The Spectral Express! – Pokémon Season 25, Episode 1

Filler / stand-alone episodeAllisterGoh obtains Shedinja

The Spectral Express! is the 1st episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1171st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1177, Bulbapedia code JN091). It first aired in Japan on 17 December 2021 and in the United States on 21 October 2022. It falls within the season’s Ghost trains, Gigantamax & stories from the lab stretch (EP91–EP98).

Released on Netflix in the US on 21 October 2022 with the first part (JN091–JN102); Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 28 May 2022. The first episode of the season and the first with Echosmith’s “With You”; e.tv began the season in South Africa on 2 August 2022, POP in the UK on 1 September 2022 and 9Go! in Australia on 15 September 2022.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash and Goh board a mysterious Ghost Train bound for Stow-on-Side, where a malicious spirit from a Spiritomb possesses Ash until the shy Ghost-type expert Allister helps drive it out. Changing trains in Wyndon, Ash walks backwards while chatting and bumps into a masked boy who panics and runs off, dropping his ticket. Chasing him down a staircase to a misty, deserted platform, the boys hear a loudspeaker announce the Ghost Train to Stow-on-Side and jump aboard just before the doors close. The ticket says its owner sits in coach 1, so they set out through the carriages to return it. In a luxurious first car they find an Odd Keystone on a pedestal; Goh’s Grookey leaps onto Ash, the stone is knocked over, and it proves too heavy to lift back. Goh sees a light leave the stone and slip into Ash, who does not notice, and as the lights flicker Ash’s face takes on a strange expression. When Goh spots shadows through the next door, Ash mocks him for being scared and shoves him through, then apologises, sensing that something is wrong with him.

The shadows are a swarm of Drifloon, which the Rotom Phone says sometimes drag children into the afterlife; in the dark Ash grabs several and tries to make them carry Goh off, though they simply drift away. In an overgrown car full of Pumpkaboo, Ash cheats at rock-paper-scissors to send Goh in first and keeps frightening him with talk of will-o’-the-wisps and zombies, which turn out to be a Sableye and a group of Nincada. The Nincada evolve into a swarm of Ninjask that dive at Goh while Ash holds him in place, until an angry Pikachu’s Thunderbolt shocks everyone and blasts the Ninjask off the train. Goh’s Rotom Phone then announces that he has obtained a Shedinja, which has appeared in one of his Poké Balls as a Nincada evolved. The masked boy enters, astonished to find other humans aboard, just as the roof of the luxury coach is torn off and a Spiritomb emerges, demanding the return of its missing spirit.

The boy, Allister, translates Spiritomb’s words and explains that one of its ill-natured spirits is inhabiting Ash, whose face now matches the Forbidden Pokémon’s; Pikachu’s shock cannot drive it out, and a falling branch knocks Ash unconscious. Goh sends out Absol to hold Spiritomb back and begs Allister to help. Allister’s Sinistea pours its tea into Ash’s mouth, and the dreadful taste jolts the spirit out, but it hides in Ash’s shadow until Ash’s Gengar dives in and drags it free. Gengar saves Absol from a Shadow Ball, and while Absol, now using Night Slash, kicks up debris, Gengar uses its shadow-jumping to confuse Spiritomb and pushes the spirit back inside it, calming it so that it returns to its keystone. At a graveyard stop, Gastly and Haunter carry the keystone away; Allister explains that the train serves Ghost-type Pokémon and he is its only regular human passenger. When the train reaches Stow-on-Side and Ash turns to hand back the ticket, Allister and the Ghost Train have both vanished.

Major Events

• Ghost Train to Stow-on-Side. On a Ghost Train from Wyndon, a Spiritomb’s spirit possesses Ash until the Ghost-type Gym Leader Allister and Gengar drive it out
• Goh obtains a Shedinja when a Nincada evolves and its shell enters a Poké Ball
• Absol’s Night Slash
• The first episode of the season and the first with the English opening With You
• Spiritomb returns after 654 episodes, Nincada after 639, Ninjask and Shedinja after 300 and Pumpkaboo after 295
• Debuts of Allister and Sinistea

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Sinistea#0854 · JN091

Captures and evolutions

• Shedinja#0292 · Goh · obtained when a Nincada evolves and its shell enters a Poké Ball

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Deko Akao.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto, Galar & beyond story.

Changes in the English Dub

• The Japanese caption naming Wyndon is removed
• Ash’s explicit mention of zombies becomes “something is coming out of the ground”
• Debut of the English opening “With You” (Echosmith)

Part of our Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.