Day-Care Couple: Difference between revisions

The Day Care couple (Japanese: そだてやふうふ Day Care couple) are an elderly pair of non-player characters who offer Trainers the opportunity to raise their Pokémon on their behalf. They are known individually as the Day Care Man and the Day Care Lady. Since the Day Care Man's debut in Generation I and their combined debut in Generation II, a different couple have appeared at every Pokémon Day Care in each game.

The Day Care couple have also appeared in several non-game media.

In the games

The Day Care couple (or one member thereof) appear in every main series Pokémon game. They will (for a small fee) take up to two of a Trainer's Pokémon and raise their levels for them. This effectively allows players to train up to eight Pokémon at one time. Pokémon under their care will not evolve, even if they meet the criteria.

The couple offer the player the only method of breeding Pokémon, which has been an important aspect of the games ever since Generation II. The Day Care Man will usually stand outside to alert the Trainer if an egg has been laid, while his wife will deal with all transactions indoors.

Some of the Day Care couples have relatives, both named and unnamed. The Hoenn couple are known to have four grandchildren, while the Johto couple are revealed to be the grandparents of the player's friend from New Bark Town, Lyra/Ethan.

The only region in which a Day Care couple is not present is the Kanto region. Breeding was not a mechanic of the Generation I games when Kanto was introduced, so only one person, the Day Care Man, was included in the games. He and his wife have been in every game since Generation II, including the Red and Green remakes Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. In these games the couple is present in the Sevii Islands; the lone Day Care man remains in the original Kanto Day Care center.

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Day Care Man gives his and the Day Care Lady's number to the player. The player can call the Day Care Lady to check their Pokémon's levels, while the Day Care Man can tell whether two Pokémon like each other and whether they produced an egg or not.

In Black and White, the Day Care will only accept one Pokémon initially. Two Pokémon may be left after the player has received the Bicycle in Nimbasa City. This makes breeding Pokémon impossible until the player has obtained the first three badges. When the player's Pokémon have made an egg, the Day Care man will occasionally yell at the player to come over here in order to notify the player that an egg has been made.

In the anime

Several characters based indirectly on the Day Care couple have appeared in the anime.

Mr. Shellby and his wife run a daycare center in the anime-exclusive town of Eggseter, Johto. While no mention of training others' Pokémon is made during the only episode they appeared in, they do care for and hatch Pokémon eggs. Ash was given one as a prize for winning the Extreme Pokémon Race.

Angie's parents run a daycare center in Solaceon Town. While they are not as aged as the Day Care couple, they do raise other Trainers' Pokémon. Unlike the couple in the games, Pokémon in their care have been known to evolve.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

The Day Care couple from Goldenrod City are important characters in the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga. When they were young, they were good friends with Professor Oak, Agatha, Kurt, and Pryce. The Day Care Lady was also a great singer, and she sang the song "Riding On The Stars" to cheer Pryce up when his two Lapras died. Gold (reluctantly) did chores under her supervision when he was at the Day Care in Vs. Quilava where, his Cyndaquil evolved into a Quilava after fighting numerous Pokémon being kep there, a sight he was overjoyed to see. In the next round, they sent Gold to Ecruteak City after Jasmine called and said she'd be glad to see what her two Togetic's egg hatched into, but lost contact after the earthquake that Team Rocket instigated there.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga

In Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys, the Day Care couple are young, as opposed to the usual older couple. In Let's Use Fighting Type Pokémon!!, they invite Gold to a tournament run by the Day Care Center, and in A Huge Mysterious Tree!!, they give him a Pokémon egg.

This game character article is part of Project CharacterDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each character found in the Pokémon games.