Japanese Title: Winner's Cup! Full Battle 6 VS 6!!
Original Airdate: August 26, 1999
US Airdate: September 16th, 2000
The one where... Ash faces a Canon Foreigner champion.
Ash and friends finally arrive on Pummelo Island, where Ash prepares for his battle with Drake, the undefeated Orange League Champion. He learns that it will also be a full battle, where each trainer uses all six Pokémon in their party. With his Snorlax refusing to wake up, Ash sends it to Professor Oak in exchange for one of his Tauros. The next day, the battle begins on a rock-and-water battlefield, which will change as soon as one side loses three Pokémon. Ash manages to win the first two rounds without too much trouble, but Drake's third Pokémon proves to be a bit trickier...
Tropes
- Beam-O-War: The episode ends with Drake's Gengar and Ash's Lapras engaged in one with Night Shade and Ice Beam, respectively. It results in an explosion.
- The Bus Came Back: One of Ash's Tauros makes its first appearance and battle debut.
- Composite Character: Although the Kanto Elite Four are established in the Anime by this point, Drake takes some cues from the game version of the Pokémon League. Dragonite (Lance), Onix (Bruno), Gengar (Agatha) and Venusaur (Green) being taken from their teams, and an appearance vaguely resembling Lance, who wouldn't debut until the Johto arc.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Drake's Onix is able to escape Water Gun with Dig and traps Ash's Squirtle with Bind but a Withdraw and Hydro Pump severely damage Onix and a single Skull Bash knocks out the Rock Snake Pokémon.
- Ditto Fighter: Pikachu takes on Drake's Ditto; since he's the more physically fit of the pair, he wins.
- Dramatic Alien VTOL: Dragonite debuts doing this.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Ash's Snorlax has been established as being nearly unstoppable and has few obedience problems; if Ash were able to use it, the battle against Drake would be much easier, so to preserve the image of Drake and Dragonite being nearly unbeatable, Snorlax decides now is a good time to sleep for a few days and can't be woken up.
- Heavy Sleeper: Not even an onslaught of five Pokemon can wake up Snorlax.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Because he's so strong and undefeated, Drake wonders if he'll ever find a Worthy Opponent that can defeat him. He gets his wish when Ash comes to challenge him.
- No-Sell: Tauros' Fissure attack has no effect on the levitating Ghost-type Gengar (a rule that actually became canon ten years after the episode aired).
- Pungeon Master: Drake makes a bad pun every time he calls on a new Pokemon in this episode, though this is averted in part 2.
- Put on a Bus: Snorlax officially leaves Ash's original team since it won't wake up for the Orange League.
- Too Dumb to Live: Team Rocket threatens Drake, the undefeated champion, to make him hand over Dragonite. That goes as well as you would expect.
