History Recap / PokemonS1E20GhostOfMaidensPeak

* WeakenedByTheLight: Gastly says that he hates sunlight, and vanishes when the sun comes up.

[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The one where...]] A Ghastly transforms into a [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness real life mongoose]].

Ash and company arrive at a small port town celebrating a summer festival. Brock mourns the end of summer, wishing he had more time to meet cute girls wearing swimsuits. Team Rocket, meanwhile, show up with the ingenious criminal plot of...scrounging the ground for dropped change. Both Brock and James are warned about a mysterious girl making trouble for them in the future. Exactly as stated they both get drawn in by the beautiful ghost of Maiden's Peak. While Jessie attacks the ghost by firing a rocket launcher at it, Ash's Pokédex reports that the ghost is actually the Ghost-type Pokémon Gastly. Gastly is unusually strong and smart for a wild Pokémon and capable of shape-shifting to scare every Pokémon sent to attack it. They struggle until the sun rises and Gastly vanishes.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Most of the illusions the Gastly conjures for the other Pokémon are terrifying from their perspectives, such as a fire extinguisher chasing Ash's Charmander around. (The canon in this era dictates that Charmander perish if their tail-flames go out.) When faced with Meowth, Gastly's voice is ominous; but he simply distracts Meowth with a toy ball for kittens. Meowth delightedly takes the bait.
* CastAsAMask: Ghastly, the Maiden and the old lady all have different voices.

* JumpScare: In the ColdOpen, when Ghastly's face suddenly appears before the Maiden's face, bellowing "I'm waiting for you!"

* MasterOfIllusion: Gastly. He can fool people up close into thinking he is human, can imitate a human ghost, and can frighten other Pokémon out of even trying to fight him.

* WeakenedByTheLight: Gastly says that he hates sunlight, and vanishes when the sun comes up.
* YourWorstNightmare: Gastly bases some of his illusions on its opponents' fears.

* SkewedPriorities: Officer Jenny catches Team Rocket, the members of a known criminal organization picking up a penny in the streets. Instead of immediately cuffing the lot of them, ''she thanks them for finding missing money and asks them to come to the station to fill out a report''.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Misty invokes this to troll Gastly, pulling out a cross, a stake, a hammer, and garlic as her suggestion for defeating him.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: During the fight, Gastly transforms into a mongoose. This is one of the most noticeable occurrences of real non-Pokémon animals in the first season (granted, it's an illusion). Even stranger in retrospect since a mongoose-like Pokémon, Zangoose, is introduced much later.
** The episode itself is one of the regular bizarre ones from early on in the show's run: this Gastly is practically a prototype of ''Darkrai'', with his fear-illusions and unexplained ability to speak human language.

* ShoutOut: Gastly's speech it which it runs down the forms it took previously in the episode before revealing its true identity mirrors [[Manga/CuteyHoney Cutey Honey's]] InTheNameOfTheMoon speech in which she did the same.

* SnakeVersusMongoose: One of Gastly's forms is a mongoose. It also provides the page image.

** The Gastly in this episode is one of the extremely few (i.e., you could literally count them on your fingers) Pokémon, other than Meowth, who is able to speak human language without telepathy or possession. The Slowking in ''Anime/PokemonTheMovie2000'' is pretty much the only other one aside from a few hallucinatory/dream sequences.

** The episode itself is one of the regular bizarre ones from early on in the show's run: this Gastly is practically an prototype of ''Darkrai'', with his fear-illusions and unexplained ability to speak human language.

* ShipTease: At the very end of the episode when Ash first sees Misty in her yukata he does a definite double-take. This is probably the most overt interest Ash ever shows in her.

* ShoutOut: Gastly's speech it which it runs down the forms it took previously in the episode before revealing its true identity mirrors [[Manga/CuteyHoney Cutey Honey's]] InTheNameOfTheMoon speech in which she did the same.

* SkewedPriorities: Officer Jenny catches Team Rocket, the members of a known criminal organization picking up a penny in the streets. Instead of immediately cuffing the lot of them, ''she thanks them for finding missing money and asks them to come to the station to fill out a report''. Also doubles as [[PoliceAreUseless]], cranking it [[UpToEleven]].

** The episode itself is one of the regular bizarre ones from early on in the show's run: Gastly is practically an early ''Darkrai'', with his fear-illusions and unexplained ability to speak human language.

-->'''Gastly''': A snake's natural enemy is a mongoose. *poof* Dinnertime!

Ash and company arrive at a small port town celebrating a summer festival. Brock mourns the end of summer, wishing he had more time to meet cute girls wearing swimsuits. Team Rocket, meanwhile, show up with the ingenious criminal plot of...scrounging the ground for dropped change. Both Brock and James are warned about a mysterious girl making trouble for them in the future. Exactly as stated they both get drawn in by the beautiful ghost of maiden's peak. While Jesse attacks the ghost by firing a rocket launcher at it, Ash's Pokedex reports that the ghost is actually the Ghost-type Pokemon Gastly. Gastly is unusually strong and smart for a wild Pokemon and capable of shape-shifting to scare every Pokemon sent to attack it. They struggle until the sun rises and Gastly vanishes.

* AntiVillain: Gastly just wants to make sure no one ever forgets the Maiden's legend, and he promises the actual Ghost that he'll keep a lookout for the spirit of her dead lover when he leaves Maiden's Peak.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Most of the illusions the Gastly conjures for the other Pokémon are terrifying from their perspectives, such as a fire extinguisher chasing Ash's Charmander around. (The canon in this era dictates that Charmanders perish if their tail-flames go out.) When faced with Meowth, Gastly's voice is ominous; but he simply distracts Meowth with a toy ball for kittens. Meowth delightedly takes the bait.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: During the fight, Gastly transforms into a mongoose. This is one of the most noticeable occurrences of real non-Pokemon animals in the first season (granted, it's an illusion). Even stranger in retrospect since a mongoose-like Pokemon is introduced much later.

* EyeCatch: The "Who's that Pokemon" was Gastly, naturally.

* LarynxDissonance: the old lady is voiced by Jimmy Zoppi.

* MasterOfIllusion: Gastly. He can fool people up close into thinking he is human, can imitate a human ghost, and can frighten other pokemon out of even trying to fight him.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After episode-minutes of seeing Brock and James in uncharacteristic agreement, Ash comes to this conclusion: "THEY'RE POSSESSED!"

* ParanormalEpisode: This is one of the few episodes to show non-Pokemon-related paranormal events.

* UnfinishedBusiness: It appears as though the ghost of the maiden cannot leave until her beloved comes back. Gastly's apparent goal of making sure no one forgets about her is unexplained. The Japanese version has the Gastly explained as a friend of the Maiden's ghost who keeps her memory alive in the hopes of the ghost of her beloved finding out and coming to see her. Gastly also mentions he himself keeps a lookout for the guy during his travels since he can leave the peak but the Maiden cannot, which is where he's going at the end of the episode.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: During the fight, Gastly transforms into a mongoose. This is one of the most noticeable occurrences of real non-Pokemon animals in the first season (granted, it's an illusion), something they stopped doing entirely later on. Even stranger in retrospect since a mongoose-like Pokemon is introduced much later.

* UnfinishedBusiness: It appears as though the ghost of the maiden cannot leave until her beloved comes back. Gastly's apparent goal of making sure no one forgets about her is unexplained. The Japanese version has the Ghastly explained as a friend of the Maiden's ghost who keeps her memory alive in the hopes of the ghost of her beloved finding out and coming to see her. Ghastly also mentions he himself keeps a lookout for the guy during his travels since he can leave the peak but the Maiden cannot, which is where he's going at the end of the episode.