day 695 misty's poliwhirl evolves into politoad {ep247}
Would ya look at that, the king's rock Ash won at that random sumo-tournament actually came in handy. There's that Chekhov's Gun people. 248 is a good Team Rocket filler episode, 249 is bad filler that has misty's new politoad fail at being endearing and 250 is merely boring filler instead of bad, showing how the group makes it through the ic cave, not that it matters since this episode was skipped in the dub due to jynx apparently.
day 708 ash gets eighth badge {ep251-255}
251 begins the Blackthorn City arc which lasts till 255, so a brief run-down. Clair is awesome, and the 8th badge fight is great, certainly the best one in Johto if not the entire OG series. Charizard flys in like a boss and Snorlax backs him up like a beast. They take down a hulked out Dragonite and other such things. Also Brock laments about riding on Misty's Staryu again... only other time he did this was in the 1st movie meaning my theory about their amnesia being removed back in Mewtwo Returns was right! Finally, Wobbufett has a very intellectual conversation with a wynaut that he sees, as viewed here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMX00jdY5AU
day 719 ash helps save the city of Alto Mare alongside the lati twins {m5}
m5 is probably the smallest in story scope of the movies, anime!Venice is in danger, is Ash a bad enough dude to save it? Of course he is. It's also one of the two movies that Masaaki Iwane did key animation for, he was also animation head for Mewtwo Returns and a a plethora of the better animated episodes, his first job being the Charizard vs Magmar fight in ep59, so m5 is really nice to look at.
This is the only place it can go in the time-line due to politoad's inclusion and the gang not heading for the league yet. There's one big canon hint for this one, as Ash now knows what the lati twins look like, but that won't come into play until way further down the line.
day 733 lapras meets up with ash again and he gets a Pokémon egg from Prof.Elm {ep257}
256 is the last Misty focused episode, watch it. As for 257, come on Ash do you really think it's a coincidence? Take Lapras with you, she's not a kid anymore and clearly wants to rejoin your team why else would she just happen to be near your location despite their migration being strange. (sigh)
day 737 the egg hatched into a larvitar {ep258}
day 738 ash registers for the league competition and heads for mt. Silver {still ep258}
day 741 brock opened his eyes!!! {ep260}
Just like his haunter from Kanto, it doesn't matter that there was no official capture, he hatched that damn egg, it's his Pokémon. 259 has that entei sighting I already mentioned whilst writing on m3, and Brock's pineco evolves into forretress, also Brock leans on an invisible wall, bad animation right there.. 260 is an otherwise pointless filler involving slowpoke and Arthurian myth somehow, notable only for the sight gag above which lasts for a couple of seconds, and for being the last hand-drawn episode.
day 746 ash runs into casey again and she catches an elekid {ep261}
day 754 Ash's larvitar is returned to his mother on Mt. Silver {ep264}
Holy crap! Dat animation... it's so much better! Digital animation is here to stay, and it looks nice. Though I will admit I miss the rougher style sometimes. It's also nice to run into Casey one last time, kinda wish she had shown up more. 262-264 finish off the larvitar sub-plot and I'm left hoping for a late series cameo from him that much like his predecessors pidgeot and primeape will never actually happen, even if Pokémon does finally run its course.
Next time... The 2nd best arc in the entire show, and the best ending to a region to date or "Winning the Fight, Losing the War, Staying Best Friends versus Staying Just Friends, The End of an Era: How to Pick up the Pieces and Keep on Moving. Eps 265-274
