Leaf (game)

*If you were looking for the character from Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, see Green (game).*
*Leaf redirects here. For other uses, see Leaf (disambiguation).*

 Eye color
 Hair color

**Leaf** (Japanese: **リーフ** *Leaf*) is the female player character in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Her male counterpart is Red.

## In the core series

### Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

**Spoiler warning:** the following text contains major story details.

Leaf's adventure begins after Professor Oak calls her to his lab and gives her a choice of Pokémon. Blue challenges Leaf to a Pokémon battle as soon as they get their Pokémon. Later, Professor Oak calls the two back, gives each of them a Pokédex, and sends them on a journey to fulfill their dream of capturing every kind of Pokémon.

Leaf travels all over Kanto, filling in the Pokédex and defeating the Gym Leaders. Her rival Blue constantly stays one step ahead, and shows up quite a few times to impede her progress. When Leaf eventually reaches the Elite Four, she finds that Blue has beaten her to a milestone yet again and has become the Indigo League Champion. Leaf defeats Blue in the final battle, and becomes the Champion herself. Her adventure continues even after that, with Leaf discovering new places, such as the Sevii Islands.

Leaf's main conflict in the games, aside from Blue, is Team Rocket, an infamous group of Pokémon thieves. Leaf clashes with Team Rocket many times in her quest. She defeats a group of grunts at Mt. Moon who are attempting to steal rare Pokémon Fossils, and defeats another group ahead at a bridge in Cerulean City. Leaf protects the Pokémon Tower and Mr. Fuji in Lavender Town and destroys their hold on the Game Corner. After she foils their plot to take over Silph Co., Leaf encounters Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, as the final Gym Leader in Viridian City. Upon defeating him, Leaf stops the group's world domination plots once and for all, though a few remaining grunts, many who appeared and were defeated by Leaf on Five Island in Generation III, would band together in Johto to try to revive the group.

### Pokémon Azure and Rose

Pokémon Azure and Rose takes place in the future of FireRed and LeafGreen. In the intervening time, Leaf has changed dramatically from her original appearance. She is said to have encountered a "terrible Pokémon" in trying to best Red, and this resulted in her "demise". Leaf in Pokémon Starlight has a corrupted appearance, with her skirt appearing pixelated (similar to her sprite from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen) along with parts of her hair. She also lost her hat, likely due to the corruption effects. She wears a bow to try and hide the part of her hair where it transitions to this corrupted appearance. She is only fully visible through the Roto-Phone's Video Call mode, similarly to ghost Pokémon from Pokémon Sun and Moon (possibly referencing how Red and Blue appeared in those games but Leaf did not). She also appears as normal in Arcadia. This appearance, jokingly referred to as "Fallen Leaf" by Azrani, is essentially a half-corruption caused by a Violity attacking her directly.

Leaf never battles the player directly in the main story, but does help stop Phyco and Soliera when they follow the player into Arcadia. After this, Leaf can be battled as a "superboss" of sorts, in Leaderboard Tower along with a couple of other previously shown Trainers like Anton and Mackenzie (both sporting the same teams as their final teams in Pokémon Lithos and Helios).

## Trivia

 File:RGB guidebook.jpg
* An artwork of an unnamed female character drawn by Ken Sugimori was released in Pokémon Red and Green Versions's official strategy guide, released in April 1996. This artwork also appears on the cover a revised version of the guidebook that includes the Japanese Pokémon Blue as well.
	+ According to Sugimori, she was not originally planned as a player character. He wanted to portray a trio of Trainers facing off against each other, hence designed the female character for the cover.
	+ The female character was later adapted for the Pokémon Craft DX magazine drawn by Emiko Yoshino, as well as Green in Pokémon Adventures (released 11 months after the original artwork), Leaf in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (8 years after the original artwork), and Green in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! (22 years after the original artwork).
	+ Sugimori noted that he took the unnamed female character into consideration when he was designing the female protagonist for FireRed and LeafGreen. He also mentioned that the FireRed and LeafGreen female protagonist did not have a name at the time of his writing, in November 2012.
* While Green shares many similarities with Leaf, it has not been officially confirmed whether Green is an incarnation of Leaf, a cross-canon counterpart, or a separate entity entirely.
	+ Leaf's Starlight design does resemble Green, however, having the same hair style and lacking a hat.
* Leaf's hat somewhat resembles a Premier Ball.
* Leaf's FireRed and LeafGreen sprite shows her with blue eyes, although every other sprite and the official artwork shows her with brown eyes.
* The majority of her Japanese default names are shared with Dawn and Lyra. She also shares all of Kris's alternate Japanese names.
* Though she is neither playable nor an opponent in the handheld Generation IV games, Leaf made a brief cameo battling against Red in an early trailer for Pokémon Battle Revolution on the Wii.
* Leaf is the only non-rival female player character to have a counterpart who appeared in Pokémon Pocket Monsters.

## Names

Leaf is used as the official name for this character in Pokémon Masters EX and on merchandise such as Kotobukiya's ARTFX J figurine and the Bandai's Pokémon Scale World collection. She is also referred to as "Leaf" in unused Trainer data and as one of her optional names in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen and was hinted as such to be the default name by Sugimori on Twitter.

Until the reveal of her official name, she was also known in the fandom as "Green" (ブルー *Blue* in Japanese) to match her Pokémon Adventures counterpart. This name would later be used officially in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! for Green, although it has not been confirmed whether Leaf and Green are different versions of the same character. She is also sometimes referred to as フグリ *Fuguri* in the Japanese fandom. The name is derived from the katakana rendering of "LeafGreen", リー**フグリ**ーン *rī**fugurī**n*.

 Korean
 Chinese (Mandarin)
 Chinese (Cantonese)

## References

1. ↑ ポケットモンスター―任天堂公式ガイドブック - Amazon.co.jp (Japanese)
2. ↑ ポケットモンスター 赤・緑・青全対応 - Amazon.co.jp (Japanese)
3. ↑ Twitter - Sugimori on the origins of the unknown female character (Japanese)
4. ↑ Twitter - Sugimori on designing the FRLG female protagonist (Japanese)
5. ↑ "ARTFX J Leaf with Squirtle" on Kotobukiya (Japanese)
6. ↑ "Pokémon LEAF with ZENIGAME ARTFX STATUE" on Kotobukiya (English)
7. ↑ "Pokémon Scale World - Kanto: Leaf & Clefairy & Gengar" on Bandai (Japanese)
8. ↑ Twitter - Sugimori on the name of the FRLG female protagonist (English)