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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 4 · English episode 1030 · Japanese episode 1036 · Bulbapedia code SM096 |
| English title | Don’t Ignore the Small Stufful! |
| Japanese title | ロケット団とヌイコグマ！ Roketto-dan to Nuikoguma! — “Rocket-dan and Nuikoguma!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 11 November 2018 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 26 March 2019 · Disney XD |
| Screenplay | Aya Matsui |
| 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? | Whimsicott (US) |
| Previous episode | Sparking Confusion! (SM095) |
| Next episode | No Stone Unturned! (SM097) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeBewear is Stufful’s mother
Don’t Ignore the Small Stufful! is the 4th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends, the twenty-second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1030th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1036, Bulbapedia code SM096). It first aired in Japan on 11 November 2018 and in the United States on 26 March 2019. It falls within the season’s Back to school on Melemele stretch (EP93–EP99).
Premiered on Tuesday 26 March 2019, during Disney XD’s premiere week; Teletoon had shown it in Canada on 23 March, the last of four episodes Canada saw first.
Synopsis
Team Rocket infiltrate Aether Paradise disguised as staff, but a stray Stufful latches onto Jessie and blows their cover, until Bewear arrives and is revealed to be its mother. Professor Kukui must attend a conference, so Ash offers to deliver the lunches that Professor Burnet and Munchlax have left behind, and Lillie and Hobbes fly him to Aether Paradise so that Lusamine can hear his account of the Manalo Festival. Team Rocket are already inside dressed as employees, planning to steal the Pokémon in the Conservation Area. Faba grows suspicious, but Wicke vouches for them as new hires and hands Jessie a clipboard to count the Pokémon. James’s Mareanie poisons him and then mops the floors with its tentacles, while Meowth lounges with a group of Whimsicott and daydreams about Giovanni surrounded by Pokémon. Wicke shows Ash and Lillie a Ditto play area and explains that the Foundation cares for Pokémon before returning them to the wild.
With the count finished, Team Rocket are ready to launch their big plan, but Pikachu spots them and they run, dropping the Pokémon list at Faba’s feet. A Stufful has begun following them down a corridor, and when Faba reports it missing, Lusamine, Wicke, Burnet, Ash and Lillie split up to search. Rotom’s Pokédex entry alarms Ash, but Wicke and Burnet assure him that Stufful is harmless, and Wicke remembers freeing this one from under a fallen tree. Meanwhile, James urges Jessie to catch the Stufful. It dodges her first two Poké Balls and headbutts the third straight back into her face, then leaps onto her head and grabs her hair. As Wicke announces the missing Pokémon over the loudspeakers, Team Rocket flee from Ash and Lillie, but Faba spots Stufful clinging to Jessie as she runs past.
Lusamine, Wicke, Burnet, Faba, Lillie and Ash corner the trio on a glass walkway, and Team Rocket answer with their motto. Jessie protests that she would gladly give Stufful back if only it would let go, and Ash orders a Thunderbolt. Before it can land, Bewear crashes through the glass ceiling to rescue Team Rocket. Stufful catches her eye, and with a cry of joy Bewear opens her arms as the little Pokémon leaps into them; Meowth realises that Bewear is Stufful’s mother. Bewear waves to the crowd, bundles up Team Rocket, jumps onto an Aether Foundation helicopter and tears off its rotor blades for Stufful to spin, and the whole family flies home to Melemele Island. Wicke is relieved to see mother and child together. Later she finds a hole in the Conservation Area roof and a leaf of honey on the floor, left by an unseen visitor.
Major Events
- Bewear’s secret. Team Rocket work undercover at Aether Paradise
- Jessie fails to catch a Stufful
- Bewear is revealed as Stufful’s mother and confirmed female, though the dub calls them only family
- The last Japanese episode before Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!
Trivia
- The English title plays on the saying “don’t sweat the small stuff”, for the little Stufful that clings to Jessie.
- The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Alola story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Bewear and Stufful are called only “family”, leaving their relationship as mother and child ambiguous
Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.