The Pokémon anime has been on the air since 1998 right alongside the games. That means it’s twenty years old and still going with over a thousand episodes now! Can you believe it? I remember getting home from school one day, turning on UPN, and catching the last two minutes of the second episode and being amazed. What kind of animation was this? It looked so, pardon the obviousness, foreign. Yes dear readers, this was my very first anime. I somehow missed others at this point like Dragon Ball Z, but, suddenly, I became obsessed with anime, manga, and so on. As you can imagine I loved the show not just because it was my first anime and thus a new type of experience for me, but I was also head over heels🅺 with the game too. And let’s not fo꧒rget about the cards either.

This was Nintendo’s conquering moment and they’ve kept their grasp on children's hearts ever since. That said I haven’t kept up with the anime. I pretty much stopped somewhere in High School right around the Ruby and Sapphire arcs and just before they changed voice actors with everyone. It wasn’t my 🍎show anymore. So making a list of the best and most boring episodes, out of a thousand, would be a daunting task for someone that has only seen like two hundred. So I worked out a solution and only pulled from the first few seasons. Some still hold up and others not so much.

30 Best: Bulbasaur And The Hidden Village

What would the Pokémon anime be without Ash catching all of the starters? I🌜t’d be completely different that’s what. Anyway, this is the first e🐭pisode we see in this mini-arc where Ash and pals stumble upon a steadfast Bulbasaur guarding a sanctuary of injured Pokémon. Eventually, they help nurse the Pokémon back to health and Bulbasaur is so impressed he challenges Ash to a match and that’s basically it. It’s simple, to the point, and creates a stubborn charm for Bulbasaur.

29 Boring: Clefairy And The Moon Stone

If there’s one thing I can’t stand in this show it’s Ash and friends meet🦄ing a kooky scientist, or professor type. You’re not Oak — so don’t even bother! Ahem, so on Mt. Moon they meet Seymour who is trying to figure out where Clefairy are from. Are they aliens? It’s a limp hypothesis t🙈hat goes nowhere and ends on a flat note. Plus Clefairy is just a boring Pokémon. If there’s one good scene, I suppose it’s the begging where a hoard of Zubat is attacking Seymour.

28 Best: Charmander The Stray Pokémon

If you thought the Bulbasaur episode had a lot of heart then check this out. A terrible trainer abandoned his Charmander in the rain and now the flame on its tail is about to go out meaning it’ll perish. This is one of a few instances where the show deals with destruction in a 🌳very deep way.

Well, don’t worry because at the end of the day Nurse Joy is able to heal it. And this Charmander would grow into our beloved Chari🌞zard.

27 Boring: The School of Hard Knocks

So at age of ten, kids are able to journey off into the world to fight and capture monsters on their own. Seems legit. So what do they do before that? Well, there are schools as we see in this episode, which is basically just an excuse to explain the rules of the video game in the anime universe. Pokémon have levels in the anime too? That doesn’t make 🥂sense💎. Besides muddling the two universes, it’s just a slow episode.

26 Best: Here Comes the Squirtle Squad

This is my absolutely my favorite episode! That group of trouble making Squirtles is just hilarious to me. It’s even better when you realize it’s the same style of glasses Kamina wears in Gurren Lagann. You know, except his 🐼are red. It brings me to tears of laughter and nostalgia when the one Squirtle eventually has a change of heart and saves Ash’s life. It’s funny, touching, and has plenty of action. If you check out any one of these, make it this.

25 Boring: Mystery At The Lighthouse

Here's another troubled scientist trying to figure out the world. Now granted this is a major char💧acter in the game, Bill, and his findings ar🎃e interesting. Well, sort of.

There’s a giant, Godzilla sized Dragonite visiting his lighthouse. I🐽 didn’t know Pokémon could get that big. Sadly there’s no real plot development here. It's just a lot oℱf hypotheses and unanswered questions. On the plus side, Ash caught a Krabby. That’s kind of exciting, right?

24 Best: Electric Shock Showdown

Okay maybe “Here Comes The Squirtle Squad” has a tie for first place with this one. In it Ash fights L♋t. Surge and his Raichu who completely annihilates Pikachu in the first bout. Ash thinks the only way to beat it is by evolving Pikachu too, but it refuses, giving a rousing speech, which Meowth translates. In the end, Pikachu wins, of course, by not being stronger, but faster. It gives the lesson that brawn isn’t always better. It has a great message and a good fight too.

23 Boring: The Ghost Of Maiden's Peak

Oh boy, an episode about James and Brock falling in love🐻 with a girl that turns out to be a ghost. How fun... To be fair James doesn’t often go crazy for women like Brock does, but that aside, so many of the Brock featured episodes, or subplots are all the s💛ame. Did living with his like dozen siblings skew his whole mind? Does he need kids right now? Geez, it’s funny at times, but it can be a little much.

22 Best: Island Of The Giant Pokémon

Prior to this episode Ash’sꦯ gang and Team Rocket sink to the bottom of the ocean aboard the S.S. Anne. Eventually, they get out and wake up on an island, separated by their Pokémon.

No polar bears on this island.

So we get three separate stories of Team Rocket, Ash and pals, and the Pokémon all trying to survive as giant Pokémon try to destroy them. Does this explain that Dragonite? Nope, turns out the Pokémon are machines in a theme park. It’s a fun little Lost type aside.

21 Boring: Bye Bye Butterfree

Ash, you have some explaining to do. This is the first episode where Ash just lets his Pokémon go to be free.ꦆ To be Butterfree that is. Ba dum tss! Dumb jokes aside he cried about almost losing Butterfree in a trade a few episodes prior to this. Now he lets it go for real? It’s so stupid and this is the first of many wherein he just decides to let his Pokémon go.