Professor Westwood V

Westwood

Professor Westwood V (Japanese: ニシノモリ教授　５世 Professor Nishinomori V) is a character of the day who appeared in The Evolution Solution.

In the anime

Upon reaching Seafoam Island, Ash and his friends meet Professor Westwood. Ash sums up Westwood's personality by whispering "He seems a little eccentric". Eccentric, indeed, can describe Professor Westwood, who prefers to be called Westwood V, as Brock even theorizes that his eccentricity is hereditary; portraits of four identical Westwood ancestors adorn the walls on the Westwood V's Laboratory as well as his younger self.

He is esteemed for his work on the Pokédex, which he wrote the entries for. Professor Westwood admitted to Ash later in the episode, though, that he made up some of the information in the Pokédex. Westwood doesn't travel much, and merely relies on reports for his Pokédex data.

When Ash and friends meet up with him, his task at that time was to discover how Slowpoke evolve into Slowbro. The problem, after stumping the famous professor, was soon solved as the episode progressed, with Jessie's Shellder clamping on Westwood's Slowpoke's tail. Slowpoke evolved into Slowbro, thus commencing Westwood's studies on the matter.

This task done was in the hope that he would be awarded more, thus thinking that the Pokémon Symposium would be impressed by his work. The outcome of this, though, is uncertain.

Westwood is eccentric in such a way that he asks the portraits of Westwood I to IV to forgive him for his mistakes, and sometimes forgets and requests forgiveness from his own portrait, as well. He has also expressed desire to surpass his predecessors' achievements, too, though, and even commented that he deserved a statue rather than a mere portrait.

Westwood might be also considered a bit vain, as he has not replaced his portrait with a more recent one. His portrait was taken some time ago, as he had a full head of hair in the said painting. He was quite good looking, anyway, and tends to stare at his portrait at length after prostrating to the other four.

Other than that, Westwood has dedicated his life to being a Pokémon Professor and researcher, and cares much for his last remaining Pokémon, Slowpoke, as evident from the part where Team Rocket tried to capture it.

Professor Westwood's Slowpoke, which subsequently evolved into Slowbro after Jessie's Shellder accidentally clamped on its tail, is Westwood's last remaining Pokémon after his previous ones had been given away to beginning Trainers or released. Slowbro enjoys the company of Misty's Psyduck, who shares its unintelligent, clueless look.

Pokémon

On hand

Slowpoke → Slowbro

Debut	The Evolution Solution
Voice actors
Japanese	Hirotaka Suzuoki
English	Eric Stuart

Professor Westwood V's Slowbro first appeared when he had it to find out what happens with a Slowpoke and a Shellder. It appeared as a Slowpoke on a rock outside Westwood's lab, having its tail in the water. As Ash and his friends investigated, Misty's Psyduck came out and engaged Slowpoke in a random, unintelligible conversation. A Magikarp grabbed both of their tails, but nothing happened.

Later, when Team Rocket attempted to capture all of the Pokémon in Westwood V's lab, Slowpoke came in. He tried to run away with Slowpoke, but the trio caught up. Jessie sent out her newly captured Shellder, and it clamped onto Psyduck. This gave it a headache, prompting it to use Disable and Confusion, which sent Team Rocket flying. Slowpoke walked over to Psyduck to thank it, but it tripped on Shellder, which clamped onto its tail and caused it to evolve into Slowbro. Team Rocket tried to grab it, but it used Mega Punch, sending them flying again. In the end, Psyduck said goodbye to Slowbro in another random conversation.

Slowbro's known moves are Amnesia and Mega Punch.

On Slowbro's tail

Shellder

Debut	The Evolution Solution
Voice actors
Japanese	Shin-ichiro Miki
English	Michael Haigney

Main article: List of Pokémon temporarily owned by the Team Rocket trio → Shellder

Shellder was originally Jessie's, but after Slowpoke tripped, it clamped onto its tail, causing it to evolve.

Shellder's known moves before attaching itself to Slowpoke were Ice Beam and Clamp.

Voice actors

Language Voice actor Japanese 龍田直樹 Naoki Tatsuta English Nathan Price Arabic مروان فرحات Marwan Farhat Czech Dalimil Klapka Finnish Pasi Ruohonen Hebrew שלמה סדן Shlomo Sadan Norwegian Trond Teigen Polish Krzysztof Zakrzewski Brazilian Portuguese Daoiz Cabezudo European Spanish Roberto Cuenca Martínez

In the guidebooks

Professor Westwood and his ancestors are a reference to an early bit of the franchise's worldbuilding. As detailed across the Encyclopedia Pokemonica, the Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia, and a Pokémon Daisuki Club site, modern Poké Balls were developed in 1925 from the research of a Professor Westwood of Celadon University. As many characters and details of this early lore reference the games' development, Professor Nishinomori's name appears to be a combination of Kōji Nishino and Ken Sugimori.

Trivia

• In the dub, Westwood is stated to have outright programmed the Pokédex himself, as opposed to just writing its entries.

Names

Language	Name	Origin
Japanese	ニシノモリ教授　５世 Professor Nishinomori V	Derived from a combination of Koji Nishino and Ken Sugimori.
English	Professor Westwood V	Literal translation of the Japanese name, with "Nishi" meaning West and "Mori" meaning forest or woods.
Italian	Professor Westwood V	Same as English.

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.