Betrayed, Bothered, and Beleaguered (Pokémon Journeys)

"Betrayed, Bothered, and Beleaguered! (Japanese: いやいやピカチュウ、やれやれバリヤード; "The Reluctant Pikachu and the Exasperated Mr. Mime") is the thirtieth episode of Season 23 of the Pokémon Journeys era.

Plot
After winning an official World Coronation Series battle, Riolu is feeling proud of its achievement. However, Ash's fixation on training Riolu has pushed Pikachu's patience to the breaking point and he runs away from the Cerise Laboratory. Mr. Mime follows him in an attempt to prevent him from leaving. However, Pikachu is determined to go down the path. Where does the path lead them?

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The story is simply sympathetic, but beautifully written. Pikachu loses his patience to the point he understandably runs away because of Ash's stubborn fixation training on Riolu the whole day, leaving him feeling left out. It is relatable to a lot of people who get jealous of getting ignored for the day to the point of losing patience and parting away. Pikachu did have every right to take a break from Ash after all.
 * 2) * Although, Ash didn't mean to ignore Pikachu the whole day to begin with. It was clearly by mistake despite leading Pikachu to lose his patience.
 * 3) Ash training his Farfetch'd and Riolu is animated fantastically.
 * 4) Before this episode, there was an episode where Chloe has gone through the same way Pikachu had with Ash and his Riolu when she went through similar with Yamper.
 * 5) The dynamic between Delia's Mr. Mime and Ash's Pikachu is brilliant.
 * 6) There was even a dramatic scene where Mr. Mime saves Pikachu from being drifted away from the river during the scene where Mr. Mime doesn't want Pikachu to run away.
 * 7) Delia is really likable because she understands the pain Pikachu was going for, and she even sang him Ash's lullaby when he was a really small child during his childhood years in a way of comforting him. She even says to him how special he is to Ash.
 * 8) Like in your usual Pokémon Journeys episode, the animation style is beautiful as usual.
 * 9) The beautiful ending: Ash apologizes to Pikachu for neglecting him after being called out by Chloe, both become the best of friends again, we then cut to Ash and Pikachu resting in bed, we get to hear Ash sing his lullaby to Pikachu as the episode closes.
 * 10) Great voice acting in both dubs as usual. Although, Sarah Natochenny really nailed how she sung the lullaby voicing as Ash during recording production of the English dub, which shows she is a talented actress after all.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) When Delia mentions the events of the very first episode of the series, she tells everyone that Ash started his Pokémon journey on his 10th birthday. This is incorrect because Ash turned ten-years-old before the day he went out on his journey, he didn't know Pikachu until the day after he turned ten. The line: "And now that I'm ten, I can finally get my Pokémon license." is evidence of that. In all honesty, this continuity contradiction happened by accident.

Trivia

 * Pikachu feels a similar jealousy to what Lauren's Piplup felt in "The Sinnoh Iceberg Race!", Ash's Bayleef when it was a Chikorita in "Chikorita's Big Upset" and Dawn's Piplup in "Piplup, Up and Away!".
 * This episode follows directly after "There's a New Kid in Town!", which was about Professor Cerise’s Yamper feeling jealous towards another Pokémon as well.
 * Pikachu felt neglected the same way in "Dazzling the Nimbasa Gym!"
 * This episode was the first episode that was announced post shutdown.
 * Mimey protecting Pikachu from a flock of Spearow is reminiscent of the moment Ash defended Pikachu at the beginning of their story.
 * The English dub title is a reference to the song, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".