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| Season | Pokémon: Indigo League (Season 1) · Ghosts, Psychics & the Celadon fire arc (EP20–EP27) |
| Episode | Season 1, episode 20 · English episode 20 · Japanese episode 20 · Bulbapedia code EP020 |
| English title | The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak |
| Japanese title | ゆうれいポケモンとなつまつり Yūrei Pokemon to Natsumatsuri — “Ghost Pokémon and the Summer Festival” |
| First aired (Japan) | 12 August 1997 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 2 October 1998 · first-run syndication |
| Screenplay | Takeshi Shudō |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mezase Pokémon Master (Aim to Be a Pokémon Master) – Rica Matsumoto · Hyakugojūichi (One Hundred Fifty-One) – Professor Oak & the Pokémon Kids |
| English opening | Pokémon Theme – Jason Paige |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Gastly (US) · Gastly (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Tentacool & Tentacruel (EP019) |
| Next episode | Bye, Bye Butterfree (EP021) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeFillerGastly debut
The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak is the 20th episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 20th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 20, Bulbapedia code EP020). It first aired in Japan on 12 August 1997 and in the United States on 2 October 1998. It falls within the season’s Ghosts, Psychics & the Celadon fire stretch (EP20–EP27).
Synopsis
Ash and friends finally manage to catch a boat from whats left of Porta Vista, finally arriving in the port city of Maiden’s Peak where they attend the Summer’s End Festival. Team Rocket as usual aren’t far behind and are up to their usual schemes. However something strange is afoot when both Brock and James fall for a beautiful girl that they keep seeing visions of near the Sea. It’s revealed later on that the beautiful girl they are seeing is the legendary ‘Ghost of Maidens Peak’, a young woman whose lover went off to fight in an ancient war, she vowed to wait for him to return as he sailed off into the sunset, vowing never to move from the clifftop, and she didn’t… eventually she turned to stone still atop the cliff.
Brock and James are entranced by their visions of the maiden. An old woman suggests that the use of anti ghost stickers might help Brock and James, but that it’ll come at a price. She sells the gang a lot of seemingly worthless anti ghost stickers and makes a quick buck. The ghost of the Maiden arrives with a gust, promptly blowing the stickers away and taking James and Brock away. Jessie interrupts the maiden from taking them, and the Maiden doesn’t take it very well. Sending a scary illusion of skulls at Ash and the gang before Ash’s Pokedex reveals it as a Gastly. Gastly reveals that not only is he the ghost of Maiden’s peak but he was also the old woman who sold them the stickers. Everyone tries to battle the Gastly, whom I might add has an exceptional grasp of the English language. Everyone is defeated, and Misty turns up wielding a cross, some garlic etc.
Luckily the festival ends and the sun begins to rise, repelling Gastly who tells them not to forget the ghost of the Maiden and promises to return next festival. Ash and his friends participate in the festival of Summer’s End tradition of sending out little boats with laterns on to guide the spirits of lost sailors home. Gastly and the Maiden’s real ghost communicate and basically say see you same time next year, she thanks Gastly for keeping her legend alive. Gastly promises that if he as a Ghost Pokemon should ever encounter her lover, he will remind him that his Maiden is waiting. Ash and his friends enjoy whats left of the festivities.
Major Events
- First talking non-Meowth Pokémon
- “Venustoise” fusion illusion (first anime-original Pokémon)
- Misty’s hair down first time. Debuts: Gastly
- Venusaur and Blastoise (illusions). Banned in South Korea.
Pokémon making their anime debut
Venusaur#0003 · EP020
Blastoise#0009 · EP020
Gastly#0092 · EP020
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Takeshi Shudō.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Yakisoba/takoyaki/crêpe/candy-apple signs, Misty’s 鈴 fan, Matatabi label and the ¥5 coin repainted
- Ishizuka’s Ondo and track 031 removed
- O-fuda become “anti-ghost stickers” and Dracula becomes a vampire
- Dub ending: the Kanto Pokérap (Friday segment)
- A different Unshō Ishizuka recording of Pokémon Ondo plays over the final scene in Japan (never released); removed in the dub
Part of our Pokémon: Indigo League guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.