Japanese Title: Photo Op Pikachu
Original Airdate: July 23rd, 1998
US Airdate: April 17th, 1999
The one where... Team Rocket try to hire a hitman, but get a photographer instead.
Say cheese! Ash and friends are being shadowed by Snap, the world's greatest Pokémon photographer. Snap hopes to catch just one great shot of Pikachu, but Pikachu is camera-shy. What Ash and friends don't know is that Snap is doing this job for Team Rocket. But Team Rocket thinks that Snap is in the business of actually capturing Pokémon—the villains don't realize that he only captures them on film. When they realize their unwitting tool is actually a photographer (Meowth had misunderstood the wording in Todd's article “the best at capturing Pokémon on film”, as he didn’t see the “on film” part, to Jessie and James' chagrin), Team Rocket drop in to swipe Pikachu themselves. Ash and Snap work together to send Team Rocket off in a photo finish. Snap gets the photo he wanted, and Ash gets a new friend.
Tropes
- Accidental Pun: After Ash and Todd make friends, Misty comments "I never pictured it". After a moment, both she and Brock realize that she's talking about a photographer, and join in the laughter between Ash and Todd.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: This is one of the notable moments in the series where Team Rocket genuinely tries to murder Ash. While Ash is hanging from Todd's camera, James tries to blow them both up by hurling bombs at them. If the explosion doesn't kill them, the fall would've (or so we're to assume since Team Rocket does survive the same fall towards the episode's end.)
- Call-Back: Snap took a picture of the Aerodactyl that tried to eat Ash.
- Expressive Mask: The random Blastoise mask Todd wears as a Visual Pun at the Mondegreen Gag (see Lost in Translation for an explanation...)
- Food Porn: Brock's rice balls and Todd's pancakes look really delicious.
- Fork Fencing: Jessie and James do this over a last piece of meat. Even though James says he needs the protein, Jessie ends up getting it.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: As the screaming Team Rocket is about to go over the edge of the waterfall, they suddenly stop in mid-air to recite a little rhyme.Jessie: But first, a poem. Team Rocket drifted down the stream. And now we SCREEEEEEEAM! [the trio plummets down the waterfall]
- Group Picture Ending: Snap takes a picture of himself, Ash, Misty and Brock to close the episode.
- Lost in Translation: In the Japanese version, when Todd Snap claims to our heroes he is a "genius cameraman," Ash mistakes the Japanese word "kameraman" as "Kamekkusu", which is Blastoise's Japanese name, to which Todd is suddenly wearing a Blastoise mask as a Visual Pun. The English dub had to change this so that Ash mishears "master" (as in "Pokémon camera master") as "masker", hence the Blastoise mask.
- Thankfully averted. The onigri, previously infamously referred to as "donuts" in episodes such as "Squirtle Squad" and "Primeape Goes Bananas", are finally called "rice balls" in English. (Justified in that Brock is seen using rice to make them.)
- Oh, Crap!: While spying on the gang through binoculars, Team Rocket is confused to see Todd taking a photo of Pikachu. Meowth looks at the magazine and discovers Todd's a photographer, and sheepishly explains his blunder, with Jessie and James getting angrier by the minute.Jessie: What's that boy doing?
James: He's taking a picture of Pikachu.
Jessie & James: Huh? MEOWTH!
Meowth: Huh? (flips through a magazine) Uh, the magazine says he's a... Ohh! (looks at the article of Todd) "The best at capturing Pokémon on film"? Ah! Now I get it! The article said that he's good at capturing them on film! I thought he actually captures them! Heh! An amusing mistake.
Jessie & James: YOU'RE THE MISTAKE! (They punch Meowth into the air)
Meowth: AAAH! MEOWWWWTH! - Stopped Reading Too Soon: Team Rocket hired Todd to get Pikachu because Meowth missed the part that said he was the best at catching Pokemon...on film. That's right, Meowth stopped reading in the middle of the sentence.
- What the Hell, Hero?: At the start of the episode, Ash mistakes Snap's camera flashes as a possible weapon and reflexively pushes everyone out of the way. They're rather angry until Ash proves Snap's presence using Squirtle to Water Gun him out. Snap also gets one from the trio for taking their pictures without asking (making him come off like a stalker), though it doesn't quite sink in.
