Having a Wailord of a Time - This episode really stands out for me because it takes such a simple premise and makes it completely absurd, that and I remember seeing a youtube poop of this episode six years ago. May leaves Torchic behind so she can practice with Beatifly, Max is bothered by this because of this. But Brock and Ash reassure him because Torchic is her first pokemon so she must care about him, this may seem like another random moment but it's another foreshadow of what's to come. Ash and Brock end up talking about there own first pokemon like how Brock got his Onix from his dad on his tenth birthday. I like how Max says Brock's dad must have been awesome for doing but seems completely neutral clearly he's still mad about his dad walking out on him. Also hearing Eric Stuart make Brock sound prepubescent is hilarious. May contacts a Nurse Joy about a Wailord that is stuck on the beach (yes seriously) so now Ash and Max have to watch over starter pokemon and the interactions between the regular starter pokemon and new starters are pretty funny like the overly feminine treeko. Of course the door just so happens to be open and the new Torchic ends up escaping and then evolving. They sure are over dramatic about the idea of how the trainer would react. For an episode called having a Wailord of a time Wailord is actually bearly in this, we have a scene of Nurse Joy inspecting it then a moment where Team Rocket of course tries to steal it and that's it. Of course the trainer ends up choosing Mudkip and then her father wants to become a pokemon trainer and take in Treeko, err okay. Still this was a fun episode and I'm glad we got to see how Brock got his first pokemon.
5/5
Win Loose or Drew - Finally it's time to see May participate in the pokemon contest. It's established May clearly lacks confidence, which is understandable she still quite new to the idea of being around pokemon and has little idea of what she's dong still. Drew's performance is well done and the execution of contests finally feels complete and they feel really well done. Also Derpy Nurse Joy.
May's lack of battling experience leads for her to loose to Drew in the first of many loses against him. Only for Drew to loose to Robert who uses a Milotic that's freaking uber right there. But it leaves on a positive note, how while May may fail there will always be someone better then her. May goes back to say bye to Drew and that she won't loose to him next time seriously I ship May and Drew I hate shipping but darn it's hard not to root for them. Also there's a Team Rocket subplot of them planning on making pokeblock only for an old man to go up to them and talk to them for hours, they all fall asleep accept for James who writes everything down, that's pretty funny. As far as an early contest episode this one is pretty good.
4/5