Zander

Zander

Zander (Japanese: ゼンキチ Zenkichi) is a character of the day who appeared in Caterpie's Big Dilemma.

A student of Dr. Gordon's, Zander appears to spend most of his time at the doctor's lab. It was there that the young boy met Ash and his friends, who he believed were thieves trying to sneak into the lab. When he realized that they were actually heading to Saffron City, he immediately apologized.

Soon afterwards, Team Rocket broke into the doctor's lab and spilled some of Dr. Gordon's Mystery Candy Complete, which a Caterpie that Zander had been caring for immediately ate. The Bug Pokémon immediately began growing to enormous proportions before escaping the lab and wreaking havoc in a nearby city.

Suddenly, Team Rocket reappeared and kidnapped Dr. Gordon, fleeing on their giant Dustox, who had also been fed the Mystery Candy Complete. Caterpie eventually evolved into a Metapod, and again into Butterfree. With the help of Zander and Ash, it saved the doctor from Team Rocket. Afterwards, Butterfree shrunk back down to its normal size. Zander was proud of Butterfree for saving the doctor and vowed to train it. He then bade farewell to Ash and the others, hoping that he and Ash would meet again someday.

Pokémon

Befriended

Caterpie → Metapod → Butterfree

Debut	Caterpie's Big Dilemma
Voice actors
Japanese	Rikako Aikawa
English	Rikako Aikawa (as Caterpie and Butterfree) Eric Stuart (as Metapod)

Zander first encountered Caterpie in the nearby woods, though he never officially caught it.

Butterfree first appeared as a Caterpie, where it confronted Ash and his friends, using String Shot to tie the suspected thieves up. Zander soon apologized after realizing his mistake.

Later, Caterpie defeated Team Rocket from stealing Dr. Gordon's lab blueprints with the help of Pikachu. Afterwards, Caterpie found and ate one of the doctor's experimental "Mystery Candy Complete", causing it to continually grow and eventually cause destruction to a nearby city. Caterpie stopped its unintended rampage to rest on a city radio tower so it could evolve, eventually into a Butterfree. With its new wings, Butterfree, alongside Zander and Ash, pursued Team Rocket and their giant Dustox to rescue the kidnapped Dr. Gordon. Shortly afterwards, Butterfree reverted to its original size.

Butterfree's known moves are String Shot, Supersonic, and Whirlwind.

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  Zander's Butterfree as Caterpie

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  Zander's Butterfree as Metapod

Voice actors

Language Voice actor Japanese 半場友恵 Tomoe Hanba English Rebecca Honig Finnish Peter Pihlström Brazilian Portuguese Yuri Chesman European Spanish Chelo Vivares

Trivia

• Pokémon.com's summary for the episode misspells Zander's name as Xander.

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.