Pokémon Hinamatsuri" Take Place?
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| Episode Comparisons | Kanto Region
"Fierce Fighting! Pokémon
Hinamatsuri" is an episode that was greatly affected by the "Pokémon Shock" incident. This page outlines the history
of the episode's debut and how it
airing out of production order affected the rest of the series.
This is the way the second third of Kanto ended up debuting in Japan back in 1998.
The hour-long special on April 16th was to celebrate the show coming back from its four month hiatus after the scandal that was "Pokémon Shock." TV-Tokyo aired a "what caused all those seizures / what are we doing to prevent that from ever happening again" segment and then kicked off the TV series' return by debuting two brand new episodes of Pocket Monsters. The hour-long special on July 9th, meanwhile, was likely to get the two holiday episodes out of the way before the first movie came out later that month.
Both "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri" and "It's Children's Day! Everyone Gather Around!" ended up debuting as a set of "extra episodes" (番外編) on July 9th, 1998. To this day, the episodes are treated as a pair.
Unfortunately, this schedule creates a few problems. Togepy was caught in the episode that aired on June 25th but is conspicuously absent in the Hinamatsuri episode that aired two weeks later (July 9th). No mention, no chirp, no nothing. Additionally, a reference is made to Musashi's Beroringa in the Kamonegi episode, which ended up coming out the week before she even caught the thing! And in the Japanese version of "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri," Nyarth makes a reference to the Rougela Christmas episode that wouldn't end up airing for another three months.
If it seems like these episodes aired out-of-order then guess what? All signs point to the idea that this is very much what happened.
When the Pocket Monsters TV series first started, new episodes would air every Tuesday night at 18:30 JST.
When the show was ready to come back from its hiatus after the "Pokémon Shock" incident, however, its old Tuesday night slot had already been grabbed up by another series and so Pocket Monsters had no choice but to move to a recently vacated Thursday night slot instead.
But let's think about a world where the "Pokémon Shock" didn't occur and he show got to keep its old Tuesday timeslot all along. What would have happened then?
Well, let's start this little thought experiment by looking at the schedule we knew about beforehand. Below is a TV schedule printed in the January 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comics. The magazine went on sale December 15th, 1998, one day before the "Pokémon Shock" incident would change the franchise forever:
The episodes "The Pikachu Forest" (which would eventually become Episode 039) and "Iwark the Bivouac" (which would eventually get the same "extra episode" status that "Rougela's Christmas" would get) are both conspicuously absent. The fact that Satoshi's Fire-Type starter is still a Hitokage in the latter episode, however, means that TV-Tokyo must have been planned to air sometime before the debut of "The March of the Nassy Squad!"
If you take a look at a 1998 calendar you'll notice that March 3rd, 1998 -- aka Hinamatsuri -- just happened to fall on a Tuesday. Likewise, May 5th,1998 -- Children's Day -- fell on a Tuesday that year as well. That does not feel like a coincidence to me. It seems to me that the original plan was to have this Pocket Monsters episode about the real world Hinamatsuri holiday air on the real Hinamatsuri date (March 3rd) and for the episode about the real world Children's Day holiday to air on the real Children's Day date (May 5th). It just all lines up too perfectly.
If we go back to that 1998 calendar and start counting the number of Tuesdays, and if we also assume that there weren't any other episodes planned that we didn't know about, then we can make a pretty decent guess as to how the rest of the schedule would have gone:
Pokémon Encore, a rerun show that aired in the early 2000s, aired the Children's Day episode after the Daycare one, suggesting that this schedule I've outlined above may be accurate.
In this proposed schedule, the Hinamatsuri and Children's Day episodes weren't a pair at all; they were two episodes that had nothing to do with each other. There are also eight episodes between the two instead of the zero that we have now.
This revised schedule also fixes all the continuity issues outlined earlier. Togepy's absence in the Hinamatsuri episode makes sense now because in this version of the schedule, our heroes' adventure in O-Hina Town takes place before Kasumi's Pokémon was caught, not after. Same with the Christmas reference in the Hinamatsuri episode. And the reference to Musashi's Beroringa in "Kamonegi's Sitting Ducks" makes sense now because that episode takes place after the Hinamatsuri one, not before.
Complicating things even further is the fact that the English dub airs even more out of order than the Japanese version does!
As covered earlier, this episode and the Children's Day episode that comes after it aired between the episodes "Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden" (released in the U.S. as "Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden") and "Gardie the Police Dog" ("The Case of the K-9 Caper") in Japan. In the U.S., however, both episodes were delayed and wouldn't end up airing until after "The Breeding Center Secret." But...why?
I remember the popular theory going around back when Season One was first airing was that the Hinamatsuri episode was pushed back because 4Kids either didn't have time, money, or both to get their version of the episode ready in time for the Season One deadline. This episode has a very large number of digital paint edits -- the most of any single episode -- and so getting this one done before the end of the season probably wasn't very feasible. I don't really have any proof to back this up, of course, but small things like Brock's Vulpix being left undubbed and the way the brightness levels in the edited shots don't match up with the rest of the episode the way they usually do heavily imply that this episode was a real challenge for the editors over at 4Kids.
So, it was decided to push it back and have it be the episode to start of 4Kids' second season of the show.
Unfortunately, a lot of what's posted above is merely a series of educated guesses with no way of confirming whether or not this was the actual intended schedule. So for simplicity's sake, this site will continue to number the episodes based on the way they actually aired in Japan.
Still, it's interesting to look at what could have been...
| The
Way Things Are Now |
This is the way the second third of Kanto ended up debuting in Japan back in 1998.
| Actual
Broadcast Schedule |
||
| 038 | "Cyber Soldier Porygon" | December
16th, 1997 (Tuesday) |
| Four Month Hiatus due to the
"Pokémon Shock" Incident |
||
| 039 040 |
Hour Long Special! "The Pikachu Forest" "The Four Eevee Brothers" |
April
16th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 041 | "Wake Up Kabigon!" | April
23rd, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 042 |
"Showdown! The Pokémon Gyms!" | April
30th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 043 |
"The March of the Nassy Squad!" | May
7th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 044 |
"Paras and Parasect" | May
14th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 045 |
"Sing! Purin!" | May
21st, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 046 |
"They're Back!? The Fossil Pokémon!" | May
28th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 047 |
"Lucky's Medical Charts" | June
4th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 048 |
"Gardie and Kojirou" | June
11th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 049 |
"Kamonegi's Sitting Ducks" | June
18th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 050 |
"Who Gets to Keep Togepy!?" | June
25th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 051 |
"Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden" | July
2nd, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 052 053 |
Hour Long Special! "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri" "It's Children's Day! Everyone Gather Around!" |
July
9th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| 054 |
"Gardie the Police Dog" | July
16th, 1998 (Thursday) |
| Movie |
Pocket
Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo
Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" |
July
18th, 1998 (Saturday) |
The hour-long special on April 16th was to celebrate the show coming back from its four month hiatus after the scandal that was "Pokémon Shock." TV-Tokyo aired a "what caused all those seizures / what are we doing to prevent that from ever happening again" segment and then kicked off the TV series' return by debuting two brand new episodes of Pocket Monsters. The hour-long special on July 9th, meanwhile, was likely to get the two holiday episodes out of the way before the first movie came out later that month.
Both "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri" and "It's Children's Day! Everyone Gather Around!" ended up debuting as a set of "extra episodes" (番外編) on July 9th, 1998. To this day, the episodes are treated as a pair.
 |
Unfortunately, this schedule creates a few problems. Togepy was caught in the episode that aired on June 25th but is conspicuously absent in the Hinamatsuri episode that aired two weeks later (July 9th). No mention, no chirp, no nothing. Additionally, a reference is made to Musashi's Beroringa in the Kamonegi episode, which ended up coming out the week before she even caught the thing! And in the Japanese version of "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri," Nyarth makes a reference to the Rougela Christmas episode that wouldn't end up airing for another three months.
 |
 |
If it seems like these episodes aired out-of-order then guess what? All signs point to the idea that this is very much what happened.
| But
how was it all
supposed to go...? |
When the Pocket Monsters TV series first started, new episodes would air every Tuesday night at 18:30 JST.
 |
| Pre-release
poster for the TV series. The text in orange states that the show airs every Tuesday night from 6:30pm - 7:00pm JST. |
When the show was ready to come back from its hiatus after the "Pokémon Shock" incident, however, its old Tuesday night slot had already been grabbed up by another series and so Pocket Monsters had no choice but to move to a recently vacated Thursday night slot instead.
But let's think about a world where the "Pokémon Shock" didn't occur and he show got to keep its old Tuesday timeslot all along. What would have happened then?
Well, let's start this little thought experiment by looking at the schedule we knew about beforehand. Below is a TV schedule printed in the January 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comics. The magazine went on sale December 15th, 1998, one day before the "Pokémon Shock" incident would change the franchise forever:
| Originally
Planned Broadcast |
||
| 038 |
"Cyber Soldier Porygon" | December
16th, 1997 (Tuesday) |
| 039 | "Rougela's Christmas" | December
23rd, 1997 (Tuesday) |
| --- | No New Episode | December
30th, 1997 (Tuesday) |
| 040 | "The Four Eevee Brothers" | January
6th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 041 |
"The
Sleeping Kabigon" (beta title for "Wake Up Kabigon!") |
January
13th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
The episodes "The Pikachu Forest" (which would eventually become Episode 039) and "Iwark the Bivouac" (which would eventually get the same "extra episode" status that "Rougela's Christmas" would get) are both conspicuously absent. The fact that Satoshi's Fire-Type starter is still a Hitokage in the latter episode, however, means that TV-Tokyo must have been planned to air sometime before the debut of "The March of the Nassy Squad!"
If you take a look at a 1998 calendar you'll notice that March 3rd, 1998 -- aka Hinamatsuri -- just happened to fall on a Tuesday. Likewise, May 5th,1998 -- Children's Day -- fell on a Tuesday that year as well. That does not feel like a coincidence to me. It seems to me that the original plan was to have this Pocket Monsters episode about the real world Hinamatsuri holiday air on the real Hinamatsuri date (March 3rd) and for the episode about the real world Children's Day holiday to air on the real Children's Day date (May 5th). It just all lines up too perfectly.
If we go back to that 1998 calendar and start counting the number of Tuesdays, and if we also assume that there weren't any other episodes planned that we didn't know about, then we can make a pretty decent guess as to how the rest of the schedule would have gone:
| Probable
Planned Broadcast |
||
| 042 |
"Showdown! The Pokémon Gyms!" | January
20th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| --- |
"Iwark the Bivouac" | ??? (Maybe as part of a one-hour special?) |
| 043 |
"The March of the Nassy Squad!" | January
27th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 044 |
"Paras and Parasect" | February
3rd, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 045 |
"Sing! Purin!" | February
10th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 046 |
"They're Back!? The Fossil Pokémon!" | February
17th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 047 | "Lucky's Medical Charts" | February
24th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 048 | "Fierce Fighting! Pokémon Hinamatsuri" | March
3rd, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 049 |
"Gardie and Kojirou" | March
10th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 050 |
"Kamonegi's Sitting Ducks" | March
17th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 051 |
"Who Gets to Keep Togepy!?" | March
24th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 052 |
"Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden" | March
31st, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 053 |
"Gardie the Police Dog" | April
7th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 054 |
"Pikachu's Photo Op" | April
14th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 055 |
"The Pokémon Certification Exam!?" | April
21st, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 056 |
"The Daycare's Secret!" | April
28th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 057 |
"It's Children's Day! Everyone Gather Around!" | May
5th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
| 058 |
"Get Fired Up! The Guren Gym!" | May
12th, 1998 (Tuesday) |
Pokémon Encore, a rerun show that aired in the early 2000s, aired the Children's Day episode after the Daycare one, suggesting that this schedule I've outlined above may be accurate.
In this proposed schedule, the Hinamatsuri and Children's Day episodes weren't a pair at all; they were two episodes that had nothing to do with each other. There are also eight episodes between the two instead of the zero that we have now.
This revised schedule also fixes all the continuity issues outlined earlier. Togepy's absence in the Hinamatsuri episode makes sense now because in this version of the schedule, our heroes' adventure in O-Hina Town takes place before Kasumi's Pokémon was caught, not after. Same with the Christmas reference in the Hinamatsuri episode. And the reference to Musashi's Beroringa in "Kamonegi's Sitting Ducks" makes sense now because that episode takes place after the Hinamatsuri one, not before.
| The
English Dub |
Complicating things even further is the fact that the English dub airs even more out of order than the Japanese version does!
As covered earlier, this episode and the Children's Day episode that comes after it aired between the episodes "Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden" (released in the U.S. as "Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden") and "Gardie the Police Dog" ("The Case of the K-9 Caper") in Japan. In the U.S., however, both episodes were delayed and wouldn't end up airing until after "The Breeding Center Secret." But...why?
I remember the popular theory going around back when Season One was first airing was that the Hinamatsuri episode was pushed back because 4Kids either didn't have time, money, or both to get their version of the episode ready in time for the Season One deadline. This episode has a very large number of digital paint edits -- the most of any single episode -- and so getting this one done before the end of the season probably wasn't very feasible. I don't really have any proof to back this up, of course, but small things like Brock's Vulpix being left undubbed and the way the brightness levels in the edited shots don't match up with the rest of the episode the way they usually do heavily imply that this episode was a real challenge for the editors over at 4Kids.
So, it was decided to push it back and have it be the episode to start of 4Kids' second season of the show.
| In
the end |
Unfortunately, a lot of what's posted above is merely a series of educated guesses with no way of confirming whether or not this was the actual intended schedule. So for simplicity's sake, this site will continue to number the episodes based on the way they actually aired in Japan.
Still, it's interesting to look at what could have been...
Found an error or omission? Please help me keep this page current and error-free by e-mailing me with a description of the issue.
