DP174

Last Call—First Round! (Japanese: グランドフェスティバル開幕！炎と氷のアート！！ The Grand Festival Begins! The Art of Flame and Ice!!) is the 174th episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, and the 640th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on April 29, 2010 and in the United States on September 18, 2010.
==Blurb==
The Grand Festival is finally under way, and the air is crackling with excitement! We join our heroes at a meet-and-greet to kick off the event. Many of Dawn's fellow Coordinators are in attendance, and they're all excited to show off their skills. Nando, Zoey, Ursula, and Kenny have all come to compete, as well as Jessilina (who is, of course, Team Rocket's Jessie in disguise). But the real surprise comes when the judges announce Nurse Joy from the Hoenn region and Hearthome City Gym Leader Fantina!
The first round begins with three stages running at once! The girls and Nando all turn in splendid performances, but Kenny tries out a risky combination move that doesn't go so well...
When the final tabulation is revealed, everyone but Kenny has moved on to the second round. Vowing to begin training at once for the next Grand Festival, Kenny cheerfully bids goodbye to Dawn and her friends. He also advises Dawn to make sure she beats "that girl with the Plusle and Minun"—her old rival Ursula, of course!
We leave the Grand Festival as it wraps up its first day. But the second round is coming up quickly!
==Plot==
 have reached Valor Lakefront where is set to compete in the Sinnoh Grand Festival. The night before hosts a meet-and-greet event for the participating s. starts flirting with the many girls at the event before uses to end the embarrassment. Meanwhile and the crew of Sinnoh Now are interviewing Coordinators at the party. Rhonda is seen interviewing Nando before turning her camera to Dawn for a scoop.
After being interviewed, Nando tells the group that he has won seven Gym Badges and thanks the s for encouraging him to pursue both Gym battles and Pokémon Contests. Then, appears from behind Dawn and teases her, calling her "Dee Dee". She brushes off his comment saying that she has gotten over her nickname. Dawn says that she isn't even afraid of and anymore. At that moment, a Plusle and Minun appear and leap onto Dawn's shoulders, giving Dawn a diamond dandruff frizz. Dawn assures Kenny she is unfazed and simply fixes up her hair. She recognizes the two as Ursula's Pokémon, and sure enough Ursula approaches the group and snidely remarks that she is "counting on Dawn to look bad". After Ursula walks away, Dawn hears Zoey call out to her from across the room. Dawn rushes up to Zoey. Clasping her hand, the two exchange greetings and talk about fulfilling their promise to meet in the final round of the Grand Festival. Jessilina is equally determined to win, though her mere presence irritates Ursula. 
Later that night, Dawn stands on a balcony with . She thanks them for their hard work until this point, and also thanks and Brock. She shows them all the Ribbon her mother gave her the day she started her and says that she wants to honor her mother's Ribbon by winning the next day.
In the morning, Ash and his outside. Kenny approaches them and is almost hit by Gible's wayward attack. He asks where Dawn is and Ash tells him that Dawn was in their room, apparently freaking out about the performance and her appearance. In the room, Dawn sits in front of a mirror trying to tame her bedhead. Brock walks into the room with Zoey, whom he brought to help Dawn. Zoey immediately goes to help Dawn brush her hair and tells her to remember to stay calm. Dawn sighs, confessing to Zoey that she envies Zoey's ability to always seem so calm and collected. Zoey reassures Dawn that she too feels nervous, but she instead tries to think of her Pokémon, since they are the stars.
Fireworks announce the beginning of the Sinnoh Grand Festival. Marian appears on stage, introducing the Contest Judges: Raoul Contesta from the Pokémon Activities Committee, Mr. Sukizo from the Pokémon Fan Club, three Nurse Joy, who are also sisters, from the Pokémon Centers of , , and Lilycove City, and special guest Fantina, the Hearthome City Gym Leader and a Top Coordinator. Marian explains that there are 108 Coordinators competing, and therefore the Performance Stage will take place on three stages: red, blue, and green. There are two judges per stage. After Fantina gives a brief comment, the Double Performances begin.
Ursula is the first Coordinator to appear. In her portion on the blue stage she starts out with two . She uses Song Seals and it causes musical notes to shoot upward out of the s, revealing the Eevee. Dawn has never seen Eevee before, so she checks her Pokédex. Ursula starts with having the two use repeatedly with each other. She tells them both to use . Then she tosses a Water Stone and a Fire Stone at each, causing them to evolve into and . During evolution each has a cluster of silver bubbles around it and then as the Evolution stones are caught, one Eevee is caught in a whirl of flames and the small silver bubbles become red bubbles and it evolves into Flareon, whereas the other is covered in a wave of water and its silver bubbles come blue bubbles as it evolves into Vaporeon. The two then fly together and they swirl in the air then fire the bubbles and they land softly on the ground as the bubbles land softly and pop into shimmering light. Again, Dawn checks the Pokédex. Kenny remarks that he never thought of using evolution in an Appeal, though Zoey notes that while it looked impressive and Ursula will get high marks, it will only work once.
Nando, on the green stage, uses and . The two start by floating through the air and spinning together. Altaria flies upward using in synchronization with Kricketot’s own ing. The two combine and make the music notes glow. The judges compliment Nando musical performance.
Jessilina takes her position on the red stage, calling out and . She has Seviper use to create a circular spiral of smoke around it. She then jumps and flips onto its head without disturbing the Haze. Yanmega uses and aims it directly at Jessilina, causing a brilliant glow. This attack sheds her original Contest outfit, revealing a brand new one beneath it. Fantina stands from her seat, applauding Jessilina’s fun performance.
After several other s perform, it's Zoey's turn on the blue stage, of which the center opens up to reveal a pool for a water stage. She has use and then her emerge from the water. Gastrodon uses , colliding with and Lumineon’s Aqua Ring which bursts into a brilliant light. The lights form into three rings that float over the water's surface, which Lumineon jumps through, as well as Gastrodon. The rings then float closer to the surface and flatten out and shoot up into water spouts. Zoey jumps onto the center and her two Pokémon next to her for their finishing pose.
In 's performance on the red stage he chooses to use his and . Floatzel starts by using straight up into the air. Empoleon blasts three shots of at the Aqua Jet trail and it turns into a large waterfall. Floatzel fires off into the water around itself, which disperses into many beautiful flying discs around the stage. Empoleon then uses and shatters the discs, creating a large colorful mist. To finish, Floatzel uses and Empoleon uses . While Floatzel turns the Whirlpool sideways to face Empoleon, the Flash Cannon blasts into the center, breaking up into droplets of rainbow energy. However, the Flash Cannon is too powerful for Floatzel to hold back; the Whirlpool quickly collapses and Floatzel is thrown back. Kenny grits his teeth, realizing his chances of winning the Festival have likely been dashed.
The final Coordinator is Dawn. On the green stage, she uses and with Line Seals that sets off a large blue ribbon for a shimmering effect. Buneary bounces into position while letting off an . The twirling and Ice Beam combination creates a large, rollercoaster type ice path. Cyndaquil then uses and rolls down the path, melting a trench and creating a slide for Buneary, who follows just behind. Buneary then charges an Ice Beam and Cyndaquil uses in order to cloak themselves above a large center ice spike. The glow is seen through the Smokescreen. The smoke is blown away, revealing Buneary to be inside a large Poké Ball of ice with Cyndaquil standing on top. She bows as Cyndaquil, having used its back flames to form flapping wings of fire to clear the smoke, continues to fan, the flames illuminating the ice to give off a brilliant glow and causing sparkling snow to fall.
Marian announces the show of Coordinators that made it through to the second round. It is revealed that Dawn, Nando, Ursula, Zoey, and Jessilina are amongst the 32 hopefuls that will all advance to the Contest Battles. Kenny, however, will not: he has been eliminated.
Now out of the Grand Festival, Kenny decides to leave. Dawn is concerned about Kenny leaving so soon, but he says he has to get ready for the next Grand Festival. He says he'll be rooting for Dawn and wishes everyone else luck with their ventures. They say goodbye to him and he walks off.
==Major events==
* enters the Sinnoh Grand Festival alongside Zoey and Jessilina.
* Nando, , and Ursula are revealed to have earned their fifth Ribbons and enter the Grand Festival as well.
* Nando is revealed to have earned six more Gym Badges and to have obtained a and an .
* Zoey's is revealed to have evolved into a while her is revealed to have evolved into a .
* Kenny is revealed to have obtained a and his is revealed to have evolved into an .
* Ursula is revealed to have obtained two , which she evolves into a and a during her appeal.
* Dawn, Nando, Ursula, Zoey, and Jessilina successfully clear the Performance Stage.
* Kenny fails to make it through to the Battle Stage and is eliminated from the Grand Festival.
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* Kenny's Empoleon
* Zoey's Gastrodon
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Nurse Joy (×3)
* Zoey
* Ursula
* Nando
* 
* Fantina
* Johanna
* Sinnoh Now staff
** 
** 
** Cameraman
** Assistant
* Marian
* Mr. Contesta
* Mr. Sukizo
* s
* Audience
===Pokémon===
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (Zoey's)
* ()
* (Ursula's)
* (Ursula's)
* (Ursula's; ×2; both evolve)
* (Ursula's; newly evolved)
* (Ursula's; newly evolved)
* (Nando's)
* (Nando's)
* ()
* ('s)
* ()
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
==Trivia==
* Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Examination: 
* This episode begins the four-part Sinnoh Grand Festival arc.
* The names of the three stages of the Performance Stage are the same as that of the three original games, and .
* Despite the fact that and two recurring characters have each owned an that has gone on to evolve, this episode marks the first time an Eevee is shown evolving onscreen in the , with two Eevee undergoing separate evolutions.
* This episode marks the first time a Pokémon is seen evolving in the middle of an Appeal, discounting the illusory Johanna evolving her in Malice In Wonderland!.
* Not marking his brief, non-speaking cameo in A Breed Stampede!, this episode marks the first appearance of Nando since Dawn's Early Night!, 125 episodes ago.
** This is also the first in-person appearance of Nando that is not animated by 木下和栄 Kazue Kinoshita.
* Background music from Mewtwo Strikes Back, Spell of the Unown: Entei, 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.
* Despite having existed in the since Generation II, this is the first time it is used in the .
* This episode marks the final animated series appearance of .
* isn't seen in their regular uniforms throughout this episode.
* The English version of this episode aired on the same day came out in Japan.
* Team Rocket doesn't blast off or recite the during the entire arc.
* One act of the Performance Stage involves a and a , similar to Saturn's Toxicroak and Jupiter's Skuntank.
===Errors===
* Nando's uses in this episode, a move that Kricketot cannot legally learn (although its can).
* When Zoey's Gastrodon first appears, the top of its head is pink instead of brown.
* Zoey's necklace changes from emerald green to yellow in a few scenes.
* In the English dub, Zoey says that she hasn't seen Nando since the Hearthome Gym. This is incorrect; she should have said she hasn't seen him since the Hearthome City Pokémon Contest, which took place in Dawn's Early Night!.
* In the dub, is referred to as Asa Vento de Prata, which means "Silver Wind Wing".
===Dub edits===
* During the performances of everyone before , different pieces of music were used instead of the wild Pokémon theme from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire and an instrumental from a Pokémon movie.
* In the original Japanese version, while talking about the Grand Festival, Marian says the winner will be given the title of Top Coordinator and a trophy. She also mentions that the Hoenn region was where Contests originated. In the English dub, the trophy and Contest origins are not mentioned.
* In the English dub, a Nurse Joy says that the other two Nurse Joys are her sisters from Jubilife City and Pastoria City. In the original Japanese version, she doesn't mention that they are sisters.
==In other languages==
174
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Hitoyuki Matsui
Category:Episodes directed by Hideaki Ōba
Category:Episodes animated by Izumi Shimura
Category:Grand Festival episodes
Category:Episodes focusing on Dawn
Category:Episodes focusing on Jessie
Category:Episodes focusing on Zoey
Category:Episodes focusing on Kenny
Category:Episodes focusing on Nando
de:Das Große Festival beginnt!
es:EP643
fr:DP174
it:DP174
ja:DP編第174話
zh:宝可梦 钻石＆珍珠 第172集