Literature / PJ Masks

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Les Pyjamasques, now known as Pyjamasques, is a picture book and television franchise created and introduced as a series of books by the French author Romuald Racioppo. The series began on March 29, 2007 with the release of Les Pyjamasques et le Grogarou.

Midnight is a time when most children would be sound asleep in their beds. Not if you’re one of Les Pyjamasques! These three kids have special pyjamas that grant them unique powers: Yoyo speeds around as fast and agile as a cat; Gluglu can turn invisible and run on up and along walls as well as any lizard; and Bibou, with her feathery wings, soars with the beauty and grace of a bird! Together, they embark on many fantastical adventures!

A television series adaptation, PJ Masks, was released in 2015.

The book series features the following tropes:

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the books, their costumes resembled those of slightly altered pajamas. In the show, their television counterparts have their costumes look more like those of typical superheroes.
• Adaptational Heroism: While Les Pyjamasques are always on the side of good, they're depicted as more playful and mischievous. It can be summed up as "the misadventures of three superpowered kids goofing around at night". In the TV series, their counterparts are mature for their age and act more like preteens/adolescents.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Les Pyjamasques
• Bedsheet Ghost: In "Le Cristal des Pyjamasques", Les Pyjamasques' rivals, Les Mascrapules, disguise themselves as a bedsheet ghost to trick the former into letting them to enter their totem base.
• Canon Immigrant: During the premiere of the PJ Masks TV series, the book series introduced counterparts of Luna Girl, Night Ninja and Armadylan: going by the names of Sorceline, Ninjaka, and Tatouro.
• Christmas Episode: "Les Pyjamasques et le père Noël rebelle" (The PJ Masks and the Rebellious Santa Claus).
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The book adaptation of the series has a few backstories for some of the villains whose lives are less than perfect such as Romeo's in Les Pyjamasques et L'opération Zero, and Sorceline's in Les Pyjamasques et Le Cadeau de Sorceline.
  • The villains are often armed with lethal weapons, such as Sorceline's magnet having lightning powers, and Romeo being able to create firearms such as a robot demolisher armed with harmful missiles.
  • There is also a scene in "Les Pyjamasques et le Croque-Chausette" where the titular character caused a catastrophic flood in Tarabiscoville after growing huge in size, thanks to Yoyo not telling the truth.
• Evil Counterpart: Les Mascrapules, three other superpowered kids with powers based on a fly, rat and worm.
• Genre Shift: While the books focused primarily on helping children learn not to fear the dark and nightmares caused by supernatural beings from the start, the series' premise eventually took a shift from focusing on the PJ Masks fighting off monsters to focus more on the younger villains inspired by the PJ Masks TV series, with the stories taking on a more mythological-styled narrative as of "Les Pyjamasques at l'operation zéro" onwards.
• Guardian Entity: The Animal Totems serve as these to children. They are able to form lifelong bonds with them, visit them in their dreams to ward off nightmares, and grant them special powers.
• Hero Academy: "L'école des Pyjamasques" focuses on a school for superpowered kids, run by the hero Energuman. Besides the Pyjamasques, the school is attended by the Mascrapules, Lilifée and Tatouro (the book counterpart of Armadylan).
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Occasionally happens to the nighttime villains.
  • In "La Legende des Pyjamasques", the Mitomites eat Sorceline's clothes after Les Pyjamasques (specifically Yoyo) takes her Luna Magnet to free the Animal Totems.
  • In "Les Pyjamasques et la Machine à Bisous", Les Pyjamasques manage to remove the antennae of the Kissing Machine so that Roméo Mécano cannot control his invention and allow the machine to give him a spanking for annoying them.
  • A rare heroic example in "Les Pyjamasques et la Soupe à la Citrouille", Les Pyjamasques team up with a pumpkin monster to frighten Lilifee in response to her sending them away to a vegetable garden.
  • In "Le Cristal des Pyjamasques", Les Pyjamasques (specifically Bibou) use Les Mascrapules' own ghost disguise to frighten them off for stealing the formers' crystal.
• Hover Board: Sorceline's Aero-Lune.
• How Do I Shot Web?: In "La legende des Pyjamasques," the heroes initally have trouble controlling their new powers, but eventually come together and are able to defeat Sorceline and free the Totem Animals.
• Just Hit Him: Les Pyjamasques' powers are effective for fighting: Yoyo is acrobatic and agile, Bibou can fly and create mini-storms, and Gluglu can climb walls and is considered to be the most efficient at hand-to-hand combat. However, unlike their TV counterparts (PJ Masks), there are other times where the heroes prefer to use tactics to lure villains into a trap without using their powers to defeat them.
• Karma Houdini: Averted in most books, as Les Pyjamasques usually give the nighttime villains their comeuppance for their villainous actions, such as flinging Romeo Mecano into outer space (with help from the zodiac constellations), trapping Sorceline inside her own magical bag, scaring off Les Mascrapules from getting their crystal, and so on.
• Knight of Cerebus: Sorceline and Romeo Mécano. Unlike their TV counterparts, these villains are portrayed as serious in completing their goals and are never mischievous in any way.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: On the first page of "Les Pyjamasques et la Soupe à la Citrouille", the Batmobile makes a cameo, which is no surprise since the Pyjamasques books are inspired by the Dark Knight.
• Mummy: Apophis, the antagonist of the "Les Pyjamasques et la momie d’Apophis" two-parter, is a child-mummy who wants to cause an eternal night. He can also turn into a snake.
• Narcissist: Roméo Mécano (in later volumes); he is always trying to disrupt school due to people not acknowledging his achievements.
• Origins Episode: While not the first book, the series eventually gave the heroes one in "La Légende des Pyjamasques".
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The first book sees the Pyjamasques go up against a purple werewolf named Le Grogarou. Normally, he is a humanoid wolf the same size as the three heroes and a nice guy, but under a full moon he transforms into a much larger and stronger wolf and goes berserk. The heroes eventually defeat him by giving him sunglasses, which block out the moonlight. He returns in the third book, where the Pyjamasques intentionally take away his sunglasses to send him on a rampage against Romeo's invention, after everything else to stop him failed.
• Punny Name: Some characters in the picture book series have names such Ninjaka, Sorceline, Grogarou and Sablotin.
• Ret-Canon: When the books were adapted for television, several changes were introduced which, after the show became a success, were retroactively introduced in the books as well (starting with book 19, Les Pyjamasques et L'opération zéro). Most notably, the book counterparts for the PJ Masks' vehicles, Luna Girl and Night Ninja, and Les Pyjamasques receiving the heroes' new powers.
• The Sandman: The titular villain of "Les Pyjamasques et le Marchand de Sable". He is a large, humanoid being with wings whose powers include throwing sand that irritate people's eyes, summoning sheep and forcing someone to count them, and using an enchanted lullaby or hypnosis to lull people to asleep.
• Talking Animal: The animal totems are all able to speak.
• Troll: In the book "Les Pyjamasques et L'opération Zéro", Les Pyjamasques try to provoke Romeo by mocking him while saving the day in an attempt to get him to destroy his own robot demolisher in the process.
• Unusual Euphemism: At one point in "Les Pyjamasques et le Cadeau de Sorceline," Yoyo exclaims "Eurechat!" when he thinks of an idea to stop Sorceline.