Characters / Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

aka: Pokemon The Series Diamond And Pearl Villains

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

Characters and their Pokémon that debuted during Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl. For more characters of the Pokémon: The Series anime, click here.

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Main Cast

See here for more information.

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Supporting Cast

Professor Rowan (Dr. Nanakamado)

Voiced in Japanese by: Iemasa Kayumi (Diamond and Pearl), Eizo Tsuda (Journeys)
Voiced in English by: Sean Reyes
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Salvador Reyes (season 10), Humberto Solórzano (season 11), José María Negri (season 12)

The Pokémon professor living in the Sinnoh region. After Dawn unknowingly bumped into him while trying to find his lab, he helped her start her journey as a trainer by giving her the choice of Piplup, Chimchar, or Turtwig as a starter Pokémon. Rowan exhibits the following tropes:

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• The Comically Serious: He's almost too serious even when he's trying to be genuine.
• Cool Old Guy: He's one of the oldest professors, but is still cool with Sinnoh's youth.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Summer School arc gave him some much-deserved extra screentime.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very frequently. For instance, see his first appearance, in DP001:
  Dawn: [after bumping into him] I'm - I'm so sorry!
  Rowan: [turning to face her] Hello. You're looking lost.
  Dawn: Huh? Are you talking to me, sir?
  Rowan: Right. There's no one else here and you're looking very lost.
• The Mentor: Took Gary under his wing after he decided to become a Pokémon Professor.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's a bit heavy-handed, but ultimately serves as a valuable mentor to the main cast.
• The Straight Man: To his old friend Professor Oak. Oak's a bit silly, whereas Rowan is all business. Rowan even chides Oak for this, criticizing him for slacking in his research when Dawn can only recognize him as a poet.

Johanna (Ayako)

Johanna as a Pokémon coordinator champion.

Voiced in Japanese by: Makoto Tsumura
Voiced in English by: Sarah Natochenny
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Elena Ramírez (season 10), Belinda Martínez (season 13)
Voiced in Israeli by: Shirly Lilu

Dawn's mom. It's quickly revealed that she was a world famous Pokémon coordinator contest champion when she was a trainer, and she hasn't lost any of her touch as a mother either (as Dawn is quickly proven first-hand). Her favorite Pokémon is her Glameow.

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• Action Mom: She was a champion Coordinator in her days and hasn't missed a step since then. She still easily beats Dawn in battle.
• Ascended Extra: In the games, Johanna was notable for having noticeably more character than previous moms, who before her mostly provided overnight healing and the occasional item^note Barring the mom from GSC, who ran a bank for you, having had a history as a Coordinator and occasionally showing up to compete in the Master Class contests with her Kangaskhan. Here, Johanna not only has a history, but has plenty of presence in Dawn's own character arc, with a history as a champion Pokémon Coordinator, with Dawn seeking to follow in her footsteps.
• Cute Kitten: Glameow, who she used in contests.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Her Umbreon is a Dark type, which is Evil type in Japan. She also used it in contests.
• Good Parents: A loving and supportive mother who wholeheartedly encourages Dawn to pursue her dream of becoming a Contest champion.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Like Dawn, she's an experienced Coordinator and has a few of those on hand for Contests. Her green standby has opera gloves and a Cool Crown.
• Retired Badass: DP's first episode showcases an entire wall of Contest trophies in her house.
• Signature Mon: Johanna seems to keep a Glameow as her house pet, but it's more than just a pet. Glameow was her main partner who helped win Johanna many Contests back she was a young, aspiring Coordinator like Dawn.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: She created Dawn's Grand Festival ballgown and Buneary's vest. Possibly justified by a later episode that shows her to be friends with Lila, a fashion designer.

Reggie (Reiji)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tetsuya Kakihara
Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Edson Matus (season 11 and 13), Javier Olguín (season 12).

Paul's older brother and a Pokémon breeder.

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• Broken Ace: Subverted. He was badly defeated by the Pyramid King Brandon, but quickly recovered and gained a positive insight on life from the experience, unlike his brother.
• Chekhov's Gun: in "Lost Leader Strategy", Reggie's revealed to have completed the badges in each of the four regions. He also has the Symbols from the Battle Frontier, but there's one missing, which means a lot more when Paul's backstory is elaborated further.
• Commonality Connection: Inverted with Ash. The main reason Paul hates Ash is because all that talk about bring out a Pokemon's inner strength reminds Paul of Reggie, whose loss to Brandon had profound psychological consequences on Paul. They share another point of connection between them in that Reggie has earned all the same badges and Frontier Symbols Ash had before quitting.
• Cool Big Bro: Even if Paul's not the easiest to get along with, Reggie looks after his Pokémon for him and encourages him as best he can.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Zig-zagged. Paul does love and respect his brother Reggie and has a good relationship with him. On the other hand, Reggie has some traits that Paul resents. The main traits Paul hates is that Reggie is caring to his Pokemon and people in general. This is also the main reason for Paul's animosity towards Ash.
• Foil: To Paul, being much happier, kinder and more generous to Pokemon than his cold and grumpy little brother.
• Friend to All Living Things: He's a Pokémon Breeder with an unusual talent for raising them. He's so good that even Paul trusts him to raise his own.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Reggie had the makings of a strong Trainer, having four complete sets of Gym Badges and 6 Symbols from the Kanto Battle Frontier, but decided to retire and become a Pokémon Breeder after losing to Brandon (thus stopping short of conquering the Kanto Battle Frontier).
• Master of None: When he lost to Brandon, the Pyramid King stated this was the main reason he lost. Reggie may have had a lot of achievements, but he hasn't developed a special form of battle strategy to give him any real strengths to deal with the elite trainers.
• Meaningful Name: Reggie's name in both English and Japanese sounds like "Regi," a reference to Brandon's Signature Mons, who had a profound impact on both him and his brother.
• Morality Pet: To Paul. Reggie is the only person Paul is even kind of friendly with, despite Paul viewing him as a disappointment. Their conversations, especially their last one on-screen, also reveal a softer side of Paul, showing that he really does depend on his big brother's support. Their last on-screen conversation shows that their relationship has started to improve, and Paul was starting to let his resentment go.
• Nice Guy: He's much kinder and more pleasant than his little brother.
• One-Steve Limit: Subverted. A character of the day from Best Wishes has the same name as him in Japanese (Reiji), but a different one in English (Ricky).
• Real Men Wear Pink: He wears a pink shirt.
• Retired Badass: Four complete sets of 8 Gym Badges, and six of the Kanto Frontier Brain Symbols (the only one he doesn't have is Brandon's). His defeat to Brandon is the reason he's given up taking League challenges, something his younger brother Paul is not happy about.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He's the exact opposite of Paul. He's a nice guy who trains hard, values friendship, and finds happiness in his goals and ambitions outside of battling. Paul is a Jerkass of the highest calibur who thinks friendship is a load of Tauros. Even after Paul's Character Development, they're still extremely different people; while Reggie is friendly and outgoing, Paul remains distant and stoic.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He has the same downward-slanted eyes as Paul and a similar shade of purple hair, though his is a darker color.
• Theme Naming: In Japanese, Reiji contains rei (meaning "courtesy" or "propriety"), while his little brother's name, Shinji, contains shin (meaning "trust" or "confidence").

Looker (Handsome)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masaki Terasoma
Voiced in English by: Jason Griffith
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Emmanuel Bernal

A detective with the International Police who is investigating Team Galactic. He will also appear against Team Plasma in Best Wishes.

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• Adapted Out: His Croagunk from the games and Pokémon Generations is nowhere to be found in the main anime series.
• Badass Longcoat: The kind of trenchcoat you'd expect from a G-man.
• Badass Normal: Unlike the games, he doesn't have any Pokémon to help in his assignments. He's extremely competent despite this. Case in point, he manages to get a hold of and subdue Aldith, and keep her in place with a pipe until Colress arrived and took over the Golurks. Impressive!
• The Bus Came Back: Returns in Black and White 2: Episode N to investigate Team Plasma, possibly to reflect his appearance in the games.
• Master of Disguise: It's surprising he doesn't give off any clues it is him until he reveals himself.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: When we first meet him, he comes off as a bit quirky due to having bought too many lunches on the train (the fact he gave some to Team Rocket explains why they're loyal to him later). At the end of that episode, we find out he's investigating Team Galactic.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Looker is just a code name. We never do learn what his real name is.
• Odd Friendship: Looker and Team Rocket get along pretty damn well despite the former being with the police and the latter being known criminals. Hell, Looker was the one that convinced Team Rocket to help Ash and the others out against Team Plasma.
• Police Are Useless: Averted! If anything, he is more useful than most Officer Jennies we've seen.
• The Worf Effect: He is captured during the climax of both the Team Galactic and the Team Plasma arc.

Wallace (Mikuri)

Voiced in Japanese by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

Voiced in English by: Sean Reyes

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: José Luis Rivera

Voiced in European Spanish by: Cholo Moratalla

The former Leader of the Sootopolis Gym, and Juan's apprentice. He initially was the Champion with Juan filling in for his duty during the AG-BW era, but lost the position to Steven around XY.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: He and Steven are close friends in the games. However, their anime counterparts never interact on-screen, and the only indication that they know each other is Wallace mentioning Steven in Journeys.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Implicitly lost his battle against Ash in JN105 rather quickly.
• The Bus Came Back: He makes a return in Journeys in JN105, the episode featuring the anime debut of his niece, Lisia.
• Making a Splash: He specializes in the Water-type, and owns a Milotic, Swampert, and Walrein.
• Mythology Gag: His usage of Swampert and Walrein is a nod to the World Tournament in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2.
• Narcissist: He gets annoyed when Ash doesn't remember who he is in Journeys, refuses to let him leave until they have a battle, and becomes jealous when Ash shows that he does remember Steven Stone.
• Same Character, But Different: His personality in Journeys is completely overhauled from how it was in Diamond and Pearl. During the Wallace Cup arc, he was portrayed as kind, wise, and relatively humble despite his status, while Journeys makes him far more petty, flamboyant, and egotistical.
• Signature Mon: His ace is Milotic, getting displayed several times throughout the Wallace Cup and being the last Pokémon used in his battle with Ash.
• The Worf Effect: He claims to be an equal to Steven Stone, one of the strongest trainers in the world (and despite his new narcissistic personality in Journeys, this holds weight as he's a former Champion himself). He still loses to Ash in their battle to show how powerful the latter has become.

Rhonda (Yuka)

Voiced in Japanese by: Risa Hayamizu
Voiced in English by: Sarah Natochenny (Season 10 up until episode 29), Rhonda Krempa (rest of Season 10 to episode 155 of Season 13), Bella Hudson (rest of Season 13)

The hostess of the news channel Sinnoh Now!

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• Butt-Monkey: Almost all of her major appearances has some kind of misfortune happening to her, whether it's constantly getting smacked on the head with a boom mic or missing out on a chance to cover an exciting story. Poor woman can't catch a break.
• The Cameo: Has a small appearance in the credits of Zoroark: Master of Illusions on the TV Johanna is watching.
• Intrepid Reporter: If Rhonda's not broadcasting news in the studio, she’s usually out trying to cover whatever kind of event that's currently going on. However, due to outside forces and the incompetence of her film crew, her success rate is kinda 50/50.
• Is This Thing Still On?: Whenever she's broadcasting live and starts berating her boom operator, it's always caught on camera, with an embarrassed Rhonda trying to continue her story and trying to pretend it didn't happen.
• Ms. Exposition: Is usually the one that delivers information to viewers about current events happening in the Sinnoh region.
• Running Gag: She's almost always getting smacked on the head with the boom mic held by her incompetent boom operator, with her always threatening to get said operator demoted to the mail room.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Her final appearance in the anime has her able to successfully perform interviews with the Sinnoh Grand Festival participants without anything bad happening, not even a single incident caused by her film crew or her boom operator.

Angie (Aoi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Miho Hino
Voiced in English by: Zoe Martin
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Xóchitl Ugarte

A girl who Ash and friends encounter during Professor Rowan's Summer Camp. Her family runs a Pokémon daycare center.

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• Asleep in Class: Falling asleep in class is something both she and Ash do sometimes.
• Bifauxnen: She has Boyish Short Hair and wears a sweatshirt, a jogging pants and sneakers— all enough for Ash to mistake her as a boy.
• Big Eater: She loves food, much like Ash does.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her hair is around the same length as Ash's, who even mistakes her for a boy.
• Gone Horribly Right: When her parents leave her in charge of their Pokémon daycare, she over-trains a Lickitung left in her care, wanting to impress them. It gets so strong it evolves into Lickilicky, which is against the rules of the daycare as they're not supposed to evolve Pokémon without their owners' consent. Thankfully, its owner is actually happy to see that it evolved, as he didn't have enough time to train it up himself.
• Meaningful Name: Aoi can mean either blue or green. Her Shinx's fur is light blue, and her hair is a dark bluish-green.
• Rescue Romance: Starts developing a crush on Ash after he rescues her one too many times during Summer Camp.
• Signature Mon: She's always accompanied by her Shinx, who spends most of its time outside of its Poké Ball like Ash's Pikachu and Dawn's Piplup.

Rivals

In General

• The Cameo: They appear among the other recurring Diamond & Pearl characters in the ending credits of Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Specifically, Dawn's rivals; two are male and two are female.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Due to their varying personalities.
  • Nice: Zoey is Dawn's Cool Big Sis, and Nando is always polite and gentlemanly.
  • Mean: Paul is an abusive Trainer who looks down on almost everyone, and Ursula is trying to tear down Dawn's self-confidence and taunting her about losing.
  • In-between: Kenny is a Loving Bully to Dawn, Conway is her Stalker with a Crush but ultimately doesn't mean any harm, Barry has a massive ego problem but is otherwise friendly, and Tobias appears menacing but respects opponents who give it their all in battle.
• Promoted to Opening Titles:
  • Paul appears in the Season 10 opening, Diamond and Pearl.
  • Zoey appears in the Season 11 opening, We Will Be Heroes.
  • Barry appears in the first version of the Season 12 opening, Battle Cry - (Stand Up!), while Kenny appears in the second version.
  • Tobias, Nando, Conway, and Ursula appear in the Season 13 opening, We Will Carry On!
• The Rival: Each of these characters is competing with either Ash, for Gym Badges, or Dawn, for Ribbons. Nando is doing both.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: For Dawn's rivals:
  • Zoey is the Tender Tomboy (a nice-going coordinator who wears suits/tuxedos and offers her helpful advice)
  • Ursala is the Foul Femininity (a petty girly girl who constantly insults Dawn and destroys her poffins).
• Two Girls to a Team: If this gang of rivals can be considered a "team", Zoey and Ursula are the only female rivals in this series.

Paul (Shinji)

See here for more about Paul and his Pokémon.

Zoey (Nozomi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Risa Hayamizu
Voiced in English by: Elisabeth Morinelli
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: María Fernanda Morales
Voiced in European French by: Claire Tefnin

Dawn's main rival in the Sinnoh region as a Pokémon coordinator. Despite her tomboyish appearance, she gets along with everyone pretty well, though she does get angry at Ash when he first thought it would be a good idea to be both a Pokémon trainer and coordinator. She mellows out, however, after some experience with him and Nando.

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• The Ace: Zoey is one of the most skilled Pokémon Coordinators in the series. She ends up winning the Sinnoh Grand Festival and comes away with the prized Ribbon Cup, after a long and hard match with Dawn that comes straight down to the wire.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her best buddy Candice calls her "Zozo" (in English) or "Nozotchi" (in Japanese).
• Always Someone Better: To date, Dawn has never beaten her directly in a Contest.
• Bifauxnen: Her Contest outfits are tuxes or pantsuits, save for her Grand Festival one which looks more like a stylized kimono.
• Boyish Short Hair: She's easily the most tomboyish of Dawn's rivals. She also has short and spiky hair.
• Break the Haughty: A fairly mild example in Dawn's Early Night. At the beginning of the episode, she is confident in her belief that a Trainer who does both Contests and Gym Battles cannot be as skilled as someone who dedicates themselves to only a single goal. She begins to rethink her position after she loses the Hearthome Ribbon to Nando, who she had previously scorned for being both a Trainer and a Coordinator.
• Brutal Honesty: She doesn't bother softening her opinions for others. When she's told that Nando does both Contests and Gym Battles, her response is, "[He] really needs to make up his mind."
• Catchphrase:
  • "[Pokémon]! Ready? Go!"
  • At least in the first season of Diamond and Pearl: "[Pokémon]! Curtain!"
• Character Development: Zoey, being so devoted to her own dream of becoming Top Coordinator, originally took offense at Trainers who tried both coordinating and battling, assuming them to be less invested in their dreams. This brought her into conflict with both Ash (who early in his Sinnoh adventure dabbled in Contests himself) and Nando (for whom doing both was his primary goal). While she eased off after facing off with Ash (who nearly beat her via KO), they still agreed he'd not be the best fit for Contests due to his temperament. Then Nando blew her away by clobbering her at the Hearthome Contest. By the time of the Wallace Cup, not only does she finally understand that it was good to learn from both types of Trainers, she accepted her perspective to have been close-minded and properly apologised to Ash for her attitude; later, she battled Gym Leader Fantina (a former Top Coordinator) in a straight match which she enjoyed.
• Childhood Friends: With Candice, who helped her raise her Glameow in secret.
• Cool Big Sis: Zoey served as both rival and mentor early on, helping Dawn get prepared for contests even as an opponent.
• Cool Shades: She's frequently seen wearing these on top of her head.
• Curtains Match the Window: Red hair, red eyes.
• Cute Kitten: Glameow (who Zoey actually did find as a kitten!)
• A Day in the Limelight: Shared with Nando, "Coming Full Festival Circle!" focuses on the two of them advancing to the Grand Festival semifinals and their climactic battle.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Mismagius and Leafeon's Double Team.
• Energy Ball: Leafeon's attack of the same name.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Glameow's Iron Tail.
• Fauxshadow: Before Dawn's contest debut, Zoey tells Dawn that she's gonna win, but in the next episode, cue her Curb-Stomp Battle at the hands of Zoey.
• Fiery Redhead: Toyed with. She's normally rather mellow, except when it comes to Paul's abuse of his Pokémon, which angers her like everyone else. Or discussing Trainers who partake in Gym Battles and Contests before Character Development.
• Foil: To four characters.
  • To Dawn; as her mentor and rival, she provides the straightest parallel to her while sharing the same goal. She's experienced where Dawn is a rookie and the tomboy to her girly girl. On and off the Contest field, her Pokémon present flawlessly synchronized teamwork while Dawn often has to struggle to get her sometimes-disobedient Pokémon to follow her lead. Her strategy for turning in winning Contest performances is to plan and perfect every move beforehand, as opposed to the unexpected yet stunning combinations Dawn pulls out on the fly, as a result of quick thinking, luck with a little prior planning, or both.
  • To Nando. While it's less obvious due to his conspicuous lack of screentime, he and Zoey are complete opposites in nearly all aspects. He devotes himself to Gym Battles and Contests, she puts all of her energy solely into Contests. She's a tomboyish teenage girl, while Nando is a feminine young man. She's easily fired up, open with her opinions and not afraid to say what she thinks, he's soft spoken and polite with a cool facade that rarely breaks. She lacks a preferred type specialty, as opposed to his team of Bug and Grass types. Their differences can even be seen in the way they perform; her combinations vary in effects and style while Nando's preferred techniques reflect a single central theme (music).
  • To Kenny. A departure from the previous two mentioned above, the parallel between him and Zoey isn't so much the differences between them as it is the opposing ways that they help Dawn to grow through their relationships with her. Zoey's way of helping her improve as a person and as a coordinator is more straightforward and older sister-like, teaching her necessary skills and encouraging her to do her best, while the majority of Kenny's interactions with Dawn volley between childish teasing and sincere encouragement, posing as a source of annoyance for her and at the same time motivating her to prove that she's capable of besting him and her other rivals in battle.
  • And finally to Paul, even though he's not a Coordinator. He and Zoey are the main rivals of Ash and Dawn respectively, and somewhat similarly to Kenny, their main area of contrast has to do with how they play off their respective rivals. Whereas Zoey doubles as one of Dawn's closest friends and always supportive in dealing with her emotional issues, Paul is the most bitter rival in the anime's entire run and the cause of most of Ash's inner conflict in Sinnoh. The contrast between the two gets discussed in the episode "A Pyramiding Rage!", where Candice immediately notices the completely different relationships between the two pairs of rivals.
• From Stray to Pet: The episode Classroom Training! explains how she met her Glameow. As a child, she found it in a cardboard box on the street. Her parents refused to let her keep it, but with Candice's help, she secretly raised it in a shed behind her house until she was old enough to become a Trainer.
• Green Thumb: Leafeon, Gallade's Magical Leaf.
• An Ice Person: Gastrodon's Blizzard.
• Laser Blade: Leafeon's Leaf Blade, due to Power Glows.
• Making a Splash: Lumineon is water-type.
• Meaningful Name: The Nozomi is a Japanese bullet train service that goes in the opposite direction of the Hikari bullet train service. The Nozomi is faster than the Hikari.
• Nice Girl: She is quite kind and polite and also gets along with pretty much everyone she meets. Even though she is Dawn's main rival she acts more like a Cool Big Sis towards her . After she realizes that her treatment of Ash and Nando was unfair she immediately apologizes and makes amends with them. The only character she seems to outright dislike is Paul, who is a massive Jerkass.
• Non-Elemental: Glameow is Normal-Type.
• Principles Zealot: When she started, Zoey would presume any trainers dabbling in both the gyms and contests to be The Ditherer and would criticize them for a lack of conviction; she backed off once Nando proved it was a viable path.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's cast as the red to Nando and Dawn's blue during contest battles.
• Shock and Awe: Several of her Pokémon know Electric-type moves, like Glameow's Shock Wave and Thunderbolt, along with Mismagius' Shock Wave.
• Signature Mon: Glameow is Zoey's first and most prominent Pokémon, appearing alongside her in almost all of Zoey's appearances and participating in both Zoey's first and last battles against Dawn.
• Soul Power: Mismagius is a Ghost-type, while her Glameow knows Shadow Claw.
• Spell My Name With An S: Her name is frequently misspelled as "Zoe".
• Spiky Hair: Fitting her tomboy nature.
• Straight Man: To Dawn and her friend's antics quite frequently.
• The Stoic: In Contests and sometimes outside of them, Zoey usually seems very collected and is not one to lose her cool. This is one thing that makes her no different from Nando, who has a similar attitude.
• A Taste of Defeat: She's a highly skilled and competent Coordinator, but even she isn't immune to losing once in a while. She loses to Nando at the Hearthome Contest finals and May in the Wallace Cup semifinals.
• Technicolor Eyes: Red ones, matching her eyes.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Dawn's Girly Girl. Accentuated by the fact that she always wears suits in her Contests, never dresses. In addition to the contrast, it shows that she's no less feminine than Dawn, just unconventional about it - her flashy suit in the Grand Festival was particularly fashionable and made to accentuate her femininity instead of negating it.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a short-haired tomboy who regularly competes in the fashionable and flashy Contests.
• Tsundere: Towards Nando in Dawn's Early Night!
• The Unreveal: Her battle with Nando for the Hearthome Ribbon in Dawn's Early Night!, which she loses, is never actually seen, and only its aftermath is shown. Whatever he did during it, he managed to impress her a great deal.
  Zoey: Nando really is something else. The way he's chosen to compete in Contests and Gym Battles, it's like he knows it's his destiny!
• Wise Beyond Her Years: She's a very knowledgable and insightful character. Not without her flaws, but still rather mature for her apparent age.
  • During the Wallace Cup, Zoey confirms the rumors of a third Lake Guardian whose residence is a lake near Snowpoint City. The conversation in question was started by Ash having an encounter with Azelf, causing Dawn to remember her own run-in with Mesprit back on her first day, which then causes a returning May to remark that during her time in Snowpoint she'd heard the rumors about Uxie. How does Zoey know of the rumors about Lake Acuity specifically? She's from Snowpoint City herself, which also explains her friendship with Candice.
• Worthy Opponent: For Dawn. Coming to see Nando as one is a key step in her Character Development.

Kenny (Kengo)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yuko Mita
Voiced in English by: Rhonda Krempa
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Javier Olguín (seasons 10 and 13), Xóchitl Ugarte (season 11), Bruno Coronel (season 12).

Dawn's childhood friend and another Pokémon Coordinator. He gave her the nickname of Dee-Dee/Pikari, and never lets her forget... not that she has a hard time forgetting it.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Heavily implied in Four Roads Diverged in a Pokémon Port! when Dawn chooses to travel with Ash to cheer him on in the Lily of the Valley Conference and not him when he made the offer. He takes it quite well though.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Unlucky, in that Dawn doesn't reciprocate his feelings and knows she prefers Ash instead.
• Color Motif: Blue, serving to reflect his rivalry with Dawn and their similar roots. Two of his Pokémon are Water type, one of which is the evolved form of Dawn's starter, he has a blue Pokétch, he was seen wearing a blue shirt in a flashback and he dons a blue suit for the Grand Festival.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Kenny becomes one in his final episode. As the group is watch Flint and Jasmine's battle, he becomes increasingly jealous of Ash and Dawn's close relationship, glaring at Ash every time he so much as talks to Dawn.
• Decomposite Character: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, it's Barry who's the Player Character's Childhood Friend and Rival, but since the series reserved him for Ash instead of Dawn, Kenny was created to fill in the gap.
• Forgotten Friend, New Foe: Dawn apparently didn't know he was going to be a Coordinator.
• The Gadfly: He loves to get under Dawn's skin.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Has a track record. It was revealed he lost to Zoey before his official debut, followed by losing to Dawn for her first ribbon. In a later appearance he loses to Jessie. He gets a win against Dawn in the Sandalstraw contest, however.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He does care about Dawn, but he has a rather obnoxious and immature way of expressing it.
• Kids Are Cruel: He looks this way when we find out the backstory of "Dee Dee", the Embarrassing Nickname he hung on Dawn. Especially since he got the entire class hooked to that nickname where the entire class calls her by that very name he coined. He and Dawn ended up friends eventually though.
• Loving Bully: He expresses his crush on Dawn by relentlessly teasing her about their childhood days.
• The Nicknamer: He's the one who came up with Dawn's embarrassing nickname Dee-Dee/Pikari.
• Signature Mon: Prinplup/Empoleon, being used in both of Kenny's Contest battles against Dawn, and being present in both the Grand Festival and Kenny's sendoff episode.

Barry (Jun)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki
Voiced in English by: Jamie McGonnigal
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ricardo Bautista (seasons 11 and 13), Miguel Ángel Ruiz (season 12)
Voiced in European French by: Grégory Praet

Another of Ash's rivals in the Sinnoh Region. Barry is a hyperactive trainer whose idolization of Paul regularly gets under Ash's skin, and oftens encounters Ash during his travels. They share a competitive friendship as trainers, and Barry isn't too bad as one himself.

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• Anime Hair: It's pretty gravity defiant despite the fact that Barry's head constantly smacks into things.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Most prominently seen against Paul. He's down to just Empoleon against all three of Paul's, on top of having the disadvantage against Electivire, but he refuses to give up. His Empoleon battles hard enough that it even activates Torrent, and launches a massive Hydro Cannon in desperation... only to be met with a No-Sell by Electivire's Protect and finished off with a brutal Thunder.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His usual approach to events. Though he once waited long enough for a Heracross to be attracted by slathered honey.
• Butt-Monkey: Silly, unfortunate things happen to him all the time. He forgets things, people (usually Ash) keep getting in his way while he's running around, Gible eats his bike and gym battle ticket, etc.
• Catchphrase:
  • "I'm going to make you pay a fine for that! Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four — "
  • In battle, his catchphrase is "[Pokémon], let's get going!"
• Character Exaggeration: He doesn't have the level of characterization (and Character Development) his game counterpart had, with the anime mostly just playing up his hyperactivity.
• Character Tics: Snapping his fingers.
• Crash-Into Hello: With Barry being as hyperactive as he is, he crashes into Ash almost every time he appears.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may be arrogant, loud, and impatient, but he's still a skilled battler who usually gives Ash a good run for his money. It's indicated that he won his first few Sinnoh League battles with ease, which makes Paul curb-stomping him look that much more impressive.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He tried. Good lord, he tried. Yet in the end, all he ended up with was a devastating 3-0 loss to Paul.
• Death or Glory Attack: His Empoleon's signature move is Hydro Cannon and it also learns Hyper Beam, which puts alot of power into a single attack but leaves it defenseless afterwards. And after a Torrent boost on top of that it's completely stopped by Electivire's Protect and unable to do nothing but stand and take the retaliation.
• Determinator: Just watch how hard he and his team try to win when they face Paul.
• The Ditz: Barry tends to act faster than he thinks.
• Dumb Blonde: While not at all unintelligent, he's seriously impatient and rushes into things without thinking. Sometimes his rushes end with him and another person (usually Ash) colliding.
• Failed a Spot Check: He was so absorbed in telling Dawn and Brock about Tobias the Olympus Mons trainer that it took him a while to even notice Ash's match.
• Friendly Rivalry: Played with. While Barry is on good terms with Ash and co. overall, he frequently annoys them with his arrogance and impatient habits. Quite a bit of Ash's interactions with Barry typically consist of the two snarking about the other's skill level, though they ultimately remain friends.
• Graceful Loser: After losing to Paul in the Sinnoh League, he commends Paul for the battle the two shared. Paul, surprisingly, returns the favor.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version. Most notably, "BEST FRIENDS!" and "DADDY!?"
• Hero-Worshipper: Barry idolizes Paul after watching his performance in the Tag Battle tournament. While their first encounter naturally doesn't go very well, Paul is much more respectful of him by the Sinnoh League, commending Barry for a great battle despite the overwhelming 3-0 victory.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He flagrantly disregards everyone's warnings about Paul's jerkassery. When Ash tells him that Paul abandoned Chimchar rather than trading it with him, Barry refuses to listen.
• Hot-Blooded: He is the son of Palmer after all. He throws his Poké Ball so hard, he does a complete forward flip in the process.
• Hypocritical Humor: He tells others to watch where they are going, but Barry himself doesn't watch where he is going.
• Keet: Oh Arceus is he ever. He's hotblooded and energetic, just like Ash.
• Large Ham: Barry honestly could pursue a career in theatrics with the level of drama he acts out.
• Motor Mouth: Barry talks entirely too much sometimes.
• No Indoor Voice: Every line he has is yelled at the top of his lungs.
• Noodle Incident: According to Dawn, he was once involved in a singing duet with an Exploud.
• Running Gag: He always interrupts Team Rocket before they can finish their motto.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Just like his game counterpart, he wears a kickass scarf and is a battling rival to Ash. But downsized, like Dawn.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: His wails are always very silly and over the top.
• Signature Mon: Empoleon is by far Barry's most prominent Pokemon, to the point where he's rarely seen using anything else. Even when he does, Empoleon is almost always saved for last.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Downplayed in that Barry is a skilled Pokemon battler, but his arrogance is comparable to rookie Ash during the original Kanto arc. Barry treats himself like a world-class trainer despite Paul barely acknowledging his existence. Even after Ash proves himself a better and more mature trainer than him when they first meet, Barry still thinks the opposite for a time.
• The Strategist: Surprisingly, he's this by the Sinnoh League. Possibly in an attempt to impress Paul, who is known for being extremely strategic himself, he prepares several tactics for their battle such as using Skarmory as a Sacrificial Lamb to set up Spikes and maximizing Hitmonlee and Empoleon's reflexes. Unfortunately for him, though, this does little to faze Paul.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He has spiky blond hair similar to Palmer's.
• Technicolor Eyes: Orange.
• Unknown Rival: Wants to be a rival of Paul's, but Paul clearly couldn't care less. After his loss in the Sinnoh League, Paul does acknowledge his skill.

Ursula (Urara)

Voiced in Japanese by: Ayako Kawasumi
Voiced in English by: Melisa Schroenburg
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Betzabé Jara (season 12), Cristina Hernández (season 13)
Voiced in Italian by: Gea Riva

A fellow Pokémon Coordinator with a rather poisonous personality who Dawn met at the Chocovine Pokémon Contest. Believing that Dawn's Wallace Cup victory was a fluke, she's determined to knock her down a peg or two.

---

• Alpha Bitch: She's a mean, petty coordinator who degrades Dawn at every turn and goes as far as to use her childhood fear of Plusle and Minun to demoralize her.
• Anime Hair: Her pink hair is tied into twin drills.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: In her first appearance, she refuses to believe Dawn's win against May was based on skill.
• Character Tics: When giving commands in a Pokémon Contest, she makes the "ILY" hand sign with both hands and her arms crossed.
• Combat Pragmatist: Just like Harley before her, but more subtle and strategic. She has no qualms about using Dawn's fear of Plusle and Minun against her in a Contest, or having them use Encore to force her opponent's Pokémon to perform the same move over and over, causing them to lose points with the judges.
• Decomposite Character: She takes after Harley in personality, being a mean-spirited Coordinator who regularly harasses one of Ash's female traveling companions, while Nando takes after him in appearance, voice, and mannerisms.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Dawn. They're both ambitious and talented at Contests, but the difference is that Dawn is kind and sweet to nearly everyone she meets, while Ursula taunts her opponents, boasts about her abilities, and has no qualms about humiliating her opponents in public.
  • She could be considered one to Zoey as she belittles Dawn and puts her down while Zoey is a helpful big sister mentor to her instead.
• Evil Is Petty: She goes out of her way to spite Dawn at every turn, simply because she believes her to be an incompetent Coordinator who scrapes by on dumb luck.
  Ursula: (addressing Zoey) I'll make sure you and Dawn never meet in the final round!^note Dawn personally makes sure she fails
• Evil Laugh: "Ahahahahahaha!"
• Expy: Ursula has a good set of mixed influences.
  • As a red-head with elaborately curled pigtails, she bears a striking resemblance to Amy Sorel and Kasane Teto, and has a less direct resemblance to Urara Kasugano.
  • She also inherits the role of the harshest of Dawn's rivals from Harley, who was much the same for May.
• Felony Misdemeanor: "The horror! My beautiful Gabite's been soiled! How dare you!"
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Being a Coordinator, she has some skill at cooking Poffins, though Dawn's Pachirisu doesn't like the ones she makes.
• Game-Breaker: In-Universe. In one contest, where the goal was to impress the judges with varied moves, she used Encore, forcing the opponents to repeat moves and thus lose points.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Ursula wears pretty dresses and competes in style-oriented Contests. Her main Pokémon is a Gabite, a tough and rugged Dragon-Ground type.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her hair ribbons are a pale lavender.
• Improbable Hairstyle: She wears her hair in pink twin drills.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: She appears three times in the series. Each time, she gets her butt kicked by Dawn, including one time when her Gabite lost to Pachirisu.
• Insufferable Genius: She's a skilled Pokémon coordinator...and she makes sure everyone knows it.
• It Only Works Once: Her Grand Festival appeal involves her two Eevee evolving into Vaporeon and Flareon mid-performance. It makes for an impressive display, but given that evolution is permanent, it cannot be repeated.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The dark to Dawn's light. They're both feminine coordinators, but while Dawn is nice and learns to take losses well, Ursula is an arrogant sore loser.
• Meaningful Name: In the original version, her name is derived from 麗らか uraraka, Japanese for beautiful or glorious.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In her first appearance, she offers Dawn's Pachirisu a Poffin to replace the one her Gabite stepped on. Pachirisu didn't like the taste, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Despite her arrogance, Ursula cares for her Pokémon and treats them well, unlike Paul. When her Gabite loses the Chocovine Contest, she comforts her and tells her that she did a great job.
  • And she comes to have some respect for Dawn in the end, as much as she may deny it.
• Remember the New Guy?: She participated in the Wallace Cup and lost in the first round, but didn't appear during that arc. She only revealed her participation during her true debut thirty-five episodes later (largely thanks to that first-round loss).
• Rolling Attack: Jigglypuff's Rollout, also Plusle and Minun's "twin attack formation" in Playing the Performance Encore!
• Signature Mon: Her Gabite is her most frequently used Pokémon and appears to be her strongest team member.
• Superior Twin Teamwork: Her Plusle and Minun work really well together in Contests, which is bad news for Dawn as they're the exact two Pokémon she's afraid of. They effortlessly defeat Jessie's Pokémon, and nearly Dawn's, using various Electric moves and Encore.
• Technicolor Eyes: A dark pink that matches her hair.
• True Blue Femininity: Her Grand Festival dress is three different shades of blue.
• Wonder Twin Powers: Not only do her Plusle and Minun know Helping Hand, they work perfectly together in Contests, making them a fantastic choice for Double Battles.

Conway (Kōhei/Kouhei)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kozo Mito
Voiced in English by: Billy Regan
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Irwin Daayán (season 10 and 13), Gabriel Ortiz (season 11).

Dawn's partner in the Hearthome Tag Battle competition, who took a liking to her. He was only intended to appear for a few episodes, but unexpected popularity among the fanbase brought him back for more.

---

• Badass Bookworm: He's big on battle strategy, giving Ash a hard time in their League battle. He even managed to overwhelm Paul in the Heartrome Tag Tournament throughout most of their match.
• Battle Couple: Formed one with Dawn in the Tag Battle Tournament. Although the affection is one-sided...
• Blue with Shock: When he found out the "little girl" he partnered with in a Pokémon Summer Academy race was a ghost, right before fainting dead away.
• Character Tics: He tends to adjust and/or shine his glasses while speaking.
• Creepy Monotone: Speaks like this briefly in "Ghoul Daze!" when under the ghost girl's mind-control.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For a creepy, nerdy stalker, it's very surprising to see how ridiculously competent Conway can be in battle. In addition, he sports a nice variety of Pokémon despite his battling skills not being highlighted often.
• The Determinator: Played for Laughs. During the Pokémon Summer Camp Triathlon, he’s completely exhausted from the running, but he still crawls his way to the finish line to complete it.
• Did Not See That Coming: Like many of Ash's opponents, Conway gets thrown off when his opponent improvises. Namely, Gible catching Dusknoir's Shadow Punch with his mouth and not letting go.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  Conway: (off-screen) Well, how are you, Number 28?
  Dawn: (cheerfully) I'm fine!^note Conway was number 9
  (cut to a close-up of Conway with Scary Shiny Glasses)
  Conway: That's good. Conway is the name. A pleasure.
• Expy: His design is based on the Super Nerd Trainer class in the main Pokémon games.
• Flaw Exploitation: In the battle against Paul and Ash, he exploited the fact Paul loved to use Protect by having a Pokémon with Feint. Later, he was well aware Ash had a preference for using Fragile Speedster type Pokémon by using Trick Room.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Dusknoir when using Trick Room outspeeds almost everything on Ash's team due to Trick Room causing slower Pokémon to go first. Finally, Dusknoir was shown taking and dealing out hits with ease.
  • His Shuckle is not fast, but its defenses are really good, and there's a special move that unlocks its offensive powers...
• Mighty Glacier: Dusknoir, out of Trick Room, due to its low speed but amazing ability to take hits and dish them out.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Despite his creepiness, and zero regard for boundaries, Conway is a pretty nice guy, a supportive companion, and loving Pokemon trainer. He even firmly believes that love is key to raising Pokémon.
• Near-Death Experience: In Ghoul Daze, he almost gets lured off a cliff by a creepy ghost girl. Luckily, he's saved by a Dusknoir.
• Nerds Are Sexy: He's a geeky trainer with Ship Tease towards Dawn.
• Non-Action Guy: Despite making good showings in the first two legs of the Pokémon Triathlon, making good use of Dugtrio's Dig and Floatzel's Dive to bypass the other competitors, he ultimately loses in the final leg because he's bad at long-distance running.
  Conway: Big mistake. Not doing a little cardio training was pretty dumb.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He could sometimes engage in this, particularly with Dawn.
• Reused Character Design: He looks very similar to a grown-up version of Max.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: His signature Character Tic, usually combined with a creepy chuckle and a Slasher Smile.
• Shirtless Scene: In Up Close and Personable, justified in that said episode involved the Pokémon Summer Academy students diving underwater to search for aquatic Pokémon.
• Signature Laugh: A mildly creepy "heh heh heh..." chuckle, accompanied by adjusting his glasses.
• Signature Mon: He's seen with Slowking in the Tag Battle and Summer Academy arcs, but strangely it doesn't participate in his League battle against Ash.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Never shows any attraction towards anyone but Dawn.
• Spell My Name With An S: His Japanese name can be spelled either "Kōhei" or "Kouhei".
• Stalker with a Crush: He follows Dawn everywhere, popping up behind her at random times and offering her advice. Apparently, he went to the Pokémon Summer Academy just because he knew she would be there.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: A running gag is him randomly appearing from behind Dawn and startling her (as well as anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity).
  Dawn: No one makes an entrance like Conway.
• Third-Person Person: "That was quite nice...but Conway never gives up!"

Nando (Naoshi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kazuya Nakai
Voiced in English by: Billy Regan
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: José Arenas

A soft-spoken minstrel with a liking for music and Grass-type Pokémon. In his debut episode, Ash and Dawn helped him decide to participate in both Gym Battles and Contests, making him a rival for both of them.

---

• Adaptational Nationality: The English dub implies that he's Hispanic (or whatever the equivalent is in the Pokémon world), by giving him a name of that origin and an accent that sounds vaguely European, but never confirms it.
• Aerith and Bob: On the "Aerith" side of the scale.
• Agent Peacock: Like Harley before him, he acts quite feminine, yet proves to be a skilled Trainer and Coordinator.
• All-Loving Hero: Nando is unfailingly warm and friendly to everyone, even those outwardly rude to him. The closest he ever gets to being angry at someone is the episode A Secret Sphere of Influence! when he's visibly annoyed with Officer Jenny for continuing to accuse him and Sunflora of stealing the Adamant Orb without solid proof; even then, he remains stiffly polite and composed.
• Ambiguously Gay: Less outwardly flamboyant than Harley, but just as effeminate.
• Antiquated Linguistics: His manner of speech is noticeably more formal than most other characters tend to use, for example, saying "I am in your debt" instead of "thank you".
• Art Evolution: Compare this (Dawn of a New Era) to this◊ (League Unleashed).
• Ascended Extra: Appeared in one of the very first episodes, seemingly as a one-shot character, and after several noteworthy apearances he ultimately features in both the Grand Festival and the Sinnoh Conference.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: He dresses like an old-fashioned performer and is a powerful rival to both Ash and Dawn.
• Badass Cape: His cape is shaped like a bitten lily, which his perfect for his Bug-type theme.
• Benevolent Boss: He is shown to be kind to his Pokémon, even giving them polite requests during battle instead of commands.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Nando might be sweet and gentle, but in his debut episode, he sends Team Rocket blasting off with Budew's Bullet Seed and comments, "Such a shame. I was having such a pleasant evening before they showed up."
• Big Damn Heroes: He had his Budew save Ash and friends from Team Rocket in his debut episode.
• Big "NO!": Drops one when Ash's Heracross KO's his Kricketune with Megahorn in the Sinnoh League.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Say what you will about him, but consider this—while most other major characters were practically scrambling to get either eight badges or five ribbons in time for their event, Nando managed to attain both complete sets in time for each major competition. He also reached the Top 4 in the Sinnoh Grand Festival, and if he hadn't been matched up against Ash so early in the Lily of the Valley Conference, it's quite probable he'd have gotten further than just the Top 64 in that competition, as well. He may act as a musical bard most of the time, but he is able to be a very competent coordinator and battler, with Zoey even commenting that the latter was giving him a big edge in their contest battle in the festival.
• Casting Gag: Nando shares a significant number of character and design traits with Harley—namely, a preference for green clothing, effeminate mannerisms, goal of collecting Contest ribbons and a humanoid, half-Grass-type Pokémon for a partner. To compound those similarities, Nando's voice in the English dub is provided by Billy Regan, who was also Harley's second voice actor.
• Character Tics: He often says things in a sing-song voice.
• Clear Their Name: In A Secret Sphere of Influence!, he's suspected of stealing the Adamant Orb on the grounds that he has a Sunflora, a Pokémon that was seen escaping with the artifact in question. It turned out to be Team Rocket's Meowth in a Sunflora costume.
• Color Motif: Green, owing to his love of nature and relaxed attitude.
• Conflict Killer: His establishing character moment was breaking up an argument between Ash and Dawn.
• Cowardly Lion: Not Nando himself, but his Sunflora. It abandoned him when he was arrested by Officer Jenny, but hunted down Team Rocket for framing him and exposed their disguises, preventing them from successfully escaping the museum with the Adamant Orb.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his polite and very feminine demeanor, he's no pushover when it comes to Pokémon battles.
• Cultured Badass: He's a skilled musician and studies Sinnoh's history in his spare time.
• Dashing Hispanic: The English dub seems to be going for this angle with him by giving him a Spanish name and soft, smooth-sounding European accent.
• A Day in the Limelight: Shared with Zoey, "Coming Full Festival Circle!" focuses on the two of them advancing to the Grand Festival semifinals and their climactic battle.
• Death by Irony: Defeat, anyway. Both of his final matches in the Grand Festival and the Sinnoh League were against a Pokémon matching one of his specialty types — Leafeon, a Grass-type, and Heracross, a Bug-type.
• Decomposite Character: He takes after Harley in appearance, voice, and mannerisms, while Ursula takes after him in personality, being a mean-spirited Coordinator who regularly harasses one of Ash's female traveling companions.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After he clobbered Zoey off-screen in Dawn's Early Night!, she changed her mind about not accepting Trainers who choose to participate in both Gyms and Contests.
• Depending on the Artist: In early episodes, his bangs were sometimes drawn facing different directions. This stopped by "Coming Full Festival Circle".
• Determinator: An understated example. Many characters are shown to struggle with obtaining either eight Gym Badges before the regional League or five Contest Ribbons before the Grand Festival. Nando collecting both sets is a testament to his skill in both fields.
• The Ditherer: In his first episode, he could not decide if he wanted to be a Pokémon Trainer or Coordinator. After battling both Ash and Dawn, he took a third option and went down both paths at once.
• The Dog Bites Back: Got Jessie back for the Adamant Orb incident when he defeated her in the Hearthome Contest five episodes later.
• Easily Forgiven: Nando does not seem to hold grudges, as he did not hold any ill will against Officer Jenny for falsely arresting him on suspicion of stealing the Adamant Orb, nor Zoey for being cold and dismissive to him when she found out he did both Contests and Gym Battles.
• Effeminate Voice: The American dub gives him a soft, gentle voice with a thick, vaguely European accent.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Briefly. When James and Meowth are selling Pokémon Coordinator merchandise during Opposites Interact, you can hear a male voice saying, "I'd like a photo of Nando..."
• Extreme Doormat: He let the Eterna City Officer Jenny tie him up in "A Secret Sphere of Influence!". That should tell you something.
• Expy: Visually a dead ringer for Harley, down to sharing the same voice actor. His personality, though, is a closer match to Robert's, being a polite gentleman and skilled Coordinator.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Downplayed — Nando's left eye is always covered by his bangs, giving him a mysterious appearance.
• Fatal Flaw: His over-reliance on his Signature Move, Sing, was exploited by Zoey in the Grand Festival and Ash in the Sinnoh League.
• Flat Character: Gets this accusation thrown at him a lot because unlike the other Sinnoh rivals he's just a straight-up Nice Guy whose spirit never wavers at all.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: He wears them in his hat during Contests.
• Foil: The calm, even-tempered dual-duty Pokémon trainer to match Zoey the determined, competitive Pokémon Coordinator.
• Frame-Up: Victim of an unintentional one in A Secret Sphere of Influence, when Team Rocket breaks into the Eterna Museum and steals the Adamant Orb with Meowth disguised as a Sunflora, at the exact same time Nando happens to be there with his own Sunflora.
• Friend to All Children: He gets along pretty well with Ash, Brock, and Dawn.
• Friend to All Living Things: The night before the Grand Festival semifinals has him playing harp music to a gathering of wild Pokémon in the forest.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: In A Secret Sphere of Influence, he visits the Eterna Museum to study the history of Sinnoh. Unfortunately for him, he's there at the exact same time Team Rocket is stealing the Adamant Orb, with Meowth disguised as a Sunflora, a Pokémon he just happens to have on hand.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: His iconic Mew harp. He also wears a gold shoulderplate while performing in Contests.
• Has a Type: Nando prefers Pokémon that are elegant and graceful, and especially ones that have music-themed moves.
• Harp of Femininity: Inverted and played straight at the same time — he's a guy who plays the harp, but an extremely feminine guy at that.
• Humble Hero: While talking to Ash, Brock and Dawn during the night before the Grand Festival semifinals, he expresses surprise that he's made it so far in the competition.
• Iconic Item: He is never seen without his golden Mew-shaped harp.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Everyone else was surprised when he was revealed to have a Lopunny in the Grand Festival, a Pokémon that doesn't fit the theme of his team, as it's not a Bug- or Grass-type and can't use Sing.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Zoey, Dawn, Brock, and Ash. They are all children and teenagers while Nando appears to be in his early twenties.
• Limited Wardrobe: Like many other things about him, this is a departure from the traditional mold of Pokémon characters. While it's not unusual for minor characters to have only one or two outfits, most Sinnoh Coordinators have a variety of ensembles to wear while performing (Dawn's Pimped-Out Dresses and Zoey's tuxedos come to mind). The most he does during a Contest is stick a feather in his hat, put on a gold shoulderplate, and swap out his single-Mew harp for a double-Mew one.
• Long Bus Trip: Ignoring his cameo in A Breed Stampede, he disappeared for a year after Dawn's Early Night.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to Zoey's Masculine Girl. He's a softspoken musician with long flowing green hair, while Zoey is a brutally honest tomboy with short spiky red hair.
• Master of None: Ultimately, as while he made good showings in the Grand Festival and the Sinnoh League, he won neither of them. It doesn't seem to bother him, though.
• Meaningful Name:
  • He shares his Japanese name with Naoshi Mizuta, another musician.
  • In English, his name rhymes with "glissando", a musical term denoting a glide from one pitch to another. It can be played on many instruments, including a harp.
• Mellow Fellow: Always remains nonchalant and even-tempered. Even when he was accused by Officer Jenny of stealing a priceless artifact from the Eterna Museum, he calmly defended himself without blinking an eye.
• Milking the Giant Cow: He loses his calm demeanor when he gets really into the Heracross vs. Kricketune match in the Sinnoh League, gesticulating wildly with his hands and even dramatically swishing his cape.
• Motifs: Music notes.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Nando sticks out somewhat awkwardly among the typical rival lineup, doing contests and battles at the same time, dressing up in an anachronistic minstrel outfit, and hanging out with kids several years younger than he is.
• Mythology Gag: Possibly; he wasn't the first bard to appear in the Pokémon continuity.
• Nature Hero: Most of his Pokémon are Bug and Grass types, and his first episode had him camping outside with Ash and friends.
• Nerves of Steel: Arrested on suspicion of stealing the Adamant Orb? Criticized for being a Pokémon Trainer and Pokémon Coordinator at the same time? Not a problem for this even-tempered minstrel. Realizing his Kricketune is on the losing end of a sparring match with Ash's Heracross might be a different story, though...
• Never Bareheaded: He never takes his hat off, although production art shows what he looks like without it.
• Nice Guy: Always unfailingly kind and polite, so much so that he gives polite requests to his Pokémon in battle instead of commands.
• Non-Specifically Foreign: Implied by the dub, which gives him a name of Spanish origin and a thick, vaguely European-sounding accent.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Downplayed — he has smaller and more realistically drawn eyes than other characters. It's especially obvious when his headshot is visible among the others on a Pokémon Contest screen.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Only character to regularly participate in both Contests and Gym Battles.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Implied — his English name is usually a short version of the name "Fernando," but nobody ever calls him that, not even himself.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: No matter the situation, Nando nearly always remains calm and level-headed, rarely losing his cool. But when his Pokémon start showing signs of being in trouble during the Grand Festival and League Conference battles, he actually starts to raise his voice and gesture with his hands when giving them battle commands.
• Out of Focus: And how - he disappeared for 125 episodes after "Dawn's Early Night!" (barring a brief cameo), before finally returning for real during the Grand Festival and the Lily of the Valley Conference.
• Personality Powers: His calm, composed and harmonious nature perfectly fits his preference for musical attacks.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: His team primarily consists of Grass-types and Bug-types, which is why Ash chose Pokémon to counter his team; a Flying-type (Staraptor), a Fire-type (Quilava) and a Pokémon with Sleep Talk (Heracross) to counteract Kricketune's Sing.
• Rhymes on a Dime: As a minstrel he often speaks in rhyming couplets.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's always wearing a fancy hat and flowing green cape.
• Shout-Out: According to this clip from an interview with his English voice actor, Nando's vocal mannerisms were inspired by Puss in Boots from Shrek.
• Signature Instrument: Nando's harp is an old-fashioned instrument with a gentle and delicate sound, which matches his calm and passive nature.
• Signature Mon: In his early appearances, he's most frequently seen with Roserade, but the focus shifted to Kricketune in later episodes.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Although he's not female as this trope usually implies, this seems to be Nando's philosophy when it comes to battle. Most of his Pokémon are ones that are beautiful and graceful, yet powerful fighters.
• Stealth Pun:
  • He's a musician who's always incredibly calm. You could say he's very composed.
  • His Bulbapedia article suggests his name may be short for Fernando, with the "fern" in it being a reference to his love of Grass-types.
• The Storyteller: "In the beginning, there was only a churning turmoil of chaos. And at the heart of the chaos, where all things become one, came the one."
• Take a Third Option: When we first see Nando, he was having trouble if he wanted to pursue gym battles or contest ones before eventually settling on both. It did wonders for him.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: The "tall" part is more noticeable since he usually hangs around kids, but "A Secret Sphere of Influence" and "A Breed Stampede" show him to be even taller than Officer Jenny and Mr. Contesta, respectively.
• Token Adult: Ash's and Dawn's only adult rival.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Wears a green cape similar to his Roserade's.
• Unexplained Accent: The American dub gives him a European accent that seems to vary from episode to episode.
• The Unfought: Dawn never faced him directly in an actual Contest battle (though they did have a practice bout in DP004, which he won). In fact, between directly challenging her worldview on trainers taking two paths in life instead of focusing on one, soundly trouncing her in the Hearthome contest after she had belittled his path, and giving her one heck of a battle in the Grand Festival, Nando ends up being more of a rival to Zoey than he ever was to Dawn.
• The Unreveal: When he shows his badge case to Ash and Dawn in Last Call, First Round!, it has seven badges and one empty slot for the Mine Badge (which is Byron's), but we never find out where and from whom he got his last badge in-between that episode and An Old Family Blend!
• Vague Age: It's a bit ambiguous as to how old Nando is supposed to be; he could be an older teenager or a young adult in his 20s. His outfit and old-fashioned speech patterns further complicate things, giving the impression of someone even older than that.
• Virtuous Character Copy: Like Harley, he wears mostly green, has Ambiguously Gay mannerisms, competes in Contests as a rival to one of Ash's friends and has a Grass-type as his main Pokémon. But, while Harley is a cunning schemer and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who will sabotage anyone (especially May) to get ahead, Nando is never anything but polite and kind.
• Vocal Evolution: After a year long absence, his accent became slightly more pronounced.
• Warrior Poet: He is a skilled Pokémon Trainer and musician with a love for songs and stories. His habit of rhyming is shown to have rubbed off on Gardenia when she quotes a piece of philosophical poetry in "A Secret Sphere of Influence".
• What the Hell Is That Accent??: It sounds vaguely like a mixture of Spanish and Irish.
• The Worf Effect: He makes it all the way to the top four of the Sinnoh Grand Festival, only to get thrown out of the competition by Zoey. Come the Sinnoh League, Ash defeats Nando in the very first round of the Qualifying Matches (the Top 64). In fairness, he sure didn't go out without a fight.

Tobias (Takuto)

Voiced in Japanese by: Hiroki Takahashi
Voiced in English by: J. Michael Tatum
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Jaime Alberto Carrillo

A mysterious trainer who first appears during the Sinnoh League Tournament, and one of the most formidable trainers seen in the series by far, due to his possession of extremely rare and powerful legendary Pokémon. Using only Darkrai, he has curbstomped through the Sinnoh Gym Leaders and the League Tournament. One might be tempted to think that Darkrai is his go-to Pokémon and the rest of his team is comprised of ordinary Pokémon, but only because not a single opponent is able to get past Darkrai in a match with it until Ash has a go at it with his team. When Ash actually does defeat Darkrai, Tobias reveals he has several legendaries in tow, and plan B is to call on his Latios.

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• The Ace: He is the most skilled trainer shown in the Sinnoh region next to Cynthia, steamrolling everyone he encounters in the Pokémon League. His character even might be a nod to the acquired term "sweeping" in the Metagame of the Pokémon games (i.e. a player is able to take down entire teams using only one Pokémon with little effort, and do so regularly against many other players in competitive play).
• Badass Cape: His cape flows with the wind, much like Nando.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He beat Sinnoh's Gym Leaders and got to the League Semifinals using just Darkrai. Against Ash, he is forced to bust out a Latios, which get knocked out as well in a double KO that defeats Ash. Even in the final battle, (most of which is not shown) he actually wins with only Darkrai.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Even though Ash does get his ass handed to him on a silver platter, he does manage to take out two of his legendaries, the closest anybody actually gets to him.
• Curtains Match the Window: Grayish-blue hair, light blue eyes.
• Dark Is Not Evil: No, the creepy guy with the Darkrai is not evil. He actually congratulates Ash on a good battle after he wins.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Ash is the only person that actually manages to defeat his Darkrai, and Latios by extension. Even the announcer acknowledges it.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Just after Ash finally beats his rival in the quarter-finals, and it looks like he'll finally win a major championship, he gets thoroughly trounced by Tobias' two legendary Pokémon. The trainer's appearance was never hinted at before the Tournament Arc, and it's never explained how he got his hands on two Olympus Mons. One gets the feeling he was created merely as an excuse to get Ash to Unova quicker.
• Didn't See That Coming: Thrice. First when Ash's Sceptile breaks out of sleep status immediately with the second coming when Sceptile hands Darkrai its ass for the first time. And after that? Tobias sends out a Latios. That was unexpected. Not to mention wholly unexplained. The fact Pikachu managed to help Ash make a repeat performance to Tobias and take it out also counted, towards Tobias and the crowd.
• Eyes Out of Sight: He has long wavy dark hair that covers one of his eyes, fitting his signature Pokemon Darkrai.
• The Faceless: For about a couple episodes. Although pay attention and you can see his face relatively clearly in the tournament standings. He's the only one with hair like that.
• Glass Cannon: In keeping to Darkrai's stats in the game, his is this by Legendaries standards. Even healing with Dream Eater, Darkrai goes down to a relatively small amount of direct hits.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: He's more amused than anything that Ash actually managed to defeat his Darkrai, complimenting him before finishing off the rest of his team with Latios.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's creepy, arrogant, and uses arguably underhanded strategy, but when all's said and done, he congratulates Ash on a well fought battle.
• The Juggernaut: Nobody so far has taken this guy's Darkrai and Latios down in a fight. Well, Ash did, but he lost all of his Pokémon in the process and therefore the tournament.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: He plows through every Trainer he comes up against with minimal effort, including Ash, and goes on to win the Sinnoh League. He also wears a red cape.
• Large Ham: The way he releases Latios comes to mind.
• Meaningful Name: Tobias is a powerful trainer who relies mainly on Darkrai to fight. Tobias is also the name of a biblical hero from the book of Tobit who drove a demon out with the help of the archangel Raphael.
• Olympus Mons: Darkrai and Latios.
• One-Man Army: His Darkrai. It single-handedly carries him through the entire Sinnoh League with the exception of Ash, who, using Sceptile and Pikachu, respectively, manages to take it and his Latios down with him.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the Japanese version. Tommy from the Pokémon Trainer's School (a Hoenn character of the day) shares the same Japanese name as him. And, to an extent, the fact that Tobias' Darkrai makes the THIRD we've seen so far (movies are Canon). Legendaries have been proven to come in multiples before (PowerOfOne!Lugia, Silver, and his mother; Heroes has practically a herd of Latios and Latias in flashback).
• Outside-Context Problem: He's never mentioned at all before the League Conference arc begins, and uses Legendary Pokémon that have never been seen battling in a League Conference before or since.
• Pals with Jesus: He has two legendary Pokémon that obey his every command.
• The Reveal: His second Pokémon is Latios. Didn't see that coming, did you? Arceus knows what the rest of his team looks like...
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • How he caught a Darkrai and Latios is never explained.
  • There is a lot of theories and wonder as to what the other four Pokémon are in his party, considering two of them are legendaries.
• Signature Mon: He's most strongly associated with Darkrai, mainly because nobody except Ash could get past it.
• Smug Super: Downplayed. He is very well aware he is packing high-grade legendaries and will let his opponents know how even bringing their A-game might not be enough, but he does respect the effort his opponents put in the battle. Especially Ash given he actually did defeat his Darkrai and Latios.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He looks a lot like Nando in terms of basic design, wearing a long cape and an emo-bang hairstyle as well as having a slightly unusual name. He even has a slight accent in the English dub, though it's very faint.
• Take That!: He may be one to players who use legendaries to breeze through the games instead of bothering to actually train a team.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Non-lethal, competitive example. He was the first major character of sorts to bring Legendary Pokémon in a League tournament, who are viewed as physical deities that make most fully-evolved mons look like weaklings. And Tobias used at least two of them.
• The Unreveal: Only two of his Pokémon were shown in his fight against Ash. Also, no explanation was given as how did he caught them even after the battle.
• Walking Spoiler: Mentioning him will get you to reveal how Ash lost the Sinnoh league.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: As is the case with every Conference Winner, there is no mention of him going on to face the Elite Four and the region's Champion, but he stands out for obvious reasons. Cynthia is still the Sinnoh Champion in her later appearances in Black and White, meaning Tobias either lost to her, to the Elite Four, or inexplicably decided not to challenge them. He doesn’t even appear during the final Masters 8 arc, unlike other Conference Winners.
• Worthy Opponent: Goes out of his way to congratulate Ash and shake his hand after the battle, as he's the only person so far to have ever defeated not only his Darkrai, but Latios too.

Gym Leaders

Roark (Hyouta)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masataka Azuma, Satsuki Yukino (child)
Voiced in English by: Craig Blair, Zoe Martin (child)
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ricardo Mendoza (Season 10), Ignacio Casas (season 12)

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• Adaptational Badass: Played with. His team in the anime is largely the same as in the games but after Ash loses to him, his Cranidos evolves into Rampardos to make him an even tougher threat until he's outsmarted in the rematch. On top of that, his Geodude easily beats an Azumarill, when in the games such a matchup would end in an easy loss for it, but then loses to a super-effective Brick Break, which is pretty in line with the games.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: The anime drastically changes how his Rampardos' Mold Breaker ability works. In the games, Mold Breaker allows the user to ignore abilities that interfere with it's attacks, such as allowing a Ground-type move to hit a Pokémon with Levitate. In the anime, it instead allows Rampardos to shrug off being affected by the abilities of other Pokémon, as shown when it shook off the Static paralysis caused by both Paul's Elekid, and Ash's Pikachu.
• The Bus Came Back: He came back later in the anime to deal with his father Byron's antics with fossils, just when Ash needs to face Bryon in a Gym Battle.
• Calling the Old Man Out: He accuses his father of abandoning his family for nothing more than his love of fossils, and also preferring defense to offense.
• Curtains Match the Window: He has red hair and red eyes.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the rematch, when Ash has his Turtwig jump, Roark has his Rampardos do that too. Turtwig is then revealed to have been spinning around and under Rampardos and finishes the helpless Rock-type with a Razor Leaf to the chest.
• Elemental Powers: Roark specializes in Rock type Pokémon.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Geodude's Seismic Toss.
  • Playing with Fire: Rampardos' Flamethrower.
  • Psychic Powers: Rampardos' Zen Headbutt.
  • Super-Scream: Onix's Screech.
• Fiery Redhead: More of the "fiercely passionate" variety than "hot-headed", generally, except for when it comes to Byron...
• Guest-Star Party Member: Sort of - four episodes straight in Oreburgh City, and then a significant role for another two at Canalave City.
• Just a Kid: His father dismisses his arguments using this line. In Byron's words, "You wouldn't know a fossil if it hit you on the head!"
• Missing Mom: His mother isn't seen, but Roark mentions asking his dad to come home for the anniversary of their marriage, implying that she's still around.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Actively involved in the mining duties of his city, and later stops Team Rocket when dealing with their theft of the Fossil Restoration machine.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: His Geodude is able to take down Paul's Azumarill by blocking its Hydro Pump with Hidden Power.
• Signature Mon: His Cranidos, which later evolves into Rampardos to deal with the fallout of Team Rocket's meddling of the Fossil Revival machines. Rampardos serves Roark's main Pokémon in battle, often as the final Pokémon, a fact that Roark exploits when dealing with new challengers as Ash finds out the hard way.
• Tempting Fate: In the rematch, after having Onix trap Pikachu with Rock Tomb, Roark boasts he's been training with Onix harder than ever. Pikachu then blasts the Rock Tomb off of him and zaps Onix and then Iron Tails the Rock Snake Pokémon in the throat, meaning that evidentially, Roark was not training hard enough.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: He challenges his father to a battle to resolve this, and champions the force of Rampardos against Byron's immovable Bastiodon. No winner is clearly determined.
• Use Your Head: Rampardos' Headbutt and Zen Headbutt.
• Volumetric Mouth: When arguing with Byron in "Ancient Family Matters".
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Ash loses his first battle with Roark despite his best efforts, showing him that he and his Pokemon must work that much harder to exceed the Sinnoh region's demanding battle standards.

Gardenia (Natane)

Voiced in Japanese by: Chieko Honda
Voiced in English by: Lara Star Rigores
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Isabel Romo (Season 10), Nallely Solís (Season 11)

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Her love of grass type Pokémon can be eccentric and she actually pounces on James' Cacnea and Carnivine despite his attempts at an ambush. However there is no mistaking her skills as a gym leader.
• The Bus Came Back: In DP055.
• Cloudcuckoolander: If she sees any Grass-type Pokémon, she'll demand all sorts of strange things from them such as getting attacked by their Grass-types moves just to enjoy it, and be completely oblivious to the fact that the Grass-types in question happened to be owned by the villainous Team Rocket, more specifically James.
• Curtains Match the Window: Orange hair (with black undersides) matching with orange eyes.
• Didn't Think This Through: Though her Roserade temporarily blinded Aipom with Flash, Gardenia forgot that Pokémon can hear and Roserade gets its Fire-type Energy Ball Focus Punched back at it for major damage.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears briefly during Cheryl's three-part arc, in DP031 ("The Grass-type is Always Greener") before having a full introduction in Eterna City.
• Elemental Powers: Gardenia specializes in Grass type Pokémon.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Turtwig's Bite.
  • Light 'em Up: Roserade's Flash.
  • Poisonous Person: Roserade's secondary type.
• Glass Cannon: Her Cherubi's surprisingly fast and strong, but once Staravia lines himself up with the sun, it can't see and is easily eliminated in three blows.
• Hypocritical Humor: "The crooks were using Grass-type Pokémon, huh? They've got some nerve! Those jerks!" By the end of her appearance, she's taking care of a Grass-type that one of the crooks in question gave to her.
• Genki Girl: She's determined and confident Gym Leader... who is also full with an overabundance of childish energy whenever she sees Grass-type Pokémon, even if they belong to criminals like Team Rocket.
• Glass Cannon: Her Cherubi's surprisingly fast and strong but when Staravia lines himself up with the sun when using Wing Attack, the little Grass-type can't see and gets taken down in three blows.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Upon seeing James' Cacnea again, she asks it to give her a massage with Pin Missile.
• Luminescent Blush: This is her reaction when Dawn asks her if she's been with Nando.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She just can't resist hugging every Grass-type she sees.
• Odd Friendship: With James, whom she could never see as an enemy due to his use of grass types.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: During A Secret Sphere of Influence!
• Signature Mon: Turtwig. Though Roserade is her strongest Pokémon on the team, Turtwig is frequently seen alongside Gardenia the most, appearing out of the Gym Battle in "A Secret Sphere of Influence!" (to serve as a preview for Ash's future Gym Battle) and in "Once There Were Greenfields" (where it tag-teamed with James' Cacnea in a Double Battle against Ash's Aipom and Dawn's Pachirisu).
• Ship Tease: With Nando. She stands up for him when he's accused of stealing the Adamant Orb, and later quotes a bit of reflective poetry similar to his style that prompts Dawn to (correctly) deduce that they've spent time together.
  • She also has some arguable tease with James - or if not that, then borderline with Cacnea (though she's fairly goo-goo-eyed about Grass-types in general). Either way, she's inordinately nice to him in DP054 despite knowing full well of his and his friends' attempted theft of the Adamant Orb.
• Too Kinky to Torture: She actually seems to enjoy getting attacked by grass-type Pokémon. James' Carnivine bites down on her head and she really likes it. She also has Cacnea use Pin Missile on her back like a massage.

Maylene (Sumomo)

Voiced in Japanese by: Aya Endo
Voiced in English by: Rachael Lillis
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Marianna Santiago

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• Badass Adorable: She's the first Gym Leader from whom Ash wins a badge without outright defeating her (they tie, but she considers his performance worthy of the Cobble Badge). Not to mention her battle with Dawn. Reggie even notes the result of her battle with Paul might have been very different if she'd been at the top of her game when they faced off.
• Badass Normal: When you're a human and you can deflect an Aura Sphere with your bare hands...
• Break the Cutie: Losing to Paul, then being on the receiving end of his painful "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Ouch.
• Brick Break: Machoke's attack.
• Calling Your Attacks: She even motions whenever her commands Lucario to use Aura Sphere.
• Curtains Match the Window: Her pink eyes and pink hair match in color.
• Elemental Powers: Maylene specializes in fighting type Pokémon.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Lucario's Bone Rush.
  • Extra-ore-dinary: Lucario's secondary type.
  • Psychic Powers: Meditite's secondary type.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Similarly to Roark, she has a decent four-episode arc of bonding with Ash and his friends (especially Dawn).
• Heroic BSoD: Maylene has been in a severe depression since her crushing loss to Paul, along with his following "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which did not help her preexisting self-esteem issues as a new gym leader. It gets so bad that she has serious thoughts about quitting as the Veilstone Gym Leader, and her Lucario's harsh attempts to snap her out of the depression aren't doing much good either. Only when Dawn gently confides in Maylene her doubts concerning her career as a Coordinator, challenging her to a battle and watching Ash's battle with Reggie, does she start to believe in herself again.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In her final appearance, she sensed the disturbance caused by Team Galactic stealing the Veilstone Meteorites and hurried over to stop them.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Her Lucario (A Fighting/Steel-type) beats Ash's part Flying-type Staravia and Fire-type Chimchar.
• Signature Mon: Lucario is her main Pokémon and her humiliating defeat against Paul has strained her bond with her Aura Pokémon because Lucario doesn't want either of them to give up while Maylene considers it a serious possibility.
• Ship Tease: With Reggie.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Though she'd considered making it permanent, her Lucario (and everyone else for that matter) wouldn't hear of it.

Crasher Wake (Maximum Mask)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tetsu Inada
Voiced in English by: Michael Alston Baley
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Raúl Anaya
Voiced in European French by: Jean-Daniel Nicodème

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• Acrofatic: Don't let that spare tire on his waist fool you. He's a wrestler with Stout Strength, after all.
  Ash: For a big guy, that Wake can move!
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a wrestler, hero, and a Gym leader rolled into one.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Regarding Ash's victory over him; while Wake doesn't just fall and puts up a good battle, this is the first proper time Ash has won a Gym Match without a single Pokémon fainting (discounting the double-battle with Tate and Liza in Hoenn).
• Didn't Think This Through: Sends out a Gyarados (A Water/Flying-type) against Pikachu and the former is crushed in just two moves. Averted when he sends out the Water/Ground Quagsire against Turtwig due to Quagsire knowing Sludge Bomb and Ice Beam which are super effective against Grass-types.
• Elemental Powers: Crasher Wake specializes in Water type Pokémon.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Floatzel's Bulk Up.
  • Casting a Shadow: Gyarados' Bite.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Quagsire's secondary type (Ground).
  • An Ice Person : Floatzel's Ice Fang, and Quagsire's Ice Beam.
  • Poisonous Person: Quagsire's Sludge Bomb.
  • Wind from Beneath My Wings: Gyarados' secondary type.
• Hidden Depths: Like everyone else in his town, he is fond of Croagunk.
• Large Ham: complete with introductions!
  I'M...Crasher Wake! (laughs)
• No-Sell: Averted. After his Gyarados is fried by Thunderbolt, everyone acts like it didn't work but, after Gyarados was hit, he has his eyes and mouth closed and is slumped over, meaning that he was pretending he wasn't affected which is confirmed when Gyarados is knocked out by Volt Tackle.
• Razor Wind: Floatzel's attack.
• Signature Mon: Floatzel is his main Pokémon, both for the last Pokémon faced in Ash's Gym Battle and being a worthy rival for Buizel to overcome physically and mentally.
• Worthy Opponent: His Floatzel quickly became this to Buizel - becoming even important to the latter's Character Development.

Fantina (Melissa)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kikuko Inoue
Voiced in English by: Bella Hudson
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Georgina "Gina" Sánchez

—-

• Back for the Finale: Or rather, back for the Sinnoh Grand Festival.
• Big "OMG!": In Coming Full Festival Circle!
• Big "NO!": Comically does this whenever Ash KO's one of her Pokémon.
• Blood Knight: Fantina is an ambitious and passionate Hearthome Gym Leader who not only desires to engage in great battles, herself but also wishes to provide her challengers with equally great battles. To achieve this, she often ventures on training trips away from the gym, where she hones her skills and devises new strategies to keep her opponents on their toes.
• Curtains Match the Window: She has violet hair to match her violet eyes.
• Elemental Powers: Fantina specializes in Ghost type Pokémon.
  • Casting a Shadow: Mismagius' Dark Pulse.
  • Green Thumb: Mismagius' Magical Leaf.
  • Playing with Fire: Drifblim's Will-O-Wisp.
  • Poisonous Person: Gengar's secondary type.
  • Psychic Powers: Mismagius' Psybeam and Psywave, Drifblim's Hypnosis and Psychic, and Gengar's Hypnosis.
  • Wind from Beneath My Wings: Drifblim's secondary type.
• Genki Girl: The woman can barely stand still, she's always dancing.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: She speaks English and French in the Japanese and English versions, respectively.
• Improbable Hairstyle: No one in the world has her overly pompous hairdo.
• Japanese Spirit: Fantina believes in providing her challengers with an exceptional battle experience. Therefore, she embarks on a journey to develop a distinctive style that combines the raw power of regular battles with the stylish moves of Pokémon Contests. This is why she occasionally leaves her Gym to hone her skills.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Her purple outfit that she uses for contests and gym battles.
• Recurring Character: Fantina's appearances are the most sporadically spread out of all the Sinnoh Gym Leaders.
• Running Gag: Never in her gym whenever she was needed.
• Signature Mon: Her Drifblim is main Pokémon partner, which she raised since it was an Egg. Naturally, it's her final Pokémon and easily sweeps Pikachu and Buizel before falling to Chimchar.
• Tempting Fate: After Fantina comes up with a Counter Counter Shield (Having her Drifblim use Psychic to spin Will-O-Wisp around itself), she brags she learned everything about the technique. Ash is able to have Chimchar use Flamethrower on the Counter Counter Shield and blow it up and then Ash points out that no, Fantina did not learn everything about his technique. Fantina admits she spoke too soon.
• That One Attack: In-universe, after his first match with her, Ash would spend the next few episodes before their rematch contemplating how to get past her team's Hypnosis.

Byron (Tougan)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kazuki Yao
Voiced in English by: Dan Green
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Jorge Ornelas

I LOVE DEFENSE!

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• Adaptational Curves: Byron is drawn with large, manly, bulging arm muscles that his game counterpart doesn't have, and flexes them at the camera multiple times to emphasize this.
• Adaptation Personality Change: He is a more serious character in the games. Here, he's as hammy as Crasher Wake and his obsession with fossils and digging holes is used for comic relief.
• Curtains Match the Window: His eyes are as black as coal, the same color as his hair.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Though his demeanour suggests otherwise, this is actually true - he wanted Roark to become his own man rather than living under his father's shadow, hence why he left Oreburgh Gym in his hands.
• Disappeared Dad: A major gripe Roark has with him is how Byron apparently ran off to Canalave City and left Roark to fend for himself.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Bastiodon's primary type (Rock) and Steelix's secondary type (Ground).
• Elemental Powers: Byron specializes in Steel type Pokémon.
• Energy Ball: Bastiodon's Flash Cannon.
• Failed a Spot Check: He's so enamored by the perfectly dug hole Team Rocket dug in the floor of his exhibition room that he doesn't even notice his entire fossil collection has been stolen until Roark points it out to him.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Played for laughs when he reasons that Team Rocket can't be bad because they dig holes beautifully.
• Hot-Blooded: You don't get much more hot-blooded than having explosions go off behind you while yelling about how much you love things. Dan Green, ladies and gentlemen.
• It's All About Me: Roark accuses him of this for dumping the position of Oreburgh Gym Leader on him so he could go hunt for fossils in Canalave City.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is sometimes harsh with his son, but he does genuinely care about him.
• Large Ham: A running gag is explosions going off in the background when he yells about how much he loves something.
• Ludd Was Right: Played for Laughs. When he finds out Team Rocket stole his fossils and escaped through a giant hole in the exhibition floor, he entreats them to stop using the machines and dig their holes by hand.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "I LOVE [something]!!!", which is always accompanied by a massive explosion in the background.
• Making a Splash: Bronzor knows the Water-type move Rain Dance.
• Memento Macguffin: His most treasured fossil - a fossilized Sunkern leaf which Roark found and gave him as a young boy.
• No Indoor Voice: He's always shouting about how much he loves things.
• Playing with Fire: Bastiodon can dish out Flamethrower from its mouth.
• Signature Mon: Bastiodon is his main Pokémon and used to represent Byron's stubborn attitude towards his son, as exemplified by Bastiodon and Rampardos butting heads in their battle despite both being on equal footing.
• Single-Issue Wonk: He loves fossils, digging holes, and nothing else. Well, except maybe his son.
• Skewed Priorities: When confronting Team Rocket over his stolen fossils, his first order of business is to compliment them on the perfectly round hole they dug, and then tell them they should dig holes by hand instead of using machines. Even they're baffled, with Jessie commenting, "What's with him and holes?"
• Stone Wall: His battle style primarily revolves around defense, and his main Pokémon, Bastiodon, has high defensive stats and a head shaped like a castle fortress. He demonstrates by having Bastiodon use Iron Defense to protect his son's Rampardos from a barrage of rocks hurled by Team Rocket's mech. Ash gets around this by having Chimchar and Gliscor attack as much as possible.
  Byron: Now see why I always talk about the value of a good defense?!
• Super-Scream: Steelix knows Screech, used to repel Buziel's attack and lower his defenses.
• Tunnel King: With nothing but the highest respect for others who share the same talent.
• Use Your Head: Bastiodon's Iron Head.
• Vocal Dissonance: His naturally deep voice sometimes gets comically high-pitched when he's excited about something.

Candice (Suzuna)

Voiced in Japanese by: Noriko Shitaya
Voiced in English by: Kether Donohue
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Cristina Hernández (episode 126-128), Cynthia de Pando (episode 155)
Voiced in Italian by: Giuliana Atepi

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• Affectionate Nickname: Zoey refers to her as "Miss Senior"
• Badass Armfold: Her Abomasnow has this as her default pose. Her arm-fold looks more badass when she uses long-range attacks while doing it, and there is also a scene where Abomasnow and Candice do it side by side. However, once Abomasnow loses her cool, she quickly discards that habit for the rest of the fight.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Her Medicham is a Fighting-type Pokémon, which is odd since she specializes in Ice-types.
• Catchphrase: She is oddly fond of kiai. No, not the shouting. The word itself.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Ash's Gym battle against her starts out with Ash bulldozing her team up until Snover takes down Gliscor, before itself being easily dispatched by Chimchar. Then Abomasnow comes out and returns the favor, taking down two of Ash's remaining Pokémon in quick succession.
• Didn't Think This Through: Sends out a Snover and Abomasnow (Ice/Grass-types) against Chimchar) and clearly expects an easy battle. Abomasnow does manage to make Chimchar retreat at first but then he takes advantage of Abomasnow's slow speed and takes her down.
• Elemental Powers: Candice specializes in Ice type Pokémon.
• Green Thumb: Her Abomasnow and Snover are Grass-type Pokémon and they also use Grass-type moves such as Bullet Seed and Wood Hammer.
• Friendly Rivalry: This is actually how she thinks rivalry should function, and is therefore pleased by how Dawn and Zoey help and learn from each other. By extension, she finds herself both shocked and baffled by Paul and his hostility towards Ash.
• Genki Girl: She's very friendly and excitable.
• Hot-Blooded: If her always going on about Kiai is any indication.
• Kill It with Fire: Snover and Abomasnow fall to the Fire-type Chimchar.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Despite specializing in Ice-type Pokémon, she packs the Psychic/Fighting-type Medicham.
• Mighty Glacier: Candice's Abomasnow is very powerful, easily defeating half of Ash's team when they try to attack it head-on. She's also very slow, meaning that Chimchar was able to outmaneuver her and take her down.
• Playing with Fire: Her Medicham can use Fire Punch, which is surprisingly fitting considering that Candice has a fiery personality.
• Psychic Powers: Her Medicham is also a Psychic-type Pokémon and uses Confusion in battle.
• Recurring Character: Her increased importance is enabled by her being Zoey's childhood friend.
• Signature Mon: Abomasnow is her main Pokémon, often seen by her side at Pokémon Trainer School, and serves as the final formidable threat in Ash's Gym Battle.

Volkner (Denzi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Hirofumi Nojima, Daisuke Sakaguchi (child)
Voiced in English by: Eli James (Diamond & Pearl), Griffin Puatu (Journeys)
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Javier Olguín

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• The Ace: Like in the games, he's not only the strongest Gym Leader in Sinnoh, but also implied to be stronger than the strongest Gym Leaders of most regions.
  • His status as the strongest in Sinnoh is supported further in the anime, where Sinnoh has more than 8 Gyms, since all the competitors who arrived at the Sinnoh League were implied to have either avoided his Gym outright because he was too strong, or just taken a badge once he started just handing them out. Because he had been doing this for while, this also suggests that Volkner was not among the Gym Leaders Tobias' Darkrai single-handedly defeated, and potentially could have stood a chance against it.
  • His personal rival and childhood friend is Flint, the second-strongest Elite Four member in Sinnoh. This suggests Volkner's actually closer to the upper ranks of the Elite Four in terms of strength, which is still believable even after his loss to Ash since he never used his Raichu, which as his first Pokemon might also be his strongest.
  • Palmer, a Frontier Brain strong enough to at least match some attacks from Cynthia, the regional Champion of the region, thought Ash might be able to reinvigorate Volkner's desire to battle in response Ash doing decently well against his own Rhyperior. This means Volkner is strong enough that the strongest Sinnoh Frontier Brain laments him not actively battling because he's just that good.
  • Reinforced tremendously upon his return in Journeys - Volkner's rank in the Pokemon World Championships Ultra Class is shown to be 27. Since the Masters Eight occupies the top 8 positions, this means Volkner actually made it to be ranked the 19th strongest trainer out of all of the Ultra Class trainers, and is the 2nd-highest ranked Gym Leader in the world thus far as a result. Even after Bea, who was actively training the entire time and suffered no such loss returns as Ash's next opponent, her rank is shown to be 30 - still below Volkner's. He also fought Ash and was largely winning for most of the battle, and heavily implied his Electivire could have absorbed a Thunderbolt Havoc without issue and kept fighting - he mainly lost because Ash used a Z-Move that even Tapu Koko, one of the strongest Electric-type Pokemon in the entire anime, couldn't outdamage. And to top it all off, Volkner achieved this rank and was so proficient in these battles without having access to Mega Evolution, Z-Moves or Gigantamax.
  • Despite being Ash's first opponent in the Hyper Class, he actually ends up being higher ranked than the next two people Ash battles (Bea at Rank 30 and Marnie at Rank 29). Their ranks also heavily imply that they actually moved up to those ranks because Volkner lost, meaning even with him losing they still couldn't quite reach his rank. It takes Ash battling an Elite Four member - Drasna - for him to encounter a Hyper Class trainer with a higher rank.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: His hair is a dirtier shade of blond. This doesn't carry over into Journeys, where his hair color is the same as the games.
• Adapted Out: His Fan Rotom doesn't appear in the manga version of his and Ash's World Coronation Battle.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Matching his engineering expertise, Volkner is an extremely analytical person and has a highly intelligent, flexible battling style with many layers. During a casual chat with Ash right before their rematch, he noticed his Z-Ring and what looked like an Electric-type Z-Crystal and immediately formulated a plan to force Ash to use it on his Electivire, who is immune to Electric-type moves, all on the way to the arena. He also chose his Pokemon based on strategic value: he chose Luxray to start so he could set up Electric Terrain, used Rotom next to neutralize Gengar's mobility advantage (which already gave Visquez's Raichu trouble) and brought out Electivire to shut down Pikachu's electric attacks. He also pressured Ash so heavily that it he didn't have a unique Z-Crystal it would have been impossible for him to win against his Electivire, meaning in terms of actual battle tactics he was superior to Ash despite losing.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He has a long-running win streak; by the time Ash shows up, he's grown so bored that he's giving away badges for free. Journeys shows what happens when he gets his passion back - he quickly becomes the second-highest ranked Gym Leader in the Pokemon World Championships, and ends up being the strongest trainer in the world who doesn't use any special battle power-ups.
• Broken Ace: He is the strongest gym leader in Sinnoh and had an unbreakable winning streak...which caused him depression and resorting to having an interest in other things and nearly abandoning his duty as a gym leader.
• The Bus Came Back: He reappears in JN077 of Journeys as Ash's first Hyper Rank challenger.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: It's implied his Electivire's command over its Motor Drive ability is so strong that it can be this even in response to Electric-type Z-moves. Upon seeing Ash had a Z-Ring and what looked like an Electrium-Z (being told after it is instead a unique crystal for Ash and Pikachu), he deliberately orchestrated the entire battle so that one way or another his Electivire would end up facing Pikachu to absorb the Z-move, even saying he was waiting for it. His confidence suggests that his Electivire would have no problem at all absorbing any Electric-type move up to and including all Z-moves. The fact Pikachu overpowered it just shows its personal Z-move is the sole exception - in all other scenarios, it seems that Volkner would have been impossible to defeat using Electric-type moves or Z-moves. Since some Z-Moves have shown comparable strength to the attacks of Mega-Evolved Pokemon, Electivire's electricity threshold might exceed their output as well
• Doppelgänger Spin: Luxray's Double Team.
• Elemental Absorption: His Electivire can absorb Electric-type moves with Motor Drive to boost its attack. In Journeys, 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt overloads the ability and knocks out Electivire.
• Elemental Powers: Volkner specializes in Electric type Pokémon.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Raichu and Luxray can both use Iron Tail, a Steel-type attack.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Became more interested in technology to make up for being unable to enjoy Pokémon battles.
• Glass Cannon: His Jolteon's good enough to give Infernape a hard time, but is taken out of the match after one Mach punch. Likewise, his Fan Rotom is able to take down Gengar in the World Coronation match and hits Lucario with a Electric Terrain-Hex combo but is also eliminated after one Reversal (which to be fair, does more damage the more the user is hurt)
• An Ice Person: Electivire can use Ice Punch, an Ice-type attack, to counter Grass-Types and Ground-Types who usually have an advantage over Electric-Types.
• Jacob Marley Warning: He is the representation of what would have happened to Ash if Paul had kept Chimchar in the season 10 episode "Glory Blaze", and had not snapped out of his funk in the season 12 episode "Uncrushing Defeat".
• Man Bites Man: Luxray's Thunder Fang.
• Playing with Fire: Electivire's Fire Punch, a Fire-type attack to counter Grass-Type Pokémon who usually resist Electric-type moves.
• Phlebotinum Overload: In JN077, Electivire's Motor Drive ability is ineffective against 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt; Electivire attempts to absorb the Z-Move, but is overloaded and knocked out.
• Signature Mon: Raichu serves as Volkner's main Pokémon partner, often seen outside of his Poké Ball, and has a long history with Volkner, being the first Pokémon Volkner ever got (as a Pikachu) and partaking in many life-changing battles such as against Flint and Proprietor. However, despite being Volkner's first Pokémon and a strong battler used against many challengers, Raichu is never used against Ash in either of the two battles.
• Soul Power: Jolteon knows Shadow Ball, a Ghost-type attack. His Rotom also uses Hex in combination with Thunder Wave.
• 10-Minute Retirement: A very justified one - just as his Gym Battle with Ash got underway, Team Rocket attempt to steal Sunnyshore Tower, in the process damaging the Gym as well. Because of this, Ash doesn't get to challenge him again until after the Sinnoh Grand Festival.
• Tempting Fate: During his initial battle with Ash, after Volkner's Luxray is hit by a Blaze-powered Flamethrower, Volkner calls it impressive, but says there's no way he's losing. He proceeds to lose. Then, in Journeys, he claims he was ready for Pikachu to use his Z-Move and applied pressure to force Ash to use it. 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt proceeds to overload Electivire's Motor Drive and knock it out.
• The Unfought: Despite being consistently on Volkner's game team and being Volker's first Pokémon in the anime, Raichu is never used by Volkner in his two battles against Ash, let alone against Pikachu.
• Victory Is Boring: He got very disillusioned with Pokémon battling due to his constant streak of being undefeated.
• Weak, but Skilled: Zigzagged. He and his team are actually so oppressively strong that no challenger in Sinnoh could beat him at all, so they avoided his Gym outright until he got so bored he just started handing out badges for nothing. He's also heavily implied to be around as strong as Flint, the second-strongest Elite Four member in Sinnoh who managed to take out two of Cynthia's Pokemon with just his Infernape. That said, he's "weak" in the sense that despite his team's base capabilities outshining most others, he doesn't use enhancing techniques like Mega Evolution, Z-Moves or Dynamax in battle. Despite this, he made his way to the 27th strongest trainer in the Pokemon World Championships, which is shown during his battle with Ash to be in part due to heavily strategic style of battling. He ends up combining the most strategies out of any trainer Ash has faced (including Terrain Effects, status ailments, combination moves, super-effective moves and abilities along with applying precise switching pressure). In just the one battle he:
  • Started with Luxray and had it set up Electric Terrain to power up all his Pokemon, then combined it with Rising Voltage for crazy damage, then brought Luxray out again later to set the move back up.
  • Switched in Rotom to nullify Gengar's mobility advantage, then used Thunder Wave to slow it down, and combined the status ailment with Rotom using Hex, which is super-effective AND deals double damage because of Gengar's Paralysis.
  • Switched Rotom for Electivire when it was held in place by Electroweb to undo the speed drop, and got to intercept Pikachu's Thunderbolt with no damage AND sped up his Electivire in the process to match Pikachu's speed.
  • Had Electivire spin to nullify Lucario's Aura Sphere barrage not unlike how Ash's Counter Shield originally worked. Also countered Pikachu's Iron Tail with Electivire's, using two tails instead of one, while using his large size and Motor Drive-enhanced speed to put Pikachu on the ropes.
  • Switched his Pokemon around during the match and applied pressure to force Pikachu to use its Z-Move on Electivire to be absorbed as well, which Volkner succeeds in forcing Ash to do. The only reason Volkner didn't win the battle after absorbing the Z-Move is because it was the one Z-Move that was too powerful to be absorbed. The fact he was confident his Electivire could absorb even a Gigavolt Havoc still shows off how strong Volkner's Pokemon also are, though.
• Worthy Opponent: While Ash lost the exhibition match he had against Flint, Volkner was inspired to take up battling seriously again, and accepts Ash as his first challenger out of his retirement. Thanks to Team Rocket's shenanigans, Ash and Volkner wouldn't have their gym battle for more than a dozen episodes. Volkner explicitly stated that, once he's done repairing the damage Team Rocket has done to his gym, he refuses to accept any other challengers until he and Ash face off again. This comes into play again in Journeys when Ash makes it into Hyper class, he becomes his first Hyper Class challenger. Volkner himself even says Ash is likely to be the one that stirs up the Master Class, which says a lot considering Volkner himself is implied to be as capable as some of the stronger Elite Four members, and had just said Cynthia was in the Masters 8 without offering such praise to her.

Sinnoh League

In General

• Adapted Out: Averted. Every Elite Four member and the Champion make an appearance in the Diamond and Pearl series and rather than having a Adaptational Late Appearance or simply being absent altogether. The only series to have ever match this feat thus far is Pokémon Horizons: The Series, which was made over a decade later after Diamond and Pearl.
• Ascended Extra: With the possible exception of Flint, the Elite Four don't play much of a role in the games outside of being the final few bosses. The anime gives all of them A Day in the Limelight to expand on their personalities and serve as mentors to the main characters.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As with all the regions, the Elite Four are selected based on the strongest trainers in the region.

Cynthia (Shirona)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tomo Sakurai
Voiced in English by: Emily Jenness
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Adriana Casas
Voiced in Italian by: Alessandra Karpoff (1st, DP Episodes 40-51), Elisabetta Spinelli (2nd, DP Episodes 81-BW Episode 97), Renata Bertolas (3rd, BW Episode 98), Elisa Giorgio (4th, JN Episode 83 onwards)

The Champion of the Sinnoh League.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: Before starting her match against Ash during the semi-finals, she seriously considers retiring from battling after her match against Leon. However, her defeat against Ash is able to rebuild her drive and enjoyment for battling, and she changes her mind about retiring.
• The Ace: She is the Champion of Sinnoh, so this should be a given. She's also a member of the Masters Eight, the explicit best trainers in the whole world. As of JN109, she's ranked 2nd in the Masters Eight, only behind Leon. However, after the events of JN125, she's now ranked 3rd, surpassed by Ash himself.
• Achilles' Heel: She swaps her Pokémon in battle maybe a little too much. It allowed her to get an early lead on Ash (who rarely swaps and didn't during their battle) by constantly using moves at full strength, but it meant that at the end, her Pokémon had taken damage while his last few didn't, and Dracovish and Lucario benefited a lot from Roserade and Garchomp having already taken damage.
• Adapted Out: In the games, Lucario is one of her staples, having appeared on every one of her teams, but it's nowhere to be seen here. Due to Ash owning and using a Lucario of his own, her Masters Tournament battle against him combines her Diamond & Pearl and Platinum teams by using both Gastrodon and Togekiss.
• Always Someone Better: She serves this role to Iris, with Cynthia being one of Iris's idols. When they battle in Best Wishes, Cynthia clearly has the upper hand and only calls the battle off in order to prevent Iris's Axew from getting seriously injured. When they have their rematch in the Masters Tournament in Journeys, Iris performs significantly better, but Cynthia ultimately still comes out on top.
• Badass Longcoat: She wears her black signature coat for the entirety of Diamond & Pearl. It's absent in Unova (revealing a blue top, and paired with a different open-toed pair of heels), but it returns in Journeys.
• Badass Bookworm: Has a love and fascination for history, when she makes her debut she's visiting a site of ruins in Sinnoh.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: In the Master 8 semi-finals, Ash thought he would be battling Cynthia's Garchomp as Mega Garchomp since that was the ace in the hole that brought her victory against Iris. But Cynthia surprised everyone by revealing she has a Dynamax Band as well, and uses to Dynamax her Togekiss instead. While Garchomp is still the last Pokémon to face, it would only be at her base form.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She is a very polite and somewhat quirky Lady of War, but will immediately react to whatever region-wide threat is present and will unleash her Garchomp at a moment's notice.
• Big Damn Heroes: She takes down Jupiter easily (Skuntank got blindsided by a Giga Impact from her Garchomp) and frees Ash and co. just in time for them to stop Cyrus' plan. Looker gave her a heads-up in advance.
• Big Good: She is portrayed this way in Diamond and Pearl, in regards to both heroics and the Pokémon League. She leads and supports the Power Trio in the final battle against Team Galactic, and is given extensive attention as the Champion of the Sinnoh League, while also playing a significant role in reshaping the Ash/Paul rivalry.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: During her battle with Paul, her Garchomp is able to negate all damage from Weavile's Blizzard and Torterra's Frenzy Plant...by covering herself with her fin.
• Blood Knight: Cynthia is reserved, but makes it clear she craves actual challenge and enjoys tough battles, something her status as The Ace makes a rarity for her to get to experience.
• Breakout Character: Much like her games counterpart, Cynthia's popularity offered a massive boost to her role in the anime. She is by far the anime's most recurring Champion character — she was a vital figure in the Diamond and Pearl series who contributed heavily to both the Ash/Paul rivalry and Team Galactic arc, reappeared for an extensive arc of Best Wishes, and is confirmed to be one of the Masters 8 in Journeys (while getting numerous reappearances in non-World Championship episodes) eventually being revealed as the second strongest current trainer of the Master Rank, ranking just behind Leon.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: After winning/having the upper hand in all the previous Pokémon battles she had on-screen, she was finally dealt her first on-screen loss against Ash in the Masters Tournament.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • As a reference to her appearances in the fifth generation games, she has a recurring role in Best Wishes! Season 2 — her villa in Undella Town accommodated Ash and his friends as they prepared for the Junior Cup and the Vertress Conference. During one particular arc, she even brought Dawn along with her.
  • After she is revealed to be one of the Masters 8, she becomes a recurring character in Journeys. She reappears in JN083, where she helps Ash and Goh investigate a town that's been permanently trapped in nighttime, makes another appearance in the Dialga/Palkia Sinnoh winter special, and yet another in the special Pokémon Legends: Arceus 4-parter. Her next appearance is at the Masters Tournament capping the current World Coronation Series season.
• The Cameo: Makes a slight appearance in JN077 where she was shown to be watching Ash and Volkner's Coronation battle after Volkner mentions she's in the Master Class.
• Canon Welding: In Journeys she's shown to have a Kommo-o, which she has only ever been seen with in Pokémon Masters, as her partner while wearing her first Sygna Suit (saying she raised it from an egg she got in Alola and that it's gotten strong enough to be equal to Garchomp). Her hair when wearing her Garchomp Kimono in the Legends: Arceus special is also almost identical to her hair in this Sygna Suit, except that her topknot is instead less pronounced and pushed down to be a bun her ponytail comes out of.
• Characterization Marches On: In Diamond and Pearl she is very much The Stoic and while overall good to Ash and company, is very straight-to-business when assisting them and doesn't show any emotion while battling, perhaps being the most level-headed character in the series at that point. in Black and White she shows much more emotion and a softer disposition, not hiding that she's appearing at the Junior World Cup to have fun and enjoy Unova's Ice Cream, getting several Deadpan Snarker moments (including trolling Ash), being much more emotionally invested in the battles she was in, and showing deep sympathy to Iris when her Dragonite was causing problems. Journeys does a middle-ground between the two, making her stoic outside of battle again and removing the snarking but showing kindness to those who need it, while making her Blood Knight aspect something reserved for when she's really enjoying the battle.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Not usually, but when she shows up to help Ash against Team Galactic, she has her Garchomp do a surprise attack against Jupiter's Skuntank, and then when Jupiter starts to take out another Pokémon, Garchomp lands behind her and rests its claws right near her throat. When the world's at stake, it isn't the time to play fair.
  • To a much less deadly extent, in her full battle against Ash, she does a lot of what could be called "dirty tricks" despite them all being allowed: She has Spiritomb put Dragonite to sleep and defeat it with Dream Eater, she has her Togekiss flinch Pikachu a few times although it doesn't do too much, but after defeating her Gastrodon and her Spiritomb, she has Spiritomb use Destiny Bond to defeat him, basically taking him with it, and later on, has her Roserade poison Dracovish, and although Dracovish prevails, it doesn't last much longer afterward against her Milotic. Even her powerhouse Garchomp set Stealth Rock at one point that hurt Sirfetch'd when it comes out, although Ash quickly got rid of it afterwards. While all of this didn't get her the win, it came down right to the wire, and having faced Ash's strongest team, most other trainers would certainly be crushed by her strategy.
• Combat Stilettos: She's quite a powerful trainer and her main outfit includes high heels. Her Best Wishes outfit features a different pair of heels, this pair open-toed.
• The Comically Serious: Despite being an Ace, she’s constantly put in comedic situations. It usually involves her having issues with purchasing ice cream.
• Cool Big Sis: She serves as one to Ash. She was the closest thing to what he's aimed to become for a long time, they are always happy to see each other, she let him stay at her vacation home in Unova without any conditions, has displayed a Big Sister Instinct when he's in danger, and she's visibly more excited battling Ash in the Masters Eight Tournament than she is against Iris. While this didn't stop her from giving him the battle of his life, she was happy for his victory over her nonetheless.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: People who try to face her in battle usually receive one of these, most notably Paul. The known exceptions are Flint (who took down two of her Pokémon before losing to her Garchomp), Caitlin (who battled Cynthia's Garchomp to a standstill with her Gothitelle, resulting in the battle going into overtime and effectively ending in a draw), Unova Champion Iris (who manages to bring Cynthia down to her last Pokémon in a 3v3 battle), and most notably Alola Champion Ash (who becomes the first trainer to give her an on-screen loss).
• Dark and Troubled Past: While not a lot of specifics have been given, she has admitted her focus on only getting stronger when young caused Pokemon to get hurt and notably showed a lot of concern when noting Paul to be like her younger self. Notably, when asked about her past in Journeys, she only exactly answers the question of what her first Pokemon was (Indeed Garchomp, hatched as a Gible), and does not give any information other than that.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Cynthia primarily dresses in black, is one of the Pokemon world's strongest champions, and is a very kind and gentle lady.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Several of her Pokémon are Ground-Type, and they can use Ground-Type and Rock-Type moves to level the playing field.
  • Garchomp can use Stone Edge and Stealth Rock to bring hard pain to her foes.
  • Her Gastrodon can use Stone Edge and Muddy Water.
• The Ditherer: Every time she needs to pick a flavor of ice cream, she takes ages.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Her Milotic knows the move Iron Head.
• Graceful Loser: She takes her defeat to Ash very well, shaking his hand and thanking him. She was even thrilled by her defeat. The whole thing pushed her so much it revitalized her love of battling and prompts her not to retire after all. Her Garchomp also took her defeat in stride, accepting Lucario's paw and acknowledging him as a Worthy Opponent.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Sort of has this happen in the B2W2 season - she doesn't join Ash's group, but they lounge about in her villa for a while, and she participates in several of their adventures.
• Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: Subverted in the "Operation Tempest" two-parter - her Garchomp proves vital, along with Dragonite and Golurk, in holding back the Therian Forme Kami Trio. She also helped directly in fighting Team Galactic, even though anything connecting with the Lake Trio had to be done by Ash, Dawn, and Brock since they were the ones linked to them.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Is really close friends with Diantha. Even watching the finals match together.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her left eye is covered by her hair, which is part of her "mysterious beauty" look.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: One of her favorite tactics is to fight like normal, only to surprise her opponent with a special move or gimmick that she's been keeping in reserve. For Iris, it's revealing that she can Mega Evolve Garchomp. For Ash, it was using Destiny Bond on Pikachu and Dynamaxing her Togekiss instead of Mega Evolving her Garchomp as Ash anticipated.
• Ice-Cream Koan: Plenty of times in DP, though nowhere near as much in BW, she'll go into random tangents with vague words and meanings that may or may not even relate to what's going on.
• Iconic Sequel Character: The most popular and prominent champion in the anime, she first appeared towards the end of the tenth season.
• Informed Flaw: An undubbed promo for the Masters Eight shows stats for the semifinalists, with Cynthia's speed and unpredictability as her only imperfect stats. None of these apparent weaknesses particularly come into play in her battle with Ash; Cynthia's main gameplan for Ash's Lucario revolves around Togekiss and Garchomp's speed, and she pulls one of the most surprising moves in the tournament by using Dynamax instead of Mega Evolution, specifically to catch him off guard. She also manages to defeat Pikachu quite early on through Spiritomb's Destiny Bond, which is also one of the biggest surprises of the arc.
• Irony: She loves ice cream, but her signature Pokémon, Garchomp, sports a quadruple weakness to the Ice-type. She also takes ages to decide what flavor of ice cream she wants, yet is one of the world's most efficient and decisive trainers in battle.
• Jerkass to One: She is normally unfailingly polite to anyone who isn't explicitly a villain (even speaking calmly to Paul despite his harsh views on bonding with Pokémon), but she is noticeably annoyed and sarcastic when speaking to Alder. It's justified due to his incessant flirting with her, although she has never displayed this attitude towards Brock (who has also flirted with her on numerous occasions).
• Lady of War: Cynthia herself, though her female Garchomp also qualifies by merit of being both powerful and graceful.
• Lonely at the Top: Implied to be the reason she decides to retire from battling after the Masters Tournament. She enjoys battling but being The Ace means there are very few trainers who can actually challenge her. However, her match with Ash restores her zeal and she opts to continue battling and getting stronger.
• Make My Monster Grow: In her Masters Tournament battle against Ash, she opts to Dynamax her Togekiss instead of Mega Evolving her Garchomp.
• Making a Splash: Her Milotic that knows Hydro Pump.
• Makeup Weapon: Her lipstick contains her Key Stone which she uses to Mega Evolve her Garchomp.
• The Mentor: Her main role during the plot of the DP series, though she does get actively involved in the effort to stop Team Galactic, doing her duty as Champion very well. She also mentors Iris, particularly in regards to her new, disobedient Dragonite. Iris in turn looks up to her, thanks in no small part to Cynthia having trained her own powerful Dragon-type, Garchomp.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In JN089, she is shown to have a Kommo-o. Much like her Pokemon Masters counterpart.
  • Her team during the Masters Eight semifinals is a composite of her teams from Diamond and Pearl and Platinum, sans Lucario. Furthermore, in said tournament, she sends out Spiritomb first against Ash, which is also the case in the games.
• Nerves of Steel: In JN117, she doesn't even flinch at a Hydro Pump that passes right by her (launched by her own Milotic, no less).
• Nice Girl: She really is a kind and gentle person, who's more than happy to give any helpful advice she can.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: It's implied this is part of why she was wanting to retire: she's so powerful few other trainers actually pose a challenge to her. As such, she enjoys her fights with both Iris and Ash, as both were actually a genuine challenge to her, with Ash managing to defeat her. She's so thrilled by this, she chooses not to retire.
• One-Man Army: Her Garchomp tears through Paul's team like a lawnmower through a notebook factory, finishing by one-shotting his powerful Torterra with a single Brick Break.
• One Last Job: Her participation in the Masters Tournament is intended to be the final time she'll be involved with competitive battling. Of course, she hoped to cap her career by defeating Leon, but she loses to Ash and in turn abandons the idea of retiring in favor of continuing battling and getting stronger.
• Playing with Fire: Her Garchomp can use Flamethrower.
• Recurring Character: Cynthia appears every now and then in Diamond & Pearl and she also appears a lot in the early episodes of Best Wishes! Season 2.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Along with Lance, Steven, Diantha, and Leon she is one of the champions we seen on-screen that take proactive measures against wide-scale threats.
• Running Gag: A good number of times Ash meets her she's having trouble deciding on what flavor of ice cream she wants...
• Signature Mon: Just like in the games, her primary Pokemon is Garchomp. It lives up to its fearsome reputation from the games and then some — it isn't until fifteen years after its debut that it's shown struggling and eventually losing in battle. Even then, it takes the combined efforts of Sirfetch'd and Mega Lucario both pulling out a Death or Glory Attack, all in order to just barely defeat Garchomp in its base form.
• Skewed Priorities: During the introduction of the Meloetta arc in Pokemon Black and White, while Ash and Company take care of Meloetta on the roadside, Cynthia receives an urgent call that requires her to drive back to the city immediately. She forgot her change when she bought an ice cream cone.
• Statuesque Stunner: A few websites state that Cynthia stands at 5'11. She’s also considered attractive In-Universe by guys such as Brock and Alder.
• Strong and Skilled: She's one of the most powerful trainers in the world — no trainer short of top level is even going to faze her in battle. She's also shown to be incredibly strategic during her Master Class battles with Ash and Iris, making extensive use of status moves, stat boosts, and abilities.
• Super Mode: During her Masters 8 battle against Iris in Journeys, her Garchomp is revealed to be able to Mega Evolve.
• Super-Scream: Her Milotic knows Disarming Voice.
• Sweet Tooth:
  • Her introductory moments in the series show her being indecisive over what flavor of ice cream to get, a gag that shows up several more times later on. Towards the end of DP (during the Lily of the Valley Conference), Team Rocket use this gag to attract customers. Comes up yet again in BW when Ash meets up with her again in a similar manner, down to her indecisiveness on picking a flavor.
  • She brings donuts to Ash and gang during their first meetup in Journeys.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ice cream, but she takes hours to decide which one she wants to choose.
• True Blue Femininity: When not wearing her traditional black outfit and cloak, she tends to wear light blue clothing as her casual outfits.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Outside her standard one, she has a total of three different outfits:
  • In Black and White, she wears a light blue sleeveless top and long black pants.
  • In Arceus Chronicles, she is seen wearing a Hisuian Kimono.
  • In JN122, she wears a light blue shirt and long navy pants as she's taking care of her Garchomp.
• Weak, but Skilled: Of course, not compared to the average trainer and her Garchomp is very strong, but aside from that, a lot of her team in the Masters' Tournament Semifinals match against Ash did not physically stack up against his Pokémon move for move, but they used status or their abilities to even things out. Spiritomb can put opponents to sleep and use Dream Eater on them, use Sucker Punch to interrupt their attack while damaging them at the same time, and if all else fails, use Destiny Bond to take the opponent with it. Togekiss can flinch opponents with Serene Grace, Roserade can poison opponents and heal its own status with Natural Cure, Milotic can coil opponents to immobilize them and hit them at a very close range. Notably, Cynthia was dominant at the start of the match and was practically bullying Ash, easily taking out Dragonite with the Hypnosis plus Dream Eater combo, Sucker Punch being super effective on Gengar, Destiny Bond taking out Pikachu, as well as Dracovish getting poisoned and coiled and even Garchomp set up Stealth Rock at one point, but Ash wisens up and starts to counter them and leverage the power of his team and the match slowly but surely swings into his favor, though it still ended up being a very close victory for him since Dynamaxing Togekiss and still having said Garchomp meant she was obviously not entirely this.
  • Special mention to Cynthia's Spiritomb. It was considered an unexpected Pokémon for Cynthia to lead off the fight against Ash, and comes with a moveset focusing on status inflcition, interruption with Sucker Punch and catching its opponent off guard with Destiny Bond. It proved to be effective enough to take out half of Ash's team, including Pikachu. By the conclusion of Masters Eight, Spiritomb remains as the single best performing Pokémon against Ash with only Leon's Rillaboom taking on half of Ash's team with 2 knockout coming close.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her Kommo-o never reappears after The Gates of Warp!
• The Worf Effect:
  • During its debut in Diamond and Pearl, Gastrodon showed itself to be just as unstoppable as Garchomp against opponents like Aaron and Team Galactic, even if it was always assumed that Garchomp was stronger. When Gastrodon returned in Journeys it was the first of her Pokemon defeated in both of her battles against Iris and Ash without a win against Excadrill and Pikachu, both of whom it was strong against, used to demonstrate how the two of them were now at a level to compete with her.
  • In her semifinals battle with Ash, she opts to Dynamax her Togekiss instead of Mega Evolving her Garchomp, using Max Airstream to boost its already impressive power and speed even higher. However, it still gets overcome by Mega Lucario in and out of Dynamax, as the latter uses a giant Aura Sphere to overpower Max Airstream, and it's quickly defeated by Bullet Punch despite the boost to its speed.
• Worf Had the Flu: Downplayed. In Garchomp's battle against Ash's Mega Lucario, Garchomp had already taken heavy damage from Sirfetch'd's Meteor Assault, and was unable to Mega Evolve due to Cynthia having already Dynamaxed her Togekiss. However, Lucario had also taken considerable damage against Cynthia's Togekiss, thus putting them on a relatively even playing field. Even then, Garchomp still comes close to winning and Mega Lucario has to pull out Reversal (a move that increases in power the more injured the user is) and stand up first after both collapse to finally win.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • She's exceedingly happy to see Ash and Paul grow as trainers throughout Diamond and Pearl and expresses her excitement for the day that they make it to the Champion League to face her. While it doesn't quite happen the way she predicted, Ash finally does get to have an all-out battle with her in Journeys, while Paul grows into an extroardinarily powerful trainer in his own right.
  • Downplayed with Iris, as while Cynthia praises her efforts in their battle, she seems to be secretly disappointed with the outcome. The next round reveals she's planning to retire from battling after the Masters Eight Tournament, suggesting Iris wasn't tough enough to reinvigorate her battling spirit.

Lucian (Goyō)

Voiced in Japanese by: Daisuke Namikawa
Voiced in English by: David Lapkin
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Eduardo Garza

• Badass Bookworm: Like his game counterpart, he can be frequently seen with a book in his hands.
• Early-Bird Cameo: If you count that he's the sole Sinnoh Elite Four member who appeared prior to Cynthia.
• Elemental Powers: He uses Psychic types.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Bronzong's primary type.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He dresses up in a nice suit and has a book to complement his smart look.
• Worthy Opponent: Perceived as such by Buizel, who thus became highly depressed at losing so badly to him the first time.

Aaron (Ryou)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kensho Ono
Voiced in English by: Christopher C. Adams
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Javier Olguín
Voiced in European French by: Christophe Hespel

• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Specializes in bug types
• Come Back, My Pet!: His Beautifly.
• My Greatest Failure: Abandoning his Wurmple for being a weak Pokémon when he was younger (which prompted him to better understand Bug-types, so it wouldn't happen again). It eventually comes back to him as a Beautifly.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the dub, which also has Sir Aaron.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: He is apparently able to understand insects.

Flint (Ōba)

Voiced in Japanese by: Toru Nara
Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland (Sinnoh), Daman Mills (Journeys)
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Arturo Castañeda

• Afro Asskicker: Just like his game counterpart, he has a fluffy red afro and was powerful enough to be a member of the Masters Eight.
• Adaptational Badass: In the games, he's the second strongest Elite Four member. In the anime, he seems to be stronger than Lucian who supposedly ranks above him, putting up a better fight against Cynthia in their match, going as far as knocking out 2 of her team members. He was also a member of the Masters Eight, giving Leon a decent fight with his Infernape getting some clean hits in and pushing the Monarch's Charizard back, even compared to Alain who likely replaced him as one of the Eight but was very easily beaten even with Mega Charizard X when Leon's Charizard came into the fray.
• The Ace: Despite being ranked below Lucian in the games, he has the most success against Cynthia, defeating two of her Pokemon and weakening Garchomp with just Infernape. He is also the highest-ranked Elite Four member of the World Coronation Series, making it to Rank 7 and later dropping to 8 before eventually dropping out of it entirely — also meaning he's the only known Elite Four member to have ever been part of the Masters Eight. While not every powerful trainer in the world is known to be competing, it's still an impressive feat, since other Elite Four members are still ranked below him (including Drasna, who unlike Flint has access to Mega Evolution).
• Always Someone Better: After fully evolving, Ash's Infernape only lost once in the entire remaining series. To Flint's Infernape. While he wasn't technically knocked out, the only other situation where Ash's Infernape was overpowered was against a wild Moltres, for comparison.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Infernape's 2nd Type and it knows Close Combat, Mach Punch, and Thunderpunch
• Beyond the Impossible: Despite the type disadvantage, when his Infernape's Flare Blitz clashes with Buizel's Aqua Jet, Flare Blitz completely overpowers it and evaporates all the water.
• Big Brother Mentor: Has this vibe with Ash and they share a similar philosophy in the way they battle with their Pokémon and he shares some advice with the younger boy. Not to mention that he is obviously fond of Ash...
• Big Damn Heroes: in his first appearance, using Infernape to save Ash from the Sunyshore gym's security system, and again to rescue Kenny's Floatzel from Team Rocket.
• Blood Knight: If his Infernape's reaction to Pikachu is anything to go by than he LOVES a good fight where his opponents can fight back effectively allowing him to use all its might to win. Flint may qualify as well since he also thought Pikachu was well trained and worth more effort to battle against.
• The Bus Came Back: He makes his return in Journeys in JN100, where he's revealed to be part of the Masters 8 after losing a match against Leon.
• The Cameo: Despite having been knocked out of the Masters Eight by JN109, his last appearance in the series is him watching the Masters Tournament alongside Volkner.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Defeats Ash in a 3 vs. 3 battle with minimal effort. His Infernape outright one shotted Ash's own Infernape and Buizel and was tanking hits from Pikachu while tossing him around.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Flint admitted that his Infernape was putting some degree of effort into fighting Pikachu, which is more than most would manage.
  • Is later on the receiving end of one from Leon during his return episode in Journeys, his Infernape ultimately fails to push Charizard to its limits but it still manages to give pushback and even deal some notable damage that forces Leon and Charizard to fight more seriously to defeat it, even if not enough to make it too impactful.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Volkner, the two have been friends since childhood and confide in each other a lot, furthermore when Volkner starts to lose his passion for battling, Flint shows a lot of concern and tried to snap him out of his funk, albeit unsuccesfully.
• Leitmotif: Every time he shows up you can hear a subtle jungle beat with drums. It's actually quite awesome.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the dub. The other Flint is Brock's father.
• Playing with Fire: Flint specializes in fire-using Pokemon, with his Ace, Infernape, being a fire type Pokemon with powerful fiery moves.
• Riddle for the Ages: It's never explained who he lost to the second time that caused him to be eliminated from the Masters 8.
• The Rival: Volkner's old friend and adversary.
• The Unfought: Despite being a participant of the World Coronation series and a former member of the Masters 8, he's never been a challenger against Ash in Journeys.
• The Worf Effect:
  • JN100 has him fight and lose to Leon, with his Infernape being ultimately unable to truly push the Monarch's Charizard to its limits.
  • He lost his spot in the Masters 8 off-screen sometime prior to JN109
• Worthy Opponent: His Infernape seems to view Ash's Pikachu as this. After casually ragdolling Ash's Infernape and Buizel he had to face Pikachu and seemed quite excited to do so the instant Pikachu made his opening attack. Flint was even surprised to see that his Infernape was excited to fight Pikachu and felt like he was putting some effort into battling. Granted Infernape wins quite easily once it takes the fight more seriously, but he still felt Pikachu was worth more effort compared to the others.

Bertha (Kikuno)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yoko Matsuoka
Voiced in English by: Mary O'Brady
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Magda Giner

• Berserk Button: When Team Rocket decided to enhance their Pokémon's performance using Powered Armor, she didn't take it too kindly.
• Elemental Powers: She specializes in Ground type Pokémon:
• Extra-ore-dinary: Hippowdon's Iron Head.
• Man Bites Man: Hippowdon's Fire Fang.
• One-Hit KO: Gliscor's Guillotine
• One-Shot Character: She only appeared in a single episode, barring her cameo in Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions.
• Playing with Fire: Hippowdon's Fire Fang.
• Stealth Mentor: In two ways. She not only acts in a way intended to subtly teach the other person, but also hides her status as an Elite Four member and tells Brock not to reveal it.

Villains

Team Galactic

General

• Adaptational Villainy: In a sense. They were always villains, but the anime portrays them as much darker than they were in the games: more sinister than their original goofiness and much more self-interested rather than Well Intentioned Extremists. Even Cyrus' altruistic qualities have been completely removed, and his tragic backstory (though loosely hinted at) is never brought up.
• The Bus Came Back: Arceus, the One Called a God specials of Journeys have Team Galactic return after their arrest to try to free Cyrus from the new world.
• Curtains Match the Window: All the major members have matching hair and eyes.
• Evil Counterpart: The Galactic Commanders and Cyrus can be seen as this to the series' Power Trio and Cynthia, respectively. Most obviously, Brock's Croagunk has a mutual enmity with Saturn's Toxicroak, and Cyrus' lack of respect for life and disgust for connection between sentient beings counters the way Cynthia cherishes both. Beyond that, Jupiter reveals that the Commanders were intended to bond with the Lake Trio, a plan the Trio foiled by bonding with the Power Trio. By that logic - and the fact that they aren't perfect in this regard considering they don't have individual, climactic confrontations, it also falls apart but still has some merit, as seen below:
  • Saturn vs. Brock - Knowledge, representing Uxie.
  • Mars vs. Dawn - Emotion, representing Mesprit.
  • Jupiter vs. Ash (both Hot-Blooded) - Willpower, representing Azelf.
• Knight of Cerebus - As with Paul and Hunter J, any episode featuring them is darker than the norm.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Their actions are a lot darker than what most antagonists in the show have attempted, even Hunter J - trying to blow up Iron Island and all of its inhabitants is a major instance of this.

Cyrus (Akagi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kenta Miyake
Voiced in English by: Sean Schemmel
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Dafnis Hernández (season 11), Rolando de Castro (season 12)

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• Adaptational Wimp: In contrast to his game counterpart, who's a fairly powerful trainer, he's never shown to own any Pokémon and is firmly a Non-Action Big Bad.
• Adaptational Karma: In the games, he just walks away in anger after his plan fails. In the show, he ends up Deader than Dead (retconned into Uncertain Doom in Journeys).
• Badass Boast: In the finale, when the heroes tell him he can't control Dialga and Palkia without the Lake Trio, he simply responds, "I wonder..." before using the Red Chain on them directly.
• Big Bad: As the boss of Team Galactic, he is nominally the closest thing Diamond and Pearl has to one (at least during Season 12).
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In his first appearance he appeared to be a seemingly-legit businessman and "amateur history scholar", the heroes unaware he was the founder and leader of Team Galactic.
• Deader than Dead: He dies by jumping into a new universe that is rapidly fading out of existence, compressing in on itself and then getting blown up by Dialga and Palkia, although this is retconned in Arceus: the One Called a God.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Hunter J captures the Lake Trio for him, who are then brought under his control by the Red Chain. Then he nearly succeeds in forcing Dialga and Palkia to create his new world at the expense of the already-existing one. When the Lake Trio are freed, he simply uses the Red Chain to control Dialga and Palkia directly.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: There's really no spark in his gaze, which coupled with his natural demeanour reflects the nihilism he emits.
• Evil Is Hammy: Especially in the dub, where Sean Schemmel really cuts loose: "Dialga! Palkia! BRING FORTH YOUR AWESOME POWER!"
• Hypocrite: He scolds his underlings for their eagerness to kill Ash and his friends in the finale, after he previously tried to blow up Iron Island in order to do just that.
• It Is Beyond Saving: He believes that human emotions only lead to war and conflict, and the world will never progress as a result.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He wants to destroy all life in order to create his new world.
• Power Crystal: He uses crystals of the Red Chain as mind-control devices to command the Lake Trio.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He technically got exactly what he wanted (his "perfect world"), but he didn't get very long to enjoy it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes flash red when he explains how he is using the Red Chain to control the lake guardians.
• Slasher Smile: From time to time. He gets an especially unsettling one when he orders Iron Island blown up.
• The Stoic: Making any moments he has of emotion telling - he generally tries to restrain himself, but sometimes can't really help it.
• Uncertain Doom: His original seeming demise is retconned in Arceus the One Called a God, which shows that his new world still exists but declines to answer whether or not he is still alive within it.
• The Unfought: He never once battles anyone during the course of the series, not even in the Team Galactic finale.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Until the Team Galactic finale.
• You Have Failed Me: He's very disappointed with his subordinates' love of fighting, feeling they failed to learn what he tried to teach them. It's implied that this is the reason he turns on them in the finale and leaves them to be destroyed.

Saturn

Voiced in Japanese by: Akemi Okamura
Voiced in English by: Marc Thompson
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Salvador Reyes (season 11), Carlo Vásquez (season 12)

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• Affably Evil: He's usually polite and respectful to his enemies, even taking the time to explain to Gary how the Lake Trio are being summoned.
• Arch-Enemy: His Toxicroak to Brock's Croagunk.
• Dragon Ascendant: He becomes the de-facto leader of Team Galactic in Arceus the One Called a God.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Appears to be in charge of the organization to the public.
• Graceful Loser: He takes the downfall of Team Galactic's plans — and the revelation that Cyrus cares nothing for his subordinates — quite calmly all things considered, unlike Mars. However, his somber tone indicates he's just masking his pain, which is confirmed in Arceus the One Called a God where he's shown as being the most obsessive about bringing Cyrus and Team Galactic back.
• Heel Realization: As he processes the fact Cyrus will leave them behind to be destroyed with the old world, Saturn then stops Mars from following their treacherous Leader (and dying in the process) and — by all accounts — turns himself in to the police to face justice without a fuss, miserable that he had devoted himself to a false cause. Reversed in Arceus the One Called a God, where it's clear he's become wrapped up in denial about what happened and hopes he can bring Cyrus back in order to reverse the emotional pain it's caused him.
• Poison Is Evil: His Toxicroak knows Sludge Bomb and Poison Jab.
• Signature Mon: Toxicroak is his main partner, and it has a fierce rivalry with Brock's Croagunk.
• Snap Back: In Arceus, the One Called a God, he becomes the leader of Team Galactic to bring Cyrus back from the other world, even though he had been the one to recognize Cyrus never cared for his team and let himself be arrested for his crimes back in the Diamond and Pearl series.
• Uncatty Resemblance: He has a hairstyle that mimics Mars' Purugly's ears.

Mars

Voiced in Japanese by: Rie Tanaka
Voiced in English by: Lisa Ortiz
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Leyla Rangel (season 11), Angélica Villa (season 12)

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• Big "NO!": Her reaction to seeing Cyrus' "death".
• Broken Bird: Implicitly so, at the end of the Team Galactic arc. She's shown to have recovered in Arceus the One Called a God, and Saturn is now the more emotionally worse-off.
• Cats Are Mean: Her Purugly is a nasty Pokémon and fierce battler.
• Evil Redhead: She has red hair and is much more villainous than her game counterpart.
• Fiery Redhead: She is more emotive than her other commanders.
• Perky Female Minion: Occasionally perky, though she's serious other times.
• Signature Mon: She primarily uses a Purugly as her main Pokémon partner even though she also has a Bronzor on hand as well.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Somewhat. Her hairstyle resembles the spike on the head of Saturn's Toxicroak.
• Villainous BSoD: Cyrus disappearing into his "perfect world" seems to have broken her. When last we see her, she's completely silent and without her usual spark, not acknowledging either Saturn or Jupiter as the three of them are being taken into custody. She's recovered by the time of Arceus the One Called a God.
• Would Hurt a Child: She's fully willing to blow up Iron Island to kill Ash and his friends, and even taunts them that they won't be able to run away in time.

Jupiter

Voiced in Japanese by: Chinami Nishimura
Voiced in English by: Eileen Stevens
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Betsabé Jara (season 11), Cecilia Gómez (season 12)

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• Dark Is Evil: Her Skuntank is Dark-type and does her evil bidding.
• Laughing Mad: She cackles after her defeat by Cynthia and being apprehended by Looker, confident in her leader despite being beaten.
• Out of Focus: Not extreme, but Jupiter is the only Galactic Commander not assigned the outright command of a mission, and on top of that she's mainly restricted to side roles in screen time compared to Mars and Saturn.
• Playing with Fire: Her Skuntank that knows Flamethrower.
• Poison Is Evil: Her Skuntank is also Poison-type.
• Signature Mon: Skuntank is her main Pokémon partner and the only one she ever uses even though she does have other Pokémon at hand.
• Smelly Skunk: Skuntank is a monstrous skunk and knows the move Smokescreen and Toxic.
• Straw Nihilist: Flat-out says that if the world is destroyed, along with herself, then that would be "fine with her".
• We Can Rule Together: Gives Ash, Dawn, and Brock an offer to join Team Galactic.
• Would Hurt a Child: Willing to have her Pokémon use Iron Tail on Ash, Dawn, and Brock.

Charon (Pluto)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kenichi Ogata
Voiced in English by: Mike Pollock
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Guillermo Coria

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• Deadpan Snarker: His reaction to Cyrus's betrayal in the finale? "Hmph! I knew something like this would happen."
• Evil Laugh: Which Jupiter finds absolutely annoying to hear.
• Jerkass: His impatient shouting at a frightened, crying Shellos - who was only caught up in the midst of their plans because Team Galactic digging into Mt. Coronet disrupted its native habitat and displaced it - is a major Kick the Dog. This guy - more than any other Galactic member - is a colossal dick.
• Karma Houdini: Possibly. As far as we see, he escaped justice - unlike Cyrus, who appears to have perished; or Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter, who were arrested.
• Mad Scientist: And proud of it!
• Not in This for Your Revolution: He straight up tells to Saturn he doesn't care about Team Galactic's endgoal and he is much more interested in the studying opportunities it gives to him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears without any proper resolution in the Team Galactic arc's finale. Unlike the other Galactic commanders he doesn't return in the Legend Arceus special alongside his fellow members, either, leaving his final fate unknown.

Others

Pokémon Hunter J

Voiced in Japanese by: Takako Honda
Voiced in English by: Sonny Dey
Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Yadira Aedo and Adriana Casas (season 10), Yolanda Vidal (season 11), Maggie Vera (season 12)

A ruthless, cold-hearted bounty hunter who specializes in stealing Pokémon. She has an entire crew of operatives working under her, not least of which is her loyal Salamence, and travels in a flying fortress. J has no concern for human or Pokémon life, or even the lives of her own henchmen. In the end, she was hired by Team Galactic to complete their master plan, but this proved fatal, as her ship fell into Lake Valor and exploded, leaving only her visor after the wreckage.

---

• All Webbed Up: She uses her Ariados' String Shot to keep Trainers out of the way by tying them to a tree, rock or other nearby object while she steals their Pokémon.
• And I Must Scream: Any Pokémon that she turns into stone are implied to still be conscious. A Riolu that she petrified was still able to communicate with Ash using Aura.
• Arm Cannon: Her petrifying cannon is mounted on her left arm.
• Asshole Victim: It takes a special kind of monster to be Killed Off for Real in the world of Pokemon, but boy howdy, did she have it coming.
• Ax-Crazy: Anyone who would set an entire forest on fire just to kill ONE kid definitely has a few screws loose.
• Bad Boss: Not afraid to sacrifice her minions if she can save her own hide or get rid of an annoyance.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed in the Riolu two-parter. She technically got exactly what she wanted, with her client paying her for delivering Riolu to him, but not much attention is drawn to it as Ash and co.'s main goal was to rescue the Riolu; thus, stopping her client became the priority once she'd fulfilled her role. And if the client happened to be apprehended by the police afterward...well, rotten luck, but she has her money and there's always more people to hire her and Pokémon to poach.
• Badass Longcoat: One with lots of opportunities to billow out and all around her while she's riding her Salamence.
• Badass Normal: She throws herself personally into battles and perilous situations that most Trainers would leave to their Pokémon (albeit while bringing her own Pokémon in with her) because she has to catch her targets herself and without harming them via conventional Pokémon battling.
• Berserk Button: Two:
  • Don't back out of a sale. She will not be happy, nor will she do business with you again.
  • If you're working for her, you better not fail in catching your targets. The repercussions are implied to not be good.
• Boring, but Practical: Okay, simply curb stomping everyone in your way doesn't usually make for gripping action, but if you were a poacher, you probably wouldn't be too concerned about the Rule of Drama, either.
• Breath Weapon: Her Salamence attacks this way, as the only moves it is shown using are Flamethrower, Hyper Beam, & Dragon Pulse.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: She captured the Lake Trio...and then her ship was promptly destroyed by a twin-fired Future Sight attack and she likely died.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Or more accurately, "Can't Battle You, Still Need to Sell You".
• Character Catchphrase: She often tells her targets that they should be grateful to her for "preserving" them.
• Combat Pragmatist: She does not screw around on the job and will use whatever means necessary to fulfill her clients' requests.
• Cool Airship: Her method of transport.
• Cool Car: Six-wheeled vehicles that look rather like super-armored versions of Mike's New Car are her henchmen's main mode of ground transportation.
• Cow Tools: Her debut episode shows she has a couple of other ground vehicles at her disposal besides the six-wheelers she normally employs. We never get to see any of them in action.
• Crazy-Prepared: She has a sensor built into her visor that can detect Pokémon if they try to hide using Teleport.
• Dark Action Girl: A prerequisite, since she has to get up close and personal to find and petrify the Pokémon she's pursuing and then get out in one piece.
• Dead Hat Shot: After her ship sinks into the lake, only her visor is seen sinking after the ship, into the depths.
• Defiant to the End: Upon having her ship struck by Future Sight, she begins ordering her crew to maintain their speed, and upon receiving news that the engines are losing, all she does is look mildly annoyed and grunt in frustration as one might do when their favourite soccer team is losing, rather than when they are trapped aboard a plummeting aircraft that is heading for an enormous whirlpool. She also never even leaves the bridge during the whole scene.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She not only captures the entire Lake Trio, but also nearly succeeds in an attempt on Regigigas.
• Ecocidal Antagonist: She's a greedy poacher who hunts rare Pokemon to sell on the black market, even if they're in a wildlife preserve, and starts a forest fire to smoke out Ash and Riolu, endangering countless wild Pokemon in the process. She also allies with Team Galactic for money and helps their plan to wipe out the entire universe.
• Elemental Powers
  • Dual type Pokémon
    • Big Creepy-Crawlies/Poisonous Pokémon: Ariados
    • Wind from Beneath My Wings: Salamence
    • Poisonous Pokémon/Casting a Shadow: Drapion
  • Pokémon who know moves of a different type
    • Playing with Fire: Salamence's Flamethrower.
• Enemy to All Living Things: She has no regard for any form of life, only caring about money. She cements her status as this when she's willing to assist Team Galactic's plan of wiping out the universe.
• Energy Weapon: Her Salamence knows Hyper Beam.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In her first appearance, Meowth pulls a Fake Defector gambit by offering to work for her, saying that he can tell her what other Pokémon are feeling. It doesn't work because, being who she is, J doesn't care about their feelings.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Her Salamence wields a powerful Flamethrower that can set entire forests ablaze.
• Evil Poacher: A cutthroat individual who steals Pokemon from their trainers (often with them watching) who is completely apathetic to the lives of both people and Pokemon. Even Team Rocket, who are poachers themselves, are afraid of her!
• Face Death with Dignity: Even as her airship is in the midst of being sucked into Lake Valor by a whirlpool and her henchmen panicking, she herself remained composed, seeming at the most mildly aggravated by the turn of events that lead to her death a few short moments later.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. As ruthless and cutthroat as she is, she has a nasty habit of underestimating her enemies whenever she's close to winning. This is what led to her final downfall.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Her airship was shot down over Lake Valor by two Future Sight attacks and was subsequently sucked in a whirlpool while she was still on board, sinking into the depths of the lake. The water pressure caused the windows to shatter and flood the bridge, and the ship exploded shortly afterwards.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Namely, displaying maps and tracking heat signatures and teleporting Pokémon.
• Greed: Her motivation when it comes to selling Pokémon as objects.
• Going Down with the Ship: She makes no attempt to escape her airship when it's shot down over Lake Valor, and remains at the helm until the glass breaks and the bridge is flooded, her visor being the only thing to escape the ship before it explodes.
• Gory Discretion Shot: While it's not confirmed if she really is dead, the final shots of her and her crew are crashing into a lake after the Future Sight hits their ship, into a whirlpool no less, and water breaking through the glass. After that, the ship sinks and later explodes.
• Hero Killer: Though nobody dies by her hand, she's so dangerous that even Ash and co. take her very seriously. Most notably when Brandon and his Regis were all Taken for Granite trying to protect Regigigas; were it not for Regigigas' Hidden Power, they might not have been restored at all.
• Hyper-Awareness: During her first clash with Ash, she was able to tell that his Aipom had left a door behind her open after spying on her, tipping her off that intruders were on board her ship.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Hers are more towards the grey side, but it's indicative of how cold and calculative she is.
• It's Personal: She drops her stoic demeanour where Ash is concerned, taking clear pleasure in trying to kill him. She even allows him to sneak onto her airship so she can dispose of him personally.
• Jerkass: Like anyone who steals other people's Pokémon or doesn't think twice about unleashing all their might on anyone, adult or child, who gets in their way.
• The Juggernaut:
  • In all their screen-time, her Pokémon never once took any perceivable damage, let alone got knocked out in battle (then again, battling was never a core tactic for her to begin with). Makes you wonder how comfortably she'd be able to hold herself against the Elite Four.
  • Her ground vehicles are examples, too; they can down trees and keep right on going. They're immune to Pikachu's Thunderbolt, too (unless they've been soaked by a Water attack beforehand, for some odd reason).
• Karma Houdini Warranty: She was smart enough to flee karma the moment there was nothing more to gain, but pushes her luck too far in the end.
• Karmic Death: She's killed by an attack from the Lake Trio, her latest victims, and dies trapped in her own airship. Also, she dies when her ship falls from a great height and then explodes, which is something she tried to inflict on Ash in her first appearance.
• Killed Off for Real: She's blown to smithereens in "The Needs of the Three!" when her ship is destroyed and sinks into Lake Valor. While her death is not directly shown, her visor is shown floating out of the ship's window as it plunges into the watery depths.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In her first episode, she gives up on her current targets and jettisons the entire section of the airship they're in once things get out of hand. When the police show up to arrest her client in the Riolu two-parter, she leaves without a second thought, since she's already been paid.
• Knight of Cerebus: She's easily the most outright evil villain in the series, even compared to Giovanni, Cyrus, or Lysandre. Every episode she appears in is dark and serious, guaranteed. When your repertoire includes being an abhorrent piece of work (even among Pokémon hunters & poachers), this is to be expected.
• Lack of Empathy: She will capture Pokémon for her clients and even kidnap them right in front of their Trainers without blinking an eye.
• Mons as Characterization: She's a prime contender for absolute worst human character in the anime. Naturally, her primary Pokémon is Salamence, a Pokémon with a reputation for cruelty, viciousness, and general jerkassery.
• Never Found the Body: And they probably never will, if it blew up like her ship.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Has on several occasions just tried to kill Ash. Her battling style also consists of simply steamrolling any obstacles she finds herself up against.
• No One Could Survive That!: "That" being her ship exploding in the depths of Lake Valor. While she has not resurfaced since, there is also no concrete evidence that she was killed in said explosion. Considering she didn't have time to escape (She was on the bridge when this happened and ordering her crew to try and re-route power to maintain altitude), the ship crashing into a whirlpool and water breaking into the ship before the explosions. Yeah, her chances of survival are slim to none.
• One-Letter Name: She is only called "J". Whether it's short for another name is unknown.
• Only in It for the Money: She abandons her battle on more than one occasion when her client reneges on the payment.
• Outside-Context Problem: Most Pokémon poachers that appear in the series are easily taken down by Ash and his friends. J, on the other hand, has access not just to Pokémon so strong as to be virtually invincible, but also to highly advanced technological devices that make her much harder to defeat, including a cannon that can petrify humans and Pokémon, a visor that can detect Pokémon using Teleport, and an airship that can turn completely invisible. Where and how she obtained these devices, as well as how they work, have never been explained.
• Poison Is Evil: She uses an Ariados and Drapion, which are both half Poison-types, in battle.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • She won't hurt the Pokémon she captures; they're much too valuable for that.
  • On two occasions, she immediately gives up the hunt when her client cancels a deal, having lost her chance at getting paid.
  • She abandons her client in the Riolu two-parter the moment she's paid: after all, whether or not Riolu is freed no longer has an impact on her salary.
• Psycho for Hire: She certainly fits the psycho hiring herself out part, but it seems that she's more about the money than the evulz.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Her battling style tends toward this. While no battle involved her or her opponent(s) actively exploiting type advantages or disadvantages, her Pokémon's attacks often simply punch right through her foes' attacks by sheer strength. This is best shown the first time she's seen battling Officer Jenny, where J's Salamence and Jenny's Arcanine engage in a Hyper Beam/Flamethrower Beam-O-War, and the former slices right through the latter without even slowing down.
• She Is the King: Her mooks all call her "Sir".
• A Sinister Clue: She wears her wrist cannon on her left arm.
• Sinister Shades: Like everything else of hers, her visor has a practical function, being able to search out and detect Pokémon in the area. It's also the last thing seen of her, floating out the window of her ship as it explodes in the depths of Lake Valor.
• Skewed Priorities: When she awakens Regigigas and it threatens the nearby town, J is furious that her client cancels the deal because of the carnage that might result.
• Smug Snake: Sometimes underestimates her opponents' capabilities, notably getting in over her head with Regigigas. This is a major factor in her ultimate downfall, where she either thought the twin Future Sight Uxie and Mesprit set up during their battle wouldn't work after capturing them, or forgot about it altogether. Her ship takes a direct hit from it as she prepares to leave, sending it, her, and her henchmen all to a watery grave.
• The Sociopath: She's a cold-hearted poacher who has no problem killing her own men, or a child for that matter, and will work with and betray anyone to get what she wants.
• The Stoic: Unless she's wearing a Slasher Smile.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Every one of her captures was made with her own two hands (or rather, her own wrist-bracelet-capturer thingy). The one time she sent her mooks out to nab a target without her, they were foiled by Gary, and it wasn't until she got involved herself that she made any progress on her job.
• Taken for Granite: What happens to the Pokémon she captures. Works on humans, too. It can be reversed, but only if you pull the dial on the case it's in or revive the Pokémon/human in question by using Hidden Power on it.
• Taught by Experience: She remembers Ash and his companions long after their first encounter since she got a good idea of how badly they derailed her plans prior. Unlike others, she is prone to doing anything to get rid of them if they get involved.
• The Unfettered: No matter what deadly chaos is going on around her, she will not stop pursuing her target until either she captures it or her client cancels the deal. She once used her Salamence's Flamethrower to light an entire forest on fire in order to smoke out a Riolu she was pursuing. It backfires when she goes after Regigigas, as she underestimates what it's capable of, and things get so out of control that her client calls off the deal.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The vilest in the main series. She will gladly attack a trainer directly, and she will make sure you cannot fight back as she steals your Pokémon.
• Villain Respect: Has shades of this in her debut, where she reluctantly commends Ash for tracking her down after she steals Pikachu, and later even outright compliments his bravery in sneaking on board her ship. However, this is dropped for all her later appearances.
• Villain Team-Up: Hired by Team Galactic during the Galactic arc's finale.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Her Salamence knows Hyper Beam.
• We Have Reserves: Who cares if she loses a few minions while catching a rare Pokémon? She always has more.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: She is by far the most technologically advanced of any of the anime villains, with gadgets like:
  • A multipurpose headset/eye visor that she can bring up maps on and use to detect heat and pinpoint Teleport locations to keep track of her targets.
  • An arm-mounted cannon that petrifies Pokémon and humans.
  • Self-floating bases that can materialize and dematerialize glass domes around their occupants as well as adjust how much of the Pokémon's body is petrified.
  • Three-axle armored cars that serve as transport and mobile miniature control rooms for her henchmen.
  • A massive floating metal ship complete with full Invisibility Cloak, detachable hangars, earth-crumbling lasers, and gum cannons.
• White Hair, Black Heart: She has short silver hair and is a ruthless poacher.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Defied at first for pragmatic reasons. In a flashback by an Officer Jenny in "Mutiny in the Bounty," she is seen saying to a captured Teddiursa as it frantically claws at its glass cage, "I won't hurt you. You're much too valuable for that."
  • Several episodes later, it's played straight when she tries to kill Ash in several ways. It's not like she can sell him for money, after all.
• You Have Failed Me: Very lightly implied during one of her episodes (she's in a kids show, after all):
  Mook: We were attacked by an unknown Trainer with an Electivire and were unable to capture Shieldon.
  J: Unable to capture!?
  Mook: [momentary Oh, Crap! face] Don't worry, we can and will succeed.
  J: Well, for your sake, I hope so.

J's Henchmen

A group of henchmen who assist Hunter J in capturing Pokemon.

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• The Dragon: A rotating role.
  • One henchman gets a notable role in "Mutiny in the Bounty" and is tasked with watching Meowth when he's captured, and later tries to subdue Ash and Team Rocket. However, he ends up getting ejected from the ship by J and is subsequently arrested by Officer Jenny.
  • A rather menacing, heavyset man appears in "Ill Will Hunting" and the Riolu two-parter, leading the initial hunt for Shieldon and Riolu. However, he doesn't appear after this.
• Even Evil Has Standards: J's navigator is shocked at her willingness to kill her own men, and her henchmen in general seem rather frightened of her. Also, while they're willing to endanger Ash and his friends, they seem to prefer capturing them rather than killing them.
• Evil Poacher: They're all greedy poachers who help J catch Pokemon and sell them on the black market.
• Pet the Dog: The henchman tasked with watching Meowth is somewhat reasonable and willing to hear him out, even leaving him unfrozen when Meowth requests it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Two of J's henchmen, her ship's navigator and a rather heavyset man, have recurring roles but don't appear in the Team Galactic finale, leaving their fates unknown.
• Would Hurt a Child: They have no problem firing attacks directly at Ash and his friends. A particular example is in the Riolu special, where they send Sharpedo to attack them on the river, which could have drowned them.
• You Meddling Kids: One of them snarls, "I've had it with you kids," when attacking Ash in "Ill Will Hunting!"

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