Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode AG 051: "VS Chaaremu!  Kontesuto Batoru!!"

("(Agehanto) vs. Charem!  Contest Battle!!")

American Episode 323: "Come What May!"
Orchid-Hakase Pokémon Lecture:  Muuma
Japanese Air Date:  November 13th, 2003
American Air Date:  November 6th, 2004
Important Characters:  Musashino (Jessica)

The Hajitsuge Convention has begun!  Everyone makes their way through the preliminaries, and the four Coordinators to make it to the finals are Haruka, Shuu, Musashi, and Grace.  First up in the semi-finals is Musashi and her Dokukeiru against Haruka and her Agehanto.  Musashi's pokemon has a special device hidden under the bowtie worn around its neck that produces rainbows with every attack.  The judges are impressed by the pokemon's beautiful attacks until Haruka beats the poison-type pokemon, exposing the secret to its beauty.  Musashi is disqualified, causing her to reveal her identity as a member of the Rocket-Dan to the audience.  Satoshi uses his Pikachu to send the Rocket-Dan packing, putting an end to their interruption of the Contest.  The second match pits Grace and Charem against Shuu and Roselia.  Shuu's pokemon continues to throw attack after attack toward the fighting-type pokemon, but Charem is able to either dodge or counter each attack.  The turning point of the battle occurs when  Charem bounces one of Roselia's Solar Beams back at the user, severely weakening Shuu's pokemon.  Charem quickly earns a victory, meaning that the final battle will be between Grace and Haruka.  As the final battle commences, Agehanto gets pummeled by a number of attacks, but the swallowtail pokemon is able to bounce back when one of Charem's Hi Jump Kick misses its mark.  Haruka has her pokemon use a combination of different attacks to both immobilize and damage Grace's Charem, eventually winning the match.  Haruka has now won her first Contest ribbon!  Haruka happily holds her ribbon as Satoshi and his friends get on the road to Fuen Town, home of Satoshi's fourth Gym Battle.

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Thoughts
I really really liked this episode.  The pacing was excellent (especially for this series), the animation looked great, and the battles were very engaging.  Grace is one strong trainer, and the way she kicks butt with her Charem makes me want to dust off my copy of Ruby and train my own Medicham into an equally effective warrior. 

The dubbed version just has time cuts to report, and there aren't even that many to report. 

Cut--6 second altogether
Four seconds are cut from the pan of the Contest Hall after Kids' WB!'s final commercial break.

Two seconds are cut from the TO BE CONTINUED... screen.

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