Ash goes to sleep prior to the day that he will get his Pokemon from Professor Oak dreaming of nothing but Pokémon. Unfortunately, he accidentally breaks his alarm clock mistaking it for a Pokéball in his sleep. The next morning he wakes up to find that he is late to be at Professor Oak’s lab. Running down the street in his Pajamas, Ash desperately hopes that there is still a Pokémon left for him. When he gets to Oak’s lab though, he sees a huge crowd. Out of the gates comes Gary, Ash’s rival. Spinning a Pokéball on his finger, Gary introduces himself and mocks Ash about being late (and not properly dressed). As Gary leaves with his horde of fans, Ash steps into Professor Oak’s lab. There he discovers that all of the starter Pokémon Oak had have been given to other trainers who were on time. Disappointed, Ash pleads the Professor asking him if there are any Pokémon left. As Oak pulls out a Pokéball, he warns Ash that the only Pokémon he has left is very uncooperative. Ash takes it anyway, as he is very desperate. Opening the Pokéball, a little yellow mouse type creature appears on the table. This is Pikachu, Oak tells Ash. It is an Electric Mouse Pokémon. Oak gives Ash his extra Pokéballs and Pokédex and sets Ash on his journey. As Ash leaves, his mother is there with some other people to wish Ash a happy journey. After Ash shows Pikachu to the crowd, his mom tells Ash that Pokémon usually stay inside a Pokéball. Ash complies and asks Pikachu to enter the Pokéball. Pikachu refuses and knocks the Pokéball back into Ash’s hand. As Ash leaves the town of Pallet, h, dragging the unwilling Pikachu behind him.Ash tries to make friends with Pikachu but Pikachu is still not interested. As Ash carries on, he sees a wild Pokémon, Pidgey. His Pokédex explains that a Pidgey is a great choice for a beginning Pokémon Trainer, so Ash calls Pikachu to go and battle it so he can catch it. Pikachu simply sits on a branch and ignores Ash, so he decides to try to catch the Pidgey himself. Throwing a rock, the Pidgey runs into the grass and Ash chases it. Still ignorant of the Pokédex’s advice, Ash uses other methods to catch it, but ends up being the victim of Pidgey’s Sand Attack.
After scaring away more Pidgeys, Ash sees another bird Pokémon. Without knowing what it is, Ash throws another rock and hits it right on the head. His Pokédex notes it as a Spearow, an aggressive bird Pokémon. Attacking Pikachu, the Spearow is now annoyed and Pikachu shocks it away. But it isn’t over. The fallen Spearow calls other Spearow, which attack Ash and Pikachu. They try to escape and dive down a waterfall in the process.
Ash is fished out by a young girl whose name is Misty. She notices the bad state Pikachu is in and tells Ash that he needs to get his Pokémon to a Pokémon Center. Ash takes Misty’s bike and says he’ll give it back one day. Misty chases after but can’t keep up. As Ash cycles the Spearow soon catch up and Ash falls on the bike, which throws Pikachu into the mud. Ash tells Pikachu to get into the Pokéball so he can protect him and get him to the Pokémon Center. As Ash stands up, he talks to the Spearow and swears to become a Pokémon Master. “Come and get me!” Ash cries as the Spearow dive at him. Pikachu clambers to his feet and jumps at the Spearow. He uses a powerful Thunderbolt attack, which causes the Spearow to flee.
This is just the beginning to the Pokémon adventures of Ash. He must challenge the Gym Leaders of each City in order to win badges, which will qualify him for the Pokémon League. He will meet lots of friends like Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader and will re-meet with Misty. Lots of secrets will be uncovered and Ash will try to catch as many as he can, all the time trying to keep up with his rivals including Gary.
Where there’s good, there is always bad though. The notorious Team Rocket is dedicated to stealing Pokémon. Jessie, James and the Pokémon Meowth are members of Team Rocket and they have their eyes set on capturing Pikachu. They are always coming up with new ideas to capture the Electric Mouse but their plans are always foiled by Ash and his friends. But they still try to catch new and rare Pokémon whenever they can, but always come up empty handed because of the heroic Ash.
It’s an incredible adventure that takes our heroes around the world, underground and across the sea — all the while discovering new and amazing things about everyone’s favorite creatures – Pokémon!
Aired in September 1997 in Japan, it was set for a great release in the US a year later. It took off with a blast until December 16th, 1997 where 700 children were hospitalized due to a flashing effect in one of the episodes. This caused a huge setback for further releases in the US and Australia. Fortunately that incident is nearly forgotten now as the series continued to air in April 1998, the dual-episode movie, “Pikachu’s Summer Vacation” and “Mewtwo Strikes Back!” was released on July 18th, and the second series of the animated show is already on the drawing boards.
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