Japanese Title: Nyarth's A-I-U-E-O
Original Airdate: November 12th, 1998
US Airdate: October 9th, 1999
The one where... We learn how Meowth learned to speak human tongue. Bring tissues.
The gang heads to Hollywood for the premiere of Pokémon in Love and Meowth is forced to look back on his painful past. Meowth shares bittersweet memories of his life before Team Rocket, and reveals how and why he learned to walk and talk like a human.
Tropes
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Jessie and James comes to Meowth's rescue when his old gang is about to attack him. When Meowth expresses his surprise, they both admit that, while they're heinous, they won't turn their back on a fellow Team Rocket member, with James even calling Meowth a friend.
- Meowth: (touched) It's nice to have friends.
- Bilingual Bonus: The title, Nyarth's A-I-U-E-O (ニャースのあいうえお), references the first five characters in the gojūon
, the most common order for the Japanese kana characters. The English equivalent title would be "Meowth's ABCs". - Call-Back: Ash and his friends are invited to the premiere of Pokémon in Love, which they helped produce in the last episode.
- Chekhov's Skill: Meowth's ability to speak human language while also understanding Pokemon speak was meant to be one for the series' ending as originally envisioned by Takeshi Shudo, but this obviously ended up not happening. Meowth's ability to talk obviously came in handy in several other instances throughout the show however.
- Crapsaccharine World: Meowth went to Hollywood after seeing the glitz and coziness in movies. When he gets there, Hollywood is glamorous, but filled with classist and materialistic people who are cruel to stray Pokemon. In present day, it has devolved into a full on Crapsack World due to a recession leaving it in ruins and its civilians abandoning even their own Pokemon to make it easier for themselves.
- A Day in the Limelight: The focus of the episode is Team Rocket's Meowth and his backstory. Ash and co.'s Hollywood excursion acts as widow dressing to Meowth's narrative; by the time that's over, there's not even enough time left in the episode for the Rockets' Once per Episode attempt on Pikachu, so they simply do a song-and-dance number before exiting stage-left.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Meowzie chooses to stay with Persian over Meowth because he was the one who took care of her after her owner abandoned her. Also, she still thinks Meowth is a freak and can't comprehend the notion of getting together with him despite liking him better now.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: The whole reason for Meowth becoming sapient. Meowth mistakes Meowzie's shallow love for humans spoiling and coddling her for a love for human kind itself. He learns to talk and walk like a human, but only gets labelled a freak in response. Even in present day, where Meowzie and his old gang now want his partnership, primarily because a talking Meowth could help with their circumstance. Meowth refuses point blank and attempts to "rescue" Meowzie and elope, still not understanding that she doesn't want him out of genuine love.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Meowth isn't from Hollywood, California but is instead from Hollywood, Kanto (with Hollywood spelled shrewdly different in the Japanese edit). The English dub makes it seem like he's from California but doesn't explain why or how the characters travelled to the US from Kanto.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- This is yet another case of the franchise referencing a real world location, doing most previous examples one better by having the main cast actually travel there. Interestingly, however, this is mostly in the English dub, which makes explicit mention of the state of California; the original Japanese implied that they weren't visiting the actual Hollywood by spelling the name of the town slightly differently.
- In this episode, it's shown that most Meowth are quadrupedal and walking on two legs is something that makes the TR Trio's Meowth truly unusual. The episode also shows that Meowth had to teach himself to do this and that Meowzie considered him a freak for not walking on four legs. Later generations would treat bipedal Meowth as the default, or at least nowhere near as unusual as this episode makes it out to be.
- Imagine Spot: After arriving to Hollywood, Ash and his friends imagine being in a glitzy, extravagant city while dressed in fancy attire. However, reality sets in and shows the actual city being a derelict ghost town.
- Lost in Translation: In the original, the episode's "Hollywood" is called "horiuddo" (ホリウッド), which is similar but distinct from the official Japanese spelling of real-life Hollywood, "hariuddo" (ハリウッド). This is lost in the dub, where the city is Hollywood; it's even said to be in California.
- Marilyn Maneuver: Done by Ash's mom!
- Melancholy Moon: The episode ends with a despondent Meowth looking at the moon, wondering if Meowzie is also staring at the moon wherever she is.
- Origins Episode: We see how Meowth learned to talk and what his life was like before he joined Team Rocket.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title is inspired by Horace Greely saying "Go west, young man."
- Young Meowth is inspired when he sees That Darn Meowth.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Besides the occasional Imagine Spot or reference in later episodes, Meowzie only appears in this one episode, though she is the whole reason Meowth learned human sapience and joined Team Rocket in the first place.
- The Show Goes Hollywood: When Ash and his friends arrive in Hollywood for the Pokémon in Love premiere, the city is completely run-down. Justified in the Japanese edit, at it was only Kanto's ill-fated copycat of Hollywood.
- Unwanted Rescue: Meowzie tries to convince Meowth to aid his old group that she is now part of. Meowth however snubs them and battles the Persian leader for her freedom. It is only after he wins (and is blatantly not going to help the gang) that Meowzie breaks that she is infatuated with the Persian, and will never love Meowth anyway because she still thinks he's a freak.
- Villain Episode: This episode focuses on Meowth and Team Rocket instead of the twerps. Granted, they're not exactly "villainous" this episode.
