Holiday Hi-Jynx

← EP038

Original series

Snow Way Out! →

Holiday Hi-Jynx

ルージュラのクリスマス Rougela's Christmas

First broadcast Japan October 5, 1998 United States December 11, 1999

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 園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 酒井啓史 Keishi Sakai Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

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 animated series. 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 the 39th episode of the Pokémon anime, airing in Japan on December 23, 1997, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.

On December 23, 2012, the 15th anniversary of the episode's originally-planned broadcast date, it aired on Pokémon Smash! and was edited to make all of the Jynx's skin purple instead of black. This version has not been dubbed, so it is still banned in the United States. The Japanese versions of Prime Video and Netflix have the edited version while Hulu has the original version.

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

Blurb

Ash and his friends run into a scared and lonely Jynx who has a boot belonging to Santa Claus but can't find its way to the North Pole. Team Rocket is convinced that Jynx really is Santa Claus and Jessie wants revenge from something that happened in her childhood. Can Ash beat the odds and return Jynx to its Master before Team Rocket gets a hold of it?

Plot

It is Christmas, and kids everywhere are waiting for their presents from Santa, including the resident of a distant castle, Jessie. She pretends to be asleep, as the door to her room is slowly opened by Santa. He becomes 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, as this person had been James in a Santa suit.

Jessie recalls the night 10 years ago when she stopped believing in Santa. When waiting awake for him, a Jynx appeared from the chimney and does nothing but take her doll, broken and thrown to the fireplace 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 on a sunny beach, who is holding a single black boot. Ash attempts to capture it, however, it does not work, and the Jynx's Lovely Kiss manages to defeat Pikachu. Brock deduces that it must have a Trainer. Misty is given the boot by the Jynx, and sees that it belongs to Santa, as an image is sewn to the inside. After Jynx telepathically tells its story to the group, they agree to help it get back to the North Pole to Santa. Jessie, on the other hand, sees Jynx as Santa attempting to con the twerps just as she had been 10 years ago, and plots to follow them to find Santa's lair and exact her revenge.

Ash calls out his Squirtle, and Misty calls out her Goldeen, Staryu, Starmie, and Psyduck. All of the Pokémon help pull their homemade raft toward the North Pole, except Psyduck, who cowers at the thought of having to swim. 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 bring Jynx back to the North Pole. It offers to bring them the rest of the way there as thanks for aiding Jynx, and they accept. On their way to the North Pole, the group passes large icebergs, and huddle together in Jynx's hair for warmth. Soon, they arrive, but before they can enter Santa's workshop, Team Rocket in their Gyarados submarine, who has been secretly following the group, steal Jynx and trap the group under a net.

Team Rocket proceeds to bring the captured Jynx, tied in a rope, and enter Santa's workshop. Ash and friends confront them, but Team Rocket, holding Santa as a hostage, uses him as leverage. As Team Rocket is loading up all the presents, Santa and Ash's group ask Jessie to stop. Angrily, Jessie exclaims that she never received any gifts as a child, and how she saw a Jynx stole her favorite doll 10 years ago. A Jynx, after retrieving Jessie's memory of the event telepathically, returns to the workshop and brings back Jessie's lost doll. Santa explains that Jynx brought the broken doll to him to fix it, but they were unable to give it back because Jessie had stopped believing in Santa. Despite this realization, 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, blow up the submarine and send Team Rocket blasting off again.

That evening, 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 assures him that Santa already knows. Santa's Jynx then present Ash and his friends with gifts as it begins to snow.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket lie in a bed together, having been defeated once more, but Jessie has hung a stocking in the hopes that she might receive 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 a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Major events

• Ash attempts to catch a Jynx, but fails since she belongs to another Trainer.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Debuts

Humans

• Santa Claus

Pokémon debuts

• Jynx
• Lapras

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

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

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Pidgeotto (US and international), Jynx (Japan)

• 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)
• Psyduck (Misty's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Lapras (Santa's; debut)
• Jynx (Santa's; multiple; debut)
• Ponyta (Santa's)

Scheduling conflict

After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:

Code	English title	Japanese title	Planned broadcast	Actual broadcast
*	Holiday Hi-Jynx	ルージュラのクリスマス	December 23, 1997	October 5, 1998
*	Snow Way Out!	イワークでビバーク	—	October 5, 1998
EP040	The Battling Eevee Brothers	イーブイ４きょうだい	January 6, 1998	April 16, 1998
EP041	Wake Up, Snorlax!	おきろ！カビゴン！	January 13, 1998	April 23, 1998
EP042	Showdown at Dark City	たいけつ！ポケモンジム！	January 20, 1998	April 30, 1998
EP043	March of the Exeggutor Squad	ナッシーぐんだんだいこうしん！	January 27, 1998	May 7, 1998
EP044	The Problem with Paras	パラスとパラセクト	February 3, 1998	May 14, 1998
EP052	Princess vs. Princess	げきとう！ポケモンひなまつり	March 3, 1998	July 9, 1998
EP053	The Purr-fect Hero	こどものひだよ！ぜんいんしゅうごう！	May 5, 1998	July 9, 1998

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 Po-ké Corral, as this is the point at which the episodes aired in Japan. This confuses viewers due to Ash using Charmander instead of Charizard and Misty still having her Starmie and Horsea (and not yet having her Togepi). Chronologically, these episodes go either directly before or directly after Pikachu's Goodbye. It also was meant to air before Princess vs. Princess, as the latter episode's Japanese version has James and Meowth directly reference Jessie's hatred of Christmas from this episode when she exposits her hatred of Hinamatsuri in a similar manner. Due to not airing when initially intended and being advertised as such by Kids' WB!, it is considered by Bulbapedia to be a special episode.

Removal from rotation

This episode was pulled from rotation shortly after it was aired due to accusations of Jynx being a racial stereotype of African-Americans by Carole Boston Weatherford. It can still be obtained on VHS and in the Indigo League Volume 3 DVD Pack Set and has been made available on Cartoon Network Video. However, the episode has not re-aired in syndication, likely due to Jynx's appearance. Moreover, despite appearing on Cartoon Network Video, this episode was skipped on Pokémon.com's "Pokémon TV" video service, (and as of May 2014, removed from Pokémon.com entirely) nor has it been made available on Netflix. When the Indigo League Volume 3 DVD was reissued, the episode was removed. It is also not included in the Indigo League Complete Collection.

The English dub became available on Cartoon Network On Demand wherever available on cable providers in late March 2012, and has been added into the rotation on Boomerang as of 2011. No restrictions were placed on this episode in other countries airing the English dub or a dub based on the English dub, but the episode isn't mentioned on any local versions of Pokémon.com. However, this episode is banned in South Korea. The Japanese Netflix lists an English blurb for the episode despite it being banned, which says, "As children all over the world eagerly await Christmas, so does Team Rocket. It turns out they plan to catch Santa Claus and grab all of his presents!" Although this episode once aired on Hungama TV in India, it never aired on Disney XD India and was replaced by Misty Meets Her Match.

Trivia

A screenshot from the original episode

• The end of the episode was followed by a music video of Together With the Wind, the Japanese ending theme to Mewtwo Strikes Back, rather than a Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture segment. This was likely due to the fact that the episode was originally scheduled to air when the segment did not exist yet.
• While Japanese episode previews usually end with "Everybody, get Pokémon!", this episode's preview ends with "Everybody, get a present!", in celebration of the Christmas season.
• Jessie's doll is called "Acha Ningyou" in the Japanese version and is a parody of the actor Bruce Lee, who Hitmonlee is named after in English.
• This marks the first time a Pokémon is depicted with the ability to speak telepathically in the anime.
• The Caterpie doll in this episode has its mouth colored green. Until Wings 'N' Things, Caterpie's mouth is generally colored yellow in the anime.

Errors

• In several scenes, the inside of Jynx's mouth is colored white instead of red-pink.
• When Ash throws a Poké Ball to catch Jynx, he has his bag, despite not wearing it previous scenes.
• When Lapras says that it was very kind of Ash for him to use his strength to help bring Jynx back to Santa, Misty's shorts turn completely dark-cyan, while Brock's belt is colored green instead of black.
• During the group's battle with Team Rocket, Ash's hat continuously swaps between forward and backward.
• When Lapras says that Christmas belongs to everyone, its lower jaw is colored blue instead of cream.
• In the remastered version that aired on Pokémon Smash!, Jynx's forearm appears white instead of red when she stands next to the tied up Ash, Misty, Brock, and Santa Claus.
• In the English dub:
  • When the closed captions mention Jessie, her name is misspelled as "Jessy".
  • Due to being dubbed out of order, Ash's Pokédex is voiced by Eric Stuart in this episode, despite it taking place before Who Gets to Keep Togepi?, where Ash's Pokédex is upgraded, meaning the Pokédex should still have the voice of Nicholas James Tate at this point.

• 

  Jynx's miscolored mouth

• 

  Misty's miscolored shorts and Brock's miscolored belt

• 

  Lapras's miscolored jaw

Dub edits

• Pikachu's Jukebox: Together Forever
• Jessie reads the title card instead of Ash.
• 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 and Ash by name, but in the original version, Santa refers to everyone as "children" instead.
• Santa's reason for not giving Jessie her doll back is different in both versions: in the English dub, 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 away.
• When the Jynx all use Psywave, they only chant their names over and over. In the original version, they continuously say "Psycho" (the move's Japanese name is Psychowave). This may highlight how Jynx speaks a language similar to human speech.

In other languages

Language		Title
Arabic		الدمية المسروقة
Mandarin Chinese		迷唇姐的聖誕節
Czech		Svátky s Jynx
Danish		Glædelig Jynx
Dutch		De Kerstman is een Jynx
Finnish		Joulun Jynx
European French		Des joujoux par milliers
German		Rossanas Odyssee
Hebrew		חטיפה חגיגית chatifa chagigit
Hindi		सांता और जिंक्स Santa aur Jynx *
Hungarian		Karácsonyi ajándékok
Italian		Incontro con Babbo Natale
Norwegian		Snøblind Vei
Polish		Wesołych świąt, Jynx
Portuguese	Brazil	Feriado a Lá Jynx
	Portugal	Hi-Jynx Natalício
Romanian		Sărbătoarea cu Jynx
Russian		Рождественская ловушка
Spanish	Latin America	¡Una Navidad con Jynx!
	Spain	Navidades Jynx
Swedish		Jynx räddar julen

← EP038

Original series

Snow Way Out! →

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