Japanese Title: Kirinriki! The Village of Esper Pokémon!
Original Airdate: July 13th, 2000
US Airdate: August 11th, 2001
Our heroes come to a town whose residents all raise Psychic Pokémon to repel the Ghost Pokémon that lurk nearby. They meet Cherry, a girl with a Psychic Pokémon named Girafarig. After they have lunch she challenges Ash to a battle and he accepts. During the battle, Ash is introduced to an attack called Future Sight, which strikes in the future. Ash is impressed by the attack, but Pikachu manages to overpower Girafarig and win the battle for Ash. Later, Team Rocket appears with a brand new weapon: a self-powered Gengar mech with mirror eyes to reflect Psychic attacks. Can Cherry unlock her latent powers and stop Team Rocket?
Tropes
- At Least I Admit It: After Meowth asked the team if they are getting pretty clever in building a Gengar that can reflect anything, Brock admitted that they are getting smarter, only for Misty to pull on his ear and ask him who's side is he on.
Meowth: We're getting pretty clever, ain't we?
Brock: I have to admit, they are.
Misty: Hey, who's side are you on?
- Funny Background Event: Pikachu trying to jump up and read Brock's guide book.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Psychic Pokémon are weak to ghost types, not the other way around. Strangely, the anime already had an episode that emphasized this, making this a case of Negative Continuity.
- Idiot Ball: The mirrors on Team Rocket's machine reflect psychic attacks. So, of course, no one tells their Pokémon to use an attack that's not a beam or to aim for anywhere that isn't the mirrors.
- Mirrors Reflect Everything: Team Rocket's Humongous Mecha Gengar has mirrors for eyes, to reflect the attacks of psychic Pokémon.
- Riddle for the Ages: The episode. The citizens of Len Town all own Psychic-types to protect themselves from Ghost-types. However, this episode was released during Generation II when the glitch that prevented Ghost-type moves from harming Psychic-types was fixed. As such, only Girafarig is a good choice due to being part Normal-type. That being said, this was also when the only Ghost types were the Gengar line who were weak to Psychic were the only Ghost types around... besides Misdreavus
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Misty faces Girafarig's tail, she tries to get Psyduck to use Confusion on it. After a long staredown, he gets scared, and runs back to his Poké Ball.
- Synchronization: Cherry and her Girafarig achieve this during the climax.
