Don’t Call Me Bradley [Patreon cultist] asks:

Did you know there’s a Mimikyu in the anime that’s Shiny? It’s supposedly the ghost of Acerola’s first Mimikyu that is still lingering as a Ghost-Ghost.

What level of Bull$8!# are we assuming this is?

…I…

…uh…

…okay, y’know what, I haven’t seen the relevant episodes; I’ll be right back

Actually, hang on, I have seen one of these before; I watched Tough Guy Trials when I was researching my Necrozma article because it has some stuff about the legend of the Blinding One.  I guess it didn’t register with me that there was anything unusual about Mimikins (Acerola’s Mimikyu) because Acerola just says “Mimikins is a ghost!” and doesn’t explain or clarify any further, and I just assumed she meant it’s a Ghost-type.  Also… I’m honestly not sure it would be totally out of character for Acerola to just be bull$#!tting everyone because she likes spooky and creepy things.

(also I didn’t even notice it was shiny because Mimikyu’s shiny colouration is just, like… its cloth is kinda dull and it couldn’t find red crayons to colour in its Pikachu cheeks)

But yeah, on viewing the previous episode, Why Not Give Me a Z-Ring Sometime?, it seems like there is something weird going on here, because we see Acerola’s Mimikyu alongside Jessie’s.  Mimikins seems to fly everywhere, which I don’t think we’ve ever seen Jessie’s Mimikyu do, and when Jessie questions Acerola about this, she nonchalantly responds “it’s because Mimikins is a ghost!”  This also confuses the Rotomdex in the next episode and it tries to photograph this strange flying Mimikyu, but is shocked when all the photos come out fogged or blurry.  That’s doubly weird because, in the games, the whole point of Acerola’s trial is that the Rotomdex can see and photograph Ghost Pokémon, even when they’re concealing themselves from human eyes.

It’s also implied that Mimikins doesn’t have a physical body.  It tries to battle a Gengar and its Shadow Claw attacks pass right through Gengar’s body, which is… an unexpected interaction between a Ghost Pokémon and a Ghost attack, and seems to surprise and confuse Gengar as well.  Mimikins is later able to pass straight through Jessie’s body, which seems like something a Ghost-type might be able to do, but isn’t a power Jessie’s Mimikyu has ever displayed.  Then at the beginning of a different episode, A Haunted House for Everyone, Mimikins briefly comes out from under its shroud, and… well, all Pokémon media is deliberately vague about Mimikyu’s true form, but again, Mimikins doesn’t seem like it’s the same as Jessie’s Mimikyu, who appears to have a body; Mimikins looks like it’s just a wisp of dark fire.

So… yeah…

I can’t quite shake that initial instinct that Acerola is bull$#!tting everyone, because although Mimikins is weird, it doesn’t actually do anything that strikes me as wildly improbable for a Ghost-type.  Hmm.  Maybe it’s one of the traits of Ghost Pokémon that death is just a normal stage of their evolution?  Like, maybe being dead just means that Acerola’s Mimikyu is at a more advanced stage in mastering its powers than Jessie’s. Or… hell, maybe Mimikins isn’t even a Mimikyu. Come to think of it, I don’t think Acerola even claims that it is (in the English dub of the episodes cited here, anyway); she calls it “Mimikins” and it looks like a Mimikyu, so we all just… kind of assume that’s what it is. For all we know, she could have summoned the outer god Nyarlathotep and slapped a $#!tty Pikachu costume on it.