Koga

Koga (Japanese: キョウ Kyō) was the Gym Leader of Fuchsia City's Gym, known officially as the Fuchsia Gym. He is a student of ninjutsu who specializes in Template:Type2 Pokémon. He handed out the Soul Badge to trainers who defeated him. Later, in the Generation II games, he is promoted to the Elite Four, leaving his daughter in charge of the Gym.

In the anime

Koga's only anime appearance was in the episode The Ninja Poké Showdown.

Koga is a ninja who trains in an old mansion, the Fuchsia City Gym, in the woods outside Fuchsia City. The Gym is filled with traps such as fake mirrors, invisible walls, pits, and many Voltorb. Aya, Koga's younger sister, is one of his students.

Ash, Misty, and Brock managed to overcome the traps in the Gym and Ash was finally able to challenge Koga. Although Ash's Pidgeotto initially lost to Koga's newly-evolved Venomoth, prompting Ash to call out Charmander, their match was interrupted when Team Rocket tried to steal Koga's large supply of Voltorb, although they had raided the Gym with the intent of getting Template:Type2 Pokémon. Team Rocket was stopped by Psyduck, allowing Ash and Koga to have a rematch. Pitting Charmander against Koga's Golbat, Ash triumphed and won the Soul Badge.

Pokémon

This listing is of Koga's known Pokémon in the anime:

→ Venonat → Venomoth

Golbat

At Fuchsia Gym

Voltorb (multiple)

Status unknown

Scyther

Otoshi's Marowak was seen battling a Scyther in a flashback in Bad to the Bone when he earned his Soul Badge, which may imply that Koga owns a Scyther.

Voice actors

• Japanese
  • Hōchū Ōtsuka
• English
  • Ken Gates
• Spanish
  • Gerardo Vázquez (Latin America)
• Polish
  • Radosław Popłonikowski

In the games

Art of Koga from Pokémon Red and Blue.

Koga's is called the Poisonous Ninja Master. He likes the despair and horror that Poison-type Pokémon can inflict on others. He has many students that he trains in both Ninjutsu and Pokémon. One of his students is his own daughter. He has built invisible walls in the Fuchsia City gym, constructing a confusing maze out of them. Koga awaits challengers in the center of the maze, clearly visible.

Koga has seriously studied medicine and antidotes, and makes his own potions to heal his Pokémon. Koga patrols the grounds of the Safari Zone regularly.

In addition to the Soul Badge, Koga gives out TM06 (Toxic), in Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon Red and Green, Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

In Pokémon Gold and Silver, and Pokémon Crystal, Koga has become much more powerful. He has left the Fuchsia City Gym in the hands of his daughter, Janine, and joined the Elite Four. In this position, he battles with an intricate style, designed to confound and destroy his opponent in battle. His sinister technique is confusion, sleep, and poison, rather than brute force.

Fame Checker

This is a list of the Fame Checker's information on Koga in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions.

Fuchsia City - sign

• What does this person do?

"Fuchsia City Pokémon Gym

Leader: Koga

The Poisonous Ninja Master"

Fuchsia Gym - Koga

• Favorite kind of Pokémon?

"Despair to the creeping horror of Poison-type Pokémon!"

Fuchsia Gym - Juggler Kirk

• What is this person like?

"Even though I've lost, I will keep training according to the teachings of Koga, my ninja master."

Fuchsia City - Charine

• Family and friends?

"My father is the Gym Leader of this town.

I’m training to use Poison Pokémon as well as my father."

Safari Warden's Home - Pokémon Journal

• There’s a rumor...

"Koga is said to have a thorough knowledge of medicine.

He even concocts medicine to nurse his Pokémon to health."

Safari Zone - man

• What does this person do?

"The Safari Zone<sc>'s huge, wouldn't you say?

<sc>Fuchsia's Gym Leader, Koga, patrols the grounds every so often.

Thanks to him, we can play here knowing that we're safe."

Message from Koga

• From: Koga
• To: [Player]

"You and I, we must both set our sights higher and work towards meeting our challenges.

Now, I must go train my daughter."

Pokémon

This is a listing of Koga's Pokémon in the games in which he has appeared.

Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Red and Green

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Pokémon Yellow

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Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

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Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

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Pokémon Stadium

Round 1

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Round 2

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Pokémon Stadium 2

Round 1

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Round 2

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Quotes

Pokémon Red and Blue

"Fwahahaha! A mere child like you dares to challenge me? Very well, I shall show you true terror as a ninja master! You shall feel the despair of poison and sleep techniques!"

"Humph! You have proven your worth! Here! take the Soul Badge!"

Pokémon Gold and Silver

"Fwahahahaha! I am Koga of the Elite Four. I live in shadows, a ninja! My intricate style will confound and destroy you! Confusion, sleep, poison... Prepare to be the victim of my sinister technique! Fwahahahaha! Pokémon is not merely about brute force--you shall see soon enough!"

"Ah! You've proven your worth!"

"I subjected you to everything I could muster. But my efforts failed. I must hone my skills. Go on to the next room, and put your abilities to test!"

In the Pokémon Special manga

Koga is one of the three villainous heads of Team Rocket, and serves under Giovanni.

He debuts in the Red, Green & Blue chapter in Raging Rhydon searching the Moon Stone in Mt. Moon, here Koga fights with Red and Misty and forces his Rhyhorn to evolve with a mysterious injection, revealing what happened to Misty's Gyarados when it was kidnapped, however the mission fails. Koga later tries to bump off Red in Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower, where he uses a Gastly to reanimate the corpses of dead Pokémon buried there. He also attacks Red with his Arbok. However, Green has his Charmeleon slice Arbok in half. Under his boss's orders, he captures Articuno and brings it to Saffron City. He is once again defeated by Green at Silph Co..

Later, Koga helps the Pallet Town trainers in the fight against the Elite Four during the Cerise Island battle. Koga is paired with Green. He then disappears for a time, leaving Janine in charge of the Gym. Janine is worried for her father, but opposes his criminal ties. At the end of the Johto adventures, Koga decides to ally himself with three other trainers who had been abandoned by evil organizations: Bruno, Will, and Karen.

Two of Koga's Pokémon have unusual powers: his Arbok can regenerate itself as long as its head remains intact (see above); and his unusually small Golbat's mouth can be used almost like a magic mirror for scrying to see things from a distance, even if walls or land are in the way. Green takes this Golbat and keeps it for quite some time before returning it to Koga at Cerise Island.

Koga also uses custom-made Poké Balls which can be thrown as shuriken - perhaps an inspiration for Falkner’s later boomerang Poké Balls.

Pokémon

This is a listing of Koga's Pokémon in the Pokémon Special manga.

Grimer	Muk	Gastly	Arbok
Golbat	Tentacruel	Weezing	→ Rhyhorn → Rhydon

Released

Articuno

In the TCG

There is a Theme Deck named for Koga in the Gym Challenge expansion. For that Theme Deck, see Koga.

Artwork

• 

  Koga and the Soul Badge.

• KogaVS.jpg

  Koga's updated VS art.

Pokémon

This listing is of cards mentioning or featuring Koga or his Pokémon in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Name	Type	Level	Rarity	Set	Set no.
Koga's Beedrill		34	H	Gym Challenge	9/132
Koga's Ditto		12	H	Gym Challenge	10/132
Koga	-	-	H	Gym Challenge	19/132
					106/132
Koga's Arbok		44		Gym Challenge	25/132
Koga's Muk		38		Gym Challenge	26/132
Koga's Pidgeotto		34		Gym Challenge	27/132
Koga's Golbat		27		Gym Challenge	46/132
Koga's Kakuna		21		Gym Challenge	47/132
Koga's Koffing		15		Gym Challenge	48/132
Koga's Pidgey		9		Gym Challenge	49/132
Koga's Weezing		31		Gym Challenge	50/132
Koga's Ekans		17		Gym Challenge	77/132
Koga's Grimer		19		Gym Challenge	78/132
Koga's Koffing		10		Gym Challenge	79/132
Koga's Pidgey		15		Gym Challenge	80/132
Koga's Tangela		16		Gym Challenge	81/132
Koga's Weedle		13		Gym Challenge	82/132
Koga's Zubat		14		Gym Challenge	83/132
Fuchsia City Gym	-	-		Gym Challenge	114/132
Koga's Ninja Trick	-	-		Gym Challenge	115/132
Koga's Crobat		-		Pokémon VS (no English release)	79/141
Koga's Forretress		-		Pokémon VS (no English release)	80/141
Koga's Ninja Gym	-	-	-	Unnumbered Promotional cards (no English release)	-

Trivia

• In the manga Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure, the ninja-in-training Wal is an admirer of Koga.
• Koga makes a short cameo appearance in a chapter of the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga.
• Out of the original Generation I Gym Leaders, Koga has the fewest trainer cards in the Gym Leader sets of the TCG. Incidentally, his only trainer card besides the basic Koga card had to be edited because it featured a manji, which could have caused controversy between cultures; the infamous swastika is a rotated manji.
• Because he became a member of the Elite Four in Generation II, he is technically the first member of the Elite Four seen in the anime, though he was not a member at the time he was shown.
• In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the Ninja Boy on Route 217 mentions different kinds of ninja in the world. He says, "There are several kinds of ninjas. Are you an Iga or a Kouga ninja?" This is a reference to the two main schools of ninjutsu, Iga-ryu and Kōga-ryu, the latter of which Koga the gym leader is named after.
• Koga's highest level team is in Pokémon Yellow; this team is higher than his Elite 4 team.

Names

External links

• Kyō's Profile on Pokeani (Japanese)

Gym Leaders of the Kanto region
Pewter Gym Brock	Cerulean Gym Misty	Vermilion Gym Lt. Surge	Celadon Gym Erika
Fuchsia Gym Koga Janine	Saffron Gym Sabrina	Cinnabar Gym Blaine	Viridian Gym Giovanni Blue

Template:Elite Four of Kanto

This game character article is part of Project CharacterDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each character found in the Pokémon games.