Pokemon Sun & Moon E03 Review: Enter The Haunted Doll Ghost

Pokemon Sun & Moon, Episode 3: Good Rotomorning, I am the Rotom Pokedex

It's another "introduce a feature from the games" episode, and this time... it's at least a character? The Rotom Pokedex joins the cast, with Professor Kukui giving Ash the Rotom-Dex and Rotom is... he's an all right character. He's very interested in collecting data, and always interrupts anyone trying to explain anything about Pokemon, and tends to be confused about slang and especially the puns that Samson Oak makes. Rotom's antics do end up feeling a bit hit-and-miss, similar to many other socially-awkward robotic characters in anime. We get a significant amount of scenes on this particular plot point, but that's honestly not the most interesting part of this episode.


The most important thing? Team Rocket arrives. Similar to many other new regions, they just show up with Meowth and Wobbuffet, having deposited their Kalosian Pokemon in the Rocket HQ. As they wander around, though, they meet Mimikyu... and Mimikyu's creepiness is played up to eleven in this series and I love it. Mimikyu's most common fan depiction is a lonely, misunderstood shy soul that just wants a friend but is unpopular... but not anime Mimikyu, who is a goddamn psychopath with the voice sounding like the combination of nails on a chalkboard crossed with the moaning souls being tortured in hell.

I absolutely love the detail of James and Jessie only being mildly surprised at the neck-snap, but otherwise just treats it as a slightly-creepier-than-normal Pokemon, while Meowth and Wobbuffet are straight-up panicking at the apparently nasty, nasty things that Mimikyu is saying. "Please don't ask me to translate what it's saying". Jessie quite literally throws Meowth into battle against Mimikyu, but after seeing what's under Mimikyu's cloak, Meowth straight up gets sent to hell.

Well, into a horrifying hollow corridor, anyway, where Meowth walks in confusion, before seeing a bizarre hallucination of pretty lady Pokemon like Gardevoir, Lopunny and Glaceon (do not ever google fan-art of them without safe search on. This is a serious warning), before the scene pans out to show Meowth walking in hell while the three Gen-I ghosts fly around him.

Meowth gets 'resurrected' by James and Jessie spraying him with a water bucket, and the whole scene is just a hilarious all around. It's at around this point that Team Ash, who has been just doing nothing but showing off the Rotom Pokedex (BUY THE TOY KIDS) come across them. Mimikyu apparently really, really hates Pikachu, and we get Rotom's little data spiel on Mimikyu. Pikachu's Iron Tail bounces off Mimikyu's head (in-game ability incorporation holy moley!) and then Mimikyu unleashes Play Rough, before using Shadow Claw, which in this case manifests in a gigantic demon claw sprouting out from under his cloak. Mimikyu is awesome.

Oh, and we get the brand-new Team Rocket motto, which is ham-tastic as ever, and uses a lot of great stock footage of their titles flashing across the screen and a dynamic zoom-in. Rotom making fun and genuinely asking Team Rocket if they go to space with rockets is hilarious. Rotom being shocked at a speaking Meowth (despite being a speaking Rotom) is also hilarious.

Meowth goes in to attack Pikachu, but Mimikyu ends up rescuing Meowth from Pikachu's Electro-Ball attack with his own. It's at this point that Meowth translates to everyone present that apparently Mimikyu really, really really hates Pikachu, and they... they basically team up? While the capture doesn't actually happen, Jessie ends up commanding Mimikyu for a bit before Bewear shows up and pretty anticlimactically just grabs Jessie and James and brings them, utterly confused, away into the jungle. Wobbuffet and Meowth bodily drags Mimikyu along to save them.

And... that's honestly a pretty awkward ending, honestly. I get that Bewear treating Team Rocket as runaway cubs and kidnapping them back is going to be a fun little running gag that's honestly pretty hilarious at other points in the season, but the way this is set up is honestly pretty bland. All of the Team Rocket antics, Meowth's little Dante's inferno hallucination and Mimikyu in general are all pretty well done, but the way this episode ends is just so abrupt and such a bizarre anticlimax that I really wished we did get a bit of an actual confrontation between Pikachu and Mimikyu before Bewear interrupts it. 

Rotom Dex:

• Pokemon: Wobbuffet, Meowth, Alolan Exeggutor, Salandit, Grubbin, Persian, Pikachu, Rockruff, Rotom, Bewear, Mimikyu, Litten, Komala, Bounsweet, Popplio, Togedemaru, Glaceon, Gardevoir, Lopunny, Haunter, Gengar, Gastly
• Human: James, Jessie, Giovanni, Professor Kukui, Ash, Kiawe, Mallow, Lana, Sophocles, Lillie, Samuel Oak

Assorted Notes:

• The Japanese episodes are prefaced with a "Poke Problem" quiz segment before and after the episode. In a fun little bit, the question for this episode asks the kiddies "what appliance will Rotom enter this episode", with the other three being a neat little nod to Rotom's appliance forms from the games. 
• Just like the games, Rotom doesn't actually count as being one of Ash's Pokemon, and will never pop up to use moves. 
• In the Japanese version, Ash has a huge trouble pronouncing the English word "Pokedex", causing Rotom to just tell Ash to call him the "Rotom Zukan", the Rotom Pokedex's Japanese name. 
• Team Rocket's motto is modified significantly, and while the sentiment tends to be similar, they do always get new mottos in each region. The Japanese equivalent of "blasting off again", which is "this feels bad!", is changed into "what is this feeling?" when they are abducted by Bewear. 
• Mimikyu's eyes flashing and his creepy voice are just really pretty fucking awesome, yeah?