Holiday Hi-Jynx: Difference between revisions

Holiday Hi-Jynx (Japanese: ルージュラのクリスマス Rougela's Christmas) is a special episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on October 5, 1998, along with Snow Way Out!, and in the United States on December 11, 1999. It was initially intended to be EP039, airing December 23, 1997, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.

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

Synopsis

The episode opens on a cold, snowy night, with a castle on a cliff in the distance. It is Christmas, and kids everywhere are waiting for their presents from Santa, including the resident of this castle... none other than... Jessie?! She pretends to be asleep, and the door to her room slowly opens. Santa has arrived! Before he can begin to lay down presents, however, he is trapped in a net, and unable to move. Jessie and Meowth are enthusiastic about their capture, and cannot wait for the real Santa to come to be trapped, this test decoy having been James in a Santa suit.

This plot is the realization of Jessie's revenge against Santa for having stolen her favorite doll ten years beforehand. She flashes back to the night she stopped believing in Santa, when she waited awake for him. But instead of a jolly old elf down the chimney, a Jynx appears and does nothing but take her doll, broken moments earlier by Jessie in her waiting enthusiasm. James and Meowth doubt Jessie's story, but Jessie is insistent that this occurred, and that Santa is a Jynx.

Meanwhile, in the southern part of the Kanto region, Ash and his friends are scouting out a Jynx which holds a single boot. Ash attempts to capture it, however, it doesn't work. Brock deduces that it must have a Trainer, and Misty, seeing the inside of the boot, figures out that it belongs to Santa. After Jynx telepathically tells its story to the group, they agree to help it get back to the North Pole to Santa. Team Rocket, on the other hand, sees Jynx as Santa attempting to con the twerps as well, and plots to follow them so as to find Santa's lair and exact her revenge.

Ash calls out his Squirtle, and Misty calls out her Pokémon, in order to pull their raft to the North Pole. The Pokémon, however, quickly become tired, and so Ash volunteers to pull them the rest of the way. He, as well, becomes tired, and hears a voice. Confused, he asks his friends if they said anything, but they haven't. The voice speaks again, and Ash is caught in a wave, while the others drift away on the raft. Ash is plunged underwater, and finally the source of the voice reveals itself to him: a Lapras! The Lapras brings him above the water and reveals its telepathic powers, as well as the fact that it was sent by Santa to get Jynx back to the North Pole. It offers to bring them the rest of the way there, and they accept. Soon, they arrive, but before they can enter Santa's workshop, Team Rocket in their Gyarados submarine nab Jynx and trap the twerps and Lapras under a net.

Team Rocket enter Santa's workshop, then proceed to steal all of the presents, holding Santa, as well as Ash and co., who have confronted them, hostage. Jessie gives her reason for doing this to Santa, and the Jynx which "stole" Jessie's toy is revealed to have it, having taken it to Santa so he could repair it, and not being able to give it back because Jessie had stopped believing. Despite this, Jessie still plans to steal all of the presents, and Team Rocket makes their getaway. Lapras freezes the submarine with its Ice Beam, but Ash, using Charmander, accidentally unfreezes it by using Fire Spin. Team Rocket seems to have won, but Santa has all of his Jynx use Psywave to bring back the submarine, shake the presents out of it, and send Team Rocket blasting off again.

Santa begins his yearly journey around the world, using a Ponyta as his steed, and flies away. Ash regrets not having told Santa what he wanted, but Lapras tells him that he already knows, and Santa's Jynx present Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu with gifts.

Team Rocket lie in a bed together, having been defeated once more, but Jessie has hung a stocking in the hopes that she might get some presents. The other two believe it to be futile, but just then, a Jynx appears in their window. They stare in shock at it, and it uses Lovely Kiss to put them all to sleep. Santa wishes Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Major events

Debuts

• Jynx
• Lapras

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Brock
• Misty
• Jessie
• James
• Santa Claus

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?: Pidgeotto

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Charmander (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Goldeen (Misty's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Starmie (Misty's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Lapras (Santa's)
• Jynx (Santa's; multiple)

Trivia

• After the hiatus caused by EP038, the timeslot changed from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:

• When episodes of the dub are aired in order, this episode and Snow Way Out! are placed between It's Mr. Mime Time and Showdown at the Poké Corral, as this is the point at which the episodes aired raw. This causes confusion from viewers due to Ash using Charmander instead of Charizard and Misty still having her Starmie. Canonically, these episodes go either directly before or directly after Pikachu's Goodbye. Due to not airing when initially intended, it will be considered by Bulbapedia to be a special episode.
• This episode is the only one where the title card is read by Jessie until Training Daze (in the Japanese version, the title card is read by Ash).
• This episode was pulled from rotation shortly after it was aired, due to the fact Jynx was accused of being a racial stereotype of African-Americans by Carole Boston Weatherford. It can still be obtained on VHS and the Indigo League Volume 3 DVD Pack Set, and has recently been made available on Cartoon Network Video.
• Even though Cartoon Network has the rights to rerun Pokémon episodes, this episode has not been aired on the network, likely due to Jynx's appearance.
• Weezing was sent out and ordered to attack Ash and everybody by Jessie, who actually was carrying the Poké Ball, while James was suffering from the submarine being overheated.

Errors

• Multiple times throughout the episode, the inside of Jynx's mouth was mistakenly colored white, instead of the usual red-pink.
• During the group's battle with Team Rocket later in the episode, Ash's hat continuously changes between forwards and backwards.

Dub edits

• In the Japanese version, Santa wrote his name (in katakana) on the inside of his boot. The English dub replaces this with a photo of Santa surrounded by a snowflake border.
• Santa calls Jessie by name in the dub, but in the original, Santa doesn't know Jessie's name
• Santa's reason for not giving Jessie her doll back is different in both versions: in the English version, Santa tells Jessie that he couldn't return the doll because she stopped believing in Santa, which made him powerless to visit her. In the Japanese version, Santa says that he tried to return it, but Jessie had already moved out of the big house she used to live in when Santa showed up.

In other languages

• Finnish: Joulun Jynx
• French: Des joujoux par milliers
• German: Rossana´s Oddyssee
• Hebrew: חטיפה חגיגית chatifa chagigit
• Italian: Incontro con Babbo Natale
• Portuguese (Brazilian): Feriado a Lá Jynx
• Spanish:
  • Iberian Spanish: Navidades Jynx
  • Latin American Spanish: ¡Una Navidad con Jynx!

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