Friend and Foe Alike (Pokémon the Series: Original Series)

"Friend and Foe Alike"
Or if you want to get in on the ground floor of the cool nicknames, the exact episode of the original Pokémon series where one of the anime's most infamous elements was put into action.
Series: Pokémon Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 79 Air Date: January 14, 1999 (Japan) November 27, 1999 (United States) Writer: Hideki Sonoda Director: Masaru Fukumoto Previous episode: A Friend In Deed Next episode: Friends to the End

"Friend and Foe Alike" (Japanese title: セキエイスタジアム！ＶＳヒロシ！ Sekiei Stadium! VS Hiroshi!) is the 79th episode of Pokémon.

Plot

Ash is supposed to battle against Ritchie in the fifth round of Indigo League but Team Rocket kidnaps him in order to steal his Pikachu.

Bad Qualities

1. This episode's plot is boring, rushed, and weak.
2. This episode lacks logic to a huge extent. Everybody is waiting for Ash at the stadium while he desperately tries to escape from Team Rocket. Nobody does anything to help Ash and Ritchie, including Misty, after she is told by Ritchie that he never spoke to them over the phone. She could have easily realized that somebody impersonated Ritchie. One can argue this was done so she can think a second thought later, but Misty is supposed to be smart enough to tell the difference between the real Ritchie and fake Ritchie.
   • To make things worse, nobody ever wonders about the reason behind Ash's absence. The moment where Ash's mother tells him to apologize to everyone for making them wait for so long only adds fuel to the fire.
3. Team Rocket are extremely unlikable in this episode and this episode alone. For whatever reason, Team Rocket is quite relentless in this episode. Even after Ash shakes them off, they repeatedly come back to kidnap Pikachu again and again, making this episode very frustrating to watch.
   1. Granted, it is normal for Team Rocket to steal Ash's Pikachu, but in the episode's case, in which Ash had a very important battle in the freaking Indigo League, Team Rocket are just very annoying in this episode.
   2. This is ALSO one of those episodes that Team Rocket had no reason to be in. So of course this episode is easy to root against them because viewers can tell they came to watch the episode just to see Ash win the Kanto Champion League, not go through Team Rocket's crap the umpteent time.
4. Team Rocket's Ritchie puppet looks ridiculous and Ash could have easily realized that it wasn't the real Ritchie.
5. The episode spends too much time on Ash trying to escape from Team Rocket while his battle with Ritchie doesn't happen until the last few minutes of this episode. As a result, Ash arrives at the stadium literally at the last second, with half of his Pokémon exhausted from fighting against Team Rocket and subsequently loses his battle with Ritchie.
6. The infamous moment were after eventually arriving at the stadium, Ash never told anyone that the reason it took so long is because he was kidnapped by Team Rocket. If he explained what happened to him, then the match would likely have been postponed in order to give him some time to rest.
   • Even if Ash didn't want the match to be postponed, he should have informed everyone about getting kidnapped anyway. This whole mess would have easily been avoided.
7. Ash's battle against Ritchie is poorly done. It is short, boring and very one-sided, not to mention that it happens during the few last minutes of this episode, and even worst, Ash lost the battle. Some other problems with this battle include:
   • After Squirtle sprayed Butterfree with water, it should have rendered it unable to fly and battle further, so Ash should have won.
   • Squirtle is ruled unable to battle after it falls asleep to Butterfree's Sleep Powder, even though Sleep is just a Status Condition and Squirtle could still take damage.
   • Before Ritchie sends out his Pikachu, his scoreboard shows him with one Pokémon left, although his Charmander was only recalled into its Poké Ball, and never even took damage.
8. The infamous moment that Ash loses the match because of this reason, his Charizard refused to fight..... yes, he lost (or rather got disqualified) because of that reason, this is, without a question, the worst way that Ash could have possible lose in the whole series.
9. Because of how this episode is made, "Friend and For Alike" feels very rushed and has many flaws that can easily be avoided.
10. Unfortunately, this whole Ash losing in the Pokémon Indigo League concept will become the primary staple trope from Indigo League all the way to Kalos.
    • With the exception of the Orange Islands and the Battle Frontier. Okay, the Battle Frontier actually counts as a Pokémon contest, and Ash and May did tie in that contest, but both do get to win since tying in a contest can prove everyone is a winner.

Good Qualities

1. In both Japanese and English versions of this episode, the voice acting is still excellent.
2. The animation is also still good as usual.
3. This episode contains some funny moments, such as the moment where Team Rocket prank-calls Misty.
4. The next episode is an improvement to this one.
5. Thankfully, Team Rocket would never try a thing like this again in future Pokémon League conferences, instead they are just doing other things like selling merchandise.
6. This episode has a good message. The episode's message is that "failure is not the end of a journey".
7. Without this episode, we presumably would not have "Charizard Chills", an episode that would come out after Season 1/Indigo League.
8. Despite Ash losing, he does get to be in the Top 16 in the next episode.

Reception

Many fans consider this, along with "Pokemon Scent-sation", are the least popular episodes of the first season, and the anime.

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