This Controversial Banned Pokemon Episode Would Still Never Fly Today

Not even Pokémon, as a generally wholesome, kid-friendly franchise, is safe from censorship issues. With over 1,300 episodes and ongoing, the series is bound to have a few issues here and there. Even with so many episodes to date, it’s actually impressive that the series only had a handful of them that either had to be heavily edited or pulled from airing entirely. But few as they may be, the banned Pokémon episodes have inflamed infamous controversy over the years.

The episode titled “Beauty and The Beach” in particular had managed to be the first to be banned in all non-Asian countries for nearly three years because of a single scene. Eventually, even though 4Kids intended for this banned episode to be entirely skipped, it was ironically the only one that eventually made it to air as a heavily cut version titled “The Lost Episode” in 2000 after having the longest time between its original Japanese airing and its first English dub release.

“Beauty and The Beach” Breakdown

The episode opens with Ash, Pikachu, Misty, and Brock vacationing in Porta Vista to visit the beach. But as the rowdy bunch gets a little too enthusiastic about thoroughly enjoying their coastal holiday, they accidentally end up crashing a boat they’d “borrowed”. When the owner of the boat, an old man named Moe, berates them, they offer to help around Moe’s restaurant to pay him back for the damage they’d caused. Meanwhile, Jessie, James, and Meowth of the conniving Team Rocket end up working at a competing restaurant owned by an older lady named Brutella to pay for repairs to their own watercraft.

But when the kids try convincing customers to go to the restaurant by advertising delicacies like clam juice snow cones, the patrons seem to instead favor Brutella’s rivaling restaurant. Ash gets the idea to get help from his Pokémon, with Pikachu and Squirtle passing out fliers, Charmander firing and Pidgeotto fanning the grill flames, Bulbasaur helping wait on tables, and Butterfree oddly absent, the Pokémon teamwork quickly attracting customers to the restaurant. Unfortunately, Team Rocket sabotages their efforts by upsetting the customers into leaving.

With Moe himself indebted to repay Brutella by the next day, she threatens to take his boat as payment. As Moe recounts his hopes of using the boat to sail the world, Ash encourages him not to give up on his dream. Ash’s mom and Professor Oak appear, suggesting that the beach beauty contest would be a great place to advertise the restaurant. Misty says she’d be interested in joining the contest. And so, the gang takes on the contest to try to earn customers and money in their endeavor to repay Moe and support his dream.

With many a mishap during the contest from Gary showing up to show up Ash, to Team Rocket causing havoc, the stakes are raised when Jessie and James’s plot to overtake the contest goes from entering themselves to more forceful action. But as Ash manages to thwart Team Rocket’s plans with the help of his Pokémon, the story suddenly ends with Moe going on his boat journey as Ash, Brock, and Misty continue theirs.

Controversial Content

During the contest, the infamous scene occurs that cements the ban on this episode. After Brutella orders Jessie and James to sabotage the event, at first they take slaying the beauty contest a bit too literally. Although the English dub just shows that their Pokémon entered the contest in a haphazard costume, the original Japanese dub is a bit more revealing as both Jessie and James entered the contest themselves. Naturally, their ticket to entry wouldn’t be complete without James cross-dressing with his own inflatable rack and telling Misty, “When you’re older, you’ll have a chest like this”. This, of course, drove the nail in the coffin on the episode’s international ban.

The additional scene that shows Jessie and James in their bikinis before being pulled aside by Brutella and after Brock comments about Gary’s entourage of girls was also obviously cut with the English dub skipping straight to their conversation with Brutella. Even with the main scene being the most obvious reason for censorship, there are plenty of other questionable mishaps in the episode that merit their own controversy. For instance, throughout the episode, Misty seems to often be the center of dubious attention.

In the first airing of the Japanese version, a subliminal frame depicting Misty posing in a bikini with Pikachu holding a sign reading Japan’s #1 best can be seen when the beach ball Misty throws at Ash makes impact. Moe at first comes off as creepily reminiscent of Master Roshi, with him saying in the English version that she reminds him of his granddaughter and in the Japanese version saying he’ll be looking forward to her eight years later. Misty later expressed wanting to enter the beauty contest before even hearing about the cash prize, then goes on to complain that it’s “totally embarrassing and degrading, but we need the money.” Though this doesn’t excuse the audience from ogling a ten-year-old, the contest rules probably shouldn’t have allowed underage entry in the first place.

Not to mention the myriad of other absurd occurrences throughout the episode. Of course, there’s the literal crime of stealing a random boat and causing damage by ramming it into a dock. Although Ash’s mom and Professor Oak deus ex machina themselves to act as a handy plot device, it’s dubious at best as to their explanation of being on a “tour” together. Also, how is Brock even the sole judge for the contest, being only fifteen and just learning about the event? Even though a later banned episode gets the boot because it shows firearms, this episode having Charmander and Pidgeotto battle a literal missile doesn’t even register to be censored. But perhaps it just didn’t come close to James being a bombshell himself.

Although this episode had been banned for obvious reasons years ago, its infamy is still legendary and worth the watch, though perhaps not for younger audiences.

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What’s your take on this infamous banned Pokémon episode? Let us know in the comments if you think James is hot or not!