POK JJ: "Once in a Blue Moon".
This ep opens with Ash polishing his balls. Misty comments that he's become a lot more mature lately--high praise from his most vocal critic (and possible lover).
We see a dolphin-like Pokemon with an odd penchant for round things. These creatures steal circular objects from the village and take them to a site called Blue Moon Falls. I half expected to see some strange fetishist Poke-orgy, but this *is* Saturday family viewing hour.
We learn that the villagers not only don't get mad but actually have developed an urban legend around the ritual that when your belongings float back downstream it's a sign of good fortune. Also it seems these Pokemon are protected, and Joy gets a little rough with Ash and company. Brock doesn't seem to mind. After all those ear-twists from Misty I'm beginning to think he's a bit of a machosist.
One of these dolphin Pokemon gets the GS ball, though, and the crew has to track it down.
Watch for Chikorita's scene, where she asserts her dominance on Ash--twice. Naughty Pokey.
Watch also for the comic scene with Team Rocket trying desperately to nab the slippery critters. Meowth grouses, "Why don't we just *start* with Plan B?"
Brock says the Pokemon seem to be having a "contest" to toss their balls the highest (and naturally the GS ball soars above the others), though I interpreted it as pagan religious rite, offering round sacrifices to Diana the moon goddess. Beats cutting up a bull or tossing a virgin in a volcano, I guess.
These dolphin Pokeys seem to worship the moon similar to how the Clefairy worship their meteorite ("Clefairy and the Moon Stone") Seymour the scientist would soil his pants if he saw this display.
Still curious as to the ball's contents. If it can't be opened, are the contents stil fresh, or is there a dead Pokemon skeleton in it? That'd be creepy.

JCA: "The Rock"
Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?
Not over the aroma of my scrambled cheese eggs and Spanish rice.
Anyway, this ep starts in the frigid Artic wasteland with a bit right out of an old Looney Toons cartoon, the avalanche gag. Though it was pretty funny when Jackie ripped that big dumb gorilla Tohru's shirt off and used it as a parachute.
Valmont gets the idea to blackmail Chan into turning over the six talismans in Sector 13's possession by trading them or his life. In a scene reminiscent of "North by Northwest", Chan scales Mt. Rushmore and ends up shot full of a drug that can turn one into stone.
Jade tries to help Jackie by breaking into the vault and stealing the other five before Jackie gets a full-body stiffie--noble yet misguided. Seems this talisman is a healer that can release alien forces from the body, and though Uncle Methuselah and Jade couldn't figure it out until near the end, I realized it was the key to Jackie's cure in five seconds.
Watch for the wild takes Jackie does as he gets hard--that is, turns to stone, or as Uncle Methuselah's cures take effect. Tex Avery would be proud.
Did anyone else think Jackie would kick Tohru in the family jewels with his stone leg? That would have been sweet.
Tohru sneezing on the talisman and unwittingly uncovering its power has to be a classic moment. That and the bogus cures put to full advantage whacking Valmont's goons.
Hopefully in the future Section 13 will recognize Jackie's virtues and not take him for *granite*.

CRDCPTRS: "Mei Lin's Story".
She's whiny, tantrummy, and often the fifth wheel...but when she announces her plans to return to Hong Kong, Sakura and Li realize that she has some merit after all.
Li confronts her rather painfully by telling her she gets underfoot constantly, and she breaks down bawling. Not one for tact, are we, Mr. Showron?
Sakura feels obligated to invite the little brat over to spend the night (and why is she blushing when she does so? It could be this bit was heavily censored for suggestive sapphic content, though it wasn't Madison that extended the invitation). She learns about their history together, training in Hong Kong, and about Li giving Mei Lin the bird...her pet, which she lost. Though sulky and often brusque, it seems Li has a heart of gold.
The Twin cards (personally I would have called them the Gemini cards, because that sounds cooler) are on the loose, duplicating the town, and to fight them you need a synchronus attack. The Twins are too hip to Li and Sakura hoolering orders to one another, but Mei Lin and Li can work fluidly and nonverbally and catch them off guard. Hence her virtue as a Cardcaptor's helper.
A couple of flashbacks in the middle of the show--one I recognized and one I didn't, showing Mei Lin's bravery. Though she is a pain in the a** at times, the show improved somewhat when Mei Lin appeared--less girly and more pathos, with a definite undercurrent of a love triangle surfacing.
The departure of the fifth wheel seems to indicate that Li and Sakura will gradually become lovers, despite his history/destiny with Mei Lin...and if she comes back, the poor kid's in for a rude awakening if she finds them together. One might also wonder iif their affair will affect Sakura's Cardcapting?

POK JJ: "Whistle Stop"
The term comes from the late 1940s, during the presidency of Harrry Truman. As he campaigned he would travel by rail and as the train paused at stastions he would deliver speeches from the rear platform. There's a ref to this in a Histeria ep.
That said, this episode concerned Liddyba, a bug Pokemon that pollinates apple orchards and are trained by a girl with a whistle--who looks not unlike Amy in "Sailor Moon" albeit dark-haired. When TR steals her Liddyba and the whistle, she is distraught. She does eventually learn that the whistle, though a nice accesory, isn't vital to training the Liddyba; like dogs, Pokemon respond best to proper training, kind words, and a system of well-executed rewards.
Jessy didn't even bother trying to hide her hair when she was disguised as a German auctioneer. Does she think ASh and co. are *that* dense?
Watch for the crayon drawings when TR explains their plans to demolish the bridge. A similar device is often used to explain/illustrate Wile E. Coyote's plans...and the results are rather Coyote-esqe too, as their tramping feet cause the supports to give too soon.
The whistle has an interesting effect on Arbok if played at a high pitch--but snakes are virtually deaf. The snake charmer trick is not in the music but in the reptile mimicking its trainer's swaying body movements.
Lickitung can emit sound waves? Who knew? I thought it just slurped its victims like an overzealous Labrador.
A couple more appearances by Heracross the Nursing Pokemon.

SS: "Child's Play"
Enter the world's youngest Bang Baby: a kid who can grant his deepest wish just by concentrating. He turns the water in a fountain to sherry soda, a popsicle stick into a hot dog, and a stray pooch into a fighting video game robot.
Trouble is his juvenile delinquent step-brother wants to exploit the boy's talent. Naive and living in a fantasy cartoon world, the boy doesn't realize how dangerous he is. We're never told precisely what the stepbrother did to land in juvy, but he has a terminal hate against government institutions like banks and against local merchants, filling the kid's head with his own take on how the big corporations/businesses screw over the little guy and deserve to be crushed. Duane doesn't know what a sh** his big brother is and does everything he's asked as he tries to get into the guy's good graces.
I was reminded of "Firestarter" when the kid's eyes glowed as he confronted Virgil about his bother, and when he confronted his brother about being a manipulative pusbag. Also, in the wish fulfillment department, cf. "Friday the 13th: The Series", concerning a cursed dog leash that can grant its owner his deepest dream--only here, the kid is the cursed object and not some Satanic antique.
Fav line: the preacher shouting, "The world is coming to an end! I know! I've been preaching this message for years!"
Watch for the scene where the preacher takes a sip from the soda fountain and belches. Such behavior for a man of the cloth....

MXSTL: "Fire and Ice"
Wasn't there a pokemon ep by this title?
Vitriol is back. He's tapped into the Alaskan oil pipeline and kidnapped several researchers as insurance they'll be no interference from the government. Max goes to investigate--and Pete, who has been nagging Josh to misuse his Max powers since he learned the secret, stows away on board the Hawk.
Turns out Vitriol's not swiping oil from the pipe and draining it into a tanker--he plans to release an oil-eating virus into the works and deplete the entire U.S. reserve to jack up oil prices globally. This plastic-armed a-hole's doing more to ruin the oil indusstry than Al Gore...except Vit's got more personality and charisma. >8D

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