New episode title(s) has/have been added to the database. Title: The Ninja Poke-Showdown/セキチクにんじゃたいけつ！/Yakichiku Ninja Taiketsu!. Please comment below! Thanks, your friendly PM.Net AnimeBot

Koga is a really boring character. No personality or anything. I feel sorry for his sister. The English dub did a pretty good job of this episode and overall it was a good adaption.

Link to edits: http://www.pocketmonsters.net/episodes/32#Edits

I have to agree with you, Sunain. Koga was a cool champion in the game, but he's really lame in the anime. Actually, it's the whole battle which was lame...

1) no proper introduction
2) his Pokémon evolving right off the bat, without anything special happening
3) Hitokage getting KOed by a mere poison powder attack... like wow, seriously.
4) the actual fight (the second one, after the Rocket Gang's interruption) not even lasting two whole minutes. I mean, what a real fight. No challenge at all, and the only noteworthy thing Koga Pokémon did was stop Hitokage's amber attack. Woohoo, way to go, dude!

Looks like the writers were really uninspired with this whole Gym, and went with some generic ninja stuff for the episode... and actually forgot that Koga was, in fact, a Gym Leader...
Overall, the gym battles in the very first series aren't that great to begin with, but this one is really the worst one... and probably of the all series, period. A gym battle that felt like a poor generic battle against some random trainer dude, and doesn't even remotely like a Gym Battle at all.

The only thing that made up for it was the Rocket Gang's brilliant Kabuki performance... their intro was really great in this episode... couldn't help but laugh during the whole thing. Something I've always loved about the Rocket Gang is how creative they can get in their intros/costumes.

And judging by the next gym (in the volcano), I guess the writers realised they totally s****** up this one, and thought they really had to make up for this poor excuse of a gym battle.

Oh, and the next episode looks intriguing. I don't remember watching it at all, though I don't think it's one of the infamous banned episodes.

Also note that this is the only gym in the region he actually has a completely straight victory at.
Gym 1: Is losing, gets the opportunity to win unfairly, doesn't take it, and is given the badge for being honorable.
Gym 2: While he's technically winning (though only against a stand-in gym leader), the battle is interrupted and he's given the badge through some "you saved the gym and probably would've won anyway" logic.
Gym 3: Only wins by means of a strategy given to him by a far more experienced guy who spotted a weak point in his opponent's battle style.
Gym 4: Wins on a technicality even he seems to find unfair and dumb.
Gym 5: Just flat out given the badge because he wanted it and the leader was grateful.
Gym 7: Ends up technically winning because his inobedient Pokemon wants to fight its rival and their fight happens to be counted as a gym match.
Gym 8: Fights stand-in gym leaders who cheat, cheats back, beats them up, and steals the badge.

Some of them are a bit more straight than the others, but this 6th gym is the only one where he actually battles the gym leader and rightly defeats him in an official match by means of his own strength.

Not to mention winning by using a Pokemon he didn't even officially capture. I don't get it. When a Pokemon becomes confused, attracted, or falls asleep, they're still considered able to battle, but when a Pokemon laughs, they cannot continue. Crazy logic.

I agree, though. Very weak match. Even though I truly enjoyed the Indigo League season, the gym battles were awful for the most part.

Summary:
The "Sekichiku Gym", where Satoshi intends to get his next badge, turns out to be a ninja trick mansion! Not only did he struggle greatly to even find the Gym, he has a hard time with the complex trick mechanisms inside it as well. And then the female ninja Trainer Aya appears, challenging him to a battle.

After winning against Aya, Satoshi finally gets his official match against Gym Leader Kyo...... but then the Rocket Gang barges in and another battle begins. Will Satoshi ever manage to get a badge?

Voice Cast:
Rica Matsumoto: Satoshi
Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
Mayumi Iizuka: Kasumi
Yuji Ueda: Takeshi
Megumi Hayashibara: Musashi
Shinichiro Miki: Kojiro
Inuko Inuyama: Nyarth
Hochu Ohtsuka: Kyo
Emi Shinohara: Aya
Rikako Aikawa: Koduck
Koichi Sakaguchi: Arbok
Chinami Nishimura: Kongpang
Unsho Ishizuka: Narration