Nightmare Fuel / Pokémon: The Series

aka: Pokemon Anime

As a Moments page, all entries are Spoilers Off, so before reading anything below, take heed that You Have Been Warned.

Don't ask what it's saying. And don't you dare peek under its costume. Not if you value your life.

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General entries

• Beedrill in general. They are three feet tall and attack in swarms if provoked just like real-life bees.

Original series

• The Spearow flock that went after Ash and Pikachu not once, but twice.
  • In the first time (the very first episode of the series), Ash meets a Spearow after mistaking it for a Pidgey and throwing a rock at it (Ash had been frustrated because he wasn't able to catch a Pidgey and Pikachu wasn't cooperating). The Spearow responded by attacking him and Pikachu before calling its family for reinforcements. Said family appeared to consist of every single Spearow in the vicinity. The psychotic birds proceeded to hunt Ash and Pikachu relentlessly throughout the route, with KILLING both of them apparently being their top priority above all else. Eventually, Ash is more than willing to let them do whatever it is they plan on doing to him for Pikachu's safety and they aren't beaten until Pikachu shocks them with an attack so powerful it more or less drains the life out of him.
  • The second time (in the episode with Pidgeotto's evolution), it turns out that while Ash was absent, the Spearow he hit with the rock evolved into a much larger Fearow. And not only did it remember who Ash is, but its seething hatred for him appears to have gotten worse, as it tries to kill him on sight. And it's still the alpha of its massive flock, not to mention having evidently bullied a mixed flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto (the latter normally fiercely territorial themselves) into submission. Think of it all from Ash's point of view—chased by a huge, vicious, predatory bird with sharp talons, a Swiss army knife for a beak, the coordination to hunt in a massive flock, and the intelligence required to hold a grudge.
• When Ash is challenged by the bug-catching samurai. He gets one look at the trainer's Pinsir and imagines it snapping his Metapod in half.
• The ghost episode, where a mysterious maiden seduces Brock and James at the same time.
  • Officer Jenny in the town explains that the maiden in question is a statue; she points out the stone. It turns out she waited day after day for her lover to come back, refusing to leave the spot, and the stone grew over her.
  • It's implied that whatever happens to the lover in question won't be pretty, and Jessie is so appalled that she agrees to an Enemy Mine with the "twerps" to save James. James in question is terrified when realizing the ofuda scrolls aren't protecting him, and begging for Jessie and Meowth to not let the ghost take him as he floats away. In a moment of awesome, Jessie attacks the ghost and tells her off for trying to take her partner.
  • In contrast, Brock is willing to go with the ghost of Maiden's Peak, placid about the fact that it may be his death. Ash and Misty have to grab him and shout some sense into him, while he goes Unwanted Rescue.
  • The maiden calmly says they cannot stop her, and sends a swarm of cackling skulls. When Misty asks if they're Pokemon, Ash takes out Dexter to check. "Pokemon not found." When the skulls attack, Ash is waving around Dexter in a panic, and then it finds a Pokemon; Dexter reveals that the ghost is actually a Gastly who can talk! What's more, Gastly reveals he can also appear as a human and was the shrine elder who helped them.
  • Pikachu finds himself chased by a mousetrap when confronting Gastly; while Meowth receives a ball. When Jessie sends out Ekans, Gastly turns into a mongoose, which proceeds to wear a gas mask and stomp on Koffing. Charmander has to run from a talking fire extinguisher and protect his tail. Ash gets the idea to send out two Pokemon at once — Bulbasaur and Squirtle— but Gastly anticipates that and turns into Venusaur and Blastoise respectively, before merging them into one Pokemon. Ash realizes they can't defeat the ghost and will be Forced to Watch Brock and James die. Even Misty's cross, garlic and stake through the heart are no good. Only the sun rising and the end of the festival cause Gastly to fade away and concede.
  • We find out the myth was real! Gastly was helping out the maiden find peace by finding a lover for her. Realizing that neither Brock nor James can make her happy, he goes out on a boat for spirits of the dead and promises her to find the one she lost. The statue comes to life and thanks Gastly for helping her find peace.
• Lt. Surge. Before Ash and co. even meet him, they're greeted by carnage of brutally defeated Pokémon that tried to fight his Raichu, so much so that the city's Pokémon center was overflowing by the time they visited it. Compared to many other leaders, Surge was positively ruthless.
  • Not to mention what his Raichu can do when it's at full power. Its Thunderbolt was capable of tearing the gym to shreds.
• Sabrina. Just everything about her can be a bit disturbing for younger viewers of the Pokémon anime. As an Emotionless Girl with Psychic Powers, Sabrina and her Pokémon all have red Glowing Eyes of Doom for whatever reason (likely to emphasize on her own powers), she even has a doll of herself (and her mother), "plays" with Ash and his friends in a manner which almost feels like something from a Child's Play movie, and when she finally gets her emotions back, her little doll mysteriously fades away. Elaborating on that, the anime shows that she was born with psychic abilities and as Sabrina grew up, she grew more obsessed about developing her psychic powers for malicious purposes, which slowly caused her emotions to be bottled up. Eventually, they settled into a separate personality and manifested itself as a doll of her younger self. Despite Sabrina being a cold, callous woman who was driven mad by her own power, that doll held her former personality, it being a young girl who just wanted to have fun. As shown in the episode of her debut, she did have fragments of her younger self which were overshadowed by her thirst for power, as she had some very destructive fun in shrinking Ash and his friends down to the size of dolls and putting them on a toy box, and she even had some uncontrollable laughter while doing so. It was only when that the Haunter had some fun with her that both personalities fully merged together back into one being, and the doll has finally found its true owner; Sabrina... It no longer needed to be around without her younger personality, so it vanished!
  • Likewise, the Bait the Dog moment where the doll saves the trio and Pikachu from a disguised Team Rocket. You can't blame Ash for feeling grateful towards who he thinks is Sabrina when she says she's the gym leader, and if he loses against her then he'll have to play with her. Ash reasons how bad a punishment is that? He says that he owes Sabrina for saving Pikachu, so that's a fair bargain. Then he sees the actual Sabrina appear, with the doll standing next to her. He goes Oh, Crap! on realizing he may have gotten in over his head.
  • This also isn't getting onto both episodes that she made her major appearances in. Episode 22, "Abra and the Psychic Showdown" as it was called in the dub, has Ash trying to battle Sabrina, but he ends up forfeiting and, accepting Sabrina's request of being her "friend", has Ash, Brock and Misty get transported into a miniature toy box version of a town and has her seemingly attempting to torture them (although it's really her idea of fun, it being a combination of her mad power and her younger self), and they would have likely ended out stuck in this fate if Ash and company weren't saved as a psychic man they met earlier as he teleports them out. He warns them that Sabrina was a dangerous opponent and they needed a ghost-type Pokemon to battle her... not before he humiliates Ash by making him dance with his pants down to convince them to leave.
  • The latter, episode 24, called "Haunter versus Kadabra" in the English dub, is ripe full of this; Ash technically "loses" his re-match against Sabrina because his Pokemon refused to battle her Kadabra and his Haunter wasn't anywhere to be found, so he had to forfeit and flee yet again while both Brock and Misty stayed behind, who both get shrank down yet again and actually become dolls. They also meet her mother, who actually has been turned into a doll, and she says was stuck as one for years, while Ash encounters the same psychic man from before, who turns out to be Sabrina's father, and Ash only manages to win the second re-match by his Haunter giving her the ability to emote, which also gets rid of Sabrina's doll. If Ash hadn't ever got that Haunter or if it didn't decide to visit Sabrina during it... well, not only would Ash have to walk a lonely road for the rest of Kanto (assuming he still got the Marsh Badge, which is unlikely since he didn't beat her), Sabrina would have stayed forever emotionless with her mother, alongside Brock and Misty being stuck as dolls for who knows how long.
• The Lavender Town episode, where the trio tries to catch a ghost Pokemon to fight Sabrina. While Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar are revealed to be harmless pranksters, they accidentally kill Ash and Pikachu! Their response? To try and turn them into ghosts, showing Ash and Pikachu they could play forever. When Ash does pull a prank on Misty, she recognizes his voice, goes Oh, Crap!, and says they need to find Ash! It segues into a Tear Jerker when Misty and Brock are trying to revive a prone Ash and Pikachu, with Misty crying tears of relief after they return to their bodies.
• When Ash and his friends are stuck on the capsized and upside-down St. Anne, Ash suggests that they dive down to reach the deck. Brock warns him it's too dangerous, and it takes an Imagine Spot for Ash to realize he has a point. Said spot has Ash underwater and finding a locked door, followed by a realistic depiction of him drowning.
• When everyone is left stranded on a raft. It's not entirely clear how long they were adrfit, but it was long enough for these trainers who otherwise care deeply for their own pokemon to contemplate eating James' Magikarp, even fantasizing about all the sorts of meals they could have with its head still attached.
  • Gyarados and its ultimate attack, Dragon Rage^note this was before the animators decided to depict Dragon Rage as a Breath Weapon, which results in Ash and friends being sucked up into a giant waterspout and nearly drowned.
• The first battle with Blaine. Ash tries to do the obvious and sends Squirtle out against his Ninetales, but it turns out that Blaine's fire Pokemon is MUCH stronger than any water Pokemon and Squirtle loses. But this is nothing compared to Blaine's Magmar, who instead of coming out of a Pokeball, emerges from a wave of lava. Magmar's body heat is so intense it scorches the gym's floor and Pikachu's electric attacks are nullified by emanating heat waves. The episode ends with Pikachu backed up against the edge of the gym, suspended over a lava pit, right in the path of Magmar's Fire Blast attack...
  • Fortunately, Pikachu holds on to the stadium's edge to avoid the attack, and Blaine is a Reasonable Authority Figure when Ash surrenders on seeing Pikachu barely survived. He puts on his wig, says that Ash and the others can recover in the hot springs, but also affirms that he won't give Ash another chance to fight until he has earned it. It's an Everyone Has Standards moment; Blaine won't unnecessarily endanger a trainer's Pokemon unless he feels they are ready.
  • An episode from Johto actually gives us a good idea of what would have happened to Pikachu should he have taken Fire Blast head-on. In the episode where they flashback to Pryce and his history with Piloswine, he actually TAKES A FIRE BLAST upfront and needs to be put in the ER for his burns, being wrapped up like a Mummy.
• The final gym leader of Kanto: Giovanni. The fact the Big Bad occupies a respected position as gym leader is bad enough, especially with him being the strongest one in Kanto. Then in the anime this is the period he has Mewtwo at his orders... Let's just say that Ash was lucky that Gary stole his chance to meet him in person.
  • Imagine this. You walk into the Pokemon gym of a major city. You find seven people lying unconscious inside. You don't know who or what caused this, or if whoever/whatever it was is still inside and could possibly harm you. You can't tell just by looking if any of these people are breathing or have a pulse. (If it matters, one of them is someone you intensely dislike, but would not have actually wished any harm.) And you are not trained or skilled in first aid (beyond, say, applying a bandage), so you have no idea how to check for breathing/a pulse, much less perform CPR. ^note  Fortunately, CPR turns out not to be necessary, but at this point you don't know that. You don't have a cell phone to call for help, and Arceus knows where the nearest payphone is. Oh, Crap! indeed...
  • Oh, hell, imagine the situation leading up to that point! You've been up against your share of gym leaders and other trainers, and you've never actually lost before. You effortlessly take out the gym leader's first couple of Pokemon, and you figure that the badge is as good as yours. Then, this gym leader sends out a new Pokemon. You've never seen the likes of it before, and it's covered with glowing armor, ostensibly to make it even stronger. In fact, it's so new, your Pokedex doesn't have any information on it. And it's dark, so you really can't get a good look at it. So you send your strongest Pokemon after it, only to have it use a very powerful psychic attack and It's Super Effective! Not only is this your first loss, this Pokemon then does something it is, by law and by custom, most definitely not: it harms you and your cheerleaders. (Pokemon aren't supposed to attack trainers, nor are their trainers supposed to allow it, much less order it. Even their opponents' trainers.) One can't help but wonder if this was at least part of the reason that Gary eventually decided to leave Pokemon training for good and become a Pokemon researcher like his grandfather.
  • Every single Giovanni appearance (outside the occasional Imagine Spot, courtesy of Meowth) shows him as being a Manipulative Bastard who will go to any length to amass power for himself. Anime!Giovanni has met Ash exactly twice, and neither time was anything other than lethal hostility (once during Mewtwo Returns which Giovanni no longer remembers, and once during the Black & White anime series).
  • During that second encounter, one of the scariest moments in the anime happens. The power of the Reveal Glass that Giovanni had been using to control the Kami Trio's Therian Formes is accidentally absorbed by him rather than being channeled through Meloetta. Giovanni goes absolutely insane, with red eyes and a mark on his forehead, and declares that he now wants to destroy everything, commanding the Kami Trio to do so. Team Rocket saves the day by tackling him and releasing the power from him, snapping him out of his possession, but if they had not, there would be no way of freeing the Kami Trio from their mind-control, and they would carry on using their weather-altering powers to destroy the world.
  • It doesn't help that every close-up shot of a possessed Meloetta's face during the episode is a rather... chilling expression. And for most of those shots, it's screaming as its eyes keep changing colors. And with how high and agonizing its screams get, no wonder Ridley keeps crumpling up in anguish, and his explanation can't be more accurate.
  Ridley: Meloetta's... suffering...
• The episode Electric Soldier Porygon had Nurse Joy (unintentionally) try to kill Ash and co. by putting in a Vaccine antivirus. She thought they were a computer virus! And the vaccine can't distinguish humans from viruses.
  • Said antivirus program is frightening on its own: it takes the form of windowless ambulances that appear in the darkness at the far end of the horizon and slowly and inexorably home in on their target, while ominous music plays and their sirens are lower-pitched and much creepier than a real ambulance siren.
• Despite being a Tearjerker episode, Pikachu's Goodbye has a brief moment where the herd of Pikachu scream out in the background when they get captured by Team Rocket. It sounds creepy as hell.
• In the episode "Pikachu Re-Volts", Pikachu has a brief Face–Heel Turn, complete with glowing red eyes and overall creepy faces.
  • In another example, in "Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot," Pikachu has brainwashed red eyes again, but these are much creepier. It's almost like they're not even there. Just two soulless red cavities in the face. See for yourself.◊
  • Then, in "Battling The Enemy Within" in the Battle Frontier saga. Ash gets possessed by an ancient evil king. Complete with mascara effects to better show the Demonic Possession.
• It's played for laughs, but Jessie's Slasher Smile+Laughing Mad combo when plotting revenge against a freshly caught swarm of Scyther for ruining her hair in "Tracey Gets Bugged". It actually manages to terrify said Scythers.

Advanced Generation

• The sight of the dying Togepi Paradise in "A Togepi Mirage" and the many sick Togepi is both this and a Tear Jerker.
  • While Misty unleashing her Gyarados on Shedinja is awesome, it's rather unsettling how badly burned Shedinja is from the Flamethrower attack, and since the last time we see it it's just lying motionless on the ground, it's possible that Gyarados actually killed it.
• Just Harley in general. Though may be a comedic character for the most part, that doesn't take away from how far he will take his revenge on those that wronged him, especially with May. Even in one episode, Harley actually dressed up as May trying to throw her off all while acting insanely creepy like an obsessed stalker. It should be noted that May is a 10-year-old girl, while Harley is at least in his late teens and possibly an adult.
  • Harley's performance in Contests also reflect his character. He isn't out for putting a show for others, but to freak them out instead. His Cacturne and Banette pulled off some terrifying Nightmare Faces and even his Wigglytuff managed to be incredibly scary as it always had a pissed-off look on it's face.

Diamond and Pearl

• When Pokémon Hunter J tried to capture the Lake Trio, remains of J's vessel are almost assuredly stuck at the bottom of the lake, and while the crew would have died quickly, her and her minion's Pokémon's Pokéballs may have survived intact. Surrounded by rubble. At the bottom of the lake. For a long time.
  • It was a well deserved fate, given the fact that Hunter J was a heartless mercenary who doesn't care how much misery and destruction she causes in order to turn a profit on the black market. As a matter of fact, working for J is a bad occupation since she doesn't care what happens to them. Getting in her way can be much worse; she's not above causing grievous harm to both humans and Pokémon that try to fight her and will even murder anyone that really manages to get on her nerves. This is evidenced by the facts that J had detached a container pod (that Ash and his friends had managed to sneak into) from her ship while it was airborne, had her Drapion try to crush Ash to death, and tried to burn down a whole forest around Ash and his friends.
    • Just the fact that a BLACK MARKET, let alone a "Pokémon trafficking" business, exists in the Pokémon world is solid evidence to the fact that there's a lot more serious problems in the world than just Team Rocket...Hell, since Team Rocket is heavily implied at times to be in the Pokémon black market business, they probably are a part of those problems.
• Speaking of Team Rocket, remember Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns? There’s a scene where Domino, one of Team Rocket’s elite agents, gets questioned about the veracity of her being part of the Pokémon Institute by Calix when she revealed her true colors. Domino confirmed she indeed was in the Pokémon Institute, and also outright confirmed through words that Team Rocket has agents everywhere.
• One episode revolves around an evil ghost girl who hypnotizes unsuspecting people and tries to lure them into the Spirit World. First, she tries to lure Conway into going off of a cliff. Then she scares the daylights out of Meowth. Finally, she appears at the entrance to the Spirit World itself and tries to pull in Ash, Angie, Pikachu, and Shinx, and the only thing that saves them is Professor Rowan's arrival. And when Dusknoir defeats her with a Psychic attack, she screams horrifically as she gets blasted into shadow and dissolves. Imagine if she had succeeded in her plans — would you want to be one of their parents on the other end of the phone, being told your child is never going to come home?
• Every time Ash's Chimchar's Blaze ability triggers. The other times similar abilities (or even Blaze itself, in the case of May's Blaziken) in the vein of Blaze from the games (the "boosts power of moves in a pinch" abilities) get shown, the Pokémon usually just receives a power boost. Not so much with this one. Every time, his eyes turn red, his pupils shrink, and his fire goes out of control as he goes absolutely berserk and starts screeching and attacking like mad. The first time it happens is after Paul's Ursaring beats Chimchar down in a battle against Ash - Chimchar proceeds to effortlessly knock out Ursaring, and it takes Ash desperately hugging him to calm him down, and not without both barely missing him with a Flame Wheel and biting down on him while he holds him before he simmers down.
  • Thankfully, after evolving into Infernape, he finally learns to control its power, resulting in the fights against both Volkner's Luxray and Paul's Electivire. However, it still manages to be incredibly frightening - In the former example, the first time the ability shows as an Infernape, his eyes turn ''completely'' red, pupils included, fire erupts from his head, he wildly launches a Flamethrower after the effects kick in, and he promptly turns around to give Ash a downright ''terrifying'' look. He then slowly trudges towards him like a zombie - It's only when he gives a grin and nod in response to Ash's instructions that it becomes clear Infernape's still in control, but the way he grins and the entirety of how he acts up until then is still incredibly frightening. The fact Pikachu's cheeks spark before Ash tells him it's okay, making it clear he was more than prepared to fight a berserk Infernape, isn't hard to blame him for.
• One episode has Dawn's Mamoswine battling an opponent's Flareon, the latter of which is commanded to use Scary Face to combo with a Sandstorm used by one of the opponent's other Pokemon. The resulting scene shows a giant and terrifying visage◊ of Flareon's face that's almost featureless, save for glowing red eyes. The use of CGI only adds to the unnerving factor of it.

Black & White

• From earlier Black & White episodes, there was Tepig’s introduction episode. Like a couple other fire starters, Ash ends up taking in an abandoned and abused Tepig. Unlike with them however, we actually see the effects of the previous trainer’s abuse, with the poor piggy having gotten rather thin from malnourishment because he accidentally got a rope tangled around his snout and couldn't eat. It’s particularly horrific since tying the mouth shut is a common practice by real life animal abusers, usually to make them starve.
• Just when the anime starts calming down on scary stuff, Ash and his friends (as well as Team Rocket eventually) find themselves in the Litwick Mansion. While the Pokedex entries state that Litwick, the little candle Pokémon, leeches off a human's life force, the Litwick in the episode actually try doing that to Team Rocket. Not only, Team Rocket's energy is drained slowly, over the course of the episode. Thus we see them become more and more lethargic as time goes on only to end up looking like zombies eventually.
  • It gets even worse at the climax, when the Litwick open a portal to a ghost dimension and try to suck everyone in. Eventually, Jessie loses her grip and goes flying into the portal. Ash saves her, but the look of absolute horror on her face when she's getting pulled in is just bone-chilling. And her line just before slipping.... ugh.
  Jessie: (whimpers) "I-It's over..."
  • And if that wasn't bad enough, immediately after, Cilan gets hit by a Litwick's Shadow Ball and is sent flying towards the very same portal. Luckily, he was rescued by James, but still...
• Bianca's newly evolved Escavalier trying to kill her... Literally.
• In "Team Rocket's Shocking New Recruit!", an enraged Exploud swallows Axew whole, in one of the few times where one Pokémon actually tries to eat another onscreen. While Axew manages to get Exploud to cough him up by using Dragon Rage, it's still quite disturbing how close he came to death.

XY

• The Malamar from XY's 19th episode. Its capable of hypnotizing people and Pokémon into doing its bidding. The thought of being mind controlled is horrifying enough, but being mind controlled into committing horrible actions like attacking innocent people and turning Pokémon against their trainers in the name of world domination is just terrifying. This Malamar was even working on a secret weapon to help in dominating the world. But this weapon is just as horrifying as Malamar itself!
  • The weapon itself doesn't even resemble anything man-made either, as it looks more like Meat Moss or something organic. No explanation is given to its function as it's quickly destroyed as soon as it's been discovered.
  • It's back in Episode 54, with two new Malamar as lackeys. It turns out that its world domination scheme would change the environment of the entire planet into something only suitable for Malamar and Inkay, and they very nearly succeed. The Malamar are even so "kind" as to show what their new world would look like - It's nothing but a swirling mess of orange and green. To top it all off, the Malamar escape with their device, claiming they'll be back again.
    • If you think about it, just the fact that Pokemon that are as evil as the human antagonists actually exist. Almost every antagonistic Pokemon we've seen is either acting in self-defense or, in Mewtwo's case, trying to create a world that all Pokemon can live in peace. None of these Malamar have that excuse- they're just as bad as Ghetsis or Lysandre.
• Korrina's Mega Lucario is horrifying when it goes nuts. Especially with how it brutally beats up poor Pikachu (it bites his tail, swings him around and slams him into the rocky terrain by the tail and then violently kicks him in the ribs), the camera shots that highlight Lucario's blood red eyes, its minuscule pupils, its growls and hisses that sound like a feral and bloodthirsty beast, and even the loud sound effect that is heard wherever it goes completely out of control, especially since it was about to attack Ash too, just for trying to protect Pikachu from further harm, almost like it's completely blinded by anger. This was the first signal, way before of the descriptions for the Mega Evolutions in Generation VII, of the dark side of the Mega Evolution. Good thing that when Ash gets his own Lucario and Mega Evolves it for the first time on-screen, it never, EVER, loses control of its powers, Aura included, post-Mega Evolution, nor does it disobey Ash's commands, let alone does it become aggressive, get blinded by a feral rage and assault its own trainer, Pikachu or the other Pokémon, both his and others', or even someone that could have witnessed it, unlike the Lucario it always admired.
• The ending scenes of "Defending the Homeland" is this in spades: Ash's Goodra gets sniped and is critically wounded while Pikachu, Dedenne and Wooper get captured by Florges' forces. It doesn't help that before the credits, all we hear is Team Rocket laughing maniacally in the background.

Sun & Moon

• Although not quite as horrifying as Mimikyu, the screaming Bewear from Sun & Moon's second episode is certainly unsettling. It makes a generic friendly noise and waves at Ash. Ash goes closer. It waves more and its call rises in pitch. Ash goes closer. It screams shrilly and smashes a tree. Then it charges after a now-fleeing Ash, smashing trees and shrieking as it goes.
  • It's very fond of Team Rocket but it clearly doesn't know its own strength: after Jessie gives it a bag of doughnuts it hugs her so hard her eyes become bloodshot and her tongue is sticking out.◊ Keep in mind that, in the Pokemon Moon Pokédex, it is canon that Bewear are known for accidentally killing their trainers by crushing them with bear hugs.
• Mimikyu in the games was almost instantly adored by the fandom for their desire to just be popular like Pikachu, in addition to being adorable. The anime, apparently deciding to contrast itself, adds a Mimikyu that is outright psychotic. Team Rocket's first encounter with the Alolan Pokémon nearly kills Meowth (admittedly, Meowth didn't know any better when he lifted the costume). When Ash and Pikachu happen by, it viciously attacks Pikachu, and Meowth reveals that Mimikyu absolutely hates Pikachu, and in fact draws its strength from said hate. And instead of imitating Pikachu's cry, it just makes a disturbing choking/grinding sound. It only joins Team Rocket because it wants a shot at Pikachu and they have the same goal.
  • When Mimikyu "kills" Meowth, he goes through the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" and ends up in what appears to be a beautiful flowery field with Glaceon, Gardevoir, and Lopunny skipping around... only for the vision to fade into a nightmarish darkness with the heavenly vision projected by Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, overall implying Meowth will go to Hell when he dies.^note This is muddled when the experience happens again later and it's just the Heavenly vision that happens, so maybe it's just a matter of what Meowth is doing at the time, since he wasn't up to anything evil on the second occasion. And just in case you thought the anime might not take the Pokédex entry on its true form seriously, Rotom relates it verbatim, so Meowth really could have died.
    • In the English dub, Meowth refers to the pit as "a really bad place", with Jessie then asking "Do you mean..." before Meowth cuts her off, with a comment about how he doesn't want to go back there, "whatever you want to call it". They might not have mentioned Hell, but it's definitely what they were implying.
  • Still unconvinced? Meowth outright refuses to translate what it's saying because it scares him. Consider that for a moment. Mimikyu is so creepy that Meowth, not exactly a paragon of virtue himself, is terrified by the little ghost. Jessie's Wobbuffet also seems unusually expressive whenever the ghost hisses.
• The Salandit in the eight episode of the Sun & Moon anime that leaps at Lillie and very nearly devours her Pokémon egg.
  • Speaking of episode 8, said episode reveals that Lillie used to be just fine touching Pokémon, even holding a Lillipup in a family photo. But after returning from her mom's manor, something happened that made her afraid to touch them ever again. Lillie doesn't even remember the incident herself. Considering how insane her mother is in the games' canon, one has to wonder: what happened during that time?
    • This is Truth in Television, as trauma victims often have trouble recalling what happened to them.
    • Slightly mitigated when we find out that the Lusamine in the anime is a far different character than the one in the games. Doesn't make what happens later any better, however.
  • In episode 47, we finally learn why Lillie is scared of Pokemon. In a flashback, she was attacked by a Nihilego when she was younger. For even more Nightmare Fuel, remember what it's capable of and remember that Lillie could have ended up on the receiving end of all that.
  • This is further compounded in episode 49, where the accident is not only confirmed, but it also adds the detail that Faba was responsible for unleashing Nihilego from Ultra Space; and is deliberately trying to keep Lillie from recovering her memory.
• Episode 12 of Sun and Moon has Mimikyu removing its rag to take a dip, leaving the rag floating in the water. Later, it turns towards the camera, revealing that the water caused the ink on its costume's "face" to run, with hideous results. Complete with Scare Chord, no less.
  • While Mareanie affectionately attacking James is mostly Played for Laughs, there is one unsettling moment where it latches onto James's diving helmet and breaks the visor with its spikes. Underwater.
• While the show has plenty of fall scares, episode 14 of Sun and Moon has Lillie slow motion fall off a ledge head first. Just before Ash and Rowlet save her and Snowy with Leafage, it is made morbidly apparent she was mere inches away from having her skull smash on the pavement below.
• Sun and Moon has been playing with grotesque reaction shots since the Mimikyu bathing scene, but it all comes to three terrifying heads in episode 16 where we get treated to this shot◊ of Team Rocket reacting to Litten's betrayal.
• Episode 22 is a good showing of Palossand in a kid friendly show. The episode revolves around a Palossand going on a rampage and growing giant, swallowing Ash and Litten in the process. It then proceeds to drain Litten and Rotomdex (who got stuck in Palossand's head as a replacement shovel) of their life energy which is evidently painful. By the end of the episode Palossand has grown large enough to overshadow Professor Kukui's house and eat it whole for no particular reason.
• Totem Raticate. The thing sounds like a nightmare, relentlessly chases anyone who gets near it, and in the Pokeproblem ending follows Team Rocket back to their base to get them. It's a good thing Team Rocket has a guard Bewear to get it to leave them alone.
  • On the subject of Totems, the Totem Wishiwashi is the stuff of nightmares for anyone with a phobia of deep water. When it first jumps out of the water, Ash can only look at it in complete horror while the onlooking fisherman screams (the latter is Played for Laughs, but still). Its voice is a demonic snarling version of the smaller Wishiwashi's adorable cry. There's a brief scene where Ash and Pikachu are knocked into the water, and the first thing they see is the shadowy silhouette of the giant Totem closing in on them.
• Type: Null's first appearance: The thing sounds like it is in constant pain and agony just from breathing with a hint of Vader Breath.
• A lot of times in the anime, Pokemon suffer from Power Incontinence and become out of control due to the overwhelming nature of one of their abilities. Ash's Infernape as a Chimchar and Monferno (from its Blaze ability), Korrina's Lucario (from its Mega Evolution) and Ash's Lycanroc (when his fur gets dirty) become outright feral, threatening to attack anything in sight. The animation shots in most of these cases are particularly chilling as well, highlighting their red eyes and menacing facial expressions.
• Nihilego capturing Lillie. It appears only for a few seconds in a flashback, but is framed in such a way (and shown through a dark brown filter) that it really etches into the memory.
  • The incident in question is not only confirmed two episodes later, but when Lillie starts to recover them Faba intends to use his Hypno to erase the incident from her memory entirely just to save his reputation, and the sight of it trying to use its powers on her and Ash is quite unsettling.
• The episode afterwards doesn't let up after Mood Whiplash kicks in — it ends with Lillie screaming for her mom after Nihilego abducts Lusamine.
  • While Lillie's fear of Pokemon is gone, coming face to face with Nihilego again sends her into a brief Freak Out.
  • Just Nihilego. Not only is it super-powerful and bizarre in its movements, but it makes these absolutely unsettling sounds that almost sound like a giggling child. Anyone who thought the Sun & Moon series' Lighter and Softer tone meant it would avoid portraying how frightening the Ultra Beasts can be were sorely mistaken.
  • Motherbeast Lusamine is even worse than in the games, and that's saying a lot. At least in Sun & Moon for the 3DS it was clear that Lusamine was the one in control while she was fused with Nihilego up until you defeat her in battle, but in the anime it's difficult to tell where Lusamine ends and Nihilego begins. And unlike in the games, the Motherbeast fights back with the symbiosis jacking up Nihilego's moves to ridiculous levels, being capable of morphing the whole landscape and creating an entire sea of poison. Also unlike in the games, we get to see what happens if someone tries to separate Nihilego from its host before incapacitating it: it overtakes Lusamine completely and gains total control. It took Ash and Pikachu hitting it with a Z-Move just to get it to let her go, and it just flies away afterward as if nothing happened.
  • Lusamine mentally regressing into an outright Psychopathic Womanchild when possessed by Nihilego, throwing a tantrum when the heroes try to rescue her and thus take her away from her precious Ultra Beast, yelling things like "Stay away! I hate you!" It's both tragic and terrifying to witness.
• Buzzwole's debut shows it attacking a Snorlax, doing so by literally sticking its proboscis into Snorlax and draining it of its fluids. The Snorlax deflates as a result. It is basically Body Horror incarnate and very similar to Imperfect Cell killing a man. Thankfully, the Snorlax quickly recovers thanks to a potion from Lillie and plenty of berries from Lana, but still.
• Sun and Moon episodes 100 and 101 feature Guzzlord, and its made out to be a horrifying being: In an alternate version of Hau'oli City, it just showed up without warning and started devouring all of Alola, leaving almost nothing but a vast desert wasteland (it somehow drank the ocean!). No other Pokémon has been seen causing this sort of destruction. It's even more monstrous than the Nihilego. Worst of all is its cry, which sounds like anguished screaming.
  • Made even worse at Aloha’s first Pokemón league. The event was crashed when numerous Ultra Wormholes began opening, dispensing Guzzlords going from “merely” the size of cars… to large enough to stand on the bottom of the ocean and have their mouths level with it! Considering the destruction that a single Guzzlord was able to cause and how it appears to have been a tiny specimen… just what would have happened if they hadn’t been stopped?
• Episode 115 of Sun & Moon introduces Guzma, and he's even more of a threat than Lusamine. During his battle with Ash, Guzma showed no emotion as Golisopod nearly dominates Pikachu.
  • He's even worse in episode 134, to the point where Golisopod to nearly tried to murder Lana's Primarina in a battle that is Spopovich vs. Videl levels of sadistic. He started the battle by cancelling Primarina's Sparkling Aria with Throat Chop, leaving behind a rather detailed bruise as Primarina starts choking in a realistic manor. He knew that Fairy types are weak to Poison type moves, so he ordered Golisopod to keep using Poison Jab on her throughout the fight. Even when she was limping away Guzma showed no remorse.
  • Even worse is how none of the judges found any reason to object to Guzma's tactics, meaning that the borderline torture-tactic Golispod put Primarina through, is perfectly legal according to the League's rules.
  • His Slasher Smile towards the end of episode 128. FULL STOP.
  • His league battle in episodes 136 and 137 against Ash is one of the most visceral in the series. At one point, not only do Torracat and Golisopod straight up resort to just mauling each other, while later on Golisopod slams down Pikachu so hard with a Throat Chop that he is left on floor screaming in agony. Even the audience is straight up disturbed by this sight.

Journeys

• Episode 45 of Journeys has Meowth going berserk and attacking the rest of Team Rocket after he Gigantamaxed for the first time. If it wasn't for Jessie and James reminding him of Giovanni's orders, Meowth could have killed them.
• Episode 63 of Journeys has Chloe, Eevee and Goh's Dewgong get trapped in a cave by an irate Huntail that keeps attacking it and almost causing a cave in that could've crushed them. One doesn't want to imagine how bad it'll be if Ash, Goh and Kairi didn't get there in time to save her.
• Journeys Palkia and Dialga two-parter presents a rather unsettling, building apocalypse in the form of a time reversing Time Crash. Living beings in the alternate world are reversing themselves as Pokemon de-evolve, lose their moves, and turn back into eggs, and by part one it has also spread to plants in the form of flowers. Part 2 has humans also start to age backwards. Every human in the alt world is seeing the build up to every living thing being undone, and it is no wonder everyone in the alternate world feels low-key depressed. Their world is undoing itself, and there is little any of them seem to know how to keep it from getting worse.
  • In this same two-parter, we see the alternate world's Team Rocket. To put it simply, it's them if they hadn't ever reversed course from their Darker and Edgier phase from Black and White, being even more cold and calculating than they even were in that series and even holding command over their world's Matori Matrix grunts. Worse still, Wobbuffet is with them this time, and even he is menacing.
• Any of the expressions Opal's face takes on when she's truly enjoying herself, such as the one on her face when she orders her Gigantamaxed Alcremie to use G-Max Finale in JN082. For an old lady, she sure can be creepy.
• Possessed Ash in JN091 is truly terrifying, followed by a Nightmare Face to boot as he walks over towards Goh and Pikachu.
  • What makes this even worse is that it is shown multiple times that Ash is fully aware of being possessed and yet is completely unable to do anything about it.
  • To add to this, after nearly two decades of "possessed Ash" moments, we have one where Rica Matsumoto is finally allowed to voice the possessed Ash this time, and it's very hard not to hear her other most famous role, Dark Bakura, the Evil Spirit of the Millennium Ring, whose occult and horror motif bears many similarities to this situation, and was responsible for a lot of his own show's sadistic nightmarish horror.
• The giant ball of Magnemites (including Françoise) in JN093 is a rather scary sight to behold. Cue the giant eyeball and tentacles that it forms to stop Pikachu's thunderbolt before it is finally defeated and split apart.
• The giant vines that come after Ash and Goh in JN108 look like they came out of a horror movie as they try to attack the duo. One doesn't want to imagine what would have happened if Lucario and Greninja didn't show up to save them.
• In JN111, the Shiny Nihilego was about to attack Lillie and steal her memories. Luckily Ash steps in just in time to save the day.
  • Speaking of that Shiny Nihilego, while it did save Mohn's life, it was seemingly attracted to Mohn and attempted to make Mohn think it was his daughter, Lillie. Take that in: even if it was benevolent, Mohn believes that Nihilego, a Pokemon that is the absolute bane of and has inflicted his family the most harm of all the Ultra Beasts, is his daughter.

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