A Dream Encounter! – Pokémon Season 21, Episode 1

Plot episodeNebby debutsLusamine and Burnet

A Dream Encounter! is the 1st episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures, the twenty-first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 979th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 984, Bulbapedia code SM044). It first aired in Japan on 5 October 2017 and in the United States on 24 March 2018. It falls within the season’s Nebby & the Aether Foundation stretch (EP44–EP49).

Premiered on Disney XD at 9:00 a.m. (ET/PT) on Saturday 24 March 2018, as The Pokémon Company International had announced on 8 March, opening the launch week in which Disney XD premiered a new episode every day from 24 to 31 March 2018. New Zealand’s TVNZ OnDemand had put SM044–SM051 online on 1 March, and Canada’s Teletoon showed the episode on 10 March.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash dreams that the Legendary Pokémon Solgaleo and Lunala entrust him with a promise, and the next day Tapu Koko leads him to a sleeping Cosmog that Lillie names Nebby. In the dream, Ash and Pikachu stand in a misty mountain range as two lights in the sky become Solgaleo and Lunala; Ash somehow understands them and gives his word, and after they vanish a beam of light forms a tiny, unfamiliar Pokémon. Far away, the guardian deities and Gladion’s Type: Null sense its arrival. Back at Professor Kukui’s house, Rotom fails to wake Ash until Litten slaps him, and Ash realises it was only a dream. At breakfast a television broadcast shows Professor Burnet receiving the “Alola Woman of the Year” award for her research on Ultra Wormholes. Meanwhile, at the Altar of the Sunne, Burnet, Lusamine, Wicke and Faba examine the spot where Burnet detected an Ultra Beast’s energy, though Faba blames faulty equipment.

On the way to school, Tapu Koko appears and leads Ash, Pikachu and Rotom into the forest, where a small cloud-like Pokémon lies asleep. Ash recognises it from his dream and remembers his promise, but Rotom has no data on it. Ash arrives late to class carrying the creature, and the students decide to study it together. Lillie gives it the nickname Nebby, and when it starts to cry, everyone tries to soothe it until Mallow succeeds. Kiawe offers it Moomoo Milk, which it refuses, but the class discovers that Nebby loves Star Candy. At Aether Paradise, Lusamine is alerted to an Ultra Beast aura on Melemele Island and sets off. When Ash and Lillie return to Kukui’s house that afternoon, they learn that visitors have come to see them and Nebby.

The guest is Lusamine, Lillie’s mother, who embarrasses her daughter by fussing over her like a small child. Lillie is still annoyed that Lusamine evolved her beloved Clefairy into a Clefable, and Lusamine replies that the Pokémon was hers to evolve. Kukui introduces Ash to Professor Burnet, while Faba and Lusamine ask to see Nebby. Burnet shows pictures of the guardian deities and of the Ultra Beasts from Alolan legend and suggests that Nebby may be one, since its aura matches the reading at the altar. Ash recognises the altar from his dream and describes what happened there, which Faba dismisses. Lusamine proposes that the Aether Foundation care for Nebby, but Ash insists on keeping his promise himself. When Lillie and Kukui explain Ash’s history with Tapu Koko, Lusamine agrees to let him look after Nebby.

Major Events

• Nebby arrives. Ash dreams that Solgaleo and Lunala entrust him with a promise
• Tapu Koko leads him to a sleeping Cosmog, which Lillie names Nebby
• Professor Burnet is named “Alola Woman of the Year”
• Lusamine lets Ash look after Nebby
• Alola!! returns as the Japanese opening
• Eight Legendary Pokémon appear, the most in any episode
• Nebby is Ash’s first gender-unknown Pokémon
• The Z-Power Ring appears on the title card
• Debuts of Professor Burnet, Wicke and Faba and Lusamine’s first appearance in person
• Anime debuts of Cosmog, Solgaleo, Lunala, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini and Stufful
• Paintings of seven Ultra Beasts

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Cosmog#0789 · SM044
• Solgaleo#0791 · SM044
• Lunala#0792 · SM044
• Tapu Bulu#0787 · SM044
• Tapu Fini#0788 · SM044
• Stufful#0759 · SM044

Captures and evolutions

• Cosmog#0789 · Ash · Nebby, found asleep and entrusted to him, never formally caught

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Aya Matsui.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• The dub’s Who’s That Pokémon? answer, Nebby (Cosmog), is only the second ever given as a nickname
• Debut of the English opening Under the Alolan Moon (Haven Paschall and Ben Dixon)
• The Japanese opening Alola!! returns unchanged

Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.