From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Ash's Charizard
サトシのリザードン Satoshi's Lizardon
|
|
|
File:Charizard.JPG
Charizard helping to rebuild a playground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ash's Charizard (Japanese: サトシのリザードン Satoshi's Lizardon) was the fifth Pokémon acquired by Ash Ketchum in the Kanto region. His voice actor in both Japanese and English is Shin'ichirō Miki. In English, Michael Haigney was the voice of him as a Charmander and Eric Stuart was his voice as a Charmeleon.
History
In Kanto
Charizard was originally obtained as a Charmander in Charmander the Stray Pokémon. The Charmander was abandoned by Damian, and Ash and his friends found and nurtured him back to health. Charmander then chose to join Ash. He was immediately one of Ash's most used Pokémon, defeating such opponents as a Golem, a Jynx, Koga's Golbat, Erika's Weepinbell, and a Primeape (which Ash subsequently captured).
Charmander evolved into Charmeleon in March of the Exeggutor Squad and quickly lost his loyalty to Ash. A few episodes down the line, he evolved again into Charizard in Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon. From the time of his becoming Charmeleon to the Orange Islands episode Charizard Chills, Charizard refused to obey Ash, the only exception being when he decided to test his strength against Blaine's powerful Magmar during Ash's attempts to win a Volcano Badge. After Charizard Chills, however, he became one of Ash's most reliable Pokémon, considered by many to be his strongest, even stronger than Pikachu. Charizard's return to Ash's side is due to being frozen by a powerful Poliwrath; Ash stayed up all night trying to help him, thus earning Charizard's respect and reminding him of all that Ash had done for him back when he was a Charmander.
After Kanto
In Charizard's Burning Ambition, Ash left his Charizard in the Charicific Valley with Liza to train and become more powerful. While there, he took the role of bodyguard for Lisa's Charizard, Charla, and the two have struck up a romantic relationship. The two Charizard occasionally visit the Dragon's Valley in Blackthorn City, one such visit coincidentally being when Ash was there for his final Johto gym battle, resulting in Charizard helping Ash defeat Clair's newly-evolved Dragonair.
Charizard can be called upon at any time and has been used in many major battles when Ash requires his firepower. Some of his prominent victories include the series' first double battle- him and Pikachu versus an Alakazam and a Marowak-, Ash's first Johto gym battle against Falkner- where he defeated Falkner's Pidgeot despite its impressive speed-, Ash's fight against Gary Oak in Can't Beat the Heat!- during which he decisively defeated Gary's Blastoise despite the type disadvantage and having already defeated Gary's Scizor and Golem- and more recently in The Symbol Life, where he took on Noland's Articuno at the Battle Factory and won thanks to his use of the newly-learned Overheat, the unorthodox strategy of catching Articuno as it tried to use Steel Wing on him, and his trademark Seismic Toss.
Since he began to obey Ash, Charizard has only lost three major battles, being defeated by Drake's Dragonite (after being weakened by an Electabuzz), Harrison's Blaziken (injuring it so badly that Harrison was unable to use it for the rest of the Pokémon League), and Brandon's Dusclops (which he weakened enough for Bulbasaur to defeat it after he fainted). He learned Steel Wing in the time between the battle against Articuno and the battle against Dusclops.
Moves used
Trivia
- Out of all of Ash's Pokémon, Charizard has used the most moves (14) followed by Snorlax (10), Bulbasaur (10), Pikachu (9) and Butterfree (8).
- Since Charizard was technically originally owned by Damian, this is sometimes used as an explanation as to why he evolved so quickly and would not obey Ash.
- Paul's Chimchar was later in a similar situation to Charmander. Likewise, the original trainer released it and it went with Ash.
- Because of his capture of Chimchar, Ash now has owned each Fire-type starter whose English name begins with a C and whose Japanese name begins with a ヒ hi: Charmander, Cyndaquil, and Chimchar. Incidentally, Charmander and Chimchar were either abused or abandoned by their former trainers, while Cyndaquil narrowly avoided being captured by a potentially abusive trainer.
- According to the anime, Charizard and its pre-evolutions die if the flame on their tails go out. Ash's Charizard was once seen falling into a pool of water, however, and it was not harmed.
- This wasn't Ash's first Pokémon to disobey him. The first two were Pikachu and Primeape.
- Like many other Pokémon in the anime, Charizard can fly despite not technically knowing the move.
- Sceptile and Charizard are the only starter Pokémon that Ash owned that evolved to their final stage.
- Charizard is the only fully evolved starter Pokémon that Ash has used in a Pokémon League tournament.
- Starting with his battle against Blaine's Magmar, Charizard, in almost every major battle he's been in and won, has defeated his opponent with Seismic Toss. The only exceptions are in the battle against Luana (though it's debatable whether this counts, since Charizard didn't deliver the finishing blow) and when he fought against a wild Dragonite with the help of Claire's Dragonair. On a somewhat interesting note, he attempted to do the same against Brandon's Dusclops, but it failed since Dusclops is immune to Fighting-type moves.
- Charizard was (as a Charmander/Charmeleon), Ash's first lizard-based Pokémon, the second being Treecko.
- Ash's Charizard knows two Template:Type2 attacks, namely Dragon Rage and DragonBreath. The former was revealed during Ash's battle with Gary Oak in the Silver Conference; while the latter was revealed when Ash decided to check out his arsenal of moves before battling Factory Head Noland.
- In the manga, Charizard was much more violent, and could (normally) only be calmed by a torch that Ash carried around, which contained a flame from Moltres. Also, during the battle against Ritchie, he goes berserk and severely injures his Charizard, which causes Ash to, out of guilt, forfeit the battle, even though he technically won. It is later mentioned that Ritchie's Charizard will be okay.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard.
