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| Season | Pokémon: Master Quest (Season 5) · Blackthorn City: the Rising Badge arc (EP251–EP255) |
| Episode | Season 5, episode 41 · English episode 250 · Japanese episode 253 · Bulbapedia code EP251 |
| English title | Beauty Is Skin Deep |
| Japanese title | イブキとミニリュウ! Ibuki to Miniryū! — “Ibuki and Miniryu!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 6 June 2002 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 31 May 2003 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Shinzō Fujita |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Ready Go! – Naomi Tamura · Pokettāri Monsutāri – Kana |
| English opening | Believe in Me – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Goldeen (US) · Dratini (Japan) |
| Previous episode | The Ice Cave! (EP250) |
| Next episode | Fangs for Nothin’ (EP252) |
Plot episodeClair debutsDratini evolves
Beauty Is Skin Deep is the 41st episode of Pokémon: Master Quest, the fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 250th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 253, Bulbapedia code EP251). It first aired in Japan on 6 June 2002 and in the United States on 31 May 2003. It falls within the season’s Blackthorn City: the Rising Badge stretch (EP251–EP255).
Synopsis
Ash and company wind up helping Claire, the Blackthorn City gym leader, protect a dratini who is about to shed its skin. Even so, today is the day that she must perform an important ritual. So she must wait until the vulnerable dratini sheds its skin then perform the ritual before midnight. The caretaker has brought the dragon fang which must be purified with him for her to do this as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Jessie of Team Rocket spots the dratini and wants it for her own. Team Rocket use a ruse to catch dratini and carry it off. A battle begins during which dratini evolves into dragonair. Dratini was not preparing to shed, but evolve. Team Rocket is defeated. The dragonair leads everyone to Riverhead Falls which is the source of Blackthorn Lake where the ritual usually is done. Claire performs the ritual and a light emitted from the dragon fang takes the shape of a dragon which climbs into the night sky toward the moon.
The next morning Ash finally arrives at Blackthorn City.
Major Events
- Clair debuts
- Dratini → Dragonair
- Blackthorn arc begins
- Dratini dub debut (last Gen I species to debut in dub)
Captures and evolutions
Dratini → Dragonair#0148 · Clair
Trivia
- The English title plays on the proverb.
- The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
- The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Dratini in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Goldeen in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- Clair’s skirt lengthened
- Onigiri → “sandwiches”/”doughnuts”/”onion” EP251/EP252/EP273
Part of our Pokémon: Master Quest guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.