Crystal: The Pokédex Holder Who Catches Instead of Battling

She isn't chasing badges, she's filling an inventory. Crystal is the third Pokédex Holder of the manga's Gold & Silver arc, and her specialty isn't battling but catching — to the point of kicking her Poké Balls. Where the other heroes climb their way up a League, she carries out a scientific order on a regional scale.

Contents

• Hired by Professor Oak, with a Debt in Return
• Seven Pokémon Marked with a Star
• Suicune, the Chase That Costs Her Her Confidence
• After the Pokédex: The Masked Man, Then the Battle Frontier
• Crystal at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Hired by Professor Oak, with a Debt in Return

It all starts in volume 10. Professor Oak is looking for someone capable of catching every species to complete his Pokédex, and he finds that person at the Pokémon Academy in Violet City. The deal cuts both ways: the school is falling apart, and the professor has to pay for its repairs to secure the services of its student.

Her first mission already sums up the way she works. She combs the area around Cherrygrove City, catches everything she finds there, then hands the whole batch over to her client without keeping a single one: her teammates, she says, are already chosen. Catching is a job, not a personal collection.

The gesture offends a Chikorita the lab had set aside for her, which sets off after her to prove its worth; she judges it too weak, then is won over by its grit. One logistical detail completes the picture: with the Storage System unavailable, nothing can be sent to the professor, so it's Bill who lends her a portable transporter.

Seven Pokémon Marked with a Star

A huge share of the Pokédex has passed through Crystal's hands, but she uses only seven Pokémon, and only six travel with her at a time. They all bear the same mark: a star, worn as a pendant, a necklace or a sticker, or marked right on their body, which sets them apart from the flood of captures.

The lineup is built for catching, not for winning. Smoochum, the first to join, almost never battles and mainly serves to cut off escape with Mean Look; Parasect puts opponents to sleep and slows them down; Cubone whittles down wild Pokémon's HP. Hitmonchan is her main fighter, the one she sends out when a real battle is called for.

The other three are about transport and backstory. Arcanine was a wild beast on Mt. Mortar, its right eye injured by a Larvitar, and it broke both of Crystal's arms before joining her; it now serves as her mount, with permanently poor vision on its right side. Natu, which evolved into Xatu between two arcs, handles air travel, and Chikorita has become the Meganium she keeps front and center. An eighth, a Mr. Mime, sleeps in storage and comes out only once.

Suicune, the Chase That Costs Her Her Confidence

In Olivine City, she catches a Qwilfish enraged by a polluted sea and spots a baby of the same species dying. Suicune appears, purifies the water and saves the little one without anyone asking it to. Fascinated, she adds the Legendary to her list at the very moment the professor tells her that the three beasts have left the Burned Tower.

The chase gives her a rival, Eusine, who is on the same trail, then an ally when Team Rocket joins the race and sets a Ditto disguised as Suicune against them. At the Tin Tower, she fails a capture for the first time and falls from the building. She is then told that Suicune is waiting for Ho-Oh: she tried to seize it when she should have been trying to read it.

The failure stops her cold, and nothing will go into her Poké Balls anymore. Her mother advises her to start over from scratch at the top of Mt. Mortar, where almost all of her partners had joined her. It's the very Larvitar responsible for Arcanine's injury that gives her back her touch, caught thanks to a Chikorita that evolves in the middle of the fight.

💧 The Johto trio has its own shelf: check out the Legendary plushies and figures.

After the Pokédex: The Masked Man, Then the Battle Frontier

The Indigo Plateau moves her to the center of the plot. There she crushes the Masked Man's lieutenants before getting stuck in the control room just as he appears, with Lugia and Ho-Oh under his control. She heads back to Ilex Forest with the three Legendary beasts, handed over to her by Misty, Lt. Surge and Blaine, then plunges through time in pursuit of Pryce — the only one who doesn't come back out.

The inventory ends on a twist: she tells the professor that the Pokédex is complete, and is told in reply that around a hundred new species have just been discovered. Two years later, the two of them send Emerald to the Battle Frontier to catch Jirachi, the only one able to free their friends from stone; with no team of his own, the boy borrows Crystal's, which she supervises over the Pokégear.

She eventually goes there herself. Her Mr. Mime raises an invisible wall around Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald while they train, her Meganium destroys the sea creature summoned by Guile Hideout, and the Pokédex Holders' tournament knocks her out against Green. Three arcs later, aboard her mother's helicopter with the children from her old academy, she faces Rocket Executive Ariana alone on Route 38 and comes close to defeat despite her type advantage.

Crystal at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Crystal in the Pokémon manga?
  The third Pokédex Holder of the Gold & Silver arc. Professor Oak recruits her at the Pokémon Academy in Violet City to catch every species and complete his Pokédex: she's a capture specialist, not a fighter.
• Which Pokémon does Crystal use?
  Seven in all, six of which travel with her at a time: Smoochum, Meganium, Arcanine, Parasect, Cubone, Hitmonchan and Xatu. A Mr. Mime stays in storage and steps in only once.
• Why do all her Pokémon wear a star?
  It's their mark of recognition. Since Crystal has caught a huge part of the Pokédex, the star — a pendant, necklace, sticker or natural marking on the skull — sets her partners apart from all the Pokémon that merely pass through her hands.
• Did Crystal catch Suicune?
  No. Her attempt at the Tin Tower fails and costs her all her self-confidence. Suicune still ends up fighting alongside her against the Masked Man, before leaving with Raikou and Entei.
• Are Crystal and Kris the same character?
  No. Kris is the playable heroine of the video games, while Crystal belongs to the manga. They share a region and a generation, not a story.

In short

Crystal holds a place in the manga that no one else fills: she's the Pokédex's workhorse, the one carrying out the scientific order while the others do battle. Her only real defeat isn't even a lost battle, but a Legendary she failed to read. The video games answer her with Kris: two Johto Trainers, two media, no shared story.