EP043

The March of the Exeggutor Squad (Japanese: ナッシーぐんだんだいこうしん！ The Great Squad March!) is the 43rd episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 7, 1998, and in the United States on October 30, 1998. It was initially intended to air in Japan on February 3, 1998, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.
==Blurb==
Our heroes continue their Pokémon training without a break even over spring vacation, when what should appear before them but a carnival. Ash, Brock and Pikachu join in the fun, eventually discovering a rather dull magic show being performed in a small cabin. The magician begs Misty to become his assistant, but because of his poor magic skills, the magician is fired. Feeling sorry for him, Brock, Ash and Misty suggest working together to create a Pokémon magic show.
==Plot==
 and find themselves in a town that is hosting a carnival. Excited, and Ash change into funny outfits and start dancing. and , embarrassed, walk away, go on some rides, and eat some ice cream. Soon after, Misty notices a woman scolding a man with an over due fines. The woman knocks him to the ground and walks away. Misty asks the man if everything is alright, and he requests that she be his magic show assistant. He introduces himself as Melvin and conjures some flowers and flags. Misty agrees to help him, but just for the day.
The show begins, with Misty forced to wear a leotard adorned with fins. Melvin starts to juggle his Exeggcute, and everyone, including Misty, thinks it is boring. Melvin then pulls out a wand, and a tiny flame comes out; the crowd falls back in disappointment. He tries again, and a huge jet of flame comes out. Misty tells him to be careful, but he is so thrilled that the trick worked that he accidentally sets off the building's fire sprinklers, which drenches the audience. The audience quickly storms out and throws various things at Melvin. The carnival owner fires Melvin because of the stunt, and he wants to give up his dreams. However, Ash and his friends promise to give him some tips.
Ash performs his trick involving a magic box, with fire and water magically shooting out at his command, but it was revealed to contain , , and . The three get into a fight inside the box after Charmander's tail flame burns Squirtle, and subsequently ruins Ash's trick. Ash says that Melvin's Exeggcute doesn't do much, so it uses on him. Brock and Misty wonder why Ash is acting so dopey, especially after he follows Melvin's command and spins in circles while acting like a . After Melvin realizes that he can control Ash, he and Ash sneak away from Brock, Misty, and Pikachu.
Melvin then commands Ash to pull him and his Exeggcute by cart into the Leaf Forest. sees Melvin and Ash and starts to follow them. Brock and Misty are out looking for Melvin and Ash when Misty then realizes that Ash has been . The Leaf Forest is full of , which Melvin has Ash weaken with Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle; Melvin then the entire mob of Pokémon. With his new horde of Exeggutor, Melvin plans to hypnotize people to attend his shows. Team Rocket makes their entry, performing a magic show-themed version of their , which Melvin applauds. He soon finds himself tied up, with Team Rocket planning to use his newly captured Pokémon to hypnotize and capture more Pokémon. His Exeggcute evolves into an Exeggutor without warning, and then uses Hypnosis on Team Rocket. The other Exeggutor copy this and end up hypnotizing each other, causing them to go on a rampage towards the town. Team Rocket is hypnotized into believing that they are Exeggutor and begin following the herd. Brock and Misty show up and wake up Ash and Melvin, who were trampled by the marching Exeggutor. After waking up, Ash's hypnosis fades and he returns to normal.
The four of them head for town, where they see that the carnival has been almost destroyed, and discover that the Exeggutor mob is turning around and coming back their way. The carnival owner tells them he's planted a time bomb to destroy the threat. Ash and his friends are naturally opposed to this, so they decide to try to stop the Exeggutor before they can reach the bomb. Ash sends out Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander in an attempt to stop the herd. Squirtle and Bulbasaur's attacks don't have much of an effect, so Ash recalls them and orders Charmander to attack instead. The Pokémon's attacks successfully stop some of the Exeggutor, but it quickly becomes exhausted as the Exeggutor continue to charge forward. Misty tries to convince Melvin to use his fire trick to stop the Exeggutor. Although he is positive he will fail, he tries anyway, and the trick ends up working. Together with Charmander's , a blanket of fire stops the Exeggutor in their tracks. Melvin's newly-evolved Exeggutor returns to him, and Melvin runs up to it and hugs the . The time bomb then goes off just a distance away, destroying the carnival and, to everyone's relief, no one gets hurt from the blast. Suddenly, Charmander evolves into and shoots a flame at Ash's face, putting his loyalty to Ash in question. Team Rocket gets carried away by the Exeggutor, and Ash and his friends continue on their journey.
==Major events==
* 's evolves into a .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* ()
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Melvin
* Melvin's assistant
* Carnival owner
* Carnival visitors
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (; evolves)
* (; newly evolved; debut)
* ()
* (Melvin's; evolves)
* (Melvin's; newly evolved)
* (Melvin's; multiple; new)
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
==Trivia==
* After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:
* This is the last episode to air in syndication in the United States. Due to this, there was a near four-month gap between this episode and The Problem with Paras as a result of Pokémon being moved to the lineup.
* Early in the episode, and are wearing party outfits. Brock's outfit, which has pink frills for the sleeves and the cuffs of the pants, has large similarities to his future Takeshi's Paradise outfit, including the maracas he holds. The outfit from this episode may have served as inspiration for the later outfit.
* This is the first episode in which there is a reference to a real-life city; Melvin mentions that his dream is to have his own magic show in .
* This is the first episode in which one of evolves in the same episode as another character's Pokémon.
* This episode is featured on Volume 9: Charmander from Viz Media's series.
* Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
* Melvin keeps all of his on hand in this episode, even though there are far more than the maximum six allowed to all s.
* In the English dub, the title card is written in .
===Errors===
* When tells Melvin to be careful, her left arm passes through the stage.
* After the sprinkler goes off, Pikachu's voice can be heard, but his mouth doesn't move. This also occurs with Jessie and James when they enter the box.
** Inversely, after Melvin shows the trick of the flower bouquet to Ash, Misty, and Brock, moves his mouth, but no voice can be heard.
* When Misty tells Ash to stop looking at the Exeggcute, Ash's left hand is layered over it.
* Melvin seems to know that Ash wants to become a Pokémon Master despite Ash not telling him.
* When Melvin is throwing Poké Balls, they appear out of thin air before he throws them.
* When Jessie is talking to the Exeggcute, her stomach is wider than normal.
* When evolves into Exeggutor, the upper lip of the head on the far right is not fully colored in.
* When starts becoming affected by the Exeggutor's , Melvin does not have a cloth tied around his neck, but when he praises the Exeggutor, one appears.
* In several scenes, the eyes of the right head of an Exeggutor are not colored in.
* When Ash commands to use on the Exeggutor, the "z" mark on his right cheek is missing.
* When Ash and are seen walking at the end of the episode, Ash's shoes are completely white.
* In the last scene with Team Rocket, 's claws are the same color as his body. 
* In the dub, is mistakenly called .
* In the dub, Charmander is referred to as the "Dragon Pokémon" instead of the "Flame Pokémon".
EP043 error 2.png|The layering error
EP043 error 3.png|The lip error
EP043 error 4.png|Ash's missing cheek mark
===Dub edits===
* In the Japanese version, the opening narration reveals Trainers don't take breaks at any time, something that is implied but not directly stated in the English dub.
* Ash's invitation for Misty to party with him was originally a reference to the song "Why Not Dance?" that plays during , Japan's largest dance festival.
* Ash's remark about Misty's outfit was originally an observation rather than flirting.
* The hecklers originally start harassing Ash, while in the English dub, they only start heckling when the camera pans toward them.
* Brock's negative critique toward Melvin was originally quieter and directed towards Ash alone.
* Misty's correction to Melvin dealt with word-swapping idioms in the Japanese version.
* Misty originally doesn't compare Melvin to Ash about not knowing what he is doing. Instead, Ash merely reacts with surprise when she directly offers career advice to him.
* Melvin apologizes to Exeggcute in the Japanese version, something he does not do in the English dub. In addition, the English dub implies Melvin was fired by multiple carnivals due to his incompetence, which isn't the case in the Japanese version.
* Originally, Melvin states that he wanted to make it to , not Las Vegas.
* Melvin's initial act regarding the unveiling of flowers did not originally indicate they were dead, unlike in the English dub, with Misty and Brock instead stating the act isn't good.
* When hypnotized into acting like a Bulbasaur, Ash originally stops acting like one when Melvin ordered him to spin around.
* In the Japanese version, when Melvin's Exeggcute starts to evolve, James questions how it could be evolving without a Leaf Stone around. This isn't acknowledged in the English dub.
** On a similar note, the sign posted outside the forest originally warns that taking an Exeggcute into the forest will ensure its evolution. The English dub implies this with a painting of an Exeggcute pointing to an Exeggutor, though it does not directly state this. Contrary to popular belief, however, it was never indicated in the Japanese version that the forest had a large deposit of Leaf Stones buried underneath that caused their evolution.
* When bidding farewell to Melvin, the group originally wishes him luck instead of telling him to do a good job.
Sign EP043 original.png|The sign (original)
Sign EP043 dub edit.png|The sign (dub)
==In other languages==
043
Category:Episodes written by Hideki Sonoda
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes directed by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes animated by Gō Yamamoto
Category:Episodes in which a main character's Pokémon evolves
Category:Episodes focusing on Misty
de:Angriff der Kokoweis
es:EP043
fr:EP043
it:GA043
ja:無印編第43話
zh:宝可梦 第42集