Charcoal appeared in A Farfetch'd Tale. While traveling through Ilex Forest, Ash and his friends met a boy named Sylvester, who was trying to follow in his teacher's (father in the dub) footsteps in order to learn how to make "purifying charcoal". Brock explained that purifying charcoal is actually burnt wood, which can be used as fuel or to purify water and air. At the end of the episode, Ash and his friends received some charcoal as a gift.