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| Season | Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl (Season 10) · Floaroma Town: Kenny & Dawn’s first Ribbon arc (DP025–DP029) |
| Episode | Season 10, episode 26 · English episode 490 · Japanese episode 493 · Bulbapedia code DP026 |
| English title | Getting the Pre-Contest Titters! |
| Japanese title | ポケモンコンテスト！ソノオ大会！！ Pokemon Kontesuto! Sonō Taikai!! — “Pokémon Contest! Sonoo Tournament!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 5 April 2007 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 1 September 2007 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Atsuhiro Tomioka |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Together – Fumie Akiyoshi · Kimi no Soba de ~Hikari no Tēma~ (By Your Side ~Hikari’s Theme~), Pop-Up Version – Grin |
| English opening | Diamond and Pearl – Chris “Breeze” Barczynski |
| Previous episode | Oh Do You Know The Poffin Plan! (DP025) |
| Next episode | Settling a Not-So-Old Score! (DP027) |
Plot episodeKenny debutsPiplup learns Whirlpool
Getting the Pre-Contest Titters! is the 26th episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, the tenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 490th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 493, Bulbapedia code DP026). It first aired in Japan on 5 April 2007 and in the United States on 1 September 2007. It falls within the season’s Floaroma Town: Kenny & Dawn’s first Ribbon stretch (EP25–EP29).
Shown straight after DP025 on Saturday 1 September 2007; from the following week the series ran one new episode each Saturday.
Synopsis
With one day left before the Floaroma Town Contest, Dawn is training hard, and Pikachu shows Pachirisu how to store up electricity so its appeal sparkles more brightly. When Dawn refuses to hand out more Poffins until training is finished, Pachirisu throws a tantrum and zaps everyone with Discharge, and although Pikachu blocks most of it with Thunderbolt, Dawn’s hair is left frazzled. At that moment a voice calls out “Dee-Dee”, and Dawn turns to see her childhood friend Kenny. At the Pokémon Center Kenny introduces his Prinplup, the first Pokémon he received, which slaps Piplup away when it gets too close and starts a staring contest between the two. Kenny reveals that he is a Coordinator too, that he watched Dawn’s Jubilife debut on television and that he reached the final of his own first Contest before losing to Zoey and Glameow.
Kenny then delights in embarrassing Dawn in front of Ash and Brock with stories from their childhood: the haircut she gave herself that made her look like a Chimchar, a disastrous school play and the day she went to school in mismatched shoes and pyjamas. Fuming, Dawn challenges him to a battle, but Kenny would rather battle Ash’s Pikachu for experience. Prinplup blocks Thunderbolt with Metal Claw and turns the sparks into an appeal, dives in with Drill Peck and softens its fall from Iron Tail with Bubble Beam. Meanwhile, as Jessie prepares for the Contest, James and Meowth decide Prinplup would make a fine prize, and Seviper’s Haze smothers the battlefield so that they can wrap it in a net.
Staravia clears the haze too late, Cacnea and Carnivine knock Ash and Kenny aside, and the three Team Rocket Pokémon attack the group. Then Piplup leaps in and uses a brand-new move, Whirlpool, absorbing the attacks in its spinning water and hurling them back at the villains. The impact frees Prinplup, and the two rivals put aside their quarrel to blast James and Meowth away with a joint Bubble Beam. The next day the Floaroma Contest begins, with Kenny teasing Dawn about her dress backstage and Jessilina among the entrants. Dawn is first on the Performance Stage with Pachirisu, which starts gracefully, then trips over its own tail, crashes into the judges’ table and starts running around the stage in a panic, while Dawn scrambles for a way to save her appeal.
Major Events
- Floaroma Contest, part 1. Kenny, Dawn’s childhood friend, debuts
- Piplup learns Whirlpool
- The Contest begins
Trivia
- The English title plays on "pre-contest jitters".
- The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- Kenny’s “Pikari” nickname for Dawn dropped
- By Your Side as background music
- Lucario score
Part of our Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.