Episodes you think are underrated?

[Okido]

What's your favorite episode that you think deserves more attention or appreciation than it gets? Whether it was a particularly well-written one that you don't see discussed often enough, or even just a filler that most people have forgotten but it stood out a lot to you. Go ahead and tell everyone why it's great! And feel free to name as many as you wish.

An episode that I personally think is a bit underrated is EP171, "Power Play!". At a glance the plot is definitely very standard for mid-Johto, but I thought the somewhat slower pace of this episode worked well to create a sense of atmosphere. Not to mention, it featured some nice character development that ended up being quite important later on.

 

[c la fet]

AG157 "Time Warp Heals All Wounds", the episode where May and Meowth team up.
The story is nothing new, but I was surprised to see it in a Pokémon episode.
It's not much but I liked how it drew parallels between Pokémon eggs and human children.

 

[BigDocFan]

Not sure if it is underrated or not but I like Tracey Gets Bugged and The Wacky Watcher, Tracey is a massively underused character and I liked these episodes that focused on him, especially seeing him catch a Pokemon for the only time

 

[Insanish Danish]

Air Time!!!! I just rewatched this episode the other day and it's a shame how little I see it mentioned. In my opinion it's one of the funniest and most off-the-walls bonkers fillers we've ever gotten and I love it so so so much for that. The wooden acting from Ash/Misty/Brock juxtaposed with Team Rocket hamming it up. Jessie completely throwing everything off-script with her improvisations. Team Rocket being mistaken for a ventriloquist act and the real act showing up at the end of the episode with a Meowth dummy. Lines like "Television couldn't kill radio, but maybe Ash will." I could keep going on but god I just love this episode so much.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Kanto:

"The Tower of Terror"- Does not get enough credit at all, was a really great episode- had comedy with Haunter & Gengar, sad moments like Ash dying after the chandelier fell on him and his soul leaving his body, and it ended well.

Orange Islands:

"The Rivalry Revival"- Perfect way to end the Series before Johto began, simply perfect. Ash still having a lot to learn after his loss to Gary here, then being motivated to continue by his friends, Brock rejoining & Tracey leaving, Prof. Oak giving him a new goal w/the GS Ball (sadly went nowhere!), and Delia doting over him before it ends (I refuse to use "The Beginning" as a label for this and Kanto, absolute TRASH re-branding, "Adventures in the Orange Islands" may not be anything stellar but was FAR less bland and generic).

Johto:

"A Parent Trapped"- This is how you do drama correctly in this Series, very believable subplot with every character having purpose. And hey, JCC using the voice he'd later recycle for Prof. Oak in Dr. Namba, only it actually FITS a mad scientist!

Hoenn - Battle Frontier:

"A New Land, A New Adventure/Get the Show on the Road!": A very sad opening cutscene (Pikachu gravely ill), a far more dramatic + sadder subplot (Ash has to rescue it before it's too late, almost dies jumping off the cliff but barely makes it by grabbing on to the tree branch last second, electricity overload for Pikachu via the electromagnet prior in "Hoenn Alone"), and lastly, a far more convincing ending than many of the later restarts in regions would feature for the rest of the Series.

"The Scheme Team"- Everything about this was well done, how Ash met Agatha, how TR interjected, how he battled the last member of the Kanto Elite Four at last he never did prior, and lastly, meeting Scott to start the BF saga.

("Time Warp Heals All Wounds" is ruined for me, by the dub in which Michele Knotz is practically moaning/groaning through all her lines as May for me w/a sullen timbre too, it MIGHT'VE made it had the original 4Kids dub lasted into BF though past the Battle Factory: an example of how the terrible, terrible dub change killed something for me that I might've otherwise liked in English- in Japanese, sure, it's good though)

Sinnoh:

Nothing, in fact, most are overrated with "Pika and Goliath" being a cheap knock-off ripoff of "Electric Shock Showdown" earlier on IMO.

Unova:

"Ash vs N, A Clash of Ideals!"- A nice subplot where Ash begins to be less stupid than he was in most of the rest of the saga and makes friends with the Mysterious N, who has an intriguing story to tell at the time.

Kalos:

THE most overrated saga, period, with "A PokeVision of Things to Come" being one of the absolute worst episodes of all time too.

Alola:

"One Journey Ends, Another Begins" is pretty good, especially considering how overly goofy and comedic this saga could get, not often is it that Sarah Natochenny and I agree on much of anything but I'll give her and Lisa Ortiz this-- this is the type of episode that is what some people liked about the older Series more, a sad story with a convincing tale to it (Stoutland dies).

Galar:

Nothing comes to mind- while this saga gets slammed by most of the modern fandom as the nadir of the Series along with Johto and BW, that said, I would take a lot of the episodes here over the extremely overrated and undeserving of the praise given to them DP & XY personally (especially the latter).

 

[R.O.B.]

Fear Factor Phony - Pretty decent episode that gets overshadowed by it being the first episode with the then-"new" voices.
Following A Maiden's Voyage - Did a really good job establishing Dawn as the (or a, I guess?) main character.

 

[Nicolas721]

• Pokemon Shipwreck: I'm rewatching OS and by episode 30 this is by far the funniest, with very black humor and amazing interactions between TR and the twerps.
• Illusion Confusion: Great humor and plot.
• An EGG-sighting adventure: A very well-done mystery episode with some hilarious moments.
• I Politoed Ya So: Great CoTD, and develops Misty's happiest pal.
• The Princess and the Togepi/A Togepi Mirage: One of the best character returns, using elements from fairy tales it develops Misty and gives a very sad goodbye to her kid.
• Veilstone Arc: Very good all around, develops Dawn and Ash at the same time.
• A Rivalry to Gible On!: Fun interactions and capture mechanics, without a doubt the best of the HGSS Arc.
• A Conoisseur Revenge!: Ash's team gets some development, Burgundy is very funny and the battle has some fun strategies.
• Climbing the Tower of Success: All the good BW humor gathered together in one interesting competition.
• First half of Episode N: Lots of drama and mystery, easily the best part of BW. The second half has its issues but it's still nowhere as bad as the rest of the series.
• Battling with elegance and a big smile!: Excellent development for Aria and Serena, and Sawyer's debut too!
• Th legend of the ninja hero/A festival of decisions!: THIS is how you present Greninja, with a great story and ninja CoTDs. Its semi-prequel "A stealthy challenge" also counts.
• Greninja Arc: Amazing animation and drama, I think it's better than the Kalos League.
• Sophocles & Rotom Dex episodes: Very overhated, they might be slower-paced but they keep the spirit of the SM series. Special shoutouts to Mounting an Electrifying Charge (an amazing race episode) and Bright Lights, Big Changes (which has a very grounded drama).
• Not Carving Under Pressure: Development of the best SM trio (Sophocles, Lillie and Mallow), with a great battle.
• A talent for Imitation: One of TR's best moments, they really help Ditto get better with lots of heartwarming lines.
• Memories of a Warming Kindness: If Journeys' slice of life would have been all like this it would have been worth it, it's a silly but really charming story about how simple things can make you happy.

 

[Nodqfan]

Address Unown, a really good penultimate episode to the Larvatar arc. You get to see why it was so afraid of people and some amazing visuals like it being encased in ice and the black branches suddenly popping up around to close itself off.

 

[Superior Serperior]

There were a lot of really entertaining (relatively) forgotten BW episodes. “Emolga and The New Volt Switch” and “Beheeyem, Duosion and the Dream Thief” are both hilarious.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Fear Factor Phony - Pretty decent episode that gets overshadowed by it being the first episode with the then-"new" voices.

I remember finding it interesting in the Trivia section with this one:

"In the original Japanese version, Meowth and Brock mention that the Ghost Pokémon are using Confuse Ray to create the ghost image. The English dub doesn't mention it, however."

I like how people didn’t want to admit TPCi was doing the same things people said only 4Kids did back then.

And that’s great, but it was done so much better in OS than in DP because it was an original and novel concept back then but it felt too repetitive to me (might’ve been the dub that was jarring though, idk, just didn’t like it).

 

[R.O.B.]

I guess they were really trying their best to be like 4Kids, weird errors/omissions/additions included...

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

True, but for how much hype DP gets, that filler was one of the most repetitive to me of them all I suppose (the trainer Sho was annoying too, tbf).

The more you know, Kadabra's last appearance in the Anime? Wow. Maddie Blaustein's archive stock audio was used in the dub version, too, interesting.

 

[Emelie]

Not sure if it counts as an episode but I love the Mewtwo CD dramas. The backstory with Miyamoto helped us understand a lot of things about Mushashi/Jessie and I love the philosophical discussions between Mewtwo and Amber. Mr. Fuji who is just a nice old man in the games being turned into a grieving father who is also trying to play God is probably the biggest and darkest change a character in the anime adaption has gone through.