EP040

The Battling Eevee Brothers (Japanese: イーブイ４きょうだい The Four Brothers) is the 40th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on April 16, 1998 and in the United States on October 27, 1998. It was initially intended to air in Japan on January 13, 1998, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.

Blurb
''Tracing a path through the woods, the party comes across a tree baited with a plate of food and water. An Eevee is bound to the trunk with string. The address, Stone Town, block 3, number 14, along with a name—apparently that of the Eevee's master—are written on a piece of metal hanging from the Eevee's collar. Consulting their map, our heroes find that Stone Town is directly in front of them. They decide to take Eevee to the address on its collar and find out what is going on. When they reach the address, they find a huge home as exquisite as a Beverly Hills mansion. From inside, they hear loud cheers and applause. Could this be the home of this Eevee's master?''

Plot
On their way to Cinnabar Island for the seventh Gym battle, and  are walking through a forest when  hears a Pokémon's cry. The group locates the source of the cry, an tied to a post inside a tree hollow. After scanning Eevee with his Pokédex, Ash wants to catch it, but notices Eevee has a name-tag and address on it saying that its  lives in Stone Town. says that Stone Town is at the foot of Evolution Mountain, which contains evolution stones that allow certain Pokémon to evolve. On their way to Stone Town, Ash's Pokédex details that Eeeve evolves via evolution stones into, , and. The group finds that the address leads them to a giant mansion. As they arrive in the backyard, they notice there is a garden party being held, and almost all of the Pokémon there are ones that evolve with evolution stones. They even get the chance to see many of the stones out on display. Unbeknownst to everyone, spies from a hilltop, instantly noticing all of the evolved Pokémon, the stones, and the food; and they proceed to plan their next plot.

The three brothers who are hosting the party, Sparky, Rainer, and Pyro, see Ash and his friends with Eevee, and says that that Eevee is the star of the party. They call for their youngest brother, Mikey, who is Eevee's Trainer, but he is strangely sad to have his Pokémon returned. The brothers, who each own one of Eevee's stone evolutions, mention that the only way to win battles is for Mikey to evolve his Pokémon. Mikey says that he doesn't care about battles, which makes his brothers and their Pokémon angry, and they push Mikey even harder about which of Eevee's evolutions are stronger. The brothers even push Ash and Brock to evolve their Pikachu and Vulpix, respectively, though they decline.

As Misty watches her swim around in the fountain, she looks over to see Mikey on the bench with a drink. She offers some food to him and the pair start up a conversation. Mikey explains that his brothers only care about battling, so he hid his Eevee for the day so that nobody could make him evolve it. Misty tells him that he was just running away from his problems, and that it is his responsibility as a Trainer to tell his brothers that he doesn't want Eevee to evolve. Misty mentions that Pikachu decided not to evolve. Just then, Mikey's brothers come up and ask Mikey if he has made his decision yet; Misty tells Mikey to tell his brothers what he has to say.

As Mikey is about to reveal his decision, Team Rocket arrives in their balloon and says their motto while eating all of the party food. then uses. Ash brings out to use, though as the smoke clears, everyone realizes that all of the Pokémon (except for Misty's , much to her annoyance), the evolution stones, and the food are all missing. Brock notices that Team Rocket is getting away in their balloon, and Ash has Pidgeotto stop it. The balloon crash-lands, but it turns out to be a decoy when it turns up empty. Meanwhile, as Team Rocket are driving along the road with the Pokémon in cages, Horsea leaves a trail of ink to follow. The strategy works as Pidgeotto spots the ink and goes on to alert Ash and the others.

At a lake, Team Rocket has a picnic with the food that they stole. They then realize that they need to decide what to evolve Eevee into. They soon argue about it, until Jessie blows a whistle and says that they should use all of the evolution stones at once. They are about to evolve Eevee when Ash has use. Unfortunately, Psyduck intrudes and uses a weak Water Gun, which fails. Squirtle then uses Water Gun on James and Meowth, which sends them backward, and Jessie tells them to stop as she picks up Eevee's cage. She brings out after Misty calls her old, while James brings out Weezing. Misty and Ash prepare to battle with their Pokémon, but the Eevee brothers stop them and say that they must be the ones to battle since it is their brother's Eevee that was stolen.

The brothers get ready to attack with Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. Arbok uses, while Jolteon counters with , which hits Arbok. Weezing uses, but Vaporeon blends into the water using , making it virtually invisible. Weezing's attack misses as Vaporeon leaps out of the water with, and Weezing lands on top of James. Team Rocket tries to run away, but Flareon uses to stop them. The brothers demand that Team Rocket give back the stolen Pokémon, but Jessie has Arbok use on Jolteon, while Weezing uses Sludge on Flareon and Vaporeon. Horsea spits out ink into Jessie's face, which sends Eevee flying, and it lands in Mikey's arms. Pikachu uses on Team Rocket, but they keep going.

As Mikey pulls Eevee out of the cage, he looks over and notices that his brothers' Pokémon are severely hurt. Team Rocket decides that it was time to finish them off. Mikey stands up and decides that he and Eevee are going to have their first battle. Mikey commands Eevee to use, and then has Eevee turn it into an improvised Rage Tackle, which sends Team Rocket blasting off. Mikey's brothers congratulate him on his first win, and Mikey tells them that he just wanted to help everybody out. Then, he acts on Misty's advice and tells his brothers that he wants to become an Eevee Trainer. The Eevee brothers accept his decision, and Sparky says that they should turn the party into a celebration of Mikey's first victory. During the party, Mikey thanks Misty for helping him, gives her a flower, and share a little finger promise to be friends forever. Later, everyone at the party then gathers for a picture. Psyduck gets the camera ready and goes to join the shot, but it trips and falls down as the shot is taken.

Meanwhile, later in the night, Team Rocket return to eating canned food, much to their disappointment. Jessie says that they will be champions of the world, and they all optimistically agree.

Major events

 * Misty's Psyduck is revealed to know, although it is not perfected.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * The Eevee brothers
 * Mikey
 * Rainer
 * Sparky
 * Pyro
 * Party guests
 * Sparky
 * Pyro
 * Party guests

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?:


 * (Mikey's; debut)
 * (Rainer's; debut)
 * (Sparky's; debut)
 * (Pyro's; debut)
 * (English debut)
 * (evolves)
 * (newly evolved)
 * (debut)
 * (Mikey's; debut)
 * (Rainer's; debut)
 * (Sparky's; debut)
 * (Pyro's; debut)
 * (English debut)
 * (evolves)
 * (newly evolved)
 * (debut)
 * (evolves)
 * (newly evolved)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)

Trivia

 * After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:


 * The episode aired as a one-hour special (放送再開スペシャル（放送再開スペシャル やっとあえるね！）１時間) with Pikachu's Good-Bye, when Pokémon came back on the air.
 * warns Mikey that he could lose his qualification as a result of losing his . Mikey is clearly younger than  and should not have a Trainer qualification yet.
 * offers a Fire Stone to evolve ; and  offers Ash, who still has one, a Thunderstone to evolve . Misty also has a Pokémon that can evolve by way of evolutionary stone, Staryu, though Rainer never did offer her a Water Stone. However, this could be because  already owns a.
 * It is implied in one scene, that if an Eevee is evolved using more than one stone, it could be very dangerous. This is still unknown, since didn't get the chance to use all of the stones at once.
 * This episode is one of the times the anime shows real world animals, as James was holding a lobster.
 * Misty refers to Electric Shock Showdown when she tells Mikey that Pikachu decided not to evolve using a Thunder Stone.
 * This episode is featured on Volume 6: Eevee from Viz Media's series.
 * This is the first episode where Misty uses her after its debut in Tentacool & Tentacruel.
 * is the only Generation I stone evolution (not including Moon Stone evolutions) Pokémon not to appear in this episode.
 * Because EP038 never aired outside of Japan, this episode marks the anime debut of in the English dub.

Errors

 * When Misty offers a plate of sandwiches to Mikey, the food position changes orientation as the camera rotates to Mikey's point of view.
 * When Misty is talking to Mikey, Pikachu's left ear is missing.
 * When Misty asks why Team Rocket couldn't have taken Psyduck along with the other Pokémon, her shorts are all blue. They should have been light blue on the bottom.
 * Mikey calls out a second attack against Team Rocket before the first one,, is ever executed.
 * In the picture that Psyduck takes, Raichu's normally white belly is orange.
 * When the brothers get angry at Mikey's disinterest in battling, Vaporeon's ears are blue instead of yellow.
 * When the brothers tell Mikey that he needs to evolve his Eevee, Ash's shoes are completely white, making it look like he only has socks on.
 * When the brothers give Ash and Brock their respective stones, Brock's mouth moves but he doesn't say anything.
 * When Misty is talking to Mikey, the red part of her shoes are green.
 * When Jessie stops blowing the whistle, the sound is still heard. However, it could be an echo.
 * When Jolteon uses, the animation of the needles freezes for a second.

Dub edits

 * PokéRap: Day 5 (Version 2)
 * When Jessie and Misty confront each other, the former originally refers to the latter as "Flat-brat girl" (with Misty taking particular offense to the term "flat"), referring to the events of the skipped episode Beauty and the Beach. This was toned down in the dub.

In other languages
Die ungleichen Brüder EP040 EP040 EP040 無印編第40話 精灵宝可梦 第39集