YMMV / Ghost of Maiden's Peak

• Bizarro Episode: The anime's first. The real-life(!) mongoose and the Venusaur-Blastoise fusion Gastly summons are just the icing on the cake.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Gastly's Venustoise illusion has gotten a lot of attention from fans, with more than a few wishing for Pokemon fusions to actually be a thing in future games.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The illusory mongoose Gastly creates becomes this upon the introduction of Zangoose in Gen 3, and Yungoos in Gen 7, which resembles this mongoose more than Zangoose does.
  • The sheer terror Bulbasaur and Squirtle show to their illusory evolved forms and their unholy fusion into Venustoise has been jokingly suggested by fans as to why they never evolved, unlike Charmander.
  • Speaking of Venustoise, it becomes this after the rise of Pokémon fusion (an internet trend where fans take two Pokémon and fuse them into one). And then when Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 rolled around, Pokemon fusion became canon (though in this case, it was exclusively reserved for the box Legendaries).
  • Gastly is voiced by Ted Lewis and thus sounds a lot like the occult duelist Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! Even more appropriately, Gastly performs the Pokémon equivalent of a Fusion Summon.
• Magnificent Bastard: A talking Gastly masquerades as the ghost of a legendary maiden for the annual Summer Festival at Maiden's Peak. Gastly uses his wits and the maiden's form to lure in Brock and James and drain them of their vitality, having done the same to many men at past festivals. Along the way, Gastly also turns into an old lady to "warn" the travelers and scam them with cheap ofuda. When the protagonists expose him, Gastly uses illusions to exploit each of the Pokémon's natural weaknesses. Though the morning sun dispels him, Gastly ends up thanked by the maiden's actual ghost for keeping her legend alive.

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