Pokémon Sunday

Pokémon Sunday logo

Pokémon Sunday (Japanese: ポケモン☆サンデー) was a Japanese Pokémon television show that ran on the TV Tokyo network from October 3, 2004 to September 26, 2010. The show was the successor to the Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station and was succeeded by Pokémon Smash!. Like the shows before it, Pokémon Sunday was a sort of variety show featuring reruns of old episodes as well as a number of 'Research' episodes involving live-action elements. The show started out in the 8:00-8:30AM timeslot and was moved to the 7:30-8:30AM timeslot in October 2006.

Unlike the Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station, the live action episodes of Pokémon Sunday actually had a sort of common structure among them. Pokémon Sunday featured a group of people called the Pokémon Research Team. During each new episode, the team goes out and investigates questions submitted to them through the show's website. From October 2004 to September 2006, the regular hosts of Pokémon Sunday were Becky, TIM, and ロバート Robert. When Pokémon Sunday expanded to an hour show in October 2006, 中川翔子 Shōko Nakagawa, nicknamed しょこたん Shokotan, joined the cast and Becky left the cast.

Opening animations

Synopsis

Variant 1

Variant 2

Variant 3

The original opening animation was about 24 seconds long and only lasted a few episodes. It featured Ash throwing a Poké Ball which would then transition into two film strips showing episode clips. Pikachu stands on the horizontal film strip with pom-poms and acts like a cheerleader. Plusle and Minun then replace the cheerleading Pikachu. It then transitions to clouds and the Pokémon Sunday logo.

The second opening was a lot more elaborate and completely done in CGI. It was slightly longer than the original opening, clocking in at approximately 26 seconds. It starts off with the announcer shouting, "Are you ready?" and what looks to be the Kanto region in the background. The Pichu Brothers Rascal Railway PokéPark locomotive crosses the screen and it then transitions to a Pikachu ride with one of the positions as a car. Pikachu, Wobbuffet and Treecko are in the car which motors off the screen and then transitions to another ride. A ferris wheel and three hot-air balloons featuring Skitty, Mudkip and Pichu are shown while the train reappears and crosses the screen again. Finally, it transitions to clouds and the Pokémon Sunday logo.

The third and last variant of the Pokémon Sunday intro debuted in EP053. It starts off with a crowd shouting, "Let's Go!" and then the announcer stating that Pokémon Sunday is about to begin. This is the shortest intro ever used for any Pokémon related television show and only lasts 8 seconds. It is a mix of traditional animation and CGI. A bunch of Pokémon are standing on balloons in the sky and are dancing and cheering. The Pokémon Sunday logo appears and quickly transitions to the title card or research episode. The shortened intro was introduced to allow for more research content and more preview/commercials at the end of the show. A title card is shown twice in the later Pokémon Sunday anime rerun episodes, one introduced by the Pokémon Sunday announcer and the standard episode title card usually announced by Ash.

Characters

Live action hosts

ロバート
TIM
ベッキー（Left Cast on 2006/9）
中川翔子（Joined Cast on 2006/10）

Pokémon

Live action

Wobbuffet
Treecko (2004/10 to 2006/9)
Lucario
Chimchar (Female)
Sableye

First OP animation

Second OP animation

Third OP animation

Trivia

An episode of Pokémon Sunday leading up to the Gold and Silver remakes

An episode of Pokémon Sunday with Junichi Masuda himself revealing the first silhouette of a Generation V Pokémon, Zoroark

The silhouettes of the three Unova first partner Pokémon (Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott) revealed on Pokémon Sunday

The structure of the Research episodes (2004/10 to 2006/9):
1. Opening theme
2. Part A
3. Sponsor listing & commercials
4. Part B
5. Ending theme
6. Next Pokémon Sunday episode teaser
7. Next AG episode preview
8. Pokémon Trivia Quiz question
9. Pokémon Trivia Quiz answer
10. Sponsor listing & commercials
The structure of the anime rerun episodes (2004/10 to 2006/9):
1. Opening theme
2. Title Card (Pokémon Sunday Title Card introduced in later episodes)
3. Anime Episode Part A
4. Title Card
5. Sponsor listing & commercials
6. Anime Episode Part B
7. Pokémon Trivia Quiz question
8. Next Pokémon Sunday episode teaser
9. Next AG episode preview
10. Next research episode teaser
11. Ending theme
12. Pokémon Trivia Quiz answer
13. Sponsor listing & commercials
In The Right Place and the Right Mime, Team Rocket's disguise has Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet dress up as characters from the show, with Jessie dressed up as Becky, James as Red-Hakase, Meowth as Golgo-Sachou, and Wobbuffet as a human cameraman.
Location data exists for Pokémon Sunday in the Generation IV games. This was carried over into the Generation V games, along with the addition of a Wonder Card for Pokémon Sunday; however, neither was ever used in the Generation V games due to the premiere of Pokémon Smash! prior to any event distributions.