Please don't stare at me like that! I'm a very shy little girl!
— Ash, as Ashley
Japanese Title: Erika and Kusaihana
Original Date: September 23rd, 1997
US Date: October 12th, 1998
The one where... We get the first appearance of Ashley.
The party arrives in Celadon City, a perfectly pleasant town full of large department stores, condominiums, and fancy arcades. Brock and Misty are mesmerized, listening to a pretty young girl in a miniskirt, selling perfume. Appalled by the perfume's price, Ash is kicked out of the department store, and heads for the Pokémon gym alone, but he is denied entrance to the Celadon Gym. The perfume that Ash criticized in the department store is produced in this gym. Brock and Misty enter the gym and befriend those who inhabit it, but Ash must go to some outrageous lengths in order to even set foot in the gym, let alone prove himself worthy of battle against its Master.
Tropes in this episode:
- The Atoner: For being tricked into becoming Team Rocket's Unwitting Pawn, Ash decides to help put out the fire and rescue Erika's Pokémon partner out of it.
- Badass Boast: Pikachu apparently was sure that it could beat Gloom, even after it knocked out Charmander easily and resists Pikachu's electric attacks.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Meowth thinks his nose was dissolved by Gloom, but then remembers the cartoonists never gave him a nose. Note that Meowth makes different a joke in the original Japanese version
, which had to be changed due to being Lost in Translation. - Bullying a Dragon: Team Rocket rather surprisingly administer this for once. After Erika's staff humiliatingly deal with them the first time round, they respond by bombing the gym (though blast themselves off in the process).
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": In the dub, Team Rocket call a Cartoon Bomb a "blaster ball."
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Erika's Gloom curb-stomps Charmander easily with its scent. Charmander had also just beaten her Weepinbell rather handily.
- Disguised in Drag: Team Rocket forces Ash to disguise himself as a girl named Ashley.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Erika's workers throw Team Rocket out of Celadon Gym, putting an X mark on their faces. In response, Jessie decides to steal the recipe for Erika's perfume and rig the gym to explode.
- When Ash poses as Ashley, Pikachu immediately recognizes him, and tries to snuggle up to him. Ash rebuffs him, forcing Pikachu to expose Ash's identity in front of Erika.
- Enemy Mine: Ash teams up with Team Rocket after they are forced out of the gym. And unfortunately for him, he realizes too late that he's an Unwitting Pawn in their plans.
- Eye Catch: In this episode, the Who's that Pokémon is Gloom.
- Eyelid Pull Taunt: One of the Celadon Gym's staff members responds to Ash's pleas to enter the Celadon Gym by doing this.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Ash insults Erika's perfume for its high prices as well as its scent, which causes him to be forced out of both her store and Celadon Gym.
- Fiction Isn't Fair: After criticizing the prices and scents of Erika's perfume, Ash is forced out the department store as well as Celadon Gym. Pokémon gyms are certified by a wider, possibly government-affiliated league meant to provide places for trainers to battle. Ash never points out the blatant conflict of interest or Erika should be obligated to meet his challenge, and instead forces himself into the gym to fight her. Interestingly, when Ash does challenge her later on, Erika says it's her duty to accept all challenges (this is only in the dub version, though the original edit still accepts the challenge regardless).
- For Want Of A Nail: Ash asks Misty not to buy any perfume from the Celadon department store because he thinks it's financially wasteful and he dislikes its scent. If he didn't do that in front of Erika, he wouldn't have been banned from both the store and Celadon Gym, which resulted in his team-up with Team Rocket and the gym's eventual bombing.
- Fun with Acronyms: In the English dub, Erika uses the letters of perfume to stand for an adjective to describe perfume and ending it on a sort of Crowd Chant note. This is in response to Ash's badmouthing perfume in general. In the original, she simply lectures Satoshi about the benefits of using perfume.
- Harmless Electrocution: Pikachu shocks Ash, which only comically chars him—through it somehow disintegrates his wig (but not the dress). Alas, poor Ashley...
- Heroic Fire Rescue: Ash earns the Rainbow Badge by rescuing Erika's Gloom from her burning gym.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ash laments his efforts to challenge Erika led him to join forces with Team Rocket, who ultimately used him as an Unwitting Pawn so they could steal Erika's perfume. Fortunately, he makes amends for what he did.
- Idea Bulb: After Jessie yells at James for asking Ash to help them down, she gets a bright idea, represented by this cartoon cliché.
- Idiot Ball: Meowth places the blaster ball near him and the others since he doesn't want to lose it.
- It's Personal: After being manhandled by Erika's staff, Team Rocket decides to exact revenge by rigging the gym to explode.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although Erika's workers are violent pranksters who frequently deny people from entering Celadon Gym for pressing Erika's Berserk Button, they deeply care about their Pokémon and Erika.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Erika's rather overzealous staff also humiliatingly punish Team Rocket for trying to enter the Celadon Gym. In turn, the trio outright level the gym with everyone inside as payback.
- Licked by the Dog: Pikachu was the only one to recognize Ash in his disguise, and quickly compromised his cover when Ash rebuffed him for trying to snuggle.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Ash gets kicked out of the perfume store this way.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Team Rocket manage to steal Erika's perfume and set her gym ablaze without getting caught. However, they actually only got their hands on one ingredient; Gloom's essence. Cue more nose torture.
- Must Make Amends: After Ash helps Team Rocket, thus indirectly setting Erika's gym ablaze, he risks the fire to save her Gloom. This earns him Erika's respect and the Rainbow Badge.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ash becomes grief-stricken after discovering he was forced to become Team Rocket's Unwitting Pawn in their plans to steal Erika's perfume and blow up Celadon Gym (as well as his backhanded remark about its perfume that initially caused the whole mess).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ash teams up with Team Rocket to infiltrate the Celadon Gym, ensuring Team Rocket will blow up the gym and steal Erika's perfume in the process.
- No OSHA Compliance: There's no sprinkler system in a huge building with a forest planted inside it, so when Team Rocket rigs the gym to explode, it sets the forest on fire.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ash, when he inadvertently presses Erika's Berserk Button.
- Erika, when she's cornered by a Grimer in her flashback.
- Ash and Erika, when the former realizes his cover has been compromised when Pikachu electrocutes him for outing himself after listening to Erika's story.
- Erika when she realizes that Gloom is stuck in the burning Celadon Gym.
- Team Rocket when they realize the perfume has the essence of Gloom.
- One-Hit KO: Gloom knocks Charmander out with one blast of its stench.
- Overzealous Underling: In the changed dialogue in the English dub is implied Erika, while very protective about her business, was willing, if not obligated outright, to accept Ash's challenge in her role as Gym Leader. Her staff, however, violently forces him out of the department store and the Celadon Gym. When Ash's disguise is blasted off and he simply challenges Erika to a fight, she agrees, stating it's her duty under League rules.
- Perfumigation: Ash and friends go to a perfume shop run by Celadon Gym Leader Erika and whilst everyone else likes what's on sale, Ash criticizes the prices and scents of Erika's perfume. Though this gets him banned from the Celadon Gym of all places, Ash have a point since one of the perfume ingredients is Gloom's essence, which is horrid enough to cause a Pokémon to instantly faint.
- Persona Non Grata: After Ash criticizes Erika's perfumes, the latter bans him from the store and Celadon Gym. Ash, however, doesn't care and enters the Gym to battle Erika anyway.
- Running Gagged: This is the last time Pikachu shocks Ash in temper, until episode 30 of Pokémon Journeys: The Series.
- Sensory Overload: Gloom's stench is so horrid it can knock others out. It even scores a One-Hit KO on Charmander.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ash doesn't realize Team Rocket's using him to further their plans to steal Gloom's perfume until it's too late.
- Waxing Lyrical: When saving all the Pokémon from the fire, an unseen girl says, "We gotta catch 'em all!"
- Wholesome Crossdresser: The first of many times throughout the series that Ash dresses as a girl.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: The Ashley disguise is this trope played as straight as possible, with Ash donning a blonde wig and frilly orange dress, and changing the pitch and inflection of this voice to sound like a girl.
