Strongest Gym Leaders (In The Anime)

[Lord Trollbias]

Title is pretty self-explanatory. Pick and explain your choice(s). My choices (atm) would be:
Volkner: He was hyped to be so powerful that he went on a sabbatical because every challenger failed to be up to his standards. His childhood rival is an Elite 4 member, and while I'm sure DP Flint>DP Volkner, at full strength I don't believe the gap would be that significant. Additionally, without using his starter Pokemon and it being his first battle in a while, Volkner had end of region DP Ash beaten, and would have finished Infernape off had it not been for TRio debauchery.
Roxie: She took Ash, end of region BW Ash I might add, with a 6v3 handicap (say what you want about the BW team but a 6v3 handicap is ridiculous and Ash's only real error was leaving out Krookrok) and still nearly beat him. This isn't even factoring into account that Ash needed Static, and Roxie healed Ash's Pignite from his poisoning mid-battle.
Giovanni: Team Rocket Boss. His Persian swatted Pikachu aside like it was nothing, plus hype-wise team bosses are uber strong (anime really should have them battle more).
Honourable Mentions: Drake (OI), Clair, Drayden (Hype-wise), and Olympia

 

[phanpycross]

Your list is pretty much mine, althrough Giovanni's persian seemed to be on a whole other level than most pokemon when it appeared in BW.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Title is pretty self-explanatory. Pick and explain your choice(s). My choices (atm) would be:
Volkner: He was hyped to be so powerful that he went on a sabbatical because every challenger failed to be up to his standards. His childhood rival is an Elite 4 member, and while I'm sure DP Flint>DP Volkner, at full strength I don't believe the gap would be that significant. Additionally, without using his starter Pokemon and it being his first battle in a while, Volkner had end of region DP Ash beaten, and would have finished Infernape off had it not been for TRio debauchery.
Roxie: She took Ash, end of region BW Ash I might add, with a 6v3 handicap (say what you want about the BW team but a 6v3 handicap is ridiculous and Ash's only real error was leaving out Krookrok) and still nearly beat him. This isn't even factoring into account that Ash needed Static, and Roxie healed Ash's Pignite from his poisoning mid-battle.
Honourable Mentions: Drake (OI), Clair, Drayden (Hype-wise), and Olympia

I agree with Volkner for the same reasons. The others listed are up there as well imo.

 

[Lord Trollbias]

Your list is pretty much mine, althrough Giovanni's persian seemed to be on a whole other level than most pokemon when it appeared in BW.

Giovanni is evil team boss so I'd imagine he's be top tier Gym Leader as well with his actual team.
Imagine if he had managed to keep Mewtwo loyal. That'd b the GOAT team.

 

[I-am-the-peel]

Kanto - Sabrina
Johto - Clair
Hoenn - Juan
Sinnoh - Fantina
Unova - None, they were all pushovers and Ash was just weak this region

 

[Dragalge]

Unova - None, they were all pushovers and Ash was just weak this region

Because Cress, Lenora, Skyla, Brycen, and Roxie were totally pushovers.

At least the Unova gym leaders don't give out badges like candy in Kanto.

Also how can Ash be weak and yet gym leaders can be pushovers? Wouldn't that mean the gym leaders aren't pushovers considering Ash supposedly struggled against them?

 

[BJack]

I thought Volkner was less impressive than Fantina,Maylene or Byron or at least he was for being the final gym leader.

Roxie was just forced.

Agree with Giovanni but not sure if it counts.

Kanto - Sabrina
Johto - Clair
Hoenn - Juan
Sinnoh - Fantina
Unova - None, they were all pushovers and Ash was just weak this region

Agree with this list

 

[Navin]

You obviously have to take into account that gym leaders probably don't go all-out against rookies, but do give much tougher (even go all-out) fights against experienced trainers. I also think each region's GLs are ranked in order of their overall skill/talent. Ergo, the strongest ones are the eighth gym leaders, and I think the anime has done a decent enough job in presenting the strength of these individuals.

Here's my list:

* Blaine: Thank god for Charizard and the fact that Blaine granted Ash a 1 v 1 rematch.

* Giovanni: Hoping that one day we can actually get a proper battle between him and Ash, but needless to say, he's probably very powerful since he's leading TR.

* Drake: Supreme Gym Leader of the Orange Islands. Nuff said...

* Clair: Ash needed to bring his three heavy-hitters (Pik, Zard, Lax) to win this clash.

* Juan: Trained by Wallace, he's the final gym leader for Hoenn. Although I do wish he used a Walrein and not a Luvdisc (although his Luvdisc was ridiculous).

* Volkner: Age-old rivals with an E4, who constantly praises his strength. No challenger gave him a "fun" battle. His disadvantaged Electivire took out Torterra, and only lost to Pikachue due to unfortunate Static activation. Luxray nearly took out Pikachu + Infernape if not for TR interference and 'Ape going full Super-Saiyan. Didn't use his Raichu either.

* Roxie: So overpowered that even when not going all-out, she still nearly manages to win 3 v 6, and that too by healing Pignite from poisoning. Wished XY Ash incarnation could have faced her instead.

* Drayden: End-of-region Iris with her two strongest Pokemon couldn't defeat him in a rematch.

* Olympia: Pushed Ash to his creative best to pull this victory off, and that too with some side assistance from Pikachu.

* Wulfric: (SPECULATION) He's the final Kalos gym leader, and I am expecting him to go nuts.

 

[chalkus]

Sabrina: Ash never stood a chance against her.

Giovanni: I suspect he is very powerful, but it is not possible to know for sure as of now

Whitney: Ash never properly defeated her in a gym. Instead, he had an absurd 3 on 1 battle on a farm and still barely won

Clair: Arguably the strongest dragon trainer around

Maylene: Best Lucario in the world. Also, took Ash's buizel to the limit.

Fantina: Best Ghost type pokemon trainer in the world

Volkner: Easily at E4 level if he goes all out

Miss Senior: Best ice type trainer in the world

Roxie: Had she taken Ash on at equal terms, he would have been crushed

Korrina: Second best Lucario in the world. Superb fighting type master

Definitive list right here!!

 

[Zoruagible]

Kanto: Giovanni no contest. Pikachu better get a rematch against that Persian one day. I've been wanting a full on Ash vs Giovanni fight since the beginning of the series.

Johto: Clair, if Charizard didn't come back for that. Ash wouldn't have won

Hoenn: Juan

Sinnoh: Volkner

Unova: Drayden

Kalos: The best one so far too(And only one I like besides Viola), Korrina. She owns a Mega Lucario, nothing can top that. Lucario's one of the strongest Pokemon in the anime.

 

[Mew2]

I think that the strongest Gym Leaders are Giovanni, Sabrina, Clair, Volkner, and Olympia, so far. I can't put Roxie in that list because Ash was so weak and stupid in the Unova region that I can't get an accurate gauge of her power. I think that if Ash fought her with his current Kalos Team right now, with his current Kalos skill, he'd have won without needing a numerical advantage, possibly without too much difficulty since only three of his Pokémon in that battle did anything, and I think that most of his Kalos Pokémon, save for Noibat, so far, are stronger than all of Ash's Unova Pokémon save for Krookodile, who wasn't in the Roxie battle.

 

[phanpycross]

I think that the strongest Gym Leaders are Giovanni, Sabrina, Clair, Volkner, and Olympia, so far. I can't put Roxie in that list because Ash was so weak and stupid in the Unova region that I can't get an accurate gauge of her power. I think that if Ash fought her with his current Kalos Team right now, with his current Kalos skill, he'd have won without needing a numerical advantage, possibly without too much difficulty since only three of his Pokémon in that battle did anything, and I think that most of his Kalos Pokémon, save for Noibat, so far, are stronger than all of Ash's Unova Pokémon save for Krookodile, who wasn't in the Roxie battle.

Im sorry, but that's dumb, by your logic nobody can be judged, because Ash was just being "dumb and weak". I could use the exact same logic toward any gym-leader. I dont buy Ash could even beat Roxie with the team he currently has; Hawlucha is eh, Noibat sucks, and pikachu is still incredibly inconsistant.

 

[Dragalge]

I can't put Roxie in that list because Ash was so weak and stupid in the Unova region that I can't get an accurate gauge of her power.

Ash used Pikachu, Palpitoad, and Pignite, three Pokemon who were shown to be not weak. Garbodor managed to knock out the latter two (especially Pignite since he was Ash's second most powerful Pokemon in Unova ) and nearly beat Pikachu. That Koffing of hers also defeated two of Ash's Pokemon that starred in previous gym battles.

Roxie is no joke and definitely deserves to be called one of the strongest gym leaders.

Aside from Roxie, my personal list of strongest gym leaders would be Clair, Norman, Maylene, Volkner, and Olympia. Ramos also gets an honorable mention too.

 

[Mew2]

Sorry, but you can't use Unova to show Ash's strength and ability since he clearly regressed in that region. Pignite was strong compared to who? Most of Ash's team in Unova was subpar, save for Krookodile, as was Ash. You say that Palpitoad was strong. Show me. What was Palpitoad's record, because it didn't seem all that strong to me, not when you take a closer look at its battles and who it was battling against. Most of its wins were against Pokémon that it had a massive type advantage against. And he has some really bad losses, too, the loss to Roxie being one of them. Heck, most of Ash's Unova Pokémon, bar Krookodile, had some really bad losses. And many of the wins some of those Pokémon had came on the heels of an evolution, and their abilities were not replicated in later battles. Unova was the region that showed me that mid-battle evolution seems to grant an immediate, and temporary, larger than normal power boost before the power stabilizes to more normal levels. That's the only explanation as to why Ash's recently evolved Pokémon performed well upon evolution, but were subpar later on. Getting back to Roxie, though, she didn't pass the eye test for me, whereas the other Gym Leaders I mentioned, have. They were legitimately tough, and gave a good Ash and his proven capable Pokémon tough battles. Roxie showed nothing that would have given later OS/AG/DP/XY Ash that much trouble, especially XY Ash with his demonstrated ability to adapt to new situations in battle.

 

[phanpycross]

Sorry, but you can't use Unova to show Ash's strength and ability since he clearly regressed in that region. Pignite was strong compared to who? Most of Ash's team in Unova was subpar, save for Krookodile, as was Ash. You say that Palpitoad was strong. Show me. What was Palpitoad's record, because it didn't seem all that strong to me, not when you take a closer look at its battles and who it was battling against. Most of its wins were against Pokémon that it had a massive type advantage against. And he has some really bad losses, too, the loss to Roxie being one of them. Heck, most of Ash's Unova Pokémon, bar Krookodile, had some really bad losses. And many of the wins some of those Pokémon had came on the heels of an evolution, and their abilities were not replicated in later battles. Unova was the region that showed me that mid-battle evolution seems to grant an immediate, and temporary, larger than normal power boost before the power stabilizes to more normal levels. That's the only explanation as to why Ash's recently evolved Pokémon performed well upon evolution, but were subpar later on. Getting back to Roxie, though, she didn't pass the eye test for me, whereas the other Gym Leaders I mentioned, have. They were legitimately tough, and gave a good Ash and his proven capable Pokémon tough battles. Roxie showed nothing that would have given later OS/AG/DP/XY Ash that much trouble, especially XY Ash with his demonstrated ability to adapt to new situations in battle.

TL,DR I dont like unova, so everything sucked because I say so.

 

[Mew2]

TL,DR I dont like unova, so everything sucked because I say so.

Incorrect. There were a lot of things I really liked in Unova, such as the more serious Team Rocket Trio and the Trio not appearing in every episode. I also really liked the Don Battle Tournaments. In fact, I also liked many of the Gym Battles, at first, with the only clunkers being Elesa and Roxie. Overall, barring the two gym clunkers the region was one of the better ones until the World Tournament Junior Cup. Anything else that may have been an issue, such as Ash's regression in skills and maturity, or Iris's teasing of him, could be glossed over, if not outright ignored. It wasn't until the World Tournament Junior Cup and the Unova League that we saw that the clunkers of Elesa and Roxie, as well as the evolution for victory Gym Battles were symptoms of a much greater issue, which really came to a head in the lackluster Episode N and Decalore Islands arc, especially since there was no redemption tournament like there was in OS and AG. Until then, I really liked Unova. It was one of the better regions, and one of the reasons it got bad in the Decalore Island was the return of incompetent Team Rocket Trio. The reason the overall series was bad, in my view, is that the whole is far lesser than the sum of its parts. Add all the parts together and you have a pretty good series. It's just that the clunkers are the parts that you can't afford to have be clunkers.

 

[LizardonX]

Juan

Literally the only gym leader with 5 Pokemon, Juan more for a full team.

 

[Navin]

Korrina. She owns a Mega Lucario, nothing can top that. Lucario's one of the strongest Pokemon in the anime.

/s ?

Aside from Roxie, my personal list of strongest gym leaders would be Clair, Norman, Maylene, Volkner, and Olympia. Ramos also gets an honorable mention too.

Why Maylene? She's young and relatively inexperienced (so what you saw was what she was) like Korrina, Paul wiped her out, and Ash tied with her with a personnel of Chimchar, Staravia, and Buizel. Norman is not bad, but I think there are a number of stronger leaders. I'd put him in the second tier alongside the likes of Ramos.

I agree with Clair, Volkner, and Olympia however.

 

[keepitsimple]

Sorry, but you can't use Unova to show Ash's strength and ability since he clearly regressed in that region.

Therefore defeating 5 of his Pokemon while using only 3 and while random advantages like the berry and static are just handed to Ash isn't an impressive show of skill?

Pignite was strong compared to who?

Other various gym leaders he faced, as well as Shamus who clearly only keeps strong Pokemon, releasing ones he finds weak. You can't really argue that the pig is only strong in comparison to weaklings.

Most of Ash's team in Unova was subpar, save for Krookodile, as was Ash. You say that Palpitoad was strong. Show me. What was Palpitoad's record, because it didn't seem all that strong to me, not when you take a closer look at its battles and who it was battling against. Most of its wins were against Pokémon that it had a massive type advantage against. And he has some really bad losses, too, the loss to Roxie being one of them.

> Palpitoad had a type advantage, therefore his victory against Stephan's Zebstrika isn't impressive even though it was a league battle
> Palpitoad had a type advantage, therefore his victory against Elesa's Zebstrika isn't impressive even though it swept an entire team in the episode prior

Don't understand how other factors about Palpitoads victories should be ignored just because of an advantage. What's the explanation for Burgundy though? She was a pretty tough opponent so I'd wager that judging by those 3 victories, Palpitoad is definitely not weak. Nor was the rest of Ash's team

Heck, most of Ash's Unova Pokémon, bar Krookodile, had some really bad losses. And many of the wins some of those Pokémon had came on the heels of an evolution, and their abilities were not replicated in later battles. Unova was the region that showed me that mid-battle evolution seems to grant an immediate, and temporary, larger than normal power boost before the power stabilizes to more normal levels. That's the only explanation as to why Ash's recently evolved Pokémon performed well upon evolution, but were subpar later on. Getting back to Roxie, though, she didn't pass the eye test for me, whereas the other Gym Leaders I mentioned, have. They were legitimately tough, and gave a good Ash and his proven capable Pokémon tough battles. Roxie showed nothing that would have given later OS/AG/DP/XY Ash that much trouble, especially XY Ash with his demonstrated ability to adapt to new situations in battle.

How exactly do Giovanni and Sabrina deserve to be called stronger than Roxie? The battle against Sabrina didn't even finish.

 

[Mew2]

Therefore defeating 5 of his Pokemon while using only 3 and while random advantages like the berry and static are just handed to Ash isn't an impressive show of skill?


Other various gym leaders he faced, as well as Shamus who clearly only keeps strong Pokemon, releasing ones he finds weak. You can't really argue that the pig is only strong in comparison to weaklings.

Again, the evolution issue comes into play. In this region, evolution seems to give one a significant temporary power-up greater than the usual power boost granted by evolution. He had a bad loss against Trip's Serperior later on.

> Palpitoad had a type advantage, therefore his victory against Stephan's Zebstrika isn't impressive even though it was a league battle
> Palpitoad had a type advantage, therefore his victory against Elesa's Zebstrika isn't impressive even though it swept an entire team in the episode prior

Don't understand how other factors about Palpitoads victories should be ignored just because of an advantage. What's the explanation for Burgundy though? She was a pretty tough opponent so I'd wager that judging by those 3 victories, Palpitoad is definitely not weak. Nor was the rest of Ash's team

A Ground-type Pokémon is immune to Electric-type attacks. That's different than a normal type advantage, where even the Pokémon at a disadvantage can still inflict damage and hope for a win by a thousand bee stings. Palpitoad neutralizes the likely strongest techniques that its Electric-type opponents knew. I would expect Palpitoad to win against a Pokémon whose primary attack is neutralized. Also, remember the eye test. Ash's Kalos team looks significantly stronger and more versatile than his Unova team. Nothing about Roxie really impressed me, despite the attempts by the writers to make her seem stronger.

How exactly do Giovanni and Sabrina deserve to be called stronger than Roxie? The battle against Sabrina didn't even finish.

Giovanni may or may not be stronger than Roxie, I'll admit, since Giovanni only battled Ash for a bit, his Persian scoring a hit on Pikachu, but from what I could see, if that battle continued, Ash, at least Unova Ash, would have lost. Sabrina, on the other hand, was owning Ash before she learned to laugh again. The damage that Pikachu inflicted on Kadabra was simply recovered away and the battle ended soon after due to her laughing and not focusing on the battle.