>>1537777“Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z – Episode 23.5: The Nobuko Invasion”
Most fans of Powerpuff Girls Z know the show aired 52 episodes, clean and colorful, with no major production controversies. But buried in old anime forums and long-forgotten Geocities sites is a strange rumor about a lost episode, often referred to as Episode 23.5 or The Nobuko Invasion.
The story goes that during a mid-season production lull, Toei Animation outsourced filler storyboards to a tiny studio that specialized in children’s comedies. Somehow, assets from another magical girl show, Ojamajo Doremi, got mixed into the animation pipeline. That’s when Nobuko — a character who didn’t belong in the PPGZ universe at all — appeared.
Two screenshots have allegedly survived, always popping up in imageboards or strange “archived” websites before mysteriously disappearing again:
Himeko Shirogane, pupils glowing with five-pointed red stars, furiously glaring at Nobuko, who taunts her with a grotesque, tongue-wagging face.
Another frame, even more unsettling — Himeko clasping her hands with starry-eyed obsession, while Nobuko laughs maniacally, her face drawn in far more detail than the rest of the show.
Fans point out that Nobuko’s character design is slightly off — her shading darker, her outlines thicker, and her expressions more grotesque, almost like she was rotoscoped from a completely different anime.
