Battling The Generation Gap! – Pokémon Season 11, Episode 43

Plot episodeCelestic RibbonDawn beats Lila

Battling The Generation Gap! is the 43rd episode of Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, the eleventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 558th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 562, Bulbapedia code DP095). It first aired in Japan on 25 September 2008 and in the United States on 21 February 2009. It falls within the season’s Fantina & the Celestic Ribbon stretch (EP92–EP95).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Johanna tells Dawn, Ash and Brock by video call about her old rival Lila: long ago, Lila’s Delcatty vanished as a decoy when Johanna’s Glameow used Iron Tail, then struck with Shock Wave, and Lila won with her famous confident smile. It was Johanna’s first defeat, and she never got a rematch because she retired. She shows them a magazine featuring Lila, now a renowned Pokémon Stylist, and Brock remembers that Lila’s shop is in Celestic Town, to Dawn’s delight. Ash prefers to keep training for a counter to Fantina’s Hypnosis, and they agree to meet at the Contest Hall. Dawn and Brock admire Lila’s designs, including an outfit Wallace wore at the Top Coordinator Carnival, but the clerk says Lila is out for the day. In a park, Ash asks his Pokémon to help him find a counter to Hypnosis, and they all fall asleep before he wakes them and resumes training.

At the Contest Hall, Marian introduces the judges and the Celestic Ribbon. In the changing room a woman fixes Dawn’s unruly hair; she is Lila, who recognises Dawn before her bodyguard pulls her away. Announced as returning after more than twenty years, Lila sends out Cherrim, which blossoms into its Sunshine Form under the stage lights and paints a flower with Magical Leaf and Sunny Day. Jessilina, sporting a fake French accent and a copy of Fantina’s look, has Yanmega carry her with Silver Wind, embarrassing everyone. Dawn’s Buneary makes an ice slide with Ice Beam and spins into Dizzy Punch, losing control until Dawn catches it and they finish with a pose. Backstage, Lila tells Johanna by video that losing to her inspired her to become a Stylist, and that seeing Dawn on TV made her want to compete again for a fifth Ribbon and the Grand Festival. Jessilina is eliminated, and Dawn and Lila reach the final.

Ambipom opens with Swift, and Delcatty evades it with Substitute and answers with Shock Wave as Lila flashes her smile. Ambipom’s Double Team and Focus Punch are stopped when Cute Charm infatuates it, Sing puts it to sleep, and Iron Tail and another Shock Wave drain Dawn’s points. Ambipom wakes and fires Swift, which Substitute dodges again, and Double Hit is foiled by another infatuation, but Dawn keeps calling out commands, and Ambipom’s Double Team spoils Lila’s attempt to put it back to sleep. Then Ambipom unleashes an enormous Swift that Delcatty cannot escape even with Substitute, and it breaks through as time expires. Dawn finishes with about a tenth of her points and Lila with about a twentieth, so Dawn wins. She celebrates with Ambipom and sends a message to her mother, Lila congratulates her, and Raoul Contesta presents the Celestic Ribbon, Dawn’s third. Later Lila lets everyone pick out outfits, and Ash announces that the battle has shown him how to counter Fantina’s Hypnosis.

Major Events

• Celestic Ribbon. Johanna’s old rival Lila returns to Contests after more than twenty years
• Buneary’s ice slide and Dizzy Punch
• Dawn’s Ambipom beats Lila’s Delcatty for Dawn’s third Ribbon
• The anime debut of Substitute
• Ash finds the idea for countering Hypnosis
• Cherrim’s TV debut

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Cherrim#0421 · DP095

Trivia

• The English title plays on “bridging the generation gap”, for Dawn against her mother’s old rival.
• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• “Oración”

Part of our Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.