Ash's Charizard
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Ash's Charizard (Japanese: サトシのリザードン Satoshi's Lizardon) was the fifth Pokémon acquired by Ash Ketchum in the Kanto region. Its voice actor in both Japanese and English is Shin'ichirō Miki. In English, Michael Haigney was the voice of it as a Charmander and Eric Stuart was its voice as a Charmeleon.
History
In Kanto
Charizard was originally obtained as a Charmander in Charmander the Stray Pokémon. The Charmander was abandoned by Damian, and Ash and his friends found and nurtured it back to health. Charmander then chose to join Ash. It was immediately one of Ash's most used Pokémon, defeating such opponents as a Golem, a Jynx, Koga's Golbat, Erika's Weepinbell, and a Primeape (which Ash subsequently captured).
Charmander evolved into Charmeleon in March of the Exeggutor Squad and quickly lost its loyalty to Ash, attacking a Paras when Ash was trying to deliberately lose in order to help Paras evolve (The Problem with Paras). A few episodes down the line, it evolved again into Charizard in Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon to battle an Aerodactyl. From the time of its becoming Charmeleon to the Orange Islands episode Charizard Chills, Charizard refused to obey Ash, the only exception being when he decided to test his strength against Blaine's powerful Magmar during Ash's attempts to win a Volcano Badge. Charizard's disloyalty especially hurt Ash the most during the Indigo League championships, causing Ash to forfeit the fifth round when it refused to battle Ritchie's Pikachu, Sparky.
In the Orange Archipelago
After Charizard Chills, however, it became one of Ash's most reliable Pokémon, considered by many to be his strongest, even stronger than Pikachu. Charizard's return to Ash's side is due to being frozen by a powerful Poliwrath; Ash stayed up all night trying to help it, thus earning Charizard's respect and reminding it of all that Ash had done for it back when he was a Charmander.
It participated in Ash's Gym Battle against Luana, which was also the series's first double battle, pitting it and Pikachu against Luana's Alakazam and Marowak; although the two Pokémon initially had trouble collaborating, they eventually managed to work together, Pikachu helping to free Charizard from Alakazam's Psychic attack and Charizard 'catching' Pikachu after it was hit by Marowak's Bonemerang attack. Ash then used it in his Orange League battle against Drake, defeating his Electabuzz and subsequently battling his Dragonite before it fainted.
Johto
It participated in Ash's first Johto Gym battle against Falkner, where it defeated Falkner's Pidgeot despite the latter's impressive Speed. In Charizard's Burning Ambition, Ash left his Charizard in the Charicific Valley with Liza to train and become more powerful. While there, it took the role of bodyguard for Liza's Charizard, Charla, and the two have struck up a Template:S. The two Charizard occasionally visit the Dragon's Valley in Blackthorn City, one such visit coincidentally being when Ash was there for his final Johto gym battle, resulting in Charizard helping Ash defeat Clair's newly-evolved Dragonair in his rematch with her by causing the water in the gym's pool to evaporate with its Flamethrower and Fire Spin, thus depriving Dragonair of its protection.
Charizard can be called upon at any time and has been used in many major battles when Ash requires its firepower. Ash later used Charizard in the Silver Conference during his fight against Gary Oak in Can't Beat the Heat! (during which it decisively defeated Gary's Blastoise despite the type disadvantage and having already defeated Gary's Scizor and Golem). It was then used in Ash's fight against Harrison, where it was defeated by Harrison's Blaziken after a tough fight. However, Charizard injured Blaziken so badly that it couldn't fight the next day.
Kanto Battle Frontier
In The Symbol Life, Charizard returned for Ash's first Battle Frontier battle, where it took on Noland's Articuno at the Battle Factory and won thanks to its use of the newly-learned Overheat, the unorthodox strategy of catching Articuno as it tried to use Steel Wing on it, and its trademark Seismic Toss. Charizard also battled alongside Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu in a four-on-four battle against Brandon's Pokémon in Gathering the Gang of Four!, but it was defeated by Brandon's Dusclops.
Moves used
- Flamethrower
- Submission
- Seismic Toss
- Dragon Rage
- Whirlwind
- Rage
- Ember
- Take Down
- Tackle
- Fly
- DragonBreath
- Skull Bash
- Fire Spin
- Overheat
- Steel Wing
Moves that have been used most recently are italicized.
Trivia
- Out of all of Ash's Pokémon, Charizard has used the most moves (14) followed by Snorlax and Pikachu (10), and Bulbasaur (with 9).
- Paul's Chimchar was later in a similar situation to Charmander, with the original trainer releasing it due to it never winning any battles and Ash subsequently taking it in and managing to encourage it to release its full potential.
- 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.
- During Tanks a Lot!, Brock mentioned that Charizard was male when saying that Charizard could use his Flamethrower to destroy the Arbo-Tank, but since this only occurred in the dub it is uncertain how dependable this information is.
- According to the anime, Charizard and its pre-evolutions die if the flame on their tails go out. However, Ash's Charizard once had its tail completely submerged in a pool of water, as well as falling into the ocean as a Charmander, but it was not harmed either time.
- Charizard was actually Ash's third Pokémon to disobey him. The first two were Pikachu and Primeape, although it disobeyed Ash for far longer than the other two.
- Charizard is also the first Pokémon to disobey its Trainer after evolving in the Pokémon anime, the second being Dawn's Mamoswine.
- Sceptile and Charizard are the only starter Pokémon that Ash owned that evolved to their final stage. Coincidentally, both Pokémon were lizard-based in their first form (Treecko and Charmander). They are also Ash's only Pokémon that are in the Dragon Egg Group.
- Starting with its battle against Blaine's Magmar, Charizard, in almost every major battle it's been in and Ash has won, has defeated his opponent with Seismic Toss. The only exceptions are in the battle against Luana (though it's debatable whether this counts, since Charizard was fighting alongside Pikachu and didn't deliver the finishing blow), fighting Gary's Golem (due to it being too heavy to lift off the ground), Gary's Scizor (scizor was knocked out with a flamethrower) and when it fought against a wild Dragonite with the help of Clair's Dragonair. On a somewhat interesting note, it attempted to do the same against Brandon's Dusclops, but it failed since Dusclops is immune to Fighting-type moves.
- In the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, Charizard was much more violent, and could (normally) only be calmed by a torch that Ash carried around, which contained a flame from Moltres. Also, during the battle against Ritchie, it goes berserk and severely injures his Charizard, which causes Ash to, out of guilt, forfeit the battle, even though he technically won. It is later mentioned that Ritchie's Charizard will be okay.
- Charizard is Ash's only Template:Type2 to evolve as of yet.
- Charizard was the first Pokémon in the anime to have defeated a legendary Pokémon in the form of Noland's Articuno in The Symbol Life.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard.
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