The latest episode of Pokémon Sunday, , aired today in Japan.

Rocket Gang! Goodbye by Fury Swipes!! (ヤドンがヤドランになると) was this weeks repeat episode. The episode features Professor Nishinomori the 5th (ニシノモリ教授 5世) as he studies his Slowpoke. A full synopsis of this episode is available in the episode guide.

To promote the upcoming Pocket Monsters Movie - The Ruler of Illusions Zoroark (幻影の覇者ゾロアーク), the crew held a magic show. Popular Japanese magician Maggy Shinji (マギー審司) was invited on the show. He entered the set and did his signature large ear trick as announcer introduced him. The crew sat down in front of him as he began to perform some tricks.

The first trick he performed was bending two chopsticks at a 90 degree angle without snapping them. He then hands them to Professor Red to make sure there isn't something wrong with them. Red smacks them over Golgo's head to test them and then hands them back satisfied that there wasn't something wrong with them. Maggy Shinji then makes the chopsticks disappear right in front of them and then makes them reappear. He pretends to snap them over his legs and then pulls them out of his butt. The Pokémon Sunday crew is quickly impressed with his skills.

Maggy Shinji then asks the crew for a paper bill for his next trick and Golgo gets out a 10000 yen bill from his socks where he keeps his money. He explains he is going to multiply the money (2万円にふえるマジック) and then begins folding the bill. By the time he is done folding, the bill ends up being a 1000 yen bill. Golgo is obviously upset but the rest of the crew laughs.

For his next trick, the magician puts a closed box of cards on the table and then asks the crew to pick a card. After a brief discussion they decide on the 9 of clubs. Maggy Shinji opens the deck and the only card that they couldn't see the face of when he spread the cards out was the 9 of clubs. The crew gave him a standing ovation for the trick.

For the next segment, Maggy Shinji would preform a trick and then show how the trick was performed. The first trick was Rope through the clothes! ? (1 ロープが服を通り抜ける！？). He took a coat and got Baba and Yamamoto to put the two ropes through the sleeves and then tie them at the front. The both pulled the ropes at the same time and the coat came loose. After the trick was complete, he showed them that the part of the rope that he was holding in his hand wasn't actually connected any longer and had looped back. When they began pulling, the magician let go of his part of the rope which went through the sleeves fine.

The next trick, The pencil from nowhere!(2 何もないところからエンピツが！？) was a slight of hand trick where a pencil would appear and disappear from his hand. He showed that he just put tape on the pencil and was always careful to cover that part of the pencil with his finger so they couldn't see.

The final trick that he explained was: Do you know which one has the Trump Mark on the other side? (3 裏側からトランプのマークがわかっちゃう！？)

After the crew knew how the tricks were done, they decided to put on a PokéSun Magic Show. Golgo and Red did the pencil trick, Robert did the rope trick and Shoko did the card trick. All were able to perform the tricks perfectly.



The pre-order ticket downloads that were announced in the latest issue of Corocoro were also announced on the show. Like previous years, people that pre-order the tickets for the latest movie will be able to download a special Pokémon. This time though there is 3 pre-order Pokémon to download. Pre-order ticket sales begin April 7th, 2010 and are available for purchase till July 9th, 2010. The three Pokémon are: Alternate coloured Entei, Raikou and Suicune. The Pokémon can be downloaded to the Japanese versions of Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver. Raikou knows Zap Cannon (でんじほう), Entei knows Flare Blitz (フレアドライブ) and Suicune knows Sheer Cold (ぜったいれいど). The downloads for the 3 Pokémon starts on June 18th, 2010 and goes until August 31st, 2010.

The magician in this episode was actually quite good. I enjoyed watching this episode especially because he showed the crew and audience how he did the trick. It's always neat to see how its done.