Japanese Title: Sing! Purin!
Original Airdate: May 21st, 1998
US Airdate: Febuary 20th, 1999
The one where... Jigglypuff becomes a reoccurring extra.
Our heroes trudge along, resigning themselves to the idea of camping out in the desert as the sun slowly sets. Suddenly they see bright lights in front of them: a glamorous city appears before them, covered in neon lights. They have found Neon Town, a city that is loud and boisterous 24 hours a day, famous for having no nights. The residents of Neon City sleep as little as possible and use all of their time to play. Behind the other side of the town's glorious facade, however, people are always angry and irritated. Fights being an everyday occurrence, Jenny, the policewoman, is terribly busy. Having had enough of a town so noisy one can't even sleep at night, our heroes head out into the peaceful forest. There they chance across Jigglypuff, the singing Pokémon.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Berserk Button:
- Jigglypuff does not like having people sleep through her song.
- Pretty much everyone in Neon Town blows up at the littlest of things, such as being walked into (or even walking into other people themselves)
- Comedic Spanking: Jessie is a victim of this early on in the episode. This scene got censored in some versions of the English dub.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- While Jigglypuff does have a good reason to get angry for everyone falling asleep while it's singing since it thinks they did so out of boredom, the fact that they can't help it and it's just the effect the singing normally has makes its Face Doodling retaliation this.
- The citizens of Neon Town assault people for mild inconveniences such as being walked into.
- Epic Fail: Team Rocket tries to record Jigglypuff's singing for them to use. They end up recording their snoring instead, despite James using a boom mic.
- Expy: Neon Town for Las Vegas.
- Eye Catch: This episode, the Who's that Pokémon is Jigglypuff.
- Face Doodling: When Jigglypuff gets angry at those for sleeping over its singing, she draws on the sleepers' faces.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the episode focuses on the group trying to help Jigglypuff learn how to sing. This issue is solved early on, with the rest of the episode spent on trying to find someone who can listen to Jigglypuff's whole song without falling asleep.
- Hope Spot: Just when it seems Psyduck stayed awake through Jigglypuff's song, Misty tips him over to reveal he Fell Asleep Standing Up and with his eyes open.Misty: YOU STUPID POKEMON! YOU'RE JUST SLEEPING WITH YOUR EYES OPEN!
Psyduck: PSY?! - Jerkass: Everyone in Neon Town is cranky from a lack of sleep.
- Magic Music: This episode showcases the move Sing, which causes everyone who hear it to fall asleep.
- Neon City: The Vegas-like Neon Town, where the lights are always on and nobody seems to sleep. The Officer Jenny there has a notably short temper from being overworked.
- Never My Fault: A woman in Neon Town starts spanking Jessie because the former walked into her, then put the blame on Jessie.
- Shout-Out:James: Crank the speakers up to eleven.
- Sleep Cute: Ash and Misty fall asleep like this while listening to Jigglypuff sing for the first time.
- Sleep Deprivation: This is the reason everyone in Neon Town is so rude and grumpy. As Officer Jenny explains, everyone is on edge because they stay up all night, and says this while clearly grumpy and on edge herself from lack of sleep. Ash and his friends later say they couldn't sleep even at the hotel due to all the noise going on around the city.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Everybody in Neon Town, as a side effect of Jigglypuff's song.
