EP006

**Clefairy and the Moon Stone** (Japanese: **ピッピとつきのいし** *Pippi and the Moon Stone*) is the sixth episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 6, 1997, and in the United States on September 15, 1998.

## Blurb

*At Mount Moon, our friends rescue a scientist named Seymour from a batch of Zubat. (Along the way, Brock is able to catch one of the Zubat.) Seymour leads Ash and his friends into a cave to find the legendary Moon Stone, which is said to increase the power of Pokémon.*

 *Deep in the cave, Ash spots a Clefairy carrying a Moon Stone. He considers capturing it, but Seymour tells him Clefairy prefer to live at Mount Moon. Ash decides to leave the Clefairy in peace, but Team Rocket shows up with plans of their own!*

 *Will Team Rocket steal the Moon Stone? Are there other Clefairy lurking about, and do they carry Moon Stones, too? And is the legend of the Moon Stone true?*

## Plot

Ash, Misty and Brock are hiking toward Mt. Moon, talking about the legend of a meteor called the "Moon Stone". Apparently, the Moon Stone crashed into the mountain in prehistoric times. Near the foot of the mountain, they encounter a man being attacked by a flock of Zubat. Misty reminds Ash that the man needs help, and Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunder Shock. The Zubat fly away, and the man, who is wearing a lab coat, thanks Ash profusely. He introduces himself as Seymour, a scientist. He is upset because someone has installed strung lights inside the nearby cave that are disrupting the Pokémon who live inside - not just the Zubat, but the Paras and Sandshrew as well.

Seymour explains that he believes that the attackers are after the Moon Stone. He says that it is a massive boulder, believed to be a million years old or more, and hidden deep in the caves under the mountain. Fragments of the Stone are said to increase a Pokémon's power. Seymour theorizes that this is because the native Pokémon came from outer space, and the Moon Stone was their spacecraft—which means the Stone belongs to the Pokémon, and that the humans must leave it alone. At that moment, a Clefairy bounces past, carrying something. Ash scans it on his Pokédex and decides to catch it, but Seymour tells him to leave it alone. The Clefairy is trapped by Template:MTR, who is in turn challenged by Ash. Brock and Ash agree that they have to stop Team Rocket, before they make any more trouble.

Team Rocket freely admits to putting up the lights; Meowth even reveals their plan to steal the Moon Stone. Ash and Brock challenge Jessie and James, resulting in a battle pitting Jessie's Ekans and James's Koffing against Ash's Butterfree and Brock's new Zubat, caught at the entrance to the cave. James orders Koffing to generate a Smog attack. Ash counters with Butterfree's Whirlwind, and Brock asks Zubat to use Double Team; the two Pokémon turn the Smog back on Team Rocket, much to their surprise. The four Pokémon exchange attacks, culminating in a Supersonic attack from Zubat and a Whirlwind from Butterfree that send Team Rocket blasting off again - without Meowth.

Misty and Seymour had been following the Clefairy, which makes its way out of the cave. They follow it up the mountain, where Meowth is waiting for them, and he demands that he be given the Moon Stone. Misty summons her Staryu by dropping its Poké Ball into the river. Without much trouble, Staryu sends Meowth blasting off as well. Brock feeds all the Pokémon with Pokémon food, made according to his own special recipe. Seymour tastes it and deems it "not bad;" Ash follows suit and finds it awful. Meanwhile, Clefairy and Pikachu are having a conversation on a nearby rock. They hop away, followed by the rest of the group. They arrive at another cave, where they find the huge core of the Moon Stone. Clefairy adds its stone to the ring at the base of the core, which completes the "circuit". All the small stones, then the large core, begin to glow blue in the moonlight. Dozens of Clefairy approach and begin to dance around the Moon Stone, praying to it. Seymour states that humans are supposed to ride the Stone back out to the stars, but his epiphany is interrupted by the return of Team Rocket.

Seymour attacks Team Rocket to keep them from the Stone, but he is unsuccessful and loses his glasses. Ash attacks with Pikachu, while Brock summons Onix; as usual, Jessie and James call on Ekans and Koffing. Jessie orders a Dig attack, and James orders a SmokeScreen. Ash then summons Pidgeotto and orders it to Whirlwind the smoke away. When the smoke clears, Team Rocket is gone, and the Moon Stone with them. Brock orders Onix to Dig and follow Team Rocket underground, while the humans and other Pokémon run through the caves. One of the Clefairy retrieves Seymour's glasses for him.

Team Rocket is sliding downhill with the Stone on a sled. Onix appears suddenly, upsetting the sled. Onix attempts to Tackle Team Rocket, but Koffing counters, and both Pokémon fall to the ground. At that moment, Seymour and the Clefairy appear from Onix's tunnel. The Clefairy use a Metronome attack to hypnotize the humans, and then they follow up with what appears to be a Hyper Beam, sending Team Rocket flying off once more. Chips of the Moon Stone drift down from the sky, and as they fall on the Clefairy, many of the Clefairy evolve into Clefable. Seymour stays with the Clefairy and Clefable, hoping to someday visit outer space with them.

Following the night's events, Ash, Misty, and Brock move on toward Cerulean City. Gary had left graffiti on a sign stating, "Gary was here! Ash is a loser!" Seeing it, Ash takes off down the road at a run as the episode ends.

## Major events

* Brock catches a Zubat.

* Misty is revealed to own a Staryu.

* Ash's Butterfree and Pidgeotto are revealed to know Whirlwind.

* Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know Bite.

* James's Koffing is revealed to know Tackle.

* Brock's Onix is revealed to know Dig.

* Brock encounters Team Rocket for the first time.

Template:Animeevents

### Debuts

#### Pokémon debuts

* Zubat (Template:OP)

* Paras

* Clefairy

* Staryu (Template:OP)

* Clefable

## Characters

### Humans

 File:Dare da EP006.png
* Ash

* Misty

* Brock

* Jessie

* James

* Gary (fantasy; Japanese version only)

* Seymour

### Pokémon

 File:WTP EP006.png
Who's That Pokémon?: Clefairy

* Pikachu (Template:OP)

* Meowth (Template:TRM)

* Butterfree (Template:OP)

* Pidgeotto (Template:OP)

* Staryu (Template:OP; debut)

* Onix (Template:OP)

* Zubat (Template:OP; new; debut)

* Ekans (Template:OP)

* Koffing (Template:OP)

* Sandshrew

* Clefairy (multiple; some evolve; debut)

* Clefable (multiple; newly evolved; debut)

* Zubat (multiple; debut)

* Paras (multiple; debut)

## Trivia

* This is the first episode to feature a Double Battle, although Double Battles were not introduced until the third generation.

* The twinkling star that normally appears when Team Rocket blasts off out of view makes its first appearance in this episode.

* This is the first episode to feature stone-induced evolutions.

* Several scenes in the episode, including the Team Rocket motto, were shown in *A Sneak Peek at Pokémon*.

* When they find the sign for the direction to Cerulean City, Misty briefly appears saddened, foreshadowing the events of the next episode.

### Errors

 File:EP006 error.png
* When Ash commands Butterfree to Whirlwind away the Smog, Brock commands his Zubat to use Double Team, yet it uses Whirlwind as well. This is presumably an error in translating from Japanese where Brock ordered Zubat to "team up" with Butterfree.

* When Jessie and James release Koffing and Ekans in Mt. Moon, the button on the Poké Ball is attached to the white half of the Ball instead of the red half.

* In the dub, when Ekans dives underground, its Japanese voice can be heard.

* While reading the sign pointing to Cerulean City, Ash is missing a glove.

* In the very first scene Clefairy is shown in, Brock's belt is colored green.

### Changes

#### Dub edits

* The recap scenes at the beginning edited Nibi Gym to Pewter Gym.

* While the narrator's statement was mostly the same in the beginning scene, it skips over the fact that they are heading to Cerulean City in the dub.

* Seymour states he was working for the Nibi Museum in the Japanese version. This was not mentioned in the dub.

* Seymour talks about romance in the Japanese version, while he recites poetry in the English version.

* Seymour's two main virtues are changed from Love and Courage (original) to Knowledge and Research (dub). When he announces the virtues, the Japanese version has them written in the background. The dub erased all of the kanji from the English version.

* Ash makes a reference to the Macarena when Pikachu uses charades to speak to him. The original line references the Bon Dance.

* + In the original version, they stated that the Clefairy were protected by their god, referring to the large Moon Stone. Though the general gist of the dialog remained in the dub, the fact that the Moon Stone was seen by the Clefairy as a deity was not referenced.

* "Cerulean City" is translated on the sign directing towards it. Gary's message changes from "Shigeru has arrived! Satoshi's a moron!" to "Gary was here! Ash is a loser!". Also, it had Gary's transparent image superimposed over the sign. It showed him pulling down his eyelid and sticking his tongue out at the same time, a childish Japanese taunting gesture (an *akanbe*), which was eliminated from the English dub, although the sound effect was still retained.

#### Differences between the episode and the comic adaptation

* Most of the lines about Seymour going to space, specifically Ash and Template:Ashfr' responses to him, were moved to when they are leaving Mt. Moon in the comic.

* The scene where Ash reads Gary's message on the sign leading to Cerulean City retains Gary's faded bii-da facial expression, something that was cut in the English dub of the episode.

* The ending narration for the comic (at least the one contained in Nintendo Power) was also changed, where the narrator adds in that to continue Ash's adventure, the reader might try to buy Pokémon Red and Blue. In addition, Misty exclaims "ASH!" offscreen as Ash is racing towards Cerulean City while leaving Brock and Misty in the dust, and Brock's line of "He'll never learn..." is moved to his racing down.

## In other languages

Template:Epilang

de:Piepi und der mysteriöse Mondstein

fr:EP006

it:EP006

ja:無印編第6話

pl:EP006

zh:EP006