Gary Oak

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## Gary Oak

* JN
* S01
* S03
* S04
* S05 (cel)
* S05 (digital)
* HS
* AG187
* AG192
* DP
* Young (AG086)

## Information

### Other names:

Okido Shigeru (オーキド・シゲル) (JP)
Régis Chen (FR)
Gary Carvalho (PT-BR)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Turquoise (S01-BW)
Olive (JN)

## Appearances

### Voiced by

Yūko Kobayashi (小林優子) (JP)
Carter Cathcart (EN)
Nico Macoulis (DE)

**Gary Oak** (JP: **シゲル** *Shigeru*) is a character from the Pokémon anime series.

He is a Pokémon Researcher from Pallet Town in the Kanto region. He is the grandson of Professor Oak, and the childhood friend of Ash Ketchum. Before he became a Researcher, he was also a Pokémon Trainer, and was Ash's main rival during the original series. In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, he is also the rival of Goh.

## Relationships

Gary doesn't interact as much with other characters like some of the protagonists do, but there are still a select few that he's had extensive or meaningful interactions with.

### Ash Ketchum

Ash is Gary's former rival and his closest friend, having known each other since they were young.

Early in the series, Gary came off as arrogant and at times even a little antagonistic towards Ash, always going out of his way to brag about his accomplishments, boasting about how far ahead he was of him, and repeatedly teasing him by calling him a "loser". But after taking a brutal loss at the Indigo Plateau Conference, these tendencies began to fade, and over the course of the Johto saga, Gary noticeably treated Ash with much more respect. By the time they reached the Silver Conference, they had rekindled their old friendship, and Gary humbly accepted defeat after their Full Battle in the tournament, thus ending their rivalry. Since then, he has gone out of his way to lend him a helping hand on multiple occasions.

Starting in the dub of *Round One - Begin!*, Gary gave him the pet-name of "Ashy-boy" (JP: サトシくん *Satoshi-kun*), and later on began occasionally shortening it to just "Ashy". This seems to only sometimes annoy him.

### Goh

Goh is a friend of Ash, and he met Gary in JN068. They are both participating in Project Mew. The two don't get along very well, with Gary often provoking Goh at any chance he gets, and Goh being infuriated by almost everything he says.

After first being introduced to each other, Gary said to him that he had heard Ash had a new buddy and wanted to see how talented of a Pokémon Trainer he was, making the claim that Goh would need to be at least as good of a Trainer as he himself was in order to qualify as a friend for Ash. Goh is aggravated by his jabs at his skill, but Ash assures him that Gary always used to say the same kind of things to him too.

In an interview with Yuko Kobayashi from May 2021, she had this to say about their relationship: *"I think that Shigeru, maybe, was able to tell right away that Gou-kun does have some skill about him. He recognized that... and then he started to egg him on. It's just like how he used to get Satoshi riled up back in the old days... when I was playing Shigeru, I played him as if he was imagining Gou-kun making the same faces Satoshi used to make."*

### Other characters

#### Team Rocket

Gary has been the target of Team Rocket's schemes on several occasions. In *The Rivalry Revival*, the Rocket trio attempted to ambush him, but that plan failed as he walked right past them without even noticing. Later, in *Extreme Pokémon!*, they overlooked Ash's Pikachu, and instead captured his Arcanine in a net from their balloon. Gary has helped Ash take them out a few times, such as in *Power Play!* and *A Claim to Flame!*. He also defeated Butch and Cassidy in *Putting the Air Back in Aerodactyl!*.

As far as their relationship goes, the Rocket trio has expressed their disdain for Gary a few times. Before their attempted attack in *The Rivalry Revival*, they referred to him as a stuck-up brat. This disdain extends even to their boss, Giovanni - as when Gary swept through Giovanni's team to obtain the Earth Badge in *The Battle of the Badge*, he then unleashed Mewtwo to ruthlessly take down Gary's Pokémon, and subsequently knocked him out cold.

However, Gary himself has not interacted much firsthand with the Rocket trio. In *The Battle of the Badge*, when meeting them for the first time, he watched Ash battle Jessie, as they were appointed Gym Leaders in Giovanni's absence. When Meowth was going to rig the battle in their favor by blowing up the opposition, Gary tackled him to the ground and knocked the controller out of his paws. Oddly enough, despite having done that, he encounters the trio again two episodes later in *Showdown at the Po-ké Corral*, and is shocked to see Meowth speaking ("That Meowth can talk?!"). Regardless, he's the first one to challenge them to a battle.

Currently, the last time they met was in *Fighting Fear with Fear!*, when Team Rocket captured Ash, Pikachu, and Gligar. Gary, along with Ash's friends, took it upon himself to find them.

#### Misty

Misty is another friend of Ash. The two have spoken to each other very little, but Misty's opinion of Gary over the course of the original series generally seemed to be low.

In *Riddle Me This*, when they mistakenly arrived at Gary's room, he taunted Ash by saying "I've never seen anyone so pathetic!" Misty retorted him with, "Have you tried a mirror?" Later, in *A Tent Situation*, Misty exasperatedly said to Ash that sometimes he's "as immature as Gary". Despite her apparent dislike of him, she does seem to recognize his skill - acknowledging throughout Kanto that he was indeed far more talented of a Trainer than Ash was at the time. The only real conversation they ever held with each other was a very brief one, in the episode *Illusion Confusion!*. Misty asked Gary why he was still in the forest if he had a Hoothoot with him, and he responded with the fact that he'd been busy catching Pokémon, and therefore must have lost track of time.

Nonetheless, they do share some similarities - for instance, both Misty and Gary have the exact same habit of occasionally placing a kiss on their Poké Ball before sending out their Pokémon. They both acted unkind towards Ash early on, but as time went on, they both ended up warming up to him and becoming his close friends by the time they all parted ways. In addition, Ash also has a keepsake from both of them (in Misty's case, her special lure, and in Gary's case, the other half of the broken Poké Ball).

They technically first met in the episode *Beauty and the Beach*, but due to that episode being banned in the dub, their first meeting outside of that was in *Dig Those Diglett!*.

## Pokémon

The Pokémon that Gary currently has on hand as of JN068 are his starter, Blastoise, along with his Electivire. In the past, he also commonly used Arcanine, Umbreon, and Dodrio, among others.

A complete list of Gary's Pokémon can be found **here**.

## Appearances

*The full article can be seen here:* ***List of appearances***

Gary debuted in the very first episode of the anime, *Pokémon - I Choose You!*. His appearances were mainly scattered throughout the original series, where he served as Ash's main rival from Kanto through Johto, and would often run into the protagonists there.

After he became a Pokémon Researcher at the end of the original series, the frequency of his appearances dwindled significantly. He made two cameos across the run of Advanced Generation, until finally appearing physically in *Home is Where the Start Is!*, where he then left for the Sinnoh region in the same episode.

He was in four episodes total of Diamond & Pearl, then had an extremely long absence after *The Battle Finale of Legend!*. He had no speaking roles for almost 12 years, making only one cameo in Best Wishes, and not appearing at all in the XY or Sun & Moon series.

Finally, he returned as a recurring character in Pokémon Journeys: The Series, starting with JN068.

## Gallery

*The full gallery can be seen here:* ***Gary Oak/Gallery***

## References

1. ↑ AG086
2. ↑ DP085
3. ↑ JN068
4. ↑ https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/features/translations/newtype\_web\_may2021\_yuko\_kobayashi.html#Part\_Two

1. ↑ alternatively spelled as "Ashie-boy" and "Ashie" in certain closed captions
2. ↑ **Meowth:** "I say we stick it to that stuck-up Gary!"

**Jessie:** "Good idea."

**James:** "If we get him and Pikachu, then we'll have a brat, and a rat."

(This also implies that their plan was to hold *him* captive - not his Pokémon.)