#444 – Obsequious
Surely you didn’t expect the hidden underwater room in Misty’s Gym (#152) to be just a one-time little detail, did you? Obviously it was a Chekhov’s Room the whole time! And not only does it allow Doug&Co. to slip Team Rocket’s pursuit, it also allows me to continue the tradition of following the game-progress across Kanto’s towns and cities with every 111 strips. Remember? #111 took place in Pallet Town, #222 in Viridian City, #333 in Pewter and now we’ve reached Cerulean in time for #444. And while this is the first of these strips I drew while aware of this pattern, I had to do surprisingly little pace-adjustment to make it happen. The story always included the hidden room coming in handy at this point.
In other news, we have Copycat giving us a fun cameo (and the race-obsessed can’t even complain about any kind of “washing” because you don’t know what her real skin color is, checkmate) and Anzu providing what I can only describe as the first real “fanservice” drawing in the comic. But when the plot demands a cute girl wears a swimsuit lest she’s captured by criminals, what is an author to do? I love the unusual assortment of characters in an equally unusual location and the added detail of the secret room appreciation by the ninja girl really ties a bow on this moment. Immediately one of my favorite strips I’ve ever drawn, I dunno what Ariana is so grumpy about.
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