Japanese Title: The Mysterious Superhero! Enter Gligerman!!
Original Airdate: March 9th, 2000
US Airdate: February 17th, 2001
The legendary Gligarman grows old and begins to bend under the weighty task of fighting crime. When Ash and friends wander into town, they bring with them a challenge that threatens to be Gligarman's last — Team Rocket.
Tropes
- Art Shift: The Gligarman movie is done in a darker, inkier style.
- Becoming the Mask: Mr. Parker to Gligarman, much to his daughter Latoya's embarrassment.
- Delayed Reaction: Despite knowing her father is Gligarman and hearing people call her Gligirl, Brock takes a long time to realize that Latoya is Gligirl.
- Dramatic Unmask: Attempted by Team Rocket, but Everybody Knew Already. The town was just humoring Mr. Parker.
- Incoming Ham: Gligarman.
- I Never Told You My Name: Misty figures out that Mr. Parker is Gligarman's Secret Identity because he knew her name when she had only told Gligarman.
- Legacy Character: Mr. Parker suggests Ash could become the new Gligarman. Ash isn't interested.
- Licked by the Dog: Togepi seems to take a liking towards Mr. Parker, which causes Misty to figure out he is Gilgarman.
- Old Superhero: Gilgarman can't keep up any more.
- Shout-Out: To many superheroes like Superman ("Look! Up in the sky!"), Batman (mansion, cave, gadgets), Batgirl (Gligirl), and Spider-Man (Mr. Parker).
- Superhero Episode: Pokémon's first.
- You Look Familiar: A variation: One of the announcers of the Gligarman merchandise sounds exactly like Butch from Team Rocket. Youtuber Suede points this out in a review of the episode
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