Chloe Cerise: the professor's daughter who lets her Eevee choose

Everyone decided for her that she would love Pokémon. The daughter of Professor Cerise, Chloe joins the series in season 23 with an open lack of interest in the world that fills her family home. Her arc isn't about becoming the best Trainer: it's about taking back control of a question no one had ever asked her, and then applying it to her own Pokémon.

Contents

• Vermilion City, a laboratory and a name to live up to
• Yamper, the one she once wished would disappear
• The Eevee that chose her, and the Rotom Phone that followed
• Nine possible answers to a single question
• Three competitions, no titles, plenty learned
• Weekend assistant, then off on her own
• Chloe Cerise at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Vermilion City, a laboratory and a name to live up to

Chloe grows up in Vermilion City, the daughter of Professor Cerise and Talia, and big sister to a boy named Parker. Pokémon filled the house long before she ever had a chance to choose them, and that family assumption weighs on her more than it helps her.

By around age ten, her childhood enthusiasm has vanished. She files Pokémon away with the topics that no longer concern her and focuses her energy on school, even if it makes her the killjoy of the trio she forms with Ash and Goh — mostly keeping their overdue homework in check.

The issue isn't boredom but being pigeonholed. When her teacher asks the class about their plans for the future, her classmates answer for her: as a professor's daughter, she'll obviously become a professor. She ends up confiding this unease to her mother, who tells her not to let anyone decide for her. It's the character's founding line.

Yamper, the one she once wished would disappear

The Yamper that the family owns arrives from Galar shortly before Parker is born. Chloe immediately sees him as a rival who will take her parents away from her and is openly harsh with him, to the point of blurting out that she'd like to see him disappear.

The Pokémon runs away, she goes looking for him at night, and ends up in tears in a park, facing three Venonat. It's Yamper who bursts in and chases off the wild Pokémon: that's where the relationship turns. Ever since, he only sleeps in her room and only accepts food she prepares herself.

Yet for a long time she treats him as a pet rather than a partner. The real turning point is a battle: when a wild Gengar invades the lab, the Pokémon obeys no one but her, and her father asks her to take command. One Spark later, she has led her first battle.

The Eevee that chose her, and the Rotom Phone that followed

Her first capture isn't a decision, it's an encounter. In the middle of a test, she sees Yamper calling to her from her school's yard: he has brought back a female Eevee, chased by two strangers in lab coats.

Chloe hides the Pokémon, Goh improvises to cover her escape, and the chase ends in a face-off with Team Rocket, who have come to snatch the school's Pokémon. Eevee joins the battle alongside Yamper, and the trio knocks out the opposing Pelipper.

The two scientists end up apologizing for the misunderstanding: they only wanted to take Eevee back to their lab. Eevee herself refuses to go with them, Chloe catches her, and her father gives her a Rotom Phone right away. She scans her first Pokémon with the tool of the profession she had refused to take up.

✨ Eevee and its evolutions have their own section: check out the collection for Eevee.

Nine possible answers to a single question

Once Eevee is at her side, Chloe sets herself a plan: go and see each of the evolutions of Eevee before letting her Pokémon decide for herself. It's the common thread of her whole journey and the reason for most of her trips outside Kanto.

The tour is methodical and, above all, friendly: a Vaporeon met during a land-and-sea race, the Leafeon belonging to Erika during a flower-arranging class in Celadon City, an Espeon and an Umbreon celebrated at a castle in Johto, a Glaceon that arrived in class with a new student, and then a circus Flareon and Jolteon born of an accidental mix-up of stones between two trapeze artists. These stops end in gifts, never in a decision: Water Stone, Fire Stone, Thunder Stone, a perfume bottle, a snow globe.

The way out of the dilemma comes from elsewhere. In Alola, a Trainer named Lana suggests a ninth possibility to her, the one where Eevee stays Eevee. When she asks her father shortly afterward, during a camping weekend, why evolution exists at all, he confirms that there is no single answer and advises her to trust what she feels.

Three competitions, no titles, plenty learned

Her record fits in three lines and doesn't include a single win. It opens with a land-and-sea race that she leaves partway through, after Eevee dashes off to help Goh's Dewgong, locked in a struggle with a wild Huntail.

Next comes a cake-decorating contest organized by Opal at her Ballonlea Gym; for the occasion, she lends Chloe an Alcremie in its Lemon Cream form. The verdict is less about the pastry than about the person: the Gym Leader reads in the soft sponge cake a tender-hearted cook who pays close attention to her Pokémon. The cake still loses to Ash's.

The third attempt is a real Pokémon Contest, in Lilycove City, in the Normal Rank. She had come to Hoenn to meet Serena and her Sylveon, who had become the sensation of the region's Contests; it's the idol Lisia, broadcasting live on television, who spots her and gives her a Contest Pass and a Pokéblock Case. Serena puts together a performance for her and the crowd follows, but once again the official record stops at a participation.

Weekend assistant, then off on her own

Chloe and Goh have known each other since a Pokémon camp where, at age six, they chased an unknown Pokémon together that Professor Oak identified as most likely Mew. This shared memory underpins their friendship as much as the gap between them: he drew a life goal from it, while she closed the chapter and moved on.

Within the group, her role is very practical. She keeps track of school deadlines, tempers the boys' enthusiasm, and solves what battles can't — it's her plan that ends an invasion of Diglett and Dugtrio on a farm, after a failed first attempt. She is the level head in a trio that has no other, and she heads to the library in Canalave City, where Cynthia tells her the legend of Dialga, Palkia and Arceus, before she crosses into a parallel world with Ash.

When Ash and Goh leave the lab team to travel, she announces that she will become its weekend research assistant, since school takes up her week. Some time later, she sets off in turn, accompanied only by her Eevee, and analyzes Pokémon with her Rotom Phone in a place she doesn't know.

Chloe Cerise at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Chloe Cerise a Pokémon Trainer?
  Yes, even though she starts out refusing the role. She catches an Eevee after protecting her from two scientists, receives a Rotom Phone from her father, and eventually sets off on a journey alone with her.
• Why doesn't Chloe's Eevee evolve?
  Because Chloe leaves the choice up to her. She collects the evolution stones she is given along the way without ever using them, and a Trainer she meets in Alola points out that a ninth path exists: staying an Eevee.
• Does Yamper belong to Chloe?
  He is the Cerise family's Pokémon, adopted before her little brother was born. But after a difficult reconciliation, he only sleeps in Chloe's room, only eats what she prepares, and obeys no one but her.
• Does Chloe take part in Pokémon Contests?
  She has three competitions to her name: a land-and-sea race, a cake-decorating contest at the Ballonlea Gym, and a Normal Rank Pokémon Contest in Lilycove City, prepared with Serena's help.
• What happens to Chloe at the end of the Journeys series?
  She becomes a weekend research assistant at her father's lab while still going to school during the week, then sets out on the road in turn with only her Eevee.

In short

Chloe is the series' useful counterexample: a professor's child who refuses the legacy, then reclaims it on her own terms. Her arc isn't measured in badges but in evolution stones she never used — three stones received and never used, a question left open, and a Pokémon who is finally asked what she thinks. She ends up hitting the road without ever having needed to win anything.