Mean With Envy (Japanese: 混戦、混乱！ポケモンコンテスト・キナギ大会！（前編）Disorderly Melee! Pokémon Contest - Kinagi Convention! (Part One)) is the 115th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 389th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on February 17, 2005, in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2006, and in the United States on April 1, 2006.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Blurb
Pacifidlog at last! May is practicing for her contest, and Ash wants Snorunt to practice Ice Beam. But Snorunt's wild aim hits Team Rocket instead and scares another Coordinator's Aipom. Skitty chases it, and May chases Skitty. She finds Skitty playing with another Coordinator, Joshua, and the two talk about the upcoming contest. Erica, a Coordinator who really likes Joshua, loses her cool when she sees them together and gives May a piece of her mind.
Ash and the others show up, but so does Team Rocket! The villains grab Pikachu and Snorunt, so May and Joshua team up to stop them. Erica's so mad that May and Joshua are working together, she has Jynx use Hyper Beam to send Team Rocket flying. Then it's time to register for the contest, where Team Rocket also has a plan to enter the contest—with Meowth!
The first competitor in the Pacifidlog Contest is the Jester and her Meowth. Both of them look awfully familiar, as does the Giovanni ice sculpture Meowth carves using Fury Swipes! Joshua, Erica, and May all do well and move onto the second round along with the Jester. To May's shock, she'll be facing Joshua in the second round! Erica wants Joshua to win so they can win the ribbon together, but there's no way May is going to give up!
Plot
Finally in Pacifidlog Town, May enthusiastically prepares for the upcoming Pokémon Contest. Though she already has four Ribbons, she needs one more to enter the Hoenn Grand Festival. Because the Pacifidlog Contest is chronologically the last Pokémon Contest to be held before the Grand Festival, May must win this Contest Ribbon to be eligible to enter the competition. With that as motivation, May and her Pokémon start working on their performance moves. Just then, Skitty chases after an Aipom, May runs into fellow CoordinatorJoshua.
Meanwhile, Ash is motivated by all of May's hard work to start training for the Hoenn LeagueChampionship, itself not far off. He calls out Snorunt to work on Ice Beam, which proves difficult for the playful Pokémon at first. Snorunt has soon mastered the force behind the move, but has no control over it. Nearby, Team Rocket wastes no time in making an attempt on Pikachu, though their impromptu spring from nearby bushes is cut short as a rogue Ice Bean freezes them solid. Snorunt use Ice Beam several more times, causing chaos for the nearby Trainers.
Elsewhere, May and Joshua have become acquainted. Joshua, a Pacifidlog Town resident, has entered the Pokémon Contest and is a local favorite. However, as May and Joshua chat, Erica, Joshua's girlfriend and also Coordinator, wrongly concludes that May is after Joshua romantically. As Erica watches and fumes from a distance, May reveals that she hasn't selected a Pokémon for the Contest yet. As Joshua comments that she should consider her Skitty because of its cuteness, Erica emerges from hiding. As Erica puts forth several accusations against May, she explains her master plan to go to the Contest finals together with Joshua and reveals her Pokémon, Jynx. Eventually, Ash, Brock, and Max find May, and the trio of Coordinators go to register at the Contest Hall together.
On the way, Team Rocket has regrouped and launches a balloon-born assault on the party -- however, May's Combusken quickly dismisses the balloon with a Sky Uppercut and Joshua's Houndoom rebukes Team Rocket's ragtag offensive. The addition of Skitty's Assist and Jynx's Hyper Beam send Team Rocket blasting off. May and Erica begin arguing over the battle, but Joshua points out that if they keep fighting, they will miss the registration deadline. May and Erica agree to resolve their argument on stage. Meanwhile, Team Rocket has landed and Jessie and Meowth enter the Contest in the persona of "The Jester". Ash resolves to keep training with Snorunt outside of the Contest Hall, leaving Brock and Max to root for May.
Brock thinks that the ice sculpture of Giovanni "looks awfully familiar", thus making Mewtwo Returnscanon, as that is the only time when Brock has ever met him.
The episode's English dub title is a pun on the idiom "green with envy".
According to Pokémon.com, this is the earliest episode in the animated series to feature a Jynx. This is likely due to all episodes featuring Jynx's original design either being banned or cut to remove the scenes featuring her in the dub.
Erica's dream of winning the Pacifidlog Contest together with Joshua is impossible in practice. As established later on in Going for Choke!, Contest Battles ending in a tie must be decided in a sudden-death round.
Jessie comments that Meowth is a rare example of a Pokémon that can understand human speech. However, all Pokémon can understand human speech. It is possible that she was referring to understanding how to speak human speech and understanding the words themselves, which Meowth had to do as chronicled in Go West Young Meowth.
Near the end of the episode, when it shows who went up to the second round, a "white line" is not present on top of Erica.
In the English dub:
When Joshua's Houndoom uses its attacks, it says its Japanese name.
When Meowth says "No Persian is gonna make a Mankey outta me!", the closed captioning refers the dialogue as "Monkey" instead of “Mankey”.
When Meowth changes the Persian statue into himself, it exclaims "Nyarth", the Japanese name for Meowth.
In the Finnish dub, Persian's name is mistakenly translated the same way as the Persian cat.
Jynx's miscolored arm
The board error
