The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

戦慄のミラージュポケモン The Terrifying Mirage Pokémon

First broadcast Japan October 13, 2006 United States April 29, 2006

English themes Opening Pokémon Go! Ending

Japanese themes Opening Pokémon Go! Ending

Credits Animation Team Koitabashi Screenplay 藤田伸三 Shinzō Fujita Storyboard 日高政光 Masamitsu Hidaka No additional credits are available at this time.

The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (Japanese: 戦慄のミラージュポケモン The Terrifying Mirage Pokémon) is a special episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in the United States on April 29, 2006, and was broadcast as streaming video from the TV Tokyo Anitele website from October 13 to October 31, 2006.

Many fans believe the special is a testing ground for new voice actors, but The Pokémon Company International's response is the company wanted to give a special to American fans.

In the special, Ash, Misty and Professor Oak are invited to the mansion of Dr. Yung, a Pokémon scientist who has developed a machine to create Pokémon. However, he is kidnapped by a mysterious stranger who wishes to use the system to produce Pokémon with absolutely no weaknesses, and is enraged by the sudden presence of Mew.

Synopsis

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

English poster

Ash is rereading his letter, inviting him to Dr. Yung's lab, to Brock, May, and Max. When he gets there, he is shocked to see Misty and Professor Oak. Dr. Yung appears, and shows them a few mirage Pokémon. He invites Misty to battle one. Misty sends out her Staryu against a mirage Aggron. She is shocked that Staryu's most powerful attacks don't even make it blink. Staryu goes out quickly. Ash begins to battle when an Armaldo suddenly locks up. Yung's Mirage Pokémon System has mysteriously locked up! The controller explodes in his hands, and a handful of legendary Pokémon appear. A stranger, calling himself Mirage Master, uses the system he has just hijacked to his advantage, kidnapping Professor Oak and Dr. Yung. Ash and his friends cannot get back inside because a bunch of mirage Pokémon stand just inside.

Oak, in the custody of Mirage Master, demands to know where Dr. Yung is. Mirage Master ignores his query, and demands the password to Professor Oak's research lab. Oak refuses while a Mew flies in. Professor Oak is greeting it when Mew is attacked. The Professor demands to know why Mirage Master did that. The Mirage Master says that Mew was a failed creation, and he tells Mew to leave.

Ash, Misty, Brock, May, and Max formulate a plan. Ash and Misty will sneak in through the moat, Brock will alert Officer Jenny (with the intention of receiving a candlelight dinner for two), and May and Max will wait in case Ash and Misty get in trouble. They split up. Ash and Misty use Corphish and Staryu to get in.

Team Rocket, after the Mirage System Plans, are looking around. They attempt to burst through a door, only to have it hit them in the noses! Ash and Misty walk through, Team Rocket does the motto, thereby wasting enough time for Mirage Master to check the camera and send in mirage Pokémon. Team Rocket escapes, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu are held by two mirage Machamp and a mirage Ursaring. As the three are being carried, Ash sees Mew appear again, and Pikachu uses Thunder. Some various things are blown up, including a wall, signaling to May and Max. May goes in, and tells Max to wait. Pikachu frees all of them, Misty falls over the edge of the bridge, and Pikachu is recaptured, leaving Ash and Mew. Mew is suddenly trapped by a force field, and Ash manages to get Mew free. Ash discovers that Mew is a mirage Pokémon.

Pikachu is in a fearsome-looking device. Professor Oak asks what the Mirage Master is doing. Mirage Master says he will extract Pokémon data from Pikachu's memory, and that this would not be needed if Oak was cooperative. Pikachu contorts with pain. He looks at the picture displaying Pikachu's memory. Lugia... Entei... Celebi... Latios... Latias... These are all rare Pokémon Pikachu has seen. Oak cannot stand the look of Pikachu, and enters in the password: REDGREEN. Suddenly, Mirage Master has the ability to download information from places around the world. Tracey and Professors Elm and Birch stare at computers in their labs, while Nurse Joy deals with problems at the Pokémon Center.

"You have to believe me, Officer!" Brock pleads to Officer Jenny. "We need to go to Professor Yung's lab for a candlelight dinner... I mean-" Nurse Joy flickers onto the officer's computer. She tells the officer that someone is downloading massive amounts of Pokémon data. Brock tells her about Mirage Master, and they leave.

Misty is hanging onto the edge of a bridge. She suddenly loses her grip, and May appears in the nick of time to save her. They go upstairs. Ash and Mew are there already, and the process of creating the Pokémon finishes in a flash of light. A mirage Mewtwo emerges. He attacks them, and they run. Outside of the boundaries of the Mirage System, the heroes think they are safe. Then, missiles are launched from the towers, and they expand the system! Mewtwo and Mirage Master emerge. Mirage Entei, Articuno, and Zapdos suddenly appear. Oak correctly guesses the identity of the Mirage Master. Mirage Master removes his mask, revealing Dr. Yung! Oak reveals that when Mirage Master first appeared, he was a hologram, and that Yung was expelled from the Pokémon Institute for his research, deemed disrespectful to Pokémon. Yung's Mewtwo and Ash and company battle. Yung is about to obliterate Pikachu when Mew takes the blow. Mew then is absorbed into the Mirage System. Yung says "good riddance," and Mewtwo absorbs the entire Mirage System database. Ash is enraged that Mew is called a failed creation, and the attack begins anew.

Team Rocket is blown away in this fight. Pikachu is about to be killed when Mew holds Mewtwo back! Ash orders Pikachu to perform Volt Tackle, and Mewtwo is destroyed, as are Mew and the System. The fortress is now aflame, and Yung retreats inside. The police are searching, as are firefighters, but they cannot find him yet. The gang discusses what happened, and agree that Mew was far more than just data and certainly not a 'flawed specimen' as Yung believed.

Major events

• Misty's Staryu is revealed to know BubbleBeam.
• Professor Oak is revealed to own a Dragonite.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Professor Oak
• Jessie
• James
• Dr. Yung
• Nurse Joy
• Officer Jenny
• Tracey (cameo)
• Professor Elm (cameo)
• Professor Birch (cameo)
• Police
• Firefighters

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Corphish (Ash's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Gyarados (Misty's)
• Combusken (May's)
• Squirtle (May's)
• Dragonite (Professor Oak's)
• Lugia (stock footage)
• Entei (stock footage)
• Celebi (stock footage)
• Latias (stock footage)
• Latios (stock footage)

Mirage Pokémon

• Machoke
• Machamp
• Magnemite
• Omastar
• Kabutops
• Articuno
• Zapdos
• Mewtwo
• Mew
• Ursaring
• Houndoom
• Entei
• Mightyena
• Aggron
• Armaldo
• Absol
• Aerodactyl (×2)
• Lileep (flashback)
• Cradily (flashback)
• Anorith (flashback)
• Unown (G; flashback)
• Kabuto (flashback)
• Omanyte (flashback)
• Arcanine (Mewtwo's hand)
• Rayquaza (Mewtwo's hand)
• Tropius (Mewtwo's hand, ×2)
• Arbok (Mewtwo's body)
• Walrein (Mewtwo's body)
• Tyranitar (Mewtwo's body)

Cast

Cast
Ash (redub)	Sarah Natochenny	Satoshi	Rica Matsumoto	サトシ	松本梨香
Ash (first dub)	Jamie Peacock	Satoshi	Rica Matsumoto	サトシ	松本梨香
Pikachu	Ikue Ohtani	Pikachu	Ikue Ohtani	ピカチュウ	大谷育江
Brock	Bill Rogers	Takeshi	Yūji Ueda	タケシ	うえだ　ゆうじ
May	Michele Knotz	Haruka	KAORI	ハルカ	KAORI
Max	Jamie Peacock	Masato	Fushigi Yamada	マサト	山田ふしぎ
Professor Oak	Billy Beach	Dr. Okido	Unshō Ishizuka	オーキド博士	石塚運昇
Misty	Michele Knotz	Kasumi	Mayumi Iizuka	カスミ	飯塚雅弓
Jessie	Michele Knotz	Musashi	Megumi Hayashibara	ムサシ	林原めぐみ
James	Billy Beach	Kojirō	Shin'ichirō Miki	コジロウ	三木眞一郎
Meowth	Billy Beach	Nyarth	Inuko Inuyama	ニャース	犬山イヌコ
Dr. Yung	Billy Regan	Dr. Yung	Hidenobu Kiuchi	ドクター・ユング	木内秀信
Nurse Joy	Michele Knotz	Joy	Yuriko Yamaguchi	ジョーイ	山口由里子
Officer Jenny	Jamie Peacock	Junsar	Chinami Nishimura	ジュンサー	西村ちなみ
Staryu	Shin'ichirō Miki	Hitodeman	Shin'ichirō Miki	ヒトデマン	三木眞一郎
Squirtle	Michele Knotz	Zenigame	Tomoe Hanba	ゼニガメ	半場友恵
Corphish	Bill Rogers	Heigani	Katsuyuki Konishi	ヘイガニ	小西克幸
Combusken	Bill Rogers	Wakasyamo	Chinami Nishimura	ワカシャモ	小西克幸
Mew	Satomi Kōrogi	Mew	Satomi Kōrogi	ミュウ	こおろぎさとみ
Mewtwo	Katsuyuki Konishi	Mewtwo	Katsuyuki Konishi	ミュウツー	小西克幸
Narration	Rodger Parsons	Narration	Unshō Ishizuka	ナレーション	石塚運昇

Staff

The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon
戦慄のミラージュポケモン The Terrifying Mirage Pokémon
Created by 原案	Satoshi Tajiri Jun'ichi Masuda Ken Sugimori	田尻智 増田順一 杉森建
Production supervisor スーパーバイザー	Tsunekazu Ishihara	石原恒和
Animation supervisor アニメーション監修	Yōichi Kotabe	小田部羊一
Executive producers エグゼクティブプロデューサー	Hiroyuki Jinnai Masakazu Kubo	陣内弘之 久保雅一
Executive producer 総監督	Kunihiko Yuyama	湯山邦彦
Director 監督	Masamitsu Hidaka	日高政光
Animation producer アニメーションプロデューサー	Shūkichi Kanda	神田修吉
Music 音楽	Shinji Miyazaki	宮崎慎二
Sound recording director 音響監督	Masafumi Mima	三間雅文
Producer プロデューサー	Takemoto Mori	盛武源
Screenplay 脚本	Shinzō Fujita	藤田伸三
Storyboard 絵コンテ	Masamitsu Hidaka	日高政光
Assistant directors 演出	Rokō Ogihara Yoshizō Tsuda	荻原露光 津田義三
Character design / executive animation directors キャラクターデザイン／総作画監督	Yūko Inoue Kazumi Satō	井ノ上ユウ子 佐藤和巳
Character design / assistant executive animation directors キャラクターデザイン／総作画監督補	Sayuri Ichiishi Norihiro Matsubara	一石小百合 松原徳弘
Character design キャラクターデザイン	Toshiya Yamada	山田俊也
Animation directors 作画監督	Takashi Saijō Akira Watanabe Naoki Takahashi Hiroaki Kawaguchi	西城隆詞 渡辺章 高橋直樹 川口弘明
Color keys 色彩設計	Noriyuki Yoshino	吉野記通
Colorist / ink & paint checker 色彩定／仕上検査	Miyuki Kowata Natsuko Ōtsuka	木幡美雪 大塚奈津子
Art director 美術監督	Masatoshi Mutō	武藤正敏
Director of photography 撮影監督	Hisao Shirai	白井久男
CGI producer CGIプロデューサー	Misako Saka	坂美佐子
CGI director CGI監督	Kobayashi Masashi	小林雅士
3D CGI 3D CGI	OLM Digital	OLMデジタル
Editor 編集	Toshio Henmi	辺見俊夫
Original score (partial) 一部原曲・作曲	Gō Ichinose Morikazu Aoki	一之瀬剛 青木森一
Original score (partial) 一部原曲・作曲	Gō Ichinose	一之瀬剛
Audio production 音響制作	HALF H・P STUDIO	HALF H・P STUDIO
Production 制作	Shogakukan Production	小学館プロダクション
Animation production アニメーション制作	OLM Team Koitabashi	オー・エル・エム小板橋司

USA production

USA production
Executive producer	Akira Chiba
Producer	Larry Juris (for TAJ Productions)
Assistant producer	Maya Nakamura (Pokémon USA) Kaori Brand (Pokémon USA)
Director	Armen Mazlumian
Creative Director	Chris Brixley
Script adaptation	Carter Cathcart
Adaptation consultant	C.J. Cathcart
Script translation	Z Pang America
Video editor	B. Scott Dempsey
Video formatting	Chromavision
Support staff	Katherine Fang John Hershberger Phaedra Kaufman Kristina Naudus

Trivia

Logo

• All the music used in the special was originally used in the Japanese movies and series. 4Kids mostly used its own, American-composed music for the series.
• The scenes of Pikachu's memories of Lugia, Entei, Celebi, Latias, and Latios come from their respective movie appearances.
  • Lugia: The Power of One
  • Entei: Spell of the Unown
  • Celebi: Celebi: Voice of the Forest
  • Latios and Latias: Pokémon Heroes
    • The one movie from the original series not shown in Pikachu's memories is Mewtwo Strikes Back, which is likely due to the fact that everyone's memories of that event had been erased at the end of that film by Mewtwo. So when Dr. Yung comments to Ash that his Mirage Mewtwo "is not the Mewtwo you are familiar with", it is possible that he may have saw a memory of Mewtwo from Mewtwo Returns instead, since Ash and Pikachu were allowed to remember their meeting with him that time.
• The copyright notice on the Japanese version reads © 2006 Pokémon USA, Inc./ShoPro. © 2006 Pokémon. © 1995 - 2006 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. Some of the U.S. production credits were also included.
• The password for Oak's lab, "REDGREEN", is a reference to the original pair of Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Green.
• This was the first Pokémon anime feature to air in the United States earlier than in Japan.
  • The second time this happened was later that same year when Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate premiered in the United States six months before the Japanese version aired.
• Pikachu knows Volt Tackle in this special, indicating it takes place after May's Egg-Cellent Adventure, yet James's Mime Jr. is absent, despite having been introduced three episodes earlier. However, the reason for James's Mime Jr. being absent may be due to the special having aired in the United States prior to the earlier episode, with the writers knowing to avoid a major spoiler from a then-future episode. Since James's Chimecho did not appear in this special either, it is presumable that Mime Jr. remained in its Poké Ball.
• So far, this is the only time Michele Knotz has played Misty.

Errors

• Max states that Aggron is unable to use Thunder Wave; however, Aggron is able to legitimately learn Thunder Wave through tutoring in Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald, as well as in XD. Aggron can also learn it via TM73 in later generations.
• When the Mirage Houndoom sends Team Rocket blasting off, Wobbuffet's voice is heard, but only Jessie, James, and Meowth are seen.
• During the scene in which the missiles are launching out of Dr. Yung's castle, the Mirage Master can be seen standing outside the gate with Mewtwo before they have actually exited the building, which occurs a few scenes later.

Dub edits

Redub edits

A redubbed version, with the newer voices and the others improved, is included on the bonus DVD of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

The original opening used the rap section of Go Pokémon Go, while the redub opening used a different section of the song and a different animation. The redub then played the original rap opening as an ending theme during the credits, but without the original animation.

There are a few dialogue changes, as listed below:

Dub dialog changes

Character	Time index	English TV version	English DVD version
Misty	2:04	I guess that means the doctor might be suffering from a little writer's cramp.	The doctor might be suffering from a little writer's cramp.
Brock	12:12	If so, that's that. Bye! Yahoo!	So that's that! Bye! Yahoo!
Ash	29:15	Mirage Master is Dr. Yung?	Mr. Mirage is Dr. Yung?

In other languages

Language		Title
Finnish		Mirage-Pokémonien herra
European French		Le maitre des mirages
Brazilian Portuguese		O Mentor do Pokémon Miragem
Latin American Spanish		Pokémon: Mente Maestra

External links

• Watch on Pokémon.com (unavailable in some regions)

Pokémon USA recasting controversy Save Our Voice Actors • The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon Maddie Blaustein • Eric Stuart • Veronica Taylor Pokémon USA/TPCi • 4Kids Entertainment • Support Our Cast And Crew

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