Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 091:  "Goodbye Koduck!  See You Again, Golduck?"
American Episode 236:  "Bye Bye Psyduck"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Golduck (Japanese), Mewtwo (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course:  Kamex
Japanese Air Date:  April 8th, 1999
American Air Date:  February 26th, 2000
Important People:  Tsubaki (Marina)
Important Places:  Hassaku Island (Kinnow Island)

Our heroes are relaxing on Hassaku Island when Kasumi's Koduck goes missing. Kasumi and her friends search for the Pokémon as it drifts listlessly toward a small boat where a young girl named Tsubaki is fishing. Tsubaki returns the Pokémon to its Trainer and soon discovers that Kasumi also shares her love of Water-Type Pokémon! The two quickly become friends and decide to have a Pokémon battle to show off their collection. The first match is between Tsubaki's Dokukurage and Kasumi's Tosakinto.  The latter's Poison Sting easily defeats Tosakinto so Kasumi evens the score in Round 2 by having her Hitodeman defeat Dokukurage. Next, Tsubaki sends out...a Koduck!? Tsubaki's surprisingly powerful Koduck defeats its opponent and so Kasumi decides to let her Koduck battle. When she goes to call her Pokémon out of her bag, however, it seems to have turned into a Golduck!? A delighted Kasumi battles with the evolved Pokémon and soon finds it significantly more powerful than the goofy airhead she had known before. After a quick interruption by the Rocket trio the two Water Pokémon Trainers conclude their battle when Kasumi defeats Tsubaki's Starmie. Kasumi goes to recall her Golduck...only to see her old Koduck come out of its Monster Ball instead!? It turns out Kasumi's Pokémon had somehow switched places with some random Golduck and had been using a wild Pokémon all this time! Later, a disappointed Kasumi says goodbye to her new friend before joining her friends on their journey through the Orange Islands.

---

Thoughts
It's really interesting to me how much this show drags its feet in regards to certain things. For example, did you know that this is the TV series debut of Golduck? Or that this is the first time we've seen Kasumi's Tosakinto battle despite the fact that it's been on the show since Episode TWO? There are a lot of things like this that seem to happen a lot later than you'd think they would but the thing that's really wild to me is how this is the 91st episode of the series (93rd if you count the Rougela and Iwark winter specials) and yet we're only just now getting around to giving Kasumi a goal to work toward.

Think about that for a moment. We got the boy Trainers' goals -- Satoshi wants to be a Pokémon Master, Takeshi wants to be a top class Pokémon Breeder, and Kenji wants to have his work evaluated by Dr. Ookido -- almost the second they appeared on-screen. Most of these goals are admittedly vague and ultimately meaningless but they're least something, right? But with Kasumi the only thing we've ever heard from her all this time is...I'm following you around until I get my bike back? A bike that, for 93 episodes (and counting), no one has made even the first step toward repaying? I personally think one of the big reasons PokéShipping took off the way it did was because fans needed to headcanon a reason for Kasumi to keep following Satoshi around since "give me a bike" just wasn't cutting it anymore.

But now, thanks to the ending narration of (the Japanese version of) this episode, Kasumi finally has a stated goal; to be a Water Pokémon Master. It's a goal that's just as flimsy and purposefully vague as Satoshi's is, sure, but it's at least better than the big fat nothing we've had for the last two years.

Thankfully, the show decided to give such an important episode to the superstar team of writer Atsuhiro Tomioka and key animator Masaaki Iwane. Tomioka flipping the script (pun intended) by putting the spotlight on Kasumi while relegating Satoshi and Kenji to the cheerleading roles is a lot of fun to see, and the friendship between Kasumi and Tsubaki, where they're super friendly and complimentary one minute but then playfully competitive the next, was also really well done. I'm actually kind of bummed out we haven't seen Tsubaki show up again since! Animation-wise...c'mon, it's Masaaki Iwane. It's going to look great whether we're watching the characters just stand around talking or seeing Golduck go Super Saiyan and rescue a bunch of Pokémon from flaming wreckage. The episode was built off a really fun premise but Tomioka and Iwane really combined their talents to make this something extra special.

Fans of the English dub often defend this show's more eyebrow raising name changes by pointing to some imaginary rule stating that you can't use the same name more than once. I say "imaginary" because this is a rule that clearly does not exist. The character-of-the-day in this episode, for example, is a Trainer named Tsubaki. She gets her name changed to "Marina" for the English dub and so that must mean the name Marina's off-limits now, right? Well, tell that to the team who reused it just a few years later for The Legend of Thunder! In fact if you look around you'll see that it's not all that uncommon to see the Pokémon dub recycle names every now and then. There's Aaron (Movie 8 Aaron & Sinnoh Elite Four Aaron), Christopher (Whirl Cup Christopher & Kanto Breeding Center Christopher & Sinnoh Ramen Shop Christopher), Jimmy (Legend of Thunder Jimmy & Hoenn Jimmy & Kalos Guitarist Jimmy), Mary (Johto Mary & Hoenn Mary & PFC Mary), Robert (Hoenn Grand Festival Winner Robert & Unova Photographer Robert)...and the list goes on and on. The Japanese version does this too, by the way; there's an old Johto episode with a character-of-the-day named Haruka, for example. If I'm wrong and there actually is some internal rule stating that you can't have two characters with the same name then it's a poorly enforced one.

The wild Golduck and Tsubaki's Starmie keep their Japanese voices.

Dialogue Edit
The narrator starts us off:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「GSボールを持ってマサラタウンへの旅を続けるサトシたち。今 彼らはハッサク島という小島で一休みをしているところだ」	Narrator:  "Satoshi and his friends are continuing their journey to Masara Town with the GS Ball in hand. They're now resting on a small island called Hassaku Island."	Narrator:  "Our heroes are headed back to Pallet Town to bring Professor Oak the mysterious GS Ball. But today, they're stopped for a little rest and relaxation."

The Unshou Ishizuka narrator tells us that the name of the island our heroes have landed on is called Hassaku Island (ハッサク島). The island gets its name from the hassaku orange, a type of Japanese citrus hybrid originally discovered near Hiroshima.

The only reason we know that the island's called "Kinnow Island" in dub land is apparently because of a map of the Orange Islands included in 2000's Extreme Pokémon: The Guide for the Ultimate Fan; it's not stated in any of the dialogue in the actual episode itself.

After the Pokémon come back from their search empty handed:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「お前たち、落ち込むことないよ。戻れラプラス！」	Satoshi:  "Don't feel bad you guys. Laplace, come back!"	Ash:  "Don't feel bad. You all did the best you could. Lapras, take a rest!"
(Returns the Pokémon to its ball)
サトシ　「気にすんなよ。お前たちは悪いじゃないだからさ」	Satoshi:  "Don't worry about it. After all, it's not your fault."	Ash:  "Besides, it can't be this easy to get rid of Psyduck."
カスミ　「ちょっと！それじゃ、コダックが悪いっていうの？」	Kasumi:  "Wait a minute! So you're saying it's Koduck's fault then!?"	Misty:  "What?! Ash, we can't stop looking. We have to find Psyduck!"
サトシ　「いや。でもカスミがそんなにコダックの心配するなんて珍しいな」	Satoshi:  "Not at all. But Kasumi, it's kind of surprising to see you getting this worked up over Koduck."	Ash:  "Well this sure is a big switch, Misty. Since when did you start worrying so much about Psyduck?"

Kasumi's reason for being upset at Satoshi -- an imagined implication that all this can be blamed on her Pokémon -- is quite different from Misty thinking that Ash wants to call off the search for some reason.

Tracey explains how it's all just love:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ケンジ　「昔から言うだろ？手のかかる子ほど可愛いって」	Kenji:  "What's that old saying? A child who's a pain in the neck is that much more endearing?"	Tracey:  "I think you hide your feelings. I think Psyduck is your favorite Pokémon."
カスミ　「あのねー！」	Kasumi:  "Now wait just a second...!"	Misty:  "Huh? No way!"

Kenji's quote is a Japanese idiom Te no kakaru ko hodo kawaii (手のかかる子ほど可愛い), which I've translated as "A child who's a pain in the neck is that much more endearing." Originally, Kenji isn't outright saying that Koduck is Kasumi's favorite Pokémon the way Tracey does; he just states that its tendency to cause its Trainer headaches just makes it that much cuter.

Misty meets Marina:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「コダックを助けてくれてありがとう。あたし、この子のトレーナーのカ スミ。よろしくね」	Kasumi:  "Thank you for helping my Koduck. I'm this Pokémon's Trainer, Kasumi. Nice to meet you."	Misty:  "Thanks a lot for finding Psyduck for me. These are my friends, Ash and Tracey. My name's Misty."
ツバキ　「あたしはツバキ」	Tsubaki:  "My name's Tsubaki."	Marina:  "My name's Marina."

Kasumi doesn't introduce Tsubaki to her friends in the Japanese version.

Marina notices something's up with Psyduck:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「ねぇ、この光っているしっぽ、もしかして進化しようとしてるんじゃな いかな？」	Tsubaki:  "So hey, that glowing tail there, maybe it's a sign it's about to evolve?"	Marina:  "I'm not sure, but from the way its tail's glowing I'd say your Psyduck's getting ready to evolve."
サトシ　「へ？」	Satoshi:  "Huh?"	Ash:  "Evolve?"
ツバキ　「前になんかで読んだのよ。ポケモンの中には進化の前にこういう兆しみたいの ものが 出ることもあるって」	Tsubaki:  "I remember reading about this before. It said that some Pokémon show signs like this right before they're about to evolve."	Marina:  "A Pokémon Trainer told me. She said sometimes, before they evolve, a Psyduck's tail starts to glow pink just like this is."

Originally Tsubaki says that she read that when some Pokémon show signs the way Koduck is when they're about to evolve. But I guess since 4Kids Fahrenheit 451'ed the TV series by this point that even the mere mention of "reading" is forbidden.

Misty and Marina start fangirling over Water-Types:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「な…何言ってんのか世わからん」	Satoshi:  "I...I have no idea what they're talking about."	Ash:  "I...guess they like talking about Water Pokémon."
ケンジ　「僕たち…忘れられているよね」	Kenji:  "They've...forgotten all about us, huh?"	Tracey:  "From my observations I'd say that's true."
ピカチュウ　 「ピカ」	Pikachu:  "Pika."	Pikachu:  "Pika."

If I wanted to apply some logic to this rewrite -- an exercise that is rarely ever fruitful when it comes to this dub, I'd like to add! -- then I'd say that maybe the 4Kids writers thought that Kenji's line here was a little bit too whiny...? Is that the reason?

Misty's lure makes its (English dub) debut:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「みてみて！ルアーだって全部手作りのオリジナルなのよ！」	Tsubaki:  "Check it out! All the lures I use are hand-made originals!"	Marina:  "Here, look at these. I never buy my Pokémon lures. I always make them myself."
カスミ　「あたしのだって！名付けてカスミちゃんスペシャル！」	Kasumi:  "Mine too! I call this one the Kasumi-chan Special!"	Misty:  "I make all my lures too. And this is my most beautiful one."

This is 4Kids' first time dealing with this lure -- the episode it debuted in, "The Legend of Miniryu," never aired in the U.S. -- and so this is our first chance to see what they're going to call it. Except...it seems like they haven't given it any name at all? Instead of having Misty go "I call this one the Misty Special" or something like that they opt to just have her talk about how beautiful it is instead.

Episode 035, "The Legend of Miniryu"

It's also worth mentioning that the name of this lure and the one in the previous episode are slightly different; the one in "The Legend of Miniryu" is called the "Kasumi Special" (カスミス ペシャル) while the one in this episode is called the Kasumi-chan Special (カスミちゃんスペシャル). I guess the extra -chan there tells us that this is a cuter version of the one we saw nearly 60 episodes ago or something.

The Rocket trio make their debut in the episode:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ムサシ　「おだまり！」	Musashi:  "That's enough out of you."	Jessie:  "Backseat driver."
コジロウ　「でもさ、このあたりには大したポケモンいないだな」	Kojirou:  "But Musashi, there aren't even any good Pokémon around here."	James:  "If we can't find Pikachu maybe we can find someplace to have lunch."
ニャース　「寿司にもおかずにもならんのニャ」	Nyarth:  "And the ones that are out there aren't even fit to make sushi or other side dishes with Nya."	Meowth:  "Or at least someplace with an ice pack."
ムサシ　「あーもううるさいはね！ガタガタいうんだったらあんたらも探せばいい でしょう？ん？あぁ！いたいた！一時nの方向ジャリンコ群団発見！」	Musashi:  "Grr, will you be quiet!? If you have that many complaints then why don't you search for them! Huh? Ah! There they are! Twerps at 1:00!"	Jessie:  "Grr, will you be quiet!? I'm sick of your complaining! I told you I'd find those brats, and I will. Ah~! Bingo. Twerps at 12:00."

Musashi's dialogue is more or less left intact (though the 1:00 to 12:00 change is a bit weird) but Kojirou's and Nyarth's got completely rewritten! Was it the mention of the s-word ("sushi," of course) that caused 4Kids to hit the panic button and launch into hyper rewrite mode?

After the rules of the battle are set (during which we get this week's kansatsu sasete moraimasu from Kenji -- which the dub rewrites to "I wanna make some sketches of this") we get this exchange:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「それじゃ行くはよ！南海の美しき真珠ツバキ！一番手はドククラゲ！」	Tsubaki:  "Then let's get started. I am the Beautiful Pearl of the Southern Seas...Tsubaki! And the first one I choose is Dokukurage!"	Marina:  "I wanna win this match, so I'd better start off with something really cool. So I choose you, Tentacruel!"
カスミ　「世界の美少女おてんば人魚カスミ！いけっマイステディ！」	Kasumi:  "I am the Tomboyish Mermaid whose beauty is world-class, Kasumi. Let's go, My Steady!"	Misty:  "And I'm gonna start off with a Pokémon that's as good as gold. Goldeen!"

The girls hamming it up, stating their titles before the start of the battle, is something the 4Kids dub just completely removes.

After the first round's over, Misty calls on her Staryu for Round Two:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「あ～！ヒトデマン素敵っー！」	Tsubaki:  "Ah~, it's wonderful!"	Marina:  "Oh! I just love Staryu!"
カスミ　「どう？かっくいでしょう、あたしのヒトデマン」	Kasumi:  "What do you think? My Hitodeman's really cool, right?"	Misty:  "I think Staryu is one of my most favorite Pokémon of all."

This...This whole thing 4Kids is doing in this episode, where they rewrite Misty's dialogue so that she's saying "it's my favorite" about literally every single one of her Pokémon, one after the other...is this some kind of bit? Are they trying out a new quirk with their version of the character or something?

Misty defeats Tentacruel:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「タイプのこだわりもいいけど、通常のワザも使い方次第よね」	Kasumi:  "Getting caught up in Types is fine and all, but regular attacks can work too depending on how you use them."	Misty:  "Your Tentacruel's really strong, Marina. But it's too tired to fight off Staryu's Swift attack."

This perfectly translatable line is obviously meant to piggy-back off the comment Tsubaki (and Marina) just made about her choosing Pokémon with dual typing. The 4Kids line isn't bad either, and it does make some amount of sense. But there was also absolutely nothing wrong with the original.

Eyecatch
Sure, Mewtwo, why the eff not?

So I have a question about these "Who's That Pokémon?" segments -- Do you think the voices we hear in the English dub are all taken from stock audio? I mean, getting self-proclaimed pain-in-the-ass Philip Bartlett to come into the studio just to record him saying "Mewtwo" doesn't make even the tiniest bit of sense, logistically speaking. So it's gotta be stock audio, right? And if so, then is that the case for all the English language eyecatches? For the Japanese version we can probably assume they just have the actors record these bumpers while they're in the studio working on the rest of the episode. But that may not always be feasible for the English dub as 4Kids tends to use whatever random Pokémon they want, regardless of whether or not it's in the episode.

Dialogue Edit
Misty fawns over "her" new Golduck:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「あんたがいれば100人力よ～」	Kasumi:  "With you by my side I'll have the strength of 100 men~!"	Misty:  "I just know we're gonna make a great team, Golducky."

Putting aside the fact that the English version is a complete rewrite for a second, Kasumi also doesn't give Golduck a nickname here the way Misty does.

Misty commands Golduck in battle:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「ゴルダック、なみのりよ！」	Kasumi:  "Golduck, use Surf!"	Misty:  "Go, Golduck! Ride that wave!"

"Ride that wave" isn't an incorrect translation of the Japanese line, naminori yo!, but in the context of this Pokémon battle the line is clearly meant to be Misty ordering Golduck to use the attack "Surf."

But also...maybe 4Kids actually doesn't know about the move "Surf" yet? They similarly mistranslated the attack name when it was used during Satoshi's first Orange Islands gym match so it's entirely possible they just haven't realized that naminori is the name of a Pokémon attack yet.

Team Rocket bursts onto the scene:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「ピカチュウ、10万ボルトだ！」	Satoshi:  "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"	Ash:  "Pikachu, Thunderbolt now!"
ピカチュウ　「ピカチュウ～！ピカ？」	Pikachu:  "Pikachu~! Pika?"	Pikachu:  "Pikachu~! Pika?"
サトシ　「効かない！」	Satoshi:  "It didn't work?"	Ash:  "What's wrong?"
ニャース　「ニャハハハ！今回は対電撃使用ゴムコーティングをあしらってみまし たニャん。覚悟ニャー！」	Nyarth:  "Nya ha ha ha ha! This time we thought we'd try coating our sub with an anti-electric rubber coating. Nyao, prepare yourself!"	Meowth:  "Ha ha ha! Save your energy, Squeaky. When we overhauled the sub we made the whole thing shock-proof. Let's get 'em!"

This time Pikachu's the one to get a random nickname that wasn't there in the original!

Misty hugs Golduck after Team Rocket is sent blasting off:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「ゴルダック！すごいすごいすごい！最高よ！愛してるわ！」	Kasumi:  "Golduck! That was so, so, so amazing. The best! I love you so much!"	Misty:  "Oh Golduck! You saved the Pokémon! That was totally amazing!"

It's rare to see a character in this show actually utter the words "I love you" (愛してる) and so it's a bit of a shame that 4Kids removed it here.

After Misty wins their rematch, Marina congratulates Misty:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「私たちの負けね。大したもんだわ。さすが進化系は強いよね。」	Tsubaki:  "Well, we lost that one. You were great. I guess evolved Pokémon are really something, huh?"	Marina:  "That was a great match. And you did a great job. You're a great Water Pokémon Trainer, Misty."
カスミ　 「でもきっとコダックのままだったら勝てなかったわ。ツバキのポケモンはよく育てられたしね」	Kasumi:  "But I definitely couldn't have won if it was still a Koduck. Since your Pokémon are all so well-trained and all."	Misty:  "Thanks, Marina. But I was really lucky when Psyduck evolved when it did. If it wasn't for Golduck I think maybe you would have won."

Tsubaki's original line about evolved Pokémon being strong is pretty weird considering how the purple starfish in the foreground there is also an evolved Pokémon. I guess maybe that's why 4Kids changed it to the more generic "You're a great Water Pokémon Trainer, Misty."

Golduck shows its true colors:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　「ま…まさか。ただ女の子が好きなだけだった…とか？」	Tsubaki:  "Wait...no way. That Golduck just likes girls...is that it?"	Marina:  "That Golduck isn't yours. It just likes to show off...for girls."
カスミ　 「ど…どっかで見たような性格」	Kasumi:  "I...I feel like I've seen this kind of personality before..."	Misty:  "It's just a Pokémon version of Brock."

While the Takeshi reference is indeed there in both versions, the English dub makes it much more explicit by actually mentioning Brock by name. The Japanese version, on the other hand, does not.

Misty says goodbye to her new friend:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ツバキ　 「バイバイ、カスミ！また会おうね！」	Tsubaki:  "Bye bye Kasumi! Let's get together again sometime!"	Misty:  "Bye Marina! I had a lot of fun battling you! If Psyduck ever evolves I want to have another match with you!"
カスミ　 「ツバキ！また水系ポケモンを語ろうねー！」	Kasumi:  "Sure thing! And we'll talk about Water Pokémon again!

That's a pretty sneaky way to get out of a promise, huh Misty? If my Psyduck, who will never ever evolve, does somehow turn into a Golduck then we'll have a rematch! This is something that will definitely happen!

The final line of the episode:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　 「めざせカスミ、 水系ポケモンマスター。こころざしを同じくする友を得てカスミたちの旅はまだまだ続く…」	Narrator:  "Kasumi, aim to be a Water Pokémon Master. Kasumi and her friends have made friends with someone who shares the same ambitions they do. And so, their journey continues."	Narrator:  "Misty may not have gotten her Golduck, but she proved she's got the skills that could make her a Pokémon Master. Watch out, Ash! You've got competition!"

The script for this episode has been pretty good in the second half (like, "Stage Fight!" good) and then all of a sudden BAM! they drop this bomb on us right at the very end.

No, 4Kids, Misty's goal isn't to be a "Pokémon Master," it's to be a "Water Pokémon Master." I'm sure that distinction looks absolutely asinine to someone who doesn't live and breathe Pokémon the same way you and I do but that Water part at the beginning there is actually vital!

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This page was last updated on December 31st, 2021