New episode title(s) has/have been added to the database. Title: エモンガ、ロケット団に入る！/Emonga, Rocket-dan ni hairu!. Please comment below! Thanks, your friendly PM.Net AnimeBot

Having been scolded by Iris due to an accidental misunderstanding, Emonga transfers over to the Rocket Gang! They then attack Satoshi and friends, and end up abducting Kibago! What will happen now!?

Summary:
As they wait around for their ship's departure later that evening, Satoshi and friends relax with a picnic out in the meadows. During the picnic, Iris misinterprets the situation a bit, and severely scolds Emonga. It flies of in a huff, but loses its balance mid-flight, and falls to the ground right next to the Rocket Gang. During its resulting battle against Musashi and Kojiro's Pokémon, Emonga wins over them with just a single use of 'Attract'.

After this overwhelming victory, the Rocket Gang urges Emonga to join them. Emonga isn't completely opposed to the idea, so is it really going to work with them...!?

Voice cast:
Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Mamoru Miyano: Dent
Aoi Yuki: Iris
Minami Tsuda: Kibago
Megumi Hayashibara: Musashi
Shinichiro Miki: Kojiro
Inuko Inuyama: Nyarth
Aya Endo: Pansy
Misato Fukuen: Mijumaru
Wasabi Mizuta: Chaoboo
Akeno Watanabe: Zuruggu
Mika Kanai: Emonga
Kensuke Sato: Kairyu
Chika Fujimura: Yanappu
Kiyotaka Furushima: Koromori
Chiaki Takahashi: Pururill
Kenta Miyake: Bakuong
Unsho Ishizuka: Narration

After an episode without Rocket Gang, we get a lethal dose of them. But it was somehow expected considering the episode title. And it was also expected that noone is in fact joining anyone, since this is just one of THOSE episodes. Well, it is just an episode about a misunderstanding and language barrier between humans and Pokémon. And one female Pokémon who just gets upset because... well, because she is misunderstood.

The outcome is way too obvious, despite the desperate attempts at randomness in this episode. Like... completely pissing off a sleeping Exploud by hitting it with a stray energy-ball-ish attack.

Rocket Gang's role is very unbalanced in this episode. At first all their Pokémon just get completely beaten into a round square by just one little floating squirrel. Later in the episode they go extremely far to take revenge on the attention-whoring Emolga by capturing it into a cage together with an even more pissed-off Exploud. An exploud against which Emolga and Kibago stand no chance. That scene was a bit cruel. And while they were at it, why didn't they just grab the Exploud they had successfully obtained and blast off to give it to their Sakaki-sama instead? Bringing a fully evolved powerful beast could get them much more praise than just some little yellow rat.

The bright side of this episode is that there might be a bit of character development concerning Iris and her Pokémon. Also, since when can regular trainers share information telepathically with non-psychic Pokémon? This would better not get forgoten in the following episodes.

My rating:
An almost filler episode with way too much Rocket Gang and an outcome predictable right from the very beginning. Some scenes were a bit unusual (Snivy and Emolga insulting each other in such a way that even the worst criminal refused to translate that.) but I think this episode was somehow boring and redundant.
I give it 5.