[27] Sleeper and the Pokemon Swap?!

[marchionessofmustache]

This episode starts out with a lady running up to Satoshi and smashing his face into her boobs. Apparently she mistook him for her son Hajime who went missing a few days ago. Satoshi's all like "He probably just went on a journey to be a Pokemon trainer!" Because, you know, that's all his brain is capable of thinking about.

The ggg sits down to talk with her about it, and she shows them a bunch of posters of missing children, and then Junsa appears to put up more posters.

Seems like a LOT of kids started going missing three days ago.

They decide to head to the Pokemon Center to ask around for more information. It's kinda like the town pub!

Takeshi interrupts Junsa talking to a couple kids to ask them if they like cute older girls. I guess we've already reached the "obnoxious perv" turn for Takeshi, instead of his more cute blushing-faced-but-shy version we started with. I guess this makes for better gags but IDK, the other version had more personality to him I feel.

Satoshi and Kasumi ask Doctor Joy if she knows anything about the missing children. She isn't much help in that regard, but also lets them know that about three days ago, all the Pokemon in the center started losing their energy. Even Koiking is so lethargic it doesn't flop about! And even a Hitokage's flame is almost out...

But yeah, three days ago! That's when all the kids went missing.



Takeshi and Junsa catch up with them and while they're wondering what could be up, a device that Junsa has on her starts making some beeping noises. Takeshi asks her if it's a cute boy detector -_-; She shoves him out of the way, again telling him he's interfering.

Apparently the device detects sleep waves. Because, you know, that's a normal thing that all police carry around just in case that's somehow relevant to anything. There's no like "We are suspicious of sleep activity recently" or anything, she just... has it.



They follow the signal to the top of a skyscraper where there's a weird like house on top??? And instead of, you know, knocking, or even opening the door with the handles, Takeshi and Satoshi RAM THE DOORS DOWN. Without knowing what's behind the doors, or even really why they're there. They just know there's sleep waves. Because of the device. That's literally it. There's no other clues or reason for them to be there other than "there are sleep waves."

Anyway, the burst down the door and are surprised to find a pretty chill party with older people dressed up in nice clothes (including many mustache guys <3). There are two Pokemon on a table in the center, Sleep and Sleeper. Sleeper being the evolution of Sleep.

I like Sleeper a lot. Sleep is whatever, but Sleeper is so cool looking. I love its weird... mane thing? And it has a big honkin' nose which of course I love. Sleep has a big nose but it's more trunk-like which isn't nearly as cool as Sleeper's nose. Overall it just looks really cool.

Anyway, the people are like... basically getting high off Sleeper's sleep waves and hypnosis because it's "relaxing" etc. And then we learn that they had two Sleeps, but one evolved into Sleeper and they started using its hypnosis to get off............ THREE DAYS AGO!!!!!

(Oh, also it's called the Pokemon Love Club, which is the name of the club that's normally in Kuchiba City in the games and manga.)

Takeshi infers that the kids going missing and the Pokemon becoming weakened must have been a side effect of the sleep waves. Because, well, naturally. Kasumi looks into Sleeper's eyes, and it starts using hypnosis on her. Then she starts acting like a Pawou!

While clapping and chanting "Pawou," she runs off and everyone chases her.



She ends up going to this little lakeside hidden within a woods, where they find all the missing children acting like Pokemon! Takeshi (the somehow expert on all this stuff????????) suggests that the children have had their minds swapped with Pokemon (which is referred to as "Pokemon Swap" hence the name of the episode). Junsa tries to snap them out of it, but they refuse to listen or wake up.

I forget who suggests it (the dude from Pokemon Love Club is there, too, so maybe him?) but someone says that they could try using Sleep's dream waves to counteract the effect of Sleeper's sleep waves because you know that completely makes sense.

They take Kasumi back to the house on the skyscraper (lol??) and have Sleep do a hypnosis on her. She seems to fall asleep and start dreaming, then when Sleep claps its hands, she wakes up and seems to be back to her old self.

So they decided to take Sleep to the children, who apparently has no Monster Ball and Satoshi, out of everyone, has to carry it on his back...



But guess who appears! The Rockets fly in on gliders (oh yeah, earlier they also had a sleep wave detecting machine you know JUST BECAUSE and decided to follow it JUST BECAUSE) and now they decide to use a mirror to get Sleeper to hypnotize itself. I don't really know why; if they explained it I totally missed it. Musashi shows the mirror to Sleeper and is like "Here ya go!" and it starts hypnotizing itself because... I guess it thinks it's a good idea?? This episode has a lot of stuff that just... expects you to accept it without question LOL

Anyway, Satoshi throws a potted plant at the mirror (lmao) and it shatters, so the Rockets decide to try to kidnap Sleeper and Sleep with whips. While Satoshi keeps a firm grip on Sleep, Kasumi actually saves the day with Hitodeman! Cool! Then Pigeon blows the Rockets away. Pigeon actually did something, yay!

Then they go save the kids.



They return to the Pokemon Center and have Sleep put the Pokemon to sleep too, and when he wakes them up from their dreams, they're good as new.

Except one Pokemon... it seems Koduck still has a headache! Well, Takeshi agrees to take care of it since he wants to be a Pokemon breeder, and Joy is happy about that. Then it shows the gang walking away from town and everyone is just like hating on Koduck for NO REASON AT ALL. Then Satoshi opens the zukan and it tells him that Koduck always has a headache. So while they're arguing about who has to take care of the stupid thing that they all hate for whatever reason, Kasumi trips on a rock and drops one of her Monster Balls. It rolls toward Koduck, who opens it and catches himself in it. So Koduck GET for Kasumi!! And she's like mad that she got a new Pokemon.

What did Koduck do to deserve this hate?! I don't get it LOL. Like they seriously are all like "We'll help it out!" then just out of nowhere are all like "GTFO" to it. And hating on the poor thing becomes a running gag in the series (spoilers lol). Poor Koduck.

I'm not a fan of Koduck in general or anything but #JusticeForKoduck for reals.

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Comments

[thenicochan]

The next time someone expresses concern about a loved one who’s gone missing my response will definitely be “He probably just went on a journey to be a Pokemon trainer!”

A lot of kids going missing at once? Man, that’s a lot of Pokemon journeys starting at once!

Takeshi’s gotta cool it. I get being so horny you can’t think straight, but the man is straight up interfering in a police investigation involving actual missing children. Priorities!

“Pokemon Love Club” with a Pokemon hypnotizing minors into acting… a certain way… is a very problematic institute. I think Junsa needs to do more investigative work into this particular organization.

I like Ko/Psyduck! It’s so cute. Tho I feel like I’ve reached my evolution as a Snorlax in my thirties, my teen years were definitely my Psyduck years. (My twenties were my Jigglypuff years, obvs)

[marchionessofmustache]

Yeah Takeshi is a BIT much sometimes XD

Koduck is indeed super cute, but for some reason I've never trained one in the games...? Will have to rectify that sometime.

Maybe in Pokemon Gold or Silver playthroughs...