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This episode is essential viewing because: May enters the Ruibosu Contest and loses.

The contest takes place in Rubello Town and Team Rocket just got rejected and kicked out because of their utterly fake ribbon. So it’s time for a new plan!

In the Contest hall, Ash and co are in the audience with Sandra while Vivian is making her usual speech, introducing the judges and all. While the contestants are out in the waiting room, Savannah and May discuss their strategies, and wish each other best of luck. Drew who listens along, doesn’t seem to be threatened by them.

In the meantime Team Rocket is discussing a new plan. Jessie is still carrying the big ribbon, which catches the attention of a young lady with an Azurill. Apparently she seems to think its real, and wants it more than anything since it would be perfect for her Azurill and much to their surprise she is willing to pay a lot of money for it!

In the meantime, the showing off rounds have begun and May’s next. May sends out her Beautifly and tells it to do Morning Sun. A pattern is created on stage and the crowd cheers of excitement. The crowd is happy and she leaves the stage without showing the results of her performance. Next up is Savannah and May wishes her all the luck and heads back to the waiting room. As Savannah heads up the satge. Sandra looks a little nervous while her mother takes a few seconds deciding who she's gonna use this round. She decides to use Flareon for this one and it starts off by using a combination of the attacks of Fire spin, followed by a tackle as it leaps right through the spiral loop of fire! The crowd cheers as Flareon uses another combination of swift and ember which turns into a beautiful scene of flaming red stars. The crowd cheers once more and Sandra is relieved to see that her mother made a good choice.

Now that both May and Savannah passed the first round, they watch a few other contestants. As they discuss how excited they are for the next round, Drew doesn't see them as a threat at all, and is prepared to beat them both with one hand tied behind his back. Savannah may be a rival to him, but she is also a PMDM member so she can't put him down, so she just stays out of the fight while May and him argue it out. Eventually it comes time for Drew to do his solo performance. When coming on stage, all the girls become excited for Drew. However, Ash and co are a bit more concerned about him. Drew sends out his Roselia to do the performance, immediately when Roselia is out of its pokeball, it performs by doing a petal dance attack. Everybody is impressed by this as May starts to become a bit threatened by Drew.

Outside the contest building, Team Rocket is hidden in a sealed tent, working on their new plan, con-ribbons. Meowth is straightening the cloth, James is sewing, while Jessie is critiquing on the crooked seams. It seems that their plan is going somewhere..

The battle rounds are now beginning and the four highest members may enter this round. The screen changes as Vivian announces the four people competing in the finals, and sure enough they are May, Savannah, Drew and another boy. May and Drew congratulate each other on a job well done as Drew smirks to himself in the corner. When the applause settles down, Vivian announces the randomizer turned on the screen to determine the semifinal pairings, and to their surprise, while it's Drew VS the boy and May vs Savannah! After giving it a thought, May decides she’s going to use Bulbasaur and Savannah will use Lairon. As they wait in the waiting room, they discuss this all and tell each other this will be a good battle. During the intermissionAsh and co all pay them a little visit in the waiting room and wish them luck as well. Ash, being obsessed with battles, tries giving Savannah advice. But May angrily pulls him away from her saying he might know a lot about regular pokemon battles but that doesn’t make him know everything about contest battling. Ash tries arguing with May that Bulbasaur isn't a good idea since its never been in a battle, but while they argue more and more, Bulbasaur seems to becoming more and more nervous. In the meantime Drew looks after his Masquerain, without a tad bit of nervousness in him.

Team Rocket are still in the tent, working on those enormous ribbons James starts to wonder if this is really a good idea, but Jessie gives him an odd look and reminds him of that girl, intimidating him to get back to work…

Drew is up first with his battle against that boy (Forgot his name!). Drew starts off by sending out his pokemon Masquerain as the boy sends out a Girafarig. The fans seems to appreciate Drew and his Masquerain more as the boy starts off by having Girafarig use iron tail. But Masquerain counters the attack with a bubble attack, hitting Girafarig instantly. 15% down for Girafarig! Masquerain then uses a combination of Ice Beam, which causes all the bubbles to turn into small icy balls. Then uses Hidden Power, which takes energy from the frozen-in-midair ice balls, and unleashes them at Girafarig! Girafarig has fainted and Drew won the round. So whoever wins, May or Savannah has to compete with Drew in the next round!

Both May and Savannah send out their pokemon, Bulbasaur and Lairon. An applause is heard as Bulbasaur seems to be very nervous. It starts to cling onto May’s leg and it doesn’t seem to be ready for this. Brock reckons that Ash might have been right before about Bulbasaur not being ready but after a few cheers from the audience and some begging from May, Bulbasaur slowly gets up and faces Lairon on the stage. Lairon begins with a take down attack, so May tells Bulbasaur to dodge it. However, its too nervous to move and Lairon’s attack is a direct hit. As May’s perecentage goes down by 15%. But But Bulbasaur seems to have gotten control over itself after that hit and wants to battle. May tells it to use vinewhip to grab Lairon, which it tries to avoid with Protect but fails. Lairon then performs a shock wave through Bulbasaur’s vines and it stops it in his place. Bulbasaur seems to be absorbing it as much as it can, though Bulbasaur can hardly move. However, as the long shock is over, Bulbasaur seems to have taken in too much, and is now Paralyzed. While Savannah is planning her next move, Bulbasaur is trying to move, but Lairon does his metal claw and knocks Bulbasaur out. Savannah wins the battle and May goes up to Bulbasaur, a bit disappointed. She pats it and almost tries protesting for unfairness, but she keeps her cool as the audience seems to be disappointed.

May decides she needs some time with Bulbasaur. So out on the parkbench, May comforts Bulbasaur and apologizes for not warning it beforehand as to what was coming. Ash then drops by and remind her of the battle between Savannah and Drew as he points to Masquerain and Lairon fighting it off on the screen. May apologizes for her earlier behaviour and for taking his advice, and he tells her that he was once like that too. In fact, as she already knows, he's been in similar situations with his own Bulbasaur.

With only 30 seconds to go, Drew seems to be winning as a Metal Claw attack from Lairon is countered by Masquerain's hidden power, reducing Savannah’s score some more. Lairon starts to power up for a Shock Wave, but the clock runs out before it has time to unleash and Drew wins the battle along with his Masquerain! The audience and fans scheer as Savannah As the PMDM cheers, Savannah pats her Lairon and thanks it for doing a good job. Then, to their astonishment, Drew also says he was impressed with Savannah’s battle skills. She thanks him as Drew receives the green Rubello Ribbon.

In the meantime, Team Rocket is opening their fake ribbon stand but it seems to be unsuccesfull. As they call out for customers, they're ignored as well. Suddenly, they're greeted by the same Azurill trainer from earlier. She's the bearer of the bad news this time, that the ribbon is way to big for Azurill to wear. Its face, let alone body, is barely visible! With that, she asks for a refund. Team Rocket sigh, and give it back to her.

Back at the center, they discuss with Savannah how they didn't expect Drew to beat her. However, she seems to be taking it pretty cool, since she already has one Ribbon which she won on her first Contest. May and Savannah then agree on a friendly rivalry in case they ever meet again at a contest or at the Grand Festival!

This episode guide has been written by shinymay.

Characters appearing in this episode

Ash

Brock

Max

May

Jessie

James

Meowth

Ash's Pikachu

Pokémon appearing in this episode

• Pikachu belonging to Ash
• Meowth

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