JCA #6: "Shell Game". A rabbit talisman is found grown into the shell of a tortise on the Galapagos Island, and the creature, crowned Aesop, is taken into the custody of a wildlife preserve. This talisman possesses the power of speed (reminiscent of the Cardcaptors ep "The Race").
The Dark Hand wants the talisman, and plans to sell the tortise to a Hannibal Lecter-type goon named Karl Nivore (yes, folks, a pun), who likes to dine on endangered beasties with fava beans and a nice Chiante. [slurping] Jade tries to save Aesop and almost ends up on a plate with a toothpick stuck in her for her trouble. Meantime, Jackie has to duke it out with Tohru (I've seen gorillas smaller than this dude), who discovers the power of the rabbit talisman. Haven't saw a big fella move that g.d. fast since Mexican night in the ASU cafeteria.
Watch for the scene where Jade pretends to be possessed and scares the frig out of Uncle Methuselah. Priceless.
Watch also for Jackie pulling a "Warner" on Jade with the rabbit talisman. Turnabout is fair play. Hee hee hee.

CRDCAP#13: "The Third Element". Wasn't there a godawful movie starring Bruce Willis with a similar title?
Like "Holiday Hi-Jynx", this appears to be a Crdcap. Chistmas ep. According to Pokemopolis, most Japanese people are Buddhists and don't celebrate Christmas per se--though the Western influence has made them honor a Santa Claus-esque figure that performs the function of rewarding good children with gifts and punishing the naughty ones.
The element in this case is fire--a banshee-like figure that is torching the holiday fair. Sakura and Li work together (which IMO has improved the series quite a bit, since they seldom bicker or compete as viciously as before) using Time Stop and Sleep to pacify the crowd. Though no two elements have ever been used before in conjunction, Sakura does so (Wind and Water), and subdues the fire banshee. Li warns Sakura of the danger, though he makes no real attempt to fight with or dissuade her--indicating either real character growth or that Mei Lin has completely broken his spirit.
Speaking of Mei Lin, she slept along withthe others and is sore over missing the capture of a biggie like the fire element. And Madison is sore over missing some good shots of the last three captures.
Watch for Kero wearing Blue Brothers sunglasses at the fair. Too cute.
Watch also for the dream sequence with the elusive silhouette that is either Mackenzie or the waiflike eternally-eating Yue.

POK #311: "A Rivalry Revival". Ash and Gary have their battle--Eeve vs. Pikachu, and Eevee wins. Ash is sore, yet intrigued when he learns that his old rival is going to Johto ,a land in the west where the pokemon are exotic and (Brock hopes) the women are easy. Tracey plans to stay with Prof. Oak as a research assistant. Just keep him in the lab and away from the kitchen, Oakie old man.
TR tries to intercept Gary on his way to Johto, but they took the wrong fork and put on a great show for the trees while Gary and his Eeve bypassed them by half a mile. They then make a grab for Pikachu at Ash's place, dressed as reporters. I don't know what was scarier, Jessy's piggery at the dinner table or that Little Orphan Annie wig.
Brock still goes into blue fetal funks at the name "Prof. Ivy". Watch as Jessy gets him with the line "We're going out live. That's L-I-V-E." The Rocketeers nab Pikachu in a special camera trap but are stopped by Scyther--which Jessy most likely has an intense phobia of since "Tracey Gets Bugged".
Ash's mother seems in a hurry to send her boy off to God knows where...though she seems to put up a brave front, as evidenced by her line about Ash being the only prize she needs. Maybe she does care about whether he changes his drawers, too, after all.
And at least with Brock around Ash and Misty'll be eating decently and pumping up. All that sailing about on Lapras and eating fruit had to have made them soft.

#312: The Johto Journeys: "Don't Touch that Dile"
Johto is known for its exotic Pokemon, which, to be honest, don't concern me as much as the human dynamic. I'm hoping they don't ignore the characters' growth in favor of cheap colorful marketing gimmick beasties. I've heard tell of a Jessy-focused ep this season, and since she's my favorite Rocketeer, I'm intrigued to know what makes the little witch tick.
This ep focuses around a garralous scientist named Prof. Elm who is so absorbed in his studies he desn't even see TR sneak in his place and nick a Totodile (he thinks it's Nurse Joy--and is it my imagination or does she seem to have some feelings for Elm? Note her wistful line about the prof and "human relations", and you'll catch my meaning.)
Totodile seems to be smitten with Jessy, chewing on her hair like a rambunctious puppy. Here, as in "Tracey Gets Bugged", we see Jessy's hair issues come to focus (watch for the scene where she bawls about split ends). The Totodile--apparently Squirtle's distant cousin--is being held for a female trainer (whom we never meet, which leads me to wonder if it's someone Ash knows--they certainly hammer home the point that it's a dame), and Ash wants to get it back pronto.
Brock plays Lothario with every set of gams he sees, and at least three times Misty drags him away giving him guff. Jealous, dear?
Ash is taking the GS ball to some Pokeball maker named Kurt, who looks eerily like Marlon Brando. Were the writers watching "Apocolypse Now" when they wrote this script?
Maybe with the Pokeball maker we might learn a bit more on Pokeball composition. I've inquired before as to what the balls are made of, and I'm still uncertain. I do know it's not an alloy present in our world, and there are several types of balls for different tastes/budgets, but that's about it.

SS #4: "Grounded". Last week I asked if there were any non-human entities affected by the chemical gas that created the Bang Babies. Ask and ye shall recieve. A mutie amoeba is running loose makng a smorgasbord of the city, and Static manages to drive it back into the bowels of the city, but not before collecting a sample. Virgil and his friend take it to the school lab to study it more closely and find their female friend (sorry, the names escape me for the moment) is also their after housrs. Seems she's angry over the school cutting a good two-fifths of the journalism department budget and wants to go Woodward-Bernstein to expose the outrage of favoring athletics over the school paper. The amoebas invade the school and trap the kids withinn, but Static has an idea when he sees one get a hotfoot from a puddle the creepy janitor left behind. Now I hate to go E/I on you, but I would have appreciated a bit of explaining as to the content of the bucket--ammonia--and its affect on bacteria and viruses--la muerta. Static douses the big green glob with cleaning fluid and turns it into sludge--and Miss Reporter Babe gets her 15 minutes on the evening news to explain her outrage at the school board's Draconian budget cuts.
A fair episode with a slightly different flavor, waht with a non-human Bang Baby (though the opening with the MIB-reject armadillo mutie struck a sour note for me). The show has some promise, but it still makes me nostalgic for "Spider-Man" (which had more pathos and a better theme song).

MXSTL #13: "Shattered". The plot involves metal-eating fungal parasites and would have probably made for a good "Batman Beyond" ep, though they gave it to this pale wannabe. The fungi were the best parts of the show but felt wasted with a lame villain like Vitriol and overshadowed by the discovery of the mole in N-Tek (that bald Frenchman Mairot ,through the ruse of a bug in Vitriol's right arm). I also wonder why they were squandered on eating the UN building. For my money the UN, between its constant squabbling among the ranks and its imcompetent dealing with the threats of international enemies, deserved to be eaten. Chow down, buggies. I would have sicked them on bridges, transport roads, railway systems, munition plants, maybe even Fort Knox. Though I have to admit it was cool watching them devour Psycho alive.
Jsoh wants to make things square with Laura, so he goes to visit her as Max Steel--and it cuts off there. Is he planning to use Max as an arbitrator, or is he going to bag her as Max? To quote Austin Powers, "It's not exactly cheating, baby."
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