at the beginning of the episode was pretty funny. It's too bad he couldn't stay this way throughout all of the Advanced Generation. They also played the Elite Four Battle theme which is one of my favorite themes in the entire franchise so that was a plus too. Pikachu's *** got owned by Vigaroth in this episode too. I actually laughed at the hole joke they used in this episode. Ash seems too experienced to fall for the old hole trick in this episode anyway. I really liked this episode whole lot.