From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Ash's Chimchar (Japanese: サトシのヒコザル Satoshi's Hikozaru) is a Pokémon owned by Ash. Chimchar is voiced by 林原めぐみ Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese and Bill Rogers in English. Chimchar was initially owned by Paul but joined Ash's team after being released in Glory Blaze.
History
With Paul
When Paul first saw Chimchar, it was being chased by a group of Zangoose. The situation looked bad for Chimchar but in its stress it pulled off an extremely powerful Flame Wheel. This impressed Paul enough to add Chimchar to his regular team. However, this first impression did not match up to Chimchar's normal abilities and so Paul regularly criticized it for being weak. After this incident, Chimchar had a morbid fear of all Zangoose.
Chimchar's first episode was When Pokémon Worlds Collide where Paul used it to battle Ash's Aipom. It fought well but lost in the end. Chimchar reappeared in Different Strokes for Different Blokes and where it won against Ash's Turtwig and Shapes of Things to Come where it beat Roark's Onix but lost to Roark's Cranidos.
After losing to Cynthia's Garchomp in Top-Down Training, Paul realized that Chimchar was not fulfilling his expectations. This culminated in the tag battle tournament arc that spanned through Tag, We're It!, Glory Blaze and Smells Like Team Spirit where he was forced to battle alongside Ash. That night, Ash discovered Paul's training regime, which involved his Pokémon attacking Chimchar in the hopes of creating the power he had seen before. Ash intervened and took Chimchar to the Pokémon Center where Nurse Joy told Paul it would be unable to battle. However, Paul ignored this warning.
During the next battle against a Zangoose and a Metagross, Chimchar was too scared to make any attack when caught in Zangoose's claws and had to be saved by Turtwig, who was then seriously hurt through Chimchar following Paul's orders. Chimchar made up for this by protecting Turtwig from a Fire Blast attack. Furious at it, Paul refused to give any orders and he simply turned away. Shocked by this, Ash gave Chimchar commands to get them out of the situation before finishing the battle with Turtwig. After the battle, Paul released Chimchar in front of Ash, who then invited it to join him.
With Ash
In Tears For Fears!, Ash and his friends had a picnic party. Chimchar watched the Pokémon having fun and it kept having flashbacks of when it was still in Paul's possession reflecting on how its former trainer treated it as opposed to how Ash does, after which it cried tears of joy as it was finally treated with patience and kindness by Ash and his friends, something Paul failed to do as its trainer. In the same episode, Chimchar overcame its morbid fear of Zangoose stated above.
Soon after the Wallace Cup, Ash and co. came across Paul. Ash and Paul had an enormous argument at which point an enraged Ash challenged Paul to a battle. Chimchar volunteered to go up against Paul and faced Paul's Ursaring. Ursaring and Paul used brutal tactics and Chimchar was pushed to the point of using Blaze. Chimchar easily defeated Ursaring, but went on an uncontrollable rampage. Ash ran up to Chimchar and grabbed it, begging it to stop. Chimchar continued to struggle, biting Ash at one point. Eventually it was embraced by Ash and Chimchar calmed down.
Moves used
Trivia
- This is Ash's third primate-based Pokémon, the others being Primeape and Aipom. Unlike the other two, however, Chimchar has not stolen Ash's hat (as of the current episode).
- Chimchar is the only one of Ash's Template:Type2 Pokémon that can use a Template:Type2 move, which is Dig.
- Chimchar being released by its uncaring original trainer, then being captured by Ash echoes a similar incident in Kanto, which resulted in Ash getting a Charmander.
- Because of his capture of Chimchar, Ash now has owned each Fire-type starter whose English name begins with a C and whose Japanese name begins with a ヒ hi: Charmander, Cyndaquil, and Chimchar. Incidentally, Charmander and Chimchar were either abused or abandoned by their former trainers, while Cyndaquil narrowly avoided being captured by a potentially abusive trainer.
- Fans initially assumed Chimchar to be Paul's starter Pokémon but it was revealed in Top-Down Training! that Paul's starter Pokémon was actually a Turtwig, possibly in parallel to Ash's.
- For Crossing the Battle Line!, Professor Oak's lecture is about Ash's Chimchar.
- Chimchar is the first of Ash's Pokémon to activate the ability Blaze.
- Chimchar is Ash's third Pokémon voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese. The other two are Bulbasaur and Phanpy.
- Chimchar is also Ash's third Pokémon voiced by Bill Rogers in the English dub. The other two are Corphish and Sceptile.
- Chimchar is the second Fire-type starter Pokémon that did not obey Ash for a period of time (though, unlike Charizard, Chimchar couldn't control itself at the time).
- Should Chimchar evolve it should parallel Charizard by evolving quickly and not obeying Ash
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Chimchar.
