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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Poltchageist.
Tea, a drink made by infusing hot water with leaves, originated in China millennia ago. Although people had previously eaten tea leaves, nibbling on them raw or cooking them in soups, the origin of tea as a beverage is attributed by legend to Shennong in central China in 2737 BC. From there the habit of drinking tea spread throughout asia to India, Japan, and eventually my home country of England. The English word Tea, the Japanese Cha and the Indian Chai are all different readings of the same original Chinese character.
In Japan, the drinking of Matcha, a powdered tea, became a very ceremonial affair, practiced by the aristocracy in Kyoto and later by samurai lords, the group I find so fascinating for their adoption of high culture as a mask over their barbarous deeds. When I visited Japan for the first time, I took part in a tea ceremony in Kyoto, only to unexpectedly find myself interviewed for Japanese TV about the distinctions between tea culture in Japan and the UK. I did my best to sound smart, but I’d been in Japan less than a month and probably sounded like an idiot. I’d love to find that footage one day . . .
In Galar, we met Sinistea and Polteageist, a pair of ghost-type Pokémon inspired by a tea cup and tea pot respectively. In Kitakami, there is Poltchageist, a ghost and grass-type Matcha pot with its own slender wooden spoon.
Violet
Poltchageist looks like a regional form of Sinistea, but it was recently discovered that the two Pokémon are entirely unrelated.
This line might be a little dig at the amount of so-called Matcha which is sold around the world without meeting the classifications necessary for a tea to be sold as Japan in Japan. Matcha is grown in specific shady conditions and prepared and ground in very particular ways.
Scarlet
Supposedly, the regrets of a tea ceremony master who died before perfecting his craft lingered in some matcha and became a Pokémon.
A strict tea-master was so obsessed with maintaining the protocols of the tea ceremony, he scared away all his guests, without whom his knowledge of the ceremony was pointless. After his death, this regret haunted his tea set and formed Poltchageist, who put people to sleep and mended cracks with matcha in an imitation of the Japanese art of kintsugi, wherein broken items are mended with gold, the damage of the past not being hidden but instead celebrated as part of the object’s history.
This backstory was shown in a youtube video released by the Pokémon company around the time of the Teal Mask DLC’s release. We see Poltchageist’s spooky origins and also its powers at work.
Scarlet
It sprinkles some of its powdery body onto food and drains the life-force from those who so much as lick it.
This secondary pokedex entry comes from the Artisan form. Like the Galarian teacups, Poltchageist can be found in both counterfeit and artisan forms, either actual historic heirloom tea pots or modern ones.
Violet
It has taken up residence in a very expensive tea caddy. It takes an expert to distinguish the expensive tea caddies from the cheap ones.
As with the Galarian equivalents, the only real difference is a small seal of authenticity hidden on their base. And as before, to evolve a Poltchageist requires an unremarkable Teacup to evolve counterfeit form, or a Masterpiece teacup to evolve an Artisan form Poltchageist into Masterpiece form Sinistcha.
Sinitcha is a bowl, as Matcha is traditionally drank from, with the liquid green ghost emerging from the top and wearing a bamboo wig like a kind of hat or wig.
The names Poltchageist and Sinistcha combine poltergeist, a type of ghost, and sinister, a spooky descriptor, with cha or matcha, the Japanese word for tea. Interestingly, these names are switched from Sinistea and Polteageist. This is because in that Pokémon, the small tea-cup evolves into the larger tea-pot, going from drinking vessel to source. Here, the smaller vessel contains only powder, a very small scoop of which is added to the much larger bowl when the time comes to have a drink.
Violet
It prefers cool, dark places, such as the back of a shelf or the space beneath a home's floorboards. It wanders in search of prey after sunset.
Masterpiece Form
Scarlet
It lives inside a superb teacup that was crafted by a potter of great renown. Collectors positively adore this Pokémon.
Cool, dark places are where Matcha is grown, compared to in the sun as for most other teas.
Scarlet
It pretends to be tea, trying to fool people into drinking it so it can drain their life-force. Its ruse is generally unsuccessful.
Despite this, Sinistcha actually has some success competitively. While Polteageist was a very attacking focused monster, Sinistcha is more defensive. It has the ability Hospitality which allows it to heal its partner when it joins a battle, idea for two-on-two matches, or it can have the heatproof ability, which negates its weakness to fire type and is well-suited to singles gameplay. Along with these abilities, it has nice bulky stats and decent moves including the unique Matcha Gotcha which damages opponents, heals Sinistcha and has a potential to burn – a potent mix.
Violet
The more stirring it does with the tea whisk on its head, the more energy it builds up. It does this to prepare for battle.
Appropriately enough for a brit who moved to Japan, I love a good cup of tea. My go-to remains a cup of English Breakfast with a dash of milk, but I do thoroughly enjoy any chance to go into a fancy traditional teahouse and sip matcha with a fancy sweet – whether the attendant is strict or not.
Music for Luke Loves Pokémon is composed by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. Writing, Producing and Editing is by me, Luke Summerhayes. Funding is provided by my lovely listeners. If you’d like to join them, to help keep the show online and find other podcasts by me and my pals, head over to Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius.
Coming up are Okidogi and Munkidori, so if you thoughts about those or any other monsters, hit me up with a DM @LukeLovesPKMN or an email to LukeLovesPKMN@Gmail.com. And of course, I’d love if you could leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Poltchageist. And remember. I love you too.