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Anime gym leaders

misty'scorsola

Beginning Trainer
The anime gym leaders in the current pokemon series have no character development. In the first season, the leaders were much more developed, Sabrina with her mysterious psychic powers and past, Erika who's gym burned down leading to Ash's gloom rescue Team rocket's Giovanni being the leader of viridian gym with Mewtwo itself in his arsenal, and of course, not forgetting Brock and Misty, who became staple characters of the show for many years.
I feel as though now, the gym leader routine is the same - Ash and the gang meet some random guy in the street - befriends guy - Guy helps Ash beat team rocket - Ash finds out guy is gym leader - battles guy - wins badge.
They should really think of more interesting storylines for the gym leaders like they used to. Does anyone else agree?
 

Korobooshi Kojiro

Funnnngaaaaa
Let's see....

We have a sexy, bish Miner who was ALMOST Zack.
We have Bugsy's equally gender-questioning cousin.
We have a girl...with a band-aid! SEX APPEAL!
We have a Luche Livre
We have a.....guy/girl er...Tucker's...cousin?
We have a gymleader's father, who looks like he had his son at 13
We have a skimpy-dressed girl in a cold climate
We have a guy...with BLONDE HAIR!

These Gym Leaders will have SUPERIOR development.
 

Neko Godot

Hey! Listen!
I can't wait til the skimpy-dressed girl in a cold climate. ^^
 

Gravy

Contaminated KFC
Brawly had an entire sub-plot involving the relationship between himself and his young apprentice. Granted, it leaned more toward's Shinobou's side of the story, but still~
Wattson has a jolly old guy going through a mid-life crisis. His entire debut episode was just there fro him to gain development for seemingly no real reason at all.
Ben already mentioned Flannery, the beginer who felt she had a lot to live up to and was determined to gain her grandfather's approval.
Norman had the whole psuedo-affair thing going on with him and Nurse Joy. And of course, the fact that the guy is a celeb in the pokémon world, as well as the father of w main characters only helped to boost his character.
Tate and Liza had a sibling rivalry sub-plot, involving the two eventually getting along and working together. Completely wizzed over their game counterparts in the process, but they were given personallities and a story none the less.
Juan was a Top Coordinator, and a famous entertainer in Sootopolis City.

I missed out Roxxanne, because I honestly can't remember. The only things I recall from Rustboro were poor animation, one shot of Haruka with a sweatdrop and Nosepass. If Alfonso was here, I'm sure he'd elaborate.

But in any case, they all had a history and personallity.
 

Juputoru

M-m-m-m-onobear?!
Blah blah blah the leaders STILL HAVE DECENT STORY THINGS blah blah. But enough of that...time for PREDICTIONS! Because Kojiro started it.

Hyouta:Yes well wasn't that Underground fun...what, you came here for the gym? Well, I'm the leader! 8D
Natane:I know you! You kicked my brother's cousin's uncle's grampa's nephew's half-sister's father's grandon's butt once and they told me about it since apparently losing is noteworthy!
Sumomo:Hi, I'm the leader...no, this isn't like that one girl in Olivine who was only the leader's disciple...no, this isn't like when Max pretended to be the leader either...YES I'M REALLY THE LEADER. YES I'M OLDER THAN TEN.
Makishi:¡Soy Poke Libre! ¡Utilizo el agua Pokemon aunque se parece como debo utilizar Pokemon que lucha! ¡cLucha!
Merisaa:Why yes, I AM related to Tucker. How did you know? NOW BATTLE FOOS.
Tougan:Brock...I am your uncle.
Suzuna:I'm the generic nice female that everyone loves for some reason. Teehee!
Denji:Yo, what up? I'm just some generic emo dude that everyone says they love. Leave me alone with my little black cloud in my little black soul. Oh, you want a battle? IT'S ON DOG! I GUN KICK YO BUT SO HARD THAT YO MAMA BE MO ASHAMED OF YO THAN SHE IS NAU! WORD! FO SHIZZLE!
 

CyberCubed

Yeah, ok!
I think the writers also put more focus in the coordinators on the show than the Gym leaders in AG.

Every single coordinator aside from erm...Robert, had a backstory of something or other.

Don't forget how much time they took out of a Contest just to give backstory to the Salaryman. It's like they tried to cram in as much as they could into a single 22 minute episode.
 
Did Winona ever have any character development? I didn't see the episode.
I didn't see the Flannery episode neither.
 

Satoshi

リーリエの為に戦ってるトレーナー
Gym Leader backgrounds are good, but what I want is the actual GYMS to be more faithfully adapted to their game counterparts. I loved how in Kanto, they at least tried to adapt the content in the Gyms (Kyou 's Gym with all the traps and invisible walls, having Katsura give out riddles leading to the Gym Battle, and some in Jouto too. I recall that the only thing from a Gym that was protrayed accurately in AG was Tessen's little "joy ride" at the beginning of AG040). I hate it how they completely ignored some of the unique elements that Gyms had in some of Jouto and almost all of AG (the complete, utter darkness in Touki's Gym, the sand pits in Asuna's Gym, the stat rooms in Senri's gym, etc). The Gym Leaders' backgrounds aren't what needs improvement, the actually GYMS do.
 

S.Suikun

Thank you, SPPf! :)
"Like they used to?"

Really, what "development" did Erika have? She's a perfume nut. That's all we got. Really, aside from Misty and Brock obviously, Sabrina was the only Kanto gym leader with any true depth to her. I suppose Blaine may have had some depth to him, but Lt. Surge and Koga? Hell naw.

Most of Johto's gym leaders were also pretty lacking, but we got some nice stuff with Morty, Pryce, and Clair (Pryce in particular).

The Hoenn gym leaders actually got more than one episode each, giving some time to actually explore each gym leader on top of the actual battle.

So sorry to point out flaws in your precious Kanto days.
I can't wait til the skimpy-dressed girl in a cold climate. ^^
Tell me about it. Smexiest gym leader ever. (Up yours, Flannery)
 
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Korobooshi Kojiro

Funnnngaaaaa
Lt. Surge was obviously a pedophile as he called Ash "baby" extremely suggestively I might add. He also was in the middle of running for the Republican Governor of Vermillion, but his loss to a lower evolution caused him to lose to his opponent, Move Deleter.

Koga...was a ninja...who actually killed his daughter Janine, and replaced her with a robot named Aya.
 

S.Suikun

Thank you, SPPf! :)
He also was in the middle of running for the Republican Governor of Vermillion, but his loss to a lower evolution caused him to lose to his opponent, Move Deleter.
Yeah, it's a shame the Old Man who shows you how to catch a Weedle was caught in a scandalous affair with that Lass. He would've kicked the Move Deleter's *** six ways to next Sunday.
 

PDL

disenchanted
Yeah, it's a shame the Old Man who shows you how to catch a Weedle was caught in a scandalous affair with that Lass. He would've kicked the Move Deleter's *** six ways to next Sunday.

Wait til next year, I hear that the Shorts Wearing Youngster and the Extra in the Baseball Cap will enter the running then.
 

mysteryperson

Unknown Trainer
There is only one gym leader in the 1st season of Pokemon that doesn't have character development. That one is A.J. He said he wanted a rematch with Ash, but hasn't fulfilled that yet.
 

S.Suikun

Thank you, SPPf! :)
A.J. wasn't actually a true gym leader, but I'd argue that he still had more development than Lt. Surge or Erika did. I mean, he actually showed emotion.
 

Satoshi

リーリエの為に戦ってるトレーナー
Really, what "development" did Erika have? She's a perfume nut. That's all we got.
I don't know. I think we got a pretty good view on her background with her story about how Kusaihana don't smell but only when they're threatened (with it saving her from a Betobeta when she was little).
 
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