Tad

Tad in the Original Series

Tad (Japanese: ヒデ Hide) is a character of the day of the Pokémon anime who appeared in Charizard Chills. Ash and his friends were riding on Lapras when they met Tad. He almost ran them over with his boat, causing Misty to yell at him. Tad explained that he wanted to challenge Ash to a two-on-two battle, and Ash accepted.

Tad sent out his Poliwrath, and managed to defeat both Ash's Pikachu and Charizard, because Charizard refused to listen to Ash. Tad then told Ash that he would accept a rematch with him when he learned how to train his Charizard.

The next day, Pikachu was stolen by Team Rocket. With Charizard now trusting him after the lengths he had gone to while trying to help him, Ash successfully rescued Pikachu. Tad, seeing what happened, asked Ash if he was ready for the rematch. Ash accepted, and was able to defeat Tad's Poliwrath with Charizard, thanks to Charizard using its ability to fly to knock Poliwrath off its feet and subsequently using its trademark Seismic Toss attack.

Tad told Ash that he hoped to meet him in the Orange League, but he hasn't been seen since his only appearance.

He briefly reappeared in a flashback in The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.

Pokémon

This listing is of Tad's known Pokémon:

Poliwrath

Debut	Charizard Chills
Voice actors
Japanese	Unsho Ishizuka
English	Eric Stuart

Tad sent out his Poliwrath against Ash's Pikachu. Despite the type advantage, Pikachu ended up losing, with Tad's Poliwrath using Double Team to make Pikachu wear down his electricity and then attacking with Poliwrath's physical attacks. Ash then proceeded to sent out his Charizard, but Charizard refused to listen to Ash's orders, and kept using Flamethrower against the Water-type Pokémon. The battle ended when Tad had his Poliwrath freeze Charizard with Ice Beam.

The next day it had a rematch against Ash's Charizard, who finally fainted Poliwrath with Seismic Toss.

It reappeared in a flashback in The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.

Poliwrath's known moves are Double Team, Mega Kick, Body Slam, Water Gun, Hypnosis and Ice Beam.

Tad also has at least one other Pokémon, as he had intended to use a total of two Pokémon against Ash. However, as Poliwrath had defeated both Pikachu and Charizard, this second Pokémon was never seen.

Voice actors

Language Voice actor Japanese 真殿光昭 Mitsuaki Madono English Addie Blaustein (EP105) Norwegian Tommy Karlsen Polish Robert Ostolski Brazilian Portuguese Sílvio Giraldi Spanish Latin America Irwin Daayán Spain Rafa Romero

Trivia

• Tad has a striking resemblance to Tracey Sketchit. Also, both of their dub names begin with a T and both wear headbands.
  • In a scene of the episode Tad appears in, Tracey's headband is colored green like Tad's, though his is usually pink.
• The belt that Tad's Poliwrath is wearing greatly resembles to the P1 Grand Prix's belt that Ash's Primeape wears at the end of The Punchy Pokémon, it is very possible that Tad is born, or lives in the city where the P1 Grand Prix takes place, as he mentions it himself.
• Tad mentions that he hopes to compete against Ash in the Orange League, but it was later shown that the Orange League does not involve a championship competition like the Indigo League. This may be a dub error.
• Tad's English name is a reference to his Pokémon, Poliwrath, who is referred to by the Pokédex as a "'Tadpole Pokémon."

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