"Major Competition" is the 13th episode of The Powerpuff Girls Season 1.
It was produced in 1998 and first aired on Cartoon Network in the United States on January 6, 1999.
Synopsis[]
A new superhero called Major Man arrives in Townsville and plans to steal the girls' fame. It's up to the girls to prove to Townsville that Major Man is a phony and that they really are the real superheroes Townsville needs.
Plot[]
The story begins with the city of Townsville as the victim of a massive fire. As soon as the girls could fly into the area, the fire is blown out, thanks to an unknown new hero.
As he makes himself known to the people, his identity is brought into question until the girls ask. He identifies himself as Major Man: crusher of crime, demolisher of disorder, and eliminator of evil. The people take the idea of this new superhero, as he even thwarts the mugging of an older woman, and the girls float off realizing what awaits them.
Throughout town, Major Man demonstrates his campaign for justice and peace, including thwarting a train wreck, saving a man in a wheelchair from a fall, and breaking up another mugging, while inspiring those he saved.
Meanwhile, the girls' hotline phone has been silent, except for one call from the Mayor of Townsville who remarks that he and the girls grew apart while stating that they can still be friends and that he has found someone else in Major Man.
As their dejection worsens, the Professor is tuned in to a ceremony for Major Man commemorating him for saving Townsville. However, in his audience with the Mayor, he lets it slip that he knows about the incidents in advance (which shocks the Mayor and the girls), suggesting to the girls that something is terribly wrong with him, and they decide to go investigate.
The girls decide to shadow Major Man as he is on patrol, coming to confirm that he is known for setting up his own disasters after seeing him kick an innocent puppy into the street and then save it; this is how he knew about the crime before it even happened. Buttercup says that they should beat him up, but Blossom has a better idea: they need to expose Major Man for the fraud that he is. After Bubbles dresses up as a monster (in cloud form), they decide to put their plan into action.
Soon after, the city comes under attack by a large monster while the people are confident in Major Man being able to save them even when the Mayor calls him up. Unfortunately, he had so little prior knowledge of the situation that he finds himself at the monster's mercy quickly. With their new hero incapacitated, the girls fly in, seemingly to help out. The townspeople recall them and cheer for them as Major Man begs for their help but they instead ask Major Man about why he could not fight the monster himself. Under pressure, he is forced to admit that he set up all of those other disasters so he could get all the fame and glory, to the citizens' shock. The girls ask him to elaborate; he admits to having started the large fire, asked his cousin and grandmother to stage robberies, sabotaged railroad tracks to stage wrecks, and paid thugs to harass an old man. The townspeople angrily boo at Major Man for lying to them about everything and for putting them and all Townsville in danger in the first place. As soon as he agrees to leave the heroics up to real heroes, the girls get to work taming the giant monster and saving Major Man in the process.
After he is freed, Buttercup orders Major Man to get out of the town and he sadly leaves. The Mayor and the people, realizing their mistake, apologize for abandoning the girls for the fraudulent Major Man. The girls accept their apology, but as soon as the people are out of sight, they thank the monster, Fred, for helping them stage the entire incident. The episode ends on a better note, with the girls having restored their reputation in town.
Songs[]
Trivia[]
- This is the only episode where the narrator starts the episode in a panic, with him crying out that "The City of Townsville's on fire!".
- Fred the Monster's character model is later reused for the mother monster in "That's Not My Baby".
- George Jetson from The Jetsons makes a cameo appearance as one of the citizens.
- This is the first time the girls were called "the Powderpuff Girls" in the show, after it was uttered in promos for Cartoon Network. "Powderpuff Girls" was said again in the 2016 TV series episode "Viral Spiral".
- When one citizen exclaims, "No, he's not. He's the Midnight Marauder!" about Major Man's identity, this is a possible reference to A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album Midnight Marauders.
- This was the first episode to air in 1999.
- This is first time the Mayor replaced the Powerpuff Girls with another hero who turned out to be a cowardly, egoistic fraud that had set up all of the crimes and disasters he stopped that he was secretly putting everybody in Townsville's lives in danger in order to gain attention, respect and fame that he doesn't really deserved at all in the first place. In reality, he couldn't saves the day for real or even capable of saving himself when he's in danger, which it exposed the complete fraud really he is and always will be and got kicked out from Townsville and ending his false hero career. The second time was in Hot Air Buffoon, but this time with the Mayor himself as the Townsville's local hero with a hot air balloon called The Dirigible and an extending punching glove called The Equalizer.
- There were a couple of hints in this episode which foreshadow Major Man's fabricated superhero persona:
- After he saved Townsville from a giant fire, one of its citizens mistakenly calls him "The Mysterious Maestro".
- When a criminal appears with an old lady put into hostage by him, he suddenly appears right after Major Man stopped the fire, and talks with a few verbal slowdowns.
- In his own theme song, one of its lines is "Finding ways to protect us all".
- At the moment the Mayor decided to give up on the Powerpuff Girls as he transferred his reliance on the city's salvation to Major Man, the superhero didn't show any sort of sympathy or sorrow during that moment, and was smiling all the time.
Goofs[]
- In one shot where the folks of Townsville cheer for Major Man, George Jetson's arms are missing.
- When Blossom holds a conversation with Buttercup about their observations on a TV clip featuring Major Man, as Buttrcup replies "Yeah!", Blossom's mouth is moving.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on January 6, 1999, it was actually produced in 1998 according to the credits.
- This episode was finished in October of 1998.[1]