| To Train, or Not to Train!
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コハルと不思議な不思議なイーブイ！
Koharu and the Mysterious, Mysterious Eievui!
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First broadcast
| Japan
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December 11, 2020
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| United States
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September 10, 2021
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
| Animation
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Team Kato
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| Screenplay
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松井亜弥 Aya Matsui
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| Storyboard
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齋藤徳明 Noriaki Saitō
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| Assistant director
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中田誠 Makoto Nakata
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| Animation directors
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柳原好貴 Yoshitaka Yanagihara
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| 武内啓 Akira Takeuchi
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| No additional credits are available at this time.
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To Train, or Not to Train! (Japanese: コハルと不思議な不思議なイーブイ！ Koharu and the Mysterious, Mysterious Eievui!) is the 49th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,134th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on December 11, 2020, in Canada on June 12, 2021, in South Africa on August 3, 2021, in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2021, and in the United States on September 10, 2021.
Blurb
As Goh and Chloe head to school, Chloe reveals she hasn’t decided whether she’ll ever catch a Pokémon of her own. Meanwhile, Yamper catches the attention of an Eevee inside the Eevee Evolution Lab. Eevee escapes and joins Yamper, but some researchers are in hot pursuit. The Pokémon run to the school, and when Chloe and Goh come outside to investigate, they encounter the researchers—and then Team Rocket! Chloe, Yamper, and Eevee help defeat Team Rocket, but when it’s time for the researchers to leave with Eevee, it runs back to Chloe. The researchers recognize this new friendship, and with their blessing, Eevee becomes Chloe’s very first Pokémon catch!
Plot
At the Eevee Evolution Lab, a female Eevee intensely watches her evolutions and tries to mimic some of them. First, she tries strutting like Sylveon, only to trip on a stone her path, before trying to swim like Vaporeon and nearly drowning in the process. Head of the Lab, Pinery, spots the Eevee and brings her into the lab to continue more experiments. She and her assistants try a Fire Stone first, but Eevee doesn't evolve as expected. The Thunder Stone also fails to trigger an evolution, leaving the scientists baffled.
On their way to school, Goh asks Chloe why she hasn't caught any Pokémon yet. Chloe replies that she has Yamper, though Goh remarks that Yamper actually belongs to her father and again presses for an answer. Chloe admits she probably won't catch any Pokémon, revealing that she wants to make her own decisions instead of feeling any pressure to follow in her father's footsteps as a researcher. Goh apologizes, and Chloe thanks him, adding that she will decide her own path in her own time. Chloe then wonders why Goh is attending school today, and he admits that he promised the teacher that he would attend school on any test days.
Arriving at school, the teacher orders Goh to leave any Pokémon in the school yard to play. As expected, Sobble is overwhelmed by its emotions and starts crying instantly at the thought of being left alone in the school yard with all the other Pokémon. Goh calls out his Cinderace to comfort Sobble, and it quickly finds the task to be daunting. Spying from the bushes, Team Rocket spots an opportunity to steal all of the students’ Pokémon and soon don school student disguises.
The Eevee wanders out of the Lab after spotting Yamper, who has abandoned Ash on one of his walks, going past. Eevee tries mimicking Yamper’s waddling walk and sneeze, leading her to be discovered. Yamper instantly becomes aggressive, and Eevee copies his intimidation attempt before trying to tackle Yamper, which fails miserably. Initially annoyed by the stranger, Yamper happily greets the Eevee with a wag of his tail. The lab assistants, armed with a net, chase after the Eevee, however Eevee and Yamper run away. Ash soon notices the pursuit, and is left confused when he sees Yamper and an Eevee being chased. The runaway duo reach the school gates, where Yamper quickly picks up Chloe’s scent and they escape into the school yard.
The familiar bark instantly gets Chloe's attention. Managing to excuse herself from the test, Chloe greets Yamper outside, wondering what he is doing at the school. Yamper beckons Chloe to follow him, and he leads her to the school rose garden to meet Eevee. Chloe is speechless and stares intensely at Eevee for several moments. Yamper interrupts the moment when he spots the lab assistants searching nearby. Chloe hushes Eevee before bundling her up to keep her safe, while the assistants walk past not noticing anything. Chloe soon gives Goh a call to meet her outside. Goh finds Chloe, Yamper and the Eevee hiding behind a hedge. He is quickly overcome with excitement at the sight of Eevee, revealing that Eevee has eight possible evolutions. Chloe admits she is hiding because it appears that some people are chasing after Eevee, and points to the suspicious lab assistants wandering nearby. Goh comes up with a plan, so he approaches the suspicious people directly while Chloe tries to escape undetected. His forthrightness leaves them both stunned, but the lab assistants soon spot Chloe carrying Eevee away. Goh resorts to tackling them, allowing Chloe to make a clean getaway.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket are vacuuming up all of the school students' Pokémon, including Goh's Sobble and Cinderace. While searching for Yamper, Ash arrives on the scene and orders them to stop. He and Pikachu fall into a pitfall trap, with Team Rocket gloating that they pre-empted the twerp's interventions. Soon, Goh and Chloe stumble upon the scheme, with the lab assistants closely behind. As the assistants order Eevee be returned, Goh and Chloe shout them down, adding that they will not hand Eevee over to "bad people" that want to hurt her. Realizing that two of them have mistaken them for villains, the lab assistants explain to Goh and Chloe that they're not who they think they are, but just researchers from the Eevee Evolution Lab, much to their surprise. Hearing Goh from a distance, Ash calls out for help and alerts him to the real situation at hand - the missing Pokémon. With a sneer, Team Rocket removes their disguises and performs their motto. Summoning the Rocket Prize Master for reinforcements, Meowth leaps into the coin slot to activate the device. Surprisingly, however, the vending machine doesn't work. James resorts to shaking it while Jessie shouts for Pelipper to take responsibility for the malfunction. Pelipper flies back immediately, and agrees to stand in for the battle against the twerps. Pelipper approaches with a Wing Attack, easily knocking Yamper back and not sustaining any damage from his Spark attack. Seeing Yamper get struck down, Eevee breaks out of Chloe's arms and decides its wants to battle as well. As Yamper begins charging up with electricity, Eevee uses Copycat to mimic it. James calls for a Hydro Pump next, while Eevee and Yamper launch a double Spark attack and send it blasting off. Team Rocket are shocked by Pelipper's quick defeat, but push forward with their scheme as they try to make off with the stolen Pokémon. Ash has Pikachu use Iron Tail to free the Pokémon from the net, follow by a Thunderbolt which sends Team Rocket blasting off.
Eevee is later returned to Pinery and her assistants by evening, with Professor Cerise apologizing on behalf of Goh and Chloe's misunderstanding. Chloe is speechless as she watches Eevee leave with the researchers. The feelings seem mutual, as Eevee leaps from Pinery's arms and rushes to hug Chloe. Ash remarks that Eevee really loves Chloe, and Pinery agrees. She reveals that this Eevee is particularly mysterious, as she hasn't evolved during any of their experiments. Chloe clarifies that Eevee refuses to evolve into any of its eight evolutions, and Pinery admits that the genetics of any Eevee are unstable. She also theorizes that maybe this Eevee is hesitant to decide which evolution it undergoes. Pinery then asks Chloe to look after Eevee, and she happily accepts. Goh remarks that this will be Chloe's first catch and offers her a Poké Ball to make it official. Eevee leaps from Chloe's arms, wagging her tail in anticipation. Chloe then grabs the Ball, and crouches down before Eevee happily enters the Poké Ball. Chloe calls Eevee back out, and she enthusiastically leaps back into Chloe's embrace and quickly makes friends with the other Pokémon. Chloe also receives a pink Rotom Phone from her father, Professor Cerise, to commemorate her first step towards becoming a Trainer. Chloe scans Eevee with the Pokédex function, and considers Pinery's words about Eevee’s many possible evolutions. She then promises Eevee that they will take one step at a time, together.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Eevee
Trivia
- Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!!: Eevee
- Ash, Goh, and Chloe read the title card of this episode.
- This was the last episode to air before M23 premiered in Japanese theaters.
- This marks the first time a female Eevee with a visible gender difference has appeared in the anime. However, this was not the case for other Eevee confirmed to be female seen earlier in the anime, such as Virgil's and Serena's, as the Eevee species was already created long before the introduction of gender differences.
- This is the first Pokémon Journeys: The Series episode to feature one of Team Rocket's pitfall traps.
- One of the lab staff members was previously seen in Legend? Go! Friends? Go!, participating in the Raid Battle against Lugia.
- Goh wears his school uniform for the entirety of this episode.
- Bray Zenn, Cara Liss, Ash, Goh, Chloe, and Pikachu narrate the preview for the next episode.
- The English dub title is a reference to a famous phrase "To be, or not to be, that is the question" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
- This is the first episode of Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series.
Errors
- When Jessie turns around after hearing the lab assistants calling out to Goh, Chloe, Yamper, and Eevee while chasing them, the cyan bowties on her hair of her school uniform disguise is the same color as her hair.
- In the Canadian broadcast of the English dub on Teletoon, the opening theme is played with vocals during the ending credits. Although the instrumental version is played in the version on Netflix, the lyrics are still displayed in the closed captions.
Dub edits
In other languages
| Language
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Title
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 Danish
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At træne eller ikke at træne!
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 Dutch
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Trainen, of niet trainen!
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 Finnish
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Kouluttako vai eikö kouluttaa?
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 European French
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Être Dresseuse ou ne pas l'être... telle est la question !
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 German
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Trainieren oder nicht trainieren!
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 Italian
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Allenare o non allenare?
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 Norwegian
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Å trene, eller ikke trene!
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| Portuguese
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 Brazil
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Treinar ou não treinar!
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 Portugal
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Treinar ou não treinar!
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 Russian
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Тренировать или не тренировать!
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| Spanish
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 Latin America
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¡Entrenar o no entrenar!
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 Spain
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¡Entrenar o no entrenar!
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Danish
Dutch
Finnish
European French
German
Italian
Norwegian
Brazil
Portugal
Russian
Latin America
Spain
