Pokemon S01E18 Review: Man-Boobs! [Banned Episode #1]

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 18: Beauty and the Beach / Holiday at Aopulco

One of the most infamous episodes is "Beauty and the Beach", which was not aired during the original airing of the dubbed version. I discovered that the banned episodes exist because the VCD's I bought had the episode names listed, but skipped around a couple of episodes. There was this one, the infamous Porygon one, and the Dratini one. Out of them, though, this episode perhaps features one of the more bizarre reasons for being cut out... inflatable man-boobs! Oh, 90's Japanese comedy. And honestly, it's kind of a terrible episode in my opinion, with a good chunk of the episode just being focused on the bikini contest, which is... it's sort of a staple in many Japanese anime, with 'beach episodes' and 'hot springs episodes' being sort of obligatory for fanservice.

Still, the episode starts off innocently enough, panning shots of Misty notwithstanding. We get our heroes basically having a good time at the beach, with particularly adorable shots of Pikachu paddling along with a little inflatable float. We get Misty and Ash getting into some typical argument when Ash mentions that "Misty dresses like a girl" for once. Oh, Ash experiencing puberty and all. We get the first appearance of Team Rocket's Mecha-Gyarados submarine, which is fun and easily my favourite Team Rocket mecha! For whatever reason, Ash and company are in a giant speedboat, and we get a brief bit of "I followed him" as everyone throws blame at whose fault it is that Ash of all people is allowed to drive a goddamn boat.

After crashing onto Team Rocket's submarine, they crash onto the pier, causing the owner of the boat to get absolutely angry, and leading to one of the most unfortunate moments in the anime, where the old man basically forgives them after getting a good look at Misty in a bikini. Like, I know that perverted old men are sort of a trope in Japanese anime with Master Roshi and all, but it's honestly always extra-creepy when the people they are perverting on are underage girls. The line "I look forward to you in eight years" (translated into the not-much-better "you remind me of my granddaughter") doesn't help either. After this line, Misty wisely hides behind Brock and ends up offering to do part-time jobs at the old man's rickety beach hut to pay for the boat.

Meanwhlie, Jessie and James ends up washing up in front of a far fancier beach hut, ran by an old crone called Obaba (literally "old lady" in Japanese), or Brutella in the dub. And we get a pretty standard bit of pissing contest, because everyone ends up going to Obaba's fancier beach hut instead of the creepy old man's run-down one. I'm not sure why Ash and company ends up being extra-motivated to help him out, but Ash ends up unleashing his entire team (except poor Butterfree) to help hand out fliers and cook and shit. Team Rocket responds by sending Meowth to sabotage all of this, at one point actually pouring oil into the old man's stove to have it blow up in his face.

We then get the backstory between Obaba and old man Ryu (Moe in the dub), when Obaba shows up to mock Ryu for not having customers. Apparently Ryu owes Obaba a lot of money, and she threatens to take the shop if he doesn't pay by tomorrow. And... and we're supposed to side with Ryu, because he apparently uses the money to buy the boat and wants to travel around the world in it... but I'm genuinely not sure why so many Japanese media really loves using debt collectors as villains. I mean, it's not like Obaba is wrong for wanting Ryu to pay a debt that she is owed. Well, at least until she starts actively sabotaging Ryu later on, but that doesn't take place until later on.

Also, randomly, Professor Oak and Ash's Mom show up! For no real reason! Yeah, this is the one of the episodes that fans tend to point to to further the joke of Oak and Delia being in a relationship, since you never see Oak's wife or Delia's husband... and Oak's line to Ash's questioning of them going together being "I'll explain later" doesn't help matters. Of course, the reason that they give later on is that they're representatives of the neighbourhood community, but that honestly feels like a pretty bad handwave. In any case, Oak thinks up of the idea of setting up a Pokemon/Beauty contest to make funds quickly... which... I dunno, who is sponsoring this? Or the huge prize money? Ryu's shop is already apparently in debt, and Oak notes that this will bring 'customers', but who's sponsoring the huge prize money? Is it Oak? The logistics of this contest is bizarre. Also, somehow, a gigantic stage is set up, Brock is the judge... and we get the bikini contest underway.

First up is Misty, and the poor girl is clearly uncomfortable. Misty is pretty popular, and the Pokemon part of the contest is Squirtle dressed up as an alien riding around Starmie cosplaying a UFO. She gets utterly stood up when Jessie and James show up, in a scene that is cut out of anywhere outside of Japan, and it's... it's not even offensive, it's just utterly hilariously bizarre, featuring Jessie and a crossdressing James with a bikini and inflatable breasts (he actually inflates them on-stage), noting that this is some "service" for the viewers, and that his beauty isn't specific to any gender. And he even tells Misty that she's "ten years too young" to be as womanly as him. It's honestly pretty bizarre all around, and their idea of a Pokemon cosplay is Koffing and Ekans, as well as some seaweed, cosplaying as the prehistoric pokemon Omanyte... but ends up looking more like an extra from Aladdin.

And Gary, being a dick, kicks Koffing and Ekans, showing up with his squad of bikini girlfriends! And... and basically just acts like a total tool to show up Ash, while Brock is just enjoying the parade of hot older ladies. It's the first time we've seen Gary since the first episode, other than a brief cameo in the Squirtle episode, and it's honestly utterly bizarre. He even refuses to fight Ash in a Pokemon battle, just wanting to show off his harem.

Obaba... ends up pulling Team Rocket and telling them to use the newly-repaired Gyarados mecha to blow up the contest and make Ryu go bankrupt. Again, the logistics of who is providing the money for the prize isn't mentioned. Team Rocket and the mecha-Gyarados cause some panic as it bursts out of water, but Ash ends up calming everyone down. "That's a fake Gyarados!" Ash calls out... but it's... it's still a fucking tank. Like, yeah, sure, it's not a Gyarados, but it's still a tank with missiles and everything. Ash sends out Pidgeotto and Charmander to do an airborne flamethrower to confuse the missile's targeting system, and we get some Looney Tunes style hijinks of the missile and the submarine sprouting eyes and everything, ending up with the missiles blowing up Obaba's resort.

The episode ends with Ryu sailing off on that boat on his dreams... and if he's going to do that, why not give the shop to Obaba? Also, what about the provider of the prize money for that competition? Apparently Delia Ketchum wins the trophy, although it's kinda ambiguous? Honestly, this episode feels so messy and just an excuse to show off boobs of all ages and genders. It's certainly an episode that could definitely be pulled off the air without any real significance, considering how utterly messy the sequence of events are. S'not even a good filler episode. 

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Meowth, Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto, Starmie, Koffing, Ekans
• Humans: Ash, Brock, Misty, Jessie, James, Ryu, Obaba, Professor Oak, Ash's Mom, Gary

Assorted Notes:

• So this episode was banned in most countries outside of Asia due to the scenes of James crossdressing and wearing a bikini with inflatable breasts, as well as the generally risque theme of a bikini contest. The episode would later be released in a dubbed version as a 'lost episode', albeit heavily cut to the length of 18 minutes to remove all scenes of crossdressing James, but most other airings of the series would end up not airing this episode at all. 
• Misty sports a Master Ball themed beach ball, one of the rare cases that any other Pokeball other than the regular one shows up in the first season. 
• The "dare da" segment of this episode, in Japan, features Obaba instead of an actual Pokemon. 
• Dub Edits:
• James and his boobs are censored in the dubbed version. Heavily censored.
• In the original Japanese version, Moe/Ryu is totally creeping on Misty, noting that he's "looking forward to you eight years later". The dub changes this line to him saying that Misty reminds him of his granddaughter... which honestly makes the old man's lecherous gaze a lot creepier in the dub, honestly. 
• The original Japanese version doesn't specify the winner of the contest, with Delia just holding the trophy, and the show never actually confirming if she won it or if she's just holding on to it. The dub explicitly edits out the trophy to state that Ash is the winner for saving them.