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Ash's Pokémon (XY Series)
All of Them (Kalos Region):
- Badass Crew: While not even a full team yet, this team, plus Pikachu, has managed to show amazing growth in both in and out of battles. This includes a newly hatched Pokémon making excellent use of its natural ability who eventually evolved to battle a legendary Pokémon and even gain the upper hand. Almost all the Pokemon have been and earn at least one win in a gym (if not they at least did some damage before getting knocked out). Also they seem to do this whenever they evolve, which seems to happen when they see Ash and Pikachu or each other in danger, or on the ropes in a important battle.
- They are the very first team of which all new members fully evolve.
- This team has also so far represented Ash's unbelievable tactics in battle and how they are growing.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: A recurring theme with Ash's Kalos team is that they subvert some of the trends that had been staples for Ash's teams from previous regions
- Kalos marks the first time Ash has not had the regional Grass starter on his team. For that matter, the region is (so far) the only one where Ash hasn't caught any new Grass types as all.
- For the first time since Kingler, Ash has had a Water-type evolve, and similarly, it is the first time he has had any Dragon-type evolve.
- Hawlucha marks the first Pokemon in Ash's team since Torkoal that has only one stage of evolution.
- Though members of Ash's teams have occasionally shared types, it's generally been limited to reserve members of the team. In Kalos, 3 of Ash's main team have a Flying type.
- Lightning Bruiser: They hit hard, they hit fast, and they can tank hits (compared to their game counterparts, of course). Their weaknesses are more on them being specialized at certain things and share similar weaknesses.
- As a bonus fact, all of Ash's Kalos-origin Pokémon (not counting Goodra, who left) are the fastest Pokémon introduced in Generation VI (ignoring Mega Evolutions of older Pokémon)* . Although, as Ash's powerhouse, it seems that Greninja is much faster than everyone else, even more since the lead-up to the eighth gym battle, where it looks like he's actually flash-stepping, a la Dragon Ball.
- Running Gag: Whenever eating a meal, this batch would immediately finish their food post-haste as soon as Ash tells them they're training afterward, disregarding the Balloon Belly they're all sporting.
- Team Shot: The opening scene of XY&Z credits sequence: Hawlucha, Ash, Pikachu and Greninja on the foreground, and Talonflame and Noibat (later Noivern) in the back.
- True Companions: They have devoted just as much time bonding with one another and with the Pokémon belonging to Serena and Clemont as they have individually with Ash.
Froakie (Keromatsu) —> Frogadier (Gekogashira) —> Greninja (Gekkouga)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuji Ueda
Voiced in English by: Billy Bob ThompsonOne of the starter Pokémon Professor Sycamore intended to give out to new trainers, this Froakie had so far actually rejected every new trainer he was given to. Froakie has a strong sense of justice and can easily see through Team Rocket's disguises. After seeing Ash's determination and willingness to help a rampaging Garchomp, he decides to bond with Ash and become his first Kalos region Pokémon.
- The Ace: Ever since his introduction Froakie was one of Ash's stronger Kalos-native Pokémon, even if Goodra and Hawlucha overshadowed it at some points. As Frogadier he virtually never lost on-screen, and after evolving into Greninja, he becomes Ash's powerhouse. Upon completing the Ash-Greninja Forme he achieves something no other Pokémon belonging to Ash has ever achieved: fight on par with a Champion's Pokémon. Even more impressively, her Mega Evolved Ace Pokémon.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Gives Fletchling a friendly slap on the head after training for the rematch against Viola.
- All of the Other Reindeer: He was attacked by the other Froakie at the breeding facility for refusing to socialize.
- Appropriated Appellation: Bonnie coins Greninja's Super Mode as Ash-Greninja, mainly from the way that it looked like (in-universe) Ash and Greninja actually had a Fusion Dance.
- Armor-Piercing Slap: He knows Pound, but seems to have forgotten it after learning either Cut or Aerial Ace.
- Animal Motifs: The butterfly for Ash-Greninja. When Ash and Greninja first reached a high level synchronization, the water shroud converged on Ash-Greninja's back to be like a pair of butterfly wings used for gliding before becoming a shuriken. This butterfly form always makes an appearance whenever Ash-Greninja takes shape or whenever he needs to glide.
- And for more emphasis, in episode XY&Z28, Ash tries to save a bunch of Spewpa hanging from a tree from a snowstorm. Ash manages to save four, but the last one fell off from the tree and into the cliff. He jumped down to save it, and he was then saved by Greninja. However it fell from his grip, and so this made both Ash and Greninja trigger their synchronization and them realizing what was missing between them to fully control the form. When Ash and Greninja reconciled, the Spewpa evolved into Vivillon which then flew into the moonlight - essentially a symbolism of Ash-Greninja being "born".
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Did this with Talonflame during their against Olympia and her two Meowstic...and won.
- Badass Armfold: As seen in his current picture, Greninja often starts in this position before a battle, including his transformation into Ash-Greninja.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Executes Aerial Ace with a barrage of punches and/or kicks, to differentiate it from Cut.
- Belated Backstory: Olympia provides Ash and friends further insight to Frogadier's Dark and Troubled Past, some details of which not even Sycamore was privy to.
- Big Damn Heroes: Has plenty of these.
- Froakie is introduced by taking a Electro Ball reflected by Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat which was aimed on Pikachu.
- In XY052, when Clemont and Serena fall from a broken bridge, Clemont is saved by Froakie's frubbles while Serena is saved by Sanpei's Greninja's tongue.
- In XY086, Talonflame gets hit by Moltres's Fire Blast and falls into a pitch of lava. Ash tries to save it by running down the wall and catches it, but both are now falling into the pit. They are saved by Frogadier's frubbles.
- Bishonen Line: Crosses this twice. First, Froakie already becomes more humanoid with each evolution. Then, as Ash-Greninja, his appearance is obscured by the water veil surrounding him. Once Ash and Greninja master the forme, the veil compresses into a Fuuma Shuriken attached to his back, and his Uncatty Resemblance to his trainer is finally in full view.
- Blush Sticker: He would blush like this when someone thanks him.
- Bubble Gun: He knows Bubble. Apparently not anymore after learning either Cut or Aerial Ace.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: He tends to throw himself into the problems of others.
- Colossus Climb: He scales Grant's Onix to finish it off with Water Pulse.
- Combat Pragmatist: Uses some imaginative tricks to win fights. Justified, since he is a ninja.
- Combination Attack: Develops one with Hawlucha, combining Froakie's Cut with Hawlucha's Flying Press.
- The Comically Serious: Despite his more serious attitude, it leads to a few Not So Stoic moments, usually from his shy blushing. Pikachu's translating dream also suggests his dialogue to be rather hammy.
- Confusion Fu: Bypasses Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat by throwing his Frubbles (the sticky foam around his neck) to assault it, rather than using an attack move, thus stopping Mirror Coat from working.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He's the first Water-type starter that Ash owns to not be comic relief, instead having a serious personality. He also gains the distinction of being Ash's first Water-type Pokémon to evolve since Kingler, which happened 777 episodes ago, and the first to serve as The Ace of the team.
- Cool Mask: He can make a mask using his Frubbles when he's trying to be stealthy.
- Curb Stomp Cushion:
- Against Alain's Charizard, Greninja failed to get a single hit in when both were untransformed, but he still managed to keep his foe on his toes and, once both transformed, he managed to get a good hit in. He still lost however. During the rematch, he does a lot better even before transforming.
- Noticeably averted during Ash's rematch against Diantha, given Ash's track record battling Elite Four members and Champions. It starts off with Greninja being unable to hit Gardevoir, but Greninja keeps doing better and better and, after transforming, even takes the lead. When Gardevoir evens the odds by Mega Evolving, Greninja and Ash perfect the transformation, and still overpower Gardevoir until Power Strain Blackout kicks in.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- He refused to listen to his previous trainers because he didn't like any of them, leading them all to give him back to Sycamore.
- At the Froakie breeding facility, he preferred being alone to train instead of socializing with the others. When he was asked to join, he politely refused, which was then met with him getting attacked by rest of the Froakie. This made him distant towards others despite doing good, and it wasn't until Ash showed him love that made him finally connect to a trainer that understood him.
- David Versus Goliath: Against Wulfric's Mega Abomasnow. Him pummeling said opponent into submission is quite a sight to behold.
- The Day the Music Lied: During the third battle against Sawyer, XY&Z starts playing when it seems Greninja is going to transform again, and when Greninja fails to transform, it promptly stops playing.
- Determinator: He seems to have a strong sense of justice and will stop at nothing to uphold that. In his debut episode he took a Mirror Coat-reflected Electro Ball (a super effective attack against it at double power) and remained standing, even turning the tide against Team Rocket for the heroes.
- Doppelgänger Spin: Knows Double Team, like a ninja. Has apparently forgotten Quick Attack for learning it.
- Elemental Baggage: Ash-Greninja is often seen drawing his Water Shurikens from the water cloak surrounding him. And the cloak gets completely compressed for the Fuuma Water Shuriken.
- Eyes Always Shut: When at ease, his eyes remain closed most of the time, but when he becomes serious, they're open.
- Foreshadowing: Olympia's visions tease Frogadier's evolution into Greninja and his Ash-Greninja Forme.
- Fusion Dance: Not a dance per se, but Ash-Greninja qualifies as one, since both trainer and Pokemon are fighting together in perfect harmony. To give Pokemon Champions grief, its power must be off the scale.
- Fuuma Shuriken: Ash-Greninja sports one once his water cloak is deactivated.
- Heroic B.S.O.D.: When Ash leaves into the forest alone after their loss to Wulfric, he tells a seemingly unconcious Greninja that he feels guilty for Greninja's pain. Greninja was awake the whole time, and goes into the forest to look for Ash, all the whil blaming himself for failing Ash. Naturally, they get over it by the end, fully mastering their unique transformation while they're at it.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Ash doesn't know how to trigger Greninja's Super Mode. Clemont offers to study the two of them to help figure it out. During the battle against Sawyer, Ash actively tries to invoke the transformation, but it fails. After saving a Spewpa in Winding Woods, Ash and Greninja manage to fully complete and control the transformation.
- Humble Hero: He has an awkward time accepting compliments or gratitude, and tends to blush when put on the spot.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Cut manifests into some sort of energy sword (like Greninja in Super Smash Bros. water blades), and he usually strikes with a single slash; possibly a direct reference to its Japanese name "Iaigiri". Though he wouldn't mind performing multiple strikes should that attack fail.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: He had a habit of isolating himself from the other Froakie for this reason. When he realized that he can only become stronger through a trainer, but due to his very high expectations, all the novice trainers were unable to tame him and they took him back to Sycamore. Then he met Ash, an experienced trainer who deeply cares for all Pokémon, including those who aren't his own, resulting in Froakie choosing him as his trainer.
- Improv Fu: Froakie is not above hurling nearby apples at his opponent as a distraction.
- In a Single Bound: Like the rest of his species, Froakie is a quick, powerful jumper.
- Jumped at the Call: Once Ash befriended him, Froakie literally caught himself by activating the pokéball in his hand.
- Kamehame Hadoken: How he uses Water Pulse. He charges it with the typical Hadouken pose and fires it like one. Or he smashes it onto the opponent like it's a Rasengan or he simply throws it. Has apparently forgotten it in favor of learning Water Shuriken.
- Leave Him to Me: When the group first met Fletching, Froakie insisted on fighting it by himself.
- Laser Blade: Both Cut and Aerial Ace produces a glowing white sword out of hammerspace for him to use.
- Lightning Bruiser: From his debut appearance alone, he managed to save Pikachu from Team Rocket even after being hit with a reflected, amped-up Electro Ball. Ever since it's capture Froakie has been one of Ash's primary battlers, and it won most of its battles. The few times he didn't he was either facing fully evolved Pokémon, Sanpei's Frogadier, or a Gym Leader's ace Pokémon and even then he put up a good fight. Upon evolving into Frogadier, he didn't lose a single on-screen match and actually gave Ash the win at the Coumarine Gym, where his type should give it a disadvantage. As a Greninja, its first act is to fight off an opponent Sanpei's Greninja couldn't even hit. Once it unlocks its Ash-Greninja Forme, he dishes out plenty a Curb-Stomp Battle, even though he is facing quite powerful opponents. He can throw down with Alain's Mega Charizard X, a Pokémon that has matched and beaten Elite Four-level Pokémon, although it was a Curb Stomp Cushion in Charizard's favour. During their rematch he does much better though.
- Upon completing his Ash-Greninja Forme, even Diantha and Gardevoir actually bother to put effort into fighting him.
- Loners Are Freaks: In the past, he preferred to spend his time alone training rather then socializing with the other Froakie in the breeding facility. This loner attitudes led him to be ostracized and eventually attacked.
- Love Redeems: Before Ash became his trainer, Froakie was an anti-social loner. The impact that Ash has on him changes his out lot though and you can see it with the way he interacts with Ash's other Pokémon.
- Making a Splash: A Water-type. He has Water Pulse (and then Water Shuriken) as one of his primary attacks When in Ash-Greninja mode, he is covered in a cloak of water that becomes a Fuuma Shuriken.
- Mundane Utility: When Fennekin's tail gets messy, Froakie uses his Frubbles to clean and shine Fennekin's tail.
- Ninja: In every sense of the word. He can easily see through Team Rocket's trickery (something that ninjas are sometimes known for), can use his Frubbles for deception (among other things), and the natural agility and acrobatics of frogs are often ninja abilities as well.
- Ninja Log: He used his Frubbles to make a decoy of himself when battling Fletchling, who fell for it. After wards, he learns to use Double Team this way.
- Oh Crap!: Had a reaction along the lines of "Whoa" upon Grant's Tyrunt using Draco Meteor.
- Opening Shout-Out: In XY&Z024, during a Power Strain Blackout that left him unconscious for a period of time, Ash has a nightmare about Greninja leaving him. The backdrop of the dream and Greninja turning to leave as Ash tries to reach out to him are taken straight out of the XY&Z theme (although the scene itself is seen in first-person).
- Overly Long Tongue: Greninja's tongue scarf. This was first illustrated when Frogadier began to evolve, opening his mouth and allowing his tongue to grow as part of the evolution.
- He was able to put it to good use by saving Ash from falling off a cliff during a harsh snowstorm.
- Around the same time after going into Ash-Greninja mode, he used his tongue to maneuver around branches that stuck out of the cliffside in order to catch a falling Spewpa. At this point, he and Ash finally perfected this form.
- The Power of Love: As a Greninja, this is stated by Olympia to be the power behind his special Ash-Greninja evolution.
- Power Strain Blackout: It seems that prolonged duration of his special form leaves Greninja (and Ash) completely exhausted. This causes Ash to pass out during the rematch against Alain, and causes both to pass out against Diantha. Although Ash and Greninja eventually iron out this flaw and use the form without passing out, they still share eachothers pain, if on a more managable level.
- Red Herring: That bit in the opening theme between Ash and Greninja. Oddly, it does actually happen in the series, but in reverse: it's Ash who leaves Greninja, thinking that he failed his Pokémon.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Hawlucha's red. He's calm and collected while Hawlucha is proud and theatrical.
- Roundhouse Kick: Aerial Ace manifests as a powerful kick attack. A variation exists where he performs a Dynamic Entry-style kick rather than the traditional roundhouse.
- Skyward Scream:
- Lets out a powerful shout as Frogadier evolves into Greninja.
- And again when completing the Ash-Greninja Forme against Diantha.
- Sore Loser: A downplayed example, where losing to Penelope's Sylveon leaves him a little sullen. This might also have something to do with how Sylveon defeated him is nothing short of embarrassing.
- The Spock: He can be quite pragmatic, advising Pikachu to not have mercy on Meowth when he needs help.
- Sticky Situation: His Frubbles. It was used to both trap Team Rocket and keep a Garchomp in place.
- Stock Ninja Weaponry: The Frubbles to a certain extent (and limited to Froakie and Frogadier anyway), Water Shuriken (spammable ones as Greninja and [incomplete] Ash-Greninja, and a Fuuma Shuriken as the mastered Ash-Greninja), and lastly, Cut taking the shape of a pair of kunai.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: Froakie is very proud and likes to maintain a cool and aloof disposition, though he has no problem being friendly with his teammates.
- Super Mode: Gains a unique form on top of his evolution into Greninja due to his strong bond with Ash.
- Swiss Army Weapon: Froakie's Frubbles can be used for just about anything. They can be an adhesive, a cushion, a projectile weapon, molded into a decoy, and so on.
- Synchronization: As Ash-Greninja, he and Ash mimic each other's movements. What Greninja sees, Ash sees in his mind. When Ash-Greninja is hurt, Ash feels it too. This reaches it's climax during Ash's battle with Alain, where Ash passes out from exhaustion due to using the Ash-Greninja Forme. While Ash and Greninja eventually manage to iron out this flaw, they still share eachothers pain while in the form.
- Took a Level in Badass: Upon evolving into Frogadier, he didn't lose a single on-screen match and actually gave Ash the win at the Coumarine Gym, where his type should give it a disadvantage. As a Greninja, its first act is to fight off an opponent Sanpei's Greninja couldn't even hit. Once it unlocks its Ash-Greninja Forme, he dishes out plenty a Curb-Stomp Battle, even though he is facing quite powerful opponents. He can throw down with Alain's Mega Charizard X, a Pokémon that has matched and beaten Elite Four-level Pokémon, although it was a Curb Stomp Cushion in Charizard's favour. When Greninja rematches Charizard later on, he gives Mega Charizard X a run for his money without transforming himself and actually fights on-par with him upon tranforming, arguably gaining the upper hand, until Ash faints.
- He can actually force Diantha and Gardevoir to fight seriously after completing his Ash-Greninja Forme, but he and Ash pass out from the effort they had to put into it.
- After mastering the Ash-Greninja Forme, not even Wulfric's Mega Abomasnow has much of a chance despite a serious type advantage.
- Theme Music Powerup: Every time it transforms into Ash-Greninja, an instrumental version of XY&Z (in Japanese) or "Stand Tall" (in the Englush dub) starts playing. Starting from their bonding at Winding Woods, a remix starts playing whenever it transforms into the mastered forme.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Greninja is featured among the team's Pokémon in the 2016 anime calendar, and is featured in CoroCoro September 2015. His Ash-Greninja Forme is also revealed this way.
- Transformation Sequence: The first few times he transforms into Ash-Greninja, it was instantaneous. A proper sequence (which included shots of his body where the changes take place) is introduced in XY&Z13.
- Uncatty Resemblance: In his Ash-Greninja Forme, Greninja has a red pattern adorning his head that invokes Ash's red hat, the sides of his head get decorated with spikes reminiscent of Ash's hair, and the markings on the chest area resembles Ash's jacket.
- When He Smiles: As a Froakie, he had a more serious and humourless attitude than his species' usual, but when outwardly happy, it's no less endearing than any other cute pre evolution. This stays true when he becomes Frogadier and even as Greninja.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: He knows Aerial Ace right after evolving into Frogadier, giving him a way to counter Grass-Type Pokémon. But he never uses it in the traditional way. It is either a kick or a pair of Laser Blades. The latter might be reference to the sword technique named "Tsubame Gaeshi", the Japanese name of Aerial Ace. He apparently has forgotten either Pound or Bubble for learning it.
- Worf Had the Flu: Spends most of Ash's 7th gym battle afflicted with paralysis after Taking the Bullet for Talonflame. This nearly cost his team the match a couple of times.
- Wrong Context Magic: His unique transformation is very similar to Mega Evolution, but is different in several ways, such as not needing a Key Stone or Mega Stone. Even if it turns out to be a Early-Bird Cameo for a mechanic in future games, this marks the first time no-one In-Universe knows what it is either.
Fletchling (Yayakoma) —> Fletchinder (Hinoyakoma) —> Talonflame (Fiarrow)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuka Terasaki (Yayakoma and Hinoyakoma), Kiyotaka Furushima (Fiarrow)
Voiced in English by: Lisa Ortiz (Fletchling and Fletchinder), Alex Haynes (Talonflame)Ash and the gang encounters Fletchling when it stole food from a wild Dedenne. This act angers Froakie who challenged it to a battle, leading to Ash's eventual capture of it.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Fletchinder proves itself to be very sharp when it observes Hawlucha's battle with Sky Trainer Moria's Talonflame - the knowledge she gains of Talonflame's techniques is vital in defeating it later on in battle.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Did this with Frogadier during their against Olympia and her two Meowstic...and won.
- Balloon Belly: Gets one after it gorges out in between training sessions alongside Pikachu.
- Big Brother Mentor: Towards Ash's Noibat, although it is Downplayed compared to Ash's Hawlucha, who can relate to Noibat better.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Against Viola's Vivillon, Grant's Tyrunt, Korrina's Mega Lucario, Moltres, and Wulfric's Avalugg, Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame is quickly overpowered, but always manages to squeeze a small hit in.
- Do a Barrel Roll: Fletchling is an agile flier, and Everything's Better with Spinning is in full effect when it's in the air.
- Extra Ore Dinary: Knows Steel Wing, probably the reason why Ash even bothered to use Fletchling on Grant's Tyrunt. Of course, Steel Wing comes in handy when facing Valerie's two Fairy-Type Pokémon.
- Flight: Naturally, as a Flying-type. It is also the best flying member of the team.
- Fragile Speedster: Has the speed and stamina of a bird a foot tall.
- Height Angst: Its tiny size as a Fletchling caused it to be snubbed by a Talonflame, and had to prove itself to earn a battle. Ironically it ended up being larger than the sky trainer's Pokémon upon evolving.
- Lightning Bruiser: It performs rather well in Gym battles and beat a Talonflame when it as just a freshly-evolved Fletchinder. Its first act after evolving into Talonflame is to put up a fight against a Moltres, and later a Zapdos.
- Mundane Utility: Uses its Flame Body ability to help hatch Noibat's egg faster, just like in the games.
- Playing with Fire: After evolving into Fletchinder, it changes to Fire-type, as well as learning Flame Charge.
- Taking the Bullet: Flies straight into Moltres's line of fire to shield Ash and friends just as it evolves into Talonflame.
- Tastes Like Friendship: After being caught, it shares berries with Froakie and Pikachu.
- Took a Level in Badass: In XY036, its determination to beat a Talonflame that looked down on it allowed it to evolve into Fletchinder and win.
- Took a Level in Kindness: As a wild Pokemon, Fletchling caught the ire of Froakie by acting like something of Troll, stealing food off the team and upsetting Bonnie. After being caught (and promised plenty of food if it behaved), it became undyingly loyal to Ash.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Fletchling's evolution into Fletchinder was spoiled by its appearance in the Diance trailer. Its Talonflame evolution was spoiled in the summer 2015 preview.
- Undying Loyalty: Takes on a Moltres head on and even evolves into Talonflame all to protect Ash.
- Wreathed in Flames: Knows Flame Charge upon becoming a Fletchinder, as a Fire/Flying-type. Brave Bird also shows up like this.
Hawlucha (Luchabull)
Voiced in Japanese by: Shinichiro Miki
Voiced in English by: H.D. QuinnAsh and friends encountered this Pokémon defending a bunch of smaller Pokémon from an Ursaring. Inspired by it being the "guardian of the forest", Ash decides to help him out perfect his Flying Press move and eventually catches him as part of his team.
- Awesome, but Impractical: His posing before its Flying Press makes him look cool, but always gives his opponents the chance to dodge, leaving Hawlucha to smash itself into the ground. Ash eventually makes it work when he teaches him to pose at the height of a jump and then corkscrew into a dive, picking up enough speed to make up for the posing.
- Badass Armfold: Hawlucha has the tendency to do this outside of battles.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: His primary type. Most of his attacks are also Fighting type and he is not as good in flying as Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame.
- Big Brother Mentor: To baby Noibat. He makes a good one as opposed to Fletchinder because he can't really fly but glide, so he is able to relate to the young Pokémon faster.
- Big Brother Instinct: When he hears Noibat's cries coming from the forest, his first instinct is to rush there as fast as possible.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Hawlucha likes to strike dramatic poses and show off its muscles whenever possible.
- Bully Hunter: He was one of the guardians of the forest, protecting weak Pokémon from those that threaten them. He shares this with Machamp, the champion of the forest.
- Combination Attack: Develops one with Froakie, combining his Flying Press with Froakie's Cut.
- Cool Mask: Introduces himself while wearing a grass-stitched mask.
- Dashing Hispanic: Hawlucha's English voice has a very notable Latino accent to it, fitting this trope perfectly when combined with his other characteristics.
- David Versus Goliath: Can take down Ursaring despite being smaller, and can evenly fight with Machamp. It took both Ursaring and Conkeldurr teaming up to take it down.
- Death from Above: Flying Press. He couldn't perfect it until Ash teaches him how.
- Death-or-Glory Attack: His High Jump Kick deals a lot of damage if it hits, though if it misses Hawlucha hurts itself.
- Double Knockout: When it came down to battling Hawlucha to capture it, Ash never actually won, and Hawlucha and Froakie knocked each other out. Hawlucha accepts becoming a new member of Ash's team anyway.
- Epic Fail: The PokéTV segment focusing on Hawlucha ends with him practicing his blows on a punching bag as Noibat watches on. Hawlucha punches the bag so hard that it flies up, but just as he tries to stand proud, the bag comes flying back down, knocking him over.
- Everything's Better with Spinning:
- In order to execute Flying Press faster, Ash teaches Hawlucha to make a quick spin as he flies to the opponent.
- Pulls this off with X-Scissor, which became strong enough to destroy Valerie's Spritzee's Trick Room.
- Handshake Substitute: Hawlucha gives fist bumps as a show of respect.
- Honor Before Reason: He always strikes a pose before doing his finishing move, resulting in his opponents having time to move out of the way and Hawlucha injuring itself by smashing into the ground. He continues to pose anyway, and is described as another kind of honor in battle. Ash eventually helps it learn to speed up while still being able to pose.
- In a Single Bound: Much like Froakie, a lot of Hawlucha's agility is a result of his powerful jumping prowess.
- Irony:
- Flashy and a show-off just as you'd expect from a Pokémon based on a wrestler, but couldn't really do scripted wrestling well, and susceptible to stage fright.
- He performed poorly in the Grass-Type Gym, but he did better in the Electric-Type Gym and he won Ash's badge in the Fairy-Type Gym.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Hawlucha took it upon himself to maintain order and justice within his home forest. He also frequently shields and protects others from danger.
- Large Ham: In true wrestling form. This briefly puts Hawlucha at odds with the more laidback Froakie.
- Leitmotif: This theme song plays whenever he is called into battle or does an action scene.
- Lightning Bruiser: As a "Forest Champion", facing and beating Pokémon larger than himself and tying with Froakie before being caught, you would have to be. Then its performance in gym battles, winning at least one battle in three of the four gyms he has been in, with the one exception due to being caught off guard and slowed down by a surprise poison attack; the Laverre City gym in particular only adds to his record.
- And to amp up his record, he manages to successfully perform a powerful High Jump Kick on Zapdos which sends it plummeting down. Zapdos only managed to land a clean hit on him because Noibat was distracting him.
- Masked Luchador: In his first appearance, he wore a mask constructed from grass before entering battle.
- Mythology Gag: Hawlucha becomes a Stunt Double when the gang help make the Cosplay Pikachu film. While Hawlucha "plays" Super Pikachu, this might be a nod to how one of the Cosplay Pikachu, Pikachu Libre (cast as the film's villain), can use Hawlucha's Secret Art, Flying Press.
- Noble Bird of Prey: He's a hawk-like Pokémon that fights with honor.
- Not Quite Flight: He glides rather than flying under his own power. This is the reason why he is never used as a flying scout unlike the other two Flying-Type members of The Team.
- Obvious Stunt Double: In XY077, when Hawlucha works as Pikachu's stunt double, he gets a very convincing mask, but Hawlucha is significantly more buffed than Pikachu.
- Parental Substitute: Both him and Ash act like a father figure for Noibat.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He was able to match a Machamp in raw strength despite being half the size of his opponent.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Knowing only Fighting-type moves makes him helpless against Ghost-types. He finally gets over this when he is shown to know X-Scissor.
- Pro Wrestling Is Real: He believes that wrestling, or at least luchadore, is real. So much so that he couldn't perform scripted, theatrical wrestling matches. A later episode implies that it may be a trait within his species because when he and Dark Hawlucha did a staged match, they were so enthralled by it that they pretty much imagined that it was a real lucha libre and they gave their all as though they were fighting for real.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The proud, theatrical red to Froakie's calm, collected blue.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: He can use Karate Chop at such a high intensity it resembles this.
- The Rival: To the Machamp who was the former guardian of the forest they lived in. He joins Ash's team when he realizes Machamp regained his sense of honor to protect the forest.
- Signature Move: Flying Press, to the point he won't end a fight without using it in spite of how it wasn't perfected.
- Wimp Fight: Hawlucha ended up doing this against another Trainer's shiny Hawlucha during a squabble.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: It's secondary type is the Flying-Type, but he is not very good in flying compared to Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame and later Noivern. If Hawlucha is in the air, he is usually gliding rather than flying, that's why Noibat found it easier to learn flying from Hawlucha at first, since gliding is less difficult than actually flying. Most of the time, Hawlucha is walking on the ground, though. And furthermore, Hawlucha doesn't know any Flying-Type moves aside from Flying Press, which is a dual type move.
- Wrestler in All of Us: His fighting style has wrestling accents in them, like the Flying Press. His version of the High Jump Kick is a powerful knee strike, reminiscent of the Shining Wizard wrestling move.
Goomy (Numera) —> Sliggoo (Numeil) —> Goodra (Numelgon)
Voiced in Japanese by: Chinatsu Akasaki (Numera and Numeil), Yuji Ueda (Numelgon)
Voiced in English by: Tom WaylandA Pokémon that was literally dropped onto the group during their travel to Coumarine City. Goomy is seen as weak and cowardly, but was invited by Ash to follow along on his journey after helping in a fight against Team Rocket in order to become strong.
- Adorkable: Just from Goomy's design alone, you can tell it's a comical Pokemon. Even by the time it's developed and evolved into Goodra however, it remains adorably silly and innocent in personality.
- All-Loving Hero: As a Goodra, after finding out the Florges that was the cause of it's banishment and all it's past trauma, was merely a scared mother protecting it's child, it made no hesitance to protect her from Team Rocket and quickly became friends with her when the crisis was resolved.
- Alternate Animal Affection: A platonic version. Once it has found a liking to someone, it will nibble this person's ear. Goomy also does this to Pokémon it has taken a liking.
- Artistic License: Sliggoo evolves by using Rain Dance to summon a massive storm, something that's impossible to do in the game.
- Badass Adorable: After overcoming its PTSD-esque moments, it managed to become a strong fighter capable of dishing out damage and hits. As Sliggoo, it managed to summon a massive storm just to evolve. And even as a mighty Goodra, it still looks and acts as innocent and lovable as ever!
- Berserk Button: Goomy is easily offended. Bonnie called it a scaredy-cat for being afraid of Dedenne and it proceeded to comically smack her leg with its antennas. Serena said that its slimy body felt weird and it used Rain Dance to drench her until she apologised.
- Blob Monster: It's some sort of goo creature.
- Breath Weapon:
- Uses Bide as a Breath Weapon, firing a silver blast from its mouth. Which is strange, since Bide is a physical attack.
- Also Ice Beam and Dragon Breath, later replaced by Dragon Pulse.
- Bully Hunter: When Goodra finally returned to it's homeland, now far more powerful, it instantly sets upon defending it's friends from Florge's army. It then stands up for her after finding out she was an Unwitting Pawn for Team Rocket.
- The Bus Came Back: Ash and company stop by the wetlands to see Goodra again (if only for a brief time) on the way to Lumiose City for the Lumiose Conference. In the process, it meets up with Noivern and has some fun with Dedenne.
- The Cameo: Quite surprisingly, Goodra makes an unexpected appearance with its friends watching the Master Class Showcase on TV.
- Cowardly Lion: It lives in fear of battle due to its traumatizing past, but it will defend its friends when the chips are down.
- Crash-Into Hello: Literally flies off of a Swanna and crashes onto Ash's face, which it immediately samples.
- Cuddle Bug: Loves hugging people and nibbling on their ears when happy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Goomy avoids battles because it is reminded of its harsh life back in its home. It eventually overcomes this, even finally going back to face it's past foes.
- Deus Exit Machina: Goodra's species is very powerful (in the X and Y games it's the Infinity1 Sword) and would have potentially overshadowed Ash's other Pokémon, so it was left behind at its swamp in XY070.
- Fire-Forged Friends: It gets over its fear of Dedenne as the rodent protects it from Team Rocket.
- Gentle Giant: Upon becoming Goodra. It's a powerhouse but sweet natured and ultimately, very forgiving.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Secreting slime and summoning rain are not very flashy abilities for Pokémon, but it still finds ways to make them useful.
- An Ice Person: Learns Ice Beam during its battle with Florges.
- Magikarp Power: Goomy was very well subjected to this: Goodra, the final evolved form of Goomy, is a Pseudo-Legendary on the line of Hydreigon, Dragonite, Salamence or Metagross.
- Mighty Glacier: Goomy has trouble moving very quickly, appropriate for its slug-like appearance, and doesn't get much faster once it evolves all the way to Goodra. However, it can easily tank a lot of hits and dish out an even bigger one in return, particularly when it uses Bide.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Nearly all of Goodra's Character Development, from it's meeting with Ash to it's evolution from a meek Goomy into a powerful guardian of the wetlands, was the by product of Team Rocket's scheming.
- Our Dragons Are Different: A gooey slug-like dragon to be exact. Goomy is reputed as the weakest of all Dragon-types.
- Prehensile Hair: Goodra uses its annteni to this effect.
- Personal Rain Cloud: Gives this to people who offend it by using Rain Dance.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Even though Goomy is reputed as the weakest Dragon-type, you don't want to be on the receiving end of its released Bide attack.
- Put on a Bus: Stays behind in its homeland at the end of XY070.
- Spanner in the Works: Team Rocket's long term scheme to drain the wetlands both pivoted and was destroyed by Goodra's escape and training under Ash. Even a cunning Chessmaster plot by the trio couldn't stop it ultimately.
- Tender Tears: When it realizes it has to say goodbye to Ash and go back to staying in its wetland home.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- In the episode where a group of Spoink are bullied and controlled by a Grumpig, Goomy gets over its past memories of being attacked and forced out of its home to fight back when Ash and his friends are trapped in a cage by Team Rocket. It then evolves into Sliggoo to protect Ash when he protects it from Grumpig's Iron Tail, immediately learning Dragon Breath and blasting Grumpig away.
- It got this again when Sliggoo evolved into Goodra. It saw that Ash and Serena were surrounded by a fire and though this triggered another flashback to the invasion of its home, it saved them by using Rain Dance to put out the fire, then evolved into Goodra on the spot and learned Dragon Pulse. After all was said and done, it then participated in a double battle with Pikachu against Tierno's Wartortle and Raichu and tanked all their hits like they were nothing. Then it and Pikachu finished them off with Dragon Pulse and Thunderbolt.
- Finally went full circle when it came face to face with the Florges and her army that attacked it as a Goomy. Despite it's past traumas almost taking over, it battles and very nearly defeats her to protect it's friends, until Team Rocket intervene, following which it ultimately ends up fearlessly defending Florges after finding out she was an Unwitting Pawn.
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- A "Goomy" appeared in the toy catalog specifically for the anime.
- The "future episodes" teaser showed Goomy. While at first that wasn't spoiling much, it connected with the toy catalog. And then in the Year End Special, a teaser of the episode that featured Goomy (which was the same episode from the future episodes teaser) came out right after the clip show of Ash's new Pokémon in 2014 as a sneak peek.
- And in that episode, the new opening for the anime made its debut. Not only did it feature Goomy, it also showed Goomy evolving into Sliggoo and into Goodra.
- True Companions: Like Hawlucha, Goodra has become the unofficial guardian of its domain, treating the wetlands Pokémon which included its former tormentor Florges as family.
- Weather Manipulation: Knows Rain Dance and thus can summon rain clouds (small ones as Goomy, huge ones as its evolved forms).
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: It's afraid of Fairy-types, including Team Pet Dedenne, mainly because Fairy-type Pokémon are strong against Dragon-type Pokémon. It's also afraid of Bug-types as Bug-types destroyed its home, as shown through one of Clemont's inventions. It later overcomes its fear of Dedenne in XY056. Its fear of Fairy-types later turns out to be connected to its Bug-type fear — said Bug-types were led by a Florges, who ruthlessly attacked it. It finally overcame this fear after facing down Florges as Goodra and later befriending her after discovering her sympathetic motivation.
Noibat (Onbat) —> Noivern (Onvern)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuka Terasaki (Onbat), Kenta Miyake (Onvern)
Voiced in English by: Marc Thompson (Noibat), Kenta Miyake (Noivern)Hawlucha stumbles upon an egg. When the group hatches it, out comes this Pokémon who sees Ash as his father. Because of him being just a newborn, he has some trouble flying, and he has a rather ear-piercing cry.
- Baby Talk: While one could say he uses Pokémon Speak, Noibat uses a distinct "Ook ook" cry that makes him sound more like a baby than a young Pokémon.
- Big Brother Worship: Towards Hawlucha, to the point where he mimics his poses.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After evolving, he managed to gain the upper hand against a Zapdos through his newfound speed, power and Ash's admittedly clever tactic of using the many plateaus to confuse Zapdos. Although Team Rocket interfered before the battle could be finished, Zapdos was weakened so badly Team Rocket actually managed to capture it, until Noivern and Pikachu freed it.
- A Friend in Need: Upon seeing Hawlucha fall from Zapdos's attack, he immediately rushes to his without concern for his own safety. His attempt at trying to gain speed and pushing his limit makes him evolve into Noivern, just enough time to catch Hawlucha.
- Does Not Like Spam: He doesn't like sour apples.
- Head Pet: As Noibat, he enjoys sitting on Hawlucha's head a lot. Not so much after evolving, of course.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: After a run-in with a Breloom, Noibat gets healed by the arrival of a Floette. Noibat immediately makes friends with the Floette, but then the same Breloom from before (who has feelings for Floette) sees them together, and goes Crazy Jealous Guy...
- Imprinting: Sees Ash as a parent. With that said he also picks up a lot from Hawlucha.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: Wants to prove that he's not a kid anymore by standing up for Floette and going up against Breloom, as influenced by Hawlucha.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: His cries are capable of being loud and destructive (like when he cries, he uses Supersonic). He can also use high-frequency cries that can't be heard by people that allows him to detect objects in the dark or are far. He can even tell if a fruit is sour by using sound waves!
- Boomburst is turning this concept into an attack.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: He's a bat-dragon, though its draconic aspects aren't very apparent.
- Ocular Gushers: Frequently cries using this method.
- Our Dragons Are Different: A Bat-Dragon that primarily uses sound waves as attacks.
- Out of Focus: After its two-part introduction it doesn't play a major role in over 20 episodes, while Ash's other Pokémon participate in Gym battles or got focus episodes. This ends after it takes a level in badass during the battle against Team Flare. The writers presumably thought that a newborn that had only just mastered the power of flight would not believably make for a competent battler so soon, and indeed the next focus episode it gets shows that it wants to be treated like a grown-up.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Just look at it! Even in his debut episode he has so many precious moments!
- Strong as They Need to Be: Noivern's power boost via evolution stands as one of the most exaggerated in the anime, going from a fairly competent Noibat to overpowering Zapdos and Team Rocket's mech with so much as breaking a sweat. In later battles, Noivern is still strong, but to a far more reasonable level. It ultimately fainted during it's first two battles due to type disadvantage and battle fatigue.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Serves as Goodra's replacement on Ash's team. Only in this case, instead of being a Cowardly Lion like Goomy upon introduction, Noibat instead has trouble flying, like Ash's Gligar.
- Took a Level in Badass: When the group battles Team Flare at Terminus Cave, Noibat gains the upper hand against a Drapion, confusing it with Supersonic and knocking it back with Tackle. Later on he puts up a prolonged fight against a Breloom, and then learns Acrobatics, allowing him to destroy a metal cage as well as defeat Team Rocket (using the newly learned move against Inkay and taking it down in a single hit) to save a Floette.
- One legendary feat that managed to surpass even Talonflame's performance against Moltres, is that after evolving to help Hawlucha, through his increased speed, power and Ash's admittedly clever tactic of using the many plateaus to confuse it, he managed to gain the upper hand against a wild Zapdos, a Legendary Electric-Type Bird Pokémon.
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- Appeared in teasers for the Pikachu and the Pokémon Band short, the fourth XY ending and the third XY opening all before actually making its official debut.
- CoroCoro September 2015 news reveals the poster for the new season Pokémon XY&Z, and there it shows a Noivern rather than a Noibat among Ash's team.
- The Worf Effect: Gets beaten by Alain's Metang to show Alain isn't purely dependent on Charizard.
- Worf Had the Flu: As Clemont pointed out, none of Noivern's attacks were very effective against Metang.
Clemont and Bonnie
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuuki Kaji
Voiced in English by: Michael Liscio Jr.The new boy for the XY series, and Bonnie's older brother. Gadgeteer Genius extraordinaire, his inventions have helped Ash on more than one occasion. He is also the true Gym Leader of Lumiose City.
- Adapted Out: His Emolga from the games is replaced with a Magnemite. This might be due to Iris having an Emolga during the Black and White saga.
- Adorkable: His poor physical condition and obsession with technology, just to name a few of his endearing quirks.
- Agent Scully: Played with. When Clemont gets scared of something illogical, he tries desperately to explain it from a scientific perspective, if just to relieve himself.
- Anger Born of Worry: When Bonnie wants to go look for Puni-Chan in the dead of the night and doesn't take "no" for an answer, Clemont briefly has to raise his voice and scream that, if she were to leave, HE would be worried sick.
- Awesome Backpack: His backpack contains numerous scientific gadgets, including an Aipom-Arm and an enormous airbag, among other things. On the downside, it is likely heavy, which makes his lack of athletic physique more apparent.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: He basically managed to get a good fight out of Ash & Pikachu with a freshly-caught Bunnelby just by correctly anticipating how the two would battle, but didn't expect Ash to lure him in with Iron Tail to get in Electro Ball at point-blank range.
- Bag of Holding: Equipped his backpack with a function that lets out an enormous airbag.
- Berserk Button: Clemont can get very antsy if you diminish the importance and fascination of technology (even when it's sometimes more convoluted than just doing things manually). In one instance he was even willing to side with James when one of Team Rocket's inventions was debunked as pointless.
- Big Brother Instinct: He cares for and protects Bonnie.
- Blind Without 'Em: When Pancham runs off with his glasses, we learn that he can't see a thing without them.
- Bungling Inventor: The Japanese opening shows one of his inventions exploding right in his face. Most of his other inventions are also shown to be less than flawless.
- Butt Monkey:
- Whether its his inventions failing or being the occasional butt of one joke or another, he seems to come out the worst in many situations.
- In XY018, the others needed to trade him to the princess for the PokéFlute, but ended up forgetting about him until the last second. He has to put his jumpsuit on a robot as a decoy and escape in his undershirt and underwear, much to everyone's horror.
- Catchphrase:
- "The future is now, thanks to science!"
- When busting out his latest invention: "Clemontic Gear, ON!"
- When dragging Bonnie away from her attempts to find him a wife: "Bonnie, I told you to stop this a million times!" and "This is so embarrassing!"
- Celibate Hero: If his reactions to Bonnie's antics are anything to go by, romance is dead last in his list of priorities.
- Child Prodigy: He's managed to accomplish a lot: He's contributed research and developed various facilities that aid in energy production, such as Kalos's power plant and Lumiose Tower. He also comes up with a number of inventions that rivals Thomas Edison (even if most of them end up going haywire). He's also around the same age that Ash is.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: In XY018 he has to escape from the princess in his underwear, as his jumpsuit was used to dress up a decoy.
- Crazy-Prepared: He has some kind of device built for every situation imaginable.
- Elemental Hair: A blond, lightning bolt-shaped cowlick to suit an Electric specialist.
- Evil Counterpart: Inverted. Being a bungling and somewhat weedy strategist with a penchant for wacky inventions that don't always handle well, he makes something of a Good Counterpart to the Team Rocket trio that appeared before him. Games of one-upmanship with their gadgetry has sometimes occurred, with Clemont sometimes even shown to be impressed by their work. For an added bonus, one of Clemont's bungled inventions even sent him "blasting off".
- For Science!: "FOR THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE!"
- Gadgeteer Genius: He's an inventor and keeps a number of useful gadgets in his backpack (although they backfire some of the time). To his credit, many of his gadgets do perform the task they're supposed to, just with the downside of malfunctioning and exploding straight afterwards. He also develops a gadget that assists Ash and Greninja in mastering their unique Super Mode.
- Hammerspace: As usual, it is left up to the viewer's imagination as to how Clemont manages to carry around all those machines.
- Hero-Worshipper: In the first few points of the series, he expressed his amazement in Ash's abilities and his desire to also be able to get into the thick of things for others. Ash by amusing contrast is athletically strong and Book Dumb, and takes complete amazement in Clemont's inventions.
- Idiot Hair: He has a lightning bolt-shaped ahoge, and while Clemont himself is quite intelligent, he is prone to silly situations where his machines unexpectedly backfire.
- Incoming Ham: If he's showing off one of his inventions don't expect him to leave any scenery for the rest of us.
- Image Song: "Kirakira"* sung by Tomohisa Sako. Has been used as an insert song.
- Imagine Spotting: In PokeTV, Bonnie once fantasized about Dedenne transforming into Bonnie-Dedenne and inflicting paralysis to Clemont via Nuzzle. Clemont's Blue with Shock reaction implies that he saw the whole thing.
- King Incognito: Or rather Gym Leader Incognito. A definite case of It Was His Sled if you've played the associated games. Turns out he created a robot that turned on him and kicked him out of the Gym because he programmed it badly and mistimed when to enter the override passcode.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you've played the game, you should already know that he's the gym leader of Lumiose City. The opening also shows his silhouette in the lineup with the other regional gym leaders.
- Meaningful Background Event: He and Bonnie first appear walking behind Ash before he enters the Prism Tower. And they're depressed over something, too.
- Meaningful Name: His Japanese and English names reference lemons note as well as certain electrical terms.
- Meanwhile, Back at the...: He returns to the Lumiose Gym a few episodes before his and Ash's match. The in between episodes dedicate a minute or two showing what he's doing in that time.
- Missing Mom: His father, Meyer was introduced in XY009, but his mother doesn't seem to be present, not even a photo, flashback, fantasy, or cameo was shown.
- Mission Control: For a brief time, he invented a Mini-Clembot to monitor Ash and Greninja's pulse during battle.
- Nice Guy: Clemont has been shown to be very kind and polite, maybe even a bit of a pushover at times.
- No OSHA Compliance: See Clembot's entry. Note that this wasn't intentional on Clemont's part, either.
- Non-Action Guy: In terms of his physical ability, but being a gym leader, he is certainly no pushover in Pokémon battles.
- Out of Focus: Clemont suffered this big time after his Gym Battle was over. It's come to the point his little sister has more episodes than he does (and his own ''Chespin''). This is due to Clemont lacking a personal goal of his own other than just trying to be like Ash. He still gets a few focus episodes and does contribute to the overall group dynamic, but that's it.
- Performance Anxiety: He can become very camera-shy if he's put on the spot.
- Phrase Catcher: His inventions always get the line "Science is so amazing!" from Ash.
- Playful Hacker: His Aipom Arm is able to effortlessly hack into a secured backdoor of the Prism Tower. Given the tower doubles as his Gym, it makes sense.
- Promoted To Parent: Clemont has had to scold Bonnie, remind her of her manners, and essentially acts as her caretaker. She even directly asks for his permission in order to "keep" Dedenne as her future Pokémon. Subverted by their father being around, making Clemont more Bonnie's (mostly willing) caretaker than anything else. However, their father seems to be working all day and all night.
- Punny Name: His "Sticky Never Give Up Machine" is a very lame pun in Japanese; "neba neba" means "sticky", but also sounds like "never never."
- Rock Beats Laser: Almost literally. In XY007, after Team Rocket tries to capture all the Rhyhorn, the controller for the cages is dropped after Fennekin uses Ember. Clemont dives on the remote with a rock and smashes it."FOR THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE!!!"
- Running Gag:
- Any time he shows off an invention, which is followed by him boasting about it and revealing its often stupid name, which is followed by Bonnie going all Deadpan Snarker on it, which is followed by Ash commenting "Science is SO amazing!", which is followed by Serena either staring blankly at it or asking for more info.
- His inventions working well, only to inevitably explode in his and everyone else's faces, leaving them with Funny Afros. The only time this does not happen is in XY028 when the invention is used to evenly cut open a slice of cake.
- He is also the victim of Bonnie's frequent attempts to find him a wife. In an inverse of how the gag worked with Brock, Clemont drags Bonnie away instead.
- His lack of athletic skill. Usually, it's shown by always being the last to arrive after the rest of his companions.
- He also sometimes annoys the others by complimenting one of Team Rocket's inventions.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: His glasses shine in this manner from time to time, instead of being Opaque Nerd Glasses 100% like his video game counterpart.
- Science Hero: Whereas Ash solves his problems through sheer tenacity, Clemont has a variety of inventions to rely on for any situation.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Ash's Manly Man.
- Shared Family Quirks: Has the same goofy grin and awkward run as his sister. Also, in episode 78, he appears to have the same emotional Ocular Gushers like his father.
- Shock and Awe: His specialty as a Gym Leader is Electric-Types.
- The Smart Guy: Is the team's resident technology expert and a Science Hero.
- Smart People Build Robots: He built the Clembot to mind the gym while he's away. At one point it malfunctioned and locked him out of his own gym, but with his friend's help, he managed to beat it in a Pokémon battle and reprogram it to run the gym properly.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: The bespectacled Clemont is apparently quite the inventor, creating many ingenious, and occasionally unorthodox, devices.
- Squishy Wizard: What he excels in intelligence, he lacks physically. It is made apparent right in the second episode that he is out of shape. After Team Rocket's first intervention, he, Ash, and Bonnie rush to Professor Sycamore's lab to take care of an injured Froakie. Clemont runs out of breath really fast and tells the others that he'll catch up with them. Lugging around that heavy Awesome Backpack of his doesn't help. Bonnie calls him out on this many times.
- Status Quo Is God: Clemont's inventions will always malfunction and explode, but he will always try again. As a result, Clemont will never stop trying to improve himself.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Is the closest replacement to Brock than any other male companion. Being the older voice of reason to Ash and is very knowledgeable.
- Team Chef: He's a very good cook, and describes cooking as a kind of science.
- Worthy Opponent: Being his Evil Counterpart, he sometimes irritates the others by complimenting Team Rocket's scientific "endeavours".Bonnie: "What is this, the Team Rocket fan club???"
Bunnelby (Horubi)
Voiced in Japanese by: Chinatsu Akasaki
Voiced in English by: Alyson RosenfeldBunnelby is a Pokémon that Clemont recently caught before meeting Ash. When asked by Ash what type of Pokémon he has, Clemont only showed him Bunnelby and he's the first Pokémon that Ash battled in the Kalos region.
- Badass Adorable: A competent battler, despite being a fairly recent capture in its debut. And just look at him!
- Barehanded Blade Block: Catches Pikachu's Iron Tail with his ears in this manner.
- Belated Backstory: An altercation with Team Rocket causes Clemont and Bonnie to reminisce and tell Ash and Serena about how they first met Bunnelby.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- In XY084, the episode mainly focuses on Chespin and Bunnelby's errand that Clemont gave to them. This episode shows more of Bunnelby's personality.
- XY088 is a Whole Episode Flashback about how Clemont met and caught Bunnelby.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: At the end of XY084, Clemont gives Chespin extra food even though Bunnelby had to keep Chespin focused on their errand. Even if Chespin didn't lose focus, it doesn't explain why Bunnelby doesn't receive extra food.
- Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig, an attack that has been proven to be very useful in various situations.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In XY084, he is shown to be the responsible sibling to Chespin's Foolish.
- Nice Guy: He's generally kind and actively helpful, whether cleaning up after dinner or helping to protect the others against Team Rocket. He was also one of the few Pokémon that Serena's Eevee was initially comfortable being around.
- Non-Elemental: A pure Normal-type, being Clemont's first non-Electric-Type Pokémon he ever caught. That doesn't stop Clemont from using Bunnelby in his Gym Battle against Ash.
- Out-Gambitted: Ash was counting on the above-mentioned Barehanded Blade Block so Pikachu can score an Electro Ball at point-blank range.
- Out of Focus: Once Chespin joined Clemont's team, he quickly and greatly surpassed Bunnelby in terms of screentime. However, ever since the episode with Bunnelby's errand with Chespin, he's been getting a little bit more. He gets called upon frequently because Serena's Eevee feels comfortable around him, gets a flashback episode of how he and Clemont got together, and gets injured saving Bonnie falling from a ravine.
- Performance Anxiety: Although Bunnelby is a fierce battler, he is also extremely camera-shy, just like his trainer.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: His Dig and Double Slap attacks pack a punch.
- Shock and Awe: Revealed to have learned Wild Charge during the time Clemont was away from the group.
- Tunnel King: True to his species' nature, he's a fast, powerful digger.
Voiced by: Megumi SatoDedenne first met the gang when he drops his food in front of them before getting stolen by a Fletching that Ash eventually captures. Dedenne was encountered again when he stole food from Bonnie. After a struggle with Team Rocket, he bonds with Pikachu and Bonnie. Bonnie wants Clemont to capture Dedenne for her which he agrees to. While Dedenne is technically owned by Clemont, he lets Bonnie take care of Dedenne since she's too young to be a trainer.
- Bizarre Alien Senses: Dedenne is able to track Pikachu after having exchanged electricity with him, as is typical of his species.
- A Day in the Limelight: In XY016, where he was part of the focus during an accidental switch-up. Later, he got its own title card in XY056, where Dedenne was the definite star of the episode.
- Deadly Hug: His Nuzzle attack, which would be adorable if it weren't for all the electrocution.
- Deus Exit Machina: He has a tendency to fall asleep just when he is needed the most.
- Fire-Forged Friends:
- Dedenne starts to admire Pikachu when he protects him from Team Rocket.
- The same goes with Goomy in XY056 where Dedenne protected it from Team Rocket, earning its trust and making it get over its fear of Dedenne.
- Happily Adopted: Despite Clemont capturing him, he is all but owned and commanded by Bonnie due to being a reserve of sorts for when she's old enough to be a trainer. He seems to have no problem with that at all.
- Head Pet: He's usually seen on Bonnie's head or in her pochette.
- Heavy Sleeper: He needs a lot of sleep to recharge his electricity.
- I Owe You My Life: Gratefully joins Clemont's party after he helps save him after nearly drowning.
- Let's Get Dangerous: He's small, and since Bonnie is (functionally) his trainer, he's rarely allowed to battle on the front lines. When he is the only Pokémon available, he's often asleep. Yet, unlike other Pokémon who have taken on similar roles in the past (like Togepi and Axew), he's no infant, and proves no less competent than other main Pokémon when he does get the occasion to shine.
- Off Model: Somehow Dedenne has a tendency to be drawn in a really odd-looking shape. In fact fans have taken a note of it to look up any instance where Dedenne has appeared off-model◊.
- Our Fairies Are Different: A Fairy-Type. Goomy was initially scared of Dedenne because of his Fairy-Type. Valerie is also capable of speaking Dedenne's language because of his type.
- Out of Focus: When Squishy appeared, he took over as Team Pet and occupying Bonnie's pouch, with Dedenne recalled into it's ball and is absent more often.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Bonnie's first reaction to Dedenne is exclaiming how cute he is. Dedenne effectively fills the role of the team's obligatory cute Team Pet.
- Running on All Fours: Like many real rodents, he regularly stands on two legs but runs on all fours.
- Shock and Awe: Electric-Type, but his electric power is signifcantly lower than Pikachu's or Luxray's.
- Tastes Like Friendship:
- Though initially wanting no business with Pikachu, he is quickly bought over when Pikachu kindly feeds him.
- When Dedenne and Goomy become friends, the first thing Goomy does is nibble his ear.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: While earlier on he was referred to as "like Pikachu's sibling", his gender wasn't confirmed until the Tripokalon dance episode. He was wearing a blue ribbon which was found on all other male Pokémon, as the female ones were wearing tiaras.
- Took a Level in Badass: In XY056, he battled Team Rocket alongside Pancham and he did all he could to protect Goomy from Team Rocket.
- Tunnel King: Dedenne apparently lived in an underground tunnel system before being captured.
Chespin (Harimaron)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hitomi Nabatame
Voiced in English by: Suzy MyersChespin is one of the starter Pokémon at Prof. Sycamore's lab. When Ash and the gang return back to Prof. Sycamore's lab, Chespin steals Serena's basket of macarons and eats them for itself. After he witnesses Team Rocket kidnap Prof. Sycamore and, unintentionally, Serena and Bonnie, Chespin helps Ash and Clemont track down Team Rocket. When Chespin's life becomes endangered by Team Rocket's mecha robot, Clemont saves him and they start to bond. After defeating Team Rocket, Chespin wishes to join Clemont's team which he accepts.
- Balloon Belly: As a consequence of being a Big Eater, he at one point becomes overweight, which hinders him in battle.
- Big Eater: Chespin is quite the glutton, and especially loves macarons and Poképuffs.
- A Day in the Limelight: In XY084, the episode mainly focuses on Chespin and Bunnelby's errand that Clemont gave to them.
- Determinator: Even when its attacks have no effect, he refuses to give up against the Mega-Mega-Meowth mecha after being shown friendship.
- Expy: The Piplup of the team, succeeding Ash's Oshawott.
- Follow Your Nose: His sense of smell is very acute when it comes to locating food.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In XY084, he appears to be the Foolish to Bunnelby's Responsible.
- Green Thumb: He's Clemont's first and only Grass-Type Pokémon.
- Heroic Second Wind: His ability is Overgrow, which increases his Grass-Type attacks when his stamina is low. Has been used only once.
- I Owe You My Life: Starts bonding with Clemont when he saves it from being crushed by Team Rocket's mecha.
- Keet: Has a very happy-go lucky attitude and a habit of popping out of his Pokéball on his own when something interests it.
- The McCoy: Chespin is very trusting and generous, and was even willing to offer help to Meowth when he needed it.
- Obsessed with Food: His obsession with food helped him locate Team Rocket's hideout. The same obsession has also lead him into dangerous situations, such as nearly being crushed by Team Rocket's mecha as he tried to pick up some macarons, and becoming overweight in one episode.
- Spike Shooter: Knows Pin Missile.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Perhaps the only relevant team member from Clemont's side that gets much more screen time than his own trainer.
- Tastes Like Friendship: After Clemont saves him, Chespin offers a macaron to Clemont for saving its life. After Team Rocket has been defeated, Clemont offers some of the macarons to Chespin but instead of eating them all it shares he with the rest of the gang.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Started out as a greedy troublemaker, but soon gets better after bonding with Clemont.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He loves Macarons, going so far as to eat the group's entire supply if he gets a chance. Later on he gets more into Poképuffs.
- Use Your Head: His Tackle is a powerful headbutt.
- Whip It Good: Knows Vine Whip.
- With Friends Like These...: With Pancham. The two frequently descend to bickering when they're allowed to be near each other.
Luxio —> Luxray (Rentorar)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuka Terasaki (Kolink and Luxio), Kensuke Sato (Rentorar)
Voiced in English by: Emily Jenness (Shinx and Luxio), Billy Bob Thompson (Luxray)Luxray is a Pokémon that Clemont used to play with in his younger years before evolving from a Shinx. They reunited in Kalos after it evolved into a Luxio.
- The Ace: Luxray is Clemont's strongest Pokémon.
- Cast from Hit Points: Knows Wild Charge.
- Childhood Friends: Often played together with Clemont when Luxray was a Shinx, but he didn't captured it back then.
- A Day in the Limelight: Its evolution episode. Luxray's time as a Luxio was always the Pokémon that was just kinda there with the rest of the cast ever since its capture episode.
- Not So Stoic: Luxio/Luxray is serious for most of the time, but it is shown to be lighthearted and friendly at times and it even gets a few Comically Serious moments.
- Older and Wiser: In the (imprecise) amount of time spent separated from Clemont, he not only evolved, but developed a more serious and calmer personality and is more mature overall.
- Oh Crap!: Right before getting hit by Goodra's Bide◊.
- Out of Focus: Much worse than Clemont after the Gym Battle. People often forget he even owns a Luxray. That being said he becomes Clemont's go-to battler for the Team Flare arc.
- Perpetual Frowner: Luxio/Luxray doesn't smile that often and is frowning for the majority of time.
- Shock and Awe: Electric-Type. When they first met, Shinx's lack of electricity inspired Clemont to build a system that allows Electric-Type Pokémon to take electric showers. The only offensive Eletric-Type attacks Luxio/Luxray seems to know are physical.
- Unexpected Character: No one was expecting a 4th Generation capture for the main group, especially since the Shinx family isn't even present in the Kalos Pokédex.
- X-Ray Vision: Luxray is shown to have a kind of those.
Lumiose Gym Pokémon
- Adapted Out: Unlike the games Clemont does not have an Emolga.
- Just Following Orders: While Clemont's Pokémon were happy to see him back, they still have to battle Clemont and his friends due to being under Clembot's command.
- Shock and Awe: It's an Electric-Type Gym. So everyone of them is this type.
Magnemite (Coil)
- Canon Foreigner: In the games, Clemont has a Magneton, but no Magnemite.
- Extra Ore Dinary: Its secondary type is Steel.
- Flat Character: It's mostly present to fill in Clemont's Gym team from before he starts travelling with Ash.
- Out of Focus: It hasn't appeared since its first episode, with much more focus on Clemont's travelling team and on Heliolisk. It's not used in the Gym Battle with Ash, either.
Magneton (Rarecoil)
- Extra Ore Dinary: Steel is its secondary type.
- Out of Focus: While not as much as Magnemite, it's still not given as much focus as Heliolisk and Clemont's travelling team. It's not used in the Gym Battle with Ash, either.
Heliolisk (Elezard)
Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima
Voiced in English by: ????
- The Ace: Heliolisk was Clemont's original ace prior to Luxray. Which makes sense, since Heliolisk is his ace in the games as well. As long as Clemont is travelling, it acts as Clembot's ace for the meantime. It is also the only one of Clemont's original three Pokémon to be used during the Gym Battle against Ash.
- Achilles' Heel: It has to stop for a second and extend the frilled collar around its neck to attack, making it more vulnerable to damage by direct attacks. Ash notices and is able to exploit this by having Hawlucha use a point-blank Hi Jump Kick during the split second when it opens its frills.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Knows Bulldoze. It was actually taught this move by Clembot as a means of countering Dig and other Ground-type moves, and Clemont had to think outside the box like Ash would in order to defeat it in battle and reclaim the Gym from Clembot.
- Fragile Speedster: It's not able to take too much damage directly, but proves fast enough to be difficult to hit anyway. Ash counters this by using Hawlucha, who is not only fast enough to match it but who has super-effective Fighting-type moves.
- Glass Cannon: Again, despite its frailty, Heliolisk compensates by having powerful moves that do impressive damage.
- Keet: It has an extraordinarily lively personality, as shown when it was first sent out against Clemont. It was also the most visibly happy to see him again of all three Gym Mons.
- Lizard Folk: It is based on the frill-necked lizard after all, and it moves on its hind legs.
- Life Drain: Unsurprisingly given that the move is primarily associated with the line in the games, it knows Parabolic Charge, a new move introduced in Generation VI that gives the Electric type a healing move.
- Light 'em Up: It knows Flash.
- Non-Elemental: It's secondary type is Normal, which becomes its weakness when facing Hawlucha.
- Standard Status Effects: It knows Thunder Wave, which it uses to paralyze Ash's Goodra, forcing him to substitute with Hawlucha.
- Tail Slap: Knows Dragon Tail.
Bonnie (Eureka)
Voiced in Japanese by: Mariya Ise, Mika Kanai*
Voiced in English by: Alyson RosenfeldClemont's little sister and another sidekick for the XY series. She's too young to own a Pokémon of her own yet, but has a willing spirit to help out in any way she can. With a bottomless curiosity and a burning passion for Pokémon, Bonnie loves to take care of and play with Pokémon of all kinds.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: She doesn't pull her punches when pointing out Clemont's lack of athleticism, but seems mature enough to know when to apologize. Also, much to Clemont's exasperation, she asks just about any girl she meets to marry him. But she is not as bratty as Max.
- Ascended Extra: In the games, her only roles are hosting the Lumiose Gym/Prism Tower Pokémon Quiz. After becoming the champion, the player can get a ribbon from her if they have a Pokémon with maximum affection. In the anime, she's a main character alongside Clemont.
- Big Brother Worship: She may snark at Clemont's lack of athletic skill, but she still looks up to him.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Not a full on case, but it is made apparent that her younger age can make her incredibly tactless compared to the rest of the team. She usually lacks any form of filter in her criticizing of others for example, nonchalantly calling Goomy a coward and constantly snarking at her brother's hopelessness.
- Catch Phrase:
- "Keep" in Japan. Bonnie's vocabulary is not terribly extensive, so she uses "keep" as a substitute for several verbs such as "capture" and "marry".
- In the English dub, whenever she tries to get a girl to marry Clemont, it's "You're a keeper!" and "Please take care of my brother!"
- Cheerful Child: Curious, energetic and innocent. Bonnie always sees things through a positive lens, and gives every new Pokémon a chance, regardless of their appearance or natures.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: After spending most of the series trying to hook Clemont up with any girl the group meets, Bonnie suddenly becomes apprehensive when Clemont finds a potential match, and tries to drive them apart.
- Cuteness Proximity: She pretty much squees at the sight of every new Pokémon she meets, even a Garchomp.
- The Cutie: Her antics, affection for Pokémon, and youthful energy makes her a younger sibling all the characters want to look after.
- Does Not Like Spam: As a typical trait of small children in anime, she doesn't like carrots.
- Dragged by the Collar:
- Repeatedly done by Clemont's mechanical Aipom Arm whenever she asks a girl to marry her brother.
- In the opening of XY&Z, she's dragged off by Sqiushy's 10% Forme.
- Fluffy Tamer: While not an official trainer, she has a tendency to like even the scariest-looking Pokémon. She even manages to befriend and evolve the Pokémon equivalent of a Tyrannosaurus rex. And not to mention befriending an Eldritch Abomination.
- Genki Girl: Getting zapped by Pikachu doesn't dampen her spirits one bit.
- Gratuitous French: "S'il vous plait" in the Japanese version.
- Hair Decorations: She wears a yellow circular clip for her distinctive sidetail.
- Image Song: One for both her and Puni-chan, aptly named "Puni-chan Song". It is sung by her voice actress Mariya Ise and is used as XY&Z's ending. She occassionally sings it in the anime, which has a calming effect on Squishy.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Huge, expressive blue eyes perfect for a young girl like Bonnie.
- It's All My Fault: When Bunnelby gets hurt during the search for Squishy, Bonnie blames herself because she insisted they go look for it. Clemont comforts her because they all want Squishy back, not just Bonnie.
- Little Miss Snarker: Her brother's lame invention names, awkwardness, and tendency for his inventions to explode gives her plenty to work with. Even Meowth finds her insufferable.
- The Matchmaker: Tries to find a future wife/girlfriend for Clemont, much to his embarrassment.
- Meaningful Name:
- Both her Japanese and English names refer to different varieties of lemon (the Eureka and Bonnie Brae, respectively).
- "Eureka" is also an expression used to declare when one has achieved an enlightened thought, complimenting her tinkering brother.
- Modesty Shorts: Wears a pair under her little tutu skirt.
- Mythology Gag: When she asks a girl to marry her brother, Clemont drags her away with the Aipom-Arm similar to how Brock gets dragged away when he flirts with a girl. She also seems to be the anime stand-in for the interactive part of Pokémon Amie.
- The Nicknamer: She calls the Zygarde Core Cell that the group found with the nickname Squishy/Puni-chan* .
- Nightmare Fetishist: She is the only character of the group who is not scared of ghosts or haunted houses. Actually, she gets exited about them.
- No Indoor Voice: Is very loud and squeals at inopportune moments.
- Plucky Girl: She's certainly not afraid to stand up to villains.
- Shared Family Quirks: Has the same goofy grin and awkward run as her brother.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Even when she's not of legal age to be a trainer yet, jarringly enough, she gets more episodes than Clemont does. This only becomes much more obvious during the third season where she gets to take care of one Zygarde Core Cell and even gets her own ending theme.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Max. Being the Annoying Younger Sibling who isn't old enough to old enough to own any Pokémon, but still accompanies Ash's team.
- Sweet Tooth: Bonnie loves her sweets. She even starts drooling just from Serena talking about the restaurants and bakeries in Lumiose City.
- Tagalong Kid: She sticks by Clemont's side whether he wants it or not, though generally he doesn't seem to mind.
- Tender Tears: When she worries about Squishy and wants to go look for it in the dead of the night, Clemont tells her she can't because then HE would be worried sick. Bonnie's reaction is to cry her heart out to Clemont.
- Third-Person Person: Sprinkled in here and there in the Japanese version, as per usual Character Tics for Japanese children. This trait is absent in the English dub, where this convention isn't used.
- Took a Level in Badass: In XY056, she first stepped to the side when Serena was battling Team Rocket. After Pancham became confused due to Inkay's Psybeam, Dedenne used Nuzzle to make it snap out of confusion and she joined the battle, defeating Team Rocket by commanding Dedenne smoothly.
Z-1/Squishy (Puni-chan)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuuki Kaji
Voiced in English by: Billy Bob ThompsonA Zygarde Core was being experimented by scientists in Lysandre's secret laboratory labeled by Team Flare as Z-1. Thanks to Mairin's Chespin, it was able to escape, and ends up stumbling into Bonnie, who then gave it a nickname Squishy due to its, well, squishiness. It hides from Team Flare scientists who are tailing it. There is another Zygarde Core labeled as Z-2, who is already assuming 50% Forme, and the opening suggests the two will have a power struggle.
- Adorable Abomination: It doesn't hide the fact that it is Zygarde (though the heroes don't know it yet). But it is still quite cute.
- Animalistic Abomination: 10% and 50% are a dog and a snake respectively. With that said Bonnie seems to enjoy 10% Forme in the opening.
- Escaped from the Lab: With the help of Mairin's Chespin, Squishy was able to escape Team Flare.
- Image Song: Together with Bonnie, Puni-chan Song, which is the first ending of XY&Z.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Z-2 tells it to cut all its ties to humans as they are the ones causing imbalance to Kalos. However, it tells Z2 that it found something different, and will continue to travel with the gang to observe more. It appears to take a strong interest in Bonnie in particular.
- Mighty Roar: In its 10% Forme, it unleashes Land's Wrath with a loud howl, driving Team Flare off.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: It felt something wrong when Z-2 was being captured, ultimately getting worried when the other Core wasn't responding.
- Power Of The Sun: Recharges and heals itself by sunbathing.
- Punny Name: Both English and Japaneses names are references to its squishiness (punipuni is Japanese onomatopoeia for something squishy).
- Royal "We": During a dream where it was given a human voice, Squishy uses the first person pronoun Yo in the Japanese version, which is a rough equivalent to this trope. In the English dub, when Meowth asks who he is, he responds "I is I." It also speaks in this when talking telepathically with the blue Zygarde Core.
- Sleep-Mode Size: Puni-chan defaults to this as a Core, but when threatened it can summon the other Zygarde Cells to briefly become 10%.
- Telepathy: While it can only make odd noises towards everyone, it can speak properly towards Z-2 through telepathy.
- Using You All Along: It joined the group to seek protection, and tagged along upon realizing that they were heading to Terminus Cave. In XY&Z09, it immediately went off on its own to communicate with the other Core, and during the commotion with Team Flare it left the main gang, much to Bonnie's disbelief. After witnessing the bonds between the gang and their Pokémon, it decides to join them for real, seeing them, and Ash and Bonnie in particular, as examples of how people and Pokémon can coexist, putting it at odds with Z2.
- World-Healing Wave: In XY&Z05 it restores a small portion of the forest that was razed by the "Fire Ghost" that was chasing Squishy. While this happened during a dream, who's to say Squishy cannot use this ability in the real world?
- You Are Number 6: Team Flare gave it the designation Z-1 (the second, blue-centered Core is labelled Z-2).
Voiced in Japanese by: Mayuki Makiguchi
Voiced in English by: Haven PaschallA girl who lives with her mother in the Kalos region. After seeing Ash's face on a news report, she's certain that he's the same boy she met when she was younger. Serena joins Ash on his quest despite not knowing to what end, though she eventually decided that her dream was to become a Pokémon Performer.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Her skin tone and hair color match the default version of her game counterpart (the one used for the NPC version if you choose Calem as your PC), but her eyes are blue like the lighter-skinned, blonde PC version.
- Eye color was, however customizable in the games, so you could get the same combination.
- Age Lift: In the games, her age is hard to pin down, but somewhere in the mid-to-late teens. In the anime, she's the same height as Ash and Clemont, and abiding by flashback, is of almost identical age, which would put her in the preteen-to-early-teen range.
- Anger Born of Worry:
- While it doesn't amount to much, Serena finally gets (justifiably) angry at Ash when he dived into a volcano in order to save Talonflame, which, had it not been for Frogadier, would have been fatal for both of them.
- She also gets worried when Ash is having a Heroic B.S.O.D. after his loss against Wulfric, and when Ash angrily rebuffs her she finally gets very angry with him as well. They make up at the end of the episode, however.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Nearly did this during her argument with Ash when he snapped at her for trying to cheer him up.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Like most of Ash's companions, Serena is sweet natured, but not a doormat. The one time Ash snapped at her, she very angrily dressed him down over it, while also reminding him that he is better than that. Like with so many others, Team Rocket also regularly pay the price for crossing her. In "So You're Having a Bad Day" she is willing to cooperate with Meowth, but after finding out everything they suffered from the Pokemon of the Day was his fault, she is the one that exposes him, coldly telling him he's on his own when he tries to weasel for help.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: While teaching Ash how to ride a Rhyhorn, Serena surprises herself when she habitually uses her mother's "Go for broke" motto.
- Break the Cutie: Subverted. She breaks down into tears in front of her Pokémon the next day, early in the morning at a boardwalk, after losing the first round in her first Pokémon Showcase earlier in the episode. Fennekin and Pancham also held tears over their distraught Trainer and attempted to comfort her. However, she was crying because she was grateful for the opportunity to start her dream as a Performer despite the loss and renewed her resolve to become Kalos Queen with a change in style and wardrobe.
- Broken Pedestal: Rather defied when it came to her attempts to help Ash after his crushing loss against Wulfric. She is aware that Ash isn't perfect and loses time to time but the only thing about him that upsetted her was how he brusquely brushed her off by telling her to leave him alone. She retaliates with a few snowballs and calling him out that he is not being himself: the "Ash that she admires".
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Serena is just one of many (perhaps the first, maybe) people that Ash gave a helping hand to, in spite of Serena holding that memory dearly. That, and Serena never actually told him her name.
- Catch Phrase: "Ta-dah!", every time she wants to show something off to her friends. When Jessie impersonated her, Serena was a wee bit mad that Jessie exaggerated the Catch Phrase bit.Serena: *pouty* "I don't do that EVER!!!"
- Catapult Nightmare: At the dawn of Ash's 4th gym battle, she dreams of tripping and falling during her Showcase debut, and wakes up the same way. That dream proves to be prophetic of what would eventually happen.
- Cavalier Competitor: By the end of her showcase run, she had become a rather good natured performer and took any losses in stride. She doesn't expect any higher standards from her Pokemon either.
- Childhood Friends: Knew Ash years ago when they were younger and went to a Pokémon Summer Camp together.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Invoked when Miette asks Ash if he has a bride to see if Serena would have this reaction. Serena expresses slight annoyance. At the end of the episode, Miette also "threatens" to take Ash away next time if Serena hasn't made her move by then. Serena blushes furiously in response, but nothing more. Whenever the group meets Miette again, she naturally tries to get a rise out of Serena this way.
- Downplayed in general. She isn't overtly possessive over Ash, but she displays obvious discomfort whenever he receives any female attention. After all, she was clearly not fond of Ash accepting Miette's invitation to be her dance partner.
- Also played for laughs due to the facial expressions and responses she makes, mostly due to Miette's meddling.
- Cool Big Sis: To Bonnie, treating her like a younger sibling of sorts. Makes sense since as they are both children and the same sex - they would gravitate towards each other in a way that they won't to the boys (who in turn have another sibling-like bond).
- Crossdressing Voices: In-Universe example. In the movie The Lightning-fast Hero! Super Pikachu!!, Serena voices a male Pikachu who appears at the beginning of said movie. (Similar like Ash, who voices a female Pikachu in the middle of the movie.)
- Crush Blush: Tends to happen whenever her feelings concerning Ash are brought up.
- Cuteness Proximity: Actually a pivot for one. Rhyhorn love her as they nuzzle and lick her mercilessly on sight.
- Damsel in Distress: Not an exaggerated case, but Serena has required protecting a fair few times. Expectedly these are usually Rescue Romance on Ash's part. Jessie, being The Rival in showcases, is also sometimes as obsessed with capturing Serena's Pokemon as Pikachu.
- Determinator: Grew towards this, showing how she is willing to take hits for her Pokémon and her continuing the performance despite Eevee just tripped, you have Ash to thank for that!
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Sometimes when Serena makes comments under her breath, whether scared/annoyed/etc, it'll either get reactions she didn't intend or backfire on her, leading to embarrassment. Slowly appears to be on it's way to becoming a Running Gag.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: For the first 40 episodes of the XY series, she was unsure of what she wants out of her Pokémon journey. She finally decides to become a Pokémon Performer in episode 41.
- Diabolus ex Machina: The poor girl never seems to win a showcase all due to her members tripping all of a sudden and not because of her performances being lackluster, costing her the win. Note that tripping never happened once during their practice sessions.
- The universe itself won't allow her and Ash to have subtle romantic scenes, be it by outside interference or Ash's interests blinding him from telling that apart. It doesn't help much the writers indirectly tease their relationship so much with poorly-written titles that suggest so and later they apologize for getting the fans' hopes up for nothing.
- Disguised in Drag: In a reversal of the usual once-a-series running gag, she has to masquerade as Ash when he's incapacitated in one episode.
- Dude Magnet: Downplayed, but she does attract Tierno, Trevor and Jimmy unintentionally.
- Emergency Impersonation: When a rocker named Jimmy appears looking to challenge Ash and Pikachu, Serena decided to pose as the latter so: a) Jimmy's Keet behavior wouldn't disturb the sleeping Ash, and b) Ash wouldn't have to get up and readily accept Jimmy's challenge in spite of his sickness.
- Everyone Can See It: Her crush on Ash is approaching this territory; so far Miette, Bonnie, Shauna, and Nini have made comments about it, resulting in a Luminescent Blush from Serena. Of course, Ash and Clemont are more Oblivious to Love.
- Expy: To Yellow from Pokémon Adventures (though her first appearance coincidentally bears a close resemblance to Blue/Leaf). Girl being saved in a forest by The Hero (And coincidentally enough, Ash is based on the original Red), thus falling into a devoted Rescue Romance with him? Yup. She's even wearing a straw hat in her introduction, something Yellow is very known for, and does not focus on Pokemon battles.
- The Fashionista: She is very enthusiastic about fashion and is eager to see what kind of shops the gang will come across.
- Feet-First Introduction: Played with. The beginning scene of the series shows Grace's Fletchling flying into Serena's room to wake her up. Granted, part of her hair was visible from underneath her blanket for a very brief moment before the camera focused on Fletchling about to peck her awake. The next scene goes outside her house with her screaming from receiving her "wake-up call" before going back inside, her legs and feet sticking out in the air (the first parts of her body we officially see as she's "introduced") as a result of her rude awakening.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Serena is good at baking, and often prepares confections for her friends.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Ash completely forgot about her until this point.
- Generation Xerox: Her mother wants her to be a Rhyhorn racer, though Serena herself has said she hates it. She later finds that her mother has rubbed off on her more than she thought.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In the form of three snowballs, after yelling at him for yelling at her when she tries to cheer him up, while telling him how he wasn't being the amazing guy she knows he is.
- Go Through Me: Compared to most Team Rocket face offs, where the heroes talk with their Pokemon, Serena has on occasion shown willingness to intervene physically on her own, usually when they risk harming her Pokemon. Naturally in such cases she ends up outmatched, though this gesture of sacrifice always gets the intended Pokemon a Heroic Second Wind.
- Hair Decorations: She wears a pink bow when she's handling Rhyhorn, and when she's sleeping.
- Heavy Sleeper: Implied, given that her mother had to use a Fletchling to force her out of bed.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Serena starts with the standard Luminescent Blush when Shauna tells her that she knows about Serena's crush on Ash, only to spout steam like a kettle when she thought that their friends (including Ash) had heard the two of them. In fact, this has become somewhat more frequent.
- Image Song: "DreamDream", the third XY ending, pops up as an insert song whenever something major happens with her or her Pokémon, e.g. Fennekin's evolution or Serena winning or performing in Showcases.
- Implied Love Interest: For Ash. Implied is an Understatement, since the anime makes her crush so obvious that some episodes have explicit romantically themed titles.
- Important Haircut: Serena cuts her hair short and changes outfits after losing her first Pokémon Showcase.
- In the Hood: She is shown to wear a hoodie on occasion.
- Luminescent Blush: When being tease about her feelings for Ash or when offer a chance for a romantic moment with him.
- Meanwhile, Back at the...: The first few episodes devote some time to developing Serena as she leaves her home town to begin her Pokémon adventure. It is not until Episode 5 that Serena actually encounters Ash in person.
- Meet Cute: When they were younger, Ash saved Serena when she was hurt and lost in the forest, teaching her to never give up.
- Memento MacGuffin: Kept the handkerchief Ash used to bandage her leg all those years ago. Upon returning it to him, Ash immediately remembers her.
- Mythology Gag: Just like the games, a Fletchling wakes her up in her first appearance.
- Naïve Newcomer: She knows very little about Pokémon training at first; and like May and Dawn, didn't know about the Inexplicably Identical Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys.
- The Navigator: To remedy Ash's No Sense of Direction, Serena is in possession of the gang's town map.
- Nice Girl: She is very thoughtful, and plays a supportive role in the group. Also, it really says something about her when she is the only one of Ash's female companions not to get immediately annoyed by his actions. Even when scolding him, she a lot more gentler, and doesn't go completely ballistic with Ash like the other girls, especially Misty and Iris when they first meet Ash.
- The first time she gets into an argument with Ash is mostly because he wasn't being the amazing guy she knows he is after losing to Wulfric, along with the fact he yelled at her when she tried to cheer him up. This argument helps Ash come back to his senses, and even then, Serena started feeling horrible over it after all of a couple of minutes trying to play firm.
- Opening Shout-Out:
- Serena and her Pokémon spying on a dancing Eevee is played out the same way in "Mad-Paced Getter" and in the very episode Eevee debuts. (except Serena is wearing her sleepwear in the latter.)
- Serena's routine for the Master Class Showcase incorporates some of the dance moves she performs in "DreamDream".
- Nice Hat: She starts to wear one after beginning her journey. After her costume switch, she wears a different one, but it has the same color scheme as the previous one.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Outside her usual outfit, Serena, in contrast to Ash and Clemont's blue, is most associated with pink.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Sometimes, including in XY050.
- Red Herring: it took so long for Serena to find what she wants out of her travels that several viable choices popped up (Rhyhorn racing, Poképuff baking, PokéVision), all of which she had valid interest and talent in. Played with since a lot of these ended up being a Chekhov's Skill during the Showcases.
- Remember the New Guy: Despite apparently being Childhood Friends with Ash from before the start of the anime itself, she has not been mentioned or encountered at all until the XY seriesnote . It is eventually revealed that this is due to a Forgotten First Meeting on Ash's part.
- Rescue Romance: Serena's infatuation with Ash originated from a rather young memory where he helped her out of a forest after she injured her leg. To exacerbate it, Ash has naturally saved her a good few more times throughout the series (as well as vice versa).
- Running Gag: Rhyhorn are easily attracted to her. Put her in front of a herd, and watch them swam towards her with hearts on their eyes.
- A minor example prominently featured in horror-themed episodes is when she gets scared out of her mind, in which her imagination runs wild and inadvertently shares her beliefs on supernatural entities that devour children, scaring the others before covering her mouth, apparently having scared herself even more.
- Ship Tease:
- With Ash, big time. Serena has a bashful air around her when she first reunites with Ash, and seems to admire him, being quick to praise every little thing he does. She repeatedly seeks Ash's approval when she changes her appearance, and becomes uneasy when other girls have Ash's attention.
- Taken Up to Eleven when the two first met, which involved Serena being rescued during a moment of need, followed by an accidental hug, plenty of handholding, and blushing from Serena.
- An official relationship chart vaguely describes Serena's feelings towards Ash as "Likes ?"
- Shrinking Violet: A mild example, but Serena often gets embarrassed whenever she's praised or someone compliments her appearance. Especially if it's coming from Ash.
- Slapstick Knows No Gender: The fact she suffered two cases of Amusing Injuries in the first episode alone indicates this.
- Status Quo Is God: Like all the previous female leads pursuing their dreams onscreen, Serena comes short of becoming Kalos Queen against Aria, just barely getting a little more than a half of her votes. She does get an offer to go pro from Palermo, but only will consider it after her journey with Ash ends.
- A Taste of Defeat: Along with Dawn, she is one of few "twerps" to suffer an unnegated defeat by Team Rocket in an episode. XY101 has Serena lose a Showcase to Jessie and her Pokemon (along with Meowth). Like Dawn however, she had become a Graceful Loser by this time. (Though she had lost on the technicality of her Eevee tripping, not because of whose performance was better in skill).
- Through His Stomach: After joining the team, Serena bakes cookies for everyone, but specifically presents them to Ash first. Any intention she may have had clearly fails due to Ash being more impressed with the taste than the thought.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Shauna's tomboy.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- In XY056, when she and Bonnie encountered Team Rocket after being separated from Ash and Clemont, she took the initiative by protecting Bonnie and battling Team Rocket with Pancham before Bonnie stepped in to help her.
- In XY080 she finally wins a Pokémon Showcase and her first Princess Key.
- While she has been in battles, most of them are support fights. In officiated fights, her Pokémon either gets knocked out earlier or her fights are abruptly canceled. In XY&Z12, she manages to win a fight (while paired with Ash) without being knocked out and instead she kept her pace well along with Ash (even if she is still partway saved by Eevee's well timed evolution into Sylveon).
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Ash loses to Wulfric, he gets antsy with Serena, leading her to chew him out furiously and declare his current state to be nothing like the Ash she knew before this. She starts regretting this afterwards, admitting she has rather high expectations of Ash from how much she admires him.
- Worthy Opponent: Aria definitely consider Serena this.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Circumstances prevent Serena from partnering up with Ash for a dance party. (Miette was only the tip of the iceberg.) When they later learn it's a rotation dance, Serena gets to dance with almost everyone, but just when she and Ash are finally going to pair up, the dance ends. She immediately laments the fact.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Much like the times he did for her, she does for him, even when she was angry at Ash for yelling at her for trying to cheer him up, she does this by saying that he isn't being himself right then, which actually helps him snap out of his depression.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Type A, in her first and second outfits, her black socks shows only her upper thighs.
Fennekin (Fokko) —> Braixen (Tairenar)
Voiced in Japanese by: Megumi Hayashibara
Voiced in English by: Eileen StevensFennekin is the starter Pokémon Serena chose from Professor Sycamore. She is a tidy Pokémon that takes great pride in her well-groomed appearance. However, the one thing Fennekin loves more than looking her best is her trainer, Serena.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: From "Mending a Broken Spirit!" onward, Braixen's wand is decorated with a red ribbon.
- Badass Adorable: Amps up when she evolves into Braixen.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted a fair few times for Fennekin. Played mostly straight for Braixen however, who sparsely takes hits in battle or is involved in heavy slapstick like the other Pokemon. She is one of very few off-screen for the group electrocution gag in Pikachu and the Pokemon Band for example.
- Damsel in Distress: Early on, Jessie was almost as obsessed with capturing her as with Pikachu. This lessened as time passed and even odd times it returns, she's more a Badass in Distress.
- Charm Point: Fennekin takes great pride in her well-groomed tail, becoming uneasy if it is tarnished.
- Drama Queen: While making a PokéVision video with Serena, she repeatedly attacks Ash and Pikachu because they accidentally dirtied her fur.
- Fantastic Foxes: It's based on the Fennec fox.
- The Fashionista: Like Serena, Fennekin loves to get dressed up and appear her best.
- Jerkass Ball: In most episodes she is a fussy but good natured Pokemon. In Episode 21, when she became jealous of another, more popular Fennekin, and became obsessed with creating a perfect PokéVision video with Serena, often rather violently taking out her frustrations on Ash.
- Neat Freak: Downplayed in that Fennekin is only worried about becoming dirty. Downplayed significantly as Braixen.
- Off Model: Back when she was still a Fennekin, her neck would often be drawn extremely long.
- Playing with Fire: Fire-type.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: As Fennekin
- Ship Tease: Early in the season with Ash's Froakie due to him having cleaned her tail with his Frubbles, generally being around each other whenever the group is taking a break, and as a result of the relationship their Trainers have (at least where Serena's feelings for Ash are concerned).
- The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: The first Fire-type starter Pokémon that's confirmed to be female.
- Took a Level in Badass: Early on she was a Damsel in Distress, getting kidnapped frequently by Team Rocket and even overpowered by Meowth in one of her first battles. As time passed her fire abilities were displayed more fully and, especially after she evolved into Braixen, she's one of the most active Pokemon after Pikachu.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Like the rest of her species, she enjoys eating twigs.
- Undying Loyalty: Eventually develops great loyalty towards Serena, overcoming her crippling aversion to filth to protect her.
Pancham (Yancham)
Voiced in Japanese by: Noriko Shitaya
Voiced in English by: Erica SchroederPancham is a Pokémon that took a liking to PokéVision, and joins Serena's team to become an entertainer.
- Badass Adorable: He's more dashing than Chespin.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: A pure Fighting-Type. The only Fighting-Type attack he knows is Arm Thrust
- Berserk Button: A mild case, but he does NOT like Chespin trying to steal his food.
- Casting a Shadow: Knows Dark Pulse, and has been seen using two at once.
- Cool Shades: Is very fond of sunglasses, and is rarely seen without some sort of pair on his forehead.
- Dance Battler: He uses a lot of its performing techniques in its battles.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Knows Stone Edge.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His characterisation pretty much replicates Pancham's dex entries, acting tough and bratty to attempt a badass image, but being undyingly loyal to Serena deep down.
- Mythology Gag: The shades he gets from Serena are similar to the ones on the hat of her game counterpart.
- The One Guy: He is the only guy to Serena's team of females.
- Oral Fixation: The leaf he carries in his mouth.
- Panda-ing to the Audience: Pancham has the appearance of a cute adolescent panda.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Nini's Smoochum bids him farewell with one huge kiss. Pancham was completely unresponsive afterward.
- The Reliable One: Despite his mischief otherwise, Pancham is the only one of Serena's team (including even Serena herself) who did not stumble or make a mistake on stage at any point during their Showcase run.
- Tsundere: Pancham is very prideful and has some difficulty showing affection and gratitude, but he truly cares for his trainer and friends.
- Unmanly Secret: Initially, Pancham was insecure about his love of performing, but has since gotten over it thanks to Serena's support.
- With Friends Like These...: With Chespin. The two frequently descend to bickering when they're allowed to be near each other.
Eevee (Eievui) —> Sylveon (Nymphia)
Voiced in Japanese by: Mika Kanai
Voiced in English by: Mika Kanai and Kayzie Rogers (Eevee), Erica Schroeder (Sylveon)Eevee is an extremely shy Pokémon that was first seen by the gang performing a dance routine on a nearby rock. Impressed by the dance, Serena befriends Eevee, and joins her team soon after.
- Bowties Are Cool: Sylveon naturally has bowtie shapes on her throat and her left ear.
- Chekhov's Skill: Her dancing, which consists of wildly prancing and jumping, has made for a good evasion tactic in battle.
- Cool Crown: A flower crown given by Serena when Eevee warned her of a nearby cliff she was walking near. During the dance ball episode, it also wore a tiara.
- Cower Power: When frightened, Eevee will frequently hide behind either Serena or Clemont's Bunnelby.
- Dancing with Myself: A defining trait is Eevee's love for dancing, which catches Serena's attention to want Eevee as one of her performance Pokémon.
- Lovable Coward: As an Eevee, she was often very timid and self doubting. This was downplayed when The Power of Love evolved her into Sylveon.
- Non-Elemental: As a Normal-type Pokémon. In addition, Eevee has not been seen with any attack moves outside its Normal-typing. Subverted with Sylveon, that near exclusively uses Fairy-type attacks.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Upon becoming a Sylveon, it becomes a Fairy-Type Pokémon.
- The Power of Love: It evolved thanks to Serena's words of encouragement.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Eevee family has always been considered to be a group of cuteness, and this one is no different. Her shy persona giving the Pokémon kind of a Moe vibe makes this even more so.
- Shrinking Violet: Very shy around strangers, to the point that Eevee will end up hiding behind Serena or Bunnelby when startled. Lessened as Sylveon, though she retains some subtle nervous moments.
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- Similar to Ash's Noibat, Serena's Eevee was teased in the fourth XY ending, and third XY opening, before officially debuting.
- The 2016 preview sees Eevee evolving during the Dance Party episode, sprouting feelers during the Transformation Sequence. A magazine scan would later confirm it to be Sylveon.
- Took a Level in Badass: As Sylveon, she became a far more confident performer and battler, hindered far less by her nerves.
Shauna (Sana)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yurie Kobori
Voiced in English by: Jo ArmenioxA young and outgoing Pokémon trainer who loves PokéVision videos. She becomes acquainted to Ash and co. at Sycamore's summer camp.
- Genki Girl: Every bit as excitable as her game counterpart.
- Graceful Loser: She cries a little when she's unable to go to the final round of the final showcase, but she encourages Serena to go for the gold.
- Green Thumb: Her starter is Bulbasaur, a Grass/Poison-Type.
- Instant Expert: Despite being a rookie performer, she catches on to it with relative ease, even winning her first showcase.
- The Rival: To Ash's group at summer camp, but especially to Serena, who also has an interest in PokéVision.
- Shipper on Deck: Like Miette, Shauna teases Serena about her crush on Ash.
- ¡Three Amigos!: With Trevor and Tierno, with her being the girl.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Serena's girly girl.
Voiced in Japanese by: Anri Katsu
Voiced in English by: Todd HaberkornA young Pokémon trainer with a passion for dancing that Ash meets at Sycamore's summer camp. A close friend of Shauna and Trevor.
- Acrofatic: Believe it or not, Tierno can do a triple side flip.
- Adaptational Badass: In the games, he's not much of a battler, preferring to study moves to make a dance team. In the anime, he's a skilled trainer that incorporates dance moves into his battle style. In addition, he is collecting regional Gym Badges to compete in the Lumiose Conference.
- Ascended Extra: In the anime he stands out more than Shauna and Trevor (even being more Ash's rival than the other two are), whereas in the games Shauna fills that role. This seems to be an intentional response to his unexpected popularity in Japan, ranking third in a popularity poll.
- Big Fun: Tierno's upbeat personality allows him to make friends easily, and he is noticeably more rotund than any of his friends.
- Catchphrase: "All right!"
- Cavalier Competitor: If Tierno loses, he accepts it and shakes it off, and readies himself for the next round.
- Dance Battler: He trains his Pokémon to incorporate dance moves in their fighting styles.
- Making a Splash: His starter is Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise, and he has a Ludicolo and Politoed.
- The Rival: Towards Ash's group at summer camp, but especially towards Ash, as both are passionate individuals.
- ¡Three Amigos!: With Shauna and Trevor, being one of two guys.
Trevor (Trova)
Voiced in Japanese by: Minami Fujii
Voiced in English by: Michael Lockwood CrouchA young Pokémon trainer whose ambition is to see every Pokémon in the Pokédex. Ash meets him and his friends, Tierno and Shauna, at Sycamore's summer camp.
- Adorkable: His love of meeting new Pokémon rivals Bonnie's.
- Camera Fiend: Trevor likes to photograph everything that interests him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Loses to Alain in a three-on-three in the first match of the Lumiose Conference. Alain only used Mega Charizard X, which defeated Trevor's own Mega Charizard Y, Aerodactyl, and Florges easily.
- Geek Physique: He's very scrawny, and the shortest amongst his friends.
- Motor Mouth: When he shows off the pictures he took to Ash and the gang, to the point that some subs had to keep up by minimizing the text to fit everything he says during that scene.
- Out of Focus: More or less gets the short end of the stick out of the ¡Three Amigos!. Tierno is collecting gym badges while Shauna is competing with Serena in Pokevision. He is collecting badges on the side, but by the time Ash meets up with him, Trevor has just one while Ash has six.
- Super Mode: His Charizard can Mega Evolve into Mega Charizard Y
- The Rival: Towards Ash's group at summer camp, but especially towards Clemont, as both are the Smart Guys of their respective groups.
- ¡Three Amigos!: With Tierno and Shauna, being one of two guys.
- Transformation Trinket: His Charizard owns a Charizardite Y that's kept in a tail bracelet while Trevor has a Key Stone held in his camera.
Aria (Elle)
Voiced in Japanese by: Marina Inoue
Voiced in English by: Lindsay SheppardA famous Pokémon Performer. Aria is the current Kalos Queen.
- The Ace: She is the undisputed best Pokémon Performer in all of Kalos.
- Clark Kenting/Paper-Thin Disguise: Add glasses, put on a hat, and you got Ariana (Elena).
- Curtains Match the Window: Red hair with red eyes.
- Famed In-Story: She is the crowned Kalos Queen that every other Pokémon Performer strives to achieve. She still gets to keep it for much longer after the Master Class Showcase is over.
- Hair Decorations: Her performance dress comes with a blue hair bow.
- Opera Gloves: Her performance dress comes with long white gloves.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Her primary dress when seen as the Kalos Queen is odd to say the very least. Somehow combining a neck-tie with a matching thigh-high Zettai Ryouiki, white Opera Gloves, and Frills of Justice.
- Status Quo Is God: Unsurprisingly, she easily gets to keep her Kalos Queen title for even longer after getting almost double the amount of votes Serena had at the Master Class Showcase.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Her performance dress includes long blue socks that go up to her thighs.
Sawyer (Shota)
Voiced in Japanese by: Ikue Ohtani
Voiced in English by: Robby Duncan SharpeA novice Pokémon trainer from Hoenn who writes down his battle experience in a note journal. Like Ash and Tierno, Sawyer is collecting badges to enter the Lumiose Conference.
- The Apprentice: While a rival of Ash, since Sawyer is also a rookie, he looks to Ash as his unofficial mentor. The opening in which he debuted even had Sawyer literally following in Ash's footsteps.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He first appeared in XY064 losing to Clemont. His proper introduction is 9 episodes later.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Has so far yet to win a single on-screen battle, let alone actually knock out an opponent's Pokémon. He apparently has gotten a lot more competent thanks to Ash's advice, but still gets creamed when they face off during XY105.
- In said episode, his Sceptile actually manages to match Greninja and even gains the upper hand using Leaf Storm, but gets beaten in one hit once Greninja transforms. Now the problem is how his other Pokémon can't size up to Ash's.
- He finally manages to defeat Ash during their third battle. While his Doublade still lost to Ash's Noivern, his newly aqcuired Clawitzer took down both Noivern and Hawlucha before losing to Greninja, and Sceptile managed to defeat Greninja.
- Graceful Loser: Despite frequently losing, he treats every defeat as a learning experience.
- Green Thumb: His starter is Treecko, a Grass-Type Pokémon which he fully evolves into Sceptile and eventually into Mega Sceptile.
- Informed Attribute: Pokefan calls him "the intelligent trainer", when in truth he has never shown any degree of high intelligence. He does, however, show great eagerness to learn and even keeps a notebook of his travels. He was also able to figure out Greninja's fighting style and the best way to combat it.
- Look What I Can Do Now: Glaringly enough, Sawyer was introduced with just one badge and almost no skill in battles. Roughly 20 episodes later, he has already become strong and carries 6 badges (the same amount Ash had when he met him, even) in that time. The universe just keeps giving him tools of destruction out of nowhere when he eventually manages to evolve his Sceptile and collect the items to make it Mega Evolve.
- He eventually gathers eight Gym Badges before Ash does.
- Meaningful Name: Scottie clearly references the European Scotland setting to allude the European-like setting Kalos. However, his name saw a revision as Sawyer surely because he moved from Hoenn, a not-European-like setting.
- Mythology Gag: Never seen without a notebook where he keeps jotting down notes. Writing on notebooks is how saving game progress is depicted in OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Owns a Dragon-type, Bagon. Also, Sceptile knows Dragon Pulse, a blast of energy that takes the shape of a dragon, and Sceptile gains the Dragon-Type after Mega Evolving.
- Product Placement: Due to having the Hoenn grass-starter, as well as said region's pseudo-legendary dragon, it becomes clear that he exists to promote Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. At the same time, he is very late in promoting it, however.
- The Rival: To Ash as another Pokémon trainer collecting badges for the Lumiose Conference.
- Spoiler Opening: The Opening to XY&Z revealed that Sawyer's Sceptile would gain the ability to Mega Evolve.
- Sudden Name Change: Was previously called Scottie in his small debut episode, though the writers easily made the change due to never referring to Sawyer as his previous name in the episode.
- Training from Hell: He mentioned that he worked very hard to catch up to Ash, and eventually the results show as he collects eight badges before Ash does and defeats Ash in a 3-on-3 match.
- Warts and All: Downplayed. After Ash loses to Wulfric, Sawyer leaves the team, silently concerned his idol has fallen behind him. However, he's confident that Ash will bounce back in time for the Pokemon League tournament.
Miette (Millefeui)
Voiced in Japanese by: Saori Hayashi (XY026), Kei Shindou (XY080 and beyond)
Voiced in English by: Maggie McDowellA Pokémon Performer knowledgeable in cooking Poké Puffs.
- Arc Welding: Introduced as a rival to Serena for a couple of things (baking, Ash). Later, Showcases are introduced and Serena focuses her attention on the competition, so when Miette returns, she has conveniently the same goal in mind, keeping their rivalry fresh.
- Ascended Extra: Was a One-Shot Character in an early XY episode, but makes a return about 50 episodes later.
- Cooking Duel: Serena and her enter a Poké Puff Contest in order to find out who makes better Poké Puffs.
- The Gadfly: Plays this role to Serena with glee. She's fond of popping up behind her out of nowhere to startle her, and using her crush on Ash against her by implying that she'll steal him away from her. It's pretty clear she has no real interest in Ash, she just likes seeing Serena flustered.
- Graceful Loser: She nearly breaks in tears for not making it to the semifinals, but she's able to compose herself and cheer on Serena's progress.
- It Amused Me: Possibly one of the reasons why she teases Serena on her feelings on Ash, just to see her get comically flustered over them.
- No Sense of Personal Space: She seems to enjoy sneaking up behind Serena and getting startling close to her when making sly remarks about Ash, particularly at the end of the Dendemille Showcase. She also clings onto Ash's arm during the dance episode after he accepts to be her partner, much to Serena's annoyance. Ash is uncomfortable a bit with the closeness, but is too kind to not tell her to get off.
- The Rival: Towards Serena as a fellow Pokémon Performer. Miette did well enough to score third place in the Dendemille Showcase she competed in against Serena. She pretends to be a romantic rival as well, to Serena's chagrin.
- Running Gag: Practically everytime she makes an appearance in an episode, her first order of business is to tease Serena on her feelings while putting the moves on Ash right in front of her.
- Shipper on Deck: Immediately catches on to Serena's crush on Ash, and teases her about it just to get on her nerves. It's confirmed when the group splits up after the Master Class Showcase that she's doing it at least partially to push Serena to act on her feelings.
- The Tease: Miette whispers to Serena that she might take Ash for herself if Serena doesn't make her move; causing Serena to blush.
- Trying Not to Cry: Before congratulating Serena on her win of the first round of the Master Class Showcase, she cries due to having lost to her at that round. Even after wiping her tears, the poor girl still breaks down a bit in front of Serena.
Nini (Nene)
Voiced in Japanese by: Motoko Kumai
Voiced in English by: Jenny EmmA rookie Pokémon Performer who trains her Pokémon to follow a dance routine she calls "Heartbreak."
- Abhorrent Admirer: Her Smoochum is attracted to Serena's Pancham, who wants nothing to do with her.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle, which comes with two tiny red hair-ties.
- Graceful Loser: She takes her early loss in the Anistar Showcase well, and wishes Serena luck for the performance portion.
- Nice Hat: Wears a tiny red hat with a pink ribbon band.
- The Rival: Towards Serena as a fellow Pokémon Performer. The two meet each other in XY050, and decide to show off their performances to one another for critique. In episode XY091, they compete against one another in the Anistar Showcase.
- Small Name, Big Ego: In the dub, once she appears in Serena's second performance, she nearly borders on being the Jerkass rival to Serena if it hadn't been for her being a Graceful Loser and Serena (and Shauna) being too nice to her egotistical boasts.
- Trying Not to Cry: While still out on stage for the results, she holds her head down, though unable to hold back tears, after losing to Jessie at first round of the Master Class Showcase.
Supporting Characters
Alexa (Pansy)
Voiced in Japanese by: Aya Endo
Voiced in English by: Jessica PaquetA journalist from the Kalos region and older sister to one of its Gym Leaders, she makes her debut during the Decolore Archipelago story arc, joining Ash as a temporary travelling companion, later telling him about the Kalos region and inspiring him to travel there.
- Adaptational Badass: In the games, she has no Pokémon. In here, forgetting her Helioptile, she has a Noivern, which is considered to be one of the strongest creatures of Gen VI.
- Art Evolution: While all the human characters ended up gaining visible fingernails in the transition from the Black and White series to the XY one, it's most notable with her because she ends up gaining painted nails between each series.
- Ascended Extra: In the games, she's simply Viola's older sister who simply helps the player find their way around Lumiose City. In the anime, she is promoted to one of Ash's companions that sticks around for quite a while and even gets some characterization too.
- Blow You Away: Noivern knows Gust, which is used to help Ash's training for his rematch against Viola and her Vivillon.
- The Cameo: She and Viola are seen watching the Master Class Showcase.
- Camera Fiend: Uses a video camera very, very often.
- Cool Big Sis: Acts as one to Ash, and she's also one to her actual sibling, Santalune Gym Leader Viola, whom she gives counsel and advice to while still supporting her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Everything about her in BW, given she and the Pokémon she use are part of Gen VI and the Kalos region. Somewhat averted for the US though where her debut episode premieres on the same day Gen VI kicks off and the games start getting sold.
- Failed a Spot Check: Got hit with this trope hard in BW141. She was so hard at work, Alexa was downright oblivious to the panic and commotion caused by Team Rocket hoisting an entire cruise ship in the air and didn't even notice its descent.
- Forgetful Jones: Not too much, but she is prone to it at times, such as locating the contents of her bag. Thankfully, Gogoat is there to help her.
- Guest Star Party Member: Joins Ash's group for the last leg of Best Wishes and up to the XY saga's first episode.
- Ms. Exposition: She is the one who introduces Ash to the Kalos region.
- Mundane Utility: Uses Helioptile's Parabolic Charge to recharge her equipment, and Gogoat as a mount to carry it.
- The Pollyanna: Always so bright and happy - not in the over-energised way, she's just got a positive outlook on things.
- Power Up Mount: Gogoat - Alexa's introduction is to appear riding on his back.
- Running Gag: She has a habit of forgetting where she puts her things in the saddle pouches around Gogoat.
- Shrinking Violet: Helioptile tends to hide behind her back whenever it encounters something unknown. It eventually grows out of it.
- Sixth Ranger: For the Decolore Arc. Points for traveling with Ash for a longer time straight than anyone outside his main supporting cast (10 episodes), and for sticking with him even after Iris and Cilan leave (in the penultimate BW episode) and right into the XY Series.
Professor Augustine Sycamore (Dr. Platane)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hiroshi Tsuchida
Voiced in English by: Jake PaqueThe Pokémon professor of the Kalos region. Sycamore's main field of research is on the newly discovered theory that certain Pokémon have an evolution beyond their final stage — Mega-Evolution as it is called. He gets to see firsthand that such evolutions exist when a Mega Blaziken assists Ash in recovering an out of control Garchomp from the Professor's lab. He is also in charge of running the Summer Camp that many young trainers attend.
- Catch Phrase: "Marvelous!"
- Distressed Dude: He gets kidnapped by Team Rocket at one point for his knowledge on Mega Evolution.
- Gentle Giant: Not him, but the Garchomp he takes care of in his lab to study on Mega Evolution is an absolute sweetheart.
- Handsome Lech: He tried to flirt with Diantha's manager only to be rejected by her.
- Hot Scientist: Just like the games, he doesn't skimp on the looks.
- Nice Guy: Like other important professors, he loves Pokémon and is friendly to humans as well.
- Papa Wolf: To Garchomp. When Garchomp is kidnapped by Team Rocket, Sycamore and the kids go to help.
- Roofless Renovation: Sycamore must have great insurance because his lab has been busted in and rebuilt several times.
- Running Gag: Every focus at his lab always ends up with this.
- Secret Keeper: Eventually learns that Meyer and Blaziken Mask are the same person, a fact that not even Meyer's kids know of.
Grace (Saki)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hitomi Nabatame
Voiced in English by: Erica SchroederThe mother of Serena. She used to compete in Rhyhorn races.
- Brick Joke: She later gives Serena her Pokémon Showcase dress, stating that she chose the opposite of what she would normally pick because Serena doesn't like her definition of cute.
- Catch Phrase: "Go for broke."
- Good Parents: Grace does such thoughtful things for Serena it regularly reduces her daughter to tears.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: In this case, it's a Gender Flip of the usual trope while keeping the spirit, and is thus "Tomboy Mom & Girly Daughter". Grace actually tries to enforce Generation Xerox upon Serena, who does not want anything to do with it (she does realise that she appreciates Rhyhorn Racing more than she'd previously thought, but wanted to try and find something she loved even more). Then, when she shows up in XY053, she is skeptical of Serena's dedication to Pokémon Showcases and challenges her to a Skiddo race to prove herself; when Serena succeeds at the assigned task, her mother becomes more open to her daughter's choice of dreams. Also, in XY007 we learn that she actually sent Serena to the Summer Camp in Pallet Town against her tender-hearted daughter's (initial) wishes, and she seems to have shown a bit of pressure in her parenting style overall.
- Mundane Utility: Uses Fletchling as a sort of "alarm clock", much to Serena's chagrin.
- Open-Minded Parent: When Serena reveals she is journeying with Ash, and not specifically pursuing Rhyhorn racing, Grace responds positively, just glad that her daughter will be having fun.
- Retired Badass: She was quite an accomplished Rhyhorn racer in her youth, but has since settled down and started a family.
- Rhino Rampage: She has a Rhyhorn who is nice. She has her daughter practice on it to train her as a Rhyhorn racer.
- Tomboy: Lampshaded by Serena when she asks her mother to pick a hat, only to choose the opposite because she knows Grace picks the "less cuter items". Tellingly, despite having a feminine streak with keeping house and cooking, Grace is evidently quite strong in character, and it's easy to see her younger self - an accomplished Rhyhorn Racer in her own right - as being a Hotblooded Tomboy back in the day. She's certainly more confrontational and (at times) sarcastic than previous mothers who appeared in the series.
- Supreme Chef: Serena mentions that Grace's cooking is one of the things she misses ever since she started her adventure.
Meyer (Limone)/Blaziken Mask (Mega Blaziken's Trainer)
Voiced in Japanese by: Kensuke Sato
Voiced in English by: Tom WaylandThe father of Clemont and Bonnie. Also has a secret alter-ego in the form of Blaziken Mask.
- Action Dad: Clemont and Bonnie's father, who also happens to be a masked superhero-esque trainer in his spare time.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Saves Ash and Pikachu as they fell from Prism Tower.
- Happens again when the heroes are cornered by Team Rocket's Humongous Mecha.
- Cool Mask: Styled to look like Mega Blaziken.
- Emotional Bruiser: Despite his tough appearance, he cries tears of joy to find that Clemont and Bonnie have made friends and have decided to travel with them.
- In a Single Bound: Mega Blaziken and, inexplicably, its trainer are able to jump great heights in the blink of an eye.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: His second appearance pretty much gives away Blaziken Mask's identity, however, most of the cast haven't figured it out yet (apart from Professor Sycamore).
- Manly Tears: Cried when hugging Clemont and Bonnie.
- Meaningful Name: His Japanese and English name refers to lemons. His Japanese name is Italian for lemon, and his English name refers to the Meyer lemon.
- Mysterious Protector: He has helped save the protagonists several times, but not even his own children seem to know his true identity.
- Open-Minded Parent: Meyer, rather than being disappointed like Clemont expected, is happy and proud of his son and daughter for adventuring.
- Product Placement: He exists to promote Mega Evolution before Ash can find/face one on his own, and the event Torchic.
- Secret Identity: God knows why he dresses as a super hero behind his children.
- Shock and Awe: Is usually seen with his Ampharos in his day job. There is an implication that it can Mega Evolve, too.
- Super Mode: Mega Blaziken is the first Mega Evolved Pokémon we and Ash are introduced to.
- Super Speed: So fast that Ash loses sight of Mega Blaziken in the middle of an empty airstrip.
- Triple Shifter: Electrician and compassionate father by day, Mega Evolving hero by night!
Monsieur Pierre
Voiced in Japanese by: Kenta Miyake
Voiced in English by: Gilles MotaisThe recurring host of various Pokémon Performances.
- Chick Magnet: Definitely has plenty of female fans in the Kalos region.
- Classy Cane: Holds one, where his Pokémon Klefki sits on.
- The Dandy: His attire when hosting is a coat with neon lights and asymmetric coloring. He also sports a necklace with a large key for a medallion.
- Gratuitous French: Enjoys saying stuff like "Très bien!" and "S'il vous plaît!" among other things.
- Nice Hat: Always seen wearing one.
- Pokémon Motifs: Has a keyhole integrated in his wardrobe, and has a key for his medallion. One time when he was introduced, he wore a mask resembling that of a certain keyring Pokémon. And the fact that the Performance competition relied on getting keys. And he owns a Klefki.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: In "Party Dancecapades!", Pierre's Klefki is the dance partner to Aria's Delphox. Delphox is the size of a human, but remember, Klefki is a sentient keyring.
- Tron Lines: The coat he wears has glowing outlines. And in certain scenes they glow in the dark!
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuko Sanpei
Voiced in English by: Chris PattonA young ninja who Ash and company run into along their journey a few times. His appearances have primarily been a means to help Ash train his Froakie.
- Big Brother Mentor: Sanpei's Frogadier/Greninja can be seen as such for Ash's Froakie such as helping it learn Quick Attack.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: The viewer audience never quite finds out how the battle between his Greninja and Ash's newly evolved Frogadier went down.
- Ninja: Sanpei not only acts like one, but dresses as one as well. Frogadier/Greninja's actions also play on the ninja theme.
- Numerical Theme Naming: Sanpei is the third of a family of ninjas, with Ippei and Nihei as the eldest and second brothers, respectively.
- Samurai Ponytail: Sanpei's hairstyle.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a yellow ninja-scarf.
- Smoke Out: Greninja knows Smokescreen. Sanpei himself can do such a thing.
- Surpassed the Teacher: In their first appearance, Sanpei and his Frogadier are mentors to Froakie (and Ash, to an extent), giving them physical training (all to teach Froakie Quick Attack, although he learned Double Team instead). Ash and his mon would eventually become better at the art, while Sanpei and his Greninja become victim to The Worf Effect.
- Took a Level in Badass: His Frogadier had already evolved into a Greninja by the time Ash and company run into him a second time along their journey. However...
- The Worf Effect: Unlike how they were at the top of their game in their debut episode, the show suddenly started to give a lot of flak his way by making him and his Greninja perform poorly against all battles they participated in, to the point they need the main four to keep them safe from harm. Their latest appearance at their home land just drives it even further where they are incapable of keeping up with Sanpei's older brother and Ash's Frogadier.
- Wutai: It's best not to ask how or why a ninja village and culture exists in a region based on France.
Palermo (Yashio)
Voiced in Japanese: Rei Sakuma
Voiced in English: Eileen StevensThe former Kalos Queen who now works as a producer for Pokémon Showcases. She was Aria's mentor and she has taken interest on Serena since she witnessed the latter's Important Hair Cut.
- Cool Shades: She is always wearing black sunglasses.
- The Mentor: Known to Aria as "Maestra" (or simply "Sensei" in Japanese).
- Mythology Gag: Her outfit is based on design of female Veterans in Pokémon X and Y.
- Perpetual Frowner: She is certainly hard to impress when it comes to scouting for Performers with potential, but is likely just being very professional about her job.
- You Remind Me of X: She notes a lot of similarities between Serena and Aria, particularly when the latter first started out learning under her.
Voiced in Japanese: Yuki Kaji
Voiced in English: Billy Bob ThompsonThe other Zygarde Core. Rather than having a red core color, it instead has a blue one. It was being hunted down by Team Flare, but it managed to escape them multiple times due to its sheer strength with its 50% Forme. It remained in hiding until Z-1/Puni-chan contacted it, alerting Team Flare of its location. It tried to fend off its chasers, but even with the help of Team Rocket, it still ended up being caught because of the arrival of Alain. It is now a captive of Lysandre.
- Creepy Monotone: In contrast to Puni-chan, it speaks with a rather straightforward, unchanging tone.
- Humans Are Bastards: Sees humans as the source of the constant imbalance of Kalos that will ultimately leads to its destruction.
- The Juggernaut: It can take Mega-Charizard X's attacks and dish out even harder, with it's Extremespeed turning it into a full-on Lightning Bruiser. Had Team Flare not interfered, it might have won.
- Power Of The Sun: Recharges through sunlight.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Aside from the obvious (the core colors), Z-2 has a different opinion towards humans and has a different way of talking.
- Royal "We": Like Puni-chan, it speaks like this.
- Telepathy: Like Puni-chan, it has limited telepathy in that it can talk to the other core fine but otherwise can only make grumbling noises.
- Worf Had the Flu: It may have been somewhat weaker when fighting Alain's Charizard, as it was exhausted from running from Team Flare. To what extent this impacted it's performance is unknown though, as it didn't seem any weaker than in it's earlier appearances. Team Rocket's interference also gave it a chance to rest and recover using sunlight, albeit probably not as long as it would need to fully recuperate.
The Evil Malamar (Aku no Calamanero)
Voiced in Japanese: Kensuke Sato
Voiced in English: Marc ThompsonA group of Malamar residing from the future, who plan to take over the past and turn the planet into a wasteland that they can inhabit. In their first appearance, only one Malamar was presented, though several assisted in it's return appearance.
- Arch-Enemy: For James' Inkay and a certain Officer Jenny specifically, the one who used to be "Madame X", as well as a group of benevolent Malamar later on.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Their favored method of conquest, enslaving the minds of people and Pokemon to do their bidding.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Due to Madame X and Meowth's translations, and just the indirectly sinister design and voice of the species, the evil Malamar come off as rather over the top evil.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Initially the cast were antagonised by Madame X brainwashing them with her Malamar. As it turned out, Madame X was merely a brainwashed Officer Jenny the Malamar used to translate its rants.
- Evil Counterpart: They can be seen as this to James's Inkay and the benevolent Malamars.
- Evil vs. Evil: Both of their conquests enforced an Enemy Mine between Ash's gang and Team Rocket. Especially prominent in their second conquest, where Team Rocket are left herding a Villainous Rescue for Ash.
- Outside-Context Villain: In most conflicts that occur within the Pokemon franchise as a whole, the antagonistic forces are usually humans who use Pokémon as a means to an end (unless all the characters are Pokemon themselves like the Mystery Dungeon games). Malamar defies this convention by acting evil on its own. This leads to some deeply disturbing implications.
- Time Travel: They originate from the distant future.
- Villain Ball: Their plans tend to fall apart due to their over fondness of Kicking The Dog:
- Both of their attacks may not have fallen apart if they had not wasted time brainwashing a Pokemon to attack its trainer for cruel sport.
- In their second appearance, they come across a forest of good natured Malamar. Their first instinct is to attack the forest and the innocent Pokemon the latter were caring for, leaving a very angry powerhouse on the heroes' side.
Voiced in Japanese: Hitomi Nabatame
Voiced in English Aurora BeaA war leader Florges that was responsible for Goomy meeting Ash, having previously taken over it's homeland to preserve her infant Floette with it's healing water.
- Arc Villain: For Ash's Goodra.
- Dark Action Girl: At first. Becomes a standard Action Girl after her HeelFace Turn.
- Easily Forgiven: All the pain and trauma she caused seems forgotten after discovering her real motive.
- HeelFace Turn: Following an Enemy Mine with Ash and Goodra against Team Rocket.
- Heel Realization Downplayed. After finding out Team Rocket duped her and the lengths the Goodra she bullied away as a Goomy was willing to help her, she shows visible humility.
- Lady of War: Elegant and dignified as her species are commonly renowned for. Also a powerful fighter Pokemon with an entire army at her bidding.
- Mama Bear: The lengths she took to cure her ill baby Floette.
- Must Make Amends: Helps Ash and Goodra recover Pikachu and the others after obliviously helping Team Rocket capture them. It makes peace with Goodra and the other wetland inhabitants afterwards.
- Unwitting Pawn: For the Team Rocket trio in one of their most Not So Harmless schemes, convincing her to help capture Pikachu and attack the heroes, blaming them for the drayage of the wetland's water they were secretly draining.
- Violence Is the Only Option: After suspecting the other wetland inhabitants of draining the water needed to heal her child, rather than making any attempts at interrogation, she leads her army into attacking and exiling them.
- Walking Spoiler: Ties in to nearly all of Goodra's backstory and pivoted how he met Ash.
Kalos Gym Leaders
Voiced in Japanese by: Noriko Shitaya
Voiced in English by: Lori GardnerThe Bug-type Gym Leader of Santalune City. She's also a professional photographer.
- Adaptational Badass: Viola is ranked as a Marchioness in the Battle Chateau in the games. In the anime, she is ranked a level higher as a Duchess.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Specializes in Bug-types, being the first female Gym Leader to specializes in this type.
- Blow You Away: Vivillon's Gust is used to blow the opponent away who has difficulty to stand on the frozen ground or to trap flying Pokémon in the Sticky Web.
- Camera Fiend: She's a photographer, and enjoys snapping pictures of trainers and their Pokémon.
- Catch Phrase: "Picture perfect!" in the English dub, "Shutter chance!" in Japanese.
- Fragile Speedster: Surskit is very fast, especially when skating on ice, but falls quickly after a few successful hits.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: During Ash's rematch, her Vivillon accidentally collides with some ice left behind by her Surskit.
- Hurricane of Puns: She drops plenty of puns involving photography.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: When Ash finally has the advantage during their rematch, Viola reveals her Vivillon knows Sleep Powder.
- An Ice Person: Surskit's Ice Beam, which is often used to freeze the ground, allowing nobody but Surskit to move on the ground.
- It Only Works Once: Ash and his Pokémon come prepared during their rematch, so Viola's old strategies barely even slow them down the second time around.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Well, not fully, but when she reappears at the Battle Chateau, her hair is down in a ponytail instead of the regular style (see her image above).
- Making a Splash: Surskit's secondary type, probably to counter Fire-Types.
- The Power of the Sun: Vivillon's Solar Beam. The charging drawback is dropped, thanks to the opponent being trapped in Surskit's Sticky Web.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Looks really cute in a dress at the Battle Chateau, and with her hair somewhat down.
- Sticky Situation: Surskit's Sticky Web. And even if it doesn't hit the opponent, Vivillon would later blow the opponent away and trap it in the web.
- Super Speed: Surskit uses the ice it creates to zip around the battlefield.
- Trap Master: A major part of Viola's strategy is preemptively using attacks to manipulate the battlefield to give her an advantage, much like how real life insects do. Ash specifically trains his Pokémon to counter her set ups during their rematch.
- The Trickster: She sets up traps, freezes the field, and destroys her opponent's momentum to gain an advantage over foes.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Ash loses his first battle with her, showing the new region won't be a walk in the park.
- The Worf Effect: She loses to Grant in the Battle Chateu to demonstrate how tough he is and what his strategy looks like. To be fair, despite her Surskit has a double advantage over Grant's Onix, it also has a weakness over Rock-Type moves.
Clembot (Citroid)
Voiced in Japanese by: Kensuke Sato
Voiced in English by: Michael Liscio Jr.A robot built by Clemont to be the current Electric-type Gym leader of Lumiose City while he is away.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Clemont initially programmed the Clembot to function as a harsh opponent that only accepted battles from trainers with four badges. At the end of the process, he somehow managed to mistime his only window to set a voice activated override code and was subsequently locked out of testing it in battle, as, being a Gym Leader himself, he lacked the requisite badges. Until he reprogrammed it, it became strict and violent to both Gym challenger losers and those trainers that lacked the appropriate number of badges alike, electrocuting and ejecting them from the Gym.
- Anti-Villain: Due to acting by its programming with good intent, but having misinterpreted Clemont's instuctions due to its limited self-awareness.
- Battle Butler: If he isn't minding the Gym, his other job is to apparently help out around the house.
- Canon Foreigner: Created for the show as a means of setting up Clemont's departure with Ash, while his Gym is being managed.
- Clear My Name: Clembot gets framed for a rash of incidents when Ash and company return to Lumiose City to meet with Clemont again. The culprit is a roboticist named Belmondo who built a 2nd "Dark" Clembot, all for an Engineered Heroics ploy.
- Chekhov's Gunman: When Ash enters the Lumiose Gym, we only hear Clembot's voice through a monitor when Ash tries to have a Gym battle. It is not until XY009 that Ash learns that the voice belongs to the rogue Clembot.
- No OSHA Compliance: During its time as Gym usurper, it got a bad reputation for zapping and ejecting trainers who had less than four badges (like Ash, who had precisely zero) or who lost against it (like the bloke with a Ralts rightfully complaining about how violent the Gym was). It ejected trainers by throwing them out from quite a ways up the Gym building - a large tower based off of the Eiffel Tower in Real Life - with no cushions or anything to break the fall.
- Psycho Electro: It electrocuted trainers that didn't live up to its standards.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: While A.I have appeared in the anime before, Clembot is probably the first to be treated as a re-occurring support character. He acts just like, and is generally treated like a person (aside from being re-programmed when his A.I was programmed wrongly).
- Shock and Awe: Clemont built it to specialize in Electric-types.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He believed he was doing the right thing for Clemont during his first reign.
Grant (Zakuro)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hirofumi Nojima
Voiced in English by: Cory WillisThe Rock-type Gym Leader of Cyllage City. He is an avid rock climber and athlete.
- Adaptational Badass: In the games, Grant's Battle Chateau rank is Marquis. In the anime, it's Duke, and after defeating Viola, Grand Duke!
- Adaptational Attractiveness: While he wasn't bad looking in the games, he is noticeably prettier in the animé.
- Adapted Out: In the games he had an Amaura as his first battler, which was replaced in the anime by an Onix.
- Bishōnen: Grant is very good-looking and has a slim climber's physique.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Although he is a respected Gym Leader, Grant also has a bizarre obsession with climbing. If he comes across any wall he deems scalable, he can't help but try climbing it.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Specializes in Rock-types.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: In his gym, Grant is allowed to use only two Pokémon. Ash, on the other hand, is allowed to use all three of his.
- Establishing Character Moment: He's first seen climbing a door frame at the Battle Chateau.
- Hair Decorations: He wears colorful hair clips that resemble the climbing holds of an artificial rock wall.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Tyrunt is finally defeated when Pikachu lodges one of its Rock Tomb stones into its mouth, creating an opening.
- One-Hit KO: His Tyrunt is so powerful it defeats Ash's Froakie and Fletchling with a single hit each.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Tyrunt's secondary type. He even lampshades how Pikachu defeats it with an Electric-Type move, despite it's not effective.
- The Philosopher: Grant has a philosophy that life is like climbing: always focus on what's above you, keep going, and you will reach your goals.
- Signature Move: All of his Pokémon know Rock Tomb. Ash actually trained his Pokémon to exploit and counter it.
- Unexpected Character: It was surprising that the anime gave him an Onix; in the games, he's the first Rock-type Gym Leader who didn't have either Onix or a Geodude on his team (Roxanne had a Geodude but no Onix, and all Rock-type Leaders before Grant have had a member of the Geodude line on their team). This makes the anime version of Grant the first to have an Onix while lacking a member of the Geodude evolutionary line (counting Brock in the Gold and Silver games).
Korrina (Corni)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuka Terasaki
Voiced in English by: Lisa OrtizThe Fighting-type Gym Leader of Shalour City. She enjoys rollerblading, and her grandfather is a Mega Evolution researcher.
- Adapted Out: In the games she has a Hawlucha as her strongest Pokémon in her Gym Battle, but here she just uses Mega Lucario. Probably because of Ash's Hawlucha.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the games, it is implied she has long mastered Mega Evolution before you beat her, but she lacks the Mega Stone in the anime and has to spend several episodes to master it.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Specializes in Fighting-types, even though her Lucario uses Bone Rush very often.
- Bare Your Midriff: Korrina's pajamas, See for yourself.◊
- Battle Trophy: She likes to collect the paw/claw/hand/etc. print of any trainer's Pokémon that she battles with. The prints are all recorded in an old booklet she carries around. Ash's Pikachu was her 99th print, and she's working towards 100.
- Birds of a Feather: Many similarities are drawn between her and Ash. Both are passionate, gutsy battlers with a Pokémon companion they share a powerful bond with. Like Ash, Korrina has gotten so engrossed in a battle that she forgot she was hungry.
- Calling Your Attacks: All trainers do it, of course, but Korrina likes to shout attack names just for the fun of it.
- The Cameo: Out of all the people Ash and company met in their journey, she, Lucario, and her grandfather, Gurkinn, were seen watching Serena's Master Class performances.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Her thought pattern is somewhat rushed, which causes her do impulsive things like use ketchup as ink for Pikachu's paw stamp.
- Compressed Adaptation: In the anime, the Shalour Gym is inside the Tower of Mastery (as opposed to being a separate building), and the two battles with Korrina (in the Gym against her other Mons, and in the Tower against her Mega Lucario) are compressed into a single Gym Battle, with Mega Lucario as the Climax Boss. Earlier, the two-way Mega Lucario match was between her and her grandfather, Gurkinn.
- Cool Helmet: Korrina wears her biker's helmet whenever she is in battle.
- Cool Shades: When not wearing her helmet, she wears a red pair on her forehead.
- Fingerless Gloves: Her left glove holds her keystone for Mega Evolution.
- Genki Girl: Korrina is extremely upbeat and lively, which briefly takes Ash and friends by surprise.
- Guest Star Party Member: She joins Ash's group on the hunt for a Lucarionite. The episodes that focus on her after joining even have her on the title card!
- Hot-Blooded: She hops and flails around even while doing something as mundane as calling out attacks during battle.
- Humble Pie: Her struggle with Mega Lucario was due to being too confident in herself, and only by mastering and truly bonding with Lucario can they overcome this.
- Rapunzel Hair: When Korrina's hair is in a ponytail, it goes up to her waist; when it's down, it goes up to her thighs.
- Rollerblade Good: Her main mode of travel and hobby seems to be riding her rollerblades. She even keeps them on while in the middle of a battle.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The episodes that feature her as the Guest Star Party Member focus entirely on Korrina and Lucario mastering their Mega Evolution.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: A long one that flows like a cape as she zips around.
- The Worf Effect: At the end of XY123, Alain defeats her off-screen in a Gym Battle, earning his final batch from Korrina, which allows him to enter the Lumiose Conference. It also sets up Alain being Ash's greatest rival of the saga.
Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima
Voiced in English by: Bill RogersKorrina's partner and ace. Similar like Ash's Pikachu, Lucario never resides within its Pokéball. After finding the Lucarionite, it is able to Mega Evolve, but has diffculty to control its Mega form for several episodes, but it and Korrinna eventually master the Mega Evolution.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: How it finally forces itself to overcome and control its Mega form.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- He took Pikachu to town in his debut episode.
- While it mostly happens off-screen, it's strongly implied that this was what happened during it's battle with Alain's Charizard. Lucario was pummeled into a wall while Charizard looked none the worse for wear. Justified, as Alain's Charizard was an Elite Four-Level Pokémon with a horrendous Type advantage.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Knows the Ground-Type move Bone Rush which serves as its Signature Move.
- Energy Ball: Aura Sphere, which can turn into a Kamehame Hadoken while in its Mega form.
- Extra Ore Dinary: Lucario's secondary type is Steel-Type. Ash tries to use its typing to his advantage by using Hawlucha and Fletchinder.
- Finishing Move: It eventually learns Aura Sphere, which becomes its Finishing Move.
- Forgot I Could Fly: A very jarring example. When it gets separated from Korrina by a flock of Noibat, instead on relying on its aura skill to locate her (or let alone stay by her side), it would rather take the hard way and use the stones to find her.
- The fact its aura waves could create force waves that could throw off its opponents is entirely dropped out after it shows in the first episode.
- Nerf: Let's just say it got a lot weaker in its final battle than what it could do when in Mega form for the first time. Remember those aura waves that could push people?
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eyes are usually red, but when it loses control of its Mega form, its pupils glow a menacing blood red.
- Signature Move: Its Bone Rush is basically its Weapon of Choice. It uses it much more often than Power-Up Punch or the recently learned Aura Sphere.
- Simple Staff: Bone Rush is often used as a staff, sometimes as dual-wielded short staffs.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: Lucario can spin its Bone Rush staff to neutralize some attacks.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The episodes that feature Korrina as the Guest Star Party Member focus entirely on Korrina and Lucario mastering their Mega Evolution. You also barely see Korrina's other Pokémon who are not Lucario.
- Status Buff: It knows Swords Dance which it uses to increase its physical strength drastically.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Its Mega form leaves Lucario with no self-control and fights with primal instincts.
- True Companions: To Korrina. The two have been together since childhood.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Lucario has a hard time controlling the overwhelming power of Mega Evolution, leading to extremely violent, irrational behavior.
Ramos (Fukuji)
Voiced in Japanese by: Minoru Inaba
Voiced in English by: Anthony SalernoThe Grass-type Gym Leader of Coumarine City. He's an experienced gardener.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He seems to work on a different wavelength to other people at times, specifically the much younger protagonists. When Ash and friends arrive at his gym he holds off the battle because he's just prepared a Spot of Tea and wants them to enjoy it with him; when Ash downs it fast, he asks for help in pulling the weeds, almost oblivious to the youth's impatient frustration. And when he's simply wrenching them out roughly, Ramos halts him to point out the need to not be hasty or he'll miss the bigger picture (in this case, another plant hidden among the leaves). The advice actually helps Ash in his battle, too.
- Cool Old Guy: Ramos is a thoughtful grandpa-like figure, and he also proves to be very wise in regards to life and battling.
- Fragile Speedster: His Jumpluff can't take many hits but is fast, especially after activating its Chlorophyll ability (which makes it go faster).
- Green Thumb: Grass, his specialty type.
- Hot-Blooded: Given his age and seemingly-limitless patience, it's quite a sight to see the final stage of the Gym Battle getting him just as hyped as Ash seems to be.
- Poisonous Person: Weepinbell is part Poison-Type and knows Poison Powder, a nasty attack that poisons both, Fletchinder and Hawlucha.
- The Power of the Sun: His Jumpluff knows Sunny Day and both it and his Weepinbell have the ability Chlorophyll.
Valerie (Mâche)
Voiced in Japanese by: Satsuki Yukino
Voiced in English by: Kate BristolThe Fairy-Type Gym Leader of Laverre City. She is also a well-known fashion designer, having her own clothing shop in the Gym.
- Adaptational Wimp: Sylveon is Valerie's last and most powerful Pokémon in the games, but here it's the first Pokémon she uses in her battle with Ash and it's defeated rather easily.
- Chekhov's Gun: The dress Valerie gave to Serena is later used in Serena's 2nd performance.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed. She gives off shades of this due to being a Fairy-Type specialist, speaking to her Pokémon in their language, and having a rather calm and elegantly cheerful personality.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Her specialty type is Fairy-Type Pokémon.
- The Fashionista: A very skilled fashion designer.
- Fragile Speedster: Spritzee isn't particularly sturdy. However, it is quite agile, and very fast even without Trick Room.
- Kansai Regional Accent: Much like her game counterpart in Japanese, she speaks with Kansai dialect. Sadly lost in translation.
- No Sell: Since Fairy-Types are immune to Dragon-Type attacks, her Spritzee easily takes a Dragon Breath from Sawyers's Bagon without a scratch.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: She appears to be able to speak to Fairy-type Pokémon using Pokémon Speak.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Invoked, the furisode she makes are all styled after Pokémon.
- Wutai: Much like Sanpei above, she is quite distinct for being very "Japanese" in a France-based town. The anime also changed Laverre City from a fairy tale-style village into an outright Japanese-themed town.
Olympia (Gojika)
Voiced in Japanese by: Masako Katsuki
Voiced in English by: Catrin Lloyd BollardThe Psychic-Type Gym Leader of Anistar City. She is very known for ability to predict the future that she managed to save Kalos from certain troubles.
- Adapted Out: In the games she had a Sigilyph and Slowking in addition to her female Meowstic. Here, she instead uses both genders of Meowstic in a double-battle.
- Adaptation Expansion: Managed to have a more distinct role in the anime compared to the games. In the games she just spoke in short lines while being the 7th gym leader to fight. In the anime, she instead speaks imposing lines and foresees the future Ash has along with his Frogadier. She managed to predict a disaster occurring in the Hoenn region that allowed Kalos to take safety precautions. And she managed to thwart Team Rocket's plot without even leaving her gym.
- Combat Clairvoyance: A mild case in which her female Meowstic uses Future Sight, letting her set up an assured, incoming attack.
- Dual Boss: She uses her two Meowstic against Ash, who in turn selected Frogadier and Talonflame.
- The Empath: Has shades of this, particularly towards Ash's Frogadier.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice did Ash manage to turn Olympia's attacks against her; first with the Roboteching Psyshock/Dark Pulse, and especially with Future Sight.
- It Only Works Once: Ash's team was caught off-guard by Future Sight in its first release. During the second time, Ash has Pikachu set up as a metronome to time the attack, so that by the third time Future Sight was cast, Ash was ready to turn it against Olympia's team.
- Power Floats: She seems to float with her own psychic powers.
- Psychic Powers: Like the other Psychic Gym Leaders, she exhibits them.
- Roboteching: Psyshock and Dark Pulse can curve and home in on the targets, courtesy of the female Meowstic's Keen Eyes ability.
- Seers:
- Can see into the future, letting her predict things and project the vision to others. For instance she saw the disaster that would occur in Hoenn (the ones featured in The Strongest Mega-Evolution specials), which allowed the Kalos region to prepare accordingly. Lately she is concerned about "the green flames that will burn down Kalos" with a creature mysteriously shaped like a Z...
- She can also see to the past. This made her explain why Ash's Frogadier was special and how they managed to form a specific form of love.
- Support Party Member: Much like the games, the male Meowstic's movepool (Helping Hand and Lightscreen, with the Prankster ability) is tailored to assist the more offense-oriented female.
- Terse Talker: Averted unlike in the games. She speaks normally, but with an air of grandiose like a prophet.
Wulfric (Urup)
Voiced in Japanese by: Ryuzaburo OtomoThe eighth Gym Leader in the Kalos region, leading over an Ice-Type Gym in Snowbelle City.
- Adaptational Badass: Not that he wasn't badass in games, but in anime, he's the only gym leader other than Korrina capable of using Mega Evolution - specifically, Mega Abomasnow.
- Badass Grandpa: He is visibly of older age, and defeats Ash 3-on-2, even when Ash's Greninja transforms.
- Blood Knight: Downplayed, but he is very eager to face off against the mastered Ash-Greninja and only gets more excited as the battle continues, even if its his Abomasnow that's getting demolished.
- Broken Streak: Ash's loss against him marks the first time since Kanto Ash has lost more than one Gym Battle in one region.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- He won his first battle against Ash with two of his three Pokémon left intact.
- During their rematch, his Abomasnow gets absolutely destroyed by Ash-Greninja. Once it Mega Evolves, on the other hand...
- Cool Old Guy: Pun aside, he's a very good Pokémon battler and in spite of his confidence he's very sportsmanlike. He also explains the problem with Ash and Greninja, athough this breaks Ash's confidence big time.
- Everything Is Better With Spinning: Avalugg using Gyro Ball. Rather than rolling into a ball like how Valerie's Spritzee did when using this move, Avalugg spins around like a top. It even makes buzz saw sounds! His Bergmite also knows the more traditional Rapid Spin.
- Final Boss: The final Gym Leader Ash faces, and quite possibly the strongest. During the rematch against Wulfric, Ash is forced to bring everything he has to the table and show how he has bonded with his Pokémon throughout the region. The Japanese episode summary even says Ash has to use all his experience gained thus far.
- Graceful Loser: Doesn't mind losing to Ash at all, and instead congratulates him on qualifying for the Lumiose Conference, while at the same time sternly reminding him that it are his Pokémon who brought him this far.
- Gradual Grinder: His Abombasnow has the Snow Warning ability, allowing it to gradually deplete non-Ice Types' health with a hailstorm. However...
- Healing Factor: His Avalugg has the Ice Body ability, recovering health under the same circumstances instead. Coupled with it's natural durability, it can endure a beatdown from even Ash-Greninja.
- An Ice Person: Specializes in Ice-type Pokémon. And he meditates in his tanktop inside his cold gym while his Pokémon blow cold wind at him. He remains unfazed while frozen in ice!
- Knee Capping: Inflicts this on Ash's Hawlucha, with Avalugg's Gyro Ball grinding against Hawlucha's High Jump Kick.
- Mighty Glacier: Pun aside, his Abombasnow and especially his Avalugg aren't very fast, but they can take hits and dish them out like there's no tomorrow.
- Avalugg in particular uses this in its advantage. All of the Pokémon Ash used are very fast compared to Avalugg. Yet one of the major moves Avalugg uses is Gyro Ball - a move that gets stronger if the user's speed is slower than the opponent's speed. It also uses Avalanche, which increases in power when Avalugg moves after it's opponent.
- Stout Strength: He looks rather chubby and in one scene he is shown being able to lift his Avalugg to its hind legs, with Avalugg weighing in around 1113lbs.
- Worthy Opponent: When Ash-Greninja starts kicking Abomasnow's ass left and right, Wulfric commends Ash and Greninja for their power and admits that he rarely gets to Mega Evolve his Abomasnow.
- Super Mode: Mega Abomasnow, which can even give the fully mastered Ash-Greninja a challenge.
Kalos League
Diantha (Carnet)
Voiced in Japanese by: Fumiko Orikasa
Voiced in English by: Vanessa GardnerThe Kalos League Champion, and a famous movie star.
- The Ace: She's both the champion, and a famous actress.
- Clark Kenting: This is lampshaded in the second XY opening, which shows Serena fawning over a poster of the actress as an incognito Diantha passes her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: As fitting for the Champion, Diantha hands them out like candy and doesn't need to use Mega Evolution most of the time. The first time she actually has to put effort into fighting an opponent is against a completed Ash-Greninja Form, and even then Ash and Greninja pass out from the Power Strain Blackout from fighting her.
- Famed In-Story: She's a famous actress as well as the most powerful trainer in Kalos. She actually has to resort to Clark Kenting in public situations.
- Finishing Move: Gardevoir tends to end battles with Moon Blast.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: At the end of the Summer Camp sub-arc, when the camera moves through the camp's Hall of Fame, you can see a photo of a younger Diantha and her Ralts with two friends and their Pokémon.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Gardevoir's secondary type. Her Moon Blast might be her most powerful move.
- Lady of War: She and Gardevoir always battle with grace.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: While the games make a half-hearted attempt to hide the fact that Diantha is the champion, she's first introduced as such in the anime.
- Nonchalant Dodging: Given many experienced Pokemon can already handily dodge attacks in the anime, Gardevoir spams Flash Step versions of these like crazy. It was considered a feat that Greninja was able to land a single attack on her at first.
- Oh Crap!: Gives a few of these when she realizes that getting serious with Ash-Greninja is now too little too late. The battle was not going well for her, until they had their Power Strain Blackout. This leaves her to ponder afterwards what this new evolution is.
- Prim and Proper Bun: Diantha's hairstyle, which alludes to her refined, mature personality.
- Psychic Powers: Gardevoir's primary type, but she doesn't use Psychic-Type moves a lot.
- Signature Move: Gardevoir uses Shadow Ball a lot.
- Super Mode: Diantha's Gardevoir can Mega Evolve into Mega Gardevoir.
- Teleport Spam: How Gardevoir evades attacks. She teleports out of reach of the opponent because she is in sync with Diantha.
- Woman in White: Wears a long and flowy white gown, like her Gardevoir.
- World's Best Warrior: As the Champion, she's the most skilled trainer in the Kalos region. And while she may be as strong as that description entails, she is also the first Champion whom Ash managed to give a hard time , because of his and Greninja's unique power.
Siebold (Zumi)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hiroyuki YoshinoOne of the Elite Four members of Kalos who specializes in Water-types. He is introduced in the first Mega Evolution special.
- Battle Butler: He is a Top-class chef in addition to being a member of the Elite Four.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Alain's Charizard manages to get a few good hits in and endure several as well, but in the end Siebold wins without too much trouble.
- Establishing Character Moment: He defeats Alain and his Mega Charizard X with his powerful Mega Blastoise while using Water-Type and Dragon-Type attacks, establishing how powerful he is as an Elite Four member. And he doesn't look down on Alain, despite the type disadvantage.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He has blonde hair and is a very sportsman-like person; after defeating Alain, he congratulates him on putting up a good fight.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: He doesn't Mega Evolve his Blastoise from the start, holding his own against Mega Charizard X with just his regular Blastoise. He then Mega Evolves it to show off how powerful it really is.
- Ki Attacks: Mega Blastoise's Mega Launcher boosts Pulse attacks such as Dragon Pulse.
- Making a Splash: He specializes in Water-Types and is very proud of his Water-Type team.
- More Dakka: His Blastoise develops a third cannon when it Mega Evolves.
- Man in White: Dresses in white clothes, it probably relates to his profession as a chef.
- Transformation Trinket: Owns a Key Stone and Blastoisinite.
- Use Your Head: His Blastoise knows Skull Bash and hits Mega Charizard X on the stomach.
Malva (Pachira)
Voiced in Japanese by: Akeno WatanabeOne of the Elite Four members of Kalos who specializes in Fire-types. There's more to her than being just one of the Kalos League's top Pokémon trainers.
- The Ace: She is the final trainer Alain faces in his challenge, and she is easily stronger than the 9 trainers preceding her. Her Houndoom holds the upper hand for most of the battle against Alain's Charizard. As a member of the Elite Four, she may very well be the strongest trainer in Team Flare.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: She is close acquaintance of Lysandre, which puts her pretty high in Team Flare Rankings, and she is an Elite Four member to boot. Aside from Lysandre, she is also the only member capable of Mega Evolving her Pokémon.
- Cool Shades: She wears a pair of transparent violet shades.
- Casting a Shadow: Her Houndoom's secondary type, hinting her affliation with Team Flare who have a preference over Dark-types.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed, but she half-jokingly calls out Lysandre on being a bad influence towards Alain.
- Final Boss: Is Alain's final opponent in the 10-man gauntlet during the fourth Mega Evolution special.
- Grace Ful Loser: After losing, she teasingly claims that she despises Alain for defeating her before saying that he really is remarkable.
- No Sell: Base Houndoom has Flash Fire as it's ability, allowing it to absorb Fire-Type attacks. Key word being BASE Houndoom, as it loses this ability upon Mega Evolving, which ironically allows Charizard to knock it out with Blast Burn.
- Playing with Fire: She specializes in Fire-types.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: In true Team Flare fashion.
- Transformation Trinket: Owns a Key stone and Houndoominite.
- Token Evil Teammate: Despite being an Elite Four member, she is allied with Team Flare.
Mega Evolution Special
Voiced in Japanese by: Kensho Ono
Voiced in English by: Jonathan SilverThe protagonist of the Mega Evolution specials. He seeks out Mega Stones and trainers with Mega Evolved Pokémon to defeat them under the guidance of a mysterious voice on his Holo Caster.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Is notable for being the first special-focused character since Jimmy who didn't have anything to do with Ash. However, unlike Jimmy, he later became a recurring character in the main series, ultimately becoming one of Ash's major rivals.
- Action Hero: Supremely so. His adventures in Hoenn and as an Unwitting Pawn of Team Flare pit him against some powerful opponents, and he finds himself in some dangerous spots, proving himself quite the Badass in the process. Unlike the adventures of Ash and Co., the Mega-Evolution specials make no attempt to hide Alain is occasionally putting his life at risk, during his battles against Primal Groudon and Zygarde.
- With his Charizard they defeat a Mega Absol and a Mega Garchomp (despite a type disadvantage) with minimal difficulty, only being defeated by Siebold and his Mega Blastoise and putting up a good fight in the process. They later hold their own against Steven and his Mega Metagross in Act II of the Mega Evolution series.
- This trend continues in the third Mega Evolution Special, where they hold their own against a Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, although Mega Charizard ends up nearly dying trying to prevent Groudon from grabbing the Megalith.
- And now in Mega Evolution Special 4 he is the first trainer in the anime who isn't a champion or another member of the Pokémon League to defeat an Elite 4 member on-screen after he fought and defeated 9 other trainers with Mega Evolutions.
- He and his Charizard become the first opponents to defeat Ash-Greninja, which up until then dished out Curb-Stomp Battles like candy. It was a rather handy win, too.
- His Charizard does some serious damage against a 50% Zygarde before Mega Evolving using a well-placed Flamethrower and Dragon Claw. After Mega Evolving, Charizard proves itself to be able to give Zygarde its attention, matching it blow-for-blow without any signs of slowing down until Team Flare interrupts the fight. Granted, Zygarde may have been weakened beforehand a bit, but that's still a feat. And James gave Z2 a chance to recover using sunlight, so Alain may actually have gone toe-to-toe with Zygarde's full power.
- Audience Surrogate: For Pokémon's Periphery Demographic, specifically teenagers. Unlike Origins version of Giovanni, Alain's characterization doesn't focus on Pokémon nostalgia, but he's quite a bit older and more serious than the main episodes' child protagonists, and his partner Pokémon is Charizard, a fan-favorite with the Periphery Demographic. His mentor-student relationship with Mairin can be seen as an analogue to teenage and young adult Pokémon fans introducing their younger siblings to the franchise and teaching them how to play the games.
- Badass and Child Duo: He's the Badass while Mairin is the child.
- Big Brother Mentor: Reluctantly takes this role towards Mairin, but he ends up rejecting her out of fear she would get hurt following him. This backfires horribly.
- Big Damn Heroes: He saves Ash's Pikachu from Team Rocket, which is how he and Ash meet.
- Blood Knight: Alain challenges every Trainer who has a Mega Evolving Pokémon whenever possible. Or other tough trainers like Ash. It is shown that both, Alain and his Charizard, enjoy battling hard opponents. This trope is pretty much the reason why he enters the Kalos League.
- Butt Monkey: In Mairin's Illustrated Mega Evolution Journal, Mega Charizard X gets its ass handed to basically every Mega Evolved Pokémon it battles. While we don't see the result of the battles, as it could easily have made a comeback, it is heavily implied that it has actually lost to a Mega Slowbro. It was also put asleep by a Mega Audino. The canonicity of these shorts, however, is unconfirmed.
- Brainy Brunette: Was formerly an assistant for Professor Sycamore studying Mega Evolution.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Tells Mairin to leave him be and travel on her own, in rather harsh words, because he fears that she will get hurt travelling with him. This bites him in the ass as it sends Mairin in a depression, which gets worse when Chespie falls into a coma. Alain ends up promising himself to do anything to get Mairin to smile again.
- Canon Foreigner: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire if the player has Steven's promotional event shiny Metagross in their party during a certain scene of the Delta Episode, Steven makes a nod to Alain and Act II, saying that a long time ago he fought against Rayquaza alongside a young trainer who used a black Charizard.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- His battle with Astrid and Mega Absol was one-sided in his favor.
- He gets handily beaten by Siebold and his Mega Blastoise, though Charizard does enough to impress Siebold making it more of a Curb Stomp Cushion.
- His battle with Ash and Greninja is another Curb Stomp Cushion, with him on the giving end.
- His battle with Trevor in the Kalos League is also a curb-stomp in his favor. He only used Charizard to defeat all three of Trevor's Pokémon
- Deadpan Snarker: He snarks at Mairin's wording when she asks about Mega Evolution."Pokémon Mega Evolve, not people."
- Dramatic Irony: He keeps Professor Sycamore out of the loop because Lysandre tells him if the research on Mega Evolution is published then evil people will use it and ruin the professor's reputation. Knowing Lysandre's role in the games, he is one of those of people.
- Extra Ore Dinary: His Charizard knows Steel Wing, but seems to have forgotten it in favor of Thunder Punch. He is later on shown to own a Metang, a Steel-type that resembles a floating Metallic robot.
- Find the Cure: His motivation at the end of the Mega Evolution specials to cure Chespie from his Zygarde-induced coma, leading to his appearance in the main anime.
- Finishing Move: Alain ends most of Mega Charizard X's toughest battles with Blast Burn.
- Foil: He and Ash contrast each other on many things.
- Ash is a Keet, while Alain is The Stoic. Also, Alain isn't keen on making friends but will give good, logical advice. Ash is a people person and gives more abstract life lessons.
- Both have a Charizard, but use them in different ways. Alain specializes in his and is not seen with any other Pokémon. Ash puts his behind in the reserve spot so that he can train the other, lesser-experienced Pokémon.
- Foreshadowing: Ash telling him about the strong Pokémon Trainers in the Kalos League hinted that Alain would enter it as well, due to his Blood Knight nature. And he does eventually get eight badges seven episodes later.
- Gentle Giant: Outside of battles, his Charizard is rather friendly and a bit cheerful. And it isn't particularly aggressive.
- I Am Not Left-Handed:
- In a sense, his Charizard. He Mega Evolves his Charizard most of the time, but it is more than capable of kicking ass without doing so. Ash's Greninja and Zygarde learn this the hard way in different battles.
- He also isn't purely dependent on his Charizard to defeat strong trainers, as his Metang is strong enough to defeat Ash's Noivern, which had previously taken on a Legendary Pokémon and nearly won.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Representing his cool, collected personality. Also to match his black and blue Mega Charizard X motif.
- In the Name of the Moon: "Key Stone, respond/listen to my heart. Beyond evolution — Mega Evolve!" The word order slightly changed in the 2nd special.
- It's All My Fault: Blames himself heavily for Chespie's comatose state.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Mega Charizard X's secondary type. He mocks his opponent Remo, a Dragon specialist, for not knowing that Mega Charizard X's typing is Fire/Dragon.
- Playing with Fire: Alain has his Charizard since it was a Charmander. During his journey, when he met Lysandre, his Charmander had since evolved into a Charmeleon.
- The Rival: He becomes one to Ash. After Ash tells him that there are a lot of other powerful trainers and Pokémon in the Kalos League, Alain quickly gathers eight badges and enters it as well.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The savvy guy to Mairin's energetic girl.
- The Stoic: He's very serious and mature, and rarely smiles.
- Shock and Awe: His Charizard knows Thunderpunch.
- Signature Move: Charizard's Dragon Claw is used more often than any of its other moves, even Flamethrower.
- Sociopathic Hero: In regards to his overall personality, Alain is a serious social mess. His drive to becoming stronger revolves around hunting random Mega Evolutions to "protect the people close to him"; a quote that puts into question his drive. As you may already know, said people only include Mairin, the Charizard that actually is put in danger on a daily basis, and possibly Sycamore. Beyond those three, Alain has no direct friendly connections to anyone else. During the battle with Malva, she even questioned him about his ideals to become stronger and wasn't all that interested with his doubtful response.
- Start of Darkness: After Mairin's Chespin was hospitalized, the last we see of Alain after that is fully agreeing with Lysandre's plans to hunt down the Zygarde Core, which on itself is not much related to Alain's personal quest.
- Arguably, this started the moment he met Lysandre.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: Discussed by Mairin who points out that he's intimidating but really cares about Pokémon and is supportive of her.
- Super Mode: His Charizard can Mega Evolve into Mega Charizard X. He also seeks out other trainers with Mega Evolutions to beat them.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Seems to be unaware that Lysandre is observing the power of his Charizard when they Mega Evolve and battle. In Act II, it's revealed that Lysandre is the one who provided Alain with the Mega Ring and Mega Stone, in return for Alain's aid to gather data for his research.
- To Be a Master: Sort of, he never calls his goal such but he does seek to beat every Mega Evolved Pokémon out there.
- Training from Hell: After returning from their adventures in the Hoenn Region, Alain and Charizard spend all their time training at Lysandre Labs, and eventually the results show as they are capable of defeating 10 Mega Evolution trainers back-to-back, the final one being an Elite Four member.
- Transformation Trinket: A Mega Ring for him and an armored collar for his Charizard to hold its Charizardite X.
- Uncatty Resemblance: His outfit resembles Mega Charizard X in color scheme and his scarf resembles the wisps of flame coming from Mega Charizard X's mouth.
- Unwitting Pawn: Currently works with Lysandre not knowing his true intentions.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gets a disapproving grunt from his own Charizard in response to driving away Mairin.
- Worthy Opponent: His rematch with Ash and Greninja fills him with an excitement he hasn't felt in many matches. After Greninja gets a few good hits in, he even calls Greninja worthy to face Charizard's Mega Evolution.
Mairin (Manon)
Voiced in Japanese by: Mikako Komatsu
Voiced in English by: Zoe MartinA beginner trainer who recently started her journey. She becomes intrigued by Mega Evolution and travels with Alain.
- Audience Surrogate: For the younger players who have just started out.
- Badass and Child Duo: She's the child while Alain is the Badass.
- Big Brother Worship: Comes to think this way of Alain, which makes it all the more painful when he rejects her (to keep her safe).
- Butt Monkey: She falls on her face a lot, even when there's nothing to trip on.
- Break the Cutie: When she finds out her Chespin is suddenly ill with no sign of recovery, she falls in to despair, crying her heart out.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Her Chespin's relationship with her, picking her up when she falls.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: She tends to trip and fall a lot, even when there isn't anything visible she could trip on.
- Despair Event Horizon: Having Alain blow up at her and her Chespin fall ill in such a short time certainly isn't sitting well with her.
- Fangirl: Shows signs of it towards Siebold, gushing all over him by just only hearing his name.
- Fiery Red Head: She has red hair fitting to her energetic and cheerful personality, and in contrast to Alain's black hair.
- Genki Girl: She is very energetic, making her conversations with The Stoic Alain a bit odd.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Has one of these moments in the second special when Lysandre accuses her and Alain of being a couple.
- Nice Hat: She is always wearing a hat.
- The Nicknamer: Her Pokémon are nicknamed "Chespie" for Chespin and "Bébé" for Flabébé (Hari-san and Fla-chan in Japan respectively).
- Poisonous Person: Her Chespin knows Toxic, which Mairin uses to catch a Flabébé. Alain has to remember her to treat the poisoning.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The energetic girl to Alain's savvy guy.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Mairin's Chespin. For two reasons.
- It's the one who discovers the Zygarde Core being experimented on and frees it. The freed Core would eventually come across Ash and co., which draws them right into a conflict with Team Flare.
- Chespie would later fall ill after the rescue, causing Mairin to fall into despair. Following this Alain would be driven to gather more data to complete the Mega Evolution energy system, as Lysandre claimed it could cure Chespie.
- Spanner in the Works: As noted above, Lysandre was not amused that Chespie freed the Zygarde Core.
- Tagalong Kid: Much to Alain's chagrin as the specials progress.
- Uncatty Resemblance: The shape of her hat combined with her spiky hair make her resemble Chespin.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her Flabébé has never been seen since her capture.
Astrid (Ayaka)
Voiced in Japanese by: Miyuu Sawai
Voiced in English by: Kate BistrolA trainer introduced in Mega Evolution Special I. She was the first of the many opponents who Alain battles thoughout the four specials, which led to Mairin meeting Alain and learning from Mega Evolution. Astrid uses a Mega Absol.
- The Cameo: At the beginning of Movie 17, she battles Ash in a 3-on-3 battle and Astrid wins with Meowstic and Mega Absol.
- Casting a Shadow: Her ace is the pure Dark-Type Absol.
- Establishing Character Moment: Her battle with Alain establishes the concept of the epic clash between Mega Evolved Pokémon.
- Expy: Astrid is designed after the female Ace Trainers from Pokémon X and Y.
- Panthera Awesome: She seems to have a preference over feline-like Pokémon, like Absol, a male Pyroar or a female Meowstic.
- Super Mode: Her Absol is capable of Mega Evolving. Its Mega Evolution is the very first to be shown in the first special.
- Transformation Trinket: She wears her Key Stone as an earring while her Absol wears a necklace containing an Absolite.
- Unexpected Character: She will enter in the Lumiose Conference.
Remo (Louie)
Voiced in Japanese by: Koichi Yamadera
Voiced in English by: Marc ThompsonA Dragon-Type specialist introduced in Mega Evolution Special I. He was ordered by somebody to look for the Mega Stone that was found by Alain and they battled over it, with Remo on the receiving end. He uses a Mega Garchomp.
- Boisterous Bruiser: A loud trainer boasting about his powerful Dragon-Type Pokémon and he likes doing pose.
- In-Series Nickname: His Garchomp is known as "Garchoo" ("Gabunoji" in Japanese).
- Our Dragons Are Different: He specializes in Dragon-Type Pokémon.
- Smug Snake: He is very confident about his Dragon-Type Pokémon and claims to know everything about Dragon-Types, yet he is unaware of Mega Charizard X's type change.
- Super Mode: Charchoo Mega Evolves into Mega Garchomp.
- Transformation Trinket: He carries a parasol with a Key Stone on its tip while Garchoo wears prayer beads with a Garchompnite.
- Unexpected Character: He will enter in the Lumiose Conference.
- Wutai: Like Laverre City and the hidden ninja village, Remo's gardrobe is distinctively "Japanese", despite Kalos being based on France. His Japanese name isn't Japanese at all.
Team Flare
All of Them
The regional evil organization of Kalos who are the Arc Villain of the XY&Z saga. Unlike the games where their plan revolves around Xerneas or Yveltal, the anime variation has their plan centered on Zygarde.
- Cool Shades: All of the grunts and scientists wear a pair of shades. The female scientists' ones in particular can more accurately be described as an advanced visor.
- Crazy-Prepared: They actually bother to send a pursuit squad after Ash and Co. when they notice their connection to the Zygarde Core, and when it seems the Core has left them they recall the unit in order to look for it in the zone where it was last traced. This ends up being a mistake, but it's an efficient train of thought.
- Dark Is Evil: They seem to have a preference for Dark-Types.
- Elite Mooks: The Team Flare scientists use powerful, evolved Pokémon like Manectric and Liepard and are more likely to engage the protagonists on-on-one.
- Eviler Than Thou: Downplayed. While Team Rocket are slowly proving worthier competition than they had assumed, Team Flare are still the more serious, powerful and cold blooded group.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: They are led by a manipulative mastermind and and their long-term intentions are kept secret. They also have a Legal front in the form of Lysandre Labs.
- Mooks: The standard Team Flare Grunts only use unevolved Pokémon like Skorupi and Houndoor.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Their superweapon harnesses the power of Zygarde. The effects of the weapon on the island Team Flare is performing experiments from is staggering, in spite of using only 10 Zygarde cells.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their red wardrobe and dark-coloured Pokémon are a good indicator of their alignment.
- Smug Snake: With the exception of their Leader and Malva, all of it's members are in way over their head when facing the likes of Zygarde or, later on, Ash-Greninja. Even against Team Rocket, they totally underestimate their Villainous Valor.
- Villain Takes an Interest: When they take notice of the groups' connection with the Zygarde core, and their desire to protect it, they start actively monitoring them.
- Zettai Ryouiki: The female scientists have all Type A.
Lysandre (Fleur-de-lis)
Voiced in Japanese by: Hideaki Tezuka
Voiced in English by: H.D. QuinnThe leader of Team Flare.
- Affably Evil: He genuinely likes his own Pokémon and is capable of Mega Evolution, which only trainers with a close bond to their Pokémon can achieve. He is also a close acquantaince of Malva, doesn't seem to be a bad boss, and appears to legitimately appreciate Alain.
- Arc Villain: Of the XY&Z saga, as the leader of Team Flare.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Aside from Malva, he is the only one in the organisation capable of Mega Evolving his Pokémon. His Pyroar is strong enough to force Alain's Charizard and Steven's Metagross to dodge it's attacks.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Has shades of this, as he himself believes he hasn't lied to Alain at all.
- Blatant Lies: He tells Alain to keep quiet about Lysandre Lab's research to Professor Sycamore, as evil people would probably cross Sycamore. He also claims he will harness Mega Evolution Energy for peaceful purposes.
- Brutal Honesty: In spite of presenting himself as a warm, fatherly figure he does make it perfectly clear to Alain that he has no time for weaklings.
- The Chessmaster: He successfully manipulates the Hoenn Champion Steven and Alain into delivering him a Megalith, leaving them to battle the Legendary Pokémon. When Chespie frees an Zygarde Core, he does suffer a major unforeseen setback, but turns it to his advantage by using Chespie's resulting illness to motivate Alain even further.
- The Corrupter: Malva teasingly accuses him of being a bad influence on Alain, but he denies this.
- Manipulative Bastard: He has Alain wrapped around his finger and running errands for him under the pretense that he is conducting research for peaceful purposes. Malva actually calls him out on it, but he claims he hasn't lied to Alain at all.
- Playing with Fire: His Pyroar's primary type.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Takes it even further than the rest of his organisation.
- Related in the Adaptation: Inverted, and a Non-Family example. In the games he is professor Sycamore's former Pupil, but in the anime their meeting in the fourth Mega Evolution special is explicitly the first time they meet.
- Right-Hand Cat: His Pyroar serves as this when it isn't battling.
- Transformation Trinket: His ring contains a Key Stone.
- Uncatty Resemblance: His hairstyle seems to be modeled after his Pyroar.
- Wine Is Classy: Whenever he isn't doing day-to-day business, he is shown to relax by a fireplace, drinking a glass of wine.
Voiced in Japanese by: Tsuguo Mogami
Voiced in English by: Abe GoldfarbOne of Team Flare's five main scientists. He is the only male of the group.
- Gonk: He is not very charming, to say the least. Especially glaring considering the other Team Flare members are rather attractive.
- In Love with Your Carnage: He normally has a very serious expression, but tends to get enthusiastic whenever he sees Zygarde release it's power. The fact his fellow scientists and their underlings are on the receiving end of that power doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
- Non-Action Guy: The only scientist not involved in field work.
- The One Guy: He is the only male scientist, and appears to have authority over the four female scientists.
Aliana (Akebi)
Voiced in Japanese by: Rinko NatsuhiOne of Team Flare's five main scientists. Of the four females of the group, she is the one with the orange hair.
- Anime Hair: The only Team Flare scientist to fully avert this, as her hairstyle and hair color are both pretty unremarkable by real-life standards.
- Combat Pragmatist: She takes no issue with striking down Zygarde with specialized machines while it is having a heated battle against Alain's Charizard.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The 2016 preview shows her with a Druddigon.
- The Rival: She and Mable have a rather competitive rivalry, as both aspire to be the most prestigious Team Flare operatives.
- You Are in Command Now: A non-lethal variant, but after Mable fails her objective to capture Z-2, Aliana gets put in charge of the operation.
Mable (Momiji)
Voiced in Japanese by: Sayuri HaraOne of Team Flares five main scientists. Of the four females of the group, she is the one with the blue hair.
- The Rival: With Aliana, as both aspire to be Team Flare's top scientists.
- Combat Pragmatist: She takes no issue with striking down Zygarde with specialized machines while it is having a heated battle against Alain's Charizard.
- Oh Crap!: When Zygarde (50%) uses land's Wrath. Both times.
- The Worf Effect: Her first appearance shows her, her Houndoom, and the grunts serving her getting beaten by a 50%-Zygarde.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: She has Blue hair, and that's not even getting into her weird, octopus-like haircut. Like the other scientists, her visor matcher her hair color.
Bryony (Bara)
Voiced in Japanese by: Akane FujitaOne of Team Flares five main scientists. Of the four females of the group, she is the one with the green hair.
- Determinator: Gets badly hurt in both of her encounters with Puni-Chan, but that doesn't keep her from trying again.
- Combat Pragmatism: Both her Liepard and her Bisharp are Dark-Types.
- Oh Crap!: When facing Ash-Greninja.
- The Worf Effect: Her Bisharp gets beaten to show how powerful Puni-Chan's 10%-form is, and her Liepard is easily beaten by Ash-Greninja despite teaming up with Celosia's Manectric.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: She has green hair and a green visor to boot.
Celosia (Correa)
Voiced in Japanese by: Karin NanamiOne of Team Flares five main scientists. Of the four females of the group, she is the one with the purple hair.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Her Manetric is easily beaten by Ash-Greninja, but gets a small hit in to show Ash and Greninja share each other's pain while in the form.
- Funny Background Event: When Team Flare is monitoring Ash and Co, she is shown eating a bag of chips.
- Oh Crap!: When facing Ash-Greninja.
- Shock and Awe: Her Manetric is an Electric-Type.
- Smug Snake: She is the most outwardly confident of Team Flare's scientists, but she hasn't achieved anything that backs up said confidence.
- The Worf Effect: During the battle at Terminus Cave: her Drapion is beaten back by Ash's Noibat to show it's increased power. Also, despite teaming up with Bryony's Liepard and a type advantage, her Manectric is easily beaten by Ash-Greninja.
- Would Hurt a Child: She orders her Drapion to use Pin Missile on Bonnie.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: She has purple hair and a matching purple visor.