DP174: Last Call—First Round!

Plot

Dawn has little time before the Grand Festival; Ash and Brock join her in lunch at a hall. Brock is especially happy, as he can flirt from girl to girl. To cool him down, Croagunk uses Poison Jab on him. As they eat, they notice Nando, who won all five ribbons. Nando plays a tune before the camera of Sinnoh Now staff and gets visited by Dawn, Ash and Brock. Rhonda asks Dawn for few minutes on the camera and before she does, Dawn looks herself in the mirror. Dawn expresses she wants to give the audience the best she can out of her Pokémon. Nando is thankful for them, as he has pursued the path of Contests and Gym Battles. He only needs one ribbon to enter the Sinnoh League, so he and Ash promise to meet again at the League.

Kenny appears and teases Dawn. He is confident his Fusion Move will work, but will reveal at the Festival itself, not before. Kenny is somewhat surprised that Dawn does not feel angry at being called "Dee-Dee" and is told she got past that part of history. Suddenly, Plusle and Minun come and shock her a bit, causing her hair to be shocked and glittered. Those are Ursula's Pokémon, as she also came to the Festival. Kenny now sees something happened between Dawn and Ursula. Suddenly, Zoey appears and remembers Nando and Kenny, as they watched each other's performances on television. Zoey has not forgotten that she will face Dawn in final battle, making Kenny upset, as he thinks he is going to be Top-Coordinator. Ursula thinks they are bunch of children and soon hears Jessilina expressing herself at the camera.

Before they go to bed, Dawn gives a speech to her Pokémon. She displays her mother's ribbon and knows this brought her luck and thanks Ash, Brock and Pikachu, as she couldn't be here without them. Next day, Ash trains his Gible to use Draco Meteor and the move attacks Kenny, who was going to greet Ash. Kenny is fine and asks Ash where Dawn is. Ash responds that she is at her room, being all crazy about her appearance; she cannot accessorize her outfit. Zoey goes to help her and gives her advice; she should think of her Pokémon to get off the nervousness. The Grand Festival begins; Marian displays the judges - Mr. Contesta, Sukizo from the fan club, Nurse Joy from Lilycove, Pastoria, and Jubilife City and lastly, Fantina herself.

The performances will be held on three platforms; each one has two judges to decide whether they should pass. Ursula sends her two Eevee for the performance. Eevee use Iron Tail and follow with Hidden Power. She tosses a Fire and a Water Stone to them, making them evolve into Flareon and Vaporeon. Kenny is impressed by this performance, while Zoey knows she had only one chance of doing that. Nando, however, has Altaria and Kricketot sing. Meanwhile, Jessie's Seviper uses Haze and Yanmega uses Silver Wind on her, revealing a new dress she wears for the Festival. After some performances, it is Zoey's time to show. Her Lumineon uses Aqua Ring, followed with Gastrodon's Water Pulse, which creates more rings, through which Lumineon jumps through.

Next is Kenny, whose Floatzel uses Aqua Jet and Empoleon uses Hydro Cannon. Floatzel uses this with Razor Wind, which causes the water to be scattered into bubbles. With Metal Claw, the bubbles become glittered. Floatzel uses Whirlpool and uses it to stop Empoleon's Flash Cannon, however, Floatzel becomes hit. Next is Dawn, who sends Buenary and Cyndaquil. Buneary spins and uses Ice Beam to create an ice slide, then Cyndaquil goes downward the slide using Flame Wheel, with Buneary following it. Buneary uses Ice Beam, but Cyndaquil uses SmokeScreen before, so the smoke turns blue. However, this turns out that Buneary encased herself in an ice Poké Ball, with Cyndaquil on it. Ursula was skeptical the SmokeScreen would have worked, which forces Zoey to scold Ursula. Ursula just responds she will not allow Dawn and Zoey to meet in the final fight.

All performances have been made and after some time, the judges decided who will enter in the next round. Dawn, Ursula, Jessilina, Nando and Zoey go towards the next round, but Kenny does not. Later, Kenny decides to leave Lake Valor to prepare for next Grand Festival. Kenny asks of Dawn to defeat Ursula and wishes Ash luck in training Gible.

Debuts

Pokémon

• Kenny's Empoleon

Trivia

• Professor Oak's Pokémon lecture: Hitmonlee
• This is the first episode of the four-part Sinnoh Grand Festival arc.
• The names of the three stages of the appeals round are the same as that of the three original games, Red, Green and Blue.
• Despite the fact that a main character and two recurring characters have each owned an Eevee that has gone on to evolve, this episode marks the first time an Eevee is shown evolving on-screen in the anime, with two Eevee undergoing separate evolutions.
• This episode marks the first time a Pokémon is seen to evolve in the middle of a Contest appeal, discounting the illusory Johanna evolving her Feebas in Malice In Wonderland!.
• Background music from Mewtwo Strikes Back, Spell of the Unown, Jirachi: Wish Maker, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and The Rise of Darkrai, as well as the instrumental of By Your Side ~Hikari's Theme~, are used.
• The English version of this episode aired on the same day Pokémon Black and White came out in Japan.
• Team Rocket doesn't blast off or recite the motto during the entire arc.

Errors

• Nando's Kricketot used Sing in this episode, a move that Kricketot cannot legally learn (although its evolved form can).
• When Zoey's Gastrodon first came out, the top of its head was pink instead of Brown.

Dub edits

During the appeals of everyone before Dawn, different pieces of music were used instead of the wild Pokémon theme from the Advanced Generation series and an instrumental from a Pokémon movie.

Gallery

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