Pokemon - The Adventures in the Orange Islands Vol 1
These 12 episodes from the second broadcast season (nos. 228-239 in the overall  continuity) help to bridge the events of the first season, which took  aspiring trainer Ash Ketcham from his Pallet Town home to the Pokémon League  championships, and the later "Johto Journeys" story line. Professor Oak sends  Ash, Misty, and Brock to the Orange Islands to collect a mysterious Pokéball  found by fellow researcher Professor Ivy. When they reach her lab, Brock  decides to stay with the Professor and her three female assistants. Ash and  Misty are soon joined by Tracey, a "Pokémon Watcher" in training who  sketches. After the perpetually amorous Brock, he makes a rather bland  companion. Although the archipelago boasts a string of gyms, Ash wins only  one badge, the Coral Eye.There's little sense of a narrative thread to these  stories as the characters wander aimlessly from island to island. They escape  the snares of the inept Team Rocket (Jessy, James, and Meowth), who stalk them  in a submarine disguised as a giant Magicarp. In the weird "Stage Fright," a  traveling troupe uses Pokémon as puppets, but Kay is having trouble with her  Raichu: she can't get it to follow when she recites "The Rime of the Ancient  Mariner." (They don't consider the possibility that Raichu, like generations  of English students, may be bored by the poem.) The Pokémon craze peaked long  ago, but the series remains a harmless, if repetitious diversion for smaller  children. (Suitable for all ages: minor cartoon violence)--Charles  Solomon