day 550 ash leaves ecruteak for badges/filler rather than follow up on anything related to the Johtian legendairies {ep183}
Well ignoring that dissapointment filled summary, 183 also introduces the eevee sisters, so that's something good at least. 184+185 are both bad, in which Ash's badges are stolen... by some murkrow, uh hello thunderbolt? Meanwhile in 185, they help an old man paint a mysterious rainbow... for some reason... seriously Ash I get it, you have chronic hero syndome and feel a need to drop everything to help every stranger you meet, but can't you draw the line somewhere?
186 is funny filler though, with a thieving teddiursa that weaponizes its cuteness, 187-190 is a whole bad filler mini-arc with Todd Snap again, because yeah we totally wanted to see that guy again. Jigglypuff and an articuno do show up in 189 but that's not worth the trouble of putting with "Even Worse Than Tracey" Todd. Sidenote, I really wish Gamefreak or whoever would go ahead and make Pokémon Snap 2.
191 is a regular bad filler ep, starring one of the strangest 'mons, dunsparce. Luckily Wobbufett saves 192 since its all about him. 193 has Ash+Misty going domestic for a bit since Brock is sick for a day, so good. Surprisingly not filler, and in fact a rare instance of a Chekhov's Gun, 194 has Ash winning a sumo tournament with Snorlax and getting a king's rock.
Finally 195 is an absolutely terrible episode, with this random ass guy who is so special since he can talk to Pokémon and understand them... when Ash does that EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY ARGH! I MEAN- I DON'T- I JUST- WHY DOES THIS EPISODE EXIST?
(2013) Only thing I'll add here, along with the three Kanto region episodes I already mentioned, and a single episode in Sinnoh, Ep195 is #5 on the list of filler that is so bad/incomprehensible/or just plain doesn't make sense that I must strike it from canon altogether, because yes I know the anime is in its own seperate continuity but some things and events are simply unexcusable.
day 578 brock's golbat evolves into crobat {ep196}
That's 3 eps (6,165,196) each focusing on this one damn bat that are only saved from filler status by a single event each. At least this one is funny with mind control Jessie. 197 is more bad filler with Smeargle this time. 198 is good and funny though, it has Brock scared off by a girl's advances in a nice reversal and some Ash/Misty shipping fodder if you're into that.
(2013) I did say -Bat was completely forgettable, does it now make sense why?
day 584 ash's chikorita evolves into bayleef {ep199}
Nothing to say about 199 beyond the obvious, but I'm pissed at Ash for yelling at the newly evolved Bayleef in 200. Sure, I can understand not wanting to get body slammed by an overly affectionate creature that doesn't realize how much bigger she is, but it caused another filler episode to find the runaway Pokémon. (sigh)
201 is more bad filler with some natu, but 202 is good. Though why is it when ever a single member of the TR trio (in this case Meowth) want to do something by the book (a balloon race) the other two have to ruin it? You'd think that they would be more sympathetic considering their own perfectly legal hobbies. 203 is good filler as well, parodying of all things, (in the dub at least) Brad Pitt. Sadly 204-207 are return to the norm and are all bad filler, so let's just move on...
day 594 ash meets misplaced in time! Oak {m4}
The first Pokémon movie with a purely evil villain, whose only goal is to take over the world, the 2nd one gets a pass because its villain is just capturing the birds to be special and somehow doesn’t realize he's actually putting the world in danger. The movie also candidly explains why Ash's starting Pokémon is Pikachu, because Pr. Oak didn't want to screw up the time-stream. It makes one wonder how Pr. Oak would have given him to Ash if Ash hadn't woken up late that day.
Along with 227 later on, it serves to wrap up the suicune sub-plot. Finally Celebi being the star of the movie is the reason the GS ball amounted to nothing... even though other celebi show up later in the series and in this particular movie. Time-line, after bayleef but before corsola. Canon hints Ash knows what celebi are later on, and again it neatly explains why he got a pikachu. Also giant wooden swamp thing, would be scarier if not Conspicuous CG
movie4 is really low down on my personal rankings of the movies being the tail-end of the so-so group, with that being said however, I only consider two of the movies to be actually terrible and unwatchable... which means Pokémon has a better track record than both Star Wars and Stark Trek... I think that's a compliment.
Next Time... "Ash, I want a Corsola." "But Misty, I can finally get two badges back to back and be more than halfway to the League. Aren't you the one always complaining about us being lost and all our random detours?" "I really want one though." "Fine." Eps 208-225
