What was the first Japanese episode that you watched?

[MizuTaipu]

While the vast majority of the people on this forum (myself included) first laid eyes on the English dub of the anime, what was the first episode that you watched in it's original language? The first Japanese episode I watched was "Miserable Flight on a Blimp!?" and I saw it online in 2003.

 

[Cybersai]

Other than Legend of Dratini, which I watched online sometime back in 2003 because I never saw it before....I think the first Japanese ep that I watched that was, "new" was during the Battle Frontier saga.

I believe it was the one with the talking Scizor, the Crimson Avenger who challenged trainers to battle...May beat it with her Squirtle at the end of the episode.

The only reason I remember this is because it was the first episode May's theme music was actually played in an episode, and I remember people bringing it up. From that point on I regularly watched the Japanese eps.

 

[Aestivate]

The first episode I watched in Japanese before I started getting into the ~internet~ was when I was in China when i was like... 11 or 12... (so 7ish years ago, give or take) and I saw some OS episodes with Chinese subtitles. I don't remember what those were.

Ummm, I've seen all of AG in Japanese, all of DP in Japanese, and all of BW in Japanese and some scattered OS episodes here or there in Japanese... Yeah... I admit to kind of being a raw/sub snob

I was going to make it a point to watch all of the OS episodes in Japanese too but the harddrive that had those episodes on it broke... so.. OTL

 

[Fennel]

I believe it was the first of the Ash vs. Paul battle in the Sinnoh League, a few weeks after its air date. Yeah, I know, pretty late.

 

[Volfi]

Back in 2006, one of my friends showed me the first 3 episodes of Diamond and Pearl.

 

[Lilac]

I think a clip of a banned episode years ago but frist fully seen one was BW01

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I think I seen some parts of banned episodes like Porygon and Dratini one before. But DP76 was my first full-watch.

 

[garrison-san]

I think it was "The Origin of Love and Youth", back in 2008 when I was just starting to get into the franchise again. Learning what a hack job the dub did with the Chronicles episodes made me want to seek out and watch some of the originals. I didn't become a regular viewer of the Japanese episodes, however, until toward the end of Sinnoh.

 

[Adamant]

Discarding boring "obvious" choices like episode 18, 35, 38, the Mewtwo special (a lousy Japanese cap of this was incredibly wide-spread back in the days before it got an English dub) and the Raikou special, it was AG4, the newest episode at the time.

While that was just a random copy hosted on a random site, shortly after I found a site that regularly hosted the newest episodes, and could start watching the series on a weekly basis again, since the show hadn't aired here in Norway for over a year, and it was actually quite hard to pirate it back then.

 

[Hassel]

The banned episodes were included in my Pokémon dub marathon, but my first "real" JP episode was DP96 "Ginga-dan Attacks!! -Part 1-". I think it was thanks to the new opening that I decided to watch it in Japanese, and I had caught up with most of the dubbed DP series anyway. That's when I started following it in Japanese. Some of the movies I had watched were in Japanese too, but they probably don't count.

Damn, now I have a big desire to watch some of the movies...

 

[Winterdaze]

Besides the obligatory banned episodes, the first would have been AG118 when Morrison first appeared. I wasn't aware of the extensive meddling 4kids had in the English version of the anime at the time, but that bouncing sandwich was way too dodgy to overlook.

However it wasn't until late DP that I started watching subbed episodes with the same regularity I do now.

 

[Grave-E]

My first recollection of watching the japanese version was downloading a clip of the first AG episode from 'Anime Intro Archive', which I can only imagine no longer exists. Man, those were the days. Back when you only had dail-up, and had to leave a computer on all night to download something.

As for a full ep? I'm pretty sure it was the one where Corphish gets sick after ingesting some rope.
After hearing HEI HEI!, I never went back to dub.

 

[Likeitornot.]

The banned Dratini episode, I think in... 2007?
Other than that, towards the end through D/P.

 

[Piplup]

I think the first Japanese ep that I watched that was, "new" was during the Battle Frontier saga.

I believe it was the one with the talking Scizor, the Crimson Avenger who challenged trainers to battle...May beat it with her Squirtle at the end of the episode.

The only reason I remember this is because it was the first episode May's theme music was actually played in an episode, and I remember people bringing it up. From that point on I regularly watched the Japanese eps.

That's... scary how identical it is to my case XD
I'm pretty sure I did watch some random stuff (mostly/only "Chronicles" side story eps) before that... but that ep was the first time I really watched a full new ep when it aired and then continued follow the Japanese version every week, which I still do to this day

Unlike lots of people here, I actually did NOT watch the "banned eps"... but I plan to watch them after I finish my English rewatch (at the middle of Season 7 right now, plan to watch till the end of Season 9)
What caused me to watch that BF Scizor ep is the fact it had Spurt as the new opening and some people told for a while that I should watch the Japanese version... so I finally got convinced to try it

I do have this crazy hope to rewatch the whole show again in Japanese one day, but if the English rewatch is taking me more than 2 years when all eps are available to me, I don't want to imagine how long it'll take to collect and watch the complete Japanese version... so I'm not sure if I'll ever do it

My first recollection of watching the japanese version was downloading a clip of the first AG episode from 'Anime Intro Archive', which I can only imagine no longer exists. Man, those were the days. Back when you only had dail-up, and had to leave a computer on all night to download something

OMG I remember that site! XD

 

[Cybersai]

Unlike lots of people here, I actually did NOT watch the "banned eps"... but I plan to watch them after I finish my English rewatch (at the middle of Season 7 right now, plan to watch till the end of Season 9)
What caused me to watch that BF Scizor ep is the fact it had Spurt as the new opening and some people told for a while that I should watch the Japanese version... so I finally got convinced to try it

Actually I think the reason so many people were able to watch the Japanese episodes around that Scizor one is they became easier to obtain...at the time.

I remember on the Bulbacasts at the time, all the staff members like Sunain were complaining that May got a theme song and that Misty didn't. That's also how I remember watching it, because on Bulbagarden all they did was complain that May was getting so much screentime from the writers at the time and that Misty no longer appeared. XD

 

[Hitomi]

I can't remember if I watched The Legend of Thunder first because I knew there was something wrong with the dub version (how right I was) or that DP episode with the Shellos. You know, the one where Handsome punches out Team Galactic.

Watching Handsome beat people up may or may not have been the only reason I watched it.

After that, I watched the entire Sinnoh League in Japanese and I've been following all of BW in Japanese.

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

Other than the banned episodes, (Besides Electric Solider Porygon, I'm too scared to watch that) my first Japanese episode was Venipede Stampede/Hiun City! Fushide Panic!! I was curious to see the part of the ending removed in the English dub. The dialogue didn't really seem different enough to begin watching both versions, and I'd rather not have to rely on subtitles. I also hated the Fanfare of the Heart song at the end.

 

[Ambipom666]

Not sure, but I believe it was DP096 (The one with Team Galatic in Celestic Town) just like Meron

 

[Flynn]

I came across a copy of "Rescue Ralts!! Hurry Masato!!" on YouTube back in 2009 when I was starting to get into the show. I looked at the dub of that episode soon after and was horrified at how awful the music changes were.

So that pretty much turned me off from the dub completely. I think the first new episode I saw was "Cherinbo! A Brave Battle!"

 

[BladeLight52]

It wasn't an episode but rather a movie. I saw Pokemon The Birth of Mewtwo in Japanese in 2009. I realized how completely different it is from the dub especially the music. After that, I watched Revelation Lugia in Japanese. The dub for the Lugia movie was alright, in terms of story, script, and voice acting, but the different music turned me off. Movie 2 had some the best music composed by Shinji Miyazaki. It was then that I decided to watch episodes in Japanese.