"Can you see it, Pikachu? The star of victory!"
"?"
"Eh? How can you see a star in broad daylight?"
"What are you doing? At least let me try to establish a mood!"
That roughly translated scene from the Japanese version might just be my favorite exchange ever on this show. I guess I was wrong about "Pokémon" never hanging any lampshades on anything!
I'd forgotten how good this episode is - humor, action, and drama balance themselves perfectly as they so often do in Kanto. And the plot is very cleverly executed; it's actually because of this episode that I've held off on evolving most of the evolutionary stone Pokémon that I have in the video games. Now I always gotta make sure they've got a decent moveset first!
There's some great Satoshi/Kasumi arguments in this one, like how she points out that she and Takeshi gave him the Gray and Blue Badges out of pity, and Satoshi gets so defensive that he almost slugs her. (There's something they'd never dare to try today!) Machisu is easily one of the greatest characters ever, and that's due in large part to his never-ending supply of Engrish. "Unberievabuu!" still makes me laugh out loud. And as always, Musashi-tachi are hilarious, especially in their ouendan disguises. Nyasu's reaction to Kojirou's "aasu/Dogas" pun is absolutely priceless.