The Legend of Dratini – Pokémon Season 1 (unaired episode EP035)

Plot episodeBannedAsh catches 30 Tauros

The Legend of Dratini is the 35th Japanese episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and Japanese episode 35 overall (Bulbapedia code EP035). It has never been dubbed into English. It first aired in Japan on 25 November 1997. It falls within the season’s Fuchsia, the Safari Zone & the Pokémon Shock stretch (EP28–EP38).

Never dubbed: the Safari Zone warden’s revolver, pointed at Ash and fired repeatedly, kept 4Kids away from the episode — which is why Ash’s thirty Tauros appear from nowhere in the dub. Read our full article on the banned episode.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash and friends now enter what is hopefully the ACTUAL Safari Zone, and are still yet to catch a single Pokemon. Ash, Misty and Brock are hapilly singing about catching Pokemon when an old guy pulls a gun on them and shouts SHUT UP aggressively. It turns out he is Kaiza, the caretaker of the Safari Zone. For some reason Ash and Co enter the building with this obvious nutcase, still with their eyes on the prize of catching lots of Pokemon. The caretaker gets a box out filled with Safari balls and a rod, Ash reaches out to grab it and the guy again pulls a gun on him (lol wtf) stating that if Ash breaks the rules (use only Safari Balls and Rod to catch Pokemon) then “Thunderbolt” will get him, Thunderbolt being the name of his gun.

The gang spot a picture of a younger Kaiza with a Dratini and get excited about the prospect of such a rare Pokemon being here, Kaiza angrily states that there isn’t one, Ash begins to argue that there’s one in the picture and Kaiza again starts to squeeze the trigger of his gun, until Ash stops arguing.

Kaiza takes the picture outside and stares at it muttering to himself that he will never bother Dratini again. Meanwhile the gang speak to Professor Oak to ask why he’s like this, turns out Oak does know Kaiza and that 30yrs prior Kaiza found Dratini but this attracted so many trainers to the zone trying to catch Dratini that all the vast majority of Pokemon there were captured, and the landscape was destroyed and left barren. Dratini was never found. This is why Kaiza does not want talk of the Dratini to start again.

Team Rocket were on the roof listening in on the conversation and they too want to get Dratini and every other Pokemon in the zone, as Kaiza is sending Ash and friends off to get some Pokemon TR appear behind them on a wooden arc in the air. Kaiza does not appreciate their motto and opens fire on them with two guns, they eventually fall off their platform. Team Rocket promise a fair fight and say that if Ash wins they will not bother him again, but if they win they get all of his Pokemon.

The Tauros charge again, Ash vows to catch one and throws a safari ball, as does Brock. They both catch a Tauros. Later, Ash throws a Safari ball at a Rhyhorn and captures a passing Tauros.

Meanwhile Team Rocket have taken Kaiza captive and pulled his own gun on him, as well as an extra gun. When he realises what bad people they are he attacks them, but Jessie uses Arbok to restrain him. She even then offers to go out with him if he tells them where Dratini is. Team Rocket unveil their “ultimate” weapon which is a robot that tickles people until they give information; Kaiza then yields the info on Dratini. Meanwhile Ash, Misty and Brock are fishing and Misty gets a Gyarados up but it snaps the rod and dives back beneath the water. Kaiza turns up, still tangled in Team Rockets machine and Pikachu shocks it off him, he tells Ash and co that TR has gone after Dratini in the Dragon Valley.

Dratini reveals itself to Jessie who in her excitement cuts off the air for Meowth and James (who are already under water) while she tries to catch it. James and Meowth scare Dratini off at the last second when they come up for air and then improvise an electric underwater bomb to shock everything in the water and bring all the Pokemon to the surface, it works. Just as they are about to start catching them all Ash, Misty, Brock and Mr. Kaiza arrive.

Team Rocket throw another electric bomb into the water and Kaiza dives in to try and stop it exploding, closely followed by Ash. Staryu takes Kaiza back to the surface as he was old and unable to make it. Ash picks up the bomb and starts swimming toward the surface, but runs out of air, sinking to the bottom. Still no explosion and heavy rain begins, it all looks rather grim, that is until the Legendary Pokemon Dragonair rises from the water, saving Ash and restoring the good weather. Ash lands Team Rockets own bomb on them just in time and sends them blasting off. Mr. Kaiza approaches the Dragonair, who turns out to be the evolved form of the Dratini he spent the last 30 years protecting, after an emotional reunion Dragonair then reveals it’s Dratini children!

Ash, Misty and Brock vow to never tell anyone of the Dratini and Dragonair living in the Safari Zone and continue their journey, meanwhile Professor Oak gets stampeded in his own lab by all the Tauros that Ash caught.

Note: This episode was aired in Japan but banned in the rest of the world. Click here to find out why it was banned.

Major Events

• — Safari Zone: Ash catches 30 Tauros (all to Oak’s)
• Warden Kaiser
• Dratini and Dragonair. Banned outside Japan (revolvers). Debuts: Dratini, Dragonair
• Rhydon (flashback). First non-standard Poké Ball (Safari Ball)
• Most captures in one episode.

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Rhydon#0112 · EP035
• Dratini#0147 · EP035
• Dragonair#0148 · EP035

Captures and evolutions

• Tauros#0128 · Ash · thirty, in the Safari Zone

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Hideki Sonoda.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• Never dubbed: warden Kaiser holds a revolver to Ash’s head and Team Rocket fire at him, so 4Kids skipped the episode entirely
• Its footage (Rhyhorn, Dratini, Dragonair) still turns up in the Pokérap and in Pikachu’s Jukebox videos
• Pokémon.com once listed a plot summary as episode 35 with no title

Part of our Pokémon: Indigo League guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.