Pokémon anime characters index
Series-wide: Ash Ketchum | Pikachu | Team Rocket Trio | Team Rocket Organization
The Original Series (Misty and Brock, Main Cast) | Ruby and Sapphire (Main Cast) | Diamond and Pearl (Main Cast, Paul) | Black & White (Main Cast) | XY (Main Cast) | Sun & Moon (Main Cast) | Journeys (Main Cast)
Others: Movie characters
Series-wide: Ash Ketchum | Pikachu | Team Rocket Trio | Team Rocket Organization
The Original Series (Misty and Brock, Main Cast) | Ruby and Sapphire (Main Cast) | Diamond and Pearl (Main Cast, Paul) | Black & White (Main Cast) | XY (Main Cast) | Sun & Moon (Main Cast) | Journeys (Main Cast)
Others: Movie characters
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Ash's Companions
Dawn (Hikari)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Megumi Toyoguchi
Voiced in English by: Emily Jenness
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Gaby Ugarte (Diamond and Pearl Seasons 10, 11, and 13, Journeys), Leyla Rangel (Diamond and Pearl season 12, Black and White season 15)
Voiced in European Spanish by: Mar Bordallo
Voiced in European French by: Alexandra Corréa
Voiced in Polish by: Beata Wyrąbkiewicz
Voiced in Italian by: Tosawi Piovani (Season 10 - 11), Ludovica De Caro (Season 12 - 13)
Dawn is a newbie trainer from Sinnoh who met Ash after she ran into Pikachu, who’d been separated from his trainer by Team Rocket. Like May before her, Dawn aspires to be a Pokémon Coordinator. Tropes involving her and her Pokémon include:
- Action Girl:
- Out of all of Ash's traveling companions, she's the most likely to take immediate action against Team Rocket or other antagonists when they show up, frequently having Piplup dealing the finishing blow alongside Pikachu.
- While she mostly participates in contests, she is definitely no slouch in actual Pokemon battles either, especially when she uses her Mamoswine. She particularly excels in Double Battles, because then it's way easier for her to use her extremely powerful and stunning combination attacks to easily overwhelm her opponents.
- In one episode, she once rescued all her Pokémon all by herself.
- Adaptational Modesty: In the Pokémon Learning League educational series, she wears a long-sleeved shirt and white tights under her usual sleeveless top and short skirt.
- Adaptational Sympathy: The games depicted her as the protagonist or Rowan's assistant, depending on the player's choice. The former option is showcased here, but it adds in the detail of her struggling to become a world-class coordinator like her mother, with plenty of missteps along the way.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress:
- But her mother forbade her from bringing it on her journey. Then again, her normal outfit...
- Lampshaded in episode 171 by Princess Salvia, who comments on the length of Dawn's skirt.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: An alternate universe of herself has her partaking the Pokémon Gym Battles rather than Pokémon Contests. And she's so skilled as a battler that she managed to become the runner up of the Sinnoh League, placing her higher than Ash did when competed.
- Always Someone Better: In terms of Contest skill, she's on both ends of this trope. She has never managed to surpass the more experienced Zoey, but she always comes ahead of Ursula, and narrowly managed to beat the far more experienced May in their only on-screen Contest together.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Dawn's father is never seen or mentioned. While Dawn extensively talks about her mother and her goals to be as legendary of a coordinator as her, and plenty of people other than her talk about and interact with Johanna, no mention ever goes to a husband, boyfriend, or anything. Despite quite a lot of time shown focusing on Johanna's home, we never see anyone there but Johanna and her two partners Glameow and Umbreon.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: When she is taking Chloe to the contest hall in JN074, she gets distracted by everything that she sees, followed by her "No need to worry" catchphrase until Chloe has enough and tells her to stop.
- Art Evolution: In Journeys, in addition to the universal art style changes applying to all characters that happened since she last appeared in DP and BW such as less edges in her design and different eyes, her overall color scheme is brighter, with her skin being paler, hat managing to be even whiter, and the pink half-pokeball sign on it becoming a brighter pink. This makes her closer to her game counterpart in appearance.
- Ash Face: Her Cyndaquil has done this to her several times by flaring up its back flames while she's holding it. Some of her various electrocution and explosion mishaps have also left her singed.
- Badass Adorable: A cute ten-year-old girl who also happens to become quite the tough coordinator.
- Back for the Finale: She ascends back to recurring character status in Master Journeys and comes back to root for Ash in person in his Final Battle with Leon.
- Berserk Button: Don't use her embarrassing childhood nickname, Dee-Dee. It brings up bad memories of getting zapped by Plusle and Minum (though she gets over that part at least).
- Beware the Nice Ones: Similar to May and later Serena, Dawn is good natured, but not a doormat and isn't afraid to sic her strongest Pokémon on you if you piss her off, which Team Rocket know from experience. When Meowth pulled a Fake Defector scheme on the heroes, Dawn, who had been sympathetic enough to offer getting him media ties, angrily vowed to beat him to tears for selling them out (he didn't surprisingly, but still).
- Big Damn Heroes: A short time after becoming a trainer and getting her first Pokémon, she protects Pikachu with her Piplup.
- Birds of a Feather: Dawn in many ways is the closest a Distaff Counterpart to Ash can be, sharing more in common with him than just about any of his companions.
- She exchanges Rotating Arcs with Ash's Gym quest, much like May before and Serena after, but she stands out thanks to her status as the Deuteragonist. Dawn received more focus than any main character prior to Goh, roughly on par with Ash himself.
- Dawn's journey mirrors Ash's in many ways. Like Ash, she is an optimistic and initially overconfident Nice Girl who had decided on her life goal long before her debut. She started her journey with an initially stubborn Pokémon that stays outside his Poké Ball and refuses to evolve, and bonded with him after fending off a large swarm of wild Pokemon in an adventure that culminated in them meeting a Legendary Pokemon.
- Like Ash during his initial journey in the Kanto saga, Dawn has a degree of rotten luck when she starts her journey in Sinnoh. They both have a hard time getting any respect as rookies, even from their own Pokémon, along with taking some very heart-breaking losses in the process. It takes a lot of trial and error experience from then on, but eventually they both make their respective comebacks in anime-exclusive competitions (Orange League for Ash, Wallace Cup Contest for Dawn). They're also able to get one of their powerhouse Pokémon, a three-stage evolution who started out nice before getting nastier and disobedient when they evolved twice in a row very quickly, to start being loyal again when they save them from a nasty injury.
- She has a knack for developing Outside-the-Box Tactics in battle similarly to Ash, many of which are borrowed between the two. Counter Shield, for instance, Ash's Signature Move in Sinnoh, was directly inspired by one of Dawn's Contests.
- Both her reappearances in Journeys further support this. Her interactions with Chloe in JN074 closely resemble Ash's relationship with Goh, being a lighthearted, exuberant Foil to her reserved, antisocial partner. When she's paired up with Goh in JN089, he remarks that she's very similar to Ash.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: She copied Iris' "such a kid" remarks at Ash (a little anyways), and once used, "Buneary, I choose you!" when sending it out to battle Pachirisu.
- Breaking Old Trends: She's the first of Ash's companions to obtain a "Pika-Clone" (in her case, Pachirisu) after Misty, Brock, and May didn't obtain any of them. She's also the first character besides Ash to own an Electric Type.
- Breakout Character: She not only became one of the most well-known protagonists in the anime, receiving more focus than any companion prior to Goh, she also elevated her game counterpart into an iconic trainer who gets top-billing over her male counterpart, Lucas. Additionally, she has the most guest-starred episodes out of all the supporting cast in the entire anime (excluding cameo appearances), with a total of 16 episodes (plus an additional 4-part special in the form of The Arceus Chronicles.) Misty, by contrast, comes in second with a total of 9 note .
- Break the Cutie: Disturbingly often. She gets this when losing contests and became a Stepford Smiler afterwards, which is especially noteworthy after her first losing streak sees her not even advanced to the next round twice in a row, causing her to doubt that she can cut it as a Coordinator. Fortunately, she bounces back.
- Brick Joke: The second DP episode continued the Running Gag of Pikachu frying a bike, but it took 36 episodes for Ash to know about it. Dawn was notably nicer about it, taking it in stride and not holding it against Ash, whereas Misty would make a fuss about her bike to Ash and used it as an excuse to keep following Ash until he repayed her, and May briefly used Ash burning her bike as a means to guilt trip him into agreeing with Professor Birch's suggestion that she should travel with him to learn from him.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: After losing her first contest, Dawn manages to turn things around briefly, but loses the appeal stage twice in a row! Left broken by the loss, she only stages a comeback after narrowly beating May in the Wallace Cup, and wins most of her contests barring one or two. She does wind up making it to the finals of the Grand Festival, but Zoey edges her out.
- The Bus Came Back:
- She returned in Best Wishes from BW085 to BW093 to compete in the Junior Cup.
- She becomes a recurring character in Journeys, appearing in several multi-part episodes revolving around Sinnoh's legendaries.
- She first returns in JN074 and JN075, where she introduces Chloe to Pokémon Contests and helps defend Darkrai and an injured Cresselia from Team Rocket.
- She makes another appearance for the 2-part Sinnoh winter special centered around the Time/Space legendaries.
- She appears again in the special 4-parter The Arceus Chronicles, where she reunites with Ash and Brock and reencounters Team Galactic.
- She returns yet again in JN129 to cheer for Ash in his battle against Leon in the finals of the Masters Eight Tournament alongside Chloe (in place of Goh).
- Butt-Monkey: Out of the cast, she’s the biggest one of the “butt of every joke” type. Several characters have poked fun at her, including Ash, Brock, and her own Pokémon, and her skill as a Coordinator was called into question several times prior to her victory at the Wallace Cup. She also gets involved in a fair amount of slapstick, more so than Misty and May, especially where Piplup is concerned.
- Character Catchphrase:
- "Daijobu!", or "No need to worry!" in the dub. How ironic.
- And like May, she has a phrase to use when calling Pokémon out for a Contest — "Charm up!" / "Spotlight!"
- Character Development: She starts as a coordinator passionate and overconfident outside but deeply insecure inside in comparison with her mother's own success and her rival Zoey's experience to a more resilient and humble one who improvises more and is less afraid to fail and even learn from her mistakes.
- The Chosen One: Chosen by Mesprit since the beginning of the DP series due to her strong empathy.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Flip-flops between this and Suspiciously Similar Substitute. Like May before her, Dawn is a Nice Girl Pokémon Coordinator whose quest alternates in focus with Ash and who has a famous parent, but the direction of her character arc is nearly the opposite of May's. While May was underconfident and not very passionate about Pokemon before discovering Contests (only using it as an excuse to travel at first), Dawn had settled on her goal from the start and was overconfident in her skills, struggling far more than May did in her early Contests as she was taught several lessons in humility.
- Curtains Match the Window: She has both hair and eyes that are dark-blue.
- Detrimental Determination: Upon starting out on her journey, she was determined to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a world-famous Top Coordinator. Unfortunately, she was just as equally determined to perfect her performances instead of having fun with her Pokémon, resulting in her failing to clear the first stage twice in a row and shattering her confidence in the process. Only when she loosens up and starts having fun does she get her groove back.
- Deuteragonist: Of "Diamond and Pearl", to Ash's protagonist. Her name is even added in the Japanese openings of the Diamond and Pearl series right next to Ash's.
- Dude Magnet: Kenny, Kendall, and Conway have all shown signs of being attracted to her. She also has a few moments with Ash that could be seen as Ship Tease (though, Ash being Ash, these moments are up to the audience's interpretation). This being Pokémon, it never goes anywhere.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Her childhood friend Kenny loves to tease her by calling her "Dee Dee"note (short for "Diamond Dandruff"), after an incident in kindergarten where she hugged a Plusle and Minun too hard and they shocked her, making her hair spiky and sparkly.
- The Empath: Dawn has shown to have the ability to understand the feelings of Pokémon, and she connects with Mesprit because of this ability.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sure, Brock's Casanova Wannabe tendencies are a bit annoying for her, but even she can't help but look on with concern when Croagunk demonstrates his usual method of stopping Brock dead in his tracks.
- Face Your Fears: Through her Mamoswine and Cyndaquil's encouragement, Dawn decided that it was time to let go of her fear of Plusle and Minun as she pulled herself together then managed to win her last ribbon to compete in the Grand Festival.
- Failed a Spot Check: If she would look around at the audience during contests more often, she would notice some VERY familar faces
. Namely, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet. - Failure Heroine: Poor girl lost two Contests in the Appeal Stage in a row!
- Fangirl: To Professor Oak's (and Gary's) poetry, and Wallace (Contest master).
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Dawn is good at baking Poffins, unlike Ash who burns all of his to a crisp.
- Fire-Forged Friends: When she and Piplup first meet, they can't stand each other, but they form a bond after escaping from a horde of wild Ariados, and Dawn doesn't hesitate to choose him as her starter when they get back to Prof. Rowan's lab. They continue to grow closer throughout the Diamond & Pearl series.
- Flanderization: While Dawn's catchphrase was always a major trait of hers, in her first Journeys appearance, it's her response to nearly everything that happens. Her upbeat personality is also exaggerated to where she gets distracted by almost everything in sight. These aspects are downplayed when she returns again in JN089 and JN090.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: She and Brock had fairly little interaction, at least compared to their interactions with Ash, though she did learn some valuable medical skills across the series from him. She was shown to remember these skills all the way up to Journeys.
- Foil:
- Dawn is presented as one to May during her guest appearance. While May started off not knowing what she wanted to do before deciding on Coordinating, Dawn immediately sought to become a Coordinator. Both ran into Ash in a moment of crisis involving Team Rocket, resulting in Pikachu frying their bikes and them wanting to travel with Ash, who in turn acted as a Big Brother Mentor to them, and both struggled pretty badly in the early stages of their careers. Unlike May, who suffered from a lack of confidence, Dawn was too focused on perfecting her performances, with both having to suffer pretty hard losses to get them to realize it. When they both left the party, May eventually grew into a very busy and respectable Coordinator on par Lisa and Serena, while Dawn largely travels around Coordinating when she pleases.
- Dawn's rival Zoey, by contrast, is shown to be a more skilled Coordinator who acts as a mentor to her friend. Dawn hails from Twinleaf Town and was following in her mother's footsteps, while Zoey comes from Snowpoint City and is given the full support of Candice, the local gym leader. Zoey did struggle, but it was against coordinators of equivalent or better skill level, while Dawn struggled mostly because she was trying too hard to be perfect. In the end, Zoey proved to be the better of the two by edging her out at the Sinnoh Grand Festival, but while she hasn't been heard from since, Dawn has managed to forge her own path as a Coordinator in her own right, albeit more carefree than May or Serena.
- During Journeys, she's presented as one to Chloe. Dawn originated from the games, Chloe is a Canon Foreigner. Both have a Ridiculously Cute Critter as their partner, but Dawn picked Piplup, while Eevee chose Chloe. Dawn is far more carefree in her journeys and knows what she wants out of life, while Chloe is a lot more cautious and isn't sure what she wants to do yet. When the two meet, the pair hit it off pretty quickly, but their brief argument over Dawn's constantly getting distracted shows that Chloe is the more focused of the two.
- Generation Xerox: She gets her passion from Pokémon Contests from her mother, who is a retired Top Coordinator.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Dawn is about as girly as Misty is tomboyish. She competes in the style-focused Contests, wears a lot of pink, has dressed as a cheerleader multiple times and loves fashionable clothes. But unlike Serena, she doesn't mind getting down and dirty with anything masculine. She enjoys battle nearly just as much as Ash does, and has no issue with participating in numerous sporty activities throughout the series.
- Go-Getter Girl: Right from the start, she knew she wanted to be a Pokémon Coordinator, and never lost sight of her goal since.
- "Good Luck" Gesture: One of her trademark qualities is to exchange a high five with Ash either before or after a big accomplishment. Examples include (among many others): her first Contest, the Wallace Cup, saying goodbye, reuniting with him in Unova, and after successfully saving Heatran.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Became this in Pokémon the Series: Black & White, joining the group for eight episodes mid-series prior to and during the Junior Cup.
- Harmless Electrocution: A running gag by itself, Dawn needs to use Piplup's Bubble Beam to condition her hair back to normal after she gets zapped◊.
- Heroic BSoD: Dawn's self-confidence was shattered when she lost in the appeals round twice in Dawns Early Night! and Team Shocker!. Although Zoey was able to help her into what she did wrong and inspired her to take some time from Contests, Dawn never fully recovered until the Wallace Cup, which she ended up winning (over a returning May, who had beaten Zoey en route to the final), fully restoring her confidence.
- An Ice Person: While she doesn't specializes in Ice-types, as her journey goes on she uses more and more ice moves in her Appeals and battles, often in combination with fire and electricity.
- Iconic Outfit: Her white beanie, black with pink accent sweater mini-dress, golden hair clips, pink boots, and red scarf are easily recognizable among the fans.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Dawn is the third female companion in the show and the sixth introduced overall, debuting in its tenth season. Despite this she's easily one of Ash's most popular companions and her name is usually brought up in best female main character discussions.
- Identical Stranger: She and Princess Salvia from the episode "Dawn of a Royal Day!" look exactly alike. They take advantage of this and switch places for a day so Salvia can compete in a Contest with her Togekiss.
- Intergenerational Friendship: She befriended Nando, a traveling bard, and Lila, a dressmaker and retired Coordinator who was also her mother's childhood friend.
- It's the Journey That Counts: Her experiences in traveling with Ash taught her that she just needs to live life in the moment, and doesn't spend all her time worrying about where to go next. Naturally, Chloe gets more than annoyed when Dawn stops to take in every sight she sees, even though there's a Pokémon Contest they both are attending.
- Jerkass Ball: While generally one of Ash's nicer traveling companions, she still has moments like this.
- She is uncharacteristically harsh toward Ash in Giratina and the Sky Warrior. She appears to disregard Shaymin's actions towards him (and them) and even resorts to kicking him in the shin when he disrespectfully remarks about bidding farewell to Shaymin.
- In the BW episode "Expedition to Onix Island", she joins Iris in mocking Ash over his (as it turns out, entirely correct) suggestion that the caves on the eponymous island were created by Onix, acting like the very idea is utterly ridiculous.
- Just Friends: Like May, she has a Like Brother and Sister relationship with Ash. Dawn also has feelings for him.
- Leg Focus: From her standard Magic Skirt attire to the occasional cheerleader, swimsuit, or French Maid outfit, the show doesn't let up in displaying Dawn's legginess. One episode had a scene that completely focused on her legs as she paced before Ash and Brock in anger after Landis insults her friendship with her Piplup.
- Leitmotif: "By Your Side". Used primarily in the Japanese edit, though some instrumental versions still accompany her in parts of the English dub (thus making it one of very few Japanese image songs to at least partway survive the transition).
- Leotard of Power: As seen in "Two Degrees of Separation!", Dawn appears to be wearing a black leotard under her minidress.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Most notably two◊ times◊.
- Little Miss Badass: Younger than Ash but able to single-handedly kick Team Rocket's ass.
- The Load: Dawn has a heartfelt conversation with Maylene, expressing her concerns that she might be wasting Ash's valuable time by participating in Contests while traveling with him. She is feeling stagnant and unsure if it is worth it for Ash. Dawn suggests a battle to help Maylene escape her funk. However, it is hinted that her primary motivation was to ensure that Ash could have his gym battle and maybe even restore her confidence in the process by demonstrating to herself that she could make a difference in Ash's dreams.
- Magic Skirt: She has a short skirt, but she remains covered throughout the series, except for one occasion - "Steamboat Willies!".
- Memento MacGuffin: At the beginning of her Pokémon journey, her mother gave to her the first Contest ribbon she won as a good luck charm. After her run in the Grand Festival, she gives it back.
- Messy Hair: Is often subject to incredibly messy bedhead when she wakes up, and is incredibly fussy about it, refusing to leave her tent until her hair is straightened out. Also happens whenever Pachirisu zaps her hair, making her subject to ridicule from Ash and Brock for it. As it turns out, her self-consciousness about her hair is due to an incident when she was in kindergarten where a Plusle and Minun zapped her hair, earning her the humiliating nickname "Dee-Dee" (Pikari in Japanese) from Kenny and Leona, who then used it to make the whole class ridicule her. Over the course of the series, and especially after overcoming her fear of Plusle and Minun, she mellows out about this, though she still shows signs of caring about her hairdo in Best Wishes when she spends a long time using the hairdryer to straighten her hair. In Journeys, when both she and Chloe wake up with bedhead, Dawn is much more nonchalant about it and immediately subjects both of them to Piplup's Bubble Beam to straighten their hair, having become used to having her hair messy and not caring as much about others seeing it as she used to.
- Modesty Shorts: In the one singular shot where the Magic Skirt fails, it appears that she is wearing black bike shorts underneath.
- Ms. Fanservice: Nowhere near to the extent of previous Pokegirls Misty and May, but still present. She gets a lot of Leg Focus from her regular extremely short skirt, not to mention the occasional revealing cheerleader outfit, swimsuit (though unlike Misty's or May's swimsuits, most of Dawn's swimsuits didn't show quite as much of her stomach) and even some of her contest dresses. There's also an episode where she's put in a pretty French Maid outfit.
- Mundane Utility: It turns out having a Water Type as your partner can come in handy to handle that morning bedhead. She demonstrates Piplup's convenient hair-care solution to Chloe.
- Mythology Gag:
- Her winter outfit is based on her appearance from Pokémon Platinum.
- Her Sinnoh Fest attire in the Amazon exclusive special The Arceus Chronicles loosely based on Akari, specifically her hairstyle and bandana. The rest of her outfit is the Garchomp Fancy Kimono... that is only exclusive pre-order bonus from the Amazon website.
- Naïve Everygirl: It took her an entire episode to find Professor Rowan, despite it normally not being that difficult.
- Nerves of Steel: As part of her Character Development, she's able to calm down when she feels pressure during contests as the story progresses in contrast of her debuts.
- Nice Girl: Before Serena's introduction in the XY series, Dawn was easily the most straightforwardly kind of all the leading females and is very empathetic (she never held Pikachu or Ash responsible for her bike's destruction given the circumstances, for instance, knowing that she attacked Pikachu first and Ash wasn't even there, thanks to Team Rocket). Must be the main reason Mesprit chose her. And while it's true that Ash and Dawn sometimes fight, it's not on a regular basis when compared to how Ash deals with Misty, May and Iris.
- Noodle Incident: The origins of her nickname Pikari/Dee-Dee. In a subversion, it's later revealed she got shocked by a Plusle and Minun in kindergarten, making her hair all sparkly. note . In the dub, it's short for "Diamond Dandruff", which is indeed pretty embarrassing.
- No Sense of Direction: In her debut episode, Dawn can't find Professor Rowan's lab anywhere. When he does find her, he lampshades that she's obviously lost.
- Oblivious to Love: She has no trouble understanding others people's romance, but seems rather blind when said affection is directed to her (except with Conway, but subtle he isn't). She doesn't get Kenny has a crush on her, and totally misses Lyra acting as a Shipper on Deck for her and Ash in "Dressed For Jess Success".
- Ojou Ringlets: Not an Ojou, but she used this hairstyle in a couple of contests as shown here◊ and here.
- One Degree of Separation: One particular irony about the end of Ash's tenure was that Dawn never crossed paths with Serena (who's quite similar to Dawn in a lot of respects), but fellow Coordinator May (whom Dawn did meet) befriended the Kalos native when she came to Hoenn.
- The Perfectionist: Dawn's Fatal Flaw was that she was trying to make her performances as perfect as possible, but both Zoey and Wallace pointed out that this was hurting her more than it helped her. For example, in the second contest she failed to clear the qualifying round, her Ambipom delivered a very spectacular and flashy performance—but nobody could see the Pokémon performing it! After the Wallace Cup, she's able to find a way to have fun with her Pokémon and not be worried about performing perfectly all the time.
- Phrase Catcher:
- The reply to her own catchphrase is usually "That's when [we] worry the most."
- A few times she gets her catchphrase, "No need to worry!", back at her.
- Tends to receive "I'm really getting worried!" from Chloe every time she says her titular catchphrase.
- Pimped-Out Dress: She wears a lot of them. Makes sense, considering part of her job as a Coordinator is to look stylish alongside her Pokémon and she also has a sense of fashion.
- Pink Means Feminine: Her usual Contest dress is pink, as is her cheerleader outfit. Her regular outfit features a pink skirt and she wears a pink coat when traveling in colder climates (both travel outfits also include pink boots).
- Pom-Pom Girl: She sometime act like a cheerleader and donned a pink cheerleading outfit (her Pokèmon also) to support Ash in his Gym battles with Roark, Maylene and Volkner, along with his battles in the Masters Eight tournament.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Borders on this with Ash. It's pointed out several times in Journeys how similar the two are and Dawn has at this point returned more than any of Ash's other companions after leaving the main cast.
- Plucky Girl: She always remains optimistic, even when the odds are against her.
- Running Gag:
- Her hair being messed up, which is usually either the cause or sign of extreme stress from her. In early episodes, she refused to let Ash or Brock even see her if her hair was messy. It also tends to mess itself up whenever she's about to perform for a major Contest, causing her to freak out until someone (usually Zoey) calms her down.
- Adding onto this, she's frequently on the receiving end of electric attacks, which always leaves her hair messy and frazzled (and on occasion, with the sparkly effect behind her embarrassing nickname). Once she acquires her Cyndaquil, it develops a habit of flaring up its back flames while Dawn is holding it, leaving her hair puffed up with an Ash Face.
- And of course, there's her habit of Tempting Fate with her catchphrase. Whenever she says "No need to worry!", there's a good chance something bad is about to happen.
- Seen It All: By the events of Journeys Dawn, even as she enjoys the small things in adventures like Ash, takes things like being contacted by Arceus as a lot less crazy than she would have as a rookie, much to Goh's concernation.
- Scarf Of Ass Kicking: She wears a scarf around her neck and is a prominent Action Girl who has no problem taking on Pokémon battles.
- Shipper on Deck: While normally embarrassed about Brock's antics like everyone else, when it was suggested to him that he become a Pokémon Doctor, she's the one to point out that it will help him get closer to all Nurse Joys.
- Ship Tease:
- Naturally, she gets these with Ash. Not to mention that she's the only one to go as far as to be his personal cheerleader during a few of his Gym Battles. The most notable examples are the episodes where Kenny appears, as the boy is a childhood friend of Dawn and has had a crush on her since they were younger; he shows extreme jealousy of Ash and Dawn's close relationship, glaring angrily when the two so much as talk with each other. When Kenny requests Dawn to go with him on a journey if he beats Ash, Dawn opts to instead keep going with Ash and gently turning down Kenny's offer. She's also notably Ash's only official companion to watch his final match of the Masters Eight Tournament in person. There's also the fact that her Buneary has a massive crush on Ash's Pikachu, which Dawn has personally voiced her support for several times.
- She fangirls Gary's (as well as Prof. Oak's) poetry a number of times during his visits.
- Signature Headgear: A white and pink beanie that covers her hair to avoid it getting frizzy.
- Simple, yet Awesome: Dawn develops the skill of presenting her Contest performances straightforwardly and authentically, with an unwavering focus on highlighting the unique talents of her beloved Pokemon companions.
- Stepford Smiler:
- Tries to put on a good face after her first losing streak. Doesn't work in the end.
- When her alternate counterpart takes Piplup, Dawn tries putting on a brave face when Ash arrives. It's not holding up nearly as well she thinks, and almost breaks down crying before catching herself.
- Supreme Chef: A few hands-on lessons are enough to get her cooking Poffins like a pro.
- Skyward Scream: Does this in "Dawn's Early Night" after losing the Hearthome contest.Dawn: [as she runs to the balcony] AAAAAAAAAAH!
- A Taste of Defeat: Tying in with her Butt-Monkey role, Dawn is the first of few "twerps" to suffer an unnegated defeat from Team Rocket in an episode. Twice for that matter:
- In "Team Shocker" Jessie (as Jessilina) wins her first ribbon in the Solaceon contest, one Dawn doesn't even pass the Appeals Round for. She does not take it well.
- James (disguised as Jessilina) directly defeats her in the battle round of the Lilypad contest in "Dressed For Jess Success". While Dawn was a Graceful Loser this time round, it didn't remotely taint James and Meowth's victory over her.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to three other Tomboys: Zoey (a Bifauxnen coordinator who wears suits, compared to Dawn's fluffy dresses), May (a Coordinator with a huge appetite and a team of intimidating powerhouses), and Iris (a rambunctious Dragon-type trainer who competed in the Masters Eight tournament).
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Her fantasy in the Lotus-Eater Machine episode shows us that she even wants to surpass her mother.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's terrified of Plusle and Minun, because of an incident in kindergarten when she hugged them too hard and they shocked her, making her hair stand on end and everyone laughing at her. However, Dawn got over her fear with help from her Pokémon.
- Worthy Opponent: When Dawn finally eliminated her in the Grand Festival, Jessie admitted (albeit infuriated) that she was this. Jessie herself managed to achieve her most even-handed rivalry against Dawn, equalling and even besting her at times. Since Dawn never saw through her "Jesselina" alias, she was rather respectful towards her.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: Dawn has been on a losing streak during the early part of her journey as a Coordinator in Sinnoh and struggles with fine-tuning her contest style. Both Zoey and Wallace help her realize that she is focusing too much on fine-tuning her Pokemon's moves and has not spent enough time simply having fun with them. Dawn takes this advice to heart and from then on makes a spectacular comeback.
Alternate Dawn
A version of Dawn from an alternate dimension where she chose to become a trainer rather than a coordinator, she winds up helping to expose a plot by her universe's Team Rocket to weaponize Dialga and Palkia.- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: By choosing to be a trainer instead of a coordinator, it works out for her splendidly. For comparison, Ash lost the Sinnoh League to Tobias and his Darkrai in the Top 4. She was the runner up—something of which Ash wouldn't achieve until Kalos.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: She has more of a purple ensemble compared to the mainstream Dawn, who prefers pink.
- Easily Forgiven: The main Dawn lets her off the hook for stealing her Piplup, especially upon learning that Alt!Dawn's Piplup was turned into an egg.
- Fountain of Youth: She and the rest of the gang, plus their main counterparts, are deaged into toddlers as a result of Dialga and Palkia's fighting. Arceus gets them to stop and fix that issue.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite her career change, she still chose Piplup as her starter, and obtained a Quilava, Mamoswine, and Buneary at the very least.
Dawn's Pokémon
In General
- Badass Adorable: The majority of her team are comprised of cute-looking Pokémon who are all competent in Pokémon Contests. Even her not-so-cute ones, specifically Mamoswine, used to be a very cute but strong Swinub.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Mamoswine and Togekiss are the big guys, Piplup, Buneary, Cyndaquil and Pachirisu are the little guys.
- Canon Immigrant: Her team from the anime (sans Pachirisu and with everyone fully evolved) in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are what the main player fights against if they select the male player character and pick Turtwig as their starter.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: While this is intentional with Piplup himself, as well as Pachirisu (who can't evolve), the other unevolved Pokémon have been plagued by this "curse" after Dawn left the series (Quilava has been the latest evolution, which happened during the Diamond & Pearl special). Due to Dawn's infamous Static Character status, she has neither caught new Pokémon nor have unevolved Pokémon evolved since 2011. This is especially jarring in Journeys, since many Pokémon of other returning companions got at least one new evolution or capture.
- Out of Focus: Everyone who isn't Piplup suffers this during Dawn's appearances in Journeys, only making a brief appearance in the Cold Open of "The Gates of Warp!".
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: All but Mamoswine are adorable Pokémon, and even he was cute as a Swinub. Buizel was another exception, since he used to be the cool guy in the group, but he's soon replaced by the cute Genki Girl Aipom.
- True Companions: Dawn's team of Pokémon may bicker, clash or butt head sometimes but in the end they'll always be there to help one another out and support each other till the end.
Piplup (Pochama)
Piplup is Dawn's first Pokémon. She befriended him after saving him from a wild Ariados' attack, when Piplup and Chimchar had fled from Professor Rowan's lab.
- Art Evolution: In Journeys, Piplup (and only this Piplup) has a new eye design, with distinctive blue irises.
- Attention Whore: Regarding Dawn's attention, at least. Piplup sometimes has a fit when Dawn isn't giving him the attention it wants. Heck, the episode "Piplup Up and Away" was dedicated to Piplup getting upset because Dawn and the gang wasn't giving him the attention he wanted.
- Berserk Button: His Establishing Character Moment was throwing a fit when Professor Rowan's Chimchar stole the last bite of his food.
- Beyond the Impossible: Somehow, Gible's Draco Meteor always hit him, even if he was miles away. Much to his dismay, Ash would use this to find Piplup whenever he got lost.
- Big Eater: Gets a Growling Gut often, and enjoys food.
- Breakout Character: Originally just a starter Pokémon for the regional main girl Dawn, Piplup became very popular with viewers during the DP saga, especially in Japan. Noticeably, he began appearing outside of his Poké Ball more and more often until he eventually stopped being seen inside it altogether (save for rare occasions). He also got promoted to being a co-star with Ash's Pikachu in the merchandising, a feat that only Misty's Togepi had accomplished prior.
- Bubble Gun: Bubble Beam, which fires several bubbles in quick succession, was the very first attack he was seen using, and it's still his Signature Move to date.
- Butt-Monkey: To clarify it has been:
- Attacked by Elekid and Electabuzz on two different occasions.
- Zapped by Pikachu (yes That Pikachu) after bumping into it.
- Knocked into a crater by Ash and Gible (using Draco Meteor) on purpose and having to fend off against a Magnezone and a Metagross.
- Not to mention all those other times it got hit by Draco Meteor (except for that one time that Kenny got hit by it).
- Attacked by Elekid and Electabuzz on two
- Camp Straight: Very campy, but showed an attraction to Meloetta. Though Meloetta is genderless, so...
- The Chew Toy: It is always nailed by Ash's Gible's Draco Meteor while the latter was trying to master that move.
- Color Failure:
- In "Battling a Cute Drama!" when Marilyn said he wasn't cute.
- In "Piplup, Up, And Away!" when he overheard Dawn telling Gible it wasn't at fault for dropping Draco Meteors on him.
- When Dawn had her reappearance in Unova, in "Piplup, Pasage, and a Meeting of the Times!", he shares one with Dawn in reaction to Cilan's "Evaluation Time" during a training battle with Pansage.
- Determinator: Piplup outright refuses to give up for various reasons and wouldn't go down without a fight.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being the target of Gible's Draco Meteor one too many times, Piplup goes into a tirade at it. When its "apology" is in the form of dimly gnawing on Piplup's head, he reaches his Rage Breaking Point, and starts a comical No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Gible.
- Drama Queen: Piplup will readily throw a tantrum if something annoys or upsets him.
- Expy Coexistence: There are lots of similarities between Piplup and Pikachu. Both befriended their trainers after serious peril, and resist evolution to their next forms. Piplup also prefers to travel outside his Poké Ball, though he will come out of one for Performances to accrue Charm Points.
- Fire-Forged Friends: At the end of the Junior Cup arc in BW2, he seems to have formed a close bond with Oshawott (who was his rival for Meloetta's affection).
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Did this to Dawn when she was on the edge of having a nervous breakdown before one Contest. Instead of slapping her, he blasted her with Bubble Beam.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Piplup can't stand sharing Dawn's attention, so her fawning over Cyndaquil does not sit well with him.
- Growling Gut: In his debut. This is what made him to accept food from Dawn.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Pikachu during the DP series. The two spend a lot of time together due to mostly being outside of their Pokeballs, and are shown to be extremely close. When it's time for Pikachu and Ash to move on, Piplup is devastated.
- An Ice Person: While Piplup is hotblooded and haughty, he knows the Ice-type move Ice Beam.
- Interspecies Romance: "Piplup, Up, and Away" makes it pretty clear he has a huge crush on Dawn. The music is what puts it over the top.
- It's All About Me: Piplup loves to be the center of attention, and can get very huffy when he's not. When Dawn got Cyndaquil, Piplup got very jealous that his trainer was tending to her new obtainment rather than him.
- Jerkass Ball: He could be seen as downright selfish in some of the episodes. In "Different Strokes for Different Blokes", he ate Aipom's orange causing them to argue. He also collided with Turtwig in "The Champ Twins!" and they started arguing again. He also didn't accept Turtwig's apology when Turtwig is trying to make up with him. In "Gone with the Wildworks", he's shown to be selfish towards Cyndaquil for Dawn's attention. He even slapped Cyndaquil out of the way and ate the poffin which causes them to start a fight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is rather selfish but does love Dawn and always tries to do his best for her.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Occasionally bickers with Dawn, even though it's clear they care about each other at the same level that Ash and Pikachu do.
- Lost Food Grievance: In his first episode, he got mad at the starter Chimchar when it stole the last bite of his food, starting a fight that wrecked Professor Rowan's lab and led to both of them escaping out a broken window, along with a Starly and Staraptor.
- Making a Splash: He's a Water-Type and knows common water moves such as Bubblebeam, Whirlpool and Hydro Pump.
- No Sense of Direction: One episode dealt with him deciding to quit the group after he gets one too many of Gible's Draco Meteors to the head and Dawn and company aren't showing him any concern. Striking out on his own, he decides to go back to Rowan's, but has no idea how to get there.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The Mean to Cyndaquil's Nice and Pikachu's In-Between. He's more hot-headed, assertive, cranky and grumpy compared to the more quiet, calm, friendly and polite Cyndaquil while Pikachu mediates between the two.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: This is apparently due less to its infamous "forced mascot" status and more because the producer considers Prinplup and Empoleon ugly. In series, it's because he's afraid of changing personalities when he evolves, and in the dub because he wants to protect Dawn as he is.
- Not Quite Flight: Piplup, being based on a penguin, doesn't actually fly naturally.note He's shown occasionally to be capable of flying a very short distance from the momentum of using BubbleBeam or being sent out from his Poké Ball.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: From Bide, to Whirlpool, to even Hydro Pump, all while not even approaching Dawn's knees in height.
- Pride: A trait of his species. No matter what humiliations he suffers, Piplup will always stand up proud again sooner or later.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Goofy and funny, and hapless to match.
- Real Men Wear Pink: On several occasions he has sported a pink female cheerleading outfit. Later on they opted for more masculine clothing though.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Cyndaquil's blue. He is more hot-headed and assertive compared to the more quiet and calm Cyndaquil, an ironic inverse given their color schemes.
- Signature Mon: Piplup is Dawn's starter and by far her most iconic Pokemon, to the point where he splits the spotlight with Pikachu as the Series Mascot of Diamond and Pearl. He starts regularly appearing outside his Ball due to sheer popularity, and is present in all of Dawn's most important Contest battles: her first win, the finals of the Wallace Cup, and the finals of the Grand Festival.
- Signature Move: Bubble Beam is used the most out of every move he knows, and he never forgot how to use it.
- Sitcom Archnemesis:
- He got jealous over the attention Dawn gave to her Cyndaquil, which led to plenty of petty bickering between the two. Fortunately, it (mostly) faded out by the end of the series, and completely so after Cyndaquil evolved.
- He gains another one in Ash's Oshawott during Black & White, who feuds with him over their shared love of Meloetta and similarly stubborn personalities. Though they butted heads constantly, they actually share a tearful farewell when it's time for Dawn to leave.
- Took a Level in Badass: Upon learning Hydro Pump, one of the most powerful water attacks known.
- Wave-Motion Gun: When he uses Hydro Pump, he blasts a massive cannon of water at his opponent that is at least 10x bigger than he is.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Being a cute Pokémon that resembles a penguin, every time Piplup is wearing girls' outfits, e.g. the cheerleader outfit or maid outfit, count as this. He's confirmed male.
Buneary (Mimirol)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Tomoko Kawakami (first voice), Satsuki Yukino (current)
Voiced in English by: Sarah Natochenny
From the beginning of Diamond and Pearl, Dawn wanted a Buneary. This Buneary was her third attempt to capture one. Of course, it helps that this particular Buneary had developed an intense crush on Ash's Pikachu.
- Action Girl: Especially noteable in "Hold the Phione" - after the titular Pokémon challenges Pikachu for her, she's offended because (A) Pikachu's in a tight spot, and (B) she's being treated like some sort of prize. She demands Phione battle her instead. And wins.
- Badass Adorable: She's a little bunny that's capable of both giving you a run for your money in battle and making you go "aww" at the same time.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Is based off of a rabbit, and is adorable.
- Crush Blush: She cannot resist Pikachu.
- Establishing Character Moment: First she jumps to save Pikachu from an incoming motorcycle, then when he tries to thank her she hides her face and bounds away, in the process crashing into a tree. This sets her up as a graceful Action Girl who nonetheless crushes hard on Pikachu.
- The Fashionista: Not an extreme example, but she's occasionally seen sporting a vest that Dawn made for her, and the Sinnoh arc ends with her becoming a model.
- An Ice Person: Knows Ice Beam, which is also her signature move for Contests.
- Non-Elemental: She's the Normal-type of the team.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: She's tiny, but she froze Ash, Dawn, and Brock in her debut episode, and she frequently holds her own against larger opponents..
- Ship Tease: She makes very little secret of her crush on Pikachu, which naturally leads to quite a few hints between the two (it's worth noting that Pikachu very rarely outright refuses her affections). It also helps that many characters, including her trainer, have noted and voiced their support for the pairing.
- Wingding Eyes: Gets hearts in her eyes when she looks at Pikachu.
Pachirisu
- Voiced by: Chinami Nishimura
- Ambiguous Gender: It's probably male, given its design and an incident in DP138note , but never explicitly confirmed.
- Death Glare: Gave one to Ursula's Gabite after its Poffin was stepped on - an impressive one for normally happy-go-lucky Pachirisu.
- Keet: Extremely energetic and fun-loving.
- Kid-Appeal Character: The second youngest of Dawn's Pokémon, and the one who acts like a kid the most.
- Lost Food Grievance: Pachirisu does not like its Poffins being stolen or smashed. Do any of those, and it'll make sure you pay for dearly for it.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Justified. As of Generation Nine, Pachirisu has no evolutions, so it couldn't evolve even if it wanted to.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Despite a major type disadvantage, it crushed Ursula's Gabite in the Chocovine Contest with is newly learned Super Fang.
- Static Electricity: Sometimes buzzes Dawn with this, and makes her hair pop out.
- Super-Speed: Like most Electric-types, but in its debut episode it outran six of the gang's Pokémon at once (including Pikachu) in a very silly game of high-speed chase.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dawn's Poffins. The first time it was denied them, it shocked everyone until Pikachu snapped it out of it. Then there's the Berserk Button...
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Emits the blue variety when using Discharge.
Aipom-Ambipom (Eipam-Eteboth)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Miyako Ito (Eipam), Chie Sato (Eteboth)
Voiced in English by: Miyako Ito (Aipom), Emily Jenness (Ambipom)
Aipom was a Pokémon that Ash caught during his journey through the Battle Frontier in Kanto. She is very affectionate towards him and secretly follows him when Ash set off to Sinnoh. While Aipom was shown to be a capable battler in Gym Battles, she develops a big interest in Contests, which would later lead to Ash trading her with Dawn's Blood Knight Buizel. She is competent in Contests, but she eventually develops an interest in Pokémon Ping Pong and later leaves Dawn's team, so the Ping Pong master can foster her talent.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: She was caught by Ash ten episodes before the end of the Advanced Generation series.
- The Ace: She instantly excels everything she sets her interest on: pranking, battle, Contest and finally Pokemon ping pong.
- Action Girl:
- While she preferred Contests, she was used several times in battle when she was under the ownership of Ash and didn't seem to mind.
- She beat Gardenia's strongest Pokémon, Roserade, so it's safe to say that although she prefers Contests, her battling skills are something to be proud of.
- Back for the Finale: During JN132, Ambipom appears in Pikachu's Imagine Spot alongside all of Ash's other Pokémon to cheer him up. She's notably grouped with Ash's Pokémon from Advanced Generation, despite having spent more time with his Sinnoh Pokémon.
- Characterization Marches On: After being traded over to Dawn, her crush on Ash was all but completely forgotten. The last time she even acknowledged Ash as her former trainer was when she was getting ready to be Put on a Bus, and even then it wasn't much. That said, however, in JN132, Ambipom shows up in Pikachu's vision alongside all of Ash's Pokémon from the various regions during his Heroic Second Wind against Leon's Charizard.
- Clingy MacGuffin: Gets a crown that was was too small for Aipom, thus it being stuck to her head for most of the episode.
- Foreshadowing: Ever since Ash captured her at such a late time (during the Battle Frontier saga) and the fact that Aipom followed Ash and Pikachu to Sinnoh, it was rather obvious that the writers were planning to evolve her.
- Genki Girl: Of course; most of her species tend to be this.
- Little Stowaway: Decided to sneak to Sinnoh with Ash instead of stay with Professor Oak like the rest of his Hoenn (and before) Pokémon. Ash decides to keep her in his Sinnoh crew until her trade to Dawn.
- Non-Elemental: As a normal type. Most of its moves do normal type damage as well.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: As Aipom, it's ankle-high to Ash and still capable of fighting much tougher apponents.
- The Prankster: When it was with Ash as an Aipom, she would play silly pranks on him, such as taking his hat for instance.
- Put on a Bus: Literally in this case, as she was last seen going away from the gang on a bus. She was written off the series after gaining a sudden interest in ping-pong, leaving with O to practice in Vermilion City.
- Running on All Fours: Sometimes, such as when chasing Pachirisu in "Twice Smitten, Once Shy!"
- True Companions: Funnily enough, with Ash and Pikachu, even after she got traded to Dawn's party. In DP186, Ash still remembers Aipom as one of the Pokémon that helped him collect all eight Sinnoh Gym Badges. In JN132, she appears in Pikachu's Imagine Spot where all of Ash's Pokémon (as well Larvitar and Solgaleo) appear to cheer for him; notably, Ambipom is grouped with the Pokémon captured in Advanced Generation, which is where she got caught. In JN135, Ash remembers her as one of his Pokémon that are no longer with him.
Swinub-Piloswine-Mamoswine (Urimoo-Inomoo-Mammoo)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Inuko Inuyama (Urimoo and Inomoo), Unshō Ishizuka (Mammoo, DP106 - BW091), Yuichi Nakamura (Mammoo, JN089 - present)
Voiced in English by: Kayzie Rogers (Swinub), Tim Werenko (Piloswine), Marc Thompson (Mamoswine)
- Acrofatic: Despite his huge size, he can make an impressive jump, shown off in Playing the Performance Encore. Lampshaded by Ursula: "Huh? With that huge body?!"
- Apathetic Pet: After Swinub becomes Piloswine (and later a Mamoswine), he becomes more of a jerk. He ignores Dawn's commands and only obeys her when he's bribed in some way. He even attacks her a few times. He overcomes this in "Trials and Adulations!" when Dawn helps heal his injuries, though he still retains a small rebellious streak.
- The Berserker: As a Mamoswine it has a violent temper and tends to go berserk when angry. This costs Dawn a contest when it loses control and goes on a rampage.
- Big Eater: To the point where all the other Pokémon might actually be in danger of starving to death. It's a species trait, actually.
- The Big Guy: Mamoswine is one of the two largest Pokémon of DP's main cast, it is Dawn's largest Pokémon and also her strongest. When it comes to real battling, Mamoswine is her Ace Pokémon.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: By far the most powerful of Dawn's Pokemon, but also completely uninterested in anything besides eating and sleeping. Dawn eventually trains it out of this.
- Cutting the Knot: Mamoswine has almost never won a Contest by retaining the lead when the buzzer sounds. It tends to simply KO the competition. As Dawn has noted, this can be seen as missing the point of Contests.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Mamoswine initially doesn't respect Dawn at all and refuses to follow her commands.
- Elemental Armor: In dual Contests, the strategy of choice often involves encasing the smaller partner in ice.
- Eyes Out of Sight: Piloswine has bangs that always cover his eyes.
- Eyes Always Shut: Swinub had these perpetually, and they never do open. It's a species trait.
- Full-Boar Action: As a Piloswine and later Mamoswine, he is partly based on pigs, hence the name Piloswine and Mamoswine.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: From his Piloswine form on he becomes frighteningly easy to set off, though he mellows out over time.
- Heroism Incentive: Prior to becoming obedient to Dawn, this is the only way for the latter to motivate him to do anything.
- An Ice Person: His primary type is Ice. In Contests, Dawn utilizes his Ice-type moves to great effects, which allows him to be presented as a cool and powerful Pokémon next to her cute ones. He's often covered in ice spikes and he can surround his partners in ice for glamorous presentations.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gradually grows into this role, having shown a soft side as well as an (eventual) fascination to Contests. Noted in-series, once the other characters observe it.
- Men Are Tough: He initially seemed... embarrassed at the fact that he was fascinated by Contests and tried to hide it even when Ash pointed it out. He finally got over it in "Promoting Healthy Tangrowth".
- Messy Pig: All three of his forms were messy eaters.
- Obliviously Evil: He doesn't even realize that the other Pokémon initially have contempt for him because of his enormous appetite.
- Spikes of Doom: He can create gigantic ice spikes on his back by swallowing his own Ice Shard.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In many ways, he's similar to Ash's Charizard. Three stage evolution caught in first stage, in which it has a sweet overall disposition and likes its new trainer? Check. Personality change upon evolving into second stage? Check. A surprisingly quick transition to its third stage? Check. Took a Level in Badass after evolving, becoming a large powerhouse who lazes around? Check. Has a lifechanging experience with the trainer, involving a defeat against another Pokémon that it both has an advantage and disadvantage to, and restores its loyalty, and beats said mon with trainers help, followed by gradual further Character Development? Check, check and check.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dawn's Poffins, it seems. All her Pokémon enjoy them, but Mamoswine really can't get enough of them.
Cyndaquil-Quilava (Hinoarashi-Magmarashi)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima
Voiced in English by: Kayzie Rogers (Cyndaquil), Bill Rogers (Quilava)
- The Baby of the Bunch: Hatched from an egg late in the DP season.
- Beware the Nice Ones: As a Cyndaquil, it usually only got angry at Piplup when it was provoked.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Ash's Cyndaquil. Both of them were owned by the series' leads that started out as The Baby of the Bunch before they Took a Level in Badass, but Ash's Cyndaquil was a bit shy and timid at first, whereas Dawn's was much more excitable and happy. Moreover, Ash left his Cyndaquil at Oak's lab before bringing it back temporarily, only to evolve in a moment of crisis, whereas Dawn's evolved under similar circumstancesnote , but has stayed with her consistently.
- Keet: He did become pretty excitable when he first saw Dawn practicing for a Contest, and visibly slumped when she said she wouldn't be using him just yet.
- Nice Guy: Her Quilava was always mild-mannered, gentle, and always kept to itself.
- Playing with Fire: Quilava is a fire type Mon who knows Flame Wheel.
- The Rival: Piplup sees him as this for Dawn's affections. It's usually one-sided, as Cyndaquil only fought Piplup when Piplup provoked it.
- Smoke Out: Her Quilava knows Smokescreen, which can cause places to be filled with smoke.
Togekiss
- Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Not only the first time Dawn had six Pokémon at once, but she obtained her after winning her fifth ribbon, and just two episodes before the Grand Festival. Bear in mind that Princess Salvia had been training her to be a Contest Pokémon for quite a while, so it's a Justified Trope.
- Flight: Due to being a flying type, she can fly.
- It Was a Gift: She was given to Dawn by Princess Salvia.
- Lady of War: Because she was raised by a princess, she fights with grace and elegance.
- Team Mom: In the episode after she was obtained, Togekiss is seen caring for the Butt-Monkey penguin, to the point of scolding Ash's Gible for targeting Piplup with Draco Meteor. For bonus points, she's voiced by Kikuko Inoue, who's famous for voicing this kind of character.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Thanks to Togekiss, Piplup stops getting flattened by Gible's Draco Meteor (though this eventually stops when Gible finally gets it under control).
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: She's a flying type and naturally knows Air Slash.
Oshawott (Mijumaru)
- Bit Character: Was only caught by Dawn to demonstrate the Hisuian Pokéball. Afterwards Oshawott is released.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Ash's own Oshawott, given how in its short screentime, it starts squabbling with Piplup in the same way Ash's did.
Summer Academy Pokémon
Ash, Brock and Dawn attended Prof. Rowan's Summer Academy in Episodes 88-91, during which they were assigned different Pokémon to partner up. In Dawn's case they're Grimer, Dodrio and Sharpedo.
- Guest-Star Party Member: They were only assigned to Dawn and she never officially owned them.
- School Forced Us Together: While the students are allowed to pick the Pokéball, they are not told of what Poké is inside it and whomever they picked is their designated Pokémon until the specific task involving it is finished.
- Utility Party Member: Dodrio and Sharpedo are mainly used for the camp's final triathlon activity.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: They get returned once Dawn's respective task with them are finished.
Brock (Takeshi)
See here for more about Brock and his Pokémon.
Ash's Pokémon
As Whole
- Ambiguous Gender: Torterra, Infernape, Buizel, and Gible are all confirmed male, and Staraptor is pretty implicitly male as well, but Gliscor is more debatable.
- Of note, this is also the generation where Pikachu is finally confirmed explicitly to be male, in DP142.
- Badass Crew: The Sinnoh team is generally ranked as one of Ash's overall strongest regional teams, especially since most of his Pokémon on this team made it to their final evolution stage, with the exceptions of Buizel and Gible.
- Iconic Sequel Character: They are one of Ash's most popular team in the entire series despite its members (sans Pikachu and Aipom) debuting during the duration of the tenth through twelfth seasons.
- Put on a Bus: At the end of Diamond and Pearl they're all left at Oak's Lab while Ash heads to Unova.
- Spectacular Spinning: Almost every member of the team adopts some kind of spinning technique as Ash develops his battle style. Early on, Turtwig and Pikachu used a spinning dodge maneuver to get the edge on their opponents, while Pikachu, Chimchar, and Buizel start using Counter Shield after the Hearthome Gym battle. Gliscor also learns how to master the wind and spin into the air after using Giga Impact, allowing it to retreat long enough to stall out the recharge time.
- True Companions: The Sinnoh team formed an unbreakable bond with each other and consider one another family. They train a lot together and sometimes their Trainer lets them watch each other battle, which shows the loyalty and support they have for one another.
Starly-Staravia-Staraptor (Mukkuru-Mukubird-Mukuhawk)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima (Mukkuru and Mukubird), Katsuyuki Konishi (Mukuhawk)
Voiced in English by: Sarah Natochenny
Starly was caught by Ash moments after first arriving in Sinnoh where his Aipom accidentally bumped into it during a search for their lost Pikachu, which Ash decides to use Starly to help with the search. He later evolves into Staravia during a battle with Team Rocket, and then into Staraptor in order to win a PokéRinger competition.
Staraptor stayed on Ash's team throughout the Sinnoh journey, and remained one of Ash's top fighters. His defining characteristic is that Staraptor will perform a face-fault whenever he's shocked or confused by something.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Knows Close Combat. And yes, it is weird to see a raptor punch and kick his opponent with his wings and talons.
- Blow You Away: He knows Whirlwind, which is a wind-based status move that he used it for offensive purpose. It's actually called Gust in the Japanese version.
- The Bus Came Back: Ash uses a rotating team in Aim to be a Pokémon Master, where he uses all of his Pokémon in his current roster. He normally adds Pokémon of different generations besides Pikachu.
- Call-Back: The episode where Staravia evolves into Staraptor mirrors that of his Hoenn equivalent (Taillow to Swellow).
- Corner of Woe: After getting sidelined for Ash's first Gym Match, Staravia goes sulking face-first against a pillar.
- Cast from Hit Points: Thanks to Reggie's teachings it knows Brave Bird, that like Pikachu's Volt Tackle harms the user as well as the target.
- Crash-Into Hello: Ash and Brock met Starly when Aipom crashed into him.
- Expy: Its character plot is very similar to its Hoenn predecessor. It's the first regional Pokémon Ash caught, Ash spent his time to teach it its best Flying-type move, it evolved to its final stage during a PokéRinger tournament and won it the exact same way Swellow did, by smashing the ring into the goal with its wing.
- Flight: It continues the tradition of being Ash's regional bird and be his flying scout. In fact, Ash caught it for that very reason (being a flying scout).
- Friendly Rivalry: According to Professor Oak, he and Swellow have formed one during their stay at his ranch, with the two of them often having aerial races with each other.
- Heroic BSoD: Has one when Ash doesn't choose him to fight Roark, complete with a Pokémon Speak Big "NO!".
- Noble Bird of Prey: The inspiration behind the Starly evolutionary line, and Ash's Staraptor is no exception, being one of his stronger Flying-Types.
- Non-Elemental: Primary type.
- Razor Wings: Knows Wing Attack.
- She's a Man in Japan: Is female in the Czech dub and Latin American Spanish dub.
- Signature Move: Initially Aerial Ace, but then later Brave Bird.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: Secondary type is Flying.
- Wreathed in Flames: When using Brave Bird, Staraptor becomes engulfed in fiery energy first before it turns into blue energy.
Turtwig-Grotle-Torterra (Naetle-Hayashigame-Dodaitose)
Turtwig was met by Ash and company along the way to Jubilife City where it served as a forest protector for the Pokémon around Clara's home, going so far as to protect Pikachu from Team Rocket and Ash believing them both to be enemies. Turtwig soon realizes his mistake and apologizes, but also begins to bond with Ash after the two deal with Team Rocket. It then challenges Ash and Pikachu to a battle, which results in Turtwig's capture.
Along the Sinnoh journey, Turtwig evolves into Grotle during a battle with Paul, and then into Torterra during a battle against Team Rocket. Sadly, Torterra has become well-known amongst the fandom as the Pokémon amongst Ash's team that couldn't win any of its important battles after evolving.
- Aborted Arc: Grotle eating his own Energy Ball for a temporary Power-Up is completely dropped after it helps Dawn's Mamoswine pull a similar trick by eating its own Ice Shard.
- Acrofatic: Subverted. It's because it gained a heavier body mass upon evolving into Grotle that it lost access to its previous form's unique Super-Speed and is unable to run as fast and dodge as quickly as it used to, as well being unable to spin its body in mid-air. However, after adjusting to its new body, Grotle/Torterra is still capable of running and jumping as well as dodging attacks, but just not as fast and as agile as it used to.
- Big Brother Instinct: Similar to Bulbasaur in a way that he is protective of other Pokémon.
- The Bus Came Back: Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN143, alongside Kingler, Heracross, Bayleef and Sirfetch'd. Lapras also returns this episode. Strangely, while the other four Pokémon of this episode's roster appear early on in the episode, Torterra makes its entrance in an 11th-Hour Ranger-kind of fashion, where its newly learned Frenzy Plant became a vital part of the episode's rescue climax.
- Colossus Climb: Knows Rock Climb, allowing to climb fast on cliffs and can create a giant rock pillar with this move, so that it can climb it up and attack the opponent with its claws and body weight.
- Combat Pragmatist: Knew the Dark-type move Bite.
- Death or Glory Attack: Whenever he uses Rock Climb during a fight, the victor tends to be quickly determined after it either succeeds or fails.
- Decoy Protagonist: Turtwig can be seen as this. Considering that the previous season both established the idea of Ash only catching one signature Starter in his current region and that his previous one, Treecko, was also a Grass-type, many assumed that Turtwig would fill a similar role. Add in Dawn starting on a similar path as May by receiving the regional bird Starter, Paul having Chimchar since his first appearance (when in the games your rival typically picks the Starter with an advantage over yours), and Turtwig's impressive showings in earlier Gyms. It gave the impression Tutwig would be The Ace of the region, so the audience could then be caught off-guard by Paul releasing his Chimchar and Ash convincing it to join his team, revealing that Chimchar is in fact Ash's signature Pokémon of the region. Turtwig then became less and less relevant as the series moved on and it evolved, becoming infamous for its less than stellar battle record. It wasn't long before he was Demoted to Extra.
- Demoted to Extra: Turtwig was Ash's main battler early on in Diamond & Pearl, being key to his victories over both Roark and Gardenia. Once Chimchar and Buizel joined Ash's team, Turtwig gradually faded into a background player, even after its two evolutions.
- Determinator: Grotle is left heartbroken when it loses its signature speed after evolving, but through dedication, it manages to teach itself Rock Climb to compensate.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Torterra's secondary type is Ground, although it does not know any Ground-type moves. The Normal-type move Rock Climb, however, is able to shake the ground and creates a giant pillar of rock that traps the opponent up there, so that the user can run on the pillar attack the opponent who can't dodge it.
- Energy Ball: Actually knows the move called Energy Ball, which it can also eat to power itself up.
- Foil: To Paul's Torterra. Both of them are owned by particularly skilled trainers — and heated rivals at that — but Paul's Torterra was an absolute beast of a mon who dominated a lot of his foes, since Paul could better adapt to its defensive battle style, whereas Ash's Torterra lost quite a bit after his evolutions, as Ash had difficulty coping with the loss of its speed. Paul's Torterra notably acted as a Big Brother Mentor to the newly evolved Grotle, even going behind its Trainer's back to teach Grotle about its new form.
- Fragile Speedster: As a Turtwig, he's pretty fast. Having to change fighting styles after evolving stymied it for a few episodes.
- Gentle Giant: Huge upon evolving into Torterra, but remains a pretty docile, friendly Pokémon just like when he was still a Turtwig.
- Green Thumb: Primary type, and during the course of the series learned Razor Leaf, Energy Ball, Leaf Storm and Frenzy Plant.
- Growing Up Sucks: Being so accustomed on fighting as a Fragile Speedster, he really struggled adjusting to the Mighty Glacier forms of his evolution forms.
- Healing Factor: Knows Synthesis which heals itself by absorbing sunlight.
- In a Single Bound: Despite having a much heavier body in both evolved stages, the learned move Rock Climb allows it to jump very high in the air, which is at one point done to ridiculous levels as a Grotle, being able to jump through multiple obstacles without slowing down.
- Meido: Made to dress as one in an early episode (although all that could fit was an apron), and he's not exactly pleased about it.
- Mighty Glacier: After evolving into Grotle, and then Torterra, he gets stronger, but the extra weight and size cost him the speed he had as a Turtwig, which may also explain why Ash lost a lot with him, since he's more used to Fragile Speedster or Lightning Bruiser Pokémon than Mighty Glacier ones.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Not made explicit, but heavily implied. When Torterra returns in "Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master'', it's shown to have learned Frenzy Plant, the most powerful Grass-type attack. Logically that must mean it's become a much more powerful battler since the last time we saw it.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: The biggest victim once Infernape became Ash's signature mon. At the start of the season, Turtwig was Ash's designated starter, having a Friendly Rivalry with Paul's Torterra, and even having its own arc of having to get used to being a Mighty Glacier after evolving. However, after evolving again, his significance got reduced. To make matters worse, Torterra was often used to show how much Ash's other Pokémon (Infernape and Gliscor) had grown.
- Petal Power: Knows Leaf Storm, one of the most powerful Grass-type moves.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: As a Turtwig, he was strong enough pick up and hurl a Rampardos by the tail.
- Power-Up Food: Played with. During a battle with Palmer, Grotle accidentally swallowed its Energy Ball. The result was a nearly unstoppable Rock Climb that required Rhyperior to slam its tail into the ground to moderately slow Grotle.
- Running Gag: Early on, he shows affection for Ash by biting him on the head.
- Spectacular Spinning: Ash taught Turtwig to dodge attacks by spinning. It would often run towards the enemy or attack and then spin its own body to dodge. This specialty has been lost after evolving into Grotle.
- Super-Speed: Only as a Turtwig. It was incredibly fast as a Turtwig, who can dodge most attacks very easily and hit its opponents with its high speed. Its loss of speed upon evolution was a bit of a Heroic BSoD for it.
- Worf Barrage:
- Ash attempts to use its Rock Climb as a Finishing Move, but most of the time, it fails because the opponent was somehow able to counter it.
- A subverted version with Synthesis during the League Match against Paul, which is a healing move, not a damaging move. Paul and Drapion patiently wait for Torterra to heal itself with Synthesis, only to immediately knock it out with a barrage Pin Missile.
- The Worf Effect: Torterra never actually won a single battle at all after evolving, unless it was against Team Rocket or a wild Pokémon. Even as a Grotle, he had a fair number of losses under its belt. Notably, he's the only one of Ash's Pokémon in the Sinnoh region to participate in a battle against Paul (so, including Aipom and excluding Gible) who never beat at least one of Paul's Pokémonnote . And while Torterra has been powerful, its losses demonstrated that power and type advantage wasn't enough against the opponents it's facing.
- Against the Elite Four member Bertha and her powerful Hippowdon, the opponent was teaching Ash how to be more observant. And while Ash was learning and Torterra managed to land good hits on Hippowdon, Bertha's strategy was still superior and she ended up winning, ending it with Fire Fang as a Finishing Move.
- Gym Leader Volkner was always prepared to face against Grass-types and Ground-type, and his Electivire knew both, Fire Punch and Ice Punch, giving it coverage against both types, which Torterra happened to be. Ash, who wasn't aware of the type coverage, was caught completely off-guard with the Ice Punch at the end, which was especially devastating against the Grass/Ground-type Pokémon.
- In the final match against Paul in the Sinnoh region, Paul's Drapion was able to match Torterra's impressive power and caught it in the middle of the Rock Climb move before it could land, showing that Drapion was as much of a menace as Paul's Ursaring was, if not even more.
Chimchar-Monferno-Infernape (Hikozaru-Moukazaru-Goukazaru)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Megumi Hayashibara (Hikozaru), Yuji Ueda (Moukazaru and Gokazaru)
Voiced in English by: Bill Rogers
Chimchar started off under the ownership of Paul, who captured it after being impressed by the power displayed by Chimchar's Blaze ability against a herd of Zangoose. Paul would attempt to train and battle alongside Chimchar ever since, but was constantly left disappointed being unable to bring out the power of Chimchar's Blaze again, no matter how harshly he trains it. Finally deciding that he's had enough with Chimchar's incompetence, Paul decides to release Chimchar during the Hearthome Tag Team Tournament. However, Ash invites Chimchar to his team just moments after given their previous interactions throughout the former's Sinnoh journey, which Chimchar accepts.
After becoming a member of a new team, Chimchar would go on to becoming Ash's Sinnoh ace winning a vast amount of battles throughout the journey. It would eventually evolve into Monferno after defeating Paul's Ursaring during a battle against his former trainer, and then into Infernape during a battle against Team Rocket. Infernape eventually learns how to control Blaze under Ash's tutelage, and manages to be the one that scores the overall victory for Ash against Paul during the Sinnoh league.
- Aborted Arc: It was revealed in "Advice to Goh!" that Infernape still desired to grow even stronger, training with the Fire-types and even leaving the lab on its own to seek greater challenges, but this is never brought up again after this episode.
- The Ace: Hands down Ash's strongest Sinnoh Pokémon (and more than likely one of his strongest in general), being a main battler after joining Ash's team early on in the series. It plays a major role in defeating four Gym Leaders, knocking out two of their Pokémon. In Ash's full battle with Paul at Lake Acuity he was the only Pokémon aside from Staraptor to get a win during that battle. After reaching his final evolved form he beats half of Paul's team in the Sinnoh League by himself while taking a crazy amount of abuse and kept getting back up. As an Infernape he only loses once in battle and that loss to was a more experienced Infernape belonging to an Elite Four Member, which is justified given the way Elite Four Members are portrayed in the anime.
- Adaptational Badass: In the games, Blaze is a Critical Status Buff ability that all of the starters have, being an useful but not that noteworthy ability. In contrast, Chimchar's Blaze is treated as being a special characteristic he has, and most of his development is about learning how to master using it.
- Adopting the Abused: Chimchar was owned by Ash's rival, Paul, who he released during the Tag Battle tournament for failing him to use his power. This wasn't helped by the fact that it was put through intense training to get him to unleash his Blaze ability. Ash later caught it and evolved it into an Infernape which later beat Paul during the Sinnoh League.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Although Ash tries to reassure him, Chimchar is visibly disturbed at the effect of his Blaze when it finally activates. This fear lingers on for most of the series due to Ash's refusal to willingly activate it, but they manage to overcome it after he evolves into Infernape.
- Badass Adorable: As a Chimchar, he was an adorable monkey who was a strong battler.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Monferno learns Mach Punch upon evolving and it kept the move as an Infernape. When Blaze is activated, the power of Mach Punch also increases.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's normally very sweet, but if Blaze gets activated...
- Blood Knight: As he grows along with Ash and, he starts being able to enjoy battling more, which becomes especially noticeable after he evolves into a Monferno. In Journeys, it's been revealed that he has challenged Ash's other Fire-Type Pokémon at Prof. Oak's lab (except Torkoal) and then went off for three days to find and challenge Moltres.
- Breakout Character: He's one of Ash's most popular Pokémon (especially among those caught after the original series), and got the most presence of any of Ash's reserves in Journeys. He served as a Guest-Star Party Member in JN068 and later Gengar's primary mentor in JN114, while the alternate world Ash from JN090 uses Infernape as his ace. His battle with Electivire in the Sinnoh League also tends to be heavily featured whenever the anime is showcasing major highlights from across its run.
- Breath Weapon: Like most Fire-types, he shoots Flamethrower out of his mouth.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Aside from a single cameo in Black and White, Infernape was absent until Journeys, when Ash learned it had run off to fight Moltres itself, leading Ash to reunite with it while tracking it down.
- Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN145, alongside Hawlucha.
- Butt-Monkey: A non comedic example of a literal monkey who was introduced being abused by his trainer. Thankfully, this naturally changes once he joins Ash's team instead.
- Cast from Hit Points: Knows Flare Blitz, which has the drawback of hurting both the user and the target.
- Cooldown Hug: Received at least two of these from Ash in order to stop Blaze. Ash would hold it close and desperately plead for it to calm down, and it would always require a great deal of effort and pain before it finally worked.
- Crisis Makes Perfect: He controls Blaze to save Pikachu, Piplup, Barry's Empoleon, and Paul's Electabuzz from being crushed by the debris of Team Rocket's mecha, also evolving into Infernape in the process.
- Critical Status Buff: Reconstructed. When Blaze is activated, he gains a boost in power, but this Chimchar's Blaze in particular is far more powerful and far more dangerous than the average Fire starter. In this state, his strength is nearly unparalleled, but the trauma associated with his past also makes go him into a mad frenzy, which proved so uncontrollable that Ash initially refused to use it. Fortunately, through Ash's support and his increased maturity as an Infernape, he eventually manages to control Blaze, quelling the fear he and Ash once had of his own power.
- Dance Battler: One of the ways he uses Counter Shield is to use Flamethrower while breakdancing, sending fiery whips flying in every direction.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: For most of the series, Ash refuses to use or train Chimchar's Blaze due to it sending the Chimp Pokémon into an Unstoppable Rage. However, when he finally overcomes this as an Infernape, it becomes his most powerful weapon.
- Dark and Troubled Past: To say Chimchar has had a rough history would be an understatement.
- It first met Paul while being relentlessly attacked by a herd of Zangoose, only barely fending them off through a Desperation Attack. The event badly traumatized Chimchar, giving it a morbid fear of all Zangoose.
- The time it spent with Paul can be called "training" only if you are a sadist. Paul regularly forced Chimchar into extremely tough battles and berated its performance at every turn, culminating in him attacking it with his entire team at once to try to recreate the power it once used. It also dealt a huge blow to its self-esteem, since it was heavily criticized even when it won.
- Death Glare: Gives one to Paul in JN114. Though they reconciled in that episode, Infernape was definitely not happy to see his former trainer again at first.
- Desperation Attack: Cornered and beaten within an inch of his life, Chimchar used an extraordinarily powerful Flame Wheel to drive away the Zangoose that were attacking him. The sheer display of power drove Paul to catch him so they could recreate that power.
- Determinator: Particularly in the Sinnoh League. Infernape, Ash's last Pokémon, is nearly beaten by Paul's Electivire. Paul insults him while Electivire goads him into standing back up. Against all odds, Infernape manages to get back on his feet just as the referee is counting down, and activates Blaze to win the fight.
- The Dog Bites Back: Chimchar was released by Paul after it was deemed too weak by him. Under Ash's ownership, it become his strongest Sinnoh Pokémon and become his trump card during his match against Paul, defeating half of his team.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Paul’s relationship with Chimchar, and its subsequent healing from it, is horrifyingly similar to abusive relationships in real life, down to the repression, victim blaming and shaming, deeply-rooted trauma, as well as both physical and emotional abuse. In addition, Chimchar’s reaction to facing Zangoose in both "Glory Blaze!" and "Tears For Fears!" can only be described as PTSD.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Chimchar has a hard time during Paul's ownership and was eventually released after it failed to live up to his expectation. Moments after being released, he joins Ash's group where he made many friends and become stronger to the point he finally earns Paul's respect.
- Energy Absorption: A variant: while it can't directly absorb them, being hit by fire-type attacks make his own fire moves stronger. In fact, Paul used it in the Tag Battle Tournament for this very reason.
- Energy Weapon: His Flamethrower turns from a stream of flames into a massive fiery laser beam when Blaze kicks in as an Infernape.
- Expy:
- His role as an abandoned fire Pokémon taken in by Ash after deemed weak by his former trainer also bears heavily resemblance to his Kanto era Charmander. Thankfully however his evolutions lack as much of the latter's early disobedience (intentionally anyway, see Critical Status Buff).
- Also of Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Z. They both start off as small, monkey-like creatures with an immense hidden power they can't control, are at first trained by an Evil Mentor (Piccolo and Paul) and unleash their full potential against their greatest foe yet (Cell and Paul's Electivire). Fittingly enough, Blaze, especially as Infernape, is portrayed similarly to Goku's first Unstoppable Rage-filled transformation into Super Saiyan, where even he admitted he was losing his sense of reason to pure primal rage. Likewise, Infernape, Goku, and Gohan are all cases of Monkey King Lite.
- Fast Tunnelling: Uses Dig to perform sneak attacks from underground.
- Foil: To Paul's Electivire, his rival and former teammate, whose dynamic with him closely mirrors that of their trainers. While Infernape is a friendly, kindhearted Nice Guy who thrives under Ash's trust and friendship, Electivire is a rude, arrogant Jerkass who excels under Paul's harsh regimen.
- Forgiveness: When Infernape first reunites with Paul in JN114, there's some immediate tension in the air for obvious reasons. However, he quickly recognizes his former Trainer's change of heart, and the two are able to make amends with each other. Infernape both accepts Paul's commands to help Gengar with its training and even bids him a mutually happy farewell.
- Friendless Background: He did't have any friends while it was under Paul's ownership as he did try to befriend his teammates, but they weren't interested because they only saw each other as teammates and nothing else. However, during the Hearthome City tag battle tournament, he found his first real friends in Ash, Pikachu, Piplup and Turtwig when they showed him how much they cared about him. After joining Ash's team, he befriended the rest of his new teammates and the Pokémon that belong to his Trainer's friends.
- Grew a Spine: After joining Ash and co., he grows a tremendous amount of confidence especially after being Paul's Pokemon. Even further as he evolves further down his evolutionary line.
- Guest-Star Party Member: In episode 68 of Journeys, Ash returns to Oak's lab and learns that Infernape has gone missing. He soon learns that it's been tracking down a wild Moltres in desire of battling it, with Ash briefly battling alongside it once again.
- Happy Dance: Would often perform one upon a victory, but would often be immediately curbed by Paul. After overcoming his fear of Zangoose, he's initially afraid to dance again, until he remembers he's with a new trainer, and among new friends.
- Heel–Face Turn: Chimchar was originally on Paul's side, until Paul released the chimp, and it joined Ash moments afterward.
- Heroic Second Wind: Blaze activates during the final fight with Paul at the Sinnoh League, giving him the strength to turn around the fight and win.
- Hot-Blooded: Despite his experiences, Chimchar still loves to battle, and he only gets more hot-blooded as he evolves.
- How Much More Can He Take?: During his final battle with Paul, Infernape takes a ridiculous amount of punishment but refuses to stay down.
- Lightning Bruiser: Firmly evolves into this after it became Infernape. It's incredibly speedy and quite powerful, but its sheer willpower also allows to take a great deal of punishment, which happens to be a key factor in activating Blaze.
- Made of Iron: By the end of the Sinnoh League Battle against Paul, Infernape has endured so much damage it is almost declared unable to battle. It's Blaze kicks in, which only activates when the Pokémon is close to fainting, and it still manages to stand on its feet at the end despite taking recoil damage from Flare Blitz and being poisoned.
- Man Bites Man: It violently sank its teeth into Ash's shoulder when it lost control due to Blaze.
- Morality Pet: The Team Rocket trio are notably more affectionate towards him due to them witnessing Paul's harsh treatment of him.
- Nice Guy: Even under Paul he was sweet-natured. He was visibly incredibly guilty and tried to plead with Paul when commanded to attack Ash's Turtwig who was actively trying to protect him during their Tag Battle and managed to even overpower its fear of the opposing Zangoose to shield Turtwig from its Fire Blast to try and repay him, and when fighting Team Galactic, he took an attack meant for Pikachu from Saturn's Toxicroak. When Ash felt guilty the next day for letting him get so badly hurt, Chimchar silently expressed that he didn't blame him at all.
- One-Man Army: In the last four Gym Battles Ash has in Sinnoh, it defeats two of the Gym Leaders' Pokémons each time. Then, in the battle against Paul at the Sinnoh League it beats half of his team.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: As a Chimchar it wasn't much taller than Piplup, yet it sent Roark's Onix flying with a Dig attack.
- Playing with Fire: Its primary type. It also used Ember, Flamethrower, Flame Wheel and Fire Blitz.
- The Power of Friendship: Through Ash's kindness and friendship, Infernape is able to master Blaze when it couldn't even activate it while under Paul's ownership.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eyes glow red when Blaze is activated, which is the first sign of the dangerous frenzy it's about to go on. Technically, this remains true even after it masters the ability, though now it's purely a danger to Ash's opponents rather than himself.
- The Reliable One: Except for the Gym Battle against Maylene and the fight with Flint, it always defeated at least an opponent in every battle it fought in.
- The Rival: Paul's Elekid/Electabuzz/Electivire. It started as early as when they both were under Paul's ownership, and only became more intense as time went on, with Electabuzz's scorn and bullying slowly evolving into a grudging respect as Chimchar grew in strength. Their rivalry is so crucial to the series that it was Electivire who yelled at the ref in their final battle, stopping him from calling Infernape out.
- Shoryuken: He usually emerges from Dig doing an uppercut motion.
- Signature Mon: Due to its abused history as Paul's former Pokémon along with Ash's desire to prove Paul wrong, Infernape is Ash's signature ace for the Sinnoh team, even overshadowing Pikachu at times. Tellingly, it's Infernape who is the last Pokémon standing for Ash during his final match against Paul in the Sinnoh League Conference, defeating Paul's Electivire (the first Pokémon seen under Paul's ownership) after an intense, fiery battle and allowing Ash to advance to the Top 4.
- Signature Move: For a long time, it was Flame Wheel, but it got replaced by Flare Blitz during the Sinnoh League Conference.
- Spectacular Spinning: It uses Flame Wheel and Counter Shield by spinning. At one point while using Flame Wheel, it accidentally learns Flare Blitz.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Got used more and received much more focus than any other Pokémon in Ash's roster. This is because he's not just Ash's ace, but the cornerstone of his relationship with Paul — nearly every part of his arc symbolizes a turning point for the two rivals.
- Standard Power-Up Pose: Has done this stance as Blaze activates, which further plays up the resemblance to Gohan.
- Sympathy for the Hero: Since joining Ash, many people take interest in it ranging from Cynthia, Reggie and Zoey. Even Team Rocket has a soft spot for it ever since the Tag Battle.
- Taking the Bullet: It pushed away Pikachu from Saturn's Toxicroak Poison Jab and took it in the stomach, which made Chimchar unable to battle for the rest of the episode.
- Tears of Joy: Seeing how Ash treated it compared to Paul makes the little chimp cry.
- Technicolor Fire: In Diamond and Pearl, its Flare Blitz is blue in color in contrast to Flint's Infernape's.
- Three-Point Landing: As seen in his picture above. Infernape typically comes out of his Poke Ball in this pose.
- Token Good Teammate: The most decent of Paul's initial roster of Pokémon until Torterra was introduced. Even then, Torterra first appeared near the end of Chimchar's tenure with Paul, and its Hidden Depths were not touched on until long after Chimchar had been released.
- Took a Level in Badass: Evolution aside, it initially played second fiddle to Buizel, and it was unable to defeat a single one of Maylene's Pokemon. By the time of Fantina's gym, it was Ash's main Sinnoh fighter and it stayed that way for the rest of the region.
- Training from Hell: Under Paul's ownership, Chimchar receives harsh training from him which involves it being attacked by Paul's other Pokémon in order to activate Blaze which turns out unfruitful.
- Infernape willingly decides to undergo intense training of his own while at Professor Oak's lab, challenging Ash's other Fire-types to work his way up to battling Charizard, before trying his hand at challenging a Moltres to a battle. Unlike with Paul, despite not knowing his reasons at first, all the other Fire-types oblige and are happy to see Infernape when he returns, with even Charizard not giving Infernape a hard time.
- Unstoppable Rage: When Blaze activates, he often loses control.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He constantly tried to seek the approval of his ex-trainer, Paul, and would get upset if he let Ash down (even if the latter was far more understanding).
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: It was initially greatly afraid of Zangoose as it was attacked by a pack when it was still a wild Pokémon. With Ash's help, it overcame this fear shortly after joining his team.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: His Blaze ability is extremely powerful, but also extremely dangerous, as Chimchar and Monferno would go berserk when activating it, attacking everything in sight while being unable to hear Ash's commands. Fortunately, it gains control of this over time.
- The Worf Effect:
- Its only official loss as an Infernape was against Flint's own Infernape, showing the power level difference between it and an Elite Four's Pokémon.
- In a more Played for Laughs example, he also once suffered a beatdown from Team Rocket's Meowth of all Pokémon to demonstrate The Power of Love Meowth had gained from a crush on a Glameow.
- In spite of training with all of Ash's other Fire-types, he still proved to be unable to take on Moltres.
- Worthy Opponent: Paul's Electivire sees him as one. When Electabuzz is sent out during Ash and Paul's full battle and sees the newly-evolved Monferno, he's shocked, which is followed by Monferno grinning, which Electabuzz returns. And after Monferno becomes Infernape, the two simply glance at each other and share a smirk. When they fought in their final forms during the Sinnoh League, Electivire no longer sees Infernape as someone he can push around but as a formidable opponent. When Infernape collapses to the ground at one point, Electivire stops the referee from deeming it the winner and tells Infernape to get up, knowing that it is much stronger.
- Infernape himself also views Charizard as this, given that when training to fight a Moltres, he began by challenging all of Ash's other Fire-types (sans Torkoal) to a battle, and ended the training by battling Charizard before departing for Moltres. This shows that as far as Ash's Fire-types go, Infernape views Charizard as the peak of what to aim for as a training partner and the standard for Fire-types. The feeling also seems to be mutual given that Charizard made no effort to show up, act unimpressed or scold Infernape when he returned to the lab, instead being happy to see him and excited that he tried challenging a Moltres.
- Wreathed in Flames: When using Flame Wheel and Flare Blitz, he cloaks himself in fire.
- You Have Failed Me: After failing to activate Blaze and to live up to his expectations, Paul releases Chimchar.
Buizel (Buoysel)
- Voiced by: Kiyotaka Furushima
Buizel lived in a river along the path to Eterna City where he made a name for himself as a powerful opponent for trainers. After hearing about the rumors surrounding Buizel, Ash and company decide to fish in the river for a chance to battle against him, which eventually results in Dawn capturing Buizel. Afterwards, Dawn has some struggles bonding with Buizel due to not being used to having a battle-hungry Pokémon that doesn't have much interest in Contests, but eventually settle their differences.
Further down the line, Zoey notices how in addition to Buizel wanting to take part in Ash's gym-style battles, Ash's Aipom appears to be more interested in Dawn's Contests. She suggests for the two of them to make a trade so that Buizel and Aipom can pursue what they desire, which Ash and Dawn accept. Now under Ash's ownership, Buizel takes part in Ash's gym challenge throughout Sinnoh, becoming one of his most effective battlers.
- Aborted Arc: A Friendly Rivalry/Worthy Opponent dynamic with Brock's Croagunk is teased during his early episodes. It's never touched upon again.
- Badass Adorable: He's small, he has Cute Little Fangs, and he will kick your tail. His introduction episode establishes him as one by being able to take on and defeat Dawn, Zoey, and Ash's Pokémon by himself.
- Badass Arm-Fold: Buizel typically can seen with his arms folded and completely serious.
- Blood Knight: In his first appearance, Buizel systematically defeated Dawn, Zoey and Ash's Pokémon one after another and still wanted more. He also challenged Lucian after realising that he was part of the elite four. It does hint at where his interests lie.
- Boisterous Bruiser: He's pretty haughty, and it only gets worse the more battles he wins.
- Break the Haughty: Make no mistake, he's a great battler, but he needed to receive a Curb-Stomp Battle from Lucian's Bronzong before he realized he still has quite a ways to improve.
- The Bus Came Back: Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN137, alongside Donphan, Sceptile and Noivern.
- Character Development: Though Dawn caught him and began using him in Contests, it soon became clear that although he enjoyed Contests, Buizel wanted to battle even more. In contrast, Ash's Aipom was more of a trickster and wanted to play around more than battle, so Ash and Dawn decided to trade Aipom and Buizel with each other. Afterwards, Buizel shows great prowess in battle.
- Cute Little Fangs: Being a Buizel, he has these.
- Dance Battler: His main way of using Counter Shield is to use Water Gun or Aqua Jet while breakdancing, creating either a flurry of watery whips or a vortex of water that can deflect attacks.
- Foreshadowing: Even before being caught, it was a much more direct battler and less interested in the more theatrical contests that Dawn would use it for. (Like Ash) When Ash suggests a battle to get Buizel accustomed to being part of the group, Buizel immediately is happy to oblige. Shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Ash ends up his trainer.
- Fragile Speedster: Especially when his Swift Swim ability activates. However, Buizel is consistently shown to be physically frail, just like his game counterpart.
- Gale-Force Sound: Knows Sonic Boom, which is depicted as a half moon-shaped attack.
- An Ice Person: Knows Ice Punch, and also discovered how to use ice to freeze and enhance his Aqua Jet.
- Irony: He was traded to Ash for Aipom because Buizel is primarily a battler. When Wallace convinces Ash to compete in the Wallace Cup, the Pokémon he recommended that Ash use...is Buizel.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Buizel can be aggressive, aloof and rebellious at times (a bit of a punk). He can also be loyal, dedicated, hard-working and a pretty good guy underneath his bad boy, tough guy exterior. During his short time with his original trainer, Dawn, Buizel quickly became supportive of her dreams and her interests after learning to value her as a trainer (despite the Pokemon and his trainer having two very different personalities), and acclimated well with the rest of her team (even Piplup) once he lost some of his attitude. By "Sandshrew's Locker", he'd mellowed out considerably from his debut in "Buizel Your Way Out Of This".
- Kamehame Hadoken: Knows Water Pulse: funnily, it learned it to contrast Maylene's Lucario's Aura Sphere, another example of this trope.
- Lightning Bruiser: He is capable of taking hits and dishing them out normally, but when in rainy weather, his speed doubles thanks to Swift Swim and he starts dealing out hits with alarming speed and grace.
- Making a Splash: He's a Water-type.
- Out of Focus: Suffered this along with Torterra after Infernape reached its final stage.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: In a way. Buizel was originally portrayed as The Big Guy on Ash's team, but after Ash's other Pokémon evolved, Buizel lost this aspect.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: He's tiny, but can still knock around Pokémon many times his size.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Very arrogant about his species.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Pikachu's blue, as seen in A Crasher Course in Power!.
- Signature Move: Aqua Jet. Ice Punch would later serve as a secondary one.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: There was a point during the middle of Ash's Sinnoh journey where people felt this way about Ash's Buizel (particularly between gyms 3-5). He was basically Ash's main battler playing a star role against Maylene and Crasher Wake, and also scored a victory against Fantina. He was also the go-to choice when Ash chose to participate in the Wallace Cup during this portion of the journey.
- The Worf Effect: After defeating Fantina's Gengar, Buizel rarely had any standout moments after the portion of the Sinnoh journey where he was viewed as a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.
- Averted when he beat Paul's Gastrodon in the Sinnoh League and managed to put up a better fight against Paul's Drapion than Staraptor and Torterra before going down.
- Worthy Opponent: Briefly, with Brock's Croagunk, but nothing ever came out of that.
Gligar-Gliscor (Gliger-Glion)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Katsuyuki Konishi
Voiced in English by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Gligar), Marc Thompson (Gliscor)
Gligar started off as part of a huge Gligar swarm headed by a Gliscor that were all causing mischief in a town they were trapped in along the path to Veilstone City. Ash and company arrive passing through to reach Veilstone, but decide to help solve the issue by pulling off a plan to blow the swarm out of the town. However, they only managed to pull this off thanks to one of the slower Gligar managing to gather the others all into one place after Paul caught the Gliscor, which left the swarm in disarray and leaderless. The slow Gligar decided to stay behind wanting to continue travelling with Ash, resulting in its capture.
After joining Ash's team, Gligar proves himself to be a silly comic-relief type of the group, but doesn't get to do much early on. After being handed a Razor Fang from Gary, Gligar evolves into Gliscor soon after in order to support Ash in a battle against Team Rocket. As a Gliscor, it keeps the silly persona that it had as a Gligar, but becomes a worthy contributor to Ash's Sinnoh team. Eventually, Ash decides to leave Gliscor in the care of an Air Battle Master named McCann so that it can receive further training as a master of the air, but later gets to return to Ash for the Sinnoh League. After Sinnoh, Gliscor remains at Oak's lab instead of returning to McCann.
- Acrophobic Bird: As a Gligar. It mostly has better luck flying after evolving into Gliscor. Mostly.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: It is part-bat, part scorpion.
- Bullet Hell: Its Stone Edge attack is portrayed as a large number of stones spiraling around it and then being launched at its opponent in a swarm.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite its comedic and sensitive personality, Gliscor is a powerful battler.
- The Bus Came Back: After a 30 episode long absence, it returns in time for Ash's Sinnoh League battle with Paul, and afterwards it is sent to Professor Oak's Lab rather than returning to McCann.
- Butt-Monkey: Mostly in "Doc Brock". In just one episode (in order): it's been ignored; the wind was against it (again); it couldn't Watch Out for That Tree!; and it was left behind (on purpose, because Brock needed to hurry ahead to help Dawn's Pachirisu), only to be completely forgotten until the final seconds!
- Call-Back: Gligar's debut, as part of a delinquent gang of Pokémon that terrorizes a city (think Squirtle).
- Characterization Marches On: Gliscor never uses Screech again, despite learning it in "A Breed Stampede!"
- Character Tics: What sets it apart from other Gligar/Gliscor is its tendency to wink and lick its lips in an exaggerated manner. Both Gligar and Gliscor also like to stick out its tongue for no other reason.
- Dark Is Not Evil: You'd be surprised how sweet Gliscor is despite looking so creepy otherwise.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Gliscor clearly longs for Ash's approval. Fortunately, with Ash being Ash, it ends up receiving it.
- Die or Fly: In Fighting Fear with Fear!, Gligar is given the option of using a Razor Fang to evolve when it desires to become stronger, but Ash prevents Gligar from using it until they do some proper training together. The training is well underway until Team Rocket shows up and their hijinks lead to Ash falling off a cliff, and Gligar can't fly fast enough to stop Ash's descent. Ash, knowing Gligar has earned its prize, tosses the Razor Fang to it and it catches the item, immediately evolving into Gliscor and gaining enough newfound speed to save its trainer from falling to his doom.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Primary type (Ground). Also knows Sand-Attack and Stone Edge.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Knows Steel Wing.
- Face of a Thug: Despite its frightening appearance, Gliscor is one of Ash's sweetest and goofiest Pokémon.
- Flight: Unreliable as a Gligar, but gets better and eventually masters it as a Gliscor.
- The Glomp: To the point that it once homed in on Brock when the latter was trying to evade it (and Gliscor still hits Brock).
- The Load: Until it evolved into Gliscor, it was without a doubt the weakest link in Ash's Sinnoh team and never won any battles. Even after evolution it tended to have an unsteady pattern in battle (defeating Byron's Bastiodon, yet falling to Candice's Snover). It finally grew out of this completely - during the battle with Paul, it put up a good battle against Ninjask and managed to defeat his powerful Drapion, which had previously knocked out Buizel, Staraptor and Torterra with ease.
- Lovable Coward: As a Gligar. Simply having an opponent glare at him was enough to send him crying to Ash.
- Not Quite Flight: Though it's a Flying type, most of its flight is gliding rather than powered flight and it has been shown to have trouble taking off on flat ground in still air.
- Playing with Fire: Knows Fire Fang.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Despite being a competent battler, Gliscor is not meant to be taken seriously. Everything it does outside of battle is meant to be silly.
- Power Up Let Down: Stone Edge can't seem to hit a thing. Averted by Giga Impact.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Shows these when upset at losing, rejection or when Ash scolds it, especially when frightened.
- Put on a Bus: Ash leaves Gliscor behind to train with the Air Battle Master in Mastering Current Events!. It eventually returns in time for Ash's rematch with Paul at the Pokémon League.
- Scary Scorpions: Completely Averted! Gliscor is surprisingly adorable.
- Spam Attack: How it defeats Byron's Bastiodon in Dealing with Defensive Types!, continuously spamming Fire Fang like there's no tomorrow.
- Super-Scream: Knows Screech. It only used it once.
- Took a Level in Badass: After finishing training with the Air Battle Master. It has mastered Giga Impact, and can glide perfectly, even negating Giga Impact's recharge drawback.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Since it can only glide (and not even all that well), Gliscor ends up slamming into trees, walls, people, etc.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Never cleared up whether it returned to McCann, or was deposited on Professor Oak's lab like the rest of the Pokémon before it. It's finally revealed in The Dream Continues! that it was sent to stay at Professor Oak's lab as it was seen during the Group Picture Ending.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: Secondary type, even if (again) is more gliding than anything.
Gible (Fukamaru)
Gible took the sixth slot on Ash's Sinnoh Team after Gliscor was left with Mccann to help it master Giga Impact. Ash and company came across the oblivious Gible along the way to Daybreak Town where they come across the move tutor, Wilma, teaching Gible how to use Draco Meteor. The gang decides to try to help the Gible learn the move, which results in Gible forming a bond with them, and follows after the gang when they decide to continue on their journey, eventually leading up to Ash capturing him.
Under Ash's ownership, Gible spent the rest of the journey continuing to learn Draco Meteor under his trainer's tutelage, and gets to participate in the Sinnoh League. Gible had also quite a long-lasting running gag where his failed Draco Meteors always somehow come down crashing upon Dawn's Piplup.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Ash only catches him toward the end of the Sinnoh arc.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Knows Rock Smash.
- Big Eater: He ate through 2 of Team Rocket's mechas! And Barry's bicycle! And a Shadow Punch from Conway's Dusknoir!
- Bite of Affection: Always playfully bites Ash's head.
- Character Tics: He has a tendency to bite on people's heads.
- Chekhov's Skill: His habit of biting and not letting go was instrumental in defeating Conway's Shuckle and Dusknoir.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Managed to land a Rock Smash during his battle with Darkrai and dodged an Ice Beam but his Draco Meteor was dodged and the Land Shark Pokémon was beaten by a Dark Pulse.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Secondary type (Ground), and he knows Dig.
- Dumb Muscle: Gible is noticeably quite dense, but surprisingly powerful. Tobias claims that Gible could have defeated any Pokémon besides his Darkrai with his Draco Meteor.
- Extreme Omnivore: He ate two of Team Rocket's mechas, Barry's bicycle, and a Shadow Punch attack. The only thing he couldn't stomach were Shuckle's sludge bombs.
- Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig. Conway even notes it is a very fast digger.
- Foreshadowing: Ash had previously attempted to catch a separate Gible, who ended up being caught by Khoury. Nonetheless, about 10 episodes later, Ash caught this one.
- Genius Ditz: Looks and acts dull witted much of the time, but was apparently smart enough to use its Draco Meteor to find Piplup a few times.
- Hanlon's Razor: Gets scolded by Dawn's Togekiss who thought he was deliberately targeting Piplup with Draco Meteor. Not understanding Gible is well, The Ditz, and Piplup's a bit of a Doom Magnet.
- Our Dragons Are Different: He's a land shark and is part Ground-type.
- Overly Long Gag: "Gotta get a Gible": his encounter with a Team Rocket mecha involves a drawn-out Beat Panel of an ellipsis five dots long + sweatdrop (approximately a second each dot). TWICE IN A ROW!
- Pintsized Powerhouse: He only comes up to below Ash's knees, but he is capable of taking on opponents 10 times his size.
- Plucky Comic Relief: It ate through Team Rocket's mechs, always scarfed Brock's food, and was very roly-poly.
- Running Gag:
- Draco Meteor has a tendency to hit Piplup and ONLY Piplup prior to mastering it. He exploits this a few times when the trainers are looking for Piplup.
- His tendency to bite onto anything that grabs his interest, and never let go.
- Also invoked; in separate occasions, when a Ditto was impersonating Piplup, and when he was separated from the gang, Gible launches Draco Meteor (without even a command from Ash) just to find him!
- Signature Move: Once he masters it, Draco Meteor.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Towards Dawn's Piplup, due to Gible's tendency to accidentally hit the former with Draco Meteor.
- The Stoic: But he's not emotionally reserved. He's just...vacant.
- Took a Level in Badass: Upon mastering Draco Meteor, he became one of Ash's most powerful Pokémon. Even Tobias pointed out that his Gible's Draco Meteor could defeat any Pokémon besides his Darkrai.
- Tunnel King: Above ground, he's a little quicker on his feet than he looks. But underground is where he's truly in his element.
Summer Academy Pokémon
Raichu voiced by: Chie Sato
Spoink voiced by: Chie Sato (Japanese), Kayzie Rogers (English)
Spoink voiced by: Chie Sato (Japanese), Kayzie Rogers (English)
Ash, Brock and Dawn attended Prof. Rowan's Summer Academy in Episodes 88-91, during which they were assigned different Pokémon to partner up. In Ash's case they're Raichu, Spoink and Mantyke.
- Fix Fic: Ever wonder how Ash would be like with a Raichu if Pikachu actually evolved? Raichu's guest appearance shows it.
- Guest-Star Party Member: They were only assigned to Ash and he never officially owned them.
- Intimate Hair Brushing: Ash brushes Raichu◊ during one of the Summer Camp activities. It was going so well until it got tangled into Raichu's fur, who nearly electrocute Ash and Pikachu.
- Lovable Coward: Raichu's self-esteem is so low that it's afraid to do anything, including battles.
- Nervous Wreck: Raichu is very easily startled due to his low self-esteem.
- School Forced Us Together: While the students are allowed to pick the Pokéball, they are not told of what Poké is inside it and whomever they picked is their designated Pokémon until the specific task involving it is finished.
- Took a Level in Badass: Under Ash's (and Pikachu's) tutelage, Raichu becomes more confident.
- Utility Party Member: Spoink and Mantyke are mainly used for the camp's final triathlon activity.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: They get returned once Ash's respective task with them are finished.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Raichu has very low self-confidence despite its skillset, and much of its Character Development is Ash and Pikachu encouraging it to boost its confidence.
Team Rocket Trio's Pokémon
Jessie
Yanma-Yanmega (Yanyanma-Megayanma)
- Voiced by: Kiyotaka Furushima
Yanma was one of Team Rocket's first successful thefts in forever! ...Too bad Giovanni thought she was useless and sent her back. Undaunted by this, Yanma would evolve very soon after into a Yanmega and join the ranks of Team Rocket until the end of the DP arc.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: She's a giant dragonfly.
- The Bus Came Back: She rejoins Jessie's party in JN145, alongside Seviper, Woobat, Frillish and Gourgeist. With Wobbuffet, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since Jessie's debut.
- Character Tics: Tends to like perching herself on people's heads, usually Jessie's.
- Flight: Almost perpetually flying, given her species.
- Irony: Shortly after being sent back by Giovanni for being unremarkable, Yanma evolved and became the trio's most effective Sinnoh Pokémon.
- It Was a Gift: The trio were left falsely convinced Giovanni sent them back Yanma as a gift for their efforts, giving them a big enthusiasm boost.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Was suggested to be one of the team's strongest Pokémon pre-Best Wishes, after evolving in her first battle she trounced the heroes humiliatingly. She was also frequently effective in contests.
- Put on a Bus: As of Best Wishes, she's with the other old Team Rocket Pokémon at headquarters.
- The Smurfette Principle: Took over as the trio's token female Pokémon shortly after Dustox was released.
- Super-Scream: Knows Sonicboom.
- Team Rocket Wins: The product of such, being one of the trio's rare successfully stolen Pokémon of sorts. She herself defeated Ash's Chimchar in her first battle, and even gave the heroes a mini-blasting off. She also helped Jessie win a couple of contests and helped her get through multiple appeals rounds in other contests.
- Token Competent Minion: One of the most effective Pokémon that Team Rocket has, able to push the twerps to the brink and even win Contests for Jessie.
- Undying Loyalty: For all the twerps' complaining about Yanmega being stolen property, she seemed quite dedicated to Jessie.
- Voice of the Legion: What Yanmega sounds like. Which can be jarring once you know it's female.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: Also Flying-type and knows Sonic Boom, Wing Attack and Silver Wind.
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Her gender was revealed when a female Togepi used Attract on a group comprising Team Rocket's and the twerp's Mons. When Yanmega was not affected, even Jessie was surprised when she found out.
James
Carnivine (Muskippa)
- Voiced in Japanese by: Daisuke Sakaguchi
Carnivine was captured in the Great Marsh when James was a child and was left in his parents' vacation home until James revisited it in the beginning of the DP arc. It was James' main fighting Pokémon and was just as cuddly with him as its predecessors.
- Bear Hug: It really loves James, and does this every time he releases it...while gnawing on James' head.
- Bite of Affection: Carnivine tends to show its love for James by biting his head every time he is brought out.
- Bullet Seed: Knows Bullet Seed
- The Bus Came Back: It rejoins James's party in JN145, alongside Mime Jr., Yamask, Amoonguss, and Inkay. With Morpeko, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since James's debut.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Jessie borrowed Carnivine for some contests, where it actually proved quite useful. It outright humiliated Dawn's Mamoswine to win the Lilypad Town Contest while under James command.
- Cute Little Fangs: Well, more like Cute Big Fangs.
- Energy Ball: Knows Energy Ball during JN145
- Face of a Thug: It's essentially a giant anthropomorphic venus fly trap and looks rather creepy. It's no less affectionate and playful to James than Cacnea and Mime Jr however.
- Forgotten Childhood Friend: Averted. James remembers that he owned it as a child.
- From Bad to Worse: Cacnea was still under James' command when he recovered Carnivine, leaving him with two over-affectionate Grass-types. And then there's the times James brought them both out at once...
- Green Thumb: James' third Grass-Type and it continues the Running Gag after Victreebel and Cacnea left the team.
- Man-Eating Plant: It's a walking Venus Flytrap.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The only Pokémon to beat Dawn's Pokémon in a contest battle.
- The Power of Love: It learned Vine Whip just to save James from a Team Galactic booby trap.
- Put on a Bus: As of Black & White, it's with the other old Team Rocket Pokémon at headquarters.
- Remember the New Guy?: Explained to be a Pokémon James has had since childhood despite never appearing in previous flashbacks of James' childhood (naturally, being a species that was created for the franchise years after James already existed as a character).
- Signature Mon: Carnivine soon supplants Cacnea as James's main Pokémon battler for the Diamond and Pearl series, eventually becoming James's only battler (as he refuses to put Mime Jr. in danger) after Cacnea left.
- Team Rocket Wins: It wins the Lilypad Town Contest for James (posing as Jessie). Notably this is also the one time Team Rocket defeats Dawn directly to win a contest as well.
- Vine Tentacles: It knows Vine Whip, which is represented by a pair of whiplike tendrils sprouting from her body to lash her targets before retreating back out of sight.
