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| Season | Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends (Season 22) · Back to school on Melemele arc (SM093–SM099) |
| Episode | Season 22, episode 1 · English episode 1027 · Japanese episode 1033 · Bulbapedia code SM093 |
| English title | Lillier and the Staff! |
| Japanese title | 勇者リリエルとアローラの杖！ Yūsha Ririeru to Arōra no Tsue! — “The Hero Lilier and the Staff of Alola!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 21 October 2018 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 23 March 2019 · Disney XD |
| Screenplay | Jun’ichi Fujisaku |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Kimi no Bōken (Your Adventure) – Taiiku Okazaki · Jari Bōi Jari Gāru (Twerp, Twerpette) – Taiiku Okazaki |
| English opening | The Challenge of Life – Dani Marcus and The Sad Truth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Tapu Fini (US) |
| Next episode | A Haunted House for Everyone! (SM094) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeSchool playJessie as “Lunala”
Lillier and the Staff! is the 1st episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends, the twenty-second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1027th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1033, Bulbapedia code SM093). It first aired in Japan on 21 October 2018 and in the United States on 23 March 2019. It falls within the season’s Back to school on Melemele stretch (EP93–EP99).
Premiered on Disney XD and the DisneyNOW app at 9:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday 23 March 2019, the first of eight new episodes on eight consecutive days, as The Pokémon Company International had announced on 28 February; Teletoon had already shown it in Canada on 2 March 2019.
Synopsis
The Pokémon School stages a fantasy play starring Lillie as the hero Lillier, and Jessie hijacks it by swinging onstage as the Legendary Pokémon Lunala. Outside the school, a stray copy of the script hits Jessie in the face while Team Rocket are selling honey-glazed doughnuts, and she is soon lost in daydreams of the stage. Backstage, Ash cannot find his lines and borrows Rotom’s copy, and the class learns that their families, including Delia and Mr. Mime, are in the audience. Principal Samson Oak welcomes the guests and the curtain rises, with Mallow narrating. King Sophocles and Queen Tsareena hand Lillier the Staff of Alola so that she can gather the power of the Legendary Pokémon, and she visits the island guardian deities, played by Ash, Mallow, Lana and Sophocles. Delia’s cheering makes Ash so nervous that he forgets his lines until Mallow prompts him.
After a dance by the Pokémon of Alola, Lillier climbs a mountain to meet Kiawe in the role of Solgaleo. Suddenly Jessie descends from the rafters dressed as Lunala, hanging from a rope held by James, Meowth and Wobbuffet. The audience is delighted, but the students are horrified, and Rotom closes the curtain on Act One. Kiawe demands an explanation, and Jessie introduces herself as the great actress Jessa-Bergère, insisting that the script be rewritten to give her the most stage time. When the students object, Rotom offers to write a new script by drawing on its database, and as Team Rocket try to slip away the students rope them into the cast. The second act becomes a wild jumble of scenes, opening with a baseball game and lurching through Ultra Beasts, police officers, shadow puppets and an appearance by Alolan Detective Laki, yet the crowd loves every minute.
In the finale, Lillier asks Lunala for the power of the moon. Jessie spins in a shower of rose petals, but Meowth loses his grip on the rope and she plunges towards the stage until Bewear appears out of nowhere and catches her. Jessie grants Lillier the moon’s power and announces that she must return to the moon, whereupon Bewear yanks the rope and flings her clean out of the concert hall. Bewear then gathers up James, Meowth and Wobbuffet, leaps through the building, catches Jessie in midair and bounds away into the distance. The play carries on as if nothing has happened, and Lillier triumphantly declares that Alola has been saved. As the applause swells, Ash and his classmates gather onstage with their Pokémon to take a bow and thank their families. A short coda introduces a wild Eevee setting out on a journey of its own.
Major Events
- The school play. The class stages Lillier and the Staff with Lillie as the hero, and Jessie hijacks it as Lunala under the stage name Jessa-Bergère
- Bewear catches Jessie and carries Team Rocket away
- Delia and Mr. Mime watch from the audience
- Jessie recites the motto alone
- The first Where Are You Going, Eevee? short follows the episode
- Kenyu Horiuchi replaces the late Unshō Ishizuka as Samson Oak’s Japanese voice
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Jun’ichi Fujisaku.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Alola story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Jessie’s stage name Musabarbara becomes “Jessa-Bergère”
- Lisa Ortiz voices Jessie in her Lina Inverse costume
- Debut of the English opening The Challenge of Life (Dani Marcus and The Sad Truth)
- The first Where Are You Going, Eevee? short follows the Japanese ending; the dub places it before the credits
Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.