EP182

← EP181 : A Ghost of a Chance

Original series

EP183 : Trouble's Brewing →

From Ghost to Ghost

EP182   エンジュジム！ゴーストバトル！！ Enjū Gym! Ghost Battle!!

First broadcast Japan January 25, 2001 United States November 10, 2001

English themes Opening Born to Be a Winner Ending

Japanese themes Opening OK! Ending ぼくのベストフレンドへ

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 横田和 Kazu Yokota Assistant director 大町繁 Shigeru Ōmachi Animation director たけだゆうさく Yūsaku Takeda Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

From Ghost to Ghost (Japanese: エンジュジム！ゴーストバトル！！ Enjū Gym! Ghost Battle!!) is the 182nd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on January 25, 2001, and in the United States on November 10, 2001.

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

Blurb

Anxious to acquire the next Johto League badge, Ash challenges Ecruteak City's Gym Leader, Morty. However, Ash has seen Morty's Ghost-type Pokémon in action and is a little worried about battle strategies. In a discussion with Nurse Joy, Ash realizes his secret weapon against Morty's Pokémon is his Noctowl. Find out what special strategies Ash and his Noctowl employ in a head-to-head battle against the skilled Gym Leader and his fear-provoking Pokémon!

Plot

Ash prepares for his fourth Gym battle against Morty and his powerful team of Ghost-type Pokémon by listening to his Pokédex's entry about Gengar. Unfortunately, the Pokédex states that details about Gengar are unknown. As Ash muses over battle strategies, Nurse Joy arrives with his Pokémon after healing them in the Pokémon Center. They talk about the difficulty of facing Morty's Ghost-type Pokémon and Nurse Joy suggests that Ash should use his Noctowl as a secret weapon. Ash thinks back to yesterday’s events, where Noctowl used Foresight to reveal the Gastly in the Burned Tower. Brock agrees with Nurse Joy's suggestion, and Ash considers the suggestion further.

At the Gym, Morty has his Gengar demonstrate Confuse Ray to a group of young Trainers as an example of how to fight without using brute force. Ash and his friends interrupt the lecture to challenge the Gym. Morty suggests that his students be allowed to watch and Ash agrees.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket floats over Ecruteak City in their hot air balloon. James is pleased that he still has his Itemfinder with him and smiles as it continues blinking away. Jessie groans that the device only finds junk and James attempts to prove her wrong by displaying his prized collection of bottle caps, although he declines to explain what makes them so valuable. At that moment, the Itemfinder appears to be picking up something as they fly over the Burned Tower, so they descend in the hopes of uncovering real treasures. They land and James follows the Itemfinder directly to the Ecruteak Gym where Ash is about to have his Gym match against Morty.

The referee explains the rules of the match before the battle begins. Morty starts things off with his Gastly and Ash calls out his Noctowl. Ash has Noctowl begin with Hypnosis. Gastly dodges, disappearing in the process. Ash has Noctowl use Foresight, and it soon finds Gastly. Noctowl attempts to Tackle Gastly, but Gastly easily dodges the attack again and again. After failing to Tackle Gastly, Noctowl tries to use Hypnosis; however, Morty orders Gastly to close its eyes to avoid being hypnotized and to use a Lick attack, which whips Noctowl out of the air. Ash returns Noctowl to its Poké Ball. Brock points out that this is a good strategy since Noctowl's Foresight will keep Gastly from disappearing, and Ash can use Noctowl again later on if he needs to.

With Foresight keeping Gastly in view, Ash chooses Pikachu to replace Noctowl. Pikachu begins by using Quick Attack, which knocks Gastly backwards. Gastly lies on the ground for a moment before recovering itself. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, but Gastly dodges and counters with Night Shade. Ash rushes to Pikachu’s side, but his friend is declared knocked out and unable to battle any further. After thanking Pikachu for his hard work, Ash chooses Cyndaquil as his next choice.

Ash has Cyndaquil start things off with a Flamethrower attack. Gastly dodges, countering with Night Shade, which Cyndaquil dodges using Quick Attack. Gastly uses Lick but Cyndaquil just runs up Gastly's tongue and Tackles it, finally defeating it. Morty chooses Haunter as his second Pokémon. Cyndaquil tries to hit it with Flamethrower, but Haunter disappears and then uses Mean Look, which extinguishes Cyndaquil's back flames and forces Ash to use Cyndaquil until the end of the round. Ash orders Cyndaquil to fire back up and use its Swift attack, which hurts Haunter. Haunter uses Hypnosis, which nearly works; but Cyndaquil counters with Smokescreen. Through the Smokescreen, Haunter grabs Cyndaquil and Licks it before tossing it to the floor, ending Cyndaquil's ability to battle. Ash is now down to only his Noctowl.

After Ash brings it back out, Noctowl uses Foresight to keep Haunter from disappearing. Noctowl follows this with a Tackle attack, but Haunter forces Noctowl to dodge its hands to avoid being grabbed instead. Haunter tries its Lick attack, which Noctowl dodges. The two Pokémon each use Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, which become locked against each other; but Noctowl's Hypnosis loses the struggle and gets blown away, allowing Confuse Ray to hit Noctowl. Haunter uses Night Shade, but the confused Noctowl still Tackles through the attack. The two collide and Noctowl is not confused anymore. Ash notices Noctowl’s horns are now glowing blue. Brock remarks that Noctowl must have learned Confusion, which Ash confirms with his Pokédex. Noctowl uses its new move on Haunter and easily wins the round.

Morty finally sends out Gengar. Noctowl uses Confusion while Gengar tries a Shadow Ball; the Confusion attack hits the Shadow Ball, making it explode, showering everyone with dark energy. Gengar disappears and begins attacking Noctowl with Night Shade. While Noctowl manages to evade the attacks, its attempts to use Foresight fail. Misty is surprised that Gengar can attack while it is invisible and Brock says that Noctowl cannot win without using Foresight. Ash thinks for a moment and then tells Noctowl to send Confusion through the building. This reveals Gengar and Noctowl is able to use Foresight on it. Gengar attempts to use Shadow Ball again, but Noctowl stops it with a Tackle attack. After hitting the ceiling and falling to the floor, Gengar is now unable to battle, giving Ash the victory. Before the group heads out, Morty admits that Ash may actually have seen Ho-Oh, then hands over the Fog Badge.

As the battle waged on, James's Itemfinder led him and his teammates to wander into a store room. As they were about to pilfer it of its rare treasures, including ancient swords and valuable vases, a group of Gastly transported them into an illusion – an endless chase for a banquet table of food, which eventually turns into the table attempting to eat them. Team Rocket finally flees from the haunted building, complaining of how nightmarish the day has been.

Major events

Ash holding the Fog Badge

• Ash's Cyndaquil is revealed to know Quick Attack and Swift.
• Ash's Noctowl learns Confusion.
• Ash defeats Morty in a Gym battle and earns the Fog Badge.

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

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Nurse Joy
• Morty
• Referee
• Students

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Ditto (US and international), Gastly (Japan)

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Cyndaquil (Ash's)
• Noctowl (Ash's; Shiny)
• Gastly (Morty's)
• Haunter (Morty's)
• Gengar (Morty's)
• Gastly (multiple)

Trivia

• This episode's English dub title is a reference to the phrase "From coast to coast".
• Meowth's food illusion includes a real-life fish.
• The Gastly that are hypnotizing Team Rocket break the fourth wall by turning towards the camera and laughing at the audience.
• The Itemfinder makes the same noise as the slot machines at the Celadon Game Corner in Generation III.
• Misty exclaims "Not another Ghost-type!", even though Morty is a Ghost-type Gym Leader and only uses Ghost-types.
• Team Rocket does not recite the motto in this episode.
• The type immunity between Normal and Ghost, and vice-versa, is never mentioned or even applied this episode, even though future episodes would make sure to do it when necessary. As such, Foresight's main purpose in this episode is to prevent a Ghost Pokémon from staying invisible rather than overcoming a type immunity.
• Ash's Noctowl dodges Lick, even though a Ghost-type move should have no effect on Noctowl, a Normal-type Pokémon.

Errors

• When Ash reads the title card, the Pokémon logo is missing.
• In the scene when James shows his bottle caps, there is no tracking device behind him, but when he turns around, it appears right in front of him.
• When Morty withdraws Gastly, the beam only covers Gastly's spherical body but not the gas.
• When Haunter uses Mean Look on Cyndaquil, Misty states that Morty said himself that Ash was allowed to switch his Pokémon. It was the referee, not Morty, who said this.
• Ash's Cyndaquil hits Morty's Haunter with a Swift attack, which shouldn't have hit as Haunter had not been hit by Foresight, unlike Gastly.
• When Haunter faints, it has Brock's voice.
• In the English dub, Morty refers to Confuse Ray as "Confusion Ray" when Noctowl shakes its confusion off.
• At the beginning of the episode in the Polish dub, Shadow Ball was mistakenly referred to as "Thorn Ball" instead of its proper Polish name, "Cienista Piłka".

• 

  The title card mistake

• 

  The recall error

Dub edits

• A split shot with Ash and Morty is skipped.
• The original airing of this episode on Hungama TV in India started the episode directly from the title card, skipping the part of the episode that comes before it.

In other languages

Language		Title
Bulgarian		От призрак на призрак
Mandarin Chinese		圓朱道館鬼斯戰鬥
Czech		Jeden duch za druhým
Dutch		Van Spook naar Spook
Finnish		Aaveita ja haaveita
European French		Rencontre au sommet
German		Von Geist zu Geist
Hebrew		תג הערפל tag ha'arafel
Hindi		एक घोस्त से दुसरे घास्त तक! Ek ghost se dusre ghost tak! *
Italian		Una tappa importante
Polish		Od ducha do ducha
Portuguese	Brazil	De Fantasma pra Fantasma
	Portugal	De Fantasma a Fantasma
Spanish	Latin America	¡De fantasma a fantasma!
	Spain	De fantasma en fantasma
Swedish		Hu, vad det spökar igen!

← EP181 : A Ghost of a Chance

Original series

EP183 : Trouble's Brewing →

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