EP182

← EP181 : A Ghost of a Chance

Original series

EP183 : Trouble's Brewing →

From Ghost to Ghost

EP182   エンジュジム！ゴーストバトル！！ Enjū Gym! Ghost Battle!!

First broadcast Japan January 25, 2001 United States November 10, 2001

English themes Opening Born to Be a Winner Ending

Japanese themes Opening OK! Ending ぼくのベストフレンドへ

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 横田和 Kazu Yokota Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

From Ghost to Ghost (Japanese: エンジュジム！ゴーストバトル！！ Enjū Gym! Ghost Battle!!) is the 182nd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on January 25, 2001 and in the United States on November 10, 2001.

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

Blurb

Anxious to acquire the next Johto League badge, Ash challenges Ecruteak City's Gym Leader, Morty. However, Ash has seen Morty's Ghost-type Pokémon in action and is a little worried about battle strategies. In a discussion with Nurse Joy, Ash realizes his secret weapon against Morty's Pokémon is his Noctowl. Find out what special strategies Ash and his Noctowl employ in a head-to-head battle against the skilled Gym Leader and his fear-provoking Pokémon!

Plot

The episode begins with Ash preparing for his fourth Gym battle against Morty and his powerful team of Ghost-type Pokémon by listening to his Pokédex's entry about Gengar. Unfortunately, the Pokédex states that details about Gengar are unknown. As Ash muses over battle strategies, Nurse Joy arrives with his Pokémon after healing them in the Pokémon Center. They talk about the difficulty of facing Morty's Ghost-type Pokémon and Nurse Joy suggests that Ash should use his Noctowl as a secret weapon.

At the Gym, Morty has his Gengar demonstrate Confuse Ray to a group of young Trainers as an example of how to fight without using brute force. Ash and his friends interrupt the lecture to challenge the Gym. Morty suggests that his students be allowed to watch and Ash gladly agrees.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket floats along in their hot air balloon. James and Meowth are discussing James's use of his Treasure Detector to find treasures in Ecruteak City. Jessie groans that the device only ever finds junk and James fervently attempts to prove her wrong by displaying his prized collection of bottle caps, although he declines to explain what makes them so valuable. Suddenly, the device beeps loudly! They look over the edge of the balloon's basket to see that they are floating directly over the Burned Tower of Ecruteak. They descend in the hopes of finding something valuable among the ruins.

Soon, as Ash's battle with Morty is about to begin, Team Rocket follow the Treasure Detector right up to the Gym, where they see Ash and Pikachu through a window and then mention that they may leave Ecruteak with more than one treasure. Just then, the battle begins! Morty calls his Gastly forth and Ash chooses Noctowl in order to start off strong, a decision at which Brock and Misty are quite surprised and concerned. Ash says that he knows what he's doing, however.

Ash has Noctowl begin with Hypnosis. Gastly dodges, disappearing in the process. Ash tells Noctowl to use Foresight to find Gastly. Noctowl then attempts to Tackle Gastly, but Gastly easily dodges the attack again and again. After failing to Tackle Gastly, Noctowl tries to use Hypnosis; however, Morty orders Gastly to close his eyes to avoid being hypnotized and to use his Lick attack, which whips Noctowl out of the air. Ash returns Noctowl to its Poké Ball. Brock points out that this is a good strategy since Noctowl's Foresight will keep Gastly from disappearing and Ash can use Noctowl again later on if he needs to.

As Jessie and Meowth watch through the window, they comment that the battle is much more interesting than digging for treasure. James then shows up and shouts that his device revealed a valuable item hidden in a nearby building, which makes them forget about the battle for the time being.

With Foresight keeping Gastly in view, Ash chooses Pikachu to replace Noctowl. Pikachu begins by using Quick Attack, which knocks Gastly far back. Pikachu then uses Thunderbolt, but Gastly dodges and counters with Night Shade. Pikachu got hit and is unable to battle any further. After thanking Pikachu for his hard work, Ash chooses Cyndaquil as his next choice.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket have discovered that the building indicated by the Treasure Detector contains a number of real valuables, including a vase, a sword, and a new charm for Meowth's forehead. Just then, several Gastly materialize through a wall of the room. The trio turns around to see them and yells out in fright.

Back at the Gym, Cyndaquil starts off with a Flamethrower attack. Gastly dodges, countering with Night Shade, which Cyndaquil dodges using Quick Attack. Gastly uses Lick but Cyndaquil just runs up Gastly's tongue and Tackles it, finally defeating it.

Morty chooses Haunter as his second Pokémon. Cyndaquil tries to hit it with Flamethrower, but Haunter disappears and then uses Mean Look, which extinguishes Cyndaquil's back flames and forces Ash to use Cyndaquil until the end of the round. Ash orders Cyndaquil to fire back up and use its Swift attack, which hurts Haunter. Haunter uses Hypnosis, which nearly works; but Cyndaquil counters with SmokeScreen. Through the Smokescreen, Haunter grabs Cyndaquil and then Licks it, ending Cyndaquil's ability to battle. Ash is now down to only his Noctowl.

As the Gym battle rages on, Team Rocket sits in the other building, hallucinating about food at the Gastly's doing, which the Gastly think is very humorous.

After Ash brings it back out, Noctowl uses Foresight to keep Haunter from disappearing. Noctowl follows this with a Tackle attack, but Haunter forces Noctowl to dodge its hands to avoid being grabbed instead. Haunter then tries its Lick attack, which Noctowl dodges. The two Pokémon then each use Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, which become locked against each other; but Noctowl's Hypnosis loses the struggle and gets blown away, allowing Confuse Ray to hit Noctowl. The battle looks just about over when Noctowl appears confused after sitting back up. Haunter uses Night Shade but Noctowl Tackles it through the attack. The two collide and Noctowl is not confused anymore.

Since Noctowl's Tackle worked even though it was confused and the attack beat out Haunter's Night Shade, Brock says that it looks like Noctowl has learned Confusion, which Ash confirms with his Pokédex. Noctowl uses its new move on Haunter and easily wins.

Finally, it's Gengar's turn. Noctowl uses Confusion while Gengar uses Shadow Ball; the Confusion attack hits the Shadow Ball, making it explode, showering everyone with dark energy. Gengar disappears and, when Noctowl tries to use Foresight to find it, starts forcing Noctowl to repeatedly dodge its Night Shade. Misty is surprised that Gengar can attack while it's invisible and Brock says that Noctowl won't win without using Foresight. Ash thinks for a moment and then tells Noctowl to send Confusion through the building. This reveals Gengar and Noctowl is able to use Foresight on it. Gengar attempts to use Shadow Ball again, but Noctowl stops it with a Tackle attack. After hitting the ceiling and falling to the floor, Gengar is now unable to battle. With no more Pokémon to fight against, Ash and Noctowl have won!

Before the group heads out, Morty admits that Ash may actually have seen Ho-Oh. He then hands over the Fog Badge. Just before the credits, Team Rocket is seen running away from the haunted building, complaining of what a ghastly nightmare the day has been.

Major events

Ash holding the Fog Badge

• Ash's Cyndaquil is revealed to know Quick Attack and Swift.
• Ash's Noctowl learns Confusion.
• Ash defeats Morty in a Gym battle and earns the Fog Badge.

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

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Nurse Joy
• Morty
• Students
• Referee

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Ditto (US and international), Gastly (Japan)

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Cyndaquil (Ash's)
• Totodile (Ash's; flashback)
• Noctowl (Ash's; Shiny)
• Staryu (Misty's; flashback)
• Arbok (Jessie's; flashback)
• Weezing (James's; flashback)
• Gastly (Morty's)
• Haunter (Morty's)
• Gengar (Morty's)
• Gastly (multiple)

Trivia

• This episode's dub title is a reference to the phrase From coast to coast.
• Meowth's food illusion includes a real-life fish.
• The Gastly that are hypnotising Team Rocket break the fourth wall by turning towards the camera and laughing at the audience.
• The Treasure Detector makes the same noise as the slot machines at the Celadon Game Corner in Generation III.
• Misty exclaims "Not another Ghost-type!", even though Morty is a Ghost-type Gym Leader and only uses Ghost-types.
• Team Rocket does not recite the motto in this episode.

Errors

• In the scene of when James shows his bottle caps there is no tracking device behind him, but when turns around it appears right in front of him.
• When Morty withdraws Gastly, the beam only covers Gastly's spherical body but not the gas.
• When Haunter uses Mean Look on Cyndaquil, Misty states that Morty said himself that Ash was allowed to switch his Pokémon. It was the referee, not Morty, who said this.
• When Ash reads the title card, the Pokémon logo is missing.
• Gastly's Lick shouldn't have affected Noctowl because Ghost-type attacks don't affect Normal types.
• Ash's Cyndaquil hits Morty's Haunter with a Swift attack, which shouldn't have hit as Haunter had not been hit by Foresight, unlike Gastly.
• When Ash returns Cyndaquil into its Poké Ball, Ash's hand raises up with the Poké Ball, but his arm does not raise up.
• When Haunter faints, Brock's voice can be heard.

Dub edits

• A split shot with Ash and Morty is skipped.
• The original airing of this episode on Hungama TV in India started the episode directly from the title card, skipping the part of the episode that comes before it.

In other languages

Language		Title
Bulgarian		От призрак на призрак
Mandarin Chinese		圓朱道館鬼斯戰鬥
Czech		Jeden duch za druhým
Dutch		Van Spook naar Spook
Finnish		Aaveita ja haaveita
European French		Rencontre au sommet
German		Von Geist zu Geist
Hebrew		תג הערפל tag ha'arafel
Hindi		एक घोस्त से दुसरे घास्त तक! Ek ghost se dusre ghost tak! *
Italian		Una tappa importante
Polish		Od ducha do ducha
Portuguese	Brazil	De Fantasma pra Fantasma
	Portugal	De Fantasma a Fantasma
Spanish	Latin America	¡De fantasma a fantasma!
	Spain	De fantasma en fantasma
Swedish		Hu, vad det spökar igen!

← EP181 : A Ghost Of A Chance

Original series

EP183 : Trouble's Brewing →

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