Red
Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi (JP), Bryce Papenbrook (EN)
- Adaptational Expansion: He is given much greater character exploration than he is in the games, largely owing to being able to speak, rather than communicating with ellipses, though considering later games revealed Red actually was the strong silent type and retroactively made his silence his true personality instead of something for gameplay purposes, this version of Red actually allows himself to be open to others.
- Adaptational Personality Change: The game's version of Red set the trend for Heroic Mime for players to insert their personality into him, only for later games to give the successor trainers personalities and speaking roles, while it was revealed that Red straight up just doesn't talk as he was the strong-silent type, meaning that he wouldn't talk in game even if given the opportunity to do so. This anime version of Red however is a Hot-Blooded energetic trainer that openly talks, smiles and laughs.
- Badass Adorable: Like with his game counterpart, he takes down an entire criminal organization during the course of the series. He did so at the tender age of 11.
- Berserk Button: He does not take the abuse of Pokémon very well. It goes so far that he refuses to take the final badge from Giovanni at first due to his involvement in Team Rocket.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Giovanni learned that the hard way when Red took him down in the Viridian City gym.
- Brains and Brawn: Brains to Blue's Brawn. He's more focused on filling the Pokedex whereas Blue just wants to battle his way to the top.
- Composite Character: His Hotblooded and Keet tendencies effectively makes him a combination of his game counterpart and Ash Ketchum/Satoshi from Pokémon: The Series.
- Curtains Match the Window: His hair and eyes are the same shade of brown.
- Ditzy Genius: He's a very smart kid who is more into researching and collecting Pokémon. However, he seems to keep forgetting type matchups, even into the champion battle.
- Disappeared Dad: We get a slight hint about his dad. Red openly talks about him, but not in a nostalgic way, implying Red's Dad is around, just not home a lot.
- The Fettered: It's to the point where he initially refuses the Earth Badge because the guy giving it is a crimelord.
- Hot-Blooded: Played with. He is Hot-Blooded, but he's also a Blue Oni.
- Keet: He can be quite excitable sometimes.
- The Klutz: Professor Oak actually says this is a Disability Superpower because it's required Red to take it slow and learn to analyze how to do things and thus be more adaptive to his environment.
- Meaningful Name: It's revealed his dad named him Red because red is the color of love and warmth.
- Mythology Gag: Among other things, his team when going up against the Elite Four (Charizard, Persian, Dodrio, Scyther, Lapras and Jolteon) was the same as that of series creator Satoshi Tajiri when he cleared the game for the first time.
- Nice Guy: A kind-hearted and friendly guy at heart. He is willing to help others in need, even for his rival, Blue.
- Perpetual Frowner: His battle face is one of these. Outside of battle he's very happy and smiley.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ironically, he's a Blue Oni to Blue's Red.
- Signature Headgear: His trademark red cap.
- Took a Level in Badass: He begins as a noob in the first episode who makes common mistakes like throwing a Poké Ball at another trainer's Pokémon and finds himself on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle. He gradually learns over the course of the series, training with his Pokémon and learning new tactics that eventually help conquer the Pokémon League and his rival. Once his bond with Charizard got strong enough in a battle against Mewtwo, he managed to unleash Mega Charizard X, a Pokémon capable of whooping Mewtwo's ass.
Blue Oak (Green Ookido)
Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi (JP), Lucien Dodge (EN)
- Adaptational Heroism: In all fairness, his refusal to take on Team Rocket during the Silph Co. crisis is due to recognizing that their kids are taking on a full-scale hostage operation by a dangerous criminal gang. While he doesn't help Red, he does go get the cops instead of battling his rival for kicks and then leaving him to do all the hard work of stopping Team Rocket.note
- Adaptational Jerkass: Blue's characterization is extra dickish compared to his in-game portrayal. Most of his dialogue is him insulting Red, Red's Pokémon, Team Rocket, and so on, while being a Dirty Coward.
- Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to Red's Brains—he's less interested in filling the Pokedex and more interested in battling his way to the top.
- Break the Haughty: His losses against Red and Mewtwo humble him, immensely.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He can be surprisingly cowardly at times but his battling skill is quite remarkable. Let's not forget that he became the Champion first.
- Curtains Match the Window: His hair is a lighter tone of brown than his eyes though.
- Deadpan Snarker: Blue mocks Red's choices and actions throughout the series, calling him predictable or childish. The most notable example is when he chooses his starter. When Professor Oak asks him if he would choose a Starter based on his name, Blue simply scoffs it as being a silly reason and simply chose his starter, Squirtle, because a Water-type has the advantage over the Fire-type Charmander. Explanation
- Disc-One Final Boss: Although the series built Blue up as the final opponent for Red, he is defeated halfway through 4th episode and the remainder deals with the True Final Boss, Mewtwo.
- Dub Name Change: Like the games, he's called Blue in the translations.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Blue rightfully points out that he and Red are just kids that would be in over their heads big time taking on Team Rocket's takeover of Silph Co. He's proven somewhat right when Red proves no match against Giovanni, even if the latter does get successfully driven off.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's an arrogant, condescending asshole, sure — but it's clear that he does view Red as a good friend on some level.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Weirdly enough, he's the Red Oni.
- The Rival: To Red.
- Tsundere: He clearly respects Red by the end of the series... although he'd never admit it out loud.
Professor Oak (Dr. Ookido)
Voiced by: Katsuji Mori (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)
- Berserk Button: Do not treat your Pokémon with contempt or call them morons in front of him.
- Gotta Catch Them All: His lifelong dream is to see his Pokédex complete, and he entrusts Red and Blue to finish it.
- Vocal Dissonance: He sounds much younger than he looks, which can be a bit jarring for viewers familiar with the Pokémon: The Series version.
Brock (Takeshi)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN)
- Adaptational Modesty: In the first-generation games, Brock is shirtless. Here, Brock wears a burnt orange shirt that wouldn't have been seen on him until Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver.
- Ascended Extra: Brock appears outside of his gym leader role and takes Red briefly under his wing in the early part of Origins. None of the other gym leaders, save for Giovanni, get this expanded role.
- Big Brother Mentor: Brock acts as one for Red. After witnessing Red lose his first Pokémon Battle to Blue, Brock comes to Red and encourages him to go to the Pewter Gym to improve himself there. During their Gym Battle, Brock lectures Red on the importance of skill, strategy, and bond between the trainer and his Pokémon.
- Composite Character:
- While Origins is a retelling of Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Brock appears wearing the same outfit he does in the Updated Re-release of the sequel to those games, Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver.
- Personality-wise, Brock's expanded role compared to the other Gym Leaders (besides Giovanni) and serving as Red's Big Brother Mentor brings him closer to his anime counterpart's characterization.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His Gym specializes in Rock-Type Pokémon. Ironically, his Geodude and Onix don't use Rock-type moves.
- Eyes Always Shut: It's not Brock without them.
- Informed Attribute: Like the first-generation games, Brock's specialization in Rock-type Pokémon is very much an informed one. Despite Geodude and Onix having the advantage of natural high-defense stats associated with Rock-type Pokémon, none of them uses Rock-type moves and solely use Normal-type moves (e.g. Tackle and Bide) to decimate most of Red's team. Even the TM he rewarded to Red after being defeated by him isn't a Rock-type move.
Mr. Fuji
Voiced by: Minoru Inaba (JP), Kirk Thornton (EN)
- The Atoner: Implied by one of his gifts to Red, a Mega Stone which proves to be vital against Mewtwo, a Pokémon that he was involved in creating.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was once known as Dr. Fuji, a famous scientist who was involved in the creation of Mewtwo.
- Distressed Dude: Like in the games, he gets captured by Team Rocket in the Pokémon tower.
- Friend to All Living Things: He takes care of abandoned and orphaned Pokémon, such as Cubone.
Reina
Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa (JP), Christine Marie Cabanos (EN)
- Battle Couple: Though not really confirmed in the anime, Red and Reina definitely could become a battle couple, as evidenced when Reina possibly told Cubone to blow away Koffing's smoke from its Smog with its Bonemarang attack.
- Ship Tease: Many of Red and Reina's moments together can count as shipping moments.
Giovanni (Sakaki)
Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)
- Adaptational Heroism: Giovanni is portrayed more sympathetically compare to various other adaptations, including the games. While a villain nonetheless, here he is mostly motivated by business and greed rather than personal power and world domination. This is best demonstrated in his reaction after losing to Red. In the games, Giovanni disbands Team Rocket because he feels unworthy to be its leader after losing to a young kid three times and swears to become a better trainer. It is later revealed in HeartGold and SoulSilver that he had never truly abandoned his old ambitions and seeks to revive Team Rocket after his training. In Origins, Giovanni remembers the fun of Pokémon battles from his childhood, and realizes that treating Pokémon as tools for business was wrong all along. He soon disbands Team Rocket to atone for his mistakes, and to create a new path for himself and his Pokémon.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He isn't the Rocket Boss and the Viridian Gym Leader for nothing.
- Audience Surrogate: He represents the OVA's target audience, older fans who grew up with Pokemon.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Giovanni wears the classical black business attire with an R insignia on his left side. As Red finds out, Giovanni is an exceptionally tough and merciless trainer, able to Curb Stomp nearly all of Red's entire team with just one Pokémon.
- Big Bad: He's the overarching Big Bad of the series, while Mewtwo was more of a Diabolus ex Nihilo.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Naturally to be expected from the boss of a criminal organization. Much of Giovanni's plans involve poaching Pokémon, using Pokémon for experiments, and taking another company hostage just to obtain new technology to catch more Pokémon all in the name of making profits for his business. He even refers Pokémon as just "business" and doesn't understand why Red would see them as something more until he rediscovers his old passion during the final Gym Battle.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- His Nidoqueen makes short work of Red's Charizard during their first battle.
- Red just barely manages to avert this in his Gym battle with Giovanni - his Rhyhorn makes short work of Red's Victreebel, Kabutops, Snorlax, and Jolteon (Giovanni even has Rhyhorn One-Hit KO Jolteon with Thunderbolt, just to show he could.), and it's only thanks to Rhyhorn having been worn down just enough by Kabutops that Red's Hitmonlee scrapes by with a Double KO. Red's Charizard then manages to pull through against Giovanni's Rhydon, but it's still a close shave, and that's all on top of the fact that Giovanni chose only those two specially-trained Pokemon for the fight because he wanted to break Red's spirit; had he had even one more up his sleeve, Red almost certainly would have lost.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His Gym specializes in Ground-Type Pokémon.
- Graceful Loser: He takes his loss against Red in their final battle in stride, and rewards the Earth Badge to him as Gym Leader of Viridian City rather than the leader of Team Rocket.
- Heel–Face Turn: Performs one after his battle with Red, realizing Red's view of Pokémon as more than tools to commit crimes is right.
- Hidden Depths: His gym battle with Red slowly, but surely, brings out his dormant Hot-Blooded nature and passion for Pokemon training that he had forgotten for years.
- Lack of Empathy: Giovanni shows no emotions when Red asks why would he harm Pokémon, simply saying that Pokémon means business and that it requires a little sacrifice to maintain that business. Subverted in his Gym Battle when Giovanni realizes he's empathizing with Red's determination and passion.
Mewtwo
- Ambiguous Gender: Though if it's anything like its game counterpart, it most likely doesn't have one, to begin with.
- Animalistic Abomination: Acts more like an uncontrollable monster than the sophisticated and misunderstood creature it is in the main series' anime and is already a manmade unnatural creature that went awry.
- Ax-Crazy: It attacks Red and Charizard pretty much the moment they show up to challenge it.
- Berserk Button: It wasn't friendly, to begin with, but the first time Red throws an Ultra Ball at it? It's enraged.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: Its purpose is largely just to show how good a trainer Red is.
- Final Boss: It's the final opponent of Origins, and capturing it signals the end of Red's journey... for now.
- Perpetual Frowner: It's always angry with a frown.
- The Worf Effect: On the giving end, since it took down Articuno!
- Truer to the Text: Unlike its main series' anime counterpart, which was sophisticated and misunderstood but later had a compassionate side, this Mewtwo acts exactly how it was described in the core series games; having a savage heart among all Pokémon, lacking compassion, and striking fear into its enemy with cold, glowing eyes.
