EP085

Fit To Be Tide (Japanese: オレンジリーグ！ナツカンジム！ Orange League! Gym!) is the 85th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on February 25, 1999 and in the United States on February 5, 2000.

Blurb
''Ash, Misty and their new friend, Tracey, are on a new adventure exploring the Orange Islands as Ash sets out to qualify for the Orange League Tournament. After hearing that the Mikan Gym Leader is known as one of the toughest trainers in the Orange Crew, Ash can't wait for the challenge. He learns that Pokémon battles are run a little differently on the Orange Islands, but he can always rely on his Squirtle to pull them through!''

Plot
While riding across the ocean, a hungry  says they are getting close to Mikan Island, which is also home to one of the four Gym Leaders in the Orange Crew. Meanwhile,, now in a submarine, is tracking them, but their submarine's propellers gets tangled in seaweed and they begin to sink.

Upon reaching the shoreline, the group heads straight for the Pokémon Center. There, talks to  via videophone and lets him know he recently  a Lapras. Tracey officially introduces himself to Oak, though the call is cut short as Ash's Muk smothers the Professor. Ash,, Tracey, , and walk along the dirt path and see Mikan Gym up ahead. Ash starts to run towards the Gym, though he stops after seeing a coconut on the ground. He runs over to it with Pikachu and picks it up, but a bucket of water falls on their heads, revealing it to be a trap set by a boy named. He chastises Ash and criticizes his Top 16 position in the Indigo League. He challenges Ash to a, but Cissy, his older sister and the Mikan Gym Leader, intervenes and scolds her younger brother.

Ash is prepared to have a match, but Cissy explains that on the Orange Islands, the Gym battles are different from Kanto's Pokémon battles. Senta presses the buttons on his remote, making a line of cans appear, and the battlefield becomes an aquatic pool. Cissy proceeds to call out her, which Ash scans with his Pokédex. She announces that the first challenge is a match-up, where a Pokémon's accuracy is tested by shooting down as many cans as possible. Ash's Squirtle proves to be an even match against Seadra, and the aim of the challenge shifts to shooting down flying plates. Both are evenly matched and manage to hit the final target at the same time. Cissy declares the first challenge a draw, and Ash congratulates Squirtle's efforts while Seadra turns away in disgust.

Cissy escorts Ash and to outside the Gym. To break the tie, Ash will go up against Cissy in a Pokémon Wave Ride, where the aim is to swim out to a flagged buoy and return to the beach first. Cissy calls on her, while Ash sends out his Lapras. Before the race can begin, however, Team Rocket appears. When Ash asks that they disappear, James launches into a tear-filled confession about how he had to go out and untangle their submarine, nearly drowning in the process. calls for James to focus, and James follows suit by calling out. Amongst Weezing's, Team Rocket nets Cissy's Blastoise and begins to dive back underwater, only to find that their submarine's propellers are still entangled in seaweed. In a bid to push through, Team Rocket snaps their pedals and their submarine sinks to the seafloor again. Just as Cissy had predicted, her Blastoise proves to be too powerful for Team Rocket's net, and it returns to the beach. Pikachu dips his tail in the water and uses to shock Team Rocket, while Blastoise sends the trio blasting off with its.

With Team Rocket defeated, the Pokémon Wave Ride begins. However, Ash and Cissy must stand on their Pokémon's back. During the race, they are evenly matched, so Ash has Lapras nudge the competition, but Blastoise responds, causing Ash to nearly lose his balance. The delay allows Cissy to get ahead of him, and she makes the turn around the flag first. As Ash catches up with Cissy, the pair notices a tidal wave suddenly appearing behind them. To Ash's surprise, Lapras freezes some of the wave with its. However, the wave still crashes into Cissy and sends her flying, but Blastoise catches her in time. Cissy once again gets ahead, but Ash comes up with an idea and has Lapras use an Ice Beam to make an ice-track. Lapras proves to be faster on the ice than in the water, allowing Ash to barely win the race.

Cissy commends Ash's clever Ice Beam tactic, and notes that she can see why he made it so far into the Indigo League. In commemoration of his victory, she gives Ash a. Afterwards, he and his friends ride away aboard Lapras.

Major events

 * and reach Mikan Island, the site of the first Orange League Gym, and meet Cissy, the Mikan Gym Leader.
 * Ash learns that the Orange League's Gyms test a Trainer's skill through challenges rather than normal s and thus operate differently from the usual Gyms.
 * Ash's Lapras is revealed to know.
 * Ash defeats Cissy and earns his first Orange League Badge, the.

Humans

 * Cissy

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Cissy
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Cissy

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international),  (Japan)


 * (at 's )
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)
 * (at 's )
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)
 * (Cissy's)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture:
 * Pokémon senryū summary: Send them flying, with one kick,.
 * This episode's dub title is a reference to the popular saying "Fit to be Tied".
 * This is the first time is seen inside their Magikarp submarine, which they would go on to use throughout the entire Orange Islands arc. The submarine they used in season 1 resembled a.
 * "NATSUKAN", the Mikan Gym's Japanese name, can be seen printed on the Gym even in the dubbed version.
 * 's surname of Sketchit is revealed in this episode.
 * This episode is featured on Volume 4: Squirtle from Viz Media's series.
 * The book The Four-Star Challenge is based on this episode.
 * This is the first episode in which the word "fight" is repeated three times during Team Rocket's.

Errors

 * The island's name, "Mikan", is Japanese for "Orange". In the dub, however, all characters improperly pronounce Mikan, which should properly be "mee-khan," not "mike-an."
 * seemed to not recognize when first seeing it, despite having previously seen one in Round One - Begin!.

Dub edits

 * Pikachu's Jukebox: Together Forever
 * Cissy's brother is left unnamed in the dub.

In other languages
Wettkampf der Wasser-Pokémon EP087 EP085 EP085 無印編第85話 精灵宝可梦 第86集