“Holy Titanic!” =_= Narrator, I love you, but... these jokes...
This really is indeed one of my favorite episodes, both from my childhood and now. There is a reason how even after all these years, I remembered what went on in this episode. For starters, this is that rare episode where the characters are actually in peril; they are underwater about to topple into the deep abyss (though that's some luck even for a show for the St. Anne to land on a piece of protruding rock). And yet despite all of that, it still manages to make it one of the funnier episodes—complete with dark humor. Another is that the pacing is well-done in this episode. Everything flowed in a nice way that it made for a great story-telling. Episode 15 was okay, though the catalyst of Team Rocket taking over and everyone fighting back was what led to the rising action of this episode, which would continue into the next episode where we would get a pretty cool climax.
The beginning is very somber for a Pokémon episode, one you would not expect in a children's show, to be honest. They don't directly say they died, per se, but it's very obvious it's a memorial service with somber music and a bouquet of flowers thrown into the water. It's beautiful. (I have to wonder if Vermilion City still thinks they're dead—because I'm pretty sure that was the Vermilion City police.)
And then after that, Ash is woken up to find out he's upside-down, and physics takes over in time for him to land on Pikachu. Classic. Team Rocket's day-dream is just as funny, though James makes it funnier with the “burning” repetition. The sultry way he says it is just perfect. Eric Stuart really makes James pop like that, and this episode really shows it. How it is they didn't burn automatically makes me scratch my head, but this is Team Rocket we're talking about. They can survive just about anything—even drowning. My God, their first drowning scene was pretty graphic, I don't blame Ash and the others from freaking out. But then they drown a second time later on (though it's not as graphic), and their screams of “ZOMBIES” just further proves it was a set up for a small gag and dark humor (a scarcity in Pokémon).
Anyway, after their first drowning, when they get up to fight Ash and Brock and they release their Pokémon, my favorite scene happens. For about a minute, they struggle to keep the ship from tilting with eight Pokémon and five humans all with different weights. Geodude especially gets the honor of actually being funny in how it hops over at one point just to be ordered by Brock to return to him xD. (Though how odd that Onix doesn't make the ship move, yet other Pokémon did... oh well, plot convenience.)
I also love how this is the one rare episode where Ash and Team Rocket work together, albeit hesitantly. But even then they don't completely cooperate. They were basically going to leave Team Rocket behind as they talked to one another how they're never going to leave each other (which is one of my favorite Rocketshipping moments, honestly), and when they cut a hole in the hull and escape with Water Pokémon. Misty could've given them her Staryu, really.
But if she had, we wouldn't have had the honor of the Magikarp Chekhov's Gun for a nice piece of dark humor. James being so proud of having a Magikarp is so funny, he's so confident in it (his eyes say all, which is why I screen-captured it for my screen saver), but then after several seconds, they realize how useless it is. Meowth's joke was great, “Forget swimming, it can barely splash.” I just have to wonder how they managed to get out.
Them drooling over Magikarp while they're on a make-shift raft was great. It was them realizing Magikarp isn't edible was what got James to kick it with his now-infamous magical boot that causes any Pokémon he kicks to evolve. Remember that I did not play the games at this point, though I don't think I've had that Pokémon book that showed all (then) 151 Pokémon yet. So I did not know that Magikarp could evolve into such an awful (as in scary, because Gyarados is awesome) Pokémon. (By the way, “I'm James, your master. Obey me.” X3 Pfft, now he's proud of his Pokémon until it roars and he gets all wimpy.)
Gyarados was shown in an amazing way here, they really wanted to prove that it was as terrible as it was said to be. And you know what, they succeeded. This end of the episode was very nightmarish, it's much more scarier than the giant Dragonite. If Misty, the Water Pokémon trainer of the group, is very antsy about them escaping Gyarados, then you know how much you're in trouble. Dragon Rage in this context was especially frightening, the music being part of it. Misty saying no one's ever escaped Dragon Rage is probably true (though it's possible some sailors have survived a Gyarados attack in order to tell such stories), since its Accuracy rating is 100%.
Damn, Pokémon, you scary. (But I still wish you were real.)
This was a much crueler cliffhanger, that water cyclone at the very end really stuck with me for all these years. I wouldn't say I was traumatized (I've seen much scarier before then), but for a six-year-old, that was something, especially when you've come to like the characters. I guess for the time, we were lucky Pokémon aired throughout the week, so we (unlike the Japanese audience) didn't have to wait until the following Saturday to see if they made it out alive. But hey, the next episode is an awesome episode (and another personal favorite), so no matter if we had to wait for a week, we were in for a treat.