[22] Casey! A Psychic Powers Showdown!

[marchionessofmustache]

Instead of the usual recap, this episode begins with a creepy looking little girl sitting on the lap of an older girl. The older girl's eyes glow red, and then when they become normal again, she can see Satoshi and friends walking, and says that they've come for her.

Then we see Satoshi and Kasumi arguing about who was the one that made them get lost, when the little girl appears near them and giggles and runs away. Being impulsive as he is, Satoshi chases after her, thinking she might be from around here (finally, they learn to ask for directions?!) but he suddenly finds himself falling off a cliff.

He calls out Fushigidane, who catches him with vines and pulls him back to the top. From there they can see Yamabuki City and at least know where to go. Time to go find Natsume and challenge her for the Gold Badge!



When they arrive in town, two strange women appear and congratulate the group, saying they're the (some number I forgot already) people to visit the town, so they win the prize of coming to a big party. They escort them to a building where they suddenly nab Pikachu and push the rest of them onto a teleporter tile on the floor, teleporting them to an empty room. This is a reference to the teleporter puzzle in Natsume's gym in the games, though it doesn't actually take place inside the gym in this episode.

We find out the ladies are actually Rocket Co. in disguise. From another room, they say their motto on a little TV for the gang to watch, with a funny little gag of them frantically changing clothes off screen back to their normal uniforms.

Creepy Little Girl (CLG) appears again near the Rockets and freezes them in funny poses, rescues Pikachu, and then teleports Satoshi and friends outside with some kind of psychic power.

A strange older man jogs up to them, tells them to give up on Yamabuki Gym, and runs off. So the next thing the gang does is go to Yamabuki Gym.



Inside they find a bunch of people practicing their psychic abilities. A man bends a spoon (after a LOT of effort) with his mind in front of the gang, showing that they don't have psychic powers and shouldn't battle Natsume who does. Satoshi says he might not have psychic powers, but demonstrates that he can still bend spoons by bending it with his hands.

The guy is a little bewildered, but offers to take them to Natsume. He refers to her as Natsume-sama and even bows before her. Then it's revealed that behind the curtain is actually CLG, who uses psychic powers to like chokehold the dude until he runs away?!

The gang deciphers that CLG must be Natsume, and Satoshi challenges her to a battle for the Gold Badge. She says that she'll battle them as long as they promise to become her friends and play together if they lose.




Then the real Natsume appears from the shadows, holding CLG who holds her Monster Ball. She says the battle will be a one-on-one, and sends out Casey. Casey seems to be asleep, at which surprise Satoshi pulls out the Pokemon Zukan and uses it to read Casey. Apparently it spends all day sleeping and interacts with the world through its psychic abilities.

Natsume seems to be able to use telepathy to communicate with her Pokemon, and when Pikachu tries to shock it, it teleports around to avoid it. Sort of how Transel can do nothing but harden its shell, Casey's shtick is that it can only teleport.



So Natsume just commands it to evolve. Because she can do that, I guess. And it evolves into Yungerer! Look at that fancy little mustache. And now he has a spoon! Yay! Er, does it still count as one-on-one if it evolves into a different Pokemon...?

From here on out, Yungerer in the anime is going to be a bit of a rare sight, because of a a few reasons. First, there was some controversy that it used psychic powers and had a star on its forehead, causing some crazies to claim it was PARTICULARLY Satanic over the other Pokemon. Then other people took the star and lightning bolts on its belly to be a reference to the Waffen-SS, saying the design was antisemitic.

But the main reason is that Uri Geller, for whom Yungerer is likely named after (if you take the second kana in Uri Geller's Japanese name and alter one of the strokes a little bit, it spells Yungerer instead, and the evolution line seems to be named after famous people with psychic abilities -- Casey being Edgar Cayce, and Foodin being Harry Houdini)... okay that was a long parenthetical... so Uri Geller actually sued Nintendo for using his "likeness" as a parody of himself, and from there on, Nintendo was pretty much banned from using Yungerer in their media. It stopped appearing in the TCG altogether (while they made printed Casey and Foodin cards in new sets, they were impossible to play with because there were no Yungerer cards), and disappeared from the anime and even a Pokemon Ranger game which included Casey and Foodin.

Though it did take Uri 5 years to get mad about Yungerer, so we still have some chances to see the Pokemon before it gets 'banned.' Eventually in 2020, he rescinded the ban and Yungerer finally got another trading card. Yay!



ANYWAY, Natsume commands Casey to evolve into Yungerer, which has even stronger psychic powers beyond teleporting. Pikachu rains down thunderbolts from the ceiling to try to hit everywhere in the stadium so that teleporting won't work as a strat, but Yungerer uses its powers to turn all the bolts into a thunder dragon which chase Pikachu instead.

Then Yungerer uses telekinesis to slam Pikachu into the ceiling and ground repeatedly, when Satoshi calls off the match and admits defeat. I think this is one of the first times we see Pikachu COMPLETELY overwhelmed in a match, being able to do absolutely nothing to the opposing Pokemon.

Natsume then teleports the gang outside, but now the town seems completely deserted. They do the most logical thing and start breaking into houses. They see some cake on a table, and without even knowing if anyone is home, Takeshi just decides to bite into a cake. Really? You're just going to eat someone else's cake after breaking into their home??

It breaks his teeth, though, being just a hard block. You'd think he would have noticed that when he picked it up with his hands and it wasn't soft...

Anyway, then Satoshi discovers a doll in the bathroom. Turns out the entire place is a dollhouse! Well, it looks like the gang has been shrunk down and Natsume is 'playing' with her new 'friends' in this miniature model of the city.



She rolls a ball at them, when the strange older man from before appears and teleports them out of the way of being crushed, back into the real city (and back to normal size). The man tells them again to give up on the Gold Badge, but Satoshi insists there must be a way to defeat Natsume. He asks the man to teach him psychic powers, but he claims it's impossible, and uses his own powers to make Satoshi's pants fall down lol. Then he uses it to throw him to the ground.



Satoshi doesn't give up, though, and says that while he may not have psychic powers, he still has his willpower. He manages to break through the abilities of the man and touch his foot, to which the man responds that there may be only way to defeat Natsume, and that's by using a ghost-type Pokemon from the neighboring Shion Town.

The gang heads away and the man watches them, saying to himself that they might be the ones to "save" Natsume. Whatever that means!

And finally the episode ends. Whew, there was a lot to write for this one. A lot went down in one short episode! And for that I really liked it, there was always something going on, and even then, there was a bit of mystery with CLG. And she certainly was creepy! The whole town of people using psychic powers was a bit silly, but not too much. But there was also a lot of excitement and suspense. And Pikachu getting absolutely creamed was a surprise (well, not really, because I knew it was going to happen, but as a first-time watcher it would be quite surprising!)

Yungerer is a cool Pokemon, it's a shame it got taboo'd away for so long. Though the real love is for Foodin, who I deemed part of the "perfect" Pokemon Red team in my Pokemon Red Revenge playthrough. But all mustache Pokemon are wonderful. And the little spoon is so cute. (Foodin gets 2 spoons though!)

ETA: You know, Rockets' plan was almost successful in this one. They should have just RUN after securing Pikachu instead of taking the time to broadcast themselves doing the motto and everything. Maybe they wanted to torture the gang a little bit and rub it in their face. I guess that's their downfall, always wanting to be flashy :P

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Comments

[thenicochan]

Aw yisss. Love these episodes. I wonder if the later seasons of the series are as delightfully weird as these opening ones.

Kinda interesting that Sabrina Natsume’s gym has so many psychics practicing actual psychokinesis and not training their ‘mon. She’s like a better dressed Professor X. Tho it opens the question— if Natsume has a gym full of people, why have none of them tried to befriend her? Or maybe they have, but her strange psychosis made it impossible? She really needed someone with the most valuable people skill of all: Protagonist Power.

KADABRA. Okay, so, I know I keep saying “this was my favorite” but that’s because my favorite evolved as a kid. It started as Pidgeotto until Butterfree then became Mew then became Kadabra. Now it’s like, Kadabra and the Charmander-line, with Rowlett and Mewtwo as close runner ups. The former for cuteness and the latter because it’s like… one of the Pokemon that actually gets a character arc lol.

Woah, that’s a fascinating history about Kadabra though. That’s so wild.

Natsume literally puts the crew in a horror movie. That’s great. I think I love this trilogy of episodes because they have such a weird, low-key horror flare. I live for it.

[marchionessofmustache]

I've watched a little bit of each season, and by little bit I mean at least a clip LOL but they do each have their own appeal. Except maybe not Best Wishes (Black & White), I didn't really enjoy that one too much. Advance Generation and Diamond & Pearl include contests, and X&Y has really awesome battles and dramatic episodes. Sun & Moon is just overall very cute and fun. Johto has some of the 'better stories' according to fans but I don't remember it too well.

Yeah my guess is that people tried to approach her but she just went nuts on them, and probably most people were afraid of her, too.

Kadabraaaaaa

Speaking of kid horror, have you seen Digimon Ghost Game? It's pretty awesome.