EP075

Round One - Begin! (Japanese: ポケモンリーグかいまく！みずのフィールド！ Pokémon League Opens! Water Field!) is the 75th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on December 17, 1998 and in the United States on October 30, 1999.

Blurb
''It's day one of the Pokémon League Tournament and the trainers learn where they will be competing in their first round battle and who their first opponent will be. We find Ash as he's checking into the Pokémon Village where he's told his first battle will be held on the Water Field. Since Misty's specialty is water Pokémon she offers to let him use some of hers, but Ash declines. Professor Oak suggests that he not go into battle with Squirtle as his only water Pokémon and sends over Krabby as a back up. Against the advice of his coaches, Brock and Misty, Ash begins the battle by using his Krabby who's never fought before. ''

Plot
After registering for the Indigo Plateau Conference, learns that he must first pass through four preliminary battles on four unique battlefields (Grass, Water, Ice, and Rock) to qualify for battling inside the Indigo Stadium. The lady at the registry has Ash go through a random selection, and he is assigned to on the Water field later that day against a  named Mandi.

Since he is assigned to the Water field, Ash plans to rely on for the battle, but  suggests that it might not be enough. The group runs into, who is battling on the Ice field. He mockingly wishes Ash luck as he wants to be the one to defeat him, and he walks away laughing with his cheerleaders. At that moment, Ash receives a call from, who suggests he swap out one of his Pokémon. Ash decides to have sent through to boost his team. Misty is worried because Ash had never used Krabby before, but Ash is confident in the Pokémon. Meanwhile, is posing as a news crew and unsuccessfully trying to find rare Pokémon to steal.

Ash's battle on the Water field soon begins, and he starts off with Krabby, while Mandi uses an. Krabby jumps into the pool, but Exeggutor uses to create a whirlpool, revealing Krabby's hiding space. Mandi then orders an, knocking Krabby into the whirlpool and preventing it from using any attacks. Ash tries to recall Krabby, but the whirlpool prevents him from doing so. Suddenly, Krabby escapes from the vortex, and Ash orders it to use on Exeggutor's leaves, stopping its attacks. Hanging on tightly, Krabby uses to immobilize Exeggutor, and its  attack knocks it out. As it stands triumphant over Exeggutor, Krabby suddenly evolves into. Mandi, still confident, sends out his second Pokémon, a. Seadra uses to dodge Kingler's, but Kingler manages to slow it down with  and then knocks Seadra out with.

Mandi remains undaunted as he sends out his last Pokémon, a. becomes worried, since Kingler is weak against Flying attacks. Misty suggests that Ash should switch to, but Ash stands by his Pokémon. Golbat manages to evade Kingler's attacks, dealing a great amount of damage in the process. Ash then orders Kingler to use. Kingler's shot hits Golbat dead-on, knocking it out and winning Ash his first Indigo League victory. Mandi is astounded by his defeat, with the commentator confirming that Ash successfully used only one Pokémon for the entire match. Misty and Brock watch on in shock as Ash jumps around, overexcited by his first win.

Major events

 * uses his in  for the first time.
 * Ash's Krabby is revealed to know, , , and.
 * Ash's Krabby evolves into and learns.
 * Ash's Kingler is revealed to know, , and.
 * Ash wins his first round match against Mandi using only his Kingler.
 * also wins his first round match.

Pokémon debuts

 * Ash's Kingler

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Delia Ketchum
 * Officer Jenny (multiple)
 * Mandi
 * s
 * Delia Ketchum
 * Officer Jenny (multiple)
 * Mandi
 * s
 * s

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international),  (Japan)
 * (evolves)
 * (newly evolved)
 * ('s, Mimey)
 * (Mandi's)
 * (Mandi's)
 * (Mandi's)
 * (Mandi's; multiple)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (flashback)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (unnamed 's)
 * (flashback)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture: Pokémon League participation
 * Pokémon senryū summary: If you win the league, be sure to praise them, your Pokémon.
 * This episode marks the first time when a Pokémon owned by Ash has evolved. The second time wouldn't occur until A Stealthy Challenge!, 776 episodes later.
 * This also marks the first and so far the only time when one of has evolved during a Pokémon League battle.
 * In the English dub, no gender for the "Who's That Pokémon?" feature was given, only "Nidoran". The picture and cry was of the.
 * Team Rocket's bogus news network was called "Lovely Charming Network", a reference to their Japanese where they introduce themselves as "the lovely charming villains".
 * The blurb on the present-day pokemon.com for this episode is mistakenly listed as the blurb from the episode that aired two weeks before this one.
 * Team Rocket doesn't recite the motto or blast off in this episode.

Errors

 * When a random Trainer is showing off his Pokémon to, he holds up a containing a , yet a picture of a  appears. When he holds up the Poké Ball containing Venomoth, the next scene shows him staring at Team Rocket's camera, with his mouth not moving when he says "And a Venomoth!" in the dub. In the Japanese version he only showed off one Pokémon and a Venomoth.
 * When Ash used the video phone to talk to Professor Oak, Ash put the phone against his ear and used the screen when Ash's mom and Professor Oak only used the screen.
 * After Ash's Krabby evolves into Kingler, he looks at its Pokedex entry. The entry for Kingler states that "[Its] claws can pinch with the power of 10,000 horsepower". In fact, horsepower is a unit of power which is energy divided by time—not at all related to pressure. A better unit would be.
 * When Mandi's Golbat used, it looked more like.
 * Right after defeats Mandi, the black background of the big screen disappears when the screen changes to congratulate the winner.
 * This also happens after 's battle, therefore it may have been intentional and was simply changed in future episodes.
 * The move uses against  is mentioned to be, even though it's actually.

Dub edits

 * Pikachu's Jukebox: Together Forever
 * In the dub, after Mandi summoned a flock of during his magic trick,  referred to the Pidgey as . In the original version, Meowth doesn't name the Pokémon at all.
 * In the original, Gary says Ash is lucky to not be up against him, then speaks of a promise he supposedly made that Ash would lose, prompting Ash to question where said promise came from. In the dub, Gary says he'd feel terrible if Ash lost, then tells Ash he wants the pleasure of beating him as a Pokémon Master. Ash then responds with a sarcastic remark about Gary's overconfidence.
 * Gary's comments on the battle to the news reporter are a bit more goading towards Ash in the dub. In the original, he just says he's relieved because everything went according to plan.
 * Brock saying he wants a chocolate shake in response to Ash and the stadium shaking is nowhere to be found in the original; instead he unconvincingly claims that he isn't nervous.
 * In the dub, during the battle on the Water Field, the announcer says that the battle is about to begin, but one Trainer has two Pokémon remaining, and the other has one Pokémon remaining. In the original, he says it's about to end.
 * The PA makes a reference to a real-life event in the dub by saying that 's makes the scene look like the . In the original, he just says it looks like fireworks.
 * The trainer's book says that Trainers should conduct themselves with dignity and restraint in the dub. In the original, it says that the second round is two days later.

In other languages
Ring frei zur Runde 1 EP077 EP075 EP075 無印編第75話 精灵宝可梦 第76集