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| “ | Hello. Lovely weather isn't it? It's so pleasant. ...Oh dear... I must have dozed off. Welcome. My name is Erika. I am the Leader of Celadon Gym. I teach the art of flower arranging. My Pokémon are of the grass-type. Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea that you wished to challenge me. Very well, but I shall not lose. | „ |
| ~ Erika |
Erika is one of the eight gym leaders of the Kanto Region in Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Let's Go Pikachu!, and Let's Go Eevee. She is the gym leader of Celadon City, who specializes in Grass-type Pokémon. Described as a "Nature-Loving Princess", she has a strange habit of dozing off in her gym from time to time.
She was voiced by Kyōko Hikami and Ai Kayano in the Japanese version, she was also voiced by Leah Applebaum, Lauren Landa, and Xanthe Huynh in the English version.
Appearance[]
Erika has short black hair (blue in the anime), fair skin, and brown eyes. She has cut bangs, and wears a hairband.
As a nod to the nation of the video games' origin, Erika always dresses in tradition Japanese garments, consisting of elegant kimonos, which vary in color from pink (Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow), yellow (Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, and SoulSilver), or green (Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu! & Let's Go Eevee), but always features an obi (sash). She pairs the kimono with Japanese sandals known as Zōri and socks known as Tabi.
Personality[]
Being an elegant lady, Erika is kind, calm, and modest. She cares deeply about Pokémon, and only collects ones that she finds attractive (particularly Grass-Type Pokémon). Unlike most Gym Leaders, she does not get overly upset whenever she is defeated, rather finding it more satisfying to see how far the player has gone in demonstrating their skill in battle.
According to a note found inside the Celadon City condominiums, Erika is known to have habit of dozing off in her gym, implying that she either has narcolepsy or is frequently exposed to sleeping powder by the Pokémon in her gym.
In Pokémon HeartGold, and SoulSilver, it is revealed that she has a slightly more mischievous side, in which she spreads gossip around about the other Gym Leaders, particularly Clair.
In the games[]
Erika is the fourth gym leader the player meets in chronological order. Her gym is filled with entirely-female trainers and requires the player to have at least one Pokémon that knows the move "Cut" in order to gain access to the center of the gym, where she resides. Erika's team consists of a Victreebel, a Tangela, and a Vileplume.
Upon defeating her, Erika will award the player the Rainbow Badge and give them either TM21 "Mega Drain" in the Generation I games, or TM19 "Giga Drain" in the Generation II and III games.
In the Anime[]
Erika is first seen in the anime in episode 26 of the Indigo League series "Pokémon Scent-sation!". She is revealed to be the manager of a perfume shop in Celadon City alongside her Gym Leader duties under the Indigo League. After Ash insults the perfume inside her shop, she bans him from the shop. When he tries to go to the Celadon Gym to battle her for his Rainbow Badge, Erika's Trainers tell him that his disrespect of the perfume also earned him banishment from the Gym indirectly, and knock him out with stamping a big red "X" on his face before locking the doors, leaving Ash futilely pleading to be let in to battle for his Rainbow Badge, but being refused, much to his grief at having screwed himself over because of his disrespect of what Celadon City was famous for.
Determined to gain the Rainbow Badge one way or another, Ash disguises himself as a girl named "Ashley", with Team Rocket serving to help with the disguise by acting as Ashley's parents, and infiltrates the gym, before revealing his true identity once fully inside, mainly due to Pikachu electrocuting him, thus ruining the ruse. Despite the fact that her gardeners wouldn't let him in, Erika agrees to battle him (due to her understanding the league rules), but their battle is cut short when Team Rocket sets Erika's gym on fire as retribution for when they tried to sneak in earlier, but were overpowered by Erika's Gloom and her Trainers and not only got the "X" on their faces, but were taken out and strung up in a tree until Ash found them. Erika and Ash team up to save the gym, with Erika returning all the Pokémon inside the gym back into their Pokéballs, while Ash extinguishes the fire with the help of his Squirtle, aided by Misty with her Water Pokémon and Brock with his Geodude. However, Erika discovered her Gloom was not with her, and Ash braved going back into the inferno to rescue it. Despite Gloom trying to repulse him with its stench, when Ash showed it did not have to be afraid of him as he was trying to help it, Gloom stopped emitting its stench and allowed Ash to carry it to safety. Afterwards, Erika thanks Ash for saving her gym and Gloom, and rewards him the Rainbow Badge for his bravery. When Ash inquired about what Team Rocket stole from the Gym before setting it ablaze, Erika assures him that all they got was a single ingredient to her perfume: Essence of Gloom.
After a long absence from the show, Erika returns in the Journeys episode, "Suffering the Flings and Arrows!". Here, she is hosting a Pokémon Flower Arrangement program where trainers can decorate their Pokémon with the flowers provided. She meets with Goh and Chloe and also reunites with Ash, acknowledging his heroics and revealed that her Gym was rebuilt since the last encounter. It does imply that neither Ash nor Erika was proud of their bad first impressions since they don't mention most of the events that caused the Gym to have been caught on fire to Goh nor Chloe.
Her reappearance in Journeys was to apologize to fans for her poorly received debut episode and portrayal in the original series.
In the Manga[]
Erika and Blaine in the Manga
Erika firsts appears in "Blame It on Eevee", where she tasks Red to locate and capture a mutated Eevee created by Team Rocket that is able to transform between its three elemental forms and back uncontrollably. Upon returning, Erika shocks Red by ordering him to kill the Eevee, Red refuses, accusing her of being cruel, only for her to reveal that she is not in fact evil, and wishes to save the Eevee's life.
Later on, she challenges Red to a battle and defeated him. Despite the fact that he lost, Erika decides to give him the Rainbow Badge as she sees great potential in him.
Erika, alongside the other good gym leaders Brock, Misty, and later on Blaine teamed up with Red to help defeat Team Rocket, which consisted of not only Giovanni, but also the other, evil Gym Leaders Lt. Surge, Koga, and Sabrina, as well as all members of the Elite Four to save the Kanto region from being conquered by Team Rocket once they had enough energy to fuel their amplification device. Despite having a disadvantage at first, the good gym leaders and Red ultimately manage to defeat all of the members of Team Rocket and the Elite Four, thus returning the Kanto Region back to its former state.
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 Heroes
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