1001 Animations: The Ghost of Maiden's Peak

Show: Pokémon
Episode: 20
Year: 1997/1998

Writer(s): Takeshi Shudo (Screenplay)
Director(s): Kiyotaka Itani (Assisstant Storyboard Director), Takiyuki Shimura (Animation Director)


The early episodes of Pokémon are definitely among the strangest of the entire franchise, they took a lot of departures from the norm on occasions and were easier going with their reality than even the video games. This lead to a lot of interesting episodes in the original series such as one were a giant Alakazam and Gengar were summoned from ancient artifacts and battled; there's an episode in which an entire island was made of fossilized Kabuto and they came to life by the light of a red moon, hell we even got one with Ash turning into a Pikachu the very end thanks to a real witch! But the earliest example of the anime's weirdness had to be the Ghost of Maiden's Peak, and like many of Takeshi Shudo's episodes its well remembered to this day.


With the end of summer closing in, Brock is forlorn that Bikini season has come and gone for another year with him Girlfriendless. So he and the gang make do on an island for their end of summer Obon festival. For those who don't know, Obon is a festival in Japan celebrated near summers end to honor the spirits of the deceased in the same vein as Halloween or Dia De Los Muertos, and during this time the spirits of the dead oftentimes come back to the living world to visit for better or worse. This will come into play near the end so I won't go into too much detail here, there are places online where you can look this information up.


I will however say this is one of the few times 4kids practices of editing cultural differences actually doesn't hurt the overall product too much, they do things such as edit a 5 yen coin into a penny (very badly) and erase Japanese text but I'm not fooled for one second! This is one of those rare episodes where this Japanese anime is actually ALLOWED to be Japanese with minimal meddling. Compared to 4kids editing One Piece and the Hoenn Saga this is actually pretty funny.


Team Rocket have also stowed away with the Twerps and plan to scrounge around for loose change at said festival, or pickpocket, whichever. However both James and Brock suddenly catch the eye of a beautiful maiden, this puts the two in a lovey-dovey trance akin to what Big Macintosh and Ms. Cheerilee went through in MLP: FiM's "Hearts and Hooves Day", only less annoying and way creepier. It is here we learn of a beautiful maiden from 2000 years ago, who waited for her brave lover to return from a war for many, many years. Unfortunately the soldier never returned, but the maiden did not given up hope; she continued to wait, never moving from that spot untill her very body turned to stone, and despite what many people believe it is quite possible to be turned to stone beyond fossilization. There have been real documented cases of human petrifaction, and that's beyond the bog mummies people find, I mean real people being turned to stone just as the maiden was!


Given Brock is the rock type gym leader of Kanto it makes sense for him to be enamored with a stone maiden, but it goes far beyond that. It's almost as if he can feel her calling out to him, to the point where he stays out long past curfew! Matter of fact this is the literal case for both he and James as the spirit of the maiden calls for them, turning them into love crazed zombies just as the old hag had predicted. It gets bad enough that Jessie's gotta perform the motto all by herself! Fortunately this witch has the solution: "ANTI GHOST STICKERS! Get a pack for only 50 cents at your local Wal-Mart! In all seriousness though they use Ofuda, a talisman used to ward off evil spirits, you can actually get one as a hold item starting with G2 called the Cleanse Tag.


Unfortuately the Ofuda are pretty much useless against the force of this relentless bitch, that's what you get for using freebies guys.... I swear James sounds like the 10th Doctor right before he dies, what too soon? By the by Jessie told that skank off good! Just listen:


"Girls like her disgust me. Always waiting around for her man as if her was her faithful pet! She can't stand the thought of losing him, she cries but I'd say see ya later!"


Then we get IMHO one of the scariest scenes of the entire show, this girls got friends from the other side! And they ain't Pokemon! SHE IS! Or rather he is, the culprit behind these ghostly occurrences was a talking Gastly all along! Considering it can utilize Hypnosis I don't think this Gastly can actually shapeshift beyond the maiden and the witch, but use illusions to trick its opponents considering he outright states he's got hypnotic powers this is a given. It's the only way you can explain Venastoise! Either that or this thing is more powerful than Arceus! And keep in mind this was BEFORE Zangoose existed so it was either a real Mongoose or nothing. The battle against Gastly is the best part of the episode to me, especially how Misty going Van Helsing on Gastly! I mean I cannot believe they allowed her to show an actual Christian CROSS in the 4kids dub! Unfortunately Gastly must depart come the sunrise as his time in the mortal plain has ended, but he promises he along with the old witch and maiden will be back next year, what a comforting though....


The ending helps put everything into perspective very well. At the end of the festival paper lanterns are sent down the river to help guide lingering spirits way back to the afterlife; and if I'm not mistaken one of those lanterns has the prototype for Chimecho on it! Gastly is lead back to the spirit world via a lantern but goes to talk to the real ghost maiden about what had occurred. As it turns out he's been keeping her legend alive for generations, plus making a sweet profit on the side. His true mission is to find the soul of the maidens beloved so that they can finally reunite one day and finally rest in peace. Inspite of the hell he put everyone through that is very sweet. They do leave it ambiguous as to if Brock actually saw this meeting, but I like to believe that he did.


This experience has also given Ash his first taste of what Ghost Pokemon are capable of, which will come in handy just in time for his next gym battle! Yeah, I already went over what dicks they are so I won't go into anything here. Just read my atrocity on Haunter Vs. Kadabra for more on that. On another note Misty looks amazing in a kimono. Takeshi Shudo knew how to introduce very bizarre ideas to really liven up the series, unfortunately he was not given very much creative control despite being the head writer and his influence has been fading since his departure near the end of Johto. So just as Gastly keeps alive the legend of the stone maiden, let us keep alive the legendary work that this man has produced!


Pokemon is owned by Nintendo and the Pokemon Company.

1001 Animations is from

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