DP026

← DP025 : Oh Do You Know the Poffin Plan!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP027 : Settling a Not-So-Old Score! →

Getting the Pre-Contest Titters!

DP026   EP492 ポケモンコンテスト！ソノオ大会！！ Pokémon Contest! Sonoo Tournament!!

First broadcast Japan April 5, 2007 United States September 1, 2007

English themes Opening Diamond and Pearl Ending

Japanese themes Opening Together Ending 君のそばで 〜ヒカリのテーマ〜

Credits Animation Team Iguchi Screenplay 冨岡淳広 Atsuhiro Tomioka Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Getting the Pre-Contest Titters! (Japanese: ポケモンコンテスト！ソノオ大会！！ Pokémon Contest! Sonoo Tournament!!) is the 26th episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 492nd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on April 5, 2007 as part of a one-hour special with DP027, and in the United States on September 1, 2007.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

With time running out before the start of the Floaroma Town Pokémon Contest, Dawn and Pachirisu are getting in as much training as they can. But it's not just Ash and Brock who are watching from the sidelines, because Dawn's friend Kenny is here to compete in the Contest, too! Both Dawn and Kenny are from Twinleaf Town, and Kenny is full of embarrassing stories about Dawn's childhood. What's more, he chose a Piplup for his first Pokémon, just like Dawn, but his Piplup is now a Prinplup with an attitude!

To add injury to insult, Kenny turns down a challenge from Dawn and asks to battle Ash and Pikachu instead. Pikachu should have the type advantage, but Kenny's Prinplup counters Pikachu's attacks by using its own moves in creative ways. It's so impressive that Team Rocket makes a grab for Prinplup—in order to boost Jessie's chances of Contest victory, James and Meowth are on a mission to steal Pokémon!

Prinplup is unable to escape, so Dawn sends Piplup to stop Team Rocket. Piplup uses a newly-learned move, Whirlpool, to give Prinplup back some of its pep, and the two Water-type Pokémon then beat Team Rocket with a double Bubblebeam. Today's teamwork was terrific, but both Dawn and Kenny have their eye on winning tomorrow's Contest. What will happen once these old friends become new rivals...?

Plot

The Floaroma Contest is one day away, and Dawn is training hard. Pikachu demonstrates to Pachirisu how to store electricity in order to gain more appeal. Pachirisu releases the electricity and creates a sparkle show similar to Pikachu. Pachirisu begs for Dawn's Poffin, and she gives it and Piplup some. Both Pokémon want more Poffin, and Dawn refuses until they train some more. Pachirisu gets angry and uses Discharge on all of them. Pikachu stops Pachirisu with Thunderbolt, and Dawn's hair is a mess.

Someone calls out "Dee-Dee", and Dawn realizes that Kenny is there. The others wonder why he called her Dee-Dee, and find out that Kenny is a childhood friend of Dawn. Kenny sits down with the others and reveals his starter Prinplup. While Ash checks his Pokédex, Piplup walks up to Prinplup, and Prinplup slaps it away. Piplup and Prinplup attempt a stare-down rivalry. Dawn did not even remember that Kenny was at the Jubilife Contest, let alone a Coordinator. He reveals that he lost to Zoey's Glameow in the final round of his first Contest.

Kenny asks Ash if he is competing in the Contest, and he finds out about Ash’s goal to compete in Gym battles. Kenny suddenly switches topics about childhood stories, which irritates Dawn. He quickly brings up three stories that embarrass Dawn: her self-inflicted Chimchar-style haircut, her fumble during a childhood play, and wearing two different shoes and pajamas to school. Dawn loses it and challenges Kenny to a battle, but he ignores her for a battle against Ash's Pikachu, mainly for experience.

Kenny's Prinplup faces off against Pikachu. Pikachu attacks first with Thunderbolt, but Prinplup uses Metal Claw to block the attack, sending it back with appeal. Prinplup charges with Drill Peck, flying up and coming down. Pikachu uses the spin dodge method and lands an Iron Tail. Prinplup uses BubbleBeam to dampen the fall. James and Meowth take note of Prinplup and decide to grab it. Seviper uses Haze to cover the field, disrupting the battle.

Ash quickly sends out Staravia to blow the haze away, just as Team Rocket wraps Prinplup. Kenny tries to save Prinplup, but Cacnea and Carnivine knock them aside. Cacnea, Carnivine, and Seviper attack the group, but Piplup jumps up and uses Whirlpool to absorb the blitz attack. Piplup launches the attack towards Team Rocket, restoring Prinplup's energy and allowing it to free itself. Piplup and Prinplup set aside the rivalry and both send Team Rocket flying with BubbleBeam.

The Floaroma Contest starts up the next day. Backstage, Kenny and Dawn are preparing. Dawn embarrasses Kenny due to the fact she is wearing a dress. Dawn goes first on the appeal round, and she summons Pachirisu. Although it appears in a graceful manner, it trips on its tail and begins to panic. It crashes into the judge podium and runs around frightened. Dawn suddenly gets an idea on how to fix the problem, which will be revealed in the next episode.

Major events

• Dawn meets with her childhood friend, Kenny.
• Dawn, Kenny, and Jessie enter the Floaroma Pokémon Contest.
• Dawn's Piplup learns Whirlpool.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Debuts

Humans

• Kenny

Pokémon debuts

• Kenny's Prinplup
• Kricketune

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Dawn
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Marian
• Raoul Contesta
• Mr. Sukizo
• Nurse Joy
• Kenny
• Zoey (flashback)
• Coordinators
• Audience
• Children (flashback)

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Piplup (Dawn's)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Mime Jr. (James's)
• Staravia (Ash's)
• Buneary (Dawn's)
• Pachirisu (Dawn's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Dustox (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Carnivine (James's)
• Prinplup (Kenny's)
• Glameow (Zoey's, flashback)
• Smeargle (nail salon's)
• Clefairy
• Magneton
• Rapidash
• Koffing
• Chansey
• Beautifly
• Sealeo
• Bidoof
• Kricketune (Debut)

Trivia

• Music from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and the instrumental version of By Your Side ~Hikari's Theme~ are used as background music.
• Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia: James's Mime Jr.
  • Pokémon senryū: かわいいね　マネネまねする　きみのマネ Kawaii ne, Manene manesuru, kimi no mane. "Isn't it cute? Manene imitates, your imitation."
• Dawn reads the title card.
• This is one of the rare instances when one of Team Rocket's members doesn't blast off. Only Meowth and James blast off.
  • Also none of them recite their motto in any form.
    • The same thing happened in an earlier episode.

Errors

• In this episode Dawn says that only one person knows about "Dee-Dee"; however, in Yes, in Dee-Dee it's Dawn!, it is shown her whole class knows about "Dee-Dee".
• Ash's Staravia used Gust in this episode, a move it cannot learn legally in the games.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		神奇寶貝華麗大賽！苑之大會！！
Czech		Předsoutěžní chichotání
Dutch		De bibbers voor de wedstrijd!
Finnish		Perhoset pyörivät vatsassa
European French		H-24!
German		Wer wird denn Bammel haben?
Italian		Brividi pre-Gara & Amici e rivali
Polish		Przedpokazowa trema
Portuguese	Brazil	Nervosismo de Pré-Torneio!
	Portugal	Nervos Antes da Competição!
Romanian		Amuzament de dinaintea Concursului
Russian		Проишествие перед состязаниями
Spanish	Latin America	¡Nervios de concurso!
	Spain	¡Con los nervios previos al concurso!
Swedish		Skrattar bäst som skrattar sist
Thai		โปเกมอนคอนเทสต์! โซโนโอะทาวน์!

← DP025 : Oh Do You Know the Poffin Plan!

Diamond & Pearl series

DP027 : Settling a Not-So-Old Score! →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.