AG083
|
|
|
Unfair Weather Friends
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
First broadcast
| ||||||||||||
English themes
| ||||||||||||
Japanese themes
| ||||||||||||
Credits
| ||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||
Unfair Weather Friends (Japanese: お天気研究所のポワルン！ Powalen of the Weather Institute!) is the 83rd episode of the Advanced Generation series, and the 357th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on July 1, 2004 and in the United States on June 18, 2005.
Blurb
Ash and the gang are headed to Fortree City when it starts raining and then snowing. They run for shelter and meet a Castform who leads them onward. The gang is greeted by two scientists from the nearby Weather Institute, Bart and Millie. Brock feels absolutely nothing for the attractive Millie, which puzzles him.
Millie is showing the kids around the Weather Institute when a Team Aqua helicopter suddenly appears, and they restrain all the other scientists (plus Team Rocket). Team Aqua is looking for information on the Legendary Pokémon, Groudon and Kyogre. Bart gives his access card to Castform, who flees in search of Millie.
Inside the institute, Ash, Millie and friends reunite with Castform, fight off Team Aqua, and use the access card to get into the computer. Millie transfers all the data onto a disk and deletes the copy on the hard drive.
Outside, Team Aqua uses the weather machine to create a bolt of lightning that sends Team Rocket blasting off. Millie gives Team Aqua the access card. A Team Aqua technician finds the files missing, and Millie reveals that she is in fact, a he—Brodie, the Man of a Thousand Faces, a member of Team Magma! He escapes with the disk.
Team Aqua leaves. Bart is feeling betrayed, but then the real Millie shows up—and Bart puts her to work transferring all their paper files on the Legendary Pokémon back into the computer.
Plot
Ash and his friends are seen walking down a road. A sunny day turns to rain, then to thunder, and finally snow. The explanation? Castform, the Weather Pokémon. Castform begins to lead the group to safety when the weather turns sunny again. Castform's form changes with the weather.
Castform leads them to its Trainer, Bart, a researcher at the Weather Institute, and Bart's trainee, Millie, who has a Ditto. Brock, as usual, starts to go into his pretty-girl-trance at the sight of Millie, but something's wrong. Brock can't quite explain it, but he doesn't feel as gaga for this lady as he does for other ladies. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is snowed in, and appear to be enjoying themselves. Or at least Meowth is; Jessie and James blame the crazy weather patterns on Ash and his friends.
The researchers show Ash and the others their weather control machine. Team Rocket later find the machine and immediately make ill-fated plans to use it for nefarious ends. Team Aqua arrive on the scene soon afterwards, and in full force. Of course, they also want the machine. Team Rocket are clearly upset by the presence of Team Aqua and perform most of their motto before being clamped in restraints.
The researchers and Team Rocket are held captive together shortly. Oddly enough, the female scientist claims to have never heard of Team Rocket; perhaps this is because they're in Hoenn, and Team Rocket is Kanto-based. Jessie and James suck in their stomachs and the restraints loosen. Team Aqua begins powering up the weather control machine, but it appears as though they simply wanted data from the machine and not the machine itself. The data they're interested in relates to a local Legendary Pokémon.
Bart gives the data Pass Card to Castform and tells it to escape. Castform ducks into a ventilation shaft with Team Aqua in pursuit. Ash, his friends, and Millie are watching action outside on security cameras. Millie points out that all the air ducts lead to the room they are currently in and correctly predicts that Castform will come to them, but two Team Aqua grunts arrive and spot Castform. Everyone but Ash and Pikachu flees, and Pikachu knocks out the grunts with a couple of lightning bolts.
Millie suggests that they delete the data from the main computer but it's being guarded by Team Aqua. Millie's Ditto transforms into Castform and lures the Aqua guards away. Millie then copies the data onto a disc and erases the master file. Meanwhile, Ash finds Ditto (still disguised as Castform) and carries it back to his friends and Millie, inadvertently leading the guards back to them. Ash calls out his Torkoal to provide a smokescreen. The group exit the institute only to run into Team Aqua and their leader, Isabel.
Isabel has the weather control machine is brought online and threatens the captured scientists with a lightning storm (while a lighting bolt causes Team Rocket to blast off) unless Millie turns over the key card. Bart, unaware that Millie has deleted the data, begs her not to give in but Millie hands it over. Ash and friends grin as Team Aqua discover that the data has been destroyed. Then Millie taunts Isabel with the data disc and jumps to the top of the machine. Everyone looks at her, surprised as "Millie" is revealed to be Brodie, a male member of Team Magma known for being a master of disguise. This explains Brock's lack of a reaction earlier.
May gets involved in the battle, but Combusken doesn't have enough power to battle Brodie's Ditto. He escapes with the data and, for a change, the bad guys win this round. The real Millie then arrives on the scene, all ready for her first day at the institute. Brock does his patented pretty-girl-trance. As it turns out, the data isn't completely lost. It's in hard copy but it will take a long time to re-enter.
The episode closes with another scene of Team Rocket freezing in the snow.
Major events
- Ash and his friends encounter Brodie of Team Magma.
- For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series, please see the timeline page.
Debuts
Humans
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Trivia
- Full of Summer!! replaced Smile as the Japanese ending theme.
- This episode, much like Now That's Flower Power! and Love, Petalburg Style!, was named similarly to a Johto episode in the English, Latin American, and Spanish dubs.
- This episode's title is based on the phrase "fair weather friends", which is also the basis for the similarly named Johto episode.
- This is the first time more than one transformation of two different kinds of Pokémon are seen: Castform transforming into its other forms, and Ditto transforming into a Castform and a Crawdaunt.
- This is the first time that the Hoenn Pokédex is referred to as "Dextette" in the series in reference to its female voice (the former male equivalent always being referred to as "Dexter").
Errors
- When Team Rocket is complaining to Team Aqua about being captured, Wobbuffet is nowhere to be seen.
- Right before Millie (Brodie) commands her (his) Ditto to transform, Castform's lower body is the wrong shape.
- When Millie goes to transfer the data there is a blue dot on her forehead.
Castform error
Dub edits
Pokémon Trainer's Choice
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Mandarin Chinese | 天氣研究所的漂浮泡泡！ | |
 Danish
|
Urimeligt dårligt vejr* | |
 Dutch
|
Mooi weer stelen | |
 Finnish
|
Sääsota | |
 European French
|
L'art de faire la pluie et le beau temps | |
 German
|
Der Mann mit den 1000 Gesichtern | |
 Hebrew
|
משחקי מזג האויר miskhakei mezeg avir | |
 Hindi
|
मौसम बदलने वाली मशीन Mausam badalne wali Machine * | |
 Italian
|
La macchina del meteo | |
 Korean
|
날씨 연구소의 캐스퐁! | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
|
A Máquina que Controla o Tempo |
 Portugal
|
Tempo de Poucos Amigos * | |
 Russian
|
Плохие парни, плохая погода | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
|
¡Amigos del injusto clima! |
 Spain
|
Amigos del mal tiempo | |
 Swedish
|
Väderleken! | |
|
|
|
|
This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |