Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 145:  "The Ubame Forest! Search for Kamonegi!!"
English Episode 340:  "A Farfetch'd Tale"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Kamonegi (Japanese), Wobbuffet (English)
Orchid-Hakase Pokemon Lecture:  Persian
Japanese Air Date:  April 27th, 2000
American Air Date:  March 17th, 2001
Important Characters:  Naoto (Sylvester), Yosaku (Sylvester's Dad)
Important Places:  The Forest of Ubame (Ilex Forest)

To get to the next city, Satoshi-tachi must travel through the mysterious Forest of Ubame.  They come across a young boy, Naoto, trying to train his Kamonegi.  He wants to teach it to use the Cut attack to chop forest wood so that he can use it to make charcoal.  Naoto wants to be a pro at  making charcoal, just like Yosaku, but his Kamonegi won't listen to him.  Satoshi-tachi come across Naoto again at the Pokemon Center, where he tells Joi that his Kamonegi is missing.  It turns out that the Kamonegi is wandering around on its own in the forest, and it wanders right into the Rocket-Dan's clutches.  Naoto is finds his pokemon and, after stealing Kamonegi's leek back from Kojirou, gains his pokemon's trust.  Kamonegi, now with a newfound respect for its trainer, stops the Rocket-Dan and learns the Cut attack.  Naoto presents the chopped timber to Yosaku, and Yosaku praises the young trainer.  With Naoto gaining the respect of his mentor, Satoshi-tachi continue their journey.

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Thoughts
The episode after a Jouto Gym Battle is usually pretty bad, as seen by this episode.  The Jouto League is supposed to showcase the new Gold/Silver pokemon, yet the anime focuses on an old Red/Green/Blue pokemon?  And one that's already had its own episode in the Sekiei League to boot?  Sorry, but I think it's a waste of the animator's time and effort.  Just goes to show you that the animators will do anything, even turning two NPC's from the video game who have one line of dialogue each, to make a 22-minute filler episode.

Oh well, at least the episode presents us with something from the game--the Forest of Ubame and the shrine inside it.  Sure, the forest doesn't look as nice as it does in the fourth movie, but what do you expect from a weekly-produced series with a budget like this? 

Side Note
In the dub, Yosaku is called "Sylvester's Dad," yet there isn't a single time in the Japanese version that the word "father" comes up.  So either there's some strange form of the word that I'm unfamiliar with, or 4Kids just created a relationship that doesn't exist. 

The only other thing I can think of for this episode is the usual god-spirt dialogue stuff, this time revolving around the shrine at the center of the Forest.  "God of the Forest," "Spirit of the Forest," it's all the same, isn't it?

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