Early specials "declassed" to episodes?!?

[Lopoke]

Ok, I used to think "Holiday HiJinx" and "Snow way out" were special Christmas episodes. Now, many episode guides report them as normal episodes. I could accept that, but see where they put them:

62. It's Mr. Mime Time
63. Holiday HiJynx
64. Snow Way Out
65. Showdown at the Poke Corral

Alright, now how could this be possible? In "It's Mr. Mime Time" Ash is back home in Pallet and the day after ("Showdown at the Poké Corral") he visits Prof. Oak, meets Gary, and lerns that there are only 3 weeks left before the pokémon league champioship.
Now, how can Ash and Co. in a single night, after coming back home, but before visiting Oak...

... find themselves on a beech
... travel to the South Pole (ok, Japan is a bit south compared to Europe or US, but I didn't think it was THAT south )
... back from the South Pole, find themselves in a totally different place with a high mountain and a city (not Pallet for sure)
... spend a night on that mountain

IMO, the two episodes must at least be located somewhere else. Even if, while "Snow way out" could fit the storyline somewhere, "Holiday HiJinx" completely differs from other Pokémon episodes and MUST be a special!

What do you think about that? And we know what the Japanese producers suppose them to be?

[Lopoke]

Let me add another thing: in those two "episodes", Ash has his Charmander, while we know it evolves about 20 episodes before in episode 41 "March of the Exeggutor squad".

[Murgatroyd]

They are placed there in the list because the first time they were shown in Japan was between those two episodes. I have not been able to verify this, but I have heard that they were originally scheduled to be shown in December 1997, a few weeks after the Porygon episode.

[RedStarWarrior]

They were delayed airings in Japan so they were placed wrong in the listing. I guess you can classify them as specials now because of the airing errors.

[Lopoke]

Yeah Modern Casuality, I think the air time does not make the placement too.

[Kaz-Ohki]

Santa lives at the NORTH Pole, not the south.

You've been lied to all your youth.

The only delay in time placement in Pokémon was the six months between "Electric Soldier Porygon" and "Pikachuu no Mori", and a New Years episode was permanantly dropped between that time. Why the Christmas episodes were shown is beyond me.

Holiday Hi-Jynx wasn't a Special - the only REAL "specials" are Mewtwo Returns and Crystal. It was a theme episode, but remember that the episodes are one a week in Japan, and set to the year's timeframe, for example, "The Purrfect Hero" was aired on Children's Day, and Princess Vs. Princess was aired on Girls' Day. Obviously, the Jynx episode was aimed for Christmas, just like the one coming up this year on Hoso/the Tuesday episodes.

[RJdude]

I didn't even know that the Japanesse celibrated Christmas.

Another thing: In, Princess vs. Princess Jessie catches her Lickitung. But in the episode wioth the Farfetch'd, after her pokemon get stolen, she says "Oh no, he took my Arbok and Lickitung!" (Or something like that) Also, Misty doesn't have Togepi in "Princess vs. Princess" but she got it before that episode aired. Weird...

[Lopoke]

Originally posted by Kaz-Ohki
Santa lives at the NORTH Pole, not the south.
You've been lied to all your youth.

Well, I did not believe in Santa when I was young. Anyway, north or south pole it is still too far away from the Kanto region!

Originally posted by RJdude
I didn't even know that the Japanesse celibrated Christmas.

They may not celebrate it's religious meaning, but they surely not ignore it: almost every japanese anime we know contains some kind of Christmas-related episode.

Originally posted by RJdude
Another thing: In, Princess vs. Princess Jessie catches her Lickitung. But in the episode wioth the Farfetch'd, after her pokemon get stolen, she says "Oh no, he took my Arbok and Lickitung!" (Or something like that) Also, Misty doesn't have Togepi in "Princess vs. Princess" but she got it before that episode aired. Weird...

This is a bit OT but we can talk about that too: some time ago I asked the same question here on TPM forum and I was told the episodes were screwed-up when first aired in the US and then exported in the wrong order.