DP026

Getting the Pre-Contest Titters! (Japanese: ポケモンコンテスト！ソノオ大会！！ Pokémon Contest! Tournament!!) is the 26th episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, and the 492nd episode of the Pokémon animated series. 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.
==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 Bubble Beam. 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==
With one day before the Floaroma Town Pokémon Contest, is hard. demonstrates to how to store electricity in order to gain more appeal. Pachirisu follows suit, releasing its stored electricity and creates a sparkle show similar to Pikachu. Pachirisu begs for Dawn's Poffin, and she gives it and some. Both want more Poffin, and Dawn refuses until they train some more. Pachirisu gets angry and uses on all of them. Pikachu stops Pachirisu with , though Dawn's hair is left frizzled.
Someone calls out "Dee-Dee", and Dawn realizes that it is her childhood friend . Back at the Pokémon Center, Kenny sits down with the group and sends out his , the first Pokémon he obtained on his . While Ash checks his Pokédex, Piplup walks up to Prinplup, and Prinplup slaps it away. Kenny apologizes and explains that Prinplup does not like when others get too close. As Piplup and Prinplup attempt a stare-down rivalry, Kenny reveals he too is a Pokémon Coordinator, and tells Dawn that he watched the Contest on television. Dawn is surprised to hear that Kenny has become a Coordinator, as she does not remember him being interested in Pokémon Contests when they were younger. Kenny tells Dawn that he made it to the final round of his very first Pokémon Contest, but lost to Zoey and her .
Kenny asks Ash if he is competing in the Floaroma Contest, and he finds out about Ash's goal to conquer the Sinnoh League. Kenny suddenly switches topics about childhood stories, which irritates Dawn. He quickly brings up three stories that embarrass Dawn: her self-inflicted -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 , 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 to block the attack, sending it back with appeal. Prinplup charges with , flying up and coming down. Pikachu uses the spin dodge method and lands an , sending its opponent hurtling towards the field. Prinplup, however, uses to dampen the fall. While Jessie is getting ready for the Contest, James and take note of Prinplup and decide to grab it. uses to cover the field, disrupting the battle.
Ash quickly sends out to blow the haze away, just as wraps Prinplup. Kenny tries to save Prinplup, but and knock them aside. Cacnea, Carnivine, and Seviper attack the group, but Piplup jumps up and uses a brand new move, , 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 Bubble Beam.
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 Performance Stage, and she sends out Pachirisu. Although it appears in a graceful manner, it trips on its tail and crashes into the Contest Judges' desk. It begins to panic and run around frightened. Dawn suddenly gets an idea on how to fix the problem.
==Major events==
* meets up with , her childhood friend and newest rival.
* and meet Kenny for the first time.
* Ash has a battle with Kenny, which gets interrupted by .
* Dawn's Piplup learns .
* Dawn, Kenny, and Jessilina enter the Floaroma Town Pokémon Contest.
===Debuts===
====Humans====
* 
====Pokémon debuts====
* Kenny's Prinplup
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Nurse Joy
* Zoey (flashback)
* 
* Marian
* Raoul Contesta
* Mr. Sukizo
* s
* Audience
* Children (flashback)
===Pokémon===
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (; flashback)
* ()
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's; debut)
* (nail salon's)
==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.
* 4Kids background music is used in this episode.
* 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? imitates, your imitation."
* reads the title card of this episode.
* This is one of the rare instances in which one of the members do not blast off; only James and blast off.
** Also, none of them recite their in any form. The same thing happened in an earlier episode.
*** However, the motto theme is played in the scene where James and Meowth wrap up Kenny's Prinplup.
===Errors===
* In the English dub, Dawn says that only one person knows about "Dee-Dee". However, this was contradicted in Yes in Dee Dee, It's Dawn!, as it is shown that her whole class knows about "Dee-Dee".
**This was further contradicted in Hot Springing a Leak!, with Leona also referring to her as "Dee-Dee".
* In one scene, Ash's Staravia uses , a move it cannot learn legally in the games.
===Dub edits===
* In the English dub, Kenny thinks Dawn caught a Pikachu and she explains that it is Ash's and not hers. In the original Japanese version, Kenny's nickname for Dawn is "Pikari", so when he sees Dawn and Pikachu together, he assumes that Pikachu is hers and says that they are the "Pika-Pika" combo of Pikari and Pikachu.
* In the English dub, Dawn doesn't watch Kenny's first Contest because she claims she was busy. In the original Japanese version, Dawn says that she didn't know about the Contest Kenny was in and that he was a Coordinator.
* In the original Japanese version, Dawn tells Kenny that Ash is a great Trainer that she met and traveled with from the beginning, and that he won against Roark. In the English dub, she goes into more detail about how she met Ash. She first says that she rescued Ash's Pikachu, and then she watched Ash battle Roark twice for his first Badge.
==In other languages==
026
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes directed by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes animated by Masaaki Iwane
Category:Episodes with Contests
Category:Episodes focusing on Dawn
Category:Episodes focusing on Piplup
Category:Episodes focusing on Kenny
Category:Episodes in which a main character's Pokémon learns a new move
de:Wer wird denn Bammel haben?
es:EP495
fr:DP026
it:DP026
ja:DP編第26話
zh:宝可梦 钻石＆珍珠 第26集