Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 043: "Nasshii-Gundan Dai Koshin!"

("The Nasshii Gang's Big March!")

American Episode 41:  "The March of the Exeggutor Squad"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Tama-Tama
Japanese Air Date:  May 7th, 1998 
American Air Date:  November 2nd, 1998
Important Characters:  Magii (Melvin the Magician)
Important Places: RIIFU no Mori (Leaf Forest)

Satoshi-tachi decide to take some time off from their journey to attend a carnival.  Kasumi and Pikachu, embarrassed by Satoshi's and Takeshi's behavior in public, separate from the boys.  After riding a few rides, Kasumi meets Magii, a magician who needs help with his Pokemon Magic Show.  Kasumi agrees to help, but is dismayed to find out that the show really stinks.  Kasumi, now rejoined by Satoshi and Takeshi, tries to cheer Magii up by giving him advice on how to make his show better.  During this time, Magii's pokemon, a Tama-Tama, hypnotizes Satoshi with its Hypnosis attack.  Magii realizes this and decides to make Satoshi do his bidding for a while.  The magician enters the nearby Leaf Forest and commands Satoshi to use his pokemon to battle and weaken the Nasshii in the area.  After Magii captures a bunch of the pokemon, the pokemon start to hypnotize one another.  The berserk pokemon begin going on a rampage and head toward the carnival.  Satoshi, who has now snapped out of his hypnosis thanks to Pikachu, follows the Nasshii to the carnival.  He battles the pokemon with his own, but finds that Hitokage's the only one who has any effect.  Together with a guilt ridden Magii, Hitokage is able to snap the rampaging pokemon out of their berserk state.  After the arduous battle, Satoshi's Hitokage evolves into Lizard.  Having saved the carnival and the Nasshii, Satoshi-tachi leave for their next adventure.

---

Thoughts
This episode was 4Kids' last episode of the pre-Kids' WB! season, and, had the series never been popular, would have likely been the last English-language episode of the series.  Of course, the show was popular enough to warrant additional seasons, but it's interesting to think what would have happened if the show never took off.  It was a pretty logical place for 4Kids to end the season, since the evolution of Hitokage into Lizard was something fans undoubtedly wanted to see more of. 

Edit-wise, it was a fairly average episode. 

Paint Edit
In the very first scene, the establishing shot of the carnival, there's a banner at the very top of the screen that reads "something-KAA" (something-Car, likely referring to the ferris wheel.  The text was erased by 4Kids for the English version.  The same shot is used later in the episode (right before the Nasshii destroy the carnival), and it's painted away from that scene as well.

Paint Edit
As Kasumi and Pikachu are eating ice cream after riding a bunch of the rides shortly after the episode's title screen, there's a sign at the back that reads MIRAKURU MIRAA!! ("Miracle Mirror!!") in katakana.  It's erased by 4Kids.

Paint Edit
After Magii's fire causes the tent's sprinklers to go off during his magic show, we see a shot of the stage with a banner at the top.  The banner reads MAJIKKU SHOO ("Magic Show") in katakana, and the text was erased for the dub.

Paint Edit
The most complicated use of digital paint for this episode occurs right after the commercial break.  As Magi and Satoshi enter the Leaf Forest, there's a wooden sign on the right-hand side of the screen with a bunch of Japanese text. 

Chuui
Kono ??? RIIFU no Mori
Muyami ni Tama-Tama o ???
Nasshii ni shinka shite...

(The ???'s indicate kanji I couldn't quite make out)

Basically, all that says "Danger, in this Leaf Forest, the Tama-Tama recklessly evolve into Nashii."  For the dub, all that text was painted over with a big "CAUTION" followed by a picture of an Exeggcute, an Exeggutor, and an arrow pointing from the Exeggcute to the Exeggutor.  It basically conveys the same meaning, only in picture form.  4Kids' sign looks really good and doesn't stand out too much at all, and it shows that they're learning how to use their paint programs more effectively.

Side Note
Notice how in this episode, everyone is allowed to talk about a "time bomb?"  Usually when they have bombs in the show, they rename them the über-kid-friendly "blaster balls," yet this time they were allowed to say "bombs."  I wonder what happened...

Previous Episode

Next Episode