Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 045:  "Utatte!  Purin!" ("Sing!  Purin!")
American Episode 043:  "The Song of Jigglypuff"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Purin
Japanese Air Date:  May 21st, 1998
American Air Date:  February 20th, 1999
Important Places:  Neon Town (Neon Town)

Satoshi-tachi are on their way through the desert when they stumble across Neon Town.  However, the people there are mean-tempered and cranky.  Officer Junsa tells them (she actually yells at them) that the citizens of Neon Town don't get enough sleep, and therefore they are cranky.  Satoshi-tachi stay the night at a hotel, and when they awaken to the sound of people arguing, they decide they must leave.  In the woods, it is a lot more peaceful than the noisy town.  Just then, a Purin appears!  Kasumi sends out Hitodeman, who is ordered to tackle it.  After noticing something wrong with the pokemon, Satoshi looks it up on the Zukan.  It informs the group that Purin can sing, but this particular Purin cannot.

Meanwhile, the Rocket Dan are concocting a plan to put everyone in Neon Town to sleep with Purin's song.  Then they can steal all the town's valuable and rare pokemon.  Introducing themselves through a song ("Roketto Dan yo Eien ni", or "Rocket Dan Forever").  They tell Satoshi-tachi that they'll steal Purin, so Satoshi sends out Fushigidane while Kojirou sends out Matadogasu.  Fushigidane's vine attack sends Matadogasu whirling out of control, creating a smoke screen over Musashi and Kojirou.  Then Kasumi's Hitodeman uses its water gun to blast them away.

Later, Satoshi-tachi are trying to coach the Purin's singing.  After trying to blow a balloon (to build its lungs) Takeshi remembers a special fruit that has the power to restore a person's voice.  The plant is grown nearby and is soon picked and given to Purin.  It works!  Purin's voice is restored, and it sings a short lullaby.  Yatta!  Soon, it is ready to give a performance on top of a tree stump.  It sings its lullaby as the Rocket Dan come near with a tape recorder, trying to get its voice on tape (because that's all they need).  When Purin is finished, it notices that everyone's fallen asleep!  Angry, it takes a marker out of Satoshi's backpack and writes al over their faces.  Then it notices the Rocket Dan and slaps them a lot, but they don't wake up.

Satoshi-tachi wake up, and find Purin to be sad.  They decide that they can't stay awake during its hypnotic song, so Takeshi suggests they see if their pokemon can sit through a performance.  They cannot as they all fall asleep.  Then Kasumi brings out her Koduck, saying it's so dumb that it wouldn't be affected.  When Purin's done, it seems as if Koduck is awake, but it is merely sleeping with its eyes open.  After much thought, they decide to go to Neon Town.  They figure that the people never get any sleep anyway, so Purin's song wouldn't affect it.  They get to town and look for an outdoor stage, but are unable to find one.  Just then, Musashi and Kojirou, dressed up as rockers, tell Satoshi-tachi that they can use the outdoor stage on the back of their truck.  Satoshi thanks them as Musahshi and Kojirou put earplugs in their ears.  Purin, after preparing, starts to sing.  Its song is carried throughout the whole town, putting all the people to sleep.  Even the Rocket Dan with their earplugs fall asleep.  When it finishes, it angrily goes around to every person in the town and writes on their faces.

Everyone wakes up and is in a cheerful mood.  Apparently the good night's rest did them some good.  Satoshi-tachi leave the town, wondering where Purin is.  But unknown to them, Purin is right behind them.

---

In the first pan shot of Neon Town, there is a sign that says "SUTAA" (Star) in katakana on a red sign.  It is erased.  This shot is recycled throughout the episode, and in each case the word is covered up.

Right after Officer Junsa first drives up, there is a shot of Satoshi with Pikachu on his head and Junsa's back to the camera ("I'm sorry, officer, but we just got into town").  The green sign at the top had a pink kanji symbol (it looks like a flower...) and between the left Satoshi's head and shoulders there's a red sign with "...uto."  Both have been erased.

As Musashi and Kojirou are walking through town, at the very top of the shot there's a red sign that says "Konbini...."  It's been erased.

Musashi bumps into that big woman.  So to punish her, she spanks Musashi!  Kojirou is simply pounded by the guy with the really long arms, but Musashi is picked up and spanked by the big woman!  On the TV version, this part is cut out and instead the part with Nyasu looking afraid is lengthened.  I heard that in the video version this scene is unaltered, so this is just a Kids' WB! thing.  And for those of you curious, there was also a red sign near the big woman in this shot that says "Koilu" (Koil, as in the pokemon).

The Rocket Dan sing!  The Japanese title of the song is "Roketto Dan yo Eien ni" and a longer version was made for CD.  The English version is NOT a translation by any means; the English songs talks about how beautiful they are, while the Japanese one talks about a darkness in the universe and that how they (Musashi and Kojirou) will show them the light.  The Japanese lyrics are:

Uchuu no hate ga kurayami naraba
Shira jira akete misemashou
Hashire!
Kagayake!
Hikatte miseru!
(Nya-n te nya)

Ai ga seigi ka,
Seigi ga aku ka
Donden kae shi no karakuri shibai
Mite yo warera ga shuyaku no DORAMA
Pokemon jidai wa ashita ga aru

The English version has the same background music, but the song isn't sung to the same tune.  The english voices don't quite fit the pacing of the song.  There have been some fake video clips from this episode where people take footage off the TV (as seen by the Kids' WB! logo at the bottom right-hand corner) and put the song in.

*The Purin song is to the same tune as the English song, with "Pu Puri Pu..." replacing "Jiggl~ypuff."

The pan shot of Neon Town as the gang returns has a bunch of signs painted over, usually just erased without being replaced/translated into English.  There are a total of seven signs in this one shot changed; a red one with English letters saying "PFAJ," a long blue one with just a bunch of scribbles, a green one with some kanji on it, a white one with some kanji on it, a red one with kanji on it, a pink one with kanji on it, and a big green one with "Pachinko" written in katakana.  All were erased without being replaced by anything.  Even the sign in English letters and the scribbling were erased.  Quite a bit of changes for a five-second shot.

Episodes like this make 4Kids' rule of erasing all Japanese characters on-screen especially time-consuming.  In fact, I believe that if it weren't for the fact that this episode introduces Purin, this episode would have been put off for later like the Girls' Day Festival and Children's Day Specials were.

*Is it just me or are the dubbed Musashi and Kojirou's punk rocker accents REALLY bad?

Right as Purin starts to sing, in the first shot showing people's reactions, there's a blue sign on the left side of the screen that says "Konpan" in English letters.  This is erased.

When Purin's singing, did you notice a LOT of the stores having no names?  Why wouldn't a coffee shop or a hotel have a huge sign without their name?  Sorry I don't have what these stores are called.

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