EP037

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Original series

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Ditto's Mysterious Mansion

EP037   メタモンとものまねむすめ Metamon and The Mimic Girl

First broadcast Japan December 9, 1997 United States October 26, 1998

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ニャースのうた

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 藤本義孝 Yoshitaka Fujimoto Assistant director 井硲清高 Kiyotaka Itani Animation director 酒井啓史 Keishi Sakai Additional credits

Ditto's Mysterious Mansion (Japanese: メタモンとものまねむすめ Metamon and The Mimic Girl) is the 37th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on December 9, 1997 and in the United States on October 26, 1998.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

Ash and the group are continuing their journey when it begins to rain. While looking for shelter, they stumble across an old house in the middle of nowhere. Believing it to be deserted, they go inside. To their surprise, Ash's Pikachu is found playing with what seems to be another Pikachu. However, this Pikachu's face is weird, which leads to Brock thinking it is a new kind of Pikachu. Ash tries to capture it, but a girl dressed as Ash appears and stops him. The girl introduces herself as Duplica and reveals that the Pikachu is actually her Ditto. Upon reading Ditto's entry in the Pokédex and hearing that it can't learn any other attacks besides Transform, Ash becomes unconvinced of its usefulness in a battle, so Duplica challenges him to a battle. Ash chooses Bulbasaur and tries to attack using Razor Leaf, but Duplica's Ditto Transforms and wins using a Vine Whip attack.

Later, Duplica explains that she wants to be a Ditto Master and a star, but she cannot because her Ditto is unable to mirror other Pokémon's faces. Whenever it transforms it still has the face a of a Ditto, much to the disappointment of her audiences. Then Team Rocket appear and try to steal Ditto, in the hope that they can get it to transform into Dratini and present it to their boss as a Legendary Pokémon. Using Weezing's SmokeScreen, they are able to escape with Ditto.

Once they are away from the house, Jessie and James try to test Ditto's power by having it turn into a Dratini from a picture in a book that they have, at first. But then, Jessie stops James and says that they should have a little bit of fun before handing Ditto over to the boss. She asks Ditto to transform into what a certain boy would look like if he were an adult, and pulls out a photo frame. James and Meowth then try to get Jessie to show the picture to them, but she refuses. Ditto agrees, and then a picture of a man with blue hair shows up with a Ditto's face. Now angry, Jessie commands Ditto to once again become a Dratini; she points to the picture of the Pokémon in the book. Instead, Ditto transforms into a book.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Misty, Brock, and Ash are trying to cheer Duplica up. Ash then states about how a trainer decides how a Ditto would transforms. Pidgeotto and Zubat, who were on guard, return with news that they saw Ditto. Ash and friends then decide to go and save Ditto.

Team Rocket, still trying to get the Ditto to transform correctly, try to get it to change into Meowth. They then yell at Ditto because its face doesn't look like Meowth's after it transformed. They are angered when it is unable to change its face from its own. Eventually, they are able to threaten it into transforming correctly.

Then Ash, Brock, Misty and Duplica appear dressed in Team Rocket uniforms and say their variation of the Team Rocket Motto, much to the irritation of the real Team Rocket. The group demands Ditto back, and are surprised when they see two identical Meowths. Team Rocket try to trick them by giving them the real Meowth and escaping in their balloon with Ditto. But Duplica says she can tell that Meowth isn't her Ditto, even though it looks identical to the other Meowth. She throws Meowth at the balloon, causing Team Rocket to drop Ditto. Duplica tells it to transform into a cannon and fire Pikachu at the balloon. After being hit by Pikachu's ThunderShock, the balloon bursts and Team Rocket are blasted off again.

Now that Ditto can transform perfectly, Duplica reopens her theater for performances. She thanks Ash and his friends and they leave, with Ash hoping to catch his own Ditto someday.

The episode ends with Team Rocket attempting to put a Dratini suit onto Meowth, who scratches them.

Major events

• Ash and friends meet Duplica.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Debuts

• Duplica

Pokémon debuts

• Ditto

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Duplica

Pokémon

Who’s That Pokémon?: Ditto

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Zubat (Brock's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Ditto (Duplica's; debut)
• Machoke (flashback)
• Voltorb (flashback)
• Electrode (flashback)
• Dratini (Team Rocket's fantasy)

Trivia

File:AshBrockTR.png

Ash and Brock beginning their motto imitation

File:MistyDuplicaTR.png

Misty and Duplica continuing the motto

• This is the first time that Ash and his friends mock Team Rocket's motto completely.
• The strategy that Duplica used to defeat Ash's Bulbasaur will later be repeated in Mewtwo Strikes Back when Mewtwo's Venusaur defeats Corey's Bruteroot. Ironically, both battles had to deal with a Pokémon that technically isn't an original/natural-born (Mewtwo's Venusaur was created through cloning, where as Duplica's Ditto transformed into Bulbasaur for the fight).
• Duplica claims that Ditto is the only Pokémon that can use Transform, but Mew shares this ability. However, since Mew was at this point a secret Pokémon, the writers probably made Duplica not know about Mew's existence.
• When Duplica imitates Ash, she is even wearing a hat just like his; this shows her knack for getting even rare outfits for her mimicry, as there were only 100 given away (refer to EP025). Maybe she got one too, to improve her imitating wardrobe
• When Duplica imitates Officer Jenny, she says "You're under arrest for Pokémon poaching." This is what the Officer Jenny from The Kangaskhan Kid said.
• As James furiously points out, when Ash and his friends imitate Team Rocket, Duplica incorrectly says "To ignite all peoples within our nation."

Errors

Ash with no gloves

• Ash's gloves disappear briefly at the beginning.
• After both of the Meowth say "No way", Jessie's lipstick disappears.
• In the Swedish dub, James says "Drantini" instead of "Dratini" when imagining himself giving it to the boss.
• When Ditto transfoms into Voltorb, its mouth is on the bottom half on its body. However, it then appears on the upper half, before moving back to the bottom half.

Dub edits

• Ditto keeps its Japanese voice when it's transformed into Pikachu in the English version.
• The scenes of Team Rocket getting irritated by the imitation motto is removed from the German version.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		百變怪跟模仿少女 / 百变怪跟模仿少女
Czech		Dittův tajemný dům
Dutch		Het Geheimzinnige Landhuis
Finnish		Ditto ja salaisuuksien talo
European French		Le manoir mystérieux
German		Die mysteriöse Villa
Hebrew		בית החיקויים של דיטו beit hachikuyim shel Ditto
Hungarian		A csodálatos Ditto
Italian		Un Pokémon dopo l'altro
Portuguese	Brazil	A Mansão Misteriosa do Ditto
	Portugal	A Mansão Misteriosa do Ditto
Russian		Таинственный дом Дитто
Spanish	Latin America	¡La misteriosa mansión de Ditto!
	Spain	La misteriosa mansión de Ditto
Swedish		Imitehuset

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Original series

EP038 →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.