 |
|
| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · New voices, new Symbols: the Arena & the Dome arc (AG146–AG153) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 1 · English episode 418 · Japanese episode 422 · Bulbapedia code AG146 |
| English title | Fear Factor Phony |
| Japanese title | エスパーVSゴースト！真夜中の決闘！？ Esupā Tai Gōsuto! Mayonaka no Kettō!? — “Esper VS Ghost! Midnight Duel!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 6 October 2005 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 8 September 2006 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · Pokémon Kazoe Uta (Pokémon Counting Song) – Akiko Kanazawa |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Next episode | Sweet Baby James (AG147) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeDub season premiereNew English cast
Fear Factor Phony is the 1st episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 418th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 422, Bulbapedia code AG146). It first aired in Japan on 6 October 2005 and in the United States on 8 September 2006. It falls within the season’s New voices, new Symbols: the Arena & the Dome stretch (EP146–EP153).
Premiered on Cartoon Network on Friday 8 September 2006 in prime time, straight after the US premiere of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate! — the first episode dubbed by Pokémon USA at TAJ Productions, with a new English cast, Rodger Parsons back as narrator and the new opening Battle Frontier.
Synopsis
With a storm rolling in and no Pokémon Center anywhere on Max’s PokéNav, the group need somewhere to shelter for the night. Pikachu darts off and leads them into a deserted mining town on the edge of an old mine, where a pair of glowing eyes looms out of the darkness and a ghostly shape drives them away in a panic. Team Rocket, hungry and bored nearby, wander over to see what the fuss is about and get the same treatment: the spectre sticks out its tongue, lets out a shriek, and Jessie, James and Meowth faint on the spot. Ash alone hears their scream. The heroes settle into an empty building as the rain starts, though Max is far from happy about sleeping there. In the mine, Team Rocket’s Seviper and Cacnea are too frightened to fight, their attacks pass straight through the apparition, and when Meowth is hurled into a ceiling fuse box the lights come on and the ghost disappears. Hiding behind a barrel are the real culprits: a gang of Ghost-type Pokémon.
That night May hears music drifting through the building and wakes the others, all except Ash, who sleeps through her scream. They discover a room full of Psychic-type Pokémon dancing around an old phonograph, while an Abra snoozes inside a protective bubble that pushes Ash’s hand back. The dancers scatter, but a photograph of the Pokémon with the town’s miners and a memory projected by Abra’s barrier reveal the story: the people moved away and left their Psychic Pokémon behind, and the lonely Pokémon have been partying to keep their spirits up. Ash suggests throwing them a proper party, and the group decorate the room and invite them back. Meanwhile the Ghost Pokémon explain to Team Rocket that the endless racket drove them to create a giant Haunter illusion to scare the dancers out of town, and the trio offer to help, hoping the Psychic Pokémon can lead them to gold.
Next morning Wobbuffet, still jumpy, falls head over heels for a Kirlia dancing on a table and presents her with a flower. Then an explosion rocks the building and a giant Haunter seizes most of the Psychic Pokémon, Kirlia and Pikachu with mechanical arms. Wobbuffet throws itself into the monster’s mouth to save Kirlia, and when the illusion fades it is revealed to be Team Rocket’s mecha, disguised by the Ghost Pokémon. Wobbuffet head-butts the cage bars open to free the captives, and when the Ghost Pokémon fire a combined Shadow Ball, Kirlia’s Reflect sends it back, wrecking the machine and blasting Team Rocket, and the lovesick Wobbuffet, into the sky. The two groups of Pokémon still refuse to make peace until Brock notices that Abra has slept through everything inside its Safeguard, which blocks out sound. The solution is simple: hold the party inside the bubble, where the ghosts cannot hear it. With both sides happy, the travellers set out for the Battle Arena.
Major Events
- Season premiere and the first episode dubbed by Pokémon USA, with a new English cast and Rodger Parsons back as narrator
- New English opening Battle Frontier and ending Pokémon Go!
- Ghost-type Pokémon conjure a giant Haunter to scare away partying Psychic types
- Wobbuffet falls for a Kirlia
- Abra’s soundproof Safeguard
- The Japanese version’s first cold open
- Kadabra’s last physical appearance in the TV series
Trivia
- The English title plays on the TV show Fear Factor; the ghost is a phony.
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- No time cuts at all, according to Dogasu’s Backpack: one second is trimmed from the To be continued card, possibly by the encoder
- Signs left unedited
- No eyecatch: the first English episode without one
- Meowth’s and Brock’s explanation that the ghost is a Confuse Ray illusion dropped
- A Japanese “Ghost” line is still audible in the dub
- New English opening Battle Frontier (Jason Appleton) and ending Pokémon Go!, with new title-card music
- Three Japanese cues kept: the title-screen theme, a Team Rocket song and the motto music
- The Bellossom dance music from Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure reused in Japan
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.