AG061

← AG060 : Delcatty Got Your Tongue

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG062 : Disguise Da Limit →

Disaster of Disguise

AG061   EP335 仮面のコーディネーター・ファントム登場！！ Enter the Phantom Masked Coordinator!!

First broadcast Japan January 29, 2004 United States December 11, 2004

English themes Opening This Dream Ending

Japanese themes Opening アドバンス・アドベンチャー Ending スマイル

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 武上純希 Junki Takegami Storyboard 誌村宏明 Hiroaki Shimura Assistant director ながはまのりひこ Norihiko Nagahama Animation director 広岡歳仁 Toshihito Hirooka Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de Dub review thread on BMGf

Disaster of Disguise (Japanese: 仮面のコーディネーター・ファントム登場！！ Enter the Phantom Masked Coordinator!!) is the 61st episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 335th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on January 29, 2004, and in the United States on December 11, 2004.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

Drew loses a Pokémon battle to the mysterious "Phantom," a masked Pokémon Trainer using a Dusclops. Because of the injuries sustained by his Roselia, Drew has to drop out of the Pokémon Contest in Verdanturf Town.

May is there to compete with her Skitty, and while practicing she is challenged to a battle with Phantom that Ash accepts instead. The battle is interrupted by the arrival of a woman in a limo who chases the Phantom into the woods.

The woman reveals she is looking for her son Timmy, who has been missing a lot lately, usually when the Phantom is around. The kids follow her to a mansion where they meet the entire family. Timmy's father reveals that Timmy is the Phantom, disguising himself only because his mother hates Pokémon.

Brock dresses up as the Phantom to fool the mother, but Team Rocket shows up to unmask the Phantom for a huge reward. Skitty's Blizzard attack frees Brock but also unmasks him by accident. Brock quickly runs off, and it appears that the mother did not see his face. Timmy decides to compete in the Pokémon Contest.

Plot

While preparing to enter the Verdanturf Town Pokémon Contest with Skitty, May and the others are amazed when they encounter her rival Drew, who announces that he is not going to enter as his Roselia was injured after a battle with a Dusclops belonging to a masked Coordinator. He warns the group to watch out for the mysterious Coordinator who goes by the name "Phantom". Meanwhile, Team Rocket is also in training, and Jessie is preparing to enter Dustox into the Verdanturf Contest. Soon, however, Phantom approaches Ash’s group and challenges them to a battle, Ash accepts the challenge and pits Pikachu against Phantom's Dusclops. Ash attempts to use Normal-type attacks against Dusclops but, being a Ghost type, it is unaffected. Dusclops deals heavy damage to Pikachu and it seems as though Phantom will win the battle.

However, a car pulls up and Phantom flees, a large middle-aged woman, Mrs. Grimm, chases after him but soon loses him. While running away, Phantom cuts his hand on a stray branch. The gang catch up with the woman and she reveals that she is concerned for her son Timmy, who has been skipping school and hanging around with the mysterious Phantom. The group agree to reveal the identity of the Phantom so that he can be punished and stop influencing Timmy. Team Rocket overhear the conversation and also begin searching for the Phantom. Mrs. Grimm takes the group over to her mansion residence, where they find Timmy making notes on a tough Pikachu he battled that day and also has a cut on his hand. Timmy's mother notices these details and realizes that Timmy may be the Phantom. She makes it clear that she doesn't want Timmy to be a Pokémon Trainer, but instead wants him to CEO of her company when she leaves.

Timmy's father, Tommy Grimm, approaches the group and he offers to assist with finding the Phantom. He guides them through to a study and shows them his own Phantom costume, revealing he was once a great Pokémon Coordinator. When he met his wife, he was forced to give it up because she hated Pokémon. However, his love for Pokémon remained so he created the Dusclops costume and entered Pokémon Contests as The Phantom whenever he was out of his wife's sight. However, Timmy's father gave up Coordinating when his secret became too hard to keep and put his costume away. Until one day, when Timmy found a stray Duskull and his father made him a new Phantom costume so he could train in secret and become a Coordinator. The group formulate a plan to help Timmy enter the Verdanturf Contest; Brock dresses in the Phantom costume and challenges May to a battle with both Timmy and his mother present. She begins to believe that Timmy is not the Phantom, but Team Rocket appear and attempt to reveal Brock as the Phantom to claim a reward from Timmy's mother. Jessie's Seviper constricts Brock, making him unable to keep his mask on. Skitty uses Blizzard to blow Seviper away, but Brock falls to the ground and reveals his face to Timmy's mother for a second. Ash commands Pikachu to shoot down Team Rocket's balloon with Thunderbolt, resulting in Timmy's mother believing the trick saying that she knew Timmy wasn't the Phantom and returning to work. With Ash revealed to say "We did it", the stage is set for Timmy and May to enter the Verdanturf Contest as rivals.

Major events

• Ash and his friends arrive in Verdanturf Town and meet up with Drew again.

For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, please see the timeline page.

Debuts

Humans

• Timmy Grimm
• Tommy Grimm
• Mrs. Grimm

Pokémon debuts

TV episode debuts

• Dusclops

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Drew
• Nurse Joy
• Timmy Grimm
• Tommy Grimm
• Mrs. Grimm
• Dr. Abby (flashback)
• Trainer

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Chinchou

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Skitty (May's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Chansey (Nurse Joy's)
• Roselia (Drew's)
• Duskull (The Phantom/Timmy Grimm's; flashback)
• Dusclops (The Phantom/Timmy Grimm's)
• Dusclops (Tommy Grimm's; flashback)
• Delcatty (Dr. Abby's; Johnny; flashback)
• Poochyena (Trainer's)
• Torchic (flashback)

Trivia

• The episode's English dub title is a reference to the phrase "master of disguise".
• Team Rocket is disguised similarly to Tuxedo Mask of the Sailor Moon series.
• While the answer to the Pokémon Trainer's Choice segment is correct, Volbeat would also be correct as it is a Bug-type, which is super-effective against Crawdaunt's Dark type.
• This episode first aired in Japan the same day Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen was first released.
• Timmy says "Float like a Butterfree, sting like a Beedrill", a reference to the famous phrase "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" from Muhammad Ali. The phrase would return in Strong Strategy Steals the Show.
• This episode was partially adapted into the book Phantom Unmasked.

Errors

• Drew's Roselia is defeated by Will-O-Wisp, despite the move not being a damage-dealing move.
• When May is going to throw juggling balls to Skitty to practice, she has three balls in her left hand and one ball in her right hand. When she has thrown two juggling balls to Skitty, she still has three balls in her left hand and one ball in her right hand.
• When Ash asks if Mrs. Grimm is alright, the left sleeve of his jacket is colored blue like the rest of the jacket instead of black.
• The bandage on Timmy's hand disappears when he first greets his mother downstairs.
• When Mrs. Grimm points at Brock after he mentions that she can learn important lessons by interacting with Pokémon, a ring suddenly appears on her left index finger, despite not being present in previous scenes.
• When Mrs. Grimm tells Ash and his friends not to return until they gather information for her, the pattern on May's bandanna has its colors reversed.
• When Timmy tries to hide the Dusclops disguise from Ash, the white part on the hat overlaps the computer screen.

• 

  Ash's miscolored sleeve

• 

  Timmy's missing bandage

• 

  The overlap error

Dub edits

• The pen that Timmy loses has a small Poké Ball on top of it in the Japanese version. The dub paints a small design over it.
• Mrs. Grimm shaking Ash is shortened.
• Jessie's skirt is lengthened in her fantasy scene for the English dub.
• In the English dub, Mrs. Grimm yells at Timmy from a distance, with the zoomed-in shots not shown.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

• Question: Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best choice to battle Crawdaunt?
• Choices: Volbeat, Chinchou, Houndour
• Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Chinchou, you were right!

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		戴面具的協調訓練家，假面使者登場！
Danish		Katastrofe i forklædning
Dutch		Een machtig masker
Finnish		Katastrofi valepuvussa
European French		Fantôme, le Coordinateur Pokémon (1ère partie)
German		Perfekt getarnt
Hebrew		הפנטום haphantom
Hindi		मास्क के पीछे है कौन? Mask ke peeche hai kaun? *
Italian		Il Coordinatore mascherato
Korean		가면 코디네이터 팬텀
Norwegian		Katastrofal forkledning!
Portuguese	Brazil	O Desastre do Disfarce
	Portugal	Que Desastre de Disfarce
Russian		Неуловимый фантом
Spanish	Latin America	¡El desastre del disfraz!
	Spain	El disfraz del desastre
Swedish		Fantomen!

← AG060 : Delcatty Got Your Tongue

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG062 : Disguise Da Limit →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.