Fit to Be Tide – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 5

Plot episodeCoral-Eye Badge

Fit to Be Tide is the 5th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 85th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 87, Bulbapedia code EP085). It first aired in Japan on 25 February 1999 and in the United States on 5 February 2000. It falls within the season’s Tracey, Lapras & the first Orange Crew badge stretch (EP84–EP85).

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

Synopsis

Today our heroes are on a new adventure exploring the Orange Islands, as Ash sets out to qualify for the Orange league. As the group are sailing the seas aboard a notably speedy Lapras everyone decides that they could do with something to eat, Tracey points out that Mikan Island is nearby and they could get something from there, plus it’s also home to one of the toughest Gym Leaders in the Orange Crew!

Lapras and the gang set a course for Mikan Island, little do they know they’re being watched and followed by Team Rocket in their sub, unfortunately for them however James and Meowth who have been pedalling after them this whole time ran out of Steam, meaning their sub sunk to the ocean floor.

Upon arrival to Mikan Island Ash and co take Lapras for a rest at the Pokemon Center and then they make a call to Professor Oak, Tracey hijacks the call briefly to say hi to the Professor (who is his hero) and after the call he is still in awe of the fact that he has friends, who are friends with Professor Oak! The group continue their journey toward the Mikan Gym when Ash spots the gym ahead, but before that he notices a coconut on the ground, stopping to pick it up he’s then hit with a torrent of water from above – it seems the coconut was a trap. A sinister looking kid called Senta running over and starts laughing, tensions ensue and the pair are about to battle, just then Cissy the Mikan Island gym leader appears and gives her little brother an ear bending for “causing trouble again”.

Ash issues his challenge to Cissy, the leader of the Mikan gym while Tracey makes some ‘observations’ of her, Cissy accepts and the groups go inside the gym. It turns out that in order to win her badge, its not a battle but a challenge of the Pokemon’s athletic skills.

The first challenge is a water gun challenge, Cissy sends out Seadra and Ash uses Squirtle, whoever can knock over the most cans wins. Seadra hits every can with every shot, but Squirtle matches it’s skill and hits everything too, making this part of the challenge a draw. For the next part of the challenge Cissy’s brother Senta presses a button and the whole gym opens up, theres a device outside firing frisbees into the air and the challenge is to try and hit moving targets; Cissy’s Seadra takes out every frisbee flawlessly, even with multiple targets but again Squirtle is able to match it. Cissy then declares that Squirtle and Seadra should now aim for the same target and the first one to hit it wins, but again it’s a tie and Seadra/Squirtle hit at exactly the same time, Cissy now declares that the way to break the tie is with a Pokémon waveride. The groups head outside and Cissy explains that it’ll be a race out to sea and back, and chooses Blastoise as her Pokemon, Ash chooses Lapras… but there’s a bit more to it than that, the trainer has to stand on the Pokémon the whole time! Just as they’re about to start this final challenge Team Rocket emerge in their Magikarp sub and start their motto, before James explains how terrible it was when their sub got stuck on the seabed and caught in seaweed.

Team Rocket then proceed to attack everyone, opening with a smokescreen from Weezing and then catching Cissy’s Blastoise in a net fired from their sub, quickly dragging it out to sea. But Cissy didn’t seem at all concerned, while trying to pull Blastoise away in it’s net, Team Rocket break the pedals in their sub and as they get out to try and push, just then Blastoise who is still trapped in a net attached to their sub leaps out of the water and breaks free from its net, dragging them all to the surface. Ash tells Pikachu to thundershock Team Rocket and it hapilly obliges, sending them blasting off, and at last it’s time for the race to begin!

The race begins and Ash & Lapras are neck and neck with Cissy and Blastoise, Ash tries to take the inside but Blastoise is too strong for Lapras and keeps barging them away, it then barges Lapras so hard that Ash nearly falls off but is caught BY Lapras, again the race is neck and neck but a huge wave appears behind them all, Lapras uses its Ice Beam to freeze the portion of the wave that would otherwise have hit her and Ash. Cissy however is hit by the wave and knocked off Blastoise but it manages to catch her before she falls into the water, it’s the final straight and Cissy takes a lead, but Ash’s quick thinking for Lapras to fire an ice beam all the way to shore and then slide along the ice negates her lead and Lapras wins by a nose!

Cissy (and Senta) congratulate Ash and award him the Coral-eye badge of the Mikan gym. The heroes board Lapras and continue their adventure around the Orange Islands.

Major Events

• Ash wins the Coral-Eye Badge from Cissy
• Squirtle ties Seadra in the Water Gun target shoot
• Lapras’s Ice Beam wins the Wave Ride race against Blastoise
• Tracey’s surname revealed
• Team Rocket’s Magikarp submarine debuts
• Cissy’s brother Senta is unnamed in the dub

Trivia

• The English title plays on “fit to be tied”.
• The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Orange Islands storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Seadra in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Primeape in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Natsukan Island becomes Mikan Island; Surf becomes “Wave Ride”; Cissy’s brother Senta is unnamed

Part of our Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.