Showdown at Dark City – Pokémon Season 1, Episode 42

Filler / stand-alone episodeFillerDark City

Showdown at Dark City is the 42nd episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 42nd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 44, Bulbapedia code EP042). It first aired in Japan on 30 April 1998 and in the United States on 29 October 1998. It falls within the season’s The comeback, Charizard & the Egg stretch (EP39–EP51).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Dark City, the next step on the journey for Ash, Misty and Brock. The trio arrive at the dingy, deserted ghost town and find no one around. Eventually a kid runs out of the a house in front of them and his mother quickly pulls him back in, fearing that Pokemon Trainers might be around. Ash, Misty and Brock are wondering why she’d be afraid of Pokemon Trainers and just then some people throw stones at them from a rooftop. Pikachu shocks the kids who did it and they fall off the rooftop.

Ash apologises to the kids for shocking them, but the kids attack them with a stick and tell Ash and gang to get out of town if there anything to do with Pokemon. Their father steps in and apologises on behalf of the kids, he invites the gang to his restaurant and as he serves them their food he explains that in Dark City there are two rival Pokemon Gym’s; the Yas Gym and the Kaz Gym who are currently embroiled in a gang war, hiring any passing Pokémon trainers they can as soldiers to fight for them. Apparently the gyms are fighting for supremacy in Dark City and the one that wins will become an official Pokemon Gym. A suspicious figure is also in the restaurant in the background but it kicks off between the Kaz gym and the Yas gym outside.

A battle ensues in the street as Ash, Misty, Brock and the kids watch through the window. The Kaz gym’s Electabuzz attacking many members of the Yas gym before the Yas gym’s Scyther started cutting down trainers from the Kaz gym. Finally they can understand why no one in Dark City wants Pokemon Trainers around. A couple of bodyguards working on behalf of the Kaz Gym come to the restaurant and attack the owner, saying they want a takeaway for 30 people (the Kaz gym trainers), but he nervously declines stating that they haven’t paid their bills in years. The owner saying he doesn’t want any “trouble” prompted these mysterious Kaz gym bodyguards to reveal their true identities; Team Rocket. They begin attacking the restaurant owner with their Pokemon before being dispatched mostly by Brocks Vulpix, after they’re gone and the owner thanks them for saving his restaurant a trainer from the Yas gym says how impressed she is and asks them to join the Yas gym, stating that their gym is truly worthy of the official gym status. The Yas gym recruiter introduces the gang to Yas, the leader of the Yas gym, when its revealed they only want to become official to make money Ash and gang decline to help them, and are promptly attacked by Pokemon and members of the gym, before narrowly escaping back to the restaurant.

With the official Pokemon League inspectors on the way the Kaz and Yas gyms are preparing to run each other out of time, meanwhile Ash, Misty, Brock, the kids and the restaurant owner however have other ideas and rig a trap. As the battle ensues between the rival gyms, Ash and Gang tip Tomato Ketchup on all of them, which prompts both Electabuzz and Scyther to ‘see red’ and attack their masters in a full on rage. Ash and friends ask if they’ve learned their lesson, but the two gyms then join forces to attack them instead, our heroes however had anticipated this, and set up electrical transmitters in the surrounding areas to amplify Pikachu’s thunder. They gang leaders still continue to try and attack Ash and friends until the mysterious figure from the restaurant appears, revealing herself as the inspector from the Pokemon League, Nurse Joy! She gives both gym leaders a good telling off, and says she could never allow them to be official the way they are, they ask what they should change and she tells them to ask Ash, who they still know as “Tom Ato”. Ash tells them to undo all the damage they did to the town, and working together the two gyms clean up the town and the townsfolks impression of Pokemon Trainers on the whole. Now Dark City’s a lot brighter, thanks to our heroes and the journey continues.

Major Events

• Debuts: Kingler, Scyther, Electabuzz
• Rhydon’s dub debut. First HM move (Cut).

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Kingler#0099 · EP042
• Rhydon#0112 · EP042
• Scyther#0123 · EP042
• Electabuzz#0125 · EP042

Trivia

• The English title plays on the Western-film idiom; the plot borrows from Kurosawa’s *Yojimbo*.
• The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.

Changes in the English Dub

• Restaurant and menu scrolls, 体力 scroll (six scenes), Kaz logo, “P.M FA. Club”, Shellder sign
• Fourth-wall line: “Pikachu really is the star”
• Dub ending: the Kanto Pokérap (Tuesday segment)

Part of our Pokémon: Indigo League guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.