AG146

← AG145 : Pasta La Vista!

Advanced Generation series

AG147 : Sweet Baby James →

Fear Factor Phony

AG146   EP420 エスパーVSゴースト！真夜中の決闘!? Esper VS Ghost! Midnight Duel!?

First broadcast Japan October 6, 2005 United States September 8, 2006

English themes Opening Battle Frontier Ending

Japanese themes Opening バトルフロンティア Ending ポケモンかぞえうた

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 武上純希 Junki Takegami Storyboard 誌村宏明 Hiroaki Shimura Assistant director 秦義人 Yoshito Hata Animation directors 志村泉 Izumi Shimura 山下恵 Megumi Yamashita No additional credits are available at this time.

Screenshots on Bulbagarden Archives Screenshots on Filb.de

Fear Factor Phony (Japanese: エスパーVSゴースト！真夜中の決闘!? Esper VS Ghost! Midnight Duel!?) is the 146th episode of the Advanced Generation series, and the 420th episode of the Pokémon anime, the first dubbed by The Pokémon Company International, then known as Pokémon USA outside Japan. The episode was first broadcast in Japan on October 6, 2005 and in the United States on September 8, 2006.

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

Synopsis

Having lost their way again, Max looks at his PokéNav for the nearest Pokémon Center. Pikachu seems to notice something in the distance and dashes off while Ash tells Pikachu to wait up.

Pikachu has found an abandoned city while May is already frightened by the looks of the surroundings. Walking through the city, they arrive at a mine shaft inside of the city. A Haunter appears from within the cave as everyone runs away in fright. Nearby, Team Rocket is sitting atop a platform as Meowth notices everyone running away from the mine shaft. Meowth suggests that they should go inside of the mine shaft themselves. Reaching the bottom of the ground, Team Rocket venture into the same mine shaft. The same Haunter appears again as it seems to have no effect on them. When Haunter sticks its tongue out then Team Rocket runs off in fright. Ash and his friends take cover in a nearby building. Everyone is still on edge from the sighting as Ash stands up slowly to look out of a nearby window. Everything seems to be desolate as it begins to rain.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket never escaped the mine shaft and just fell to the ground unconscious. Jessie wakes noticing that they are still inside of the shaft and starts to wake up James. They begin to exit the mine but notice the rain outside and decide to adventure further within the mine. With Jessie in such a frightened state, Wobbuffet easily frightens her with his usual "greeting". Another strange sound emits from the shaft as the Haunter appears again. Frightening everyone, Wobbuffet scorches out of the shaft leaving everyone else behind. Still in a frightened state, Jessie and James still manage to release their Pokémon in an effort to combat Haunter. Both Seviper and Cacnea are frightened by the Haunter and dash back to their masters.

Cacnea then launches a Pin Missile attack at Haunter but the attack is ineffective. Seviper launches a Poison Tail attack, but it easily goes through Haunter and makes contact with the shaft ceiling. Jessie then throws Meowth in one last effort and manages to hit the electrical box above which lights up the shaft and sends Haunter away. Jessie seems to be surprised that the light drove Haunter away. Further ahead in the shaft, a few Ghost Pokémon are hiding behind a barrel. Meowth releases his claws in effort to attack as the little Ghost Pokémon tries to reason with him.

Ash and his friends are still inside of the building now sleeping as May is still frightened from the Haunter event. A mysterious sound starts to come from the nearby room which sends May into a further state of fright. May then goes to wake Ash, but he is fast asleep, so she screams to wake everyone up. It works and everyone gets up to explore the hallway, finding the source behind a door. Ash opens the door and discovers many Psychic Pokémon including Abra, Kirlia, Kadabra, and Hypno dancing to music.

May then presses her hands on top of Max and Ash sending them falling into the room and alerting the nearby Pokémon. The Abra hasn't escaped and is in a state of hypnosis with a powerful psychic field around its body. As Ash starts to touch the Abra, his hand is forced back by the field. Max notices a picture underneath a couch the Abra is sitting on, which is a picture of the Psychic Pokémon and the miners of the now abandoned town. Abra then depicts a scene from the past from when the town was flourishing which the miners abandoning the Pokémon. Ash suggests that they should give the Psychic Pokémon their own little party for them. Abra then opens the door and after a few seconds the Pokémon rushes in.

Meanwhile the Ghost Pokémon depict a story to Meowth recounting an everlasting battle between the Ghost Pokémon and the Psychic Pokémon. When the Psychic Pokémon tried to enter the mine, the Ghost Pokémon form a figure of a gigantic Haunter to scare them away.

Meanwhile, as Wobbuffet was running away from the "Haunter", Wobbuffet hears the music from the Psychic Pokémon and notices the Kirlia dancing on the table. Wobbuffet develops a crush as he notices Kirlia's majestic movements, and rushes into the building. Wobbuffet then reveals a flower to Kirlia as which she then accepts sending Wobbuffet into a state of love.

A nearby explosion rocks the building, as the gigantic Haunter appears again. Gigantic arms eject from Haunter's body, snatching every psychic Pokémon. After snatching Kirlia, Wobbuffet dashes after Kirlia and into the gigantic mecha. The Ghost Pokémon then reveal Team Rocket's new mecha with the scene being set with their motto. Wobbuffet rushes down to the cage in the mecha, where the Psychic Pokémon are held captive, and tries to release them by hitting the cage but it proves to be futile. Wobbuffet then walks back a few feet for momentum, and then rushes into the cage, smashing it and releasing all of the Psychic Pokémon. Team Rocket is shocked that Jessie's own Wobbuffet released the Pokémon from their prison.

Meowth then directs the Ghost Pokémon to attack, and they execute Shadow Ball, directing it at the fleeing Psychic-types. Kirlia springs into the air and blocks the Shadow Ball using Reflect, sending it rushing back towards Team Rocket's mecha and sending them blasting off into the sky again. Kirlia then notices the wilted flower that Wobbuffet handed her as the Ghost Pokémon are still ready to fight. Pikachu then launches a Thunderbolt between the two feuding groups and Ash tries to explain that they don't have to battle. Ash's speech proves to be ineffective as both sides are still ready to battle more than ever. Brock notices Abra sleeping nearby and formulates a plan.

Abra is now outside with the rest of the Psychic Pokémon but now is emitting its shield around all of the Psychic Pokémon while they dance, preventing the Ghost-types from hearing their music. With both groups satisfied, the travelers leave the town, ready to take on the Battle Frontier.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Miner (Seiyū: 坂口候一 Kōichi Sakaguchi)
• Boy (Seiyū: 半場友恵 Tomoe Hanba)

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Chimecho (James's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Abra
• Kadabra
• Alakazam
• Gastly (×2)
• Haunter
• Drowzee
• Hypno
• Ralts
• Kirlia
• Shuppet
• Duskull (×2)

Trivia

• This episode features the debut of the voice actors for the TPCi version of the English dub (including Matthew Mitler, who previously voiced characters before quitting after season three).
• This was the first episode to air in the USA on Cartoon Network, in a prime time slot following the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate! special.
• Ken Gates returns to the role as the Narrator from this episode onwards, now credited under the name Rodger Parsons.
• The Japanese title is an allusion to the (Japanese) title of Haunter vs. Kadabra.
• The two paragraphs of text introducing the series in the OP animation has been restored.
• The structure of the Japanese broadcast changes to:
  1. First scene
  2. Opening theme
  3. Title card
  4. Part A
  5. Sponsor listing & commercials
  6. Part B
  7. Commercials
  8. Ending theme
  9. Pokémon Trivia Quiz question
  10. Commercials
  11. Next episode teaser
  12. Pokémon Trivia Quiz answer
  13. Sponsor listing & commercials
• Before this episode, it was: (to do: confirm)
  1. Trivia Quiz question
  2. Opening theme
  3. Sponsor listing & commercials
  4. Part A (title card after first scene)
  5. Commercials
  6. Part B
  7. Ending theme
  8. Commercials
  9. Next episode teaser
  10. Trivia Quiz answer / Oak's lecture
  11. Sponsor listing & commercials
• When James says, "Those Psychic Pokémon just wanna rock and roll all night and party every day!" he is making a reference to the KISS song "Rock and Roll All Nite," whose chorus goes, "I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day!"
• The title card music for the English dub has changed from the ones used in all previous seasons.

In other languages

• Brazilian Portuguese: O Fator do Falso Medo
• European Portuguese: A Cidade Fantasma
• Finnish: Kiista kummituskylästä
• French: Une cohabitation difficile
• German: Duell in der Geisterstadt
• Italian: La città fantasma
• Latin American Spanish: ¡El factor miedo!
• Iberian Spanish: El falso fantasma
• Mandarin: 超能VS幽灵 午夜的对决

← AG145 : Pasta La Vista!

Advanced Generation series

AG147 : Sweet Baby James →

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