XY075

Rivals: Today and Tomorrow! (Japanese: ライバルバトル３本勝負！ 明日に向かって！！ Three-Match Rival Battle! Towards the Future!!) is the 75th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the 874th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on June 4, 2015 and in the United States on August 8, 2015.
==Blurb==
After Ash's victory at the Laverre Gym, our heroes are walking with Sawyer, who’s completely focused on his battle notebook and not watching where he’s going—until he trips and falls, dropping his notebook in the process! He doesn’t realize this until later, and by that time, Team Rocket has picked it up, determined to make use of all the information within. With the help of his Slurpuff’s talented nose, Sawyer manages to track down his prized possession, and he and Ash battle together to send Team Rocket blasting off again. Then, they decide to battle against each other!
Ash seems to be firmly in command...until Sawyer’s Treecko evolves into Grovyle and presents Frogadier with quite a challenge! Frogadier pulls off the win, but it’s a close one, and afterward, it’s clear that the two Pokémon are itching for a rematch. Sawyer heads off to challenge the Coumarine Gym, while Serena has her eye on the Pokémon Showcase in Dendemille Town, on the way to Ash’s next Gym battle in Anistar City!
==Plot==
Following 's win at the Laverre City Gym, he and , accompanied by Sawyer, head away from the Gym. However, Sawyer trips along the way and as he gets up, he drops his notebook, which is promptly found by . As soon as Jessie, James, and look inside the notebook, they see a photograph of , and James instantly recognizes him as the in the Hoenn region. Meanwhile, treats the group to lots of sweets and Poké Puffs after Ash's hard-earned victory over Valerie. Sawyer expresses his awe of Ash's battling style to him, and Ash reminds him that it was due to the Pokémon's efforts that they won the .
However, at that moment, Sawyer notices that his notebook is gone. He goes into a panic, suddenly remembering that he dropped it where he had tripped earlier. Jessie, James, and Meowth, who still have the notebook, have mistakenly come to the conclusion that it belongs to Steven himself. While James and Meowth are more interested in learning the "Champion's" techniques, Jessie is immediately enamored with him and begins deluding herself with fantasies of someday marrying into his family so that she can be part of the Devon Corporation. Meanwhile, Ash and company, having returned to the bridge where Sawyer's notebook disappears, agree to split up and search for it individually. Later, at the Pokémon Center, they all report having seen no trace of it anywhere. Sawyer tells them how he kept taking notes after every battle he and had, and they kept getting stronger together, and he also mentions his meeting with Steven Stone and all of the valuable advice Steven gave him.
Bonnie asks Clemont for an invention to help find the notebook, but Clemont starts to explain that he doesn't even have something like the notebook's smell to work with. Suddenly, Sawyer jumps up in excitement and calls out his to help search for the notebook using its keen sense of smell. With direction from Treecko, Slurpuff races away to try and locate the notebook. James is still poring over its contents, unaware that they were written by a novice Trainer, when Slurpuff arrives. Slurpuff takes the notebook and runs off with it, chased by , and returns it to Sawyer. When Team Rocket arrives, everyone realizes that they were the ones who stole the notebook. Sawyer quickly corrects them when they refer to it as the Champion's notebook by pointing out Steven's autograph. Angered by this news, Jessie and James decide to fall back on their usual plan of stealing the group's Pokémon. Jessie calls out her and James his to face Sawyer's Treecko and Ash's Pikachu. The battle is short-lived—as attacks from each of the four Pokémon cancel each other out, Pikachu uses another and easily sends Team Rocket blasting off.
That night, Serena learns of a Pokémon Showcase being held in the nearby Dendemille Town and decides to register for it. She then informs Ash, using her Town Map, that Dendemille Town is also on the way to a city with a Gym—Anistar City, where he agrees to go for his seventh Badge. Sawyer informs the group that he plans on heading to Coumarine City to try and earn a . The next morning, Sawyer requests a three-on-three battle with Ash to make up for the one that they never finished. The first match is Pikachu against Sawyer's . Pikachu begins with , overpowering Bagon's with superior speed. After a collision of and , Pikachu breaks through with an attack to defeat Bagon and win the first round. The second match is then decided to be Slurpuff against . Although Slurpuff uses , a super effective move, Hawlucha dodges and strikes back with . However, Sawyer becomes distracted checking his notebook and fails to notice Hawlucha's , resulting in Slurpuff's defeat.
Ash calls to Sawyer, reminding him to stay calm during a battle, because the Pokémon will feel the same way as the Trainer during a match. Sawyer remembers Ash's Gym battle and sees the truth in Ash's advice, bringing out his Treecko to battle against . Sawyer is momentarily caught off-guard by Frogadier's use of , but he recovers and Treecko strikes back with repeated attacks. As Frogadier manages to evade most of them, Sawyer remembers to stay calm and Treecko uses . Despite the boost in speed, however, Treecko is still struck by Frogadier's . In response, Treecko evolves into , and Ash tells Sawyer that Treecko evolved because of his feelings. Sawyer uses Grovyle's new move, , to counter , but Frogadier still manages to get the better of Grovyle with another Aerial Ace. The two Pokémon continue trading and dodging attacks at high speeds, but thanks to a surprise attack by Frogadier at the very end, Grovyle is knocked out and the final round goes to Ash as well. Everyone notices Grovyle's newfound rivalry with Frogadier, and Sawyer and Grovyle are more determined than ever to get stronger and challenge Ash to a rematch someday.
==Major events==
* Sawyer is revealed to own a .
* learns that a Pokémon Showcase will be held in Dendemille Town.
* learns that the next Gym is located in Anistar City.
* Sawyer's evolves into .
* Ash has a three-on-three battle against Sawyer and wins.
* Sawyer leaves the group and heads to Coumarine City to face Ramos.
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* Sawyer's Grovyle
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Professor Birch (flashback)
* Valerie (flashback)
* (photo/fantasy/flashback)
* Sawyer
* Monsieur Pierre (video)
* Kali (flashback)
* (flashback)
* Blossom (flashback)
* Linnea (flashback)
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international) Pokémon Quiz: (Japan)
* ()
* () 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (; )
* ()
* (Valerie's; flashback)
* (; ; fantasy/flashback)
* (; evolves)
* (; newly evolved)
* (Sawyer's)
* (Sawyer's)
* (Monsieur Pierre's; video)
* (Trainer's)
* (flashback)
* (flashback)
* (flashback)
* (video)
==Trivia== 
* Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster: 
** Instead of Pokémon Holo Caster, pops out to announce the Legendary Pokémon giveaways and to urge viewers to get tickets for the second Pokémon the Series: XY movie.
* , , and narrate the preview for the next episode.
* James and break the fourth wall when Jessie fantasizes about marrying , by tearing out Steven and the background respectively.
* doesn't recite their in this episode.
* Mad-Paced Getter is used during the end of Ash and Sawyer's three-on-three battle.
* This episode marks the only time during Pokémon the Series: XY where a rival's Pokémon evolves onscreen.
* This episode marks the first appearance of a number of Pokémon species in the main series after long absences:
** , who last appeared in What I Did for Love!, 433 episodes ago.
** , who last appeared in Barry's Busting Out All Over!, 307 episodes ago.
** , who last appeared in To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!, 284 episodes ago.
===Errors===
* The red spot underneath Sawyer's 's collar disappears for a brief second.
* Professor Birch is shown with brown eyes in Sawyer's flashback, whereas in all of his other appearances, he is depicted as having black eyes.
* When James is looking at Sawyer's notebook before Slurpuff finds it, his glove disappears, and his thumb is colored exactly like Sawyer's dark skin color instead of James's light skin color.
* When Ash tells to use the second time, his backpack disappears. It reappears after Team Rocket got blasted off.
* After being hit by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, Team Rocket flew off in the following order: Meowth, Jessie, James, and , and . When they are blasting off, they are in this order: Jessie, Pumpkaboo, James, Meowth, Wobbuffet, and Inkay.
* Sawyer's Slurpuff used , a move that it cannot legally learn.
* When Ash holds up 's , the white center and black band around the white button is much larger than normal.
* For a brief second after Sawyer's comes out of its Poké Ball, its right arm is colored the same as its tail.
* When Sawyer's Grovyle uses on Frogadier, Frogadier's entire face is dark-blue.
* In the English dub, Serena's Pokédex incorrectly states Grovyle as an evolved form of Treecko when it should be stated as the evolved form of Treecko.
XY075 error 2.png|Slurpuff's missing red spot on its body
XY075 error 4.png|James's glove on his left hand is not covering the thumb on the same hand
XY075 error 3.png|Ash missing his backpack
XY075 error 5.png|Ash's Frogadier's Poké Ball has a larger ring around its button than it should have
XY075 error.png|Treecko's right arm error
===Dub edits===
* Mad-Paced Getter is replaced by an instrumental version of Be a Hero.
==In other languages==
075
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Tetsu Kimura
Category:Episodes directed by Masahiro Sekino
Category:Episodes animated by Yasushi Nishiya
Category:Episodes animated by Kyoko Niimura
Category:Episodes animated by Takahiro Kuroishi
Category:Episodes animated by Mizuho Tajima
Category:Episodes animated by Mai Tsutsumi
Category:Episodes by multiple animation directors
Category:Episodes focusing on Ash
Category:Episodes focusing on Sawyer
Category:Episodes in which a Champion appears
Category:Episodes in which an alternately colored Pokémon appears
de:Ein neuer Rivale!
es:EP879
fr:XY075
it:XY075
ja:XY編第75話
zh:宝可梦 XY 第75集