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AG050

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← AG049 : Maxxed Out!
Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire
AG051 : Come What May! →
Pros and Con Artists
AG050.png
AG050   EP324
ポケモンコンテスト・ハジツゲ大会！！
Pokémon Contest - Hazitsuge Convention!!
First broadcast
Japan November 6, 2003
United States October 30, 2004
English themes
Opening This Dream
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening アドバンス・アドベンチャー
Ending そこに空があるから
Credits
Animation Team Ota
Screenplay 松井亜弥 Aya Matsui
Storyboard 誌村宏明 Hiroaki Shimura
Assistant director ながはまのりひこ Norihiko Nagahama
Animation director 広岡歳仁 Toshihito Hirooka
Additional credits

Pros and Con Artists (Japanese: ポケモンコンテスト・ハジツゲ大会！！ Pokémon Contest - Hazitsuge Convention!!) is the 50th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 324th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on November 6, 2003, and in the United States on October 30, 2004.

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

May and friends finally arrive in Fallarbor Town, ready for the next Pokémon Contest. There are already a lot of coordinators there, including one named Grace with a Medicham. Grace already has 3 ribbons, and shows off her Medicham's special combo.

May tries practicing combos with her Beautifly, but gets confused. Drew shows up and taunts her.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is running a scam to sell fake PokéBlocks.

When Ash tells Drew he's not competing, Drew challenges him to a battle that Drew wins. Drew implies that it takes teamwork between a Trainer and Pokémon to succeed, which May doesn't have. With her confidence shattered, May is easily duped by Team Rocket's scam.

Before May can purchase a fake PokéBlock, Grace steps in and exposes the ruse. Team Rocket leaves in their balloon, stealing all of the Pokémon they can on the way out. Medicham frees all of the Pokémon, and then May and Grace team up to fight off Team Rocket.

May gets her confidence back and enters the contest, standing on stage next to a confident Drew. Her second Pokémon Contest is about to begin.

Plot

Ash and his friends arrive at Fallarbor Town, where May will participate in her second Pokémon Contest. May is far more confident than last time that she and Beautifly will win. As they enter the Contest Hall, Brock finds himself surrounded by beautiful girls and May becomes nervous about all the competition. They take particular interest in a Medicham which is practicing its Meditate. Suddenly various objects around the room begin to float, including Max's glasses and even Pikachu. Medicham's Trainer, Grace, tells it to stop and apologizes for its burst of psychic energy. Everything falls back to the ground and Brock immediately falls in love with Grace, though Max quickly pulls him away by the ear. May apologizes for Brock, saying that he does that with every beautiful girl, and Grace begins laughing hysterically in embarrassment, accidentally shoving May over.

The group and Grace have dinner, where it is revealed that Grace already has three Ribbons. May gets nervous again, but Grace tries to cheer her up by saying that the Coordinator with the most experience won't necessarily win, it can just as easily come down to who they're facing and luck, but a Coordinator will never be able to win until they learn how to use their Pokémon's power completely. Unfortunately May still feels nervous, so Grace offers to show May some of Medicham's moves. Outside, Grace sends out her Medicham and shows off its Ice Punch and combines it with Psychic for a sparkling display. May hadn't even considered combining moves before, so the next day tries it with her Beautifly, having it use Silver Wind, then Tackle. Unfortunately May can't make up her mind and quickly tells it to use Gust instead, then changes again to String Shot. All of this just ends with Beautifly getting tangled in its own String Shot. May's rival Drew shows up in time to witness this, and comments on May's indecisiveness. Drew asks how many Ribbons May has won, knowing that the answer is zero. May fires back with the same question, but it backfires on her as Drew reveals that he has earned three Contest Ribbons.

Elsewhere, Team Rocket is trying another con by convincing a passerby that they have a secret Ribbon-winning product. The man is intrigued and can't wait to buy what they have, so Jessie and James guide him through to their alleyway store, “Dr Crock’s Pokéblock Shop”. Meowth has him swear to secrecy, before unleashing his spiel onto the customer. Meowth tries to sell the man silver and gold colored Pokéblocks, saying that the gold blocks raise a Pokémon's "coolness", while the silver blocks raise their "charismatic-tism". Using Wobbuffet, Jessie and James pose as satisfied customers and convince the man that they really work, when in reality they are just regular Pokéblocks that have been painted. The man rushes off thrilled with his purchase.

Back inside the Contest Hall, Ash, Brock, and Max notice Drew, who thinks that the three are afraid because they're not entering the Contest. Ash says they're not, so Drew challenges them to a Pokémon battle to prove it. Outside, Ash uses Taillow and has it use Quick Attack against Drew's Roselia. Roselia counters with Magical Leaf, which Taillow dodges. Roselia tries again with Petal Dance, and Taillow dodges it. Taillow goes in for a Peck, but Roselia defends with Stun Spore, finally managing to hit Taillow. As Taillow falls towards the ground, Roselia ends the match with a well-aimed Solar Beam. May is in disbelief that Ash lost the match, though Drew admits that a Trainer and their Pokémon must be on the same wavelength to win. Overnight, May becomes increasingly discouraged about the upcoming Contest as she mulls over Grace and Drew's words of advice.

Team Rocket's con continues to thrive the following day, and May thinks that if she buys one of their Pokéblocks, she won't have to worry about Beautifly winning. However, Grace arrives and is immediately suspicious. The trio isn't able to answer Grace's question about what Berries were used to make the Pokéblocks, so Grace blows their con and tells everyone that real Coordinators shouldn't rely on miracle products and should be mixing their own Pokéblocks anyway. May realizes she's right, and falls to her knees in despair. Grace has her Medicham use Psychic to further reveal Team Rocket's scam, and they try to take off in their balloon. As they leave, they steal May's Beautifly, Grace's Medicham, a Teddiursa, a Marill, and a Wigglytuff. Medicham uses Psychic to free the stolen Pokémon and Beautifly uses String Shot to stop their balloon from leaving. James has his Cacnea use Pin Missile to break the thread. Jessie has Seviper retaliate with Poison Tail, but Medicham stops it with its High Jump Kick. Beautifly dodges Cacnea's Pin Missile and hits it with Tackle, while Medicham blasts Team Rocket off with an Ice Punch. Afterwards, the competing Coordinators, including May, stand on the stage as the Fallarbor Contest is about to get underway.

Major events

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

Debuts

Humans

Pokémon debuts

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Geodude

Trivia

  • The English dub title is a combination of the phrases "pros and cons" and "con artists".
  • The gold and silver-colored Pokéblocks are references to the Pokémon Gold and Silver games.

Errors

  • The blurb for this episode incorrectly formats Pokéblocks as PokéBlocks.
  • When Brock asks if Grace wants to have lunch with him, Grace's sleeve is colored blue instead of yellow.
  • In May's flashback of Drew, he says that a Trainer needs to be on the same wavelength as their Pokémon during battles, but in the scene where the flashback takes place, it was actually during Pokémon Contests.
  • When Brock says that he and Grace make the perfect couple, part of Grace's right arm turns the same color as her shirt.
  • When May asks what the sellers are going to run out of, the patterns on lower half of Beautifly's wings are colored yellow instead of red and blue.
  • In this episode, Beautifly uses Tackle. However, it was unable to learn it until Generation VIII.
  • Grace's miscolored sleeve

    Grace's miscolored sleeve

  • Grace's miscolored arm

    Grace's miscolored arm

  • Beautifly's miscolored wings

    Beautifly's miscolored wings

Dub edits

  • Wine glasses are replaced with cylindrical glasses.
  • Wobbuffet's pipe is removed from its disguise in the Kids WB airing.
  • In the English dub, Meowth talks about the five c's: cuteness, cleverness, confidence, classiness, and courage. He also talks about another two attributes, coolness and charis-magnetism. In the original Japanese version, the first five attributes are the five different Contest types, while the other two attributes are "low-key (silver block) and sexy (gold block)".
  • In the English dub, Meowth says that the side-effects of the Pokéblocks are enlarged lips and the desire to kiss things. In the original Japanese version, Meowth says that they will increase sexiness.
  • In the English dub, Ash tells Drew that he is not afraid and will never back down to anyone. In the original Japanese version, he tells Drew that the reason he doesn't perform in Contests is that he is on a journey for Gym battles instead and adds that they are on their way to Lavaridge Town.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

  • Question:Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best to battle Magneton?
  • Choices: Crobat, Lanturn, Geodude
  • Answer: OK, Trainers, if you answered Geodude, you were right!

In other languages



← AG049 : Maxxed Out!
Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire
AG051 : Come What May! →
Project Anime logo.png This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.
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