Goh

Gou redirects here. For the Pokémon Conquest character, see List of Pokémon Conquest characters → Gō.

This article is about a character featured in the Pokémon anime who has not yet debuted in the English language dub. As such, their information may contain romanized Japanese names, rather than dub names.

(Japanese: ゴウ Go) is a protagonist of the new series of the Pokémon anime along with Ash. His goal is to catch Mew, while his dream is to catch every Pokémon.

History

Pre-series

As seen in SS001, when he was six, Go was invited by his childhood friend Koharu to go to Professor Oak's Pokémon Summer Camp with her. During their visit in Pallet Town, Go and Koharu encountered the Mythical Pokémon Mew. The two chased after the unknown Pokémon, but it eventually got away in the aftermath of a baby Kangaskhan rescue. Professor Oak later told them the Pokémon they saw was most likely the Mythical Pokémon Mew. Motivated, Go swore that he would become a Pokémon Trainer when he turned ten, and one day catch Mew.

New series

In SS002, Go witnessed a Lugia appear in the skies above Vermilion City. He chased Lugia down and managed to latch onto its tail, where he met another Trainer named Ash. Lugia allowed the boys to ride on its back as it soared through the skies and dived down into the ocean. Having bonded over the sights and Pokémon they saw during the ride, Go decided to accept Ash as his friend. After parting ways with Lugia, Go and Ash returned to the Sakuragi Institute, where they informed everyone about their encounter. Impressed by the information on Lugia that they brought back, Professor Sakuragi offered them a position as research fellows, which they accepted. Sakuragi later allowed Go to pick from a set of Kanto starter Pokémon for his debut as a Trainer, but Go rejected all of them, stating he wanted his first Pokémon to be Mew.

In SS003, Go and Ash received their first task as research fellows: to investigate a sudden outbreak of Ivysaur and Bulbasaur in the city. To aid their mission, Sakuragi had two Rotom enter Go and Ash's smartphones, upgrading each into a Rotom Phone. After following the Seed Pokémon to a Gym under construction, Go and Ash were attacked by Team Rocket, who planned to steal the Ivysaur and Bulbasaur. Despite the powerful Pokémon they received from the Rocket Gachat, Team Rocket was defeated by Ash's Pikachu and sent blasting off. Go and Ash then discovered that the Ivysaur had gone to the Gym to find a high place for them to absorb the sunlight needed to evolve into Venusaur. They watched as the evolution process released pollen into the air, making flowers around the city bloom.

In SS004, Go and Ash traveled to the Galar region to research the Dynamax phenomenon. While they waited for the train to the Wild Area to arrive, Go and Ash decided to eat some scones at a store in Wyndon, only to have their food stolen by a wild Scorbunny and its Nickit friends. After Ash battled and defeated Scorbunny, Go bonded with it, even choosing to lie to the store owner by saying Scorbunny belonged to him when the Nickit stole more of his food. After hearing Scorbunny's backstory from the store owner, Go gave it words of encouragement before he and Ash left. Go and Ash eventually made it to their train, completely unaware that Scorbunny had taken a liking to Go and started to follow him.

In SS005, Go and Ash made it to the Wild Area, where they encountered a large Snorlax. Mistakenly assuming its size was due to Dynamax, Go and Ash tried studying the Sleeping Pokémon, only for Scorbunny to appear and interrupt them. Scorbunny wished to join Go's team, but it was turned down as Go still wanted his first Pokémon to be Mew. Snorlax then activated Gigantamax, making its body so large that it covered a nearby train track, putting it at risk of being hit by an incoming train. By teaming up with Scorbunny, Go managed to get Snorlax to move by luring it with a Sitrus Berry. Praising its skill, Go changed his mind about Mew and instead caught Scorbunny as his first Pokémon. After returning to the Sakuragi Institute, Go introduced Scorbunny as his first-ever Pokémon to Professor Sakuragi.

In SS006, Go became inspired to fill up his Pokédex by capturing lots of Pokémon as part of his quest to obtain Mew. Together with Ash, Go traveled to a nearby forest, where he captured one of each Bug-type native to Kanto. The next day, Professor Sakuragi introduced Go to the Sakuragi Park, allowing Go to store any Pokémon he caught on his journey.

Character

Go is a stylish city boy who prefers to stay calm and collected, in contrast to the more instinctive and adventurous Ash. His overconfidence has left him mostly isolated, with exception of his friends Koharu and Ash. According to Koharu, Go has been known to skip school to wander around town, much to her chagrin. Despite his calm personality, he can also become hot-blooded when his opinion is challenged, and he will not hesitate to defend others when he sees them being mistreated, which helped him bond with a wild Scorbunny in SS004. Go likes to throw his Poké Balls with a curve, but his aim tends to be off. Though he seems athletic, Go lacks good climbing skills despite his efforts to get better at it. He is also highly knowledgeable about Pokémon. Despite his deep knowledge of Pokémon, Go is still a rookie trainer and lacks experience, best evidenced by his tendency to throw Poké Balls at any Pokémon he encounters, rather than weaken them through battle as is the usual practice.

Go's encounter Mew when he was six inspired him to become a Trainer, and he initially wanted Mew to be his starter Pokémon, even going as far as rejecting Professor Sakuragi's starter Pokémon in favor of the Mythical Pokémon. However, during his visit to Galar, a wild Scorbunny took a liking to Go as it followed him and Ash to the Wild Area. While Go initially politely rejected Scorbunny, he soon changed his mind after working together with Scorbunny to solve a crisis involving a Gigantamax Snorlax and decided to make the Rabbit Pokémon as his first Pokémon partner instead. Go and Scorbunny are also best friends as they both dislike losing their other friends, especially one another. Also, Go and Scorbunny would high five each other whenever something good happens.

Go shares a very close friendship with Koharu due to him knowing her since they were little. At times, Go brushes off Koharu's concerns for him but knows that she is just looking out for him. When he was little, Go only wanted Koharu as his friend and nobody else. However, after meeting and getting to know Ash, Go realized he needed to have other friends besides Koharu and accepted him as one. Go's friendship with Ash is very strong, though they sometimes get competitive and annoyed with each other and even butt heads. Ever since the events in SS003, Go seems to strongly admire Ash for his determination, passion, and compassion for Pokémon, especially the extraordinary bond he shares with his Pikachu.

Pokémon

Because one of his goals is to catch every Pokémon and complete his Pokédex, Go captures a lot of Pokémon, including multiple of the same evolutionary family. Currently, Go owns 13 out of 1025 known Pokémon.

On hand

Traveling with

Kept at Sakuragi Park

The following is a listing of Pokémon Go has been known to have caught, but doesn't keep in his party.

Voice actors

Artwork

Trivia

• From the episode SS006 onwards, Go owns the most Pokémon out of all of Ash's friends.
• Go is left-handed.

Names

Goh's Pokémon
On hand:	Cinderace	Inteleon	Grookey
Traveling with:	Rotom Phone
With Professor Cerise:	Caterpie	Venomoth	Butterfree	Pinsir	Beedrill	Scizor
	Taillow	Mantyke	Misdreavus	Dewgong	Greedent	Darmanitan
	Golurk	Cubone	Grimer	Farfetch'd	Magikarp (giant)	Heracross
	Raichu	Trapinch	Flygon	Pyukumuku	Aerodactyl	Boldore
	Absol	Panpour	Frogadier
Roaming the world:	Suicune
Released:	Floette	Ninetales	Cyndaquil
Traded away:	Second Pinsir
Given away:	Eternatus	Dugtrio
Status unknown:	Kingdra
Temporary:	Pikachu	Sunflora
For a detailed list of Pokémon currently owned by Goh, see here

This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.