Written by “Man of Action”

Directed by Gino Nichele

Rating: Painful

Oh, right, Rush is in this show too, I guess, and his reason for running away from home is beyond flimsy; Aki didn’t even make eye contact with him or raise his voice! Thus the rest of the episode just kinda deflates like a balloon.

Good Points

– Wave Man being able to attack by crying humongous tears is actually pretty creative.

Stupid Points

– A few episodes I can’t cite many good points for because they’re so cohesive that they’re just good overall. This episode is the evil counterpart to those episodes. It’s the most perfect example of how the cartoon tries to force conflict throughout its run. After playing hard with Rush indoors, Aki gets in trouble for making a mess, then he gets snarky with Rush for his role in it, and that’s enough for Rush to become so sad and depressed that he runs away from home when he should have just bitten the little punk instead. Then Aki heroically sets out to find his dog and learn a valuable lesson about being kind, but it gets worse still because this episode is a twofor! Turns out Wave Man has a pet alligator that also ran away from him for just as contrived reasons. We never even get to find out how Alligator got the top hat he boasts at the end. All of that makes this episode stand out as the most dreary, fake, and brain dead out of the entire season.