Summary
The episode “Caterpie’s Dilemma” in the Pokémon anime is about a giant-sized Caterpie causing trouble in town after eating special candies. The candy’s effect on Caterpie, causing it to grow and evolve into a kaiju-sized Butterfree, is similar to Herba Mystica’s effect on the Titan Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Like Pokémon Titan, this effect is temporary and Butterfree will eventually return to its normal size.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced a mechanic for giant-sized Pokémon, called Titan Pokémon, that functioned as difficult boss battles, but an episode of the Pokémon anime repeated the same plot years ago. . The episode in question featured a Caterpie, which had grown to giant size and started causing trouble all over town.
In the episode “Caterpie’s Big Dilemma”, Caterpie is exposed to some special candy in a scientist’s lab during a battle with Team Rocket. Caterpie eats these candies, the professor explains that it is his attempt to create something even better than Rare Candies, but he does not know what the effect will be. The Caterpie glows and begins to swell in size, eventually breaking through the lab’s roof. Caterpie has never been caught in a Poké Ball, so no one has control over it when it starts wandering around town.
Things get worse when Caterpie evolves, first into Metapod, then into Butterfree, into a Kaiju-sized creature that wreaks havoc across the area.
The effects of the candy are very similar to Herba Mystica
In Scarlet and Violet, the Titan Pokémon achieves its enormous size by devouring Herba Mystica, which is said to have all sorts of unique properties. Although the candy in this episode seems to be similar to rare candy (erroneously called “Mystery Candy” in the dub), Its effects when eaten are actually much more similar to Herba Mystica. Titan Pokémon return to their normal size (still larger than average) when they are defeated, indicating that the size increase effect is temporary, like in this episode.
While the similarity is clearly a coincidence, it provides an interesting theory to speculate about. Given that these candies were a special creation of this scientist, he probably used Herba Mystica as an ingredient to create them. If someone is trying to help a Pokémon reach its full potential, then Herba Mystica would definitely be worth considering, as its various flavors are said to have health-boosting properties along with beneficial effects. other.
In this episode, Team Rocket also gets hold of some candy given to Dustox by Jessie, leading to a kaiju-sized showdown between Butterfree and Dustox. Luckily, the candy’s size-increasing effect wore off on Dustox first, causing Team Rocket (who were riding on its back) to fall into free fall. Butterfree wins and soon returns to proper size as well. The remaining candies are kept safe in the scientist’s laboratory in the hope that such a disaster will not happen again.
The similarities between these ultimate rare candies and Herba Mystica are certainly interesting. Anime has long enjoyed having giant versions of Pokémon available, dating back to “Mystery at the Lighthouse!” with the mysterious giant Dragonite, it’s perhaps not surprising that some iterations of that plot resemble the workings of Herba Mystica. At the very least, this episode is fertile ground for interesting fan theories, and that’s enough to make it notable among fans. Pokémon fan.