EP008

The Path to the Pokémon League (Japanese: ポケモンリーグへのみち The Road to the Pokémon League) is the eighth episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on May 20, 1997, and in the United States on September 17, 1998.
==Blurb==
On the way to Vermillion City, Ash meets AJ, a Gym Leader at an unsanctioned Gym who has 98 wins and zero losses. They battle, and Ash is surprised that AJ's Ground-type Sandshrew can easily beat his Flying-type Pokémon. (Flying-type Pokémon are usually strong against Ground-type Pokémon.)
Ash and his friends later see that AJ puts his Pokémon through very tough training—he makes his Sandshrew, normally weak to Water-type attacks, train in a swimming pool! Although Ash doesn't approve of the intensive training session, Brock is impressed. Ash begs for a rematch, but AJ refuses. The two argue a bit and when they fall into the pool, AJ's Sandshrew goes missing.
Are AJ's training methods too tough? Will Ash get his rematch? And what happened to AJ's Sandshrew?
==Plot==
;Ash VS Savage Trainer A.J.
 and are on their way to Vermilion City. Along the way, Ash has a with another , and defeats a , securing his tenth victory. The Trainer admires Ash's two Badges, leading to muse that giving Ash the Badge may have been a mistake. The Trainer points Ash to an unofficial Gym, where a strong Trainer named A.J., who has purportedly never lost a match, trains savage .
The sign outside A.J.'s Gym indicates that the Gym is unlicensed by the Pokémon League and that he has a record of 98 wins to zero losses. As Misty insults Ash, A.J. walks up and challenges him to a battle. A.J. snaps a whip, making Ash jump. He says that he plans to start competing for Badges after his 100th consecutive win. Ash smugly tells him that he has ten wins and two Gym Badges, at which point A.J. insults the Gyms, angering Misty and . A.J. summons his to battle against Ash's Pokémon. Misty reminds Ash that Pikachu's electricity is useless against a Pokémon, but Ash rejects her advice. He summons Pidgeotto to battle Sandshrew. Brock notes that a Pokémon should have the advantage. However, Sandshrew uses to roll up into a ball and hurls itself into the air, striking and defeating Pidgeotto.
After recalling Pidgeotto into its , Ash calls out to fight Sandshrew. He orders a attack, but A.J., with a crack of his whip, orders Sandshrew to underground to avoid it. It bursts out of the ground, taking Butterfree down as well. Ash wants Pikachu to fight next, but the refuses, grabbing hold of the edge of the battlefield. Ash tries to pull Pikachu off by the tail, but Pikachu, refusing to let go, hits his Trainer with a . 
;A.J.'s Harsh Training Methods
While all of this is happening, is spying on the match from a tree nearby and decides to steal Sandshrew. Refusing to believe that anyone's Pokémon could be so strong, Ash accuses A.J. of cheating and demands a rematch, but A.J. tells him to quit whining. Later, Ash overhears A.J. his Pokémon, yelling angrily and cracking his whip. Ash intervenes to stop A.J. from hurting the Pokémon, but A.J. tells him to mind his own business. His Sandshrew is wearing a strength intensifier brace invented by A.J. himself. It enables the Sandshrew to withstand the weakening effects of water. A.J. says he's tougher on Sandshrew than his other Pokémon because it was his very first.
Appalled at A.J.'s training methods, Ash asserts that a great Pokémon Trainer should make friends with his Pokémon. He asks for Brock's input, but Brock only wants to know what kind of A.J. is using. A.J., like Brock, mixes his own food from a secret recipe. Pikachu attempts to pick up one of Sandshrew's dumbbells, but falls backward under the weight, while Sandshrew does rapid exercises. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is crouched behind A.J.'s tent, preparing for their attempted heist. After the training, A.J.'s Pokémon are all exhausted. 
;Team Rocket Snatches Up A Sandshrew
A.J. insults Pikachu, and Ash takes a swing at him, causing them both to fall into the pool. Pikachu tries on the strength intensifier, but it fits badly and pulls him into a ball. Sandshrew laughs at Pikachu's comical appearance and rolls itself into a ball as well. Team Rocket rolls into the tent inside a rubber ball, intending to steal Pikachu, but they instead grab Sandshrew. After A.J. ends the rest break, he realizes that Sandshrew is missing. He releases Pikachu from the harness, but Pikachu doesn't know where Sandshrew is either. Ash suggests that it ran away because it saw that Pikachu was treated better. A.J. is extremely insulted at this, insisting Sandshrew would not have run away after all they had been through together. He sends his other Pokémon to look for Sandshrew, but Ash tries to convince A.J.'s Pokémon to leave with him. Despite the way A.J. has treated them, they ignore Ash. Meanwhile, while arguing over who carries the bag, Team Rocket is startled when Sandshrew flies out. Meowth s Sandshrew's tail and Sandshrew burrows underground in pain. While Ash and A.J. are still arguing, Sandshrew bursts out of the ground next to him, dragging Meowth. Seeing how happy A.J. and Sandshrew are to be back together, Ash and the gang realize how deeply A.J. cares for his Pokémon.
Surrounded by angry Pokémon and their Trainers, Meowth tries to figure a way out of his situation, when James and Jessie begin their . Jessie tells A.J. that taking his Sandshrew was a mistake; James calls it second-rate, earning A.J's ire. 
;A.J.'s 100th Win?
He challenges them to a battle, with his Sandshrew facing off against and . Sandshrew avoids Koffing and Ekans's respective and attacks and takes them out, then defeats Meowth, who tries to Bite its armored skin. Team Rocket flees after Sandshrew's attack. As this is A.J.'s 100th win, he and his Pokémon now leave to begin earning Badges. Like Ash, he too wants to be the 's greatest Pokémon Master. They part as friendly rivals, agreeing to meet in the future at one of the League competitions.
==Major events==
* learns that there is a Gym in Vermilion City.
* Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know .
* is revealed to know .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* A.J.
* Trainer
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (A.J.'s)
* (A.J.'s)
* (A.J.'s)
* (A.J.'s; ×3)
* (Trainer's)
==Trivia==
* This is the first "filler" episode of the .
* This is also the first episode without any debuts.
* This episode is the last in which Ted Lewis voices James, as well as Eric Stuart's first episode voicing James. He takes over the role when James summons in . Lewis had left for a time to do theater, only to eventually return as and .
* This is the first episode not explicitly set within a location from the .
* The English dub of this episode mentions a real animal. claims that A.J. controls with the crack of his whip just like a . In the Japanese version, she simply remarks that it is amazing A.J. can control Sandshrew with the crack of his whip.
* Early in the episode, expresses an interest in Sandshrew. However, later on they say they take no interest in A.J.'s "second rate" Sandshrew.
* This episode marks the first time a one-hit knockout move is seen in the animated series.
* Parts of this episode are remade in I Choose You!.
* 's nose extending is a reference to the Japanese saying "Becoming a ", which is used to describe a person getting a swelled head.
* This is the first episode where an unofficial Pokémon Gym is shown.
* A.J.'s Sandshrew's strength intensifier resembles a Macho Brace, an item that is not introduced until Generation III.
===Errors===
* Pokémon.com's blurb for this episode misspells as Vermillion.
* When Misty says that she and giving the Badges was a mistake, the strap of her bag is the same color as her shirt.
* When Ash and are standing in front of A.J.'s Gym, Ash's sleeves are briefly colored blue instead of white.
* When Ash and his friends turn to see A.J, Ash's left hand briefly overlaps .
* When A.J.'s takes his bag, the straps on Ash's bag are colored black instead of green.
* Sandshrew hits with , despite the fact that Butterfree, being a Pokémon, is immune to moves such as Dig.
* When Sandshrew dives into the pool, its eyes have their colors reversed.
* When A.J.'s Sandshrew curls into a ball to be passed around by A.J.'s three Rattata, it is mistakenly drawn without its brace on.
* When Team Rocket is sneaking around A.J.'s Gym while inside of a ball, 's forepaws are colored orange instead of cream.
* When A.J. is grateful when Sandshrew returns, his Butterfree's antennae disappear several times.
* In this episode, A.J.'s Sandshrew uses . However, in the games, Sandshrew couldn't learn Defense Curl until Generation II.
* In the English dub:
** When Ash tells A.J. that Sandshrew are weakened by water, he incorrectly says "Sandshrews." The plural of a specific species of Pokémon is the same as the singular.
** When Pikachu is holding a pillow, Ash's Japanese voice can be heard.
EP008 error.png|Ash's miscolored straps
EP008 error 3.png|Sandshrew's miscolored eyes
EP008 error 2.png|Meowth's miscolored forepaw
===Dub edits===
* Kanto Pokérap: Day 3
* The sign over the Gym is heavily edited:
** The text is translated.
** The background changes from plain white to a gray that fades into white.
** The numbers are made into a dot-matrix format. In the original version, they were in a 7-segment LED format.
** The number of losses (0) is added.
* A sign inside the tent saying "Fight! Work Harder!" is changed to a picture of a being hit with a whip.
* The scene where holds a pillow is different between the two versions, due to the original Japanese version incorporating both an untranslatable pun and pop culture reference. In said original version, tells A.J. that Sandshrew (whose Japanese name is "サンド (Sand)") is not a "サンドバッグ" (or "sandbag", which is the Japanese word for ), and Pikachu pulling out a (a type of pillow) is a reference to the Japanese comedy program , where participants are awarded with zabuton for giving humorous responses, causing Ash to shout at Pikachu for not taking him seriously. In the English dub, the script was rewritten to have Ash mishear A.J., thinking he said pacing, not passing, and Pikachu's pillow further stammers him into saying padding.
* experiments with a different motto:
** Japanese:
*** Jessie: "We are the pretty thieves..."
*** James: "Target: Pikachu!"
** English dub:
*** Jessie: "Team Rocket will do what it has to do..."
*** James: "To snatch that little Pikachu!"
* At the end, a five-second panning of the battle field is cut by three seconds and replaced by a three-second clip from earlier in the episode.
==In other languages==
008
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Toshiaki Suzuki
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Toshiaki Suzuki
Category:Episodes directed by Toshiaki Suzuki
Category:Episodes animated by Takayuki Shimura
de:Harte Schale – weicher Kern
es:EP008
fr:EP008
it:GA008
ja:無印編第8話
zh:宝可梦 第8集