Original air date: 5/26/1999
Production code: PPG-113
The Professor builds the Girls a giant robot to help them fight monsters, but it ends up destroying Townsville as well.
Uh-Oh, Dynamo contains examples of:
- Americasia: It’s set in Little Tokyo Townsville, a district with a very strong Japanese influence and architecture. Despite the "Little" in their name, it’s actually a large city.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Dynamo proves itself to be this. It's a Humongous Mecha based on the Powerpuff Girls that's powerful enough to fight the Giant Fishballoon when it proves too much for the Girls to handle, but it ends up causing just as much destruction to Townsville as the monster did, which leads the mayor and the citizens to demand that the Girls never use it again.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Giant Fishballoon is at last destroyed, but so is the city thanks to the Dynamo.
- Both Sides Have a Point: It kind of goes back and forth. The Professor may have had good intentions to keep the girls safe when he created the Dynamo, but he did get a little insistent when the girls were clearly able to handle things themselves. By the time he forced them to use it, not only was he sick of constantly being ignored, but they were clearly injured by the Giant Fishballoon and didn’t seem to stand a chance. However, this point may have been ultimately rendered moot when Townsville ends up destroyed even more than usual, basically because of him acting overprotective and for making them do something against their will (even if it was for good intentions).
- Broken Record: A Talking Dog billboard at the beginning of part 2 repeatedly says, "It's good!" over and over.
- Cobweb of Disuse: The Dynamo ends up covered in these when the girls keep postponing their promise to use it.
- Collective Death Glare: Everyone (even the girls) looks at the Professor angrily when the girls reveals that it was the Professor's idea for making them use Dynamo.
- Destructive Saviour: The girls, with Dynamo, are able to beat the Giant Fishballoon, but by then all of Townsville has been destroyed.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: The Professor is shown with these during his Hard-Work Montage.
- Fun with Acronyms: Dynamo is an acronym for ‘Dynamic Nanotechtronic Monobot’.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: The first Fishballoon that appears in the episode is barely the size of the girls themselves, though it can inflate itself to about twice the size of an adult human. The second Fishballoon, strongly implied to be the first one's parent, is kaiju sized.
- Hard-Work Montage: The professor building Dynamo is shown as one of these.
- Humongous Mecha: Dynamo is a Powerpuff version of this.
- Inflating Body Gag: The Giant Fishballoon sucks a large amount of air to inflate itself into a gigantic size. It also briefly inflates into an even bigger size to shoot the spikes from all over its body during its battle with Dynamo that destroys even more of Townsville.
- Kaiju: The girls fight a multi-eyed pufferfish kaiju called "Giant Fishballoon" with Dynamo.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Dynamo unleashes a metric ton of missiles from every part of her body. She launches them all at the Fishballoon — and every single one of them miss their mark. Dynamo ends up destroying everything but the giant monster she was actually aiming for.
- Monumental Damage: Subverted; it seems like the Fishballoon will destroy Mount Rushmore, but by the time it gets there, it has completely deflated and harmlessly lands on top of the monument.
- Played straight in Townsville, where nearly every notable landmark is destroyed in the carnage created by Dynamo and the Fishballoon, including Town Hall, the baseball stadium and Mojo's Volcano Lair.
- Never My Fault: The Professor stutters when he tries to justify blackmailing the girls into using the Dynamo, which destroyed the city. The mayor, the citizens, and even the girls were not impressed.
- No-Sell: The Giant Fishballoon easily shrugs off all the girls' regular attacks when they try to fight it without Dynamo.
- Oh, Crap!: The Professor had this moment when everyone looks at him angrily for making the girls use Dynamo to defeat the Giant Fishballoon, though he first has it the moment the Mayor erupts in fury over his city's demise because of Dynamo, and it gets worse when the Girls reveal he forced them to use it, leaving him unable to give an excuse for his Papa Wolf reasons and choose to pull a Know When to Fold 'Em / Screw This, I'm Outta Here to avoid everyone's anger.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: The tiny Fishballoon gives one after the girls cause it to deflate to its miniature size and it realizes it's going to get its ass kicked.
- Papa Wolf: The reason the Professor build Dynamo is because he feared for the girls' safety. His girls are not too thrilled about it though.
- "Pop!" Goes the Human: The inflated Fishballoon eventually pops when the girls shoot it with three pointy stars, causing it to deflate and fly away off with a balloon deflating sound.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The girls successfully defeat the Fishballoon monster, but in the process pretty much destroyed all of Townsville.
- Scenery Gorn: Townsville is completely annihilated in perhaps the most violent depiction of the city's near-constant destruction.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Professor immediately flees the scene when the town's citizens call him out for forcing the girls to use the Dynamo, a decision that has left the city in ruins.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Considering that the girls defeated the monster using the remains of a logo, and not Dynamo's weapons, the professor wasted his time building something powerful but dangerous. And all that destruction caused by Dynamo would have been avoided if the girls themselves used the bowling logo as a weapon.
- Shout-Out: Being an episode that features a giant robot, it naturally contains several shout-outs to classic Tokusatsu and Super Robot shows, like Ultraman.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The baby Fishballoon summons its bigger, stronger parent after its first failed battle against our heroines.
- Tempting Fate: When the girls finally relent to using the Dynamo, Blossom passively asks "What harm could it do?" You had to ask that question, didn't you Blossom.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The mayor and the citizens of Townsville all call out the girls for using the destructive Dynamo after the Humongous Mecha destroys all of Townsville in the process of fighting the monster. When the girls tell them the Professor forced them to use the Dynamo, they turn their anger towards him.
- When Elders Attack: An old lady attacks the Giant Fishballoon with her purse. The monster is unfazed by this and simply eats her.
- You Are Grounded!: The girls promise they would use the Dynamo when necessary, so they managed to do well without it. When Utonium feels that they absolutely need it, like when the Baby Fishballoon summons its stronger parent, he threatens to invoke this on the girls.The Professor: Use the Dynamo or you're all grounded.
