EP241
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Hocus Pokémon
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First broadcast
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Hocus Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモンまほうでだいへんしん！？ A Huge Transformation with Pokémon Magic!?) is the 241st episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on March 21, 2002, and in the United States on April 5, 2003.
Blurb
Brock rarely meets a girl whom he doesn't find bewitching, but on encountering a particular young woman, even Ash and Misty can't deny that there is something magical about her. This is all explained when the young trainer explains that she is a practitioner of Pokémon magic. Excited to see the completion of a spell that promises to allow humans to understand the feelings and thoughts of Pokémon, Ash and friends embark on a quest to gather the hodgepodge of Pokémon-related ingredients required for the spell. Can anyone spare any Gloom nectar? What about iron shavings sorted by a Magnemite?
Plot
Ash and his friends continue through the mountains when a Murkrow approaches them and starts squawking. Then, a girl comes running out from a clearing, exclaiming that she finally found a Pikachu. The girl introduces herself as Lily, a Pokémon magician. Lily explains that she has been searching far and wide for bizarre things from different Pokémon such as a Thunderbolt from Pikachu. Misty asks Lily to perform magic for her because she once dreamed about being a Pokémon magician when she was little. Lily flicks through her spellbook and asks Misty if she'd like a smoother complexion, and Misty says yes. So, Lily mixes everything together and says a magic chant which causes a lot of smoke to rise from the pot. To Misty's surprise, the spell summons a bunch of Spinarak which use String Shot to give her smoother skin.
Ash is particularly intrigued about a Pokémon mind-reading spell. Lily admits that the final ingredient is always missing - Stun Spore from a Parasect. Murkrow returns to everyone and brings them over to a wild Parasect. Ash volunteers to retrieve the Stun Spore, so he challenges Parasect to a battle. At first, it tries spraying Ash with Sleep Powder, but luckily, Murkrow blows it away. Parasect finally uses Stun Spore and Lily obtains it with a vacuum. Just then, Team Rocket appears and uses a long mechanical arm to kidnap Pikachu. Lily notices Meowth and wants to get the dirt from its claws, so she sends Murkrow to get it. Instead, Murkrow makes a hole in their balloon, sending them blasting off again. Pikachu falls from their clutches and into Ash's arms. Team Rocket is later seen slumped precariously over a rock ledge on top of a tall cliff. Wobbuffet pops out of his Poké Ball and adds more weight, and the ledge starts to crack. Lily, Ash, and his friends catch up to Team Rocket. Lily rushes to collect the dirt from Meowth's claws. As soon as she steps off the ledge, it breaks, and Team Rocket goes crashing into the bushes below.
Later, Brock asks Lily what else she needs and she tells the crew that she needs the tears of an Aipom. Ash is keen to see Lily’s magic, so he begins calling out for an Aipom. Misty and Brock doubt Ash’s approach will ever work, but to their surprise, an Aipom emerges from a nearby shrub. Lily is thrilled, but her enthusiasm sends Aipom fleeing. Meanwhile, the Rocket trio pop out of the nearby bushes. They heard about the spell, so they set out to capture the Aipom, Lily's bag and book so they can make a lot of money. When Aipom lets its guard down, Lily and the others charge at it. A net grabs Aipom, causing everyone to collide instead. Team Rocket strikes again in their balloon and Meowth uses the long arm to snatch Lily's bag and then recite their motto. Lily orders Murkrow to get her bag back, but Meowth uses the arm to punch Murkrow out of the sky. Jessie and James make their getaway which causes Lily to crumble into tears, but Ash reassures her that they will retrieve her bag.
Team Rocket lands their balloon. Meowth scours through Lily's bag and grumbles that it's nothing but junk. Jessie and James inspect the spellbook, but the ancient language leaves Jessie confused. But James understands part of it. Jessie gets fed up, and so, to get Aipom to cry, she gets ready to punch it, but James stops her. She asks him what his problem is. He tells her to look at the ancient book. Jessie retorts that she could read tea leaves more easily than reading the book. James goes on to inform her that tears achieved through violence won't work. As a result, Team Rocket tries to figure out what they can do to make Aipom cry. James starts off by telling a bunch of corny jokes, but instead it makes Aipom yawn. Meowth performs a puppet show about a boy and his mother reuniting. It makes Meowth and James cry, but Aipom is still bored out of its mind. Jessie tells them they'll never jerk any tears from Aipom using clichéd storylines and overblown dramatics. She performs a princess as she waits for her beloved prince, though Jessie’s acting causes Aipom to drift off to sleep. Jessie gets angry and picks up Aipom to try and punch it, but once again James stops her.
Just then Ash and his friends catch up to Team Rocket and demand that the stolen stuff be returned. Jessie orders her Arbok into battle, but it is sent flying into the balloon's basket by Murkrow's Icy Wind. Now, it is Ash's Pikachu against James's Weezing. Weezing uses Sludge, but the attack eventually runs out while trying to counter Pikachu's Thunderbolt. Meanwhile, Brock manages to untie Aipom who promptly runs off. Lily has Murkrow use Swift, which causes Weezing to ram Team Rocket into the basket. Pikachu performs Thunder on the balloon which makes it blow up and sends Team Rocket blasting off. Aipom finds this funny, laughing so hard that it produces tears of mirth. Ash quickly grabs a jar and tries to catch a tear, but he trips and takes a nosedive. Pikachu quickly grabs the jar and catches the tear instead. Both Lily and Ash thank Pikachu.
Lily mixes in all the ingredients for the spell and then she asks who will volunteer. Ash begs to be picked, so Lily selects him. Following orders, Ash finishes the spell with Pikachu's Thunderbolt. A lot of yellow smoke surrounds Ash and he comments that he felt a little like he's getting into Pikachu's mind. Moments later, Ash notices that his friends seem to have gotten really big all of a sudden. Misty pulls out a mirror and shows Ash his reflection to reveal that he has been turned into a Pikachu. As Ash panics, Lily comments that the effect was unexpected. She glances through her book and finds that the spell continues on the next page, but said page is too smudged for her to read. Misty asks Lily if Ash will be a Pikachu permanently, but Lily assures that he'll be back to normal as soon as the spell wears off. With this reassurance, Ash calms down and decides to make the best of the weird situation. Misty and Brock watch Ash play around with Pikachu, Murkrow, and Togepi, commenting that Ash really is in the mind of a Pikachu, meaning that the spell did work, in a way.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Dewgong (US and international), Murkrow (Japan)
- Pikachu (Ash's)
- Pikachu (Ashachu; newly transformed)
- Meowth (Team Rocket)
- Togepi (Misty's)
- Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
- Arbok (Jessie's)
- Weezing (James's)
- Murkrow (Lily's)
- Parasect
- Aipom
- Spinarak (×3)
- Wartortle (image)
- Tangela (image)
- Mr. Mime (image)
- Bulbasaur (picture)
- Dugtrio (picture)
- Stantler (picture)
- Shuckle (picture)
- Miltank (picture)
- Jynx (picture; Japanese version only)
Trivia
- This is the first time a human is transformed into a Pokémon in the anime. The concept would later be explored further in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game series and its adaptations.
- The English title for this episode is a reference to the magic words "Hocus pocus".
- After the second time Jessie tried to punch tears out of Aipom, Meowth warned "No tears for fears!", referencing the band Tears for Fears. The band would later be referenced in the episode of the same name.
- Meowth's puppet theater act appears to be a reference to Isao Takahata's 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother.
- A nonexistent move is used in this episode in the form of Pikachu's "Thunderspark".
- At one point, Meowth says, "A little jab will do ya." This is a reference to the Brylcreem slogan "A little dab will do ya."
- Music from Pikachu's Vacation and The Power of One can be heard in this episode.
- An instrumental version of Face Forward Team Rocket! is used when James and Meowth try to make the Aipom cry.
Errors
- Parasect uses Sleep Powder, a move that it could not legally learn at the time. However, Parasect can learn a similar move, Spore.
- In the scene where Ashachu tells Pikachu, Togepi, and Murkrow to play, when the scene goes back to Misty and Brock, Togepi is seen in Misty's hands.
- Also, Murkrow is seen to come out of nowhere when Ash calls all of the Pokémon.
- In the scene where Team Rocket blasts off, Weezing disappears despite being in the balloon in the scene before.
- When Ash turns into Ashachu, his bag disappears. It is shown that Ash's bag also got transformed into his Ashachu form.
- Brock claims that he, Ash, and Misty had never met a Pokémon magician before. However, they met Melvin in The March of the Exeggutor Squad.
- In the Polish dub, Wartortle is called Blastoise.
Dub edits
- In the Japanese version, there is a picture of Jynx in Lily's book. The dub replaces it with the image of a flower with a kiss mark.
- After Misty is attacked by the Spinarak, there was a short scene cut in the English dub. In this scene, everybody feels sorry for her because she has arachnophobia. The frequently used "clock" transition and part of the first shot of the next scene, a pan down to the main characters, are both cut from the dub.
Lily's book in the original Japanese version
Lily's book in the English dub
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
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 Bulgarian
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Фокусникът Покемон | |
| Mandarin Chinese | 神奇寶貝魔法大變身 | |
 Dutch
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Hocus Pokémon | |
 European French
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Hocus Pokémon | |
 German
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Hokus Pokémon | |
 Greek
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Χόκους Ποκέμον | |
 Hebrew
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הוקוס פוקימון Hocus Pokémon | |
 Hindi
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पोकेमोन और जादू Pokemon aur Jadoo * | |
 Italian
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La maga | |
 Polish
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Hokus-pokus Pokémon | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
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Uma Bruxa das Arábias |
 Portugal
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A Feiticeira de Pokémon | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
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¡Hocus Pokémon! |
 Spain
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La maga Pokémon | |
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime. |