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Major appearances
Cacturne debuted in A Cacturne for the Worse, where it was used in the Purika City Pokémon Contest. In the Appeals Round, it used its Bullet Seed attack to draw a frightening skull and crossbones on the stage. Its performance left the three judges very impressed and easily granted Harley a place in the second stage. In the Battle Round, it was seen defeating an Azurill to reach the finals. There, it went up against May's Bulbasaur. It battled well, but ended up being knocked out by a powerful and beautiful combination of Razor Leaf and Petal Dance.
Cacturne is Harley's main partner and the two seem to share a strong bond, with Harley often calling it "my buddy" when summoning it from its Poké Ball. Harley is immensely proud of his Cacturne and is easily offended when someone does not show Cacturne the same level of appreciation as he does. In A Cacturne for the Worse, Harley felt insulted when May had to scan Cacturne with her Pokédex. He also did not like when she called Cacturne "scary."
Minor appearances
Cacturne appears in Destiny Deoxys, both in the beginning of the movie, as well as under the ownership of a trainer in the LaRousse City mall. This stands as its only other appearance in the main series anime outside of Harley's Cacturne.
Design
Cacturne was adapted for the anime by the series' character designer. As can be seen in it's settei, Cacturne's eyes are intended to protrude from its body (Japanese: 目は丸く出ていて literally "Eyes round and protruding.") when seen at certain angles. Due to the nature of how the core series' 3D models were designed to have two-dimensional eyes as part of a texture prior to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Cacturne didn't adopt this trait for the games until its appearance in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Furthermore, Cacturne is seen as rather nimble when compared to its appearance in the core series games, given how the judges were marveled at its speed during the Purika City Pokémon Contest in A Cacturne for the Worse. Although it uses this speed to dodge a variety of attacks from May's Bulbasaur, its use of contact moves such as Faint Attack put it at a heavy disadvantage. For this reason it often opts to attack from a distance, using moves such as Cotton Spore and Bullet Seed, which are shot from its mouth.
Attacks such as Needle Arm and Pin Missile can protrude directly from Cacturne's spikes across its arms and legs, though it often opts to stand still during the latter, adopting a slightly hunched pose. They appear as thin white lines that can curve at an angle, as opposed to singular pins that are shot out in quick succession, as is the case in most games. Additionally, Cacturne is never seen using the atypical pose made by a scarecrow as it does when using a non-contact move in the games, despite it's Pokémon category remaining as the Scarecrow Pokémon.
When sent out of a Poké Ball under the ownership of Harley, it does so almost exclusively through BANK animation following it's initial appearance in A Cacturne for the Worse. The only difference on subsequent uses of this BANK is the change in color for the digital background.
Harley's Cacturne being sent out of a
Poké Ball, which is reused
BANK animation throughout nearly all of it's appearances.
Pokédex entries
| Episode
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Pokémon
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Source
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Entry
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| AG103
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Cacturne
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May's Pokédex
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Cacturne, the Scarecrow Pokémon. Cacturne is the evolved form of Cacnea, and holds traits of both Grass and Dark types. It rarely moves during the day, but is active once the temperature drops at night.
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