Mr. Kaplan: The Capture Teacher Who Plays the Villain

In Almia, learning to capture starts with a prank. Mr. Kaplan teaches at the Ranger School, and his subject is capturing with the Capture Styler, the move the entire Pokémon Ranger series is built on. The player meets him right after the entrance exam, for a hands-on class that the teacher immediately turns into a stage act.

Contents

• The Teacher You Meet Right After the Exam
• His Lesson Is the Capture Styler's User Manual
• "Team School": A Conspiracy for Laughs
• What the Game Lets You Guess About the Rest
• Mr. Kaplan at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Teacher You Meet Right After the Exam

Mr. Kaplan is a teacher at the Ranger School, in the Almia region, and the game gives him the most hands-on subject in the whole school: capturing. The player meets him on the way out of the entrance exam, in other words at the exact moment they've just made their first capture and need someone to explain what they just did.

That entrance exam is itself the first lesson: you have to catch a Pikachu, with instructions popping up on screen as you go. Kaplan steps in once the test is passed, to congratulate the new student and praise the quality of their capture.

A little later, Rhythmi asks him to go over the basics again with the player, judging that a full refresher wouldn't hurt. From then on, Kaplan keeps his door permanently open: he explicitly invites you to come back any time to retake the lesson.

⚡ The test subject of the very first lesson has its own section: see the Pikachu products.

His Lesson Is the Capture Styler's User Manual

The class he gives is first and foremost a tool tutorial. He shows how to bring up the Capture Disc on the touch screen, how to slide it with the stylus to draw the Capture Line, then how to loop that line around the target creature. Each full loop conveys a feeling of friendship to the Pokémon, and the gauge beneath it fills up until the capture succeeds.

He also spells out the limit of the technique, which is the real rule of the game: that feeling leaves no trace in the Pokémon's memory. If the Ranger stops partway, the gauge drains back down and everything has to start over. A capture isn't progress you bank bit by bit; it's a move you have to complete in one continuous stroke.

The second half of the class covers wear and tear on the equipment. An attack that hits the Line or the Disc drains the Capture Styler's energy, and Kaplan has the principle demonstrated by a Pichu. Once the energy runs out, it's game over: hence his very unheroic advice to give up in time and tap the flee icon.

"Team School": A Conspiracy for Laughs

His trademark comes down to one joke he never tires of repeating: he introduces himself as a member of the mysterious "Team School," a secret army bent on ruling the planet, whose badge is supposedly the Capture Styler. The new student is declared recruited on the spot, without having asked for anything.

The gag works mostly because his colleagues refuse to play along. Ms. April orders him to behave and points out that his act amuses no one but him; Ms. Claire advises the player to ignore his so-called conspiracies. Kaplan apologizes, then starts all over again at the first opportunity, including in the "secret hideout" he improvises.

The setting confirms the inclination. On his desk sits a book titled "Drama for Beginners," a detail that makes hamming it up a discipline he works at rather than a mere personality trait. The character drops the act as soon as everyone genuinely needs calming down, and includes himself in the instruction.

What the Game Lets You Guess About the Rest

His private life is never stated outright; it has to be inferred. In Pueltown, two children explain that their parents teach capturing and Target Clearing at the Ranger School; putting that together with Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Claire makes them a couple, even though no line of dialogue ever says so.

Outside the game, there's just one appearance, and the same job: the manga adaptation casts him as an instructor who teaches how to handle the Capture Styler. From one medium to the next, the character is defined by what he passes on rather than by what he owns — he doesn't even have a single confirmed Pokémon.

Mr. Kaplan at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Mr. Kaplan?
  A teacher at the Ranger School, in Almia. He's in charge of capturing, and the game relies on him to explain to the player how the Capture Styler works.
• What is "Team School"?
  A secret organization made up entirely by Mr. Kaplan as a joke. He claims it wants to rule the world and that the Capture Styler is its badge, much to the annoyance of his colleagues Ms. April and Ms. Claire.
• What does his capture lesson cover?
  Using the stylus to handle the Capture Disc and the Capture Line, filling the friendship gauge, losing progress when you stop, the Capture Styler's energy draining under attacks, and the option to flee before it runs out.
• Can you retake his class later?
  Yes. After the refresher Rhythmi asks for, Mr. Kaplan invites the player to come back as often as they like to brush up on capturing.
• Does Mr. Kaplan have any Pokémon?
  None is attributed to him. The Pokémon that appear around him, Pikachu and Pichu, serve as teaching aids during the exam and the demonstration.

In short

Mr. Kaplan fills a role few characters embrace so openly: he's the voice of the tutorial, and he knows it. Where other games hide their instructions, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia hands them to a teacher who dresses the lesson up as a global plot, before explaining in all seriousness why you sometimes have to abandon a capture and run. A teacher of technical moves who rehearses his entrances first.