The Psychic Sidekicks! – Pokémon Season 3, Episode 40

Filler / stand-alone episodeGirafarig debutUS “lost episode”

The Psychic Sidekicks! is the 40th episode of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys, the third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 156th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 158, Bulbapedia code EP156). It first aired in Japan on 13 July 2000 and in the United States on 11 August 2001. It falls within the season’s Len Town & the Day Care finale stretch (EP156–EP157).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash and friends are in the forest when they come across a sign with the trainer tip “Beware of ghost Pokemon, use Psychic Pokemon for your protection” when they realise that they don’t really have any…. Except that is, for Psyduck!

The group are a little on edge because of the talk of ghost types, and then something strange pops up from the bushes, the group hide behind Psyduck who then runs to it’s own Pokéball and hides. Brock contemplates that the strange looking thing might not be a ghost type after all; just then the Pokémon’s trainer comes out of the woods and states that her Pokémon is definitely not a ghost type, the rest of the mysterious Pokemon emerges from the bushes (they could only see its tail previously) – it’s a Girafarig! It’s trainer introduces herself as Cherry. Cherry tells Ash and friends that the woods are dangerous without a Psychic Pokemon. Misty ask’s Cherry why she chose a Girafarig to train; she says because it looks quite unique but also because everyone in the place where she’s from (nearby Len Town) has a psychic Pokemon as a partner because their has been ghost types in the surrounding forest for hundreds of years.

Team Rocket are nearby and listening in on Ash and gangs conversation with Cherry, they hear about all the Psychic Pokemon at her hometown and start plotting to steal them. Meanwhile Cherry also reveals that it’s her goal to become the first Pokemon Master and Johto champion from her town as the group sit down to have lunch, Cherry notes how close Ash and Pikachu appear to be and says that when trainers have a strong bond with their psychic Pokemon they are sometimes able to communicate with each other via Telekenesis. Cherry challenges Ash to a battle, Girafarig vs. Pikachu , Cherry tells Girafarig to use Future Sight but nothing seems to happen. Ash proceeds to keep attacking Girafarig and it’s definitely on the back foot when suddenly a strange breeze fills the air and a powerful attack comes out of nowhere and hits Pikachu. Cherry explains that Future sight is a sort of time-delayed psychic attack. The battle resumes once more and despite a good effort from Girafarig Pikachu’s thunder overwhelms it, leaving it paralysed. Cherry concedes defeat, stating her disappointment that she can’t communicate with her Girafarig via Telekenesis.

Cherry takes the group to visit her hometown of Len Town and immediately the group encounter an Abra teleporting around to escape its trainer (Mrs Bellows), but the amusement is soon broken when a local guy comes running into town telling them theres big trouble, a giant ghost Pokemon that’s invulnerable to psychic attacks is heading straight at the town. The guy tells the tale of how he and his Mr. Mime were attacked while they were fishing at the lake, and the Mr. Mime was kidnapped by the giant Gengar.

Ash and friends decide they want to go and check out the lake to see if they can see whats going on, as they are about to leave Cherry’s Girafarig senses something and won’t go. Meanwhile Mrs. Bellows has chased her Abra into the forest when they encounter the Giant Gengar (which is of course a robot under the command of Team Rocket), Abra tries to attack it with psychic powers but its attack is reflected back at it by the Gengar’s Mirror eyes, knocking the Abra to the ground before capturing the Abra with its giant tongue. Mrs. Bellows flees back to town with Team Rocket and the Giant Gengar hot on it’s trail.

Cherry volunteers to face the giant Gengar, stating that her Girafarig should be able to defeat a Gengar no matter how big it is. Team Rocket reveal themselves and perform their motto, and for some reason explaining exactly how their robot works (with the mirror eyes). The battle begins and Girafarig uses its confusion attack which is quickly bounced straight back at it, it then tries a Psybeam which is just about to come right back at it when both Cherry and Ash jump in the way and take the force of the hit. Next Girafarig uses its Future Sight attack, which as we saw earlier takes a while to work.

Ash and Pikachu are about to engage Team Rocket when Cherry has a vision of the immediate future; the vision shows Pikachu being captured by the tongue of Team Rocket’s robot, Cherry warns Ash and her Girafarig uses its psychic powers to move Pikachu around so that the tongue can’t catch it, this caught enough time for Girafarig’s Future Sight attack to hit home, it comes from behind them rendering Team Rocket’s mirrors useless and sending them blasting off again.

This confrontation signalled the first time that Cherry was able to connect psychically to her Girafarig. Ash and friends bid farewell to Cherry and continue on their journey.

Major Events

• Girafarig TV debut (prior M03)
• First episode after M03
• Psychic-vs-Ghost type error
• Not on R1 home video until 2015

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Girafarig#0203 · EP156

Trivia

• The English title plays on “alliteration for Len Town’s Psychic Pokémon”.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Johto story.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Girafarig in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Ursaring in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Left off the original Region 1 VHS/DVD volumes; first released in the 2015 Complete Collection.
• The dub narrator says the heroes are on the road “to Johto”, although they are already there.
• Pokémon Karaokémon: “Two Perfect Girls” (Eric Stuart as Brock).

Part of our Pokémon: The Johto Journeys guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.