Paul

This article is about the character from the Diamond & Pearl series. For the English voice actor credited as Ed Paul, see Ted Lewis.

Paul シンジ Shinji
[[File:File:ShinjiDP.png\|{{{size}}}]] Paul
Age	11 (est. by Pokeani)
Gender	Male
Eye color	Black
Hair color	Purple
Hometown	Veilstone City
Region	Sinnoh
Relatives	Reggie (brother)
Trainer class	Trainer
Anime debut	Two Degrees of Separation
English voice actor	Julián Rebolledo
Japanese voice actor	Kiyotaka Furushima

Paul (Japanese: シンジ Shinji) is a rival of Ash in the anime. He is from Veilstone City in Sinnoh. He was first seen at the end of Two Degrees of Separation, though his full introduction was in When Pokémon Worlds Collide!.

Personality and training

Paul's only concern in his Pokémon is of their strength in battle. He strongly dislikes weak Pokémon and has a habit of releasing them if they do not meet his high expectations. To this effect, Paul always checks new captures with his Pokédex to learn what moves they know and trains the Pokémon he keeps harshly to make them strong. He feels that bonding with Pokémon would only turn them into slackers. He also has a habit of scolding his Pokémon for losing to opponents he feels they could have beaten, and this was a recurring trait when he owned Chimchar. He also scolded his Honchkrow when it lost to Ash's newly evolved Staraptor in Pursuing a Lofty Goal!. As a person, he is very callous and even at times brutal, especially in battle; and as a result, he has been shown to have very little emotion other than an occasional rough smile.

Sometimes, he gives some of his Pokémon to his brother, Reggie, for temporary training and caretaking, as revealed in Lost Leader Strategy!. Paul also disagrees with his brother for giving up on being a Pokémon Trainer after failing to get the Brave Symbol. He feels his brother's approach and view on this to be wrong.

DP128 was an important episode that revealed much about Paul's motivation as a Pokémon trainer and more about his character. When Reggie was a roaming Pokémon trainer, he lost to Brandon as revealed in DP128. Reggie's loss to Brandon is what caused Paul to be so adamant about strength in battle. This single loss is also what caused Paul to become the callous person he was, and that was because of how his brother handled the loss. Instead of bearing the shame of his loss to Brandon, Reggie moved on with his life and put the loss behind him. Paul found this to be unacceptable, and he became disappointed of his brother. He challenged Brandon to a full battle in hopes that he would be able to do what his brother never could. However, Paul lost to Brandon without being able to knock out any of Brandon's Pokémon.

At the beginning it was assumed that Paul was a trainer just starting out. However this was proven false in Top-Down Training where he revealed that he had already traveled through Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, participating in their respective Leagues before returning to Sinnoh. In DP128, it was revealed that Kanto was the very first region he traveled through.

Paul feels that Ash is a weak trainer and can easily bring on Ash's anger by stating it. Ash's very different attitude towards being friends with Pokémon also provides much fuel to their rivalry. Paul barely recognizes their rivalry and Ash as a trainer and ignores Ash's speeches about loving his Pokémon. Ash on the other hand has a near hatred of Paul that flares up at Paul's indifference to his Pokémon. However Ash accepts that Paul is a strong trainer but considers himself on the same par as him. Paul's only hint of respect for Ash was in DP128 when he was very surprised to hear that Ash had beaten Brandon in a Pokémon battle before.

Although Paul finds most of Ash's Pokémon weak, he has shown a particular interest in his Pikachu. Paul is also angered by how Ash contradicts himself by criticizing Paul's training methods and then he uses similar methods, such as entering the Wallace Cup, despite Ash's motivations being clearly different than Paul's.

Paul appears to feel indifference to Dawn, showing that he didn't even know her name in A Gruff Act to Follow. Paul shows mild respect as well as distaste towards Brock, probably because Brock supports Ash's view on Pokémon. Paul does show respect for his elders, such as Professor Rowan, Cynthia, Nurse Joy and Brandon .

Following Reggie's suggestion in DP128, Paul battled Ash in a full battle in DP131 and DP132. Despite Ash's Chimchar evolving into Monferno, his strategy of completely overwhelming Ash with his more powerful Pokémon succeeded, and as a result, he was able to win the match easily and in the process, only lost two of his Pokémon in the match.

Pokémon

This listing is of Paul's Pokémon as of the most recent Japanese episode:

On hand

As a result of Paul's selective team creation, his active team is composed of Pokémon that he deems to be powerful. While the captures of Ursaring and Gliscor were shown in Different Strokes for Different Blokes and Riding the Winds of Change! respectively, the rest were obtained off-screen.

Unknown

Debut	[[]]