Zippo

Zippo ジッポ Zippo
Zippo
Debuts in	A Friend in Deed
Caught at	Kanto
Gender	Unknown
Ability	Unknown
Evolves in	Prior to A Parent Trapped!
→ This Pokémon spent 143+ episodes as Charmander
Current location	With Ritchie
Voice actors
As Charmander	Japanese VA Yūji Ueda	English VA Michael Haigney
As Charmeleon	Japanese VA Yūji Ueda	English VA Eric Stuart

Zippo (Japanese: ジッポ Zippo, ヒロシのリザード Hiroshi's Lizardo) is Ritchie's Charmeleon.

In the anime

Zippo was the first Pokémon introduced on Ritchie's team. It first appeared in A Friend in Deed. Its Japanese voice actor is Yūji Ueda and its English voice actor is Eric Stuart. As a Charmander, it was voiced by Michael Haigney in English.

When Ritchie was first introduced, Zippo was a Charmander, and would, soon after his introduction, face Ash's Charizard in the Indigo Plateau Conference. Ritchie switched out Zippo during the battle (which was counted as losing the round).

Eventually, by the next time Ash and Ritchie met, in the Whirl Islands, Zippo had evolved into a Charmeleon. Unlike how Ash's Charizard was when it was at the same stage in its development, it was still very obedient to Ritchie.

Since it was mentioned in Journey to the Starting Line that Ash starting with his own Pikachu in the first episode was a special case, there are theories that Zippo may have been Ritchie's starter Pokémon.

In the manga

In the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, when Zippo battled Ash's Charizard in the Indigo Plateau Conference it was already a Charizard, not a Charmander as shown in the anime. Viz's English translation misnames the Pokémon as Charley. However, its name in Japanese version is still Zippo.

Moves used

Using	Move	First used in
	Slash	A Friend in Deed
	Tackle	Unknown
	Flamethrower	A Friend in Deed
	Fire Spin	Unknown
Moves used recently are in bold and have been italicized unless all moves all fit this case.
An x shows that the move cannot be legitimately learned by this Pokémon in the games.

Trivia

• Zippo was named for a lighter of the same name.

Related articles

For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Charmander and Charmeleon.