Yes, this is the first episode they meet Takeshi, but the dub screws on his family and makes it seem that Takeshi's mother died. I thought that they're trying to cover death on the shows that they're dubbing, not create them, it's kind of funny, actually. This is the reason why the dubbed Hoso, where Takeshi meets up with his family, he has a certain hate for his "new" mother for no reason (except for changing the Gym). I like how the writers put in that little Fushigi Yuugi reference, very creative, great job writers.
One of the great points of this episode was Takeshi's first appearence. He was so serious and badass when we first saw him (but as the episodes started to progress, his hormones started to show :/). We also saw the motherly side of him and his love for his siblings.
It seems 4kids screwed up the price of one little meal in the Pokemon world. I noticed in the dub, the scene were Satoshi was eating at a resturant (for the people that think that was the Pokemon Center, it couldn't have been, since everything's free there) on the bill, they changed that Yen sign into a U.S. dollar sign, but they slipped up, thanks to that, it looked like more than it's actually worth (the dub made it look like it was over one thousand dollars, I believe), I know that Ash is a bigger pig than Satoshi, but that's a little to much. They could've added a decimal sign so it's actually reasonable, but no. Great job 4kids, you've shown us how much resturants are cheapasses in the Pokemon world.
Well, as for the episode itself, it's actually one of my favorite episodes. This episode is one of the first episodes that show you don't only need to have strong Pokemon to be a good trainer, but you also need to care for other pokemon as well.
I give the dub 7/10 thanks to those paint edits and/or storyline edits. Aside that, it was perfect.
And I give the original and/or full episode a 8/10. Ya for Takeshi's first appearence.
