Cult of Clefairy: Episode 6 – "Clefairy and the Moonstone"

Welcome back to the official written archive of The Pokémon Snapshot! Whether you are a longtime listener or a brand new fan, Jeff and Tyler are thrilled to have you here as they continue their chronological journey through the original Pokémon anime.

This week, the guys are breaking down an episode that takes a massive, incredibly weird left turn into sci-fi, ancient cults, and devastating explosions. In Japan, this episode was titled Pippi and the Moonstone (Pippi being Clefairy’s Japanese name), and it originally aired on May 6, 1997. In the United States, it hit our screens as Clefairy and the Moonstone on September 15, 1998.

Buckle your seatbelts, because this episode is a wild ride. Let’s get into it!

Making a Mountain Out of a Moonstone

We kick off the episode with the narrator recounting the events of Pewter City, hyping up Ash's recent acquisition of the Boulder Badge. However, Tyler is quick to point out the absolute absurdity of the narrator’s framing. Ash didn't win that badge; it was handed to him out of sheer pity after a sprinkler system did all the heavy lifting. Regardless, Ash's ego remains dangerously inflated as he, Misty, and their new companion Brock head toward the towering peaks of Mount Moon.

Jeff, leaning into his deep appreciation for the franchise's lore, points out how closely the anime is following the geographical progression of the original Game Boy games. Moving directly from Pewter City to Mount Moon is a nostalgic, one-to-one translation of the classic Kanto journey.

As they approach the mountain, the narrator teases that strange and astonishing tales have been told about this place. Brock explains that during prehistoric times, the mountain was hit by a massive meteor called the Moonstone. This naturally opens up a terrifying realization for Tyler:

Ash, Misty, and Brock arrive at the towering peaks of Mount Moon, perfectly mirroring the classic, nostalgic journey from the original Game Boy games.

Tyler: "There was a prehistoric age in Pokémon apparently. I did not realize that, so are we talking about like dinosaur Pokémon that may have actually been more terrifying than current Pokémon?"

Jeff: "So, let me explain prehistoric Pokémon. If you remember from the games, you do get fossils. Omanyte, Kabuto, and Aerodactyl come from fossils... I mean, if I was faced off with a Kabutops, I would be terrified."

Given how violent and aggressive standard Pokémon can be in this anime (we all remember the Spearow flock from Episode 1), the idea of prehistoric apex-predator Pokémon roaming the earth is a genuinely horrifying concept.

Blind as a Zubat

Before the trio can even enter the caves of Mount Moon, they hear a desperate cry for help. Rushing toward the noise, they discover a man huddled in the fetal position on the ground, being viciously attacked by a flock of Zubat.

Now, any normal, empathetic human being would immediately jump into action to save a man being swarmed by giant, blood-sucking bats. Ash Ketchum, however, is not a normal human being. Instead of helping, Ash casually pulls out his Pokédex to read a fun trivia entry about how Zubat use supersonic powers and hate the daylight. Ash then loudly observes that these specific Zubat must not be afraid of the daylight, considering they are actively attacking this man in the broad daylight. This is not the time for a biology lesson, Ash! A man's life is on the line!

Eventually, Ash decides to be a hero and sends Pikachu forward to unleash a Thunder Shock, successfully sending the Zubat flock flying back into the dark depths of the cave. The rescued man is so overjoyed that he leaps up and smothers Ash in a wildly overzealous hug, trapping poor Pikachu between them. Pikachu, who apparently does not appreciate strangers invading his personal space, responds by unleashing a massive electrical discharge that shocks both Ash and the scientist.

Voiced by the legendary Maddie Blaustein, Seymour introduces himself with a dramatic monologue that Tyler is already deeply suspicious of.

Tyler: "Was this necessary Pikachu? I get it. I don't like hugs really either, especially from strangers that I've run into in a mountain, but that seems unnecessary."

The man, surviving the high-voltage blast, dramatically introduces himself. He proudly proclaims, "Knowledge! Research! I'm Seymour the Scientist!" He is at an absolute eleven on the intensity scale, jumping from the terror of being attacked to gleefully singing and dancing about his occupation.

Jeff, always ready with the behind-the-scenes lore, drops two fantastic pieces of trivia about this scene:

1. The Voice Actor Mix-Up: When Seymour first cried out for help, Tyler noted that he sounded exactly like Team Rocket's Meowth. Jeff confirms this suspicion: Seymour is voiced by Maddie Blaustein, the legendary voice actress who took over the role of Meowth starting around Episode 30!

2. The Japanese Translation: In the original Japanese dub, Seymour is far creepier. He doesn't aggressively recite poetry about "knowledge and research." Instead, he rambles exclusively about romance, and his two main virtues are "Love and Courage." The English dubbers likely realized this was incredibly unsettling and swapped it to something a bit more traditionally scientific.

Close Encounters of the Clefairy Kind

Seymour leads Ash, Misty, and Brock into the cave, revealing a massive ecological disaster. Someone has strung up bright stadium lights all over the caverns, completely disrupting the natural ecosystem. This harsh lighting is exactly why the Pokémon inside are acting erratically and why the nocturnal Zubat were forced out of the cave to attack Seymour in the first place.

The harsh, unnatural stadium lights inside Mount Moon create a massive ecological disaster, leaving cave-dwelling Pokémon like Sandshrew completely exhausted.

Seymour explains that he came here to "protect" the cave. Tyler, looking at the situation practically, has some major issues with Seymour’s tactical approach:

Tyler: "Why did he not at least bring a weapon or something? He knows there's people messing with this cave and he goes there to help... but he doesn't actually come with anything. Like he doesn't even have a bag. He's just sort of hanging out and getting attacked by Pokémon."

Jeff: "Yeah, and you mentioned he didn't bring a weapon at all, but Tyler, I think he brought the best weapon of all, and that is knowledge."

Tyler: "Yeah, knowledge is not a weapon, Jeff. I hate to break this to you. That's lame. He should have had a samurai sword or something like that kid did in Episode 3."

Seymour explains that thieves are invading the cave to search for the legendary Moonstone, a massive artifact believed to dramatically increase a Pokémon's power. Seymour then reveals his grand, overarching theory: he believes that Pokémon did not originate on Earth, but actually flew down from outer space riding on the Moonstone. He wants to protect the stone because he firmly believes it belongs to the Pokémon.

Seymour envisions the Moonstone as an ancient, intergalactic spaceship—a theory that immediately has Tyler questioning the scientist's sanity.

Right on cue, an incredibly rare, pink, star-shaped Pokémon skips by holding a small fragment of the Moonstone. It’s a Clefairy! Ash, completely ignoring everything Seymour just said about protecting the ecosystem, immediately pulls out a Poké Ball to catch it. Thankfully, Seymour jumps in and physically stops Ash, explaining that the Clefairy belong to the mountain. Miraculously, Ash actually listens and puts the Poké Ball away.

Right on cue, a rare, star-shaped Clefairy skips through the caverns of Mount Moon holding a glowing fragment of the legendary Moonstone.

Misty the Mighty Makes a Mistake

As Ash steps back, Meowth suddenly leaps out of the shadows and corners the helpless Clefairy. The rest of Team Rocket isn't far behind. Jessie and James step into the light, striking a pose and delivering their iconic motto. They proudly announce that they are the ones who strung up the lights, and they plan to steal the Moonstone to power up their own Pokémon.

Brock steps up to defend the cave, but his intimidation tactics leave a lot to be desired. He basically tells Team Rocket that if they want a rock, they can take one off the ground and get lost.

Tyler: "At this point, the way he delivers it, I am not entirely sure if Brock doesn't quite get what's going on with the situation yet, or if this was actually just a really weak comeback."

Jeff: "I mean, if they really want a rock, can't they just go back to Pewter City and buy one from Flint for $2?"

Brock tells Team Rocket to just take a rock off the ground. Hey, to Jeff's point, it's a lot cheaper than buying one from his dad Flint back in Pewter City!

Realizing they are going to have to fight, Ash tells Misty and Seymour to grab the Clefairy and run. A two-on-two battle commences! Ash and Brock send out Butterfree and a Zubat (which Brock apparently caught off-screen before they even entered the cave, a fact that deeply confuses both Jeff and Tyler). Team Rocket counters with Ekans and Koffing.

For once, the heroes actually execute a flawless, strategic victory. Koffing unleashes a thick Smog attack, but Butterfree uses Whirlwind to send the toxic gas blowing right back into Team Rocket's faces. Zubat follows up with Supersonic, thoroughly confusing Ekans and Koffing until they begin wrestling each other on the cavern floor. Butterfree finishes the job with one more massive flap of its wings, blowing Team Rocket entirely out of the cave. It is a clean, definitive win!

Butterfree and Zubat team up, furiously flapping their wings to clear the thick, toxic smog out of the Mount Moon cavern.

Meanwhile, Misty and Seymour are doing a phenomenally terrible job of protecting Clefairy. Meowth catches up to them, and Clefairy accidentally tumbles off a cliff, knocking Misty and Seymour into a raging underground river in the process. Meowth corners the Clefairy again, demanding it hand over its piece of the Moonstone.

Finally, Misty proves her worth as a Water-type gym leader. She sends out Staryu, who blasts Meowth with a barrage of Swift attacks followed by a high-pressure Water Gun. Meowth swallows so much water that he literally inflates like a balloon before blasting off into the distance, spraying water from his mouth the entire way.

Staryu's high-pressure Water Gun proves to be a bit too much for Meowth, filling him up with water until he blasts off into the distance.

Ash and Brock catch up, and Misty proudly declares that Meowth won't be a problem anymore, thanks to "Misty the Mighty." This deeply offends Tyler's sensibilities regarding the unspoken rules of society:

Tyler: "I just want to pause here at this point because you can't just give yourself a nickname, Misty. That's not how this works. We live in a society with rules. For example, Jeff's nickname is J-Dawg. I gave it to him. I always hoped that people would call me T-Bone, as a side note, but it never really caught on. But guess what? I don't just go around going, 'I'm Tyler T-Bone!' because guess what? I can't give myself a nickname! You get your nickname from other people, Misty! This is unacceptable."

A Macarena Mistranslation

With Team Rocket temporarily defeated, the gang takes a well-deserved rest. Brock pulls out a batch of custom-blended Pokémon food to feed his new Zubat. Ash has absolutely no idea what this gourmet concoction is, prompting Brock to explain that it is his own secret recipe, meticulously tailored to the dietary needs of each specific Pokémon.

Brock serves up a custom-blended meal for his new Zubat, officially cementing his status as the Martha Stewart of the Pokémon universe.

Tyler: "Brock continues to give me some Martha Stewart vibes. I just want to throw that out there. Like he's taking care of his siblings, he's making special recipes and things for all the Pokémon. He's really giving me a Martha Stewart vibe... minus the convicted felon part. He doesn't have that vibe."

Jeff: "He did almost kill Ash in the previous episode."

Tyler: "That is true. Oh my gosh, I didn't even think of that. So he is giving some convicted felon vibes. Brock confirmed: this is confirmed, Brock is the Martha Stewart of the Pokémon universe."

Seymour, further cementing his status as the weirdest character in Kanto, decides to just casually eat a handful of Brock's Pokémon food. He declares it delicious. Ash, trusting this strange man, tries a handful for himself and immediately gags, proving that Seymour’s taste buds are just as broken as his survival instincts.

After their snack break, Pikachu begins having an intense, squeaking conversation with the Clefairy. Pikachu signals for the humans to follow, and the Clefairy leads them deeper into the mountain to a massive, glittering cavern. In the center of the room sits the glowing core of the Moonstone.

The massive, glowing core of the Moonstone sits in the center of the cavern, serving as the focal point for a deeply unsettling Clefairy cult ritual.

The Clefairy places its small fragment into an empty slot surrounding the core. Suddenly, dozens of Clefairy emerge from the shadows, chanting their names in a haunting, synchronized rhythm.

Tyler: "Ash says he thinks that it is saying hello. That's nice, Ash. If these Pokémon weren't so harmlessly adorable, I would be deeply concerned by all of this. Like this is giving me some real Children of the Corn type vibes... there's some cult-level stuff going on at this point."

As the Clefairy begin to dance around the glowing rock in unison, Seymour joyfully declares that they have formed their own advanced society. Ash, acting as Pikachu's translator, confidently explains the situation to the group: Pikachu is saying that the Clefairy gather these rocks together so they can do... the Macarena.

Yes. The Macarena.

Ash Ketchum, ladies and gentlemen, looked at a mysterious, ancient, moon-worshipping Pokémon ritual and concluded that they were doing a mid-90s pop-culture line dance.

Dozens of Clefairy emerge from the shadows to dance and pray around the glowing Moonstone in a deeply unsettling, synchronized ritual.

Jeff pulls back the curtain on this baffling translation choice. In the original Japanese dub, Ash guesses that the Clefairy are performing the Bon Dance, a traditional Japanese Buddhist festival dance meant to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. The American dubbers, realizing that Western children in 1998 would have absolutely no idea what a Bon Dance was, panicked and swapped it out for the biggest dance craze of the decade.

Pikachu, deeply disappointed in his trainer, resorts to playing charades to explain that the Clefairy are actually praying to the Moonstone like a God. Seymour is ecstatic. He declares that this proves his outer-space theory and excitedly announces that humanity can now use the Moonstone to fly into space alongside the Pokémon. Tyler is officially convinced that Seymour is hallucinating.

Seymour Joins a Space Cult

Before Seymour can book his flight to Mars, Team Rocket crashes the party again. Seymour, attempting to be brave, calls them wimps and charges forward to physically fight them. Predictably, Jessie simply sticks her foot out. Seymour trips, loses his glasses, and spends the rest of the battle crawling blindly on the ground like Velma from Scooby-Doo, completely helpless.

Ash and Brock send out Pikachu and Onix, but Jessie counters with a shockingly smart tactical move. She commands Ekans to burrow underground, while Koffing unleashes a massive Smokescreen that blinds Pikachu and fills the entire cavern. Ash sends out Pidgeotto to blow the smoke away with Whirlwind, but by the time the air clears, Team Rocket—and the massive, building-sized Moonstone core—are completely gone.

Brock, thinking quickly, orders Onix to burrow into the earth and chase them. Meanwhile, Seymour (who has found his glasses) gives a passionate pep talk to the Clefairy, urging them to fight back. It’s incredibly unnecessary considering these Pokémon literally worship this stone as a deity, but Seymour loves the sound of his own voice.

The scene cuts to the mountainside outside the cave. Team Rocket is gleefully sliding down the steep slopes on a makeshift sled, towing the massive Moonstone behind them. Suddenly, the ground erupts. Onix bursts from the earth like a scene straight out of the 1990 horror classic Tremors, obliterating the sled and sending the Moonstone crashing to a halt.

Team Rocket's brilliant getaway plan involves dragging a building-sized cosmic rock down a steep mountain on a incredibly flimsy makeshift sled. What could possibly go wrong?

In a surprising display of grit and loyalty, Koffing immediately launches a counterattack. It charges headfirst into the towering rock snake, knocking both itself and Onix completely unconscious. Tyler is genuinely impressed; Koffing has been relatively useless up until this point, but sacrificing itself to take down a massive Onix to protect Team Rocket’s prize is a true MVP move.

Just as Team Rocket prepares to reclaim the stone, Seymour and the army of Clefairy emerge from the tunnels. The Clefairy begin waving their fingers back and forth in a mesmerizing, synchronized rhythm. They are using Metronome!

The army of Clefairy emerge from the tunnels and wave their fingers in a mesmerizing, synchronized rhythm to unleash a massive Metronome attack.

The haunting song lulls Team Rocket into a trance, but the peaceful moment is violently interrupted. The Metronome attack summons a blinding flash of light, and a massive, devastating laser beam erupts from the ground, obliterating the surrounding area and blasting Team Rocket into the stratosphere.

Tyler: "I knew these things were freaky! Like they're worshipping a god... and then it turns out that they have this amazing power to basically nuke people."

As the dust settles and a giant crater smokes in the background, the Moonstone core glows brilliantly. Several of the Clefairy are bathed in the light and begin to evolve into Clefable, some of the rarest Pokémon in existence.

Seymour, completely enamored with the glowing cosmic fairies that just laser-nuked three people, makes a life-altering decision. He announces to Ash and the gang that he is going to stay on Mount Moon and live with the Clefairy, holding onto the delusion that they will eventually take him to outer space. Tyler correctly identifies this for what it is: Seymour has officially abandoned human society to join a heavily armed, moon-worshipping Pokémon cult. We wish him the best of luck.

Gary Oak's Petty Vandalism

With the Moonstone safely returned to its rightful (and highly dangerous) owners, Ash, Misty, and Brock bid farewell to Seymour and continue their journey.

They eventually reach a clearing with a wooden signpost pointing the way to Cerulean City. However, someone has engaged in a bit of petty vandalism. Scrawled across the sign is a message: “Gary was here, Ash is a loser.”

"Gary was here, Ash is a loser." A classic display of petty vandalism from Kanto's most obnoxious rival.

Jeff provides one final piece of incredible trivia to close out the episode. In the original Japanese dub, the sign reads: “Shigeru was here, Satoshi is a moron.” This is a brilliant inside joke by the animators. Ash’s Japanese name is Satoshi, named after Satoshi Tajiri, the legendary creator of the Pokémon franchise. Gary’s Japanese name is Shigeru, named after Shigeru Miyamoto, the iconic creator of Mario and Zelda, who acted as a mentor to Tajiri during Pokémon's development! The Japanese broadcast even featured a brief, superimposed animation of Gary pulling his eyelid down and sticking his tongue out at the camera.

Ash, completely incapable of handling a mild insult, loses his mind. He screams in frustration and physically sprints down the dirt road toward Cerulean City, leaving his friends trailing behind in the dust.

As the "To Be Continued" text flashes across the screen, the guys take a moment to reflect on what has been a truly bizarre and hilarious adventure. Tyler admits that while Clefairy was never really his jam, the sheer weirdness of the plot points and characters in this one totally won him over. Meanwhile, Jeff is just thrilled that they haven't hit any dreaded filler episodes yet—though Tyler claims he is actually looking forward to them! Jeff also drops a massive tease for the future, noting that Mount Moon's space-cult lore will return in about a year when the podcast reaches Episode 62 (which apparently features a literal spaceship). The Kanto journey is only getting weirder from here! Join us next week as we continue our journey and meet The Water Flowers of Cerulean City!