Go West, Young Meowth (Pokémon the Series: Original Series)

Go West Young Meowth (ニャースのあいうえお Nyarth's A-I-U-E-O) is the 70th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on November 12, 1998, and in the United States on October 9, 1999.

Plot
When the gang attends the premiere of "Pokémon in Love," Meowth looks back on his painful past; he shares the story of his life before Team Rocket, including how he learned to walk and talk like a human.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The concept of telling Team Rocket’s Meowth’s backstory is very well nailed. It does show us how creative the Pokémon anime is.
 * 2) The plot is very well done. It had great writing, emotional efforts, and very well done character development for Meowth, as his backstory revealed his hard life, how he learned to talk and walk on 2 feet, and why he joined Team Rocket.
 * 3) The beginning was good as Ash, Misty, Brock and Delia, and their Pokémon were invited to attend the Hollywood premiere of the movie they helped made last episode, "Pokémon Love", which was a good callback to that episode.
 * 4) Team Rocket are still their funny selves, well Jessie and James for the most part, especially the part where Meowth says "Cut!" to both of them and they fell over.
 * 5) The music is amazing, and fits really well with the episode, as usual, especially the sad music during Meowth’s backstory, like "Meowth’s Song".
 * 6) Great animation in its time, especially for the Indigo League season as usual.
 * 7) Shocking moment where Meowth says "Hollywood. A place I’d like to forget.", which most people would never say. But it’s a great moment as not all people enjoy Hollywood, and it foreshadows his sad backstory.
 * 8) Emotional moments throughout Meowth’s backstory, about how he was alone and starving, and how others have treated him like dirt and have hurt him.
 * 9) Funny scene where Ash and the gang thought Hollywood would be great, but this version of Hollywood is actually an abandoned city.
 * 10) Meowth went to Hollywood to see if his life would be better after seeing a movie, and he joined a Meowth gang, so he could get food, and how he meet Meowzie, a female Meowth he fell in love with.
 * 11) After the harsh words Meowzie told her that he’s not human, he decided to learn to walk and talk like a human to win her heart, which was difficult, but it took hard work, time and dedication, using talk books, and repeating what humans say, which is what makes him a unique and anthropomorphic Pokémon.
 * 12) Heartbreaking scene where Meowzie called Meowth a freak after seeing him walk and talk, which led to Meowth leaving Hollywood.
 * 13) One of his first words, Rocket, inspired him to join Team Rocket, saying it was the last time he saw Meowzie, Hollywood and his old gang.
 * 14) Meowth reunited with his old gang and saw Meowzie is part of it, and she revealed her short but tragic story of how her trainer abandoned her, and she was forced to join the Meowth gang in order to survive.
 * 15) Meowth decided to save Meowzie from the old gang, and Jessie and James came to rescue them and fight off the old gang, which made Meowth happy to have friends, and it’s very heartwarming.
 * 16) Epic moment where Meowth defeats the gang’s leader, a Persian.
 * 17) When Meowzie decided to stay with Persian because he took care of her and it wouldn’t be right to leave him, it crushed Meowth’s heart, and Jessie and James comforted him.
 * 18) Funny moment near the end where Team Rocket, with Meowth, did a dancing thing in the theater where Ash and the others were watching the movie, and when Ash and his friends were all disappointed they weren’t in the movie.
 * 19) The ending was emotional as Meowth gazes into the night sky at the moon.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) Hollywood is thrown into the anime, even though that location is nonexistent to the Pokémon world. What's stupid is that they mentioned Hollywood as in Hollywood, California in the English dub, which contradicts the franchise's continuity than in the Japanese version.
 * 2) *Not to say it's a bad thing to throw in real life locations into the show, Japanese or any non-Japanese dub, but when it comes to throwing US cities like Hollywood in, that's kind of like throwing in Americanisation considering the fact Pokémon is a Japanese franchise from the very start.

Reception
This episode received largely positive reviews from critics, audiences and fans of the Pokémon franchise. Is one of the episodes that YouTuber Lumiose Trainer Zac gave a 10/10, and it has a 7.8/10 rating on IMDb.

Videos
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