JN106

Team Rocket may be up to their usual tricks, but their latest plot to recruit new members involves something uniquely entertaining: a late-night web radio show! But “Team Rocket’s Undercover Kingdom” isn’t just unpopular—it has no listeners. So Jessie, James, and Meowth reformat the show into “Dum-Dum-Dum Z”, which becomes a success with games, giveaways, and listener questions. Meanwhile, Ren and Professor Cerise have become huge fans of the show, not realizing the true identities of its charismatic hosts. Team Rocket’s original goal of finding new members may have faded, but their web radio show is a big hit!

In their secret Vermilion City hideout, the Team Rocket trio is hosting a new late-night radio show called "Team Rocket's Undercover Kingdom Radio". They've been ordered by Giovanni to recruit new members for Team Rocket, and have figured that radio is the best possible method for doing so. However, once the first episode is over, they're distraught to learn from Rotom that not only did they fail to get a single recruit, not a single person even listened to their program. Recovering quickly, Jessie leads the trio into writing the script for the next episode. Meanwhile, at the Cerise Laboratory, Professor Cerise and Ren discover their common interest in listening to live radio shows.

The second episode of Team Rocket's radio show airs the next night, but despite the changes, the end result is, yet again, zero new recruits. Deciding on a major overhaul, the trio decides to shorten the show's overly complicated name, start using nicknames, and hand out memorabilia to mail-senders. James presents badges made of bottle caps as such memorabilia, which Jessie and Meowth consider an excellent idea. To the latter two's surprise, James even offers a Premier Ball from his precious Poké Ball collection as a potential listener gift.

Through many changes, Team Rocket's radio program, now renamed "Dum-Dum-Dum Z", starts becoming more and more popular, gaining new listeners such as Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Brock, Allister, and Ren. The new segments include reading listener mail, guessing what's inside Pelipper's mouth, and "Morpeko's ASMR Time", although the latter segment results in Morpeko eating the puddings meant for everyone. When Ren hears that the radio show hosts are considering making a dedicated listener a script writer for them, he writes a passionate email to the show, which is moving enough to earn the Premier Ball gift.

The next morning, Ash and Goh enter the Cerise Laboratory's kitchen for breakfast just as Ren notices a bottle cap badge pinned to the Professor's chest, and they both realize they've been listening to the new radio show. Ren pulls out his new Premier Ball to show off his own success, but Professor Cerise responds by opening his lab coat and revealing multiple badges, making Ren recognize him as the dedicated listener mentioned on the show. Ash and Goh are confused what the two men are talking about, but since they're happy, they don't mind.

Rejoicing their success, the Team Rocket trio continues making new episodes of their radio show, having completely forgotten their goal of recruiting new members for Team Rocket. The narrator describes how the trio was later scolded by Giovanni over this, but they still continued broadcasting their show on occasion. Suddenly, the trio interrupts the narrator and scolds him for not listening to what they were just saying, before giving him a mail to read for their show, coming from a listener using the pseudonym "Radio Connoisseur".

• James gives his Premier Ball to Ren.

For a list of all major events in Pokémon Journeys: The Series, please see the timeline page.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Cursola

Humans

• Ash
• Brock
• Goh
• Jessie
• James
• Nurse Joy
• Officer Jenny
• Giovanni (portrait)
• Professor Cerise
• Ren
• Allister

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Grookey (Goh's)
• Morpeko (James's; Full Belly Mode and Hangry Mode)
• Chansey (Nurse Joy's)
• Magnemite (Ren's; Francois)
• Cursola (Allister's; debut)
• Rotom (Allister's; Rotom Phone)
• Pelipper (Team Rocket)
• Rotom (Team Rocket's; Rotom Phone)

The "After the story" artwork for this episode

• Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!!: Pelipper
• This episode is a reference to Team Rocket's Secret Empire, a radio show hosted by Megumi Hayashibara, Shin-ichiro Miki, and Inuko Inuyama in character as Jessie, James, and Meowth that ran from July 1 to December 23, 2012.
• This episode was originally scheduled to air in Japan on April 8, 2022 as JN105. The airing date was later changed for unknown reasons.
  • Had this episode aired on its original intended date, it would've aired on the 25th anniversary of Team Rocket's first appearance in the animated series.
• This episode's title card features Meowth instead of Pikachu.
• There is no Dare da? segment in this episode.
• The opening animation is updated to include Goh's Altaria.
• The pseudonym Brock uses in his letter matches his Gym Leader slogan from the games.
• Team Rocket breaks the fourth wall several times during this episode:
  • During the opening that introduces Ash, Goh, and their goals, they interrupt the narrator and pause the screen, before the screen is pulled away.
  • They acknowledge the timings of the opening credits and the commercial break. When Jessie says the numbers in the opening theme's name in Japanese, James and Meowth correct her by saying them in English.
  • At the end of the episode, they interrupt the narrator's closing speech and give him a mail to read for their show.
• It is hinted at the end of the episode that Cilan is a listener of Team Rocket's radio show, as the narrator is given a letter to read from a listener using the pseudonym "Radio Connoisseur". This was later confirmed by official animated series artwork.
• This is the last time Brock is seen in his Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl outfit.
• The English dub title is a reference to the song Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.
• Yamper, Goh, Ash, Bruxish, and Pikachu narrate the preview for the next episode.

Errors

Dub edits

• The title card featuring Meowth is replaced with the one with Pikachu in the English dub.
• In the English dub, Jessie says "Team Rocket's With You", referencing the name of the dub opening theme.