Jynx is a bipedal, humanoid Pokémon that resembles a woman. It has a purple face, pink lips, saucer-like eyes, and long blonde hair. It wears a red gown with two gold circlets on the chest. While the anime has shown it to possess feet, the 3D games show only blackness under the dress and it lacks a footprint. It has white arms and five-fingered purple hands. Jynx is a female-only species with no male counterpart.
Originally, its face was colored black. Pokémon Stadium's fainting animation had it disappear leaving only its hair behind, implying that what appears to be dark-colored skin is actually just darkness.
Jynx has a language that sounds similar to human speech and includes several cry patterns. However, this language has yet to be deciphered. It prefers to communicate by using dance-like movements. These rhythmic movements often cause people to dance along with it. It puts its enemies to sleep using its signature move, Lovely Kiss. Jynx often is found in urban areas.
Multiple Jynx debuted in Holiday Hi-Jynx, where they were workers at Santa Claus's workshop. One of Santa's Jynx got lost, requiring Ash and his friends to help her return to her owner.
A trio of Jynx sisters appeared in Three Jynx and a Baby! as residents of Cremini Town. They were overprotective towards their sister, a Smoochum. The Smoochum evolved into a fourth Jynx at the end of the episode. This marks the last time Jynx has appeared in the anime to date.
Jynx, the Human Shape Pokémon. This Pokémon has some very unusual powers. Its special attack is the Lovely Kiss, which puts its opponent into a deep sleep.
A fortune-telling Jynx appears in Magical Pokémon Journey. Arbok goes to Jynx's fortune-telling hut to find out if he has a chance with his crush, Wigglytuff.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Jynx debuts in The Jynx Jinx, under the ownership of Ken. She is used to attack Red and Green after they trick Team Rocket and take Mew. When she attacks Mew, Red and Green try to defend it, only to be defeated. Mew retaliates against her and freezes her and Ken while sparing Red and Green.
Most notably, there is a Jynx under the ownership of Lorelei, which first appeared in Jigglypuff Jive. It is noted for having the ability to generate voodoo dolls out of ice using its Ice Beam. When Lorelei draws crosses on any part of the dolls using her lipstick, ice shackles form on the specified body parts of her targets, eventually freezing the victim over completely. Even after the victims have broken free, the freeze induces lasting numbness in the areas where it was applied. Both Red and Sabrina suffer this condition and have to seek a cure atop Mt. Silver by bathing in the hotsprings there. Another ability of Lorelei's Jynx is revealed in the Sevii Islands saga: she can create a wispy band of ice around targets, which Lorelei can use to track them down using her powder case.
Jynx walks rhythmically, swaying and shaking its hips as if it were dancing. Its motions are so bouncingly alluring, people seeing it are compelled to shake their hips without giving any thought to what they are doing.
A Jynx sashays rhythmically as if it were dancing. Its motions are so bouncingly alluring, people seeing it are compelled to shake their hips without noticing.
Jynx walks rhythmically, swaying and shaking its hips as if it were dancing. Its motions are so bouncingly alluring, people seeing it are compelled to shake their hips without giving any thought to what they are doing.
These sprites are not used in the Virtual Console releases.
Gold
Silver
Crystal
Gold/Silver back
Crystal back
Virtual Console sprites
Yellow
Yellow back
Trivia
As its Pokédex entries state that Jynx speaks an incomprehensible language, the player, as a Pokémon, cannot understand anything it says in the Mystery Dungeon series.
Jynx has the longest cry of any Pokémon, lasting 2.238 seconds.
Jynx's sprite in the Virtual Console re-release of Yellow seems to use five colors instead of four, a technical impossibility for a Game Boy Color game. To achieve this effect, some of the 8x8 tiles composing the sprite use an altered palette, where black is replaced with purple.
Carole Boston Weatherford, a cultural critic, claimed that Jynx, which appeared in Holiday Hi-Jynx, was a negative racial stereotype of African-Americans in an article titled "Politically Incorrect Pokémon" on the magazine Black World Today. She chiefly compared Jynx to the racist characters in The Story of Little Black Sambo, and further compared Jynx to Mr. Popo of the Dragon Ball franchise, a character who is also potentially offensive in his design.
Weatherford's complaint caused many repercussions in the Pokémon franchise. The sprites of Jynx in the Western releases of Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal were edited, and EP250 was cut from international airings of the anime. A sequence depicting Jynx in its original design in All Things Bright and Beautifly! was also cut from the dub. Jynx's design was officially revised by Game Freak to be purple rather than black, including in Japan and South Korea; this change was reflected in later core series games (starting with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire) and in the Pokémon anime starting in Mean With Envy. Although the manga is colored in black-and-white, Jynx appearing in VIZ Media's reissues of Pokémon Adventures are recolored as a dark gray rather than a straight black, suggesting that they are purple instead of black. It is also recolored to purple on the back cover of the reissue of Volume 4. The Virtual Console versions of Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Trading Card Game, international Pokémon Yellow, and Japanese Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal also recolor Jynx's face. Jynx was recolored in the ending credits of PK01 and PK04 for the 2012 Japanese Blu-ray release. A recolored version of Holiday Hi-Jynx aired in Japan and is available on the Japanese Amazon Video and Netflix. Since 2014, English language DVD releases do not include Holiday Hi-Jynx, Stage Fight!, and The Mandarin Island Miss Match, which all feature Jynx in its original design.
In recent years, some fans of Pokémon have noted that Jynx may be inspired by ganguro, a Japanese fashion where women tan heavily, bleach their hair, and apply large amounts of makeup, instead of a black stereotype. This theory is mainly based on Jynx's long, straight, blonde hair, a common attribute of ganguro fashion. However, this particular hypothesis at least has often been criticized due to the timeline of ganguro fashion not matching up with the development of Pokémon games (see On the Origin of the Species article). Another theory is that Jynx is based on the Nordic goddess Hel, who was often depicted has having a face half white-half black and who ruled Niflheim, primarily depicted as a land of primordial ice and cold. Some fans say this is supported by Jynx sharing traits with the iconic opera singing "Fat Lady," who is pop-culturally portrayed dressed as the valkyrieBrünnhilde. Another possible origin is Yama-uba, the mountain Crone.
What Jynx is based on is a controversial topic within the fandom, although common interpretations are a Nordic or a Viking woman (possibly Hel, goddess of the underworld), or ganguro (face-black). Also, the fact that Jynx are depicted as Santa's helpers in the anime may reference the folklore character Zwarte Piet.
Jynx also has the traits of a female opera singer, especially the iconic cartoon depiction of the fat lady; Pokémon Snap and its third generation sprites depict it singing, especially the Emerald sprite that animates it singing a high note. Jynx may also have origins in the Japanese spirits known as Yuki-onna, who lack feet, akin to Jynx's feet being covered by its dress.
It may also be based on Yama-uba (also called Yamanba), a yōkai which is described as always wearing a tattered red kimono, having whitish-blonde hair, control over snow, dark-colored skin, and large lips, traits which are evident in Jynx. "Yamanba" is also a slang for the extreme end of ganguro fashion, which involves bleached hair, artificial tanning, and heavy applying of brightly-colored lipstick.
Its revised coloring may be based on purple discoloration of the skin, a common symptom of frostbite. This fits with Jynx's Ice type and how it is found in very cold places.
Name origin
Jynx is a corruption of jinx, a curse or hex of bad luck.
Rougela may be a feminized corruption of rouge, a type of makeup and also the French word for red.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
Aspear Berry (100%)
For other sprites and images, please see Jynx images on the Bulbagarden Archives.
