Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 28:  "Rokon!  BURIIDAA Taiketsu!" 

("Rokon!  Breeder Battle")

American Episode 28:  "Pokemon Fashion Flash"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Rokon
Japanese Air Date:  October 7th, 1997
American Air Date:  October 14th, 1998
Important Characters:  Yuki (Susie)
Important Places:  Scissor Street (Scissor Street), Lovely-Charmy Salon (Salon Roquette)

Takeshi brings Satoshi and Kasumi to Scissor Street to look for a famous breeder, Yuki.  Takeshi meets his idol but finds her depressed because a rival salon, the Lovely-Charmy Salon, is taking away all her business.  The rival salon puts a pokemon's outward appearance before its inward beauty, and Yuki disagrees with this philosophy.  When the Rocket-Dan (the owners of the Lovely-Charmy Salon) use Kasumi to try to capture Pikachu, Satoshi-tachi come to her rescue.  The salon is quickly defeated, and everyone realizes that inner beauty is what's important.  Yuki, impressed by Takeshi's breeding ability, gives the young breeder her Rokon, and Satoshi-tachi resume their journey through the Kanto Region.

---

Thoughts
I really like this episode for some reason.  Maybe it's because the animation is slightly better than the average episode of Pocket Monsters.  Or maybe it's because of the funny outfits everyone's wearing.  Or maybe it's because watching Kojirou cross-dress for a third time is just funny somehow.  I don't know, but it's a fun episode nonetheless. 

Since Satoshi-tachi are in a big city, there are tons of signs, in Japanese, EVERYWHERE!  There really are a lot of paint edits in this episode, which makes me wonder why 4Kids is so anal about deleting all Japanese text in the show.  I mean, do they really think a little kid will turn the channel if he sees a small kana character hidden in the background!?  Because that's what a lot of these paint edits are--little insignificant signs in the background that you really have to look for to find.  I tried to be as thorough as I could to catch all the paint, but with the sheer number of paint edits in this episode I may have missed one or two. 

Nyasu no Uta replaces Hyaku Gojuu Ichi as the ending theme as of this episode in Japan, while the ending theme for the dub remains the same. 

Paint Edit
On the opening shot with the sign "Scissor Street 506" there's a sign with a Booster and an Ivui on it that says "SARON" (salon) in katakana.  There are two other signs with katakana on them--one says "Pikachuu" (it's the sign with two Pikachu) and the other says "Furii-something" (running down the cylinder in the middle).  All of these signs had their kana erased.

Paint Edit
The shot after the initial shot of Takeshi-tachi shows some signs floating by, and of course there was a lot of digital paint involved.  Starting on the left, there's a sign that says "Pika" beside the picture of Pikachu, a sign floating by that says "Pippi Pokemon ESUTE," the word "KINGU" beside the picture of Koiking, a floating sign that says "Beauty Salon Sarry's house" in English letters, and a sign on the very right side that says "RIIKORII."  Every one of these signs, except the floating signs, were wiped clean with digital paint.  The first floating sign was replaced with a picture of Eevee (the standard promo art picture) with the word "SALON" underneath it, while the second floating sign was left alone.  You know, they could have just cut the scene--it would have created a lot less work.

Side Note
The title screen in the Japanese episode does the same thing it did in Episode 21--the background music carries over into the title screen, replacing the usual title screen music.  And like in Episode 21, 4Kids ignores what was done in the original version and has the title screen music play like in any other episode.  Yeah, it's really minor, but I have to talk about something OTHER than digital paint...

Paint Edit
There's a bit of katakana in the scene when Satoshi-tachi are walking down Scissor Street right before Kasumi runs up to see the Lovely-Charmy Salon's poster.  The sign on the upper-right hand corner used to say "RABURI" (Lovely), and there was a kanji symbol on the very left-hand side of the screen (beside the flowers).  All of this was erased to protect the innocent.

Paint Edit
On the sign with Dogasu and Arbo there's a lot of writing.  At the upper-left hand corner "BYUUTII SARON" (Beauty Salon) is written in katakana.  Over Dogasu "RABURII" (Lovely) is written and across Arbo "CHAAMII" (Charmy) is written.  All of this was erased for the dub.  The arrow at the lower left-hand corner has some hiragana and kanji written (it's too small to see) and is replaced by a calligraphic "R."

Paint Edit
The word "RABURII CHAAMII" (Loverly Charmy) is erased from the sales counter inside the Lovely-Charmy Salon (the counter Nyasu is counting money on).  Wow, they really seem to hate that phrase...

Paint Edit
Outside the Lovely-Charmy Salon, "RABURII CHAAMII" is written on the giant heart, the awning, and the heart in the foreground.  The Japanese on the two hearts was covered by the calligraphic "R," but the writing on the awning just got erased.  The various shots of the building throughout the episode have the same things erased.

Paint Edit
Outside Yuki's salon, "Rokon" is written on the upper-right corner of the awning, the sign in front of the building, and on the door.  The letters are erased from the awning and sign, but they're replaced with a picture of a Rokon on the door.  Also, when Brock says "I found it!  I've been looking all over for this place!", Rokon's name is written on the left diagonal line.  That was replaced with the promo art of Rokon

Dare da?
The pokemon for the "Dare da?/Who's that Pokemon?" is the same, but the Japanese version uses a different picture of Rokon.  The original has a picture of Rokon with its back toward the audience (I guess to show off its flowing tail or something) while the dub uses that same old promo art.

Paint Edit
The shot that shows Koduck running into Yuki's salon to get help has an insignificant "pi" symbol erased from the upper left-hand corner, as well as a tiny "Rokon" elsewhere in the shot.  Of course, it would be unthinkable for 4Kids to leave those in, so they erased them.  I mean really, what would parents think if they left those in!?

Paint Edit
When Ash says "Oh!  We're supposed to battle on that!?", there's a sign behind Brock that's blank.  That used to say "KURU Poppo" (Cool Poppo?) before the painters got to work. 

Rocket-Dan
We got a new motto!  Here it is, the Japanese Lovely-Charmy motto:

"Sekai o karei ni MEIKU APPU*"
"Sekai o karei ni DORESU APPU**"
"Ai to bibou no hana o sakaseru"
"RABURII CHAAMII*** na AATISUTO****"
"Musashi!"
"Kojirou!"
"Futari mezasuha ukku shisano BIGGUBAN*****!"
"BYUUTIFURU WAARUDO******!  Ai to bi no shin sekai ga matteruze!"

*Make-Up
**Dress-Up
***Lovely-Charmy (you should know this by now...)
****Artist
*****Big Bang!
******Beautiful World!

Paint Edit
When Yuki appears with her Rokon, ready to battle, there was a sign to her right that said "Poppo."  That was erased so that 4Kids could show off their digital paint program.

Paint Edit
When everyone's wiping off the make-up off their pokemon, a building sporting "--barii Ponii" (Lovely Pony?) in katakana got its text erased. 

Paint Edit
Like in the rest of the episode, the word "Rokon" was erased from the awning of Yuki's Salon.  I'm mentioning it here again because there's a close-up shot of it in the original, with the text.  It makes sense that there would be a close-up of the salon's name, "Rokon," right before the inside of the salon is shown.  It serves as a transition to the next scene.  But in the dub, the text is gone, making the shot pointless.  It kinda makes you wonder why there would be a shot of the blank awning right before showing everyone in the salon. 

Paint Edit
OK...almost there...

When Musashi-tachi are running from the angry mob, there's a sign behind Musashi that says "SARON DOODORIO" (Salon Dodrio).  That was wiped clean.

Whew...all I can say is thank God Satoshi-tachi don't go to any other big cities for a while.  I am not looking forward to "Princess vs. Princess"...

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