Animated Atrocities: Dig Those Diglett

Show: Pokemon
Episode: 31
Year: 1997 (Japan)/1998 (USA)

Writer(s): Takeshi Shudo (Screenplay), Kazu Yokoto (Storyboard)
Director(s): Shigeru Ōmachi (Assisstant Director), Yūsaku Takeda (Animation Director)


I'm gonna be very blunt here, this may be the worst episode Takeshi Shudo ever wrote. It is a BLATANT ripoff of the types of episodes done by Captain Planet. It tries to teach the moral of preserving nature and that killing animals is wrong, no fucking shit, but it comes off as very hamfisted and forced about its moral, never showing the positives needed for land development. In literally almost every cartoon a land developer is a villain, yes, destruction of nature is a bad thing, but development must proceed with caution as it is a necessary part of human life. If they were to, say, teach about selective building and preservation of the forest to make a section to keep the Pokemon safe, like in Bats that would be a good thing, but it never comes up with that solution, just that land development is evil. The only difference between this episode and a Captain Planet episode is that the construction worker isn't a card-carrying villain destroying the forest for its own sake.


Also Messy and Lames try to FORCE Ekans and Koffing to evolve and it actually WORKS! What the holy fuck!? I thought we already did an episode that told us you cannot force your Pokemon to evolve unless they want to, you know, Electric Shock Showdown? Even worse the way they make them evolve is through, get this, you won't fucking believe it, MAGICAL TEARS OF LOVE AND PLOT! JUST LIKE THE FIRST MOVIE! Now, they try to come off as Jessie and James loving their Pokemon for who they are, as shown in Shudo's other episode "Island of the Giant Pokemon", and while they try to show that they love their Pokemon, it comes off more like they want them to evolve just for their own evil purposes. And if this episode was smart they'd have Arbok and Weezing REFUSE to attack Ash and the Diglett like all the other Pokemon, but I guess they both really are evil despite what they said in the aforementioned episode. Also they way the three stooges make Ekans and Koffing evolve gives me bad memories of Stuck in the Wringer's moral.


And the episode is just, so, SACCHARINE! I get this is a show meant for little kids and people who buy their merch, but even toy driven shows since the 90s haven't been THIS bad at teaching environmentalism, again sans Captain Planet. I should also mention this is the ONLY episode in which Pokemon refuse to come out of their balls. I guess various other episodes that tackle this issue as well later on just proves Pokemon really are brainwashed and don't care about other Pokemon's homes, consistency please! How the fuck do THEY know what's going on outside their balls, it feels like I'm watching something from one of those bad preschool shows trying to teach about nature. It's NEVER properly explained, just hand waved as "the pokemon can sense the destruction" eat my asshole Brock! Speaking of Messy and Lames, this is where their villain decay really began to emerge as mentioned above. Why is it most episodes involving Diglett turn out to be bad? This won't be the last Diglett episode to become an atrocity, I have two more planned. One more thing, there's no way Diglett can pull its head at the speed of light, Gary you bullshitter.


Cringe-Inducing Audio: 3
Cringe-Inducing Visuals: 0
Lackluster Writing: 7
Annoyance: 7
Disturbing Content: 0
Unnecessary Cruelty: 6
Rancid Morals: 3
Low Production Values: 3
Unfortunate Implications: 5
Character Derailment: 0

Final Score: 34/100

Pokemon is owned by Nintendo, Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company.

Animated Atrocities is from

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