A Way Off Day Off – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 18

Filler / stand-alone episodeCharizard vs Scyther

A Way Off Day Off is the 18th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 98th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 100, Bulbapedia code EP098). It first aired in Japan on 27 May 1999 and in the United States on 8 April 2000. It falls within the season’s Ghost ships, Meowth’s island & Scyther stretch (EP95–EP98).

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

Synopsis

Ash and friends are sailing Lapras across the seas once more when Pikachu spots an island in the distance, Ash decides it might be a good place to get some food and they all head to the Island, unbeknowst to them all Jigglypuff has emerged from the water and is following them. The group arrive on the beautiful, seemingly uninhabited island and find beautiful sparkling waters and beaches.

Something falls out of nowhere and hits Ash on the head, the group spot something flying off and it appears to be a Farfetch’d, seconds later a whole massivev flock of Farfetch’d can be seen taking flight! Pikachu and Togepi return carrying some sort of fruit, and it turns out the whole island is covered in it. Ash and Misty try some fruit but its really sour, Tracey explains they just have to pick the ripe ones and they’ll taste good.

The group send out all of their Pokémon to enjoy the fruit and Ash’s Pokémon are finally introduced to Scyther, and despite being initially afraid of Scyther, Squirtle Bulbasaur and co all go over and greet Scyther, Charizard however can’t be bothered so Ash begins to berate him, Charizard responds with a flamethrower which narrowly misses Scyther, causing them to nearly start a fight.

Meanwhile Jessie, James and Meowth are having a day off too, relaxing on a beach nearby with no thought of stealing Pokémon in their minds. Just then they spot Togepi and Marill go floating by, they work out that the twerp and his friends must be nearby and decide its an oppurtunity that they can’t pass up and begin scheming.

Ash and friends gather a big banquet of fruit. They return to their Pokémon to find Tracey’s Scyther telling Snorlax off because it was about to eat all the fruit before anyone else could get any, all of a sudden Jigglypuff bursts out from beneath the pile of fruit and begins its song. After everyone has finished sleeping and having their faces decorated they wake up later on that afternoon, they decide its best to leave Snorlax asleep and all the other Pokémon sit down to eat together (Charizard is also asleep next to Snorlax). Just as Ash and friends are about to dig into some tropical fruit sandwiches, Snorlax appears behind them, swipes the sandwiches and eats them all before going back to sleep.

As the gang is washing up their dishes, tensions between Tracey’s Scyther and Ash’s Charizard begin to rise. As night time draws in Ash is sat on a rock contemplating what might be special about the G.S ball and thinking about how different the Orange Island gym leaders are compared to the ones back in Kanto. Team Rocket are on a ledge above where Ash and friends are camped out, they use Victreebels sleep powder to put the group to sleep and begin trying to steal Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Snorlax, Togepi and Psyduck.. just as they are reeling the Pokémon in on ropes Scyther turns up, closely followed by Charizard – neither of which were in range of the sleep powder. Charizard and Scyther both begin to roar and it wakes up Ash and gang and all their Pokémon, alerting them to Team Rocket’s mischief.

Ash arrives just in time to see Team Rocket sliding down a zipwire, straight into a tree. Team Rocket attack with Arbok and Weezing, using Smokescreen first, Scyther clears it with his swords dance before Bulbasaur hits them both with Vine Whip, and Squirtle and Pikachu follow up with Water Gun and Thundershock respectively, as the group of Pokémon is about to finish them off Charizard steps in and uses its flamethrower, Scyther then uses its skull bash to send them blasting off again. Everyone is celebrating the defeat of Team Rocket…. except for Charizard and Scyther who although they looked like they were about to fight each other, actually appear to be developing respect for each other.

While our heroes sail off into the sunset once more, Team Rocket sit on a rock in the sea remorseful that they didn’t just enjoy their day off.

Major Events

• A day off on a fruit-laden island
• Charizard and Scyther stand-off
• Team Rocket’s Sleep Powder ambush
• The 100th episode if the 1998 specials are counted
• The US Who’s That Pokémon? is Porygon — its only English voice

Trivia

• The English title plays on a day off, way off course.
• The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Orange Islands story.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Farfetch’d in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Porygon in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• The Japanese Gym-battle montage plays The Rivals; the dub uses My Best Friends and an instrumental Together Forever

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