EP020

The Ghost of Maiden's Peak (Japanese: ゆうれいポケモンとなつまつり The Ghost Pokémon and the Summer Festival) is the 20th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on August 12, 1997, and in the United States on October 2, 1998.
==Blurb==
After leaving Acapulco in search of Saffron City, our heroes finally arrive at a small port town in the middle of celebrating a summer festival. In order to recover from their hard journey, Ash and his party decide to participate in the festival. Team Rocket's interest in the festivities, on the other hand, is purely monetary. Brock and James are both bewitched by a picture scroll shown in a shrine open only on the day of the summer festival. The picture depicts a beautiful young maiden in a scene from the legend of Maiden Rock—a point on a cape near the town. According to the priest's explanation, the girl in the picture lived 2,000 years ago, and awaited the return of a lover captured in battle, until she finally turned into stone. Every year at this season, the ghost of this girl steals the spirit of a young man and this year it is James' and Brock's turn. What could the ghost possibly be after? And what is its true identity?
==Plot==
Traveling by ferry from the holiday resort of Porta Vista to Maiden's Peak, and find out that they have arrived in time for the annual Summer Festival. After the group decides to go and enjoy the festival, sees a beautiful girl with flowing purple hair and a red flower standing on a nearby pier. He immediately falls in love with her, but after being run over by a group of tourists, he notices that the girl has disappeared. is the only one that seems to notice that the girl is actually a , whereas Ash and don't seem to notice her at all.
Meanwhile, follows Ash and his friends to Maiden's Peak and they come up with the idea to look around for dropped coins; James gets distracted by the same girl that Brock saw before. As they leave to look for the coins, James takes a final look at the dock and notices that the girl is gone. During the festival, Ash and his friends meet an old woman, who warns Brock of a young girl who will "lead him to a cruel fate". After the old lady insults Misty, she decides that they should go somewhere else where they won't be insulted, and drags Ash and Brock with her. Meanwhile, while still looking for money, James is also warned by the old woman of the young girl.
Ash, his friends, and Team Rocket head for the Shrine of the Maiden, where they are shown its greatest treasure: a 2,000-year-old painting of the maiden. Brock and James both realize that the girl in the painting is the same girl they saw before. A man tells the story of the maiden, who waited on the cliff for her lover to return from the war, and eventually turned into stone; formulates a plan to steal the painting. As night falls, Brock decides to stay at the cliff while Misty and Ash leave to enjoy the festival. Later on, Brock doesn't return to the Pokémon Center, which worries Ash.
In the middle of the night, tries to wake up Jessie and James so they can try to steal the painting. He is confronted by the ghost of the maiden, who causes him to fall asleep, and then wakes up James. She also appears to Brock, telling him that she's been waiting for him. The next morning, both Brock and James are missing, and the others are looking for them. After finding them, the old lady appears again, reminding them of her warning about the ghost of the maiden; Pikachu shocks James and Brock, restoring them to their normal selves. They all head inside, and the old lady explains how all young men passing through Maiden's Peak fall into the ghost's curse; they decide to protect themselves from the ghost by buying a large quantity of , or anti-ghost stickers, and placing them around the shrine. However, when night comes, they note that the stickers prove useless, and the ghost of the maiden returns. Ash and the others try to prevent Brock and James from being pulled out by the maiden.
After being shot with a bazooka by Jessie, the ghost of the maiden summons several skull-like ghostly apparitions. Ash tries to identify them with his Pokédex, but with no results; but it's still searching. When Ash accidentally points the Pokédex at the ghost of the maiden, it identifies her as a , who's impersonating the old lady as well. Since Gastly's disguise has been revealed, it transforms back to its normal form. Ash challenges it to a , sending in Pikachu, to which Gastly summons a living mouse trap to scare him off. Meowth states that mouse traps do not work on him, so Gastly summons a ball for him to play with, distracting him. Jessie and James send out and , which are scared off by Gastly's newly summoned mongoose.
Ash decides that it is his turn again and calls out , but Gastly summons a fire extinguisher. When he summons out and , Gastly summons a and a , which it into a hybrid called "". As a last resort, Misty tries to use a cross, garlic, a stake, and a hammer to ward off Gastly, comparing him to a vampire, much to Gastly's bafflement. As the sun starts to rise, Gastly disappears, warning that the ghost of the maiden and the old woman will return for next year's festival. 
The following night, the festival continues, with lantern boats sent out to sea to help guide any wandering spirits. The true ghost of the maiden emerges from her stone self, thanking Gastly for keeping her legend alive and hoping her true love will return. Brock looks on at the statue, longing for another chance to meet the maiden. As the festival draws to a close, Team Rocket beat on some while Ash and Misty dance to the music.
==Major events==
* James's Koffing is revealed to know .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* 
* 
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Officer Jenny
* Nurse Joy
* Priest
* Tourists
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (debut)
* (illusion; fused with Blastoise to form "Venustoise")
* (illusion; fused with Venusaur to form "Venustoise")
* "" (illusion; a hybrid of Venusaur and Blastoise)
===Other===
* Ghost of Maiden's Peak
==Trivia==
* The priest says the great war the maiden's lover went off to happened 2,000 years before the episode's events.
* One of the creatures transforms into is a real-world animal: .
* While the and that Gastly summoned transform into "Venustoise," they appear to be performing the Fusion Dance.
* Venustoise's appearance is the first time a fused Pokémon and an original Pokémon appears in any medium. The idea of a fused Pokémon as a game mechanic does not occur in the core series until Generation V with and its fused forms.
* The outfits that and wear during the festival reappear in the fourth Japanese ending song, Pokémon Ondo.
* The similarly named Maiden Peak is a real mountain in .
* The Maiden's Peak statue is almost identical to the Orichalcum statue that was a plot device in early episodes of the anime series.
* There are many Japanese cultural references in this episode, especially during the festival at the end.
* The festival is the first time Misty is seen with her hair down.
* The in this episode is the only known one to date that is able to speak and shape-shift.
* This is the first episode to feature another Pokémon, other than , that is able to talk without telepathy. The second is A Shipful of Shivers.
* The kanji on the fire extinguisher Gastly uses to extinguish Ash's Charmander's tail flame was left unedited in the dub.
* In the dub, the storylines underwent alterations, and numerous scenes were either censored or entirely omitted, likely because of the extensive representation of Shinto religious elements in ways that are against Islamic culture. Consequently, the episode was subsequently excluded from broadcasting rotation and certain VHS releases. This episode was later re-dubbed when S01 was added to Netflix in 2017.
** These same religious elements also led to the episode being banned in .
* The festival in this episode bears a striking resemblance to the one from the 1993 OVA . However, in this festival, there is no Whack-a-Mole.
* This is the first episode to show a real ghost, as the true spirit of the Maiden speaks with Gastly near the end.
===Errors===
* James commands his to use , which Koffing could not legally learn in a Generation I game unless it was traded back from Generation II. At the time of the episode's original airing, no Generation II game had been released yet, meaning that at the time of this episode airing, Koffing was completely unable to learn Poison Gas by any means.
* When Ash says "We lose. It's just too strong", the red part that adjusts the size of his hat is white.
* When Misty brings out garlic, a stake, and a hammer against Gastly, the bottom of her shorts aren't colored in properly.
EP020 Error.png|Ash's miscolored hat
EP020 error 2.png|Misty's miscolored shorts
===Dub edits===
* Kanto Pokérap: Day 5 (Version 2)
* The fan that Misty held had its kanji erased.
* Misty (or, at least, someone who sounded suspiciously like her) shouted "Let's go to the ferris wheel!" twice in the scene; specifically, right up to the part where Brock says "She was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen...".
* James finds a United States penny on the ground which was originally a ¥5 coin in the Japanese version. However, the ¥1000 and ¥5000 bills in the old woman's cash register were left unchanged.
* James mentions the F.B.I. when he encounters the old lady.
* The Japanese version features the background music track Dazzlingly Beautiful Girl, which is a rearrangement of the Pokémon Tower theme from the Generation I games. This track is not present in the dub.
* The the group wears are referred to as "anti-ghost stickers" in the dub.
* Brock's "Hey! Let me go!" line in the dub was actually "You guys...!" in the Japanese version. The original version implied that Brock was in a trance and his friends broke the trance.
* In the Japanese version, Ash says that, since Gastly is a Pokémon, he can battle it with his Pokémon.
* The ball that was playing with had the word "Matatabi", meaning "catnip", which is erased from it in the dub.
* The mongoose says "mongoose" in the vein of a Pokémon in the original version instead of "Dinner time!".
* The final scene of the festival has a version of Pokémon Ondo being sung in the background, which is removed from the dub.
5 yen coin EP020.png|The ¥5 coin in the Japanese version
Penny EP020.png|The penny in the dub
==In other languages==
020
Category:Banned episodes
Category:Episodes written by Takeshi Shudō
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes directed by Kiyotaka Itani
Category:Episodes animated by Takayuki Shimura
Category:Episodes focusing on Brock
Category:Episodes focusing on James
de:Die verlorene Seele
es:EP020
fr:EP020
it:GA020
ja:無印編第20話
zh:宝可梦 第20集