Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 33:  "Hono'o no Pokemon REESU" ("Blazing Pokemon Race")
American Episode 33:  "The Flame Pokemon-athon!"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Poniita
Japanese Air Date:  November 11th, 1997
American Air Date:  October 21st, 1998
Important Characters:  Laramii Fuuko (Lara Laramy), Dorio (Dario)
Important Places:  Safari Land (Safari Zone)

Satoshi and the gang arrive in the Safari Land where they are greeted by a herd of Kentaros.  Satoshi send Hitokage to try to weaken one so that he can catch it, but a Gardie falls from the sky and lands on Hitokage before it can launch its first attack.  Just then, a woman on a Poniita named Fuuko yells at him for trying to catch pokemon in the Safari Zone (which serves as a pokemon reserve).  She informs the trainers that they are in the Laramii Ranch, a place where herds of pokemon are raised for racing, meaning they are very fast and strong.  She tells them of her Poniita who only lets trainers it likes ride it.  Then a stampede of Dodrio come through, lead by a Dodrio trainer, Dorio.  He proclaims that he'll beat Fuuko in the Pokemon Race being held the next day.  After he leaves, Fuuko invites Satoshi and the gang to come see the Pokemon Race.  Fuuko and the gang spend the night at the party, Dorio runs up to Fuuko and tells her that a herd of her Kentaros are going wild.  She races to the herd and uses Gardie to calm them down.  Suddenly, something flies and hits Poniita, who rears back, causing Fuuko to fall and land on her arm.  Satoshi tries to calm Poniita down, and the injured Fuuko takes note of this.

Meanwhile, it is revealed that it was the Rocket Dan who fired the slingshot that caused Poniita to throw Fuuko off the horse.  They are causing accidents for the other trainers so that Dorio will be sure to win (in return for okane ^_^).

At her home, Fuuko says she can't race with her arm broken, but asks Satoshi to ride Poniita in the race because she thinks he handles pokemon well (I told you she noticed his efforts to calm Poniita down).  After getting Poniita to trust him, Satoshi enters the race.

The next morning, the race is held.  There are a lot of trainers, including Dorio on his Dodrio, Takeshi on his Iwaku, Kasumi on her Starmii, and Pikachu on Satoshi's Zenigame!  The race begins with Dorio in the lead.  During the race a metal ball flies towards a Kentaros that a trainer is riding and causes it to go crazy.  It hits a Nidorina in the back with its horns, and the two pokemon ignore the race and start to fight each other.  Now the racers are going uphill, but Zenigame's too slow and is in last place.  Downhill, the round shape of a trainer's Biriridama enables it to roll swiftly downhill, putting it in the lead.  But a hole dug by the Rocket Dan makes it fall and overheat, causing an explosion.  When the smoke clears, Satoshi is down, but Pikachu recharges Satoshi and he's back in the race.

The next part of the race is to cross a lake by hopping on stones on the water.  Since all the rock pokemon are too heavy, Takeshi is out of the race.  Now the racers must have their pokemon eat a full bowl of food to advance.  Dorio's Dodrio's three heads fight over the food and Dorio's losing precious time, so he calls on the Rocket Dan to slow everyone else down.  Smoke fills the arena, and the Rocket Dan show up!  Pikachu, Zenigame, and Kasumi begin to fight the Rocket Dan while Dorio resumes the race.  The Rocket Dan are easily defeated as Satoshi also resumes the race.  Now it's only Satoshi and Dorio left in the race.

Poniita and Dodrio are neck and neck, so Dorio decides to cheat by having his Dodrio attack Fuuko's Poniita, slowing it down.  All seems lost until Poniita evolves into Gallop.  It catches up and actually crosses the finish line before Dorio.  Satoshi wins!  Dorio's mad and orders Dodrio to attack, but Gallop kicks Dorio and Dodrio out of the stadium.

Fuuko congratulates Satoshi and tells him that the Safari Zone's the perfect place to catch pokemon (but the announcer said at the beginning that they were already in the Safari Zone...).  So Satoshi leaves to get the rare pokemon.  Meanwhile, Dorio has the Rocket Dan tied up, yelling at their failure.  The episode ends with Dodrio pecking the Rocket Dan to bits -_-

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*Satoshi-tachi aren't in the Safari Zone, they're in the Safari Land, outside of the Safari Zone.

*During the celebration at night, listen very closely and you'll hear Pokemon Ondo!  That's right, 4Kids left the original Pokemon Ondo in the dub!  The song is hard to hear because it's at such a low volume, but you can hear Lucky, Dogasu, and Arbo sing!  Yatta!

At night, the Japanese on the red paper lantern, the white sign, and the "...tori" symbols are erased (sorry, I don't know Kanji so I can't tell you what the signs originally said!).  When Dorio runs up to Fuuko to tell her of her Kentaros, the kanji on the red overhang in the background as well as on the white sheet of paper hanging on it is erased.

At the start of the race, the banner over the starting line says "Pokemon REESU" (Pokemon Race) in katakana and "START" in english.  This was erased at both the beginning and the end of the race.

*The announcer in the Japanese version says "Ready...GO!" in English.

*Zeni Zeni!  After Biriridama explodes, Zenigame and Pikachu run up to Satoshi.  Pikachu says "Pika!" and in the dub, Squirtle said "Zeni Zeni!" instead of "Squirtle Squirt!"  This was probably due to lazy editing but it's neat.

*Does anyone else hate the pronunciation of "pokemon" in this episode by Fuuko and Dorio?  It's not Poh-KAY-mon...

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