Keaton

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: 金沢 Kanazawa) is a character of the day who appeared in XY035. He looks after a forest somewhere between Geosenge Town and Shalour City.

Kanazawa had observed a Hawlucha that lived in the forest he guarded for a long time. The Hawlucha used to protect other forest Pokémon that were in danger. One day, Ash and his friends came through the forest and witnessed how an Ursaring was about to steal Berries from a group of Pokémon. Then Hawlucha appeared and fought the Ursaring. As they watched in amazement, Kanazawa appeared and explained the group more about Hawlucha's behaviour. When Hawlucha was in danger itself when Ursaring was about to throw a rock on it, Ash stepped in and had his Pikachu use Iron Tail to finally drive Ursaring off. Afterwards Ash wanted to know more about Hawlucha, and so Kanazawa took them to his home to explain more.

Kanazawa told the group Hawlucha just appeared in the forest one day. The forest was known for being full of Pokémon practising martial arts, and Kanazawa concluded Hawlucha came to test its skills. Day after day Hawlucha defeated the veteran Pokémon of the forest, and as such it came to be known as "the forest champion". Kanazawa greatly appreciated Hawlucha's presence, as it helped him in protecting the forest. Noticing Ash's interest in Hawlucha, Kanazawa proposed to take him to its training spot, which Ash happily accepted.

He took the group to the spot and watched how Ash helped Hawlucha train. Afterwards, Serena noticed a group of Pokémon were coming their way. Kanazawa recognized them as the group of Pokémon that all the other Pokémon in the forest despise, with amongst them being the Ursaring from earlier. He also noticed a Machamp, and explained to the group how this Machamp used to be the forest champion and protect the other Pokémon, until Hawlucha appeared and they formed a rivalry. Hawlucha managed to beat Machamp many times, and as such Hawlucha eventually took Machamp's place. Machamp left for the mountains to train and wasn't heard of anymore, until now. Machamp challenged Hawlucha to a one-on-one battle, which it accepted. Kanazawa then analyzed every move in the fight. After the fight, Kanazawa watched Ash battle Hawlucha with his Froakie. After it ended in a draw, Kanazawa asked Hawlucha if it wanted to join Ash, to which it nodded. Then, Machamp appeared again and promised it would now look after the forest again. As Ash caught Hawlucha, Kanazawa asked him to take care of Hawlucha for him and to have it take part in even more passionate battles, which Ash promised. The group then said their farewells to Kanazawa as they continued their journey.

This article is part of Project COD, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each one-time character of the Pokémon anime.