EP028

Pokémon Fashion Flash

EP028   ロコン！ブリーダーたいけつ！ Rokon! Breeder Confrontation!

First broadcast Japan October 7, 1997 United States October 14, 1998

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ニャースのうた

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 玉川明洋 Akihiro Tamagawa Additional credits

Pokémon Fashion Flash (Japanese: ロコン！ブリーダーたいけつ！ Rokon! Breeder Confrontation!) is the 28th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on October 7, 1997 and in the United States on October 14, 1998.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

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The travels of Ash, Misty, and Brock have brought them to Scissor Street, which is also called "Breeder's Lane." Brock explains that there are a lot of breeding salons and beauty parlors on this street, all just for Pokémon. Misty sees a poster featuring an overdressed Koffing and Ekans advertising Salon Roquet. Misty debates whether she should get in line to try the salon, but Brock interrupts, saying he found the store he was previously looking for. He leads the others over to the store, which isn't nearly as flashy as any of the other places. Brock becomes too nervous to go inside, so Mist and Ash head in first.

When they enter, they see a female Pokémon Breeder, Suzy, giving a Chansey a massage. Misty is delighted to find a Vulpix napping on a chair. Ash and Misty make their way over, Ash using his Pokédex on the Vulpix. Misty continually compliments it, then picks it up, only to get a Flamethrower in the face.

Up to this point, Brock has been unusually silent, until he finally manages to blurt out that he wants to become Suzy's pupil. Everyone is shocked, especially Suzy. Brock explains that Suzy is a highly accomplished breeder who he idolizes.

Later, Suzy serves tea for the three, and Pikachu is happily munching food. Suzy compliments Pikachu on his shiny coat, and asks if that food is Brock's. Brock says it is, and Misty explains that it's Brock's own recipe. Suzy says that she too got into Pokémon breeding because of her interest in Pokémon nutrition. Vulpix suddenly leaps up to the bowl of food, sniffing at it curiously. Pikachu offers Vulpix the piece it was eating, and Vulpix eats it. As everyone watches, Vulpix seems to enjoy it. This surprises Suzy, as Vulpix usually doesn't eat anything Suzy herself hasn't made.

Misty then mentions all the flashily dressed Pokémon they've seen en route. Suzy points out that ever since Salon Roquet opened up, everything has been about making Pokémon look as flashy as possible. Ash thinks that looking flashy is dumb, but Misty argues that even Pokémon like to dress up once in a while. This leads to an argument between Ash and Misty about what is most important for a Pokémon and its trainer: the inside or the outside. Ash jokingly suggests that, if fashion is so important to Misty, then she should take her Psyduck over to Salon Roquet. Misty loves the idea, and calls out Psyduck.

After Misty leaves, Suzy expresses her doubts about her own methods, but Brock and Ash quickly assure her not to give up on herself and her beliefs. Brock introduces a plan for how Suzy can compete with the growing popularity of salons like Salon Roquet. By combining style and substance, Suzy will deliver what the customers want and what she believes is what's best. Soon thereafter, Suzy gives a lecture on Pokémon breeding and treatment. She explains that if a Pokémon has been injured in a battle, it should be given a therapeutic massage, which she demonstrates on Pikachu, much to its pleasure. As Brock had hoped, Suzy's lecture starts to draw the crowd away from Salon Roquet. As Suzy, Ash, and Brock demonstrate the importance of good communication between Pokémon and Trainer, trainers who had just arrived after taking their Pokémon to Salon Roquet begin to doubt if they made the right choice.

Back at Salon Roquet, Jessie orders Meowth to send in the next customer. He complains that he's too busy counting money, but then realizes there's only one customer left: Misty, with her Psyduck. Team Rocket drag her in for a makeover of her own, despite her protests that Psyduck was the one who needed the fashion help. However, she loves the bright, flashy results and asks undercover Jessie and James to continue.

Meowth slips up, mentioning that he knows she hangs around with Pikachu, which tips Misty off to his real identity. Misty screams that she'll never tell Team Rocket anything, but James threatens to paint her face like Frankenstein if she doesn't. She thinks for a moment, in which time she realizes that Psyduck has gone missing. In fact, Psyduck has run back to Suzy's salon, where it goes into a panic. Pikachu signals that Misty's in danger, and takes off with Brock, Ash, and Suzy behind him. They make their way back to Salon Roquet, where they face off against Team Rocket.

They are startled to see what Team Rocket has done to Misty's face, but Team Rocket defends the bizarre makeover, claiming they're conducting "important beauty research" on her. This starts an argument between Suzy and Team Rocket about whether beauty is inside or outside. Meowth, however, interrupts by revealing Team Rocket's fraudulent intentions.

Team Rocket offers a trade: Misty for Pikachu. Ash refuses and challenges them to a battle. Team Rocket, however, has prepared for this, and pushes a button on a microphone, which reveals their latest invention, the Salon Roquet Battling Platform. To begin the battle, Jessie sends out Ekans, and James sends out Koffing, both of which are still dressed in their ridiculous outfits. Ash sends out Pikachu, and Brock uses Geodude. Brock orders a Seismic Toss, and Geodude carries Ekans into the air and flings him down. However, Ekans turns the momentum of the throw into a spinning wheel strike and slams into Pikachu. Ash orders a ThunderShock, but the spinning of Koffing and Ekans makes their extravagant outfits deflect the lightning. James then orders a sludge makeover, which blinds both Pikachu and Geodude. But as Team Rocket's Pokémon are sent in to finish them off, Ekans and Koffing end up tripping over their outfits, halting the attack. Meowth tries to help the tangled Pokémon, but Vulpix cuts in. Suzy calls that if you only focus on outer beauty, a Pokémon's inner strength will be lost, which Vulpix drives home with a powerful Fire Spin that sends Team Rocket blasting off.

After checking in with Dexter about Fire Spin, Brock explains to the crowd that there was first-hand proof that a cute exterior hides inner strength. The crowd, taking the words to heart, begin to remove all the flashy items from their Pokémon and wipe off the applied makeup. Meanwhile, Misty, who couldn't quite escape being roasted once again by Vulpix's flame, chews out Psyduck for running out on her.

Back at Suzy's salon, Suzy thanks Ash and his friends for helping her regain confidence in her beliefs. Suzy was very impressed with the way Brock handled his Pokémon in a crisis, and understands that there's a journey ahead of herself too. She plans to leave the salon for a while and go on a journey to learn what it truly means to be a Pokémon breeder. Suzy says that Brock is the first person other than herself that Vulpix has shown affection to, and asks that Brock take care of Vulpix for her while she is on her journey. Brock gratefully accepts, and obtains Vulpix.

Soon enough, Ash, Misty and Brock are on their way once again, standing to wave goodbye to Suzy. Behind them, Team Rocket goes running past, pursued by a crowd of their angry former customers.

Major events

• Brock gets a Vulpix from his breeder friend, Suzy.
• Brock's Geodude is revealed to know Seismic Toss.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Vulpix (Brock's)
• Nidoran♂
• Venonat

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Brock
• Misty
• Suzy
• Jessie
• James
• Chansey owner

Pokémon

Who’s That Pokémon?: Vulpix

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Psyduck (Misty's)
• Geodude (Brock's)
• Vulpix (Brock's, given by Suzy; debut)
• Ekans (Jessie's)
• Koffing (James's)

Various Pokémon seen in Scissor Street:

• Bulbasaur
• Charmander
• Squirtle
• Caterpie
• Butterfree
• Pidgey
• Pidgeotto
• Rattata
• Raichu
• Sandshrew
• Nidoran♂ (debut)
• Oddish
• Paras
• Venonat (debut)
• Bellsprout
• Weepinbell
• Slowbro
• Dodrio
• Cubone
• Chansey
• Staryu

Trivia

• Meowth's Song replaced One Hundred Fifty-One as the ending.
• The outfits Jessie and James were wearing resembled the outfit of Oscar and Andi.
• This episode marks the first time a variation of the Team Rocket's motto was used.
• According to the third book of the "Kids Pocket Books Pocket Monsters" series, the Chansey Trainer in this episode is a homosexual.
• This could be the first example of Pokémon Contests (most commonly resembling Super Contests in Sinnoh), as Team Rockets's Ekans and Koffing dress up (Visual), and do movements (Dance) before an attack (Acting). However, this is not comfirmed.

Errors

• When Misty yells for Psyduck and lifts her head, her neck overlaps James' arm.

Dub edits

• 22 scenes total were digitally edited in the dub to remove Japanese.
• Jessie and James's code names were removed from the dub.
• Misty asking permission to touch Vulpix was removed from the dub.
• Two of the accomplishments that Suzy earned are different between the Japanese and the English versions. In the Japanese version, she was just mentioned to be nominated as Trainer of the year, and that she was ranked as number one in terms of Pokémon breeding for four years in a row. The English version had listed her as being called the most popular Pokémon Breeder for four years straight, and had a hugely popular website that had 10,000 hits per day.
• Misty's response to Ash in regards to Psyduck and her was different between the Japanese version and the English version. In the Japanese version, Misty was saying she's the cute one. The English version, on the other hand, had her asking what did Ash know about fashion.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		美容街！飼養家大決鬥 / 美容街，词育家大决斗
Czech		Pokémonská módní přehlídka
Dutch		Poké mode
Finnish		Pokémonin muotikatsaus
European French		Les Pokémon changent de look
German		Modezeit - Eitelkeit
Hebrew		אופנת הפוקימונים ophnat haPokémonim
Hungarian		Pokémontenyésztők'
Italian		Il salone di bellezza
Portuguese	Brazil	Na Moda dos Pokémons
	Portugal	A Última Moda Pokémon
Russian		Аллея будующих покемоноводов
Spanish	Latin America	¡Moda Pokémon!
	Spain	La última moda Pokémon
Swedish		Pokémon modet

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.