A Shipful of Shivers (Japanese:ゆうれいせんとゆうれいポケモン！Ghost Ship and Ghost Pokémon!) is the 95th episode of thePokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on May 6, 1999, and in the United States on March 25, 2000.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Ash, Tracey and Misty find more excitement than they bargain for when they reach their next destination. Professor Oak tells them that divers have recovered an Orange League Championship trophy off the coast of Moro Island that dates back over three hundred years! The trophy is on display at the Moro Island Museum of Art for all to see. By the time they get to the museum, Team Rocket has already paid a visit and now it's up to our heroes to track them down!
Plot
Ash andhis friends come acrossMoro Island and eat at thePokémon Center. Afterwards, they callProfessor Oak, who informs them about the discovery of a 300-year-old officialOrange LeagueWinner's Trophy. They decide to go to the museum the following day and to take a look. Meanwhile,Team Rocket breaks into the museum and steals the trophy. During the escape,James accidentally falls and leaves his shape holding the trophy on the ground.
When Ash and his friends gets to the museum, they learn fromOfficer Jenny that the trophy has been stolen. A pair of footprints and the shape in the mud of the thief holding the trophy are the only clues. The group decides to investigate. Not far from there, they find Team Rocket behind some bushes, mentioning their mischief during the previous night. Ash and his friends begin chasing them, but Team Rocket escapes using aSeadra-shaped boat. Ash and his friends get onLapras and continue the chase.
Suddenly, a thick fog catches Team Rocket, who eventually find anabandoned ship. They decide to use it as a hideaway, but a ghost appears just behind them. Scared, they try to run away, but the ship is in a poor condition and they fall through the floor to a lower level. Two ghosts begin harassing them and take the trophy from James's bag. After that, the ghosts attack Team Rocket and haul them off.
Ash and his friends find the ship and notice the Seadra-shaped boat is empty next to it. As they get on the ship,Misty starts shivering andTogepi falls into a hole in the floor. The group starts looking for Togepi; when they finally find it, it is playing with the two ghosts in one of the cabins, and the Orange League trophy is lying on a bedside table. Ash sends outBulbasaur, but it realizes the ghosts are playing with Togepi, not frightening it. Misty calls outStaryu, who uncovers the true identity of the ghosts behind the sheets:Gastly andHaunter. Ash and his friends say they want the trophy, but Gastly and Haunter refuse to hand it over.
Team Rocket gets to the cabin and starts fighting the ghosts to get the trophy back, but they are unsuccessful and faint. Haunter takes control ofMeowth and makes it relay the history of the two ghosts. Meanwhile, Gastly creates an illusion to show with images of what Haunter was talking about. Three centuries before, the Gastly and Haunter's Trainer was thecaptain of the ship. He was a well-knownPokémon Trainer and managed to win the Orange League, with the antique trophy on the bedside table belonging to him. However, a storm put an end to his life and the ship sank. Gastly and Haunter had been watching over their master's trophy for three centuries until some weeks before, when a group of researchers found the sunken ship and took the trophy away. They drove the ship to surface again so they could recover it.
When Haunter finishes talking, Meowth wakes upJessie and James, and they try to fight the ghosts again, but they are sent blasting off. Ash and his friends understand the Pokémon's loyalty to their master even 300 years after and respect their decision. They say goodbye to Gastly and Haunter, who take the ship to the sky and depart for an unknown location.
Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture:Shellder:Oak talks about Shellder, says its shell is even harder than the hardestdiamond. Oak tries to reach inside Shellder's shell to investigate, but receives a very strongclamp on his arm.
Pokémon senryū summary:Staring contest; Shellder is always, sticking its tongue out.
This episode marks one of the rare instances whenJames's Victreebel did not attach itself to anyone's head when released from itsPoké Ball.
Victreebel also chases Meowth instead of James in this episode.
Ash scansGastly andHaunter, even though he has encountered both Pokémon frequently and even journeyed with aHaunter for a few episodes. However, thePokédex had no data on Haunter—orGengar—inThe Tower of Terror. Additionally, the Pokédex would not provide a full entry for Gengar untilThe Scheme Team.
This episode contains many gags originated by and visual similarities to the American cartoonScooby Doo, Where Are You!, most notablyTeam Rocket turning to shush each other one at a time, culminating inJames shushing a totem head in the museum, and the appearance of the ghost ship through the fog. The settings of a museum at night and a ghost ship in the first place are very similar as well.
This can likely be attributed to the fact that the international release of the show began during production of theOrange Islands arc, which many members of production staff have stated was foremost in mind during production.
This episode's title is formatted asA Shipful Of Shivers on the DVD menu ofAustralian DVDs.
Errors
Tracey's miscolored bag straps
In one scene in the beginning, when Ash andhis friends are onLapras,Tracey is seen without pupils.
In one scene in the beginning, when Tracey chuckles after Ash explains that winning the remaining twoOrange League badges will be easy, Tracey's animation freezes for about a half second.
After the heist, James falls on the trophy. He rolls over with his arms covering the front of it; however, his imprint shows otherwise.
When Tracey wonders why everyone is outside the museum, the straps on hisbag are colored orange like the bag instead of black.
In one scene where Ash and his friends are riding on Lapras through the fog, they do not have their backpacks for the entire time even though they had them on when they were going after Team Rocket.
Victreebel'sRazor Leaf has no effect on Gastly, even though it is aGhost/Poison type. It should have resisted the attack; instead, it appeared to be immune to the attack.
Gastly'sLick shouldn't have affectedMeowth because Ghost-type attacks don't affectNormal types.
TheCaptain kept his Haunter and Gastly inside regular Poké Balls, though his time was 300 years before the present. However, inCelebi: The Voice of the Forest,Sam kept hisCharmeleon inside of an older model of Poké Ball, despite being from only 40 years before the present.
