Who's Who Columns - Shoyoese Pokemon League (Pokemon RBY to BW2 games/anime spoilers)

henrymidfields · November 16, 2023

So I've been thinking of this as my first entry to my fanfic writing. I do have several ideas, but I'm going to try this as an easier entry to my try at fictional writing. It is not really a standard fanfic story, but an in-universe Who's Who guide book consisting of facts and gossip of all of the Gym Leaders and other notable celebrities from the Pokemon League and the wider Pokemon training scene. Both the characters from the game and the anime would be featured here. (I haven't read the Special Manga.)

Note: As a longtime believer of incorporating real-life history and culture to Pokemon, I've incorporated a lot of real-life and alternate history of Japan - though not directly - into this world of Pokemon that the Who's Who is based on. Secondly, the Japanese original names (with some exceptions) will be considered as the canon names (with English names added to canon characters for clarification). Finally, there will be some crossover characters here and there.

Contents:

Further chapters to be added in the future.

Feedback to be posted within this thread.

Edited April 13 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · November 16, 2023

Chapter 1: History of the Shoyoese Pokemon League

Historical Origins

The Shoyoese Pokemon League could be traced back to its traditional Pokemon fighting known as Keiju-do (携獣道), which was extensively used by samurais for war and imposing order. Commoners also used Pokemon mainly for various farming, hunting, and gathering tasks, and they were also known to use them for self-defense and to wage revolts against tyrants. Since the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, the ensuing Yamabuki Era saw the samurais devise a system for Pokemon duelling, which became some of the earliest iterations of Pokemon battles in the nation. While many of these were fought as serious affairs and as part of dispute resolution between samurais or their families, they were attended by commoners as a source of entertainment. Eventually, an entrepreneurial Pokemon scholar from Suruga Province, Okido Masaichiro in 1685 organized the first series of Pokemon battles that admitted anyone and their Pokemon. While the shogunate despised the event as rowdy and crass entertainment, some of the lower-class samurai joined in due to financial desperation, due to the monetary prizes available.

Genesis of League Rules

The Tokugawa Shogunate was forced to open the country by Saxceltian gunboats in 1826, and the subsequent Bunsei Restoration since 1839 saw Shoyoese trainers contact Western Pokemon trainers and zoologists. Bunsei (文政義塾大学) and Totsuka Universities (戸塚大学) had their first battle clubs that adopted the modern Pokemon battle, or Pokemon Jousts as they were known under the supervision of Galarian advisor and zoology Professor Elijah Laventon. As with many other sports they adopted, the Kosei matches (戸政戦) were immensely popular and were considered to be the pinnacle of Pokemon Joust-style battles until a modified form of the Joust-style battles were eventually adopted by the national and regional leagues after World War II.

The ownership of Pokemon has always been regulated through various laws and decrees under different government bodies, but the 1933 Pokemon Restrictions Act was when restrictions started to be more invasive. Amongst other things, the Act allowed confiscation of Pokemon by military personnel without cause, and also required all university Joust-format matches to be closely supervised by the military. While the ostensive reason was to preserve the health and safety of homes and public areas, post-WWII investigations by a government commission revealed that the Act’s main aim was censorship of front-line information the Second Sioan-Shoyoese War, and to inhibit communication between political dissenters, which only confirmed what many suspected. While many soldiers wrote proudly of their military exploits and their conquests over the ‘barbaric’ Sinoans, there were also many who wrote about their doubts about the war, the wanton death and destructions of the battles, the panic and sorrow of the civilians and Pokemon caught in the crossfire, and the veiled wishes of some of the soldiers to return to their families. A few even wrote veiled messages about their own Pokemon, or even themselves, being abused by their superiors.

In addition, the Jousting leagues under the various universities across Shoyo were facing increasing pressure to adopt more ”traditional Shoyoese” rules, and discard what the militarists saw as “corrupt Westernization”. A few braver souls used whatever connections they could to keep the games going, and some games were even held in secret. There were also a few incidents such as the “Kogane Jousting Incident” where the local police even restrained and arrested soldiers-on-watch when the latter started to club students unarmed without any prior provocation.

Despite this, the constant surveillance from the police, military, and esteemed members of the community such as veterans, and the strong focus on conformity with the community prevented any meaningful resistance until well into what is now known as the Pacific Theatre of World War Two. Only when the Imperial Shoyoese military suffered disastrous losses against the United States of Columbia (such as the Battle of Midway) and also failed to prevent the Doolittle Raids on Yamabuki and Kogane in early-to-mid 1942 that people started to more widely share their doubts.

Initially, the military police responded by a mandatory requisition of all non-essential Pokemon from all citizens. Hastily conducted, much of the implementation was met with anger and confusion from citizens. One such protest and scuffle occurred on 15 June 1943 in one of the civic halls in Kogane when an elderly couple was forcibly taken away their Chansey they needed for everyday help. Surprisingly, other citizens and even a number of police officers and locally-stationed soldiers sided with the elderly couple and pinned down the confiscating officers down. News of this spread across the city and Kogane became the epicentre of the Constitutionalist Revolt (護憲反乱) that eventually spread across Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions, evolving into a full-scale civil war against the Imperialists (帝国派) when the Constitutionalists and their resistance groups agreed on their alliance with Columbian and Commonwealth forces on 10 October later that year. Many of the resistance groups helped civilians reunite and train with their Pokemon to resist Imperial forces.

Birth of the Modern League

Totsuka University zoology student and Constitutionalist medic Seigo Kido was one such person who worked with some of the Pokemon trainers and help found the first Pokemon League in Yamabuki City. After Imperial Shoyo surrendered to the Constitutionalists and Allied Forces in August 1944, Kido worked with the reformed Ministries of Education [文部省], and Health [厚生省], and their cross-ministry Sports Agency [体育庁] to reestablish the Shoyoese Pokemon League as a semi-governmental organization. Aside from as physical exercise, citizens under the new democratic government was encouraged to take up Pokemon League sports as a way of reconnecting with Pokemon and as a way of organizing resistance against future insurrections and government overturning by neo-fascist extremists. The first regional tournaments were attended by both up-and-coming trainers and veterans of the pre-WWII leagues in 1951, in which the top five trainers of each division were recruited as representatives of the leagues, now known as the Elite Four and Champion. Since 1955, a National Champion is elected through a series of battles between each of the regional Champions.

Edited February 16 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · December 6, 2023

Chapter 2: The League in Central Shoyo: At a glance

The Kanto and Johto regions were the two earliest regional leagues and used to be the most prestigious. Due to the urbanization of the regions and people’s occupations and lifestyles not being as reliant on Pokemon, however, the last two decades saw the decline in Pokemon training and league participation. Contributing to this are the higher reliance of white collar or technology-based employment in the two regions, and the consequently higher need and admission rates for tertiary education in both regions, which further deprives potential trainers from their Pokemon training experience in their teenage and most formative years. The decline in league participators has been such that, since 1997, the Johto and Kanto Leagues amalgamated with shared management, a common Elite Four and Champion, and shared regional leagues with only the gyms and their associations being separate from each other.

Chapter 2a: Kanto League Gyms

Many of the Kanto League Gyms have private involvement or ownership, who unsurprisingly have the capital to hire people, own facilities, and pay the bills. Yamabuki and Tamamushi Gyms in particular are not only 100% private-owned as part of their sponsors’ branding efforts, but are often audited and imposed additional levy by the Internal Revenue Service [歳入庁] under the Ministries of Finance [財務省] and Ministry of General Affairs [総務省] as part of their ongoing league membership conditions. Most of that levy is passed onto the other gyms in smaller cities as part of public funding.

Chapter 2a.1: Nivi City Gym 丹備市営ポケモンリーグジム [Pewter City Gym]

Nivi City Gym [Pewter City Gym] is one of the few publicly-owned Pokemon Gym and facility, which is leased out to the Iwasaki Family. Most of the gym trainers there are children and students from various schools in town, with a few adults tutors from the Nivi National Museum of Paleontology and Nivi Pokemon Technology Institute. Due to the numerous type disadvantages rock suffer from, examination battles are only available for Gym Badges up to 6th Class.

The Iwasaki Family's ancestry can be traced back to Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of the Mitsubishi conglomerate who had a major hand in the rapid modernisation and industrialisation of modern Shoyo. Many of Yataro’s and his brother Yanosuke’s descendants have either took part in the family business, or otherwise taken up prominent careers in their lives. Takeshi's immediate family, however, was one of the few exceptions. Due to his father Munou's previous pursuit of the Pokemon League instead of his family business, and his mother Mizuho also being of commoner status, considered unacceptable in the Iwasaki family's long tradition, to this day, many within the Iwasaki Family still refuse to acknowledge their connection with Takeshi, Muno, and Mizuho. Notable exceptions to this included Muno’s uncle and aunt Renzo and Miki Sawada who insisted on continuing their relationship with him. Until 1999, all of the Mitsubishi Group companies refused to sponsor any part of the Kanto Region's Pokemon League for this reason.

Even as recently as 2005, when Yamabuki Stock Exchange board member, Kanto Gym Association president, and the current Yamabuki City Gym Leader Shoji Manakano and other business executives launched their trust to help improve funding for the few publicly-owned gyms (including Nivi), Manakano found himself demoted from Senior Director obstensibly due to a lack of performance later that year. Many league fans however suspect that the Mitsubishi Group and a few of the other board members who were Iwasaki family members had a hand in influencing other members to scapegoat Manakano.

Takeshi Iwasaki岩崎剛 (Brock Slaton)

Takeshi is an aspiring Pokemon doctor and intern in Nivi. In contrast to, and not least because of his father, Takeshi was generally down-to-earth in his outlook on life, preferring to work hard and keep a low profile. He ended up having to suspend his final year in middle school so that he could work part-time and support the family. Luckily enough, he has met a sympathetic mentor at the Pokemon Center he worked in. Aside from attending high school, Takeshi also apprenticing as a doctor at the Nivi Pokemon Tech, and students and staff note Takeshi’s dedication to the trade, and his culinary skills for Pokemon food. A few researchers have even worked with Takeshi in improving the nutrition for Pokemon, both at the conservatory within the Paleontology Museum and the Gym. On a more scandalous (or hilarious) note, there are also rumors that Takeshi secretly desires to join The Bachelor Shoyo TV series as a contestant. A particularly entrepreneurial fan of Takeshi collected 100 signatures and sent that over to the Amazon Prime Video studio before Takeshi’s parents took that down and sent an humorous yet stern tweet warning everyone not to further commit similar shenangians.

Jiro Iwasaki岩崎仁郎 (Forrest Slaton)

Jiro is the closest younger brother to Takeshi who is intending to take over the gym once Takeshi retires. While still young and just entered middle school, Jiro seems to be showing some promise as a Pokemon trainer, and is starting to gather his own fans.

Muno Iwasaki 岩崎武納 (Flint Slaton)

While his glory days are long gone, Muno was one of the Elite Four specializing in rock-type Pokemon. Unfortunately, he had a difficult time adjusting to post-celebrity life, thanks to a few disasterous financial decisions from his false friends, and ended up leading the family into relative poverty for a while. While many of his former friends have abandoned him, to say nothing of his extended family, a few of his old supporters including his cousins from the Sawada Family banded together and established a gym in his place. Slowly, but surely, Muno and his family started to regain their footing, and ironically became the family (im)famous for sticking together thick and thin.

Edited December 17, 2023 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · December 17, 2023

Next the magazine Pokemon League: Who's Who Column travels to Hanada (Cerulean) City to visit the Hanada's Sensational Four Sisters, their water ballet, and some more family shenangians.

Chapter 2a.1: Hanada Aqua Arena and Gym 椛田アクアアリーナ・ポケモンリーグジム [Cerulean City Gym]

The Yawa family and ancestors are ethnically Kievanian, who fled the country during the Kievanian Revolution during the last years of World War 1 and the Civil War that ensured after - explaining many of the family members’ European-looking eyes and hair. They first settled down in Sinnoh as refugees, and had lived in Shoyo ever since. Their former Kievanian name was Yavanov, which was changed to Yawa (矢輪) during World War II, when the family were pressured to adopt Shoyoese surnames amidst the heightened xenophobia.

Today, Kasumi and her sisters runs regular water ballet shows in the Gym, which the roots can be traced back to both the ballet troupes from St Petersburg and the folk water dances of the Kievanians from the rural coast. The Hanada Aqua Arena Gym was traditionally considered to be one of the lower class gyms alongside Nivi Gym due to Sakura and her two sisters having more interest in running the water ballet shows, but have improved in rankings in recent years once Kasumi took over and enlisted fellow trainers, and examination battles are available for Gym Badges up to 4th Class. Most trainers that train their water Pokemon under Kasumi’s supervision are local students, with a few Ace Trainers that Kasumi’s mentor and Kanto-Johto Elite Four trainer Kanna Shimazaki assigned to help the Gym improve its standings.

Kasumi Yawa 矢輪霞 (Misty Waterflower)

Kasumi alongside her sisters is a gravure idol and water performer who hold regular shows in the Gym. In contrast to her feminine older sisters, she is a tomboy in many ways, which is sometimes a tension between her and the other sisters. Ultimately, however, Kasumi takes both of her tomboyish tastes and her female appeal with pride, which is reflected in her various roles, (both feminine and masculine/tomboyish) she plays as part of her water performance with apparent ease. In recent years, she has also shown improved skills in Pokemon battles, most notably her Pokemon’s fluid dodges from opponent’s attacks, feint counterattacks against them, and her type diversification to address Water type’s relatively few weaknesses.
Pokemon: Starmie, Gyarados, Kingdra, Quagsire

Sakura, Ayame, and Botan Yawa 矢輪櫻・彩芽・牡丹 (Daisy, Violet, and Lily Waterflower)

Sakura, Ayame, and Botan were the de jure Gym Leader of Hanada Gym until 2006, but most league followers contend that they were not exactly dedicated leaders, with them handing out Gym Badges like candy. Eventually, Kasumi and administators from the Pokemon League forced her older sisters to resign. Sakura now only runs the Water Ballet Trope, with Kasumi that does the everyday work of the Pokemon Gym, something that sometimes comes out as passive-aggressive banter between the two in many of their interviews with their fans. Nowadays, the three sisters are more known for their Water Ballets and their modelling work.

Kenji Makino 牧野健司 (Tracey Skechit)

Kenji has been noted to frequent the Gym and assist Kasumi in her duties since her promotion, though he also seemed to value the Gym as his atelier for his watercolour works depicting Pokemon. While the two have been keeping this under wraps, rumors are abound that the two are in a relationship, which is something that Sakura and others have been teasing the two about. Interestingly, Kenji’s great-uncle Kunio Makino was a mid-20th Century painter who exhibited a particularly individualistic painting style in rejection of the general trend of art abstraction.
Pokemon: Seaking, Azurill

Mizuho Iwasaki 岩崎瑞帆 (Lola Slaton)

Mizuho is one of the artists and creative staff for the Water Ballet, who is currently training her Pokemon under Kasumi (who Mizuho’s son Takeshi is a friend of) She was also former idol and a high-ranking Pokemon Contestant specializing in Water-type Pokemon, and often mentors Sakura, Ayame, and Botan for their modelling and acting work. She once challenged Takeshi for the rights to the Gym, in the hopes of redecorating the Gym into a Water Type one and relive her past glory days – until Kasumi found out from Takeshi and took Mizuho in. While Mizuho often lacks restraint in her work role, she nevertheless contributed to the Water Ballet’s popularity. She is also Muno’s wife, and Takeshi’s mother – even though she may not always at home due to her gym duties, she is always seen enjoying dinner with her family at the local bistro whenever she has the chance.
Pokemon: Tentacruel, Vaporeon, Mantine

Edited February 16 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · January 2

Your favorite group of Pokemon League journalists have now travelled to Kuchiba City to visit Kuchiba Gym. This one has some difficult but important discussions about our way of life. Hey, we didn't say that it was all going to be all roses and sweet juicy gossips!

Chapter 2a.3: Kuchiba US(Columbian)-Shoyoese Common Air Force Base Pokemon Gym [Vermillion City Gym]
在久地羽昇陽国・コロンビア合衆国共同空軍基地附属ポケモンリーグジム

A group of servicemen initially opened this gym as a place for their and their families’ recreation, but is now co-owned by the Shoyoese and US/Columbian Air Forces under the League’s supervision and agreement. It’s one of the few facilities within the naval base grounds that is regularly open to the general public as one of the two forces’ community outreach programs.

There was a brief crisis with the Gym’s continuation during January 2011, with the prospect of the majority of the overseas Armed Forces being recalled to deal with the multiple uprisings in the January 23 Incident back in the United States, with some Shoyoese troops also brought over to assist with logistics. Most of the personnel including Lt Surge suspended their Gym activities during the month due to said recall, and were dispatched to protect key locations in Washington DA (*1), Castelia (*2), and other major cities across the nation (*3). As many of our readers know, the organizations responsible for this heinous attack on our freedom included the white supremarcist Loyal Silver Knights (codenamed as Team Plasma by the Federal Bureau of Investigations) led by disgraced ex-Unova State Senator Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius, and its political organization the Make Columbia Great Again Party led by also-disgraced ex-Congress Senator Donald Heinz.

It may be noted that one of Team Plasma's most heinous modus operandus had been their stealing or defrauding Pokemon trainers of their Pokemon and reassigning them to the Team Plasma klansmen - to attack and intimidate non-citizens and people of color, and anyone else who did as little as to look funny at the klansmen. Even worse, their other conspiracy involved misinformation with the self-portrayal as a Pokemon rights group - which also involved portraying the same people of colour as abusers of Pokemon. And this is even before we mention the widespread Pokemon abuse and grooming Team Plasma itself has perpetrated, and the ironic hypocrisy arising from this. We can only be thankful that the the US and Shoyoese armed forces and law enforcement groups have opposed Team PLasma's tactics and have warned the Columbian and Shoyoese public of Team Plasma's misinformation campaign. More importantly, the majority of our troops have continuously upheld our respective nations’ Constitutions, worked tirelessly over those months to reunite lost Pokemon with their partners, have brought the insurrectionists to justice, and restored social order. We are hopeful that people's trust in society and our governments would soon be restored as well. As long as we remember this, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!

Lieutenant Commander Matthias Surge マシアス（マチス）サージ

Originally from Virbank, Unova, United States of Columbia, and currently stationed in US Navy Base in Kuchiba [Vermillion] City. Until his promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Matthias is posted across the globe in various peacekeeping operations. It has been said that Matthias has several electric Pokemon on hand, whether on or off the battlefield, whether as emergency electric sources, or for protection against potential enemies, or even for company for more mundane and isolating missions. The Shoyoese locals call him Machisu-Shosa, with Machisu being a corruption of Matthias, something which initially irked Matthias, but now wholeheartedly adopts. He is also a semi-professional double bass player focusing on classical and jazz and often plays with the Navy Band. He has Elesa and Ann as his cousins, and they often collaborate as Gym Leaders in goodwill activities and matches between Kuchiba and Castelia Gyms. This does not stop the three from getting each others nerves, mainly due to Elesa not being fond of Matthias’s involvement in the various intervention missions in the US Military, while Matthias baulking at the seeming disproportionate amount of money Elesa garners “just for looking glamourous” in Mattias’s words.
Pokemon: Raichu, Hisuian Voltorb, Electivire, Lanturn

Ann Takamaki-Surge 高巻・サージ杏

A cousin of Matthias, and a younger sister and former fellow supermodel of Elesa Kamitsure Takamaki-Surge from Unova, and sister member from the Nimbasa City Gym in the Unovan Regional League. While Ann had her fans in her younger days, she has mostly left modelling since the early 2000s after her completion of her MBA and her appointment as board member in the Castelia Stock Exchange. As part of an exchange agreement, Ann also participates as the outside board member for the Yamabuki Stock Exchange. While Ann occasionally conducts photoshoots from time to time for her close friends, she is now more known as a board members alongside Shoji Manakano who oversaw the standardization and integration of Yamabuki Stock Exchange with other international stock exchanges. She is also one of Manakano’s few friends in the workplace due to their shared third-culture backgrounds and vehemently opposed his demotion that the board imposed in 2005. According to one interview, Ann mentioned that her career in finance was her priority as she could never imagine outshining Elesa in the fashion scene. She also mentioned possibly enlisting in the military, but has been ineligible due to not [yet] meeting physical requirements. She seems to be still open to the idea, as she also mentioned that she has been working with her cousin Matthias to get into better shape each morning – a routine she now considers as a relaxing antidote against the stress from the constant vanity projection of modelling life. Her battling style has been noted as a versatile mix of Elesa’s dazzling misdirection with Matthias’s ruthless shock-and-awe attacks. Ann’s colleague Shoji Manakano from the Yamabuki Stock Exchange also noted how Ann has been quick to test and adopt other strategies, including Shoji’s analysis of type counters.
Pokemon: Alolan Raichu, Magnezone, Rotom, Oricorio (usually Pom-Pom Style)

Lieutenant Colonel August Thormann オーガスト・ソアマン

Matthias’s former supervisor and squad leader who often went on mission and voyages on the same squadron before a change of career saw him employed by the US State Secretary. He is currently the Columbian Ambassador-General to Shoyo and has found himself working with Matthias as a benefactor to the gym.

Colonel Leona Denison Woods レオナ・デニソン・ウッズ

The (fictional other) daughter to former Lieutenant Colonel Earl Woods and sister of celebrated golfer Tiger Woods, Leona is the base commander on the Shoyoese side. While the media has been busy distracting the public with her brother Tiger and his spicy shenangians with some 120 counts of affairs, Leona has been mostly left outside of the limelight – and she is pretty satisfied to keep things that way.

Lieutenant Raizo Kondo 近藤頼三 (Ray Baird)

The base commander of the Shoyoese Air Force side, Masahaya’s brother and Hayato’s (from the Kikyo Gym) uncle who represents the Shoyoese side of the gym trainers. Unlike Masahaya, Raizo does not hide his skepticism for his family traditions and is a firm believer of modern air travel, often sparking tensions between himself and his relatives in Kikyo. They however have been able to put aside their differences when it comes to air transport safety, however. The current system of requiring licenced Pokemon air travel for trainers was his and Hayato’s recommendation to the Shoyo Transport Safety Board (運輸安全委員会) after a series of near-misses between planes and idiot trainers and their Pokemon.

Lieutenant Commander Raika Tachibana 館花来鹿 (Fredrica Burner)

A lieutenant from the Shoyoese Air Force. Raika represents the next generation of Air Force pilots and engineers ready to serve to protect the freedom, liberty, and the Shoyoese (and Columbian) way. After a somewhat uneventful stint in working for YEPCO (Yamabuki Electric Power Company) as an office worker, Raika herself enlisted in the Air Force as an electrical engineer, and hasn’t looked back since.

Takayuki Yamamoto 山本鷹征 (Tac Yamamoto)

A legendary veteran in the Shoyoese Air Force who mentors the younger pilots, renowned for his kill counts and his numerous participation in Shoyo’s post-World War II peacekeeping operations. A story that he often tells people is his travel over 500km back to a Shoyoese Base on a makeshift electric car after being stranded during the Suez Crisis. Even though Yamamoto is approaching his 75th birthday, he and his reflexes sees no sign of slowing down.

Notes:

(*1) - One of the most notorious events, with criminal proceedings still ongoing, was the attack on the US Capitol in Washington DA by Senator Donald Heinz and his supporters with some 1,000 Pokemon supplied by Team Plasma. The attempt resulted in at least 15 of the security staff, 17 of the insurrectionists, and 10 US Army personnel killed, and martial law declared in the entire city limits.
(*2) - Locations within Castelia that were taken over by the MAGA Party and Team Plasma were the Castelia Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center, with over 3,200 people taken hostage over the course of 48 hours.
(*3) - One location - well-known to the league followers - that were related to the incident was the former Gropius Family Mansion and the nearby Unovan Pokemon League, which was also Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius's main place of operation to steal Pokemon from trainers via online. Nathaniel Gropius (often referred to as N Gropius) has also poached one of the regional legendary Pokemon under his father's instructions - reports from the Central Intelligence Agency suggests the poaching as a political symbolism of attain legitimacy for Gropius's family and their political parties.

Author's notes

So this one is a crossover episode between several titles, including Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Advanced Wars, and real-life celebrities and entities. I'm also going to start putting up links to Wikipedia of the real-life entities I will be referring to. There will be future episodes that will incorporate similar re-works of, or or fictional/non-canon relatives of, characters from the above franchises and hopefully from the Fire Emblem franchise. Finally, stuff from Black and White has been reworked to more explicitly reference real-life USA and especially its recent politics (though much less bleak than real-life for obvious reasons). I mean, Unova is an inferior, half-hearted adaptation of its real-life inspiration compared to Johto, or Kalos onwards, or Earthbound's Eagleland. In particular, making Ghetsis as King was just ridiculous when its real-life counterpart is crazy about its republican-stsyem government and politics. You are welcome.

Edited March 11 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · February 16

Your favorite group of Pokemon League journalists has staked out the gardens of the Pokemon Gym at Tamamushi [Celadon] City. And we can assure you this was not to cast our gaze on the lovely ladies - no siree! - but to continue our jobs as intrepid investigators of the latest situation on the Kanto Region League!

Chapter 2a.4: Takashimaya Tamamushi Gym [Celadon City Gym]
珠虫高島屋ポケモンリーグジム

The gym was initially opened by Erika’s father who was formerly one of the executive at the Takashimaya Department Store. The Gym made an agreement with the department store chain for funding as a way to promote its haute-couture fashion products alongside the traditional arts Erika’s parents practiced. Despite Grass’s numerous type weaknesses, Erika has proved to be quite formidable due to her tricky status attacks that made many an unsuspecting trainer panic with their drowsy partners.

Erika Matsudaira 松平絵里香

One of the youngest descendants of the Matsudaira branch of the Tokugawa family, which had the shoguns rule Yamabuki-era Shoyo [Edo-era Japan], until the new Imperial government took power from the 1820s. The pretenders after the fall of the shogunate made their names in the arts and philosophy, and Erica, born under a particularly traditional branch, happened to take up traditional flower arrangements. Her seemingly traditional, Yamato-Nadeshiko-like demeanour belies a few surprises however. Despite the family pressure to find a spouse to carry the family name, Erika notably does not show apparent concern, which leads to fans (and especially female fans) speculate that she is a closeted lesbian. The sheer number of female trainers certainly does not help the rumors - never mind that some of them had come from families who were retainers or court daimyos of Erika’s ancestors. In addition, Erika, with her namesake company she has recently established, has taken the cosmetics industry by storm, with her organic set of perfumes she and her Grass-type Pokemon has been perfecting, which their share has been increasing in the nationwide market. Kao, Kose, Shiseido, and others have been eager in buying her business, but so far, Erika has denied any buyout attempts on her business.
Pokemon: Bellossom, Tangrowth, Victreebel, Cradily

Haruo Matsudaira 松平温雄 (Haroldo Madeira)

Erika’s cousin, and one of the few male trainers. In contrast to Erika’s traditional Shoyoese upbringing and trade, Haruo often adopts a Mexican persona thanks to his family’s residence there for his father’s job. Haruo immersed himself into the local culture including joining a Mariachi Band. He also co-specialises in some sound-based Pokemon.
Pokemon: Ludicolo, Maractus, Tympole, Criketune

Tsubasa Oribe 織部つばさ (Appia Emerald)

Most people would know Tsubasa as an up-and-coming young Idol Singer who looks up to her sister Ayaha, the crossover Shoyopop-Classical singer. Tsubasa, however, is more interested in the latest popular music fad, instead of the more recent classical music peformances that Ayaha started producing – not helped by the regimented and sleep-inducing music classes that dismisses the former as crass commercialism and worships the latter as the true academic form of music. Her debut song Feel had many of the flowers supplied and animated with the assistance of Erika and her proteges for the visual effects. She is a crossover character from Tokyo Mirage Sessions.

Haru Okumura 奥村春 (April Rearville)

The daughter of Kunikazu Okumura, president of the Okumura Foods Corporation, which has long supplied the food courts and basement supermarkets of the Takashimaya department stores. Haru has recently taken up gardening, initially as her hobby, and eventually as one of the gardeners for the Tamamushi Gym’s greenhouse.

Author's notes

Okay, so we finally had a crossover character from Fire Emblem - albeit that also being a crossover with Persona/SMT. The next one will definitely have someone from one of the FE titles. You are welcome.

Edited March 17 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · February 17

While we all love to see the exciting and electrifying gym matches between the modern gladiators, let us also spare a thought about the people outside the arena who continue to uncover the mysteries of Pokemon, and strive to improve the welfare of Pokemon in society.

Special Column 1: Leading Pokemon Professors in Kanto and Johto

Doctor of Zoology and Sociology Yukinari Okido 獣医学・社会学博士大木戸幸成 (Dr Samuel Oak)

Yukinari Okido has been long considered as the leading Pokemon professor in the nation, with even the wider public knowing his name. Although Okido specialises the sociological interactions between humans and Pokemon, he also spends time as an educator for young budding trainers through his weekly radio and television programs Okido’s Pokemon Classes through TV Yamabuki (usually on Thursdays 7:00-7:30pm) on how to safely catch, raise, and train particular Pokemon. Although they can sometimes give him a hairy experience, he has been taking them in good stride. His television shows are also noted for his impressionable weekly senryu poems – some adult viewers are said to view the shows just to collect and record said poems.

On a more serious note, Professor Oak and his investigation team in the University of Yamabuki has also been important in continuing to raise attention in the Poke-sociological issues that plagued Shoyo during the years leading up to, and during World War II. He and his co-writers has published several books and papers regarding several atrocities against Pokemon perpetrated under the military-industrial administration of then Empire of Shoyo, including his latest book The Pokemon Cried for the Land. Unfortunately, this had made him a political target by a number of right-wing organizations. IN the most notorious case, Okido’s laboratory in Masara Town had faced a number of attempted robberies from the far-right terrorist organization Team Rocket. Although the robberies have abated since Team Rocket’s disbandment in 2007, there are still some people on the right (such as National MP Masayoshi Shido from the Conservative Party) that deride Okido’s works as unpatriotic and inflammatory.

Doctor of Bioelectrical Engineering Masaki Sonezaki 生物電気工学博士曾根崎正樹 (Bill McKenzie)

Even as recent as two decades ago, it was hard to imagine just how difficult for aspiring trainers to raise and manage more than five or six Pokemon at any given moment. Back then, it took several days or sometimes even a fortnight to send and retrieve Pokemon between different Pokemon carefarms and Pokemon Trainer Centres, which made many trainers thinking long and hard about who should be their lifelong training partners. While Pokemon transfer networks did exist back then, they were mainly reserved for transferring Pokemon assigned to either soldiers or to other military functions within the Shoyoese Defence Force and her allies due to the cost and difficulty in building a safe network.

The current network and terminal system initially proposed by Sonezaki has changed all of that, with improvements on the ease of installation, reliability, and cost, which allowed trainers to reliably transfer their Pokemon within minutes. This has the added effect of lowering the bar for budding trainers, as they no longer have to work around the constraint of whether to catch, keep, or release their Pokemon for better party formation for upcoming gym challenges. It should be noted though, that for the interests of Pokemon welfare, extended keeping in the storage system are discouraged, and trainers are reminded to regularly rotate their Pokemon to better nurture bonds and companionship.

Doctor of Biology Kanna Shimazaki 生物学博士志摩崎栞那 (Lorelei Rhineland)

An acclaimed researcher from the University of Yamabuki who studies Water and Ice-type Pokemon, and a former Elite Four trainer specializing in said Pokemon. While she is originally from the Nanashima (Sevii) Islands, she often goes onto exploring all across Shoyo to track some of the Pokemon’s transoceanic voyages and have even been consulted on a few of Planet Earth episodes by the acclaimed Saxceltian biologist and tv producer Sir David Attenborough. She is also the overbearing older sister of Maiko Shimazaki of Fortuna Entertainment fame. Ironically, Kanna mentioned in an interview about her likes and dislikes, which S-Pop was the latter. Even more ironically, Kanna’s had the opposite view on Columbian and European pop music, in which the same interviewer wrote how Kanna was “squeeing like a hyperactive girl at the mention of the Columbian superstar Madonna.”

Even after her retirement from the Elite Four to focus on her research in 2004, Shimazaki still participates in sanctioned league matches from time to time. She proves herself to everyone, that she still has not lost her edge. In particular, budding trainers in their exhibition matches dread going up against her “Quickdraw” Cloyster which often becames a game of its nickname’s namesake duel, while matches between stronger trainers often become a cat-and-mouse sniping game.

Doctor of Biology Yukiharu Utsugi 生物学博士宇都木幸治 (Elijiah Elm)

While not quite as experienced or famous as his mentor and eastern counterpart, Dr Elm of Johto is considered by many in the Pokemon academic field to be Oak’s successor. Some of Dr Elm’s research achievements includes the role of evolutionary items in the biochemical processes of the Pokemon’s evolution, and the incubation and conception process of Pokemon Eggs. Elm also participates from time to time in his mentor’s television show; particularly, he is noted to educate kids and parents about – surprise, surprise – Pokemon egg incubation.

Doctor of Archaeology Sully Hale 考古学博士シュリー・ヘール

Dr Sully Hale is a former adventuring archaeologist from the who crossed the land and the seas to chase after mythical Pokemon. He has spent his career chasing after Roaming Legends across Unova and Johto regions, far and wide, and is often said to be the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones movie series. He first research achievement, during his tenure at America University, was providing data on Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, and Enamorus, and tracking their movements between Shoyo and Columbia, which proved that while the Forces of Nature make their home in East Asia, they also migrate across different continents. He now works at University of Enju and leads a team of researchers and trackers including Ecruteak Gym cousins Matsuba and Minaki Reizei to track Suicune, Entei, and Raikou across Central Shoyo – while he is no longer as capable go on the chase himself, his passion and dedication motivates his pupils to hopefully carry the torch.

Edited February 22 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · February 29

Chapter 2a.5: Iga Ninjutu School Koga House Dojo and Pokemon Gym
伊賀流忍術古河組道場附属ポケモンリーグジム

The Koga Family have been ninjias originally from Choji who has been passing dow the arts of ninjutsu for generations since the Yamabuki Era. Kyo’s family is a branch from the main house who settled in Sekichiku to further develop their own arts. Ninjutsu once nearly died off in the early-to-mid 19th Century when Shoyo opened up to the west and the martial arts were discarded for Western guns and cannons. However the arts were rediscovered in the subsequent decades for intelligence officers’ frontline training in the new Shoyoese Defense Force and Central Intelligence Agency.

The Gym is the most notorious for being the most confusing, with hidden doors, booby traps filled with smokescreen-emitting Koffings and Weezings, and asking gym challengers whether they’ve managed to venture the Gym is a good indication of whether that trainer has grown in his or her street smarts. In some ways this makes the Gym not all that different from a urban warfare training scenario, and many special operations team in and out of Shoyo sometimes use the gym for training excercises when no gym challenge battles are scheduled.

Kyo Koga 古河享 (Master Koga)

The current head and master of the Ninjutsu Dojo, and the current Elite Four in the Kanto-Johto regional league. Kyo is mainly the dojo teacher for his martial artist apprentices dedicated in passing down the arts, but he also works with his sister Aya in instructing the intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help defend the country from insurrectionists like the far-right Team Rocket. His training has been credited for saving lives and stopping further attacks by Team Rocket during the Yamabuki Metro Poison Gas Incident, and was also noted as a factor for the success by the Shoyoese Defence Force’s counterterrorism units in thwarting the takeover of the National Parliament during the July 9th Insurrection. He also is a tea afficionado who regularly hold tea ceremonies for important guests within the Sekichiku community, including the head of the Safari Park who provided the Koga family with their Poison-type Pokemon. Pokemon: Weezing, Venomoth, Crobat

Aya Koga 古河綾

Kyo’s younger sister Aya works in the Shoyoese Central Intelligence Agency. She acts as the advisor for domestic security, and oversees the team that monitors what is left of the right-right terrorist group Shouen-kai (昇炎會), or what Aya christened it with the better-known codename Team Rocket.
Pokemon: Muk, Venonat, Tentacruel, Galarian Weezing

Anzu Koga 古河杏 (Janine Koga)

Kyo’s daughter that is the acting Gym Leader, and the nominated successor of the Dojo. Compared to her father and aunt, Anzu is still of middle school age with a tomboyish and carefree personality. Anzu regularly partakes in the school’s gymnastics team and her ninja training is reflected in the highly versatile movements she thinks up for the school team.
Pokemon: Ariados, Weezing (Junior), Golbat

Shamira Nevrand シャミアネーヴラント

A visiting intelligence officer from Hebria-Pallesta’s Intelligence Agency aka Mossad, and a former soldier from the former Hebrian (now Hebrian-Pallestian) Defense Force. She was brought in to Shoyo to work with Aya and assist and advise the Shoyoese Central Intelligence Agency in response to the internationalization of the Team Rocket’s remnants' activities and the resulting need of law enforcement groups to similarly cooperate with each other. According to news outlets, Shamira was also one of the first generation of mercenary agents lent out to other agencies by the Hebrian-Pallestian Government, in turn borne out from the restructuring and downsizing of the home agency, which forced many soldiers to take other roles or retire from military life. All of this ironically came from the fragile yet hopeful peace treaty that the former nations of Hebria and Pallista has finally achieved in 1999, and the co-federation of the two nations the year after. Shamira is also a professional Pokemon trainer specialising in Poison and Ghost-type Pokemon, which naturally led to her interest in joining Kyo’s Gym through Aya’s invitation.
Pokemon: Toxicroak, Gengar, Weavile

Author's notes

Having Shamir being part of a modern spy group with some ninja training was too good to pass up. You are welcome.

Edited March 29 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · March 11

We then travel to Yamabuki City for a series of special editions of Kanto's most renowned Gyms, including two of the top City League Gyms featuring the much-feared Karate Dojo, the even more feared former Yamabuki Psychic Gym led by the occultic Manakano siblings and the not-as-feared but arguably more formidable main Regional Gym led by the current leader. First, here's the latest report on the Karate Dojo

Chapter 2a.6a: Shotokan Karate Dojo City League Gym 松濤館空手道場シティーリーグジム

Karate and the Fighting Dojo has a long history together; indeed, it is impossible to talk about the history of Karate in mainland Shoyo without the Gym or its founder, Gichin Funakoshi. Aside from a long lineage of master-pupil relationships, a lot of modern day basics including katas and kumite comes from Gichin Funakoshi and his Fighting-type Pokemon, who helped taught many of said moves to their pupils.

While Funakoshi and his school was against the sportification of Karate in the postwar years, his successors had to accept the popularization of sports in the postwar years. As a compromise, they have a program of lending out Hitmonlees and Hitmonchans to promising young trainers or karate students as a way to train the mind, body, and spirit, jointly with the Kanto Regional League. In addition, Yamabuki Karate Dojo, alongside the three other schools, is also responsible for regulating and overseeing standardization for official competition karate based on the four major schools, which led to both the formation of Shoyo Karate Association, which in turn became one of the founding members of World Karate Federation. These, alongside with the popularity of karate across Shoyo and overseas, made the Shotokan Karate Dojo the most prestigious as a karate school, a Fighting-type Gym in Shoyo, and as the Gym within the Kanto Regional League.

Unfortunately, all good things can to come to an end when people lose their way and forget their humility and their roots. The 1980s and 1990s saw infighting amongst disagreeing pupils and masters, with some of them breaking away to found their own karate school. It also did not help that the focus on tradition bred a lot of reactionary-minded people who saw modern-day karate as a corruption of the pure arts, instead of as evolution and innovation, with other pupils also breaking away to ally with the emerging far-right political society of Team Rocket. The Dojo started to slip down from the certification ranking, from the increasing scuitny of the League Officials. The final nail in the coffin came in 1999, when then-Gym Leader Chinzo Kyan lost to Natsume Manakano, who was then an elementary-school girl and a young trainer in her father’s Gym. Since then, the then Regional League Gym has been demoted to a City League one.

In recent years, however, the Dojo and Gym have started to move on from its past mistakes. Chinzo’s son Shiba took over as the president of the Dojo, with Takenori Funakoshi as the newly acclaimed Karate King in 2006. Aside from reaching out to former pupils for reconciliation, they also started to take stock of their history and help people accept the evolving nature of karate. A much healthier relationship between tradition and sports have been cultivated ever since, with some members tasked with learning traditional karate as a reminder of where they came from, while accepting other members’ participation in competition or standardized karate.

Shiba Kyan 喜屋武柴 (Bruno Kyan)

While everyone knows Shiba as the formidable Elite Four Trainer who can punch or kick out the opposition before you can yell “Hiya!”, Shiba is also celebrated amongst martial arts circle as a reformer and reviver of the karate discipline. In the wider city community, Shiba and his Pokemon are also famed (or notorious, depending on your political views) for single-handedly taking out hundreds of Team Rocket members that encircled the Yamabuki City Hall, and other government offices with the remaining 500 members fleeing for their lives. Shiba further proceeded to raid other hideouts across Yamabuki City, where his mere presence, combined together with his notoriety set off either mass desertion or mass surrender. More recently, Shiba has been appointed as a board member of the Shoyo Karate Association to promote karate as a tournament sports, and to advise on amendments to regulations and to encourage safe participation in the sports.

Takenori Funakoshi 船越武徳

The current Karate King who helped revive the Karate Dojo after the scandal-ridden era of the 1990s. Takenori was also Shiba’s former teacher and still mentors the latter even after his nomination to the Elite Four. While Shiba represents the modern sporting school of karate, Takenori is the traditionalist practitioner, teacher, and research historian. Despite his moves packing more heat than a SWAT squadron (which got inherited over to Shiba), Takenori also has a soft side to him, who was able to tame and befriend various stray Mankeys and Primapes that were causing mischief across town. Most of these were the result of Takenori and his son Nobuhiko themselves sparring against the mischief-makers, often giving to the term “talk with your fists” – as quoted by an Art of Manliness webpage when they discussed how budding Pokemon trainers can tame fighting-type Pokemon. The website also has an Youtube interview with Nobuhiko with the latter demonstrating how he himself learned to befriend said Pokemon.

Nobuhiko Funakoshi 船越修彦

Takenori’s travelling son who is expected to take over his father’s place as Karate King. Nobuhiko was the recent champion of the P-1 Grand Prix, and had been travelling all around Kanto and Johto to train. He is most often seen training in the foothills of Mount Suribachi east of Enju City while occasionally travelling into nearby towns to adopt stray Fighting-type Pokemon, including his own Tyrogue he spars with.

henrymidfields · March 17

Next here is the latest report on the former Yamabuki Psychic Gym...which still looks mysterious as ever...

Chapter 2a.6b: Yamabuki Gym City League (Ueno Park) Branch Campus 山吹ジム・シティーリーグ（上野公園）分館

The original gym, established by Natsume and Itsuki’s father was located in a more traditional part of Yamabuki, and the main trainers there were Shintoist priests, mediums, and Psychics. This has changed over the years when Takeharu, Yoichi, and Shikimi sponsored the gym, with an increasing number of office workers, scientists, and psychologists joining in the Pokemon training, and the gradual professionalization and modernization of the gym. Moreover, when Shoji Manakano, Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane, and Mitsuru Kirijo took over some of the management the Gym, they brought their internationalist attitudes to the formerly ethnically insular management. Some of the more notable visiting members included Columbian ambassadorial police attache Mary Steiner-Loire and her family, former Kalosian Opéra National de Illumis and current Yamabuki Niki-kai’s musical director Manuelle Casagrande and prima soprano stars Dorothée Arnault, and Sinoan Battle Salon Maiden and ambassadorial police attache Lila Jing.

On a less happy note, the modernization and internationalization of the Gym under Shoji, Sayuri, and Shikimi left many of the earlier-generation trainers struggling to adjust to the new gym culture. The Shintoist channelers and mediums were unhappy with Sayuri’s tenure due to her pro-Christian views, and Shikimi’s sponsorship due to her insistence of relegating religion out from the public sphere. Other practicing Psychics were not happy with the three’s preference for practicality and disregard of the super natural. The geinojins, tarentos and idols that enjoyed Itsuki’s and Natsume’s patronage also found themselves with a lack of belonging – for all their modern appearance and music, their culture was no less conservative and conformist, which clashed with Shoji and Sayuri’s culture of westernized intellectualism. (Though it also did not help that they and Shikimi were artistically conservative, and preferred classical, jazz, and Broadway music.) As such, most of said trainers have stayed at the former main campus near Ueno Park that now houses the Minor League Gym instead of moving into the Gym’s new main campus at Marunouchi.

Natsume Manakano 真中野奈津女 (Sabrina Middleton)

Natsume was the former de jure leader, and she used to be the strongest trainer in the gym aside from Itsuki. Alongside her growing movie career under Fortuna Entertainment, she is also known as a master of the psychic arts. Her supernatural powers includes spoonbending, levitation, future prediction to note a few, and she also uses said powers to augument her Pokemon powers, which made her notorious as one of the most difficult Gym Leaders to beat, not to mention the most feared amongst many budding trainers. It also did not help that her unstable mentality from her childhood days led to her trances, which included imprisoning anyone who lost against he into dolls for a few hours until her family or Takeharu invariably intervene, which is thankfully now in the past. Natsume, for her part, has regretted that such incidents have happened, and sometimes take reclusive breaks to both contemplate on life and to calm herself down. Further dismay have come when Natsume's cousin Shoji took over the leadership position, due to his modernization of the gym and its management and culture, and Natsume mentioned in a recent interview that she regretted the leadership position's handover. She did try to wrest control back from Shoji and his co-leader, but in an ironic twist of events, Natsume (and her brother Itsuki) lost the duel 6-4 in what turned out to be an ironic self-fulfilling prophesy Natsume had pre-battle. Pokemon: Alakazam, Espeon, Mr Mime

Itsuki Manakano 真中野斎 (William Middleton)

Natume’s older brother, and Shoji’s cousin and former gym leader until he was invited to become the Elite Four. He was the replacement Gym Leader for Natsume, and he still steps in from time to time to lead the newly created Minor League Gym which took over from the main Gym after the latter’s relocation to Marunouchi. He is also a popular and flamboyant magician and TV personality under Fortuna Entertainment who is often contrasted with Yashiro Tsurugi as the straight man. Most people generally enjoy the manzai-esque interactions between them in the few times the two get together in the same show. In reality, while Itsuki does wish that Yashiro “lighten up a bit”, he also considers Yashiro as a capable storyteller and singer, and even enlists the latter’s help for his own magician skits. Like his sister Natsume, Itsuki has also been unhappy with the recent changes instituted by his cousin Shoji. To their chagrin however, their last attempt to wrest back control of their main gym failed in a 6-4 loss thanks to the new gym leaders setting down their double tag battles rules policy with effective teamwork, showing that supernatural talent does not overcome Itsuki’s ego and lack of experience with anything outside of standard singles format. Pokemon: Xatu, Exeggutor, Slowking

Yashiro Tsurugi 剣弥代 (Jason Swordward)

Yashiro Tsurugi is also a popular actor and TV personality under Fortuna Entertainment who is often contrasted with Itsuki Manakano as the comic relief man. Most people generally enjoy the manzai-esque interactions between them in the few times the two get together in the same show. In reality, while Yashiro does get occasionally annoyed with Itsuki’s behaviour, he also lists Itsuki as one of his inspirations for storyboarding scenes, and even enlists the latter’s help for stage effects. One big point of contention between the two, however, as been their opinions of the current gym leadership by Shoji and Sayuri. While Itsuki and his followers have been more forthcoming in denouncing his cousin as ruining the gym’s tradition, Yashiro has been more accepting of the current administration, reminding Itsuki that “[a]t the end of the day, it’s [Natsume and Itsuki] that lost the leader’s duel against Shoji.” Pokemon: Gallade, Hisuian Braviary

Maiko Shimazaki 志摩崎舞子 (Sirena Rhineland)

The former model and current manager of the idol agency Fortuna Entertainment. Many of the nation’s famous artists, actors, and singers come from her tutelage including Tsubasa Oribe, Touma Akagi, and Yashiro Tsurugi. Rumors are that she has also headhunted Rise Kujikawa aka Risette, the cute S-Pop idol singer of national fame, and Itsuki and Natsume. Despite this show of business acumen and the financial success of Fortuna Entertainment, she is more ridiculed outside of S-Pop circles, although it is hard to pinpoint why. Our journalists are divided on whether this is due to Maiko’s infamous drinking habits, or her comparative lack of Pokemon battle talent compared to her sister Kanna in the Elite Four, or S-Pop simply seen as some trite entertainment compared to, say, classical music, or considered small fry in the wider world compared to K-Pop and especially Saxophone/Kalophone mainstream pop. Pokemon: Gothitelle, Slowking, Mr Mime

Kiria Kurono 黒乃霧亜

One of the charismatic S-Pop singers, known for her brooding lyrics and her cool frosty look and demeanour and a friend of Natsume’s. Her family has also been practicing trainers under Natsume’s father, and brought Maiko and her agency in sponsoring the Gym. The relationship between her and the Gym has no longer been the same since Shoji and Sayuri took over, however. Pokemon: Jynx, Gothitelle

Naoto Dojima-Shirogane IV 堂島白鐘直斗４世 (Repton D’Eglise- Whitechapel IV)

The nationally famous Detective King, Naoto specializes in Ghost and Dark Pokemon in addition to Psychic. Naoto is also a noted follower of the Fortuna Entertainment Group and its associate actors, musicians, and idols. He very much prefers maintaining good relationship with the old guards in Ueno Park, and he is one of the relatively few people who attends training in both campuses. This sometimes leads to friction with his respective wife and daughter, Sayuri and Naoko, who are more dedicated in reforming the Gym’s culture. Ultimately however, Naoto and Sayuri are happily married for nearly three decades and without any signs on coming to an end. He is also good at playing poker in the gym-held charity games where his nonchalant appearance can disarm opponents and belie his cunning observational skills.

Edited March 17 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · March 24

Finally, the report everyone has been waiting for, the Yamabuki Regional Gym under a new roof and administration, and the sponsors who made the Gym possible!

Chapter 2a.6c: Yamabuki Gym Main Campus 山吹ジム本館

The current main Gym campus in the Marunouchi business district of central Yamabuki was established in September 2010 under Shoji Manakano and Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane’s leadership and financial assistance from the Gym’s current head sponsor Shikimi Manakano. It was assumed that the change in leadership would result in a drop in the rankings due to Shoji and Sayuri not having the same psychic powers for their Pokemon battles like Natsume (and Itsuki prior to her) had. To address this, the former two started to focus and teach Double and Tag Battles to all trainers and gym examinees instead of Single Battles, focused on teamwork, prediction strategies, and coverage moves, and also hired various people including former Pokemon League officials and trainers, data analysts, mathematicians, and other professionals to research and analyse battle data. While their first year in their tenure saw some ups and downs, their intellectual diligence have been paying off for the most part, and the Gym kept their 2nd Class Gym Badge accreditation. The relocated main Gym now houses mainly white collar workers, scientists, Ace Trainers and Veterans across Shoyo and internationally that are more open to the current leadership.

The few artists that do set afoot into the current main gym are from backgrounds considered more highbrow and international, due to Shoji, Sayuri, and Shikimi’s patronage of the finer arts. As a precedent, head sponsor Shikimi Manakano asked the Gym to open up part of the former main building to assist the Shoyoese Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra with rehearsal space after Team Rocket took over and disrupted their parent broadcaster’s studio during the July 9th Insurrection. For the current gym campus, Yamabuki Kosei Wind Orchestra, which Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane have patronized since 1999, once relocated here for rehearsals when their usual concert hall was undergoing renovation in 2011. Barry Goodman’s Blue Note Yamabuki Orchestra, which Shoji Manakano have financially supported since 2009, regularly does a mid-day bi-monthly concert as Shoji’s stipulated conditions for his continued support. Finally, Manuelle Casagranda and Dorothee Arnault from the Yamabuki Nikikai Opera Group sometimes use the gym space for their rehearsals with their Pokemon and gym member-only recitals prior to their seasonal productions.

Shoji Manakano 真中野昇滋 (Cecil Middleton)

Aside from being the current leader of the main league division’s gym, Shoji is also Itsuki and Natsume’s younger cousin, Shikimi and Yoichi’s son, Sayuri’s godson and co-leader, and Takeharu’s career mentee. Shoji is one of the boy-genius type executive directors for the Yamabuki Stock Exchange, and was also the de facto leader who deals both with gym leader battles on Natsume’s behalf and with management alongside Takeharu, Sayuri, and Mitsuru. He also specializes in steel types, as an influence of his professional contacts. His immediate family in general are bilingual, and Shoji himself in particular has de facto native command of Columbian-Galarian.

Shoji’s big break came in 2009 when he was promoted to be the new gym leader in both name and deed after Natsume took her sabbatical to join Pokestars Studios in Columbia. While Shoji does not have the raw psychic power of his two cousins, he makes up for that with his strong teamwork with his co-leader following their switch to Tag Battles for all future examination matches. His Pokemon also enjoys fluid teamwork with each other from years of his study in behavioural psychology, his broad knowledge and thorough analysis that allows him to both make well-educated guesses. This makes Shoji and his reformed Gym far less scary than when Natsume was the leader, but also makes him arguably more formidable as he has been able to attain comparable battle statistics without any supernatural powers.

Shoji’s life may have been a high-flying one, but it has not always been a happy one. For a long time, Shoji has been working hard in being both a Pokemon trainer and as a business executive to satisfy to his parents’ ambition, which is generally easier said than done due to the latter two’s prominent careers. Furthermore, while Shoyo made great strides in modernising its society since the end of World War II, some communities are still set in their old and conformist ways, something which the third culture background-influenced Shoji have learnt the hard way.

As recently as 2009, when Shoji Manakano, together with fellow board member and friend Ann Surge-Takamaki and other business executives launched their trust to contribute to the Kanto League gyms, Shoji found himself demoted from Senior Director ostensibly due to a lack of performance later that year, and his parents have publicly denounced him as a troublesome prodigy who lacks the cultural understanding of the Shoyoese business scene. Many league fans however suspect that the Mitsubishi Group and a few of the other board members who were also part of the Iwasaki family had a hand in influencing other members to scapegoat Shoji, due to their longstanding hostility against Nivi Gym and Takeshi’s family.

Further adding to his workplace conflict is Shoji’s lack of cooperation and his alleged asocial behaviour which attracted further negative comments from fellow board members. Most journalists agree, however, that, this is partly due to Shoji’s rare aversion against backroom dealings and the lack of proper enforcement in market listing regulations, and to Shoji’s credit, he often had his business analysis and suspicions proven correctly. He was the only person who opposed Silph Co Ltd’s public listing in 2002, expressing his concerns in a few key aspects of transparency compliance that are not being met. As it turned out, criminal investigations in 2006-2007 revealed that Silph Company had been secretly trading with Team Rocket prior to their dispute during the 2004 July 9th Insurrection.

Pokemon: Metang, Bronzong, and Reuniclus (Gym-legal) Porygon 2, Klinklang and Magnezone (personal)

Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘佐勇理 (Lillianne d’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Most Shoyoese would be familiar with Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane as the Comissioner-General of Shoyo’s National Police Agency. Not as well-known is Sayuri is one of the de facto executive responsible for keeping the gym safe and its paperwork legally compliant. She is also one of the longest-serving members besides Takeharu. Alongside psychic types, she also specialise in Fighting types from her main work. After Shoji was promoted to be the new gym leader, he in turn promoted his godmother to be the other co-leader in both name and deed.

Sayuri is often known to have a no-nonsense, realist approach to life with a strong sense of justice. Many of her battle strategies involve covering possible weaknesses and reading the opponent’s (and their Pokemon’s) expressions, and predicting their battle approach based off that. This even extends to her hobbies: Sayuri is very good at card-counting in blackjack and calling out other people’s bluff in Vaquero Holdem, much to Itsuki and Natsume’s chagrin when they challenged her to a game they thought they could outwit with their psychic powers. Surprisingly, for all of her focus on the practical-minded, Sayuri is also a believer of Jesus and attends her local Protestant Sunday service as long as she is not urgently needed at work, which ended up baffling many Pokemon League journalists. For her side of the argument, Sayuri has mentioned in an interview that her practical-minded attitude and her Christian faith should not be mutually exclusive, whatever that is.

It is almost impossible to imagine just how Shoyo – and Yamabuki in particular – was plagued with crime and political instability a decade ago with heinous cases such as the Yamabuki Metro Poison Gas Incident of 1996, or the attempted insurrections in 2004 and 2007. We can only thank Mrs Dojima-Shirogane for her selfless and courageous work in bringing Team Rocket down, cleaning up corruption, and restoring the nation’s rule of law. Before her ascendancy as a senior official, politicians, bureaucrats, and big corporations colluding with Team Rocket were open secrets that only got the occasional prosecution. Unfortunately, by the time she started to assume senior positions, Team Rocket had already grown into the infamous far-right terrorist group of the 1990s and 2000s. Nevertheless, she started her war against corruption when she rose to become Secretariat Member in 1997. While previous officials were all too willing to turn a blind eye to Team Rocket’s and their allies’ illegal activities, Sayuri (and her husband Naoto who informally assisted her) absolutely refused to conform to said culture despite temptations and threats against her. Gradually, she and her loyal staff fought back to restore legal order, and to financially cut off Team Rocket. While this was not quite enough to prevent the July 9th Insurrection in 2004, or the Kogane Radio Tower Incident in 2007, analysts and commentators agreed that Dojima-Shirogane’s efforts prevented a possible overthrow of the Shoyoese Government and a reversal of many of the civil rights achieved under the current democracy, not to mention undoing the decades of peace goodwill Shoyo enjoyed since World War II and the decades of peace outside of UN peacekeeping operations.

Dojima-Shirogane is also noted as one of the few people who openly express her disagreement, no matter how high-ranking the other person is. If anything, the higher-ranked the other person is, the more aggressive Sauri’s demands for accountability, and the cruder her language becomes – which is ironic considering that the very aversion to such language is one of the stereotypes Christian people supposedly have. She was one of the few people who warned Parliament about possible signs of insurrections from Team Rocket as early as 1997. In one of the meetings for the Budgetary Discussions that year, she rebuked then Prime Minister Fuminori Konoe and his Civic Party to “get your ****ing act together, stop *****-footing around those far-right nutjobs [referring to Team Rocket], and fund the ****ing investigation or face a world of hurt” as quoted by Shukan Bunshun. While Sayuri’s rude language often earned Prime Minister Shikimi Manakano’s ire, Manakano ultimately respect Dojima-Shirogane’s honesty and good judgement more than she likes to admit. Furthermore, while many of the parliamentary members, and even fellow bureaucrats find Dojima-Shirogane as an overstepping political activist, with some conspiracy theorists claiming that she is a sleeper agent for Shukan Bunshun, or even the Shoyoese Communist Party (which they ironically denounce her as an agent of fascism), their constituencies often see Dojima-Shirogane as a voice of reason against petty-minded behaviours and unwise policy-making the Parliament is often guilty of, and this is often reflected in the letters the members receive from their potential voters.

On a less flattering note, her unfiltered opinions and verbal profanities are often the source of embarrassment to her friends and family. According to both her husband Naoto IV and their old friend Sakura Amagi, Sayuri was always rebellious in attitude and preferred to solve disputes with fistfights since her childhood days, which she never totally grown out of. Not only do Naoto IV and Sakura often rebuke Sayuri for her rude language, in a few occasions even Naoko have rebuked her mother for the same travesties.

Takeharu Kirijo 桐条武治 (Warren Paulson)

The current head of the Kirijo Group, an old friend and contact of Yoichi, and the founder of the Gym. Since the founding, Takeharu is also one of the de facto executive leaders of the Gym, responsible for the accounting books and public relations, a responsibility he now shares with his daughter Mitsuru. He also specialise in Electric types as part of his work involving AI and computer development. He has a working command of Galarian and Kalosian that he uses in business dealings. Although Takeharu was an old friend of Yoichi Manakano, they are not as close as they once were due to increasing disagreements between the two regarding company management and economic policies. In fact, Shukan Bunshun in 1999 reported that Takeharu stormed out of one of Yoichi’s lectures about the 1970s Saxceltian economic deregulation and the ensuing Big Bang with his daughter in tow. The same article also reported that Yoichi now no longer have been sending any invitations to Takeharu for social or network occasions. Although Takeharu expressed concerns about the new management by Shoji and Sayuri, most particularly alienating the former Gym trainers by Natsume and Itsuki, he also made clear that he ultimately supports the new administration – after all, with much of Shoyo socially progressing, it was only a matter of time before the Gym either adapt or die off.

Pokemon: Alolan Raichu, Wyrdeer, and Oricorio (Gym-legal) Porygon Z and Charjabug (personal)

Mitsuru Kirijo 桐条美鶴 (Maria Paulson)

As a girl-genius of business management, and a successor to her father’s business, Mitsuru is an executive board member to the Kirijo Group. She alongside Shoji assists Takeharu and Sayuri with the gym’s administration. She is a crossover character from Persona 3. Mitsuru is also formerly a third culture child like Shoji is, and is trilingual due to spending her childhood in Columbia in primary school, and in Kalos in middle school. Unlike Takeharu and Yoichi, Mitsuru and Shoji seem to be getting along better, and despite the pressure from the latter’s father to shun the Kirijo family, the two are happy to keep things the way they are. As with her father, Mitsuru assists Shoji and Sayuri with the accounting books, financial advice, and the logistics . Unlike her more skeptical father, Mitsuru more fully shared Shoji and Sayuri’s cosmopolitan and modernistic attitudes and headhunted and bankrolled many of the scientists.

Pokemon: Kadabra, Metang, Alolan Pikachu, and Porygon 2

Lila Jing (Rira Sei) 井璃羅 (Annabel Wellensburg)

Lila is a Sinoan police officer who is stationed in the Republic of Sinoa Embassy as a legal attache and an ICPO liason. As a former exchange student she was formerly the celebrity known as the Salon Maiden for the Kanto Battle Facility years ago. She regularly works with Shingo and the Metropolitan Police Department to coordinate their efforts in stamping out the Triads and other Sinoan-originated organized crime groups from Shoyo.

Shingo Niijima 新島信吾

The Chief Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department, who has been a long-time supporter of Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane’s administration of the nation’s police force. Like Commissioner-General Dojima-Shirogane, Metropolitan Comissioner Niijima was also responsible for the herculean task of removing Team Rocket from influence and addressing corruption within Yamabuki City, and particularly the Metropolitan Police Department. Many high-profile arrests resulted from this, including the previous Metropolitan Comissioner who was also Niijima’s former supervisor. Eventually, as we all know, Niijima led some 15,000 active officers and some 500 enlisted Pokemon trainers to subdue and arrest Team Rocket members during the July 9th Insurrection in 2004. He was formerly a member of the Fighting Dojo until Sayuri and Shikimi headhunted him and his daughter Sae. He is an original character from the Persona 3-5 trilogy fanfic adaptation crossed-over in turn to this series.

Naoko Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘直子 (Rebecca D’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Sayuri and Naoto IV’s daughter who is also a rising detective. From an early age, Naoko was considered as the detective prodigy that her father previously was famous for. Whether she would become a front-line detective like her father’s family, or a law enforcement administrator like her mother’s side is still under speculation, made harder by the lack of information from her or those surrounding her. Naoko seems to be more supporting of her mother’s leadership of the gym, and have also been enrolling in similar law faculty classes, and the two are often seen attending church together on Sundays. On the other hand, she generally acts more tactful like her father, and have even rebuked her own mother for the latter’s rude language in public.

Rachel and Thomas Schuster-Loire レイチェル・シャスターロワール

Mary and Keith’s two children and exchange students to Shoyo. Rachel currently studies in the Law Faculty of University of Yamabuki, while her younger brother Thomas is in high school.

Doctor of Music and Medicine Manuelle Casagrande 音楽・医学博士マニュエール・カサグランドゥ

A world-famous opera singer and the current musical director for the nationally famous Yamabuki Nikikai Opera Company. Outside of her musical career, Dr Casagrande was also an accomplished medical doctor and professor from Kalos and a former board member to the Académie Nationale de Médecine. Our readers from Shoyo and Kalos would also recognize her as the glamourous choreographer in various Pokemon opera shows, and a capable, if reckless, shameless, and alcohol-fuelled, sister Gym trainer from Flusselles [Anistar] City Gym. In spite of her rather…colourful tendencies, she has proved to be a capable administrator, and is rumored to be headhunted by the republic’s President Celine Marie de Gaulle for ambassador to Shoyo. Pokemon: Galarian Rapidash, Gardevoir, Meloetta

Dorothée Arnault ドロテー・アルナール

An up-and-coming Kalosian opera singer and Manuelle’s protégé who currently sings the nationally famous Yamabuki Nikikai Opera Company under tenure. She is also a Fairy-type specialist, formerly belonging to Romant-sous-Bois [Laverre] City Gym. Pokemon: Galarian Ponyta, Kirlia, Meowstic, Primarina

Chapter 2a.7 Atayama Bath and Inn and Pokemon Gym – Guren Branch 熱山温泉旅館附属ポケモンリーグジム – 紅蓮館

The Atayama Bath and Inn is the main attraction in town that features some of the best hot springs within Kanto’s metropolitan area. In addition, the Inn also features a television studio which is sometimes used by the local television network for Katsura’s quiz shows, and also by the Shirogane Television Network for Katsura’s Who Wants to Be a Millionare. Unfortunately, we could not interview any of Katsura’s trainers due to…well, their social awkwardness and creepy behaviour freaking all of our writers away from the Gym.

Katsura Atayama 熱山桂 (Blaine Burgandy)

Many of our readers are fan of Katsura’s Who Wants to Be a Millionare on TV, which features various people (sometimes including celebtrities and tarentos) compete for the title of Millionare and the ultimate 100 Million Yen Prize (roughly equivalent to 1 Million US dollars), hosted by the eponymous Katsura Atayama. While the main attraction of the show is, unsurprisingly, the drama and the thrill of the contestants’ attempts at the quizzes, a further attraction is the comically hammed up announcements from Katsura, the mystique surrounding him with him wearing his sunglasses and hat, and the suspense from the sound and display effects of an erupting volcano within the studio right after the contestants’ “Final Answers”.

Even better, Katsura even insists on wearing his sunglasses and his cool-looking hat even when running his other business, which is the Atayama Bath and Inn, famed for its therapeutic spring qualities from the nearby volcano. The fact that most TV footages and photoshoots shows Katsura with his sunglasses, and some of the seemingly absurd reasons Atayama gives for this habit added to the attractive mystery fit for the Quiz Host. No one was prepared to hear the real reason behind this, until an interview in 2010…

A recent exclusive interview from Shukan Bunshu revealed that Atayama was one of the scientists alongside Dr Fuji working on the genetic cloning project. In fairness, Atayama started to cooperate with his old mentor and friend to in reviving the latter’s daughter, and only became aware of Team Rocket’s involvement several years into the project. In exchange for a more lenient sentence with a shorter imprisonment period, Atayama turned in all of the evidence he had, voluntarily resigned from all of his academic appointments and agreed with his employers to abstain from all future academic work. It was this past guilt and shame that symbolised Atayama’s depiction, as someone who still struggles to come to terms with his past mistakes and move on, and who developed a case of agoraphobia from the guilt he had to deal with. While most people considers the current situation for the best, there are still many who are bitter with the Pandora’s Box that has been opened with the emergence of Mewtwo…

Author's notes:

As always, feedbacks and questions are welcome in this thread via this link!

Edited March 29 by henrymidfields

henrymidfields · April 13

The editorial teams as compiled their reports in the latest information of the Tokiwa Gym, now restructured and owned directly by the Kanto Regional League. This concludes the latest report the Comission has on the current situation of the Kanto Region Gyms.

Tokiwa Gym 常葉ポケモンリーグジム

Out of all of the Gyms in the Kanto region, the recently-reestablished Tokiwa Pokemon Gym is unique in that the Regional League Commission directly owns the Gym and directly appoints the Gym Leader and other managers. It is also the only Gym with a 1st Class Certification, therefore being the Gym that can only be challenged after winning the other seven badges. As such, Gym membership is highly competitive, with almost everyone there being full-time members and paid professionals. In exchange for generous salaries and the resulting opportunities for full-time training, members are assigned on-call duties as part of the League’s emergency response team for disasters. A few trainers that are qualified police officers also respond to

The new Gym was founded after the abolition of the old one, which was run by the Tojo-Sumiyoshi Family as a front organization for Team Rocket. The aftermath of the July 9 Insurrection uncovered many scandals in various organizations across Shoyo, one of which included various kickbacks and bribes involving both officials in the Regional League Commission and the Sports Agency in exchange for the Tojo-Sumiyoshi family’s former Gym. After some political wrangling which involved two Imperial Commissions and the resultant arrest of the previous Head Commissioner and several other senior officials, the restructured Regional League Commission took upon itself to establish a new gym directly under its jurisdiction.

Shigeru Okido 大木戸滋 (Gary Oak)

A grandson of the famous Pokemon Professor Yukinari Okido, Shigeru follows a more active approach as researcher, who is often out on missions and other adventures across Shoyo and the globe when his Gym does not have any examinations scheduled. Shigeru was once a competitor of the 2004 and 2005 Central Shoyo Region League alongside his former rival Satoshi Hatamoto and Midori Aoki until receiving his current calling as a researcher. Nowadays, he serves as the go to trainer for monitoring and investigating the different legendary Pokemon across the globe, often in cooperation with various adventuring trainers including his trusted former rivals. Fittingly, as a First-Class Gym Leader, Shigeru Okido represents the final examiner for aspiring league participants. Alongside his vast knowledge of different Pokemon, he also keeps all of his trusty partners in tip-top shape, whether for sanctioned battles or a no-holds-barred fight against power-hungry megalomaniacs, and no matter who you send out, he will have an answer. In addition, and many of his Elite-class Trainers in the Gym are handpicked by either him or Midori, or by Satoshi’s suggestions, and Shigeru has matured into someone humble enough to learn from them and adapt.

Pokemon: Blastoise, Pidgeot, Arcanine, Electivire, Tyranitar

Midori Aoki 青木緑 (Leanne Greenway)

Midori Aoki is an old friend and former rival of Shigeru who was also a budding league trainer and a participant in the 2004 and 2005 Central Shoyo Region League. Similarly to Shigeru, Midori also had her calling elsewhere, although in her case it was to record and tell the tragedies and joys of Pokemon in our society – in fact, she is our former writer who would still runs across Shoyo to chase after Pokemon of legend or myths, until Shigeru headhunted her for his monitoring and investigation project. While she may not have the refined techniques of Pokemon battles as Shigeru does, this is small comfort for many of the budding trainers when they cross her path and goad her into battle. Despite her outwardly shy behaviour, many of her past opponents admitted that she pays more attention to the battle than she lets on. And she will use anything, and everything to her advantage – whether to distract you, or to overpower you – making her an unpredictable, and arguably more dangerous opponent to face – a fact that even Shigeru himself admits in a recent interview.

Pokemon: Venusaur, Clefable, Kingdra, Kangaskhan, Ninetales

Datsura Tashiki 多色騨都螺 (Noland Malteser)

Datsura Tashiki is one of the more famous trainers in the gym which deserves a special mention. While most trainers know Tashiki as the Frontier Brain for the East Asian Battle Frontier in Majimina City, Tashiki is also the part-time consulting trainer for many of the Gym members of the Elite level, including Leader Shigeru himself, and has been responsible for assigning the personalised training regimens to each individual trainers. While most trainers could only master their battles through a selection of 12 at most, Tashiki is one of the few exceptions who can fight with all of the Pokemon found in Shoyo (numbering over 500 including the recently rediscovered Hisuan Pokemon) and still come on top.

Author's notes:

I'll be taking a short break, since I need to start writing for the Johto Gyms. As always, feedbacks and questions are welcome in this thread via this link!

Who's Who Columns - Shoyoese Pokemon League (Pokemon RBY to BW2 games/anime spoilers)

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 1: History of the Shoyoese Pokemon League

Historical Origins

Genesis of League Rules

Birth of the Modern League

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2: The League in Central Shoyo: At a glance

Chapter 2a: Kanto League Gyms

Chapter 2a.1: Nivi City Gym 丹備市営ポケモンリーグジム [Pewter City Gym]

Takeshi Iwasaki岩崎剛 (Brock Slaton)

Jiro Iwasaki岩崎仁郎 (Forrest Slaton)

Muno Iwasaki 岩崎武納 (Flint Slaton)

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.1: Hanada Aqua Arena and Gym 椛田アクアアリーナ・ポケモンリーグジム [Cerulean City Gym]

Kasumi Yawa 矢輪 霞 (Misty Waterflower)

Sakura, Ayame, and Botan Yawa 矢輪 櫻 ・彩芽・牡丹 (Daisy, Violet, and Lily Waterflower)

Kenji Makino 牧野健司 (Tracey Skechit)

Mizuho Iwasaki 岩崎瑞帆 (Lola Slaton)

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.3: Kuchiba US(Columbian)-Shoyoese Common Air Force Base Pokemon Gym [Vermillion City Gym] 在久地羽昇陽国・コロンビア合衆国共同空軍基地附属ポケモンリーグジム

Lieutenant Commander Matthias Surge マシアス（マチス）サージ

Ann Takamaki-Surge 高巻・サージ 杏

Lieutenant Colonel August Thormann オーガスト・ソアマン

Colonel Leona Denison Woods レオナ・デニソン・ウッズ

Lieutenant Raizo Kondo 近藤頼三 (Ray Baird)

Lieutenant Commander Raika Tachibana 館花来鹿 (Fredrica Burner)

Takayuki Yamamoto 山本鷹征 (Tac Yamamoto)

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.4: Takashimaya Tamamushi Gym [Celadon City Gym] 珠虫高島屋ポケモンリーグジム

Erika Matsudaira 松平 絵里香

Haruo Matsudaira 松平 温雄 (Haroldo Madeira)

Tsubasa Oribe 織部 つばさ (Appia Emerald)

Haru Okumura 奥村 春 (April Rearville)

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Special Column 1: Leading Pokemon Professors in Kanto and Johto

Doctor of Zoology and Sociology Yukinari Okido 獣医学・社会学博士 大木戸 幸成 (Dr Samuel Oak)

Doctor of Bioelectrical Engineering Masaki Sonezaki 生物電気工学博士 曾根崎 正樹 (Bill McKenzie)

Doctor of Biology Kanna Shimazaki 生物学博士 志摩崎 栞那 (Lorelei Rhineland)

Doctor of Biology Yukiharu Utsugi 生物学博士 宇都木 幸治 (Elijiah Elm)

Doctor of Archaeology Sully Hale 考古学博士 シュリー・ヘール

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.5: Iga Ninjutu School Koga House Dojo and Pokemon Gym 伊賀流忍術古河組道場附属ポケモンリーグジム

Kyo Koga 古河 享 (Master Koga)

Aya Koga 古河 綾

Anzu Koga 古河 杏 (Janine Koga)

Shamira Nevrand シャミア ネーヴラント

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.6a: Shotokan Karate Dojo City League Gym 松濤館空手道場シティーリーグジム

Shiba Kyan 喜屋武 柴 (Bruno Kyan)

Takenori Funakoshi 船越武徳

Nobuhiko Funakoshi 船越修彦

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.6b: Yamabuki Gym City League (Ueno Park) Branch Campus 山吹ジム・シティーリーグ（上野公園）分館

Natsume Manakano 真中野 奈津女 (Sabrina Middleton)

Itsuki Manakano 真中野 斎 (William Middleton)

Yashiro Tsurugi 剣 弥代 (Jason Swordward)

Maiko Shimazaki 志摩崎 舞子 (Sirena Rhineland)

Kiria Kurono 黒乃 霧亜

Naoto Dojima-Shirogane IV 堂島白鐘 直斗４世 (Repton D’Eglise- Whitechapel IV)

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Chapter 2a.6c: Yamabuki Gym Main Campus 山吹ジム本館

Shoji Manakano 真中野 昇滋 (Cecil Middleton)

Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘 佐勇理 (Lillianne d’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Takeharu Kirijo 桐条 武治 (Warren Paulson)

Mitsuru Kirijo 桐条 美鶴 (Maria Paulson)

Lila Jing (Rira Sei) 井 璃羅 (Annabel Wellensburg)

Shingo Niijima 新島 信吾

Naoko Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘 直子 (Rebecca D’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Kasumi Yawa 矢輪霞 (Misty Waterflower)

Sakura, Ayame, and Botan Yawa 矢輪櫻・彩芽・牡丹 (Daisy, Violet, and Lily Waterflower)

Chapter 2a.3: Kuchiba US(Columbian)-Shoyoese Common Air Force Base Pokemon Gym [Vermillion City Gym]
在久地羽昇陽国・コロンビア合衆国共同空軍基地附属ポケモンリーグジム

Ann Takamaki-Surge 高巻・サージ杏

Chapter 2a.4: Takashimaya Tamamushi Gym [Celadon City Gym]
珠虫高島屋ポケモンリーグジム

Erika Matsudaira 松平絵里香

Haruo Matsudaira 松平温雄 (Haroldo Madeira)

Tsubasa Oribe 織部つばさ (Appia Emerald)

Haru Okumura 奥村春 (April Rearville)

Doctor of Zoology and Sociology Yukinari Okido 獣医学・社会学博士大木戸幸成 (Dr Samuel Oak)

Doctor of Bioelectrical Engineering Masaki Sonezaki 生物電気工学博士曾根崎正樹 (Bill McKenzie)

Doctor of Biology Kanna Shimazaki 生物学博士志摩崎栞那 (Lorelei Rhineland)

Doctor of Biology Yukiharu Utsugi 生物学博士宇都木幸治 (Elijiah Elm)

Doctor of Archaeology Sully Hale 考古学博士シュリー・ヘール

Chapter 2a.5: Iga Ninjutu School Koga House Dojo and Pokemon Gym
伊賀流忍術古河組道場附属ポケモンリーグジム

Kyo Koga 古河享 (Master Koga)

Aya Koga 古河綾

Anzu Koga 古河杏 (Janine Koga)

Shamira Nevrand シャミアネーヴラント

Shiba Kyan 喜屋武柴 (Bruno Kyan)

Natsume Manakano 真中野奈津女 (Sabrina Middleton)

Itsuki Manakano 真中野斎 (William Middleton)

Yashiro Tsurugi 剣弥代 (Jason Swordward)

Maiko Shimazaki 志摩崎舞子 (Sirena Rhineland)

Kiria Kurono 黒乃霧亜

Naoto Dojima-Shirogane IV 堂島白鐘直斗４世 (Repton D’Eglise- Whitechapel IV)

Shoji Manakano 真中野昇滋 (Cecil Middleton)

Sayuri Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘佐勇理 (Lillianne d’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Takeharu Kirijo 桐条武治 (Warren Paulson)

Mitsuru Kirijo 桐条美鶴 (Maria Paulson)

Lila Jing (Rira Sei) 井璃羅 (Annabel Wellensburg)

Shingo Niijima 新島信吾

Naoko Dojima-Shirogane 堂島白鐘直子 (Rebecca D’Eglise-Whitechapel)

Doctor of Music and Medicine Manuelle Casagrande 音楽・医学博士マニュエール・カサグランドゥ

Shikimi Manakano 真中野志揮美 (Sarah Middleton)

Yoichi Manakano 真中野陽一 (Joseph Middleton)

Katsura Atayama 熱山桂 (Blaine Burgandy)

Shigeru Okido 大木戸滋 (Gary Oak)

Midori Aoki 青木緑 (Leanne Greenway)

Datsura Tashiki 多色騨都螺 (Noland Malteser)