Holiday Hi-Jynx

Holiday Hi-Jynx (Japanese: ルージュラのクリスマス '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 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 '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 Amazon and Netflix have the edited version while Hulu has the original version.

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
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. All, including the resident of this castle, which is 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 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 earlier. 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 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, and  are scouting out a Jynx which holds a single boot. Ash attempts to capture it, however, it does not work, and its manages to defeat. deduces that it must have a and, 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. 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 so as to find Santa's lair and exact her revenge.

Ash calls out his, and Misty calls out her , , , and. All of the help pull their homemade raft toward the North Pole, except Psyduck, who cowers at the thought of having to swim (Misty instead lets Psyduck ride with them on the raft.) 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 ! 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, 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, but Ash, using , accidentally unfreezes it by using. Team Rocket seems to have won, but Santa has all of his Jynx use 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 as his steed, and flies away. Ash regrets not having told Santa what he wanted, but Lapras tells him that he already knows. Santa's Jynx then presents Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu with gifts, as it begins to snow.

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 a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Major events

 * attempts to capture a, but fails since she belongs to another Trainer.

Humans

 * Santa Claus

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Santa Claus
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Santa Claus

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


 * (Santa's; debut)
 * (Santa's; multiple; debut)
 * (Santa's)
 * (Santa's; debut)
 * (Santa's; multiple; debut)
 * (Santa's)
 * (Santa's; debut)
 * (Santa's; multiple; debut)
 * (Santa's)
 * (Santa's; debut)
 * (Santa's; multiple; debut)
 * (Santa's)
 * (Santa's; multiple; debut)
 * (Santa's)

Scheduling conflict
After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved 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 Po-ké Corral, as this is the point at which the episodes aired in Japan. This causes confusion from viewers due to Ash using Charmander instead of Charizard and Misty still having her Starmie and Horsea (and not having her Togepi). Chronologically, these episodes go either directly before or directly after Pikachu's Goodbye. Due to not airing when initially intended and being advertised as such by, 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 the fact was accused of being a  of African-Americans by. It can still be obtained on VHS and in the Indigo League Volume 3 DVD Pack Set, and has been made available on. 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 April 2013, 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 on 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. 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, it never aired on Disney XD India and was replaced by Misty Meets Her Match.

Trivia

 * 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 segment didn't exist when the episode was originally scheduled to be broadcast.
 * This is the only main series episode where the title card is read by Jessie in the dub. Jessie also reads the title card for Training Daze, a side series episode. Ash read this episode's title card in the Japanese version.
 * When an episode's preview is shown in the Japanese version, it usually ends with the words, "Everybody, get Pokémon!" In this episode's preview, however, Ash said, "Everybody, get a present!" This is likely due to the Christmas theme of this episode.
 * Jessie's doll is called "Acha Ningyou" in the Japanese version, and is a parody of.

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.
 * In the remastered version that aired on Pokémon Smash!, Jynx's forearm appears white instead of red when it stands next to the tied up Ash, Misty, Brock, and Santa Claus.
 * This episode being dubbed out of continuity creates a continuity error concerning Ash's Pokédex. In the dub, Ash's Pokédex is voiced by Eric Stuart as it has always been since Who Gets to Keep Togepi? In the dub, the Pokédex's different voice was explained in-continuity to be part of the Pokédex upgrade Ash received in said episode. However this episode (as well as Princess vs. Princess) takes place chronologically before the above episode, meaning Ash wouldn't have received the update yet.
 * When the closed captions mention Jessie in the episode, her name is misspelled as Jessy.
 * Jessie throws Weezing's Poké Ball and tells it to use Sludge. However, Weezing is James' Pokémon.

Dub edits

 * Pikachu's Jukebox: Together Forever
 * 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 in the dub, but in the original, 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 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 away.
 * In the dub, when the Jynx all use, they only chant their names over and over. In the original, 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
Rossanas Odyssee EP065 Des joujoux par milliers Incontro con Babbo Natale ルージュラのクリスマス 精灵宝可梦 第64集