Hareta: the wild child who stood up to Team Galactic

A Trainer who never quite learned how to live indoors. Hareta carries the manga Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! from start to finish, from the first stubborn Piplup all the way to the showdown with Team Galactic. His story reads like the demonstration of a single idea: you get more out of a Pokémon by talking to it than by forcing it. That holds true for his first partner, and it will hold true for a legendary giant too.

Contents

• A child left with a lab, raised in the wild
• Piplup, a partner who starts out refusing to obey
• A tour of Sinnoh punctuated by Grunts
• Rebuilt by the Gym Leaders, joined by a giant
• Mitsumi, Spear Pillar and a father on the run
• Hareta at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A child left with a lab, raised in the wild

His father leaves him in Professor Rowan's hands when he's still very small, then disappears. Watching the boy, the researcher discovers an extraordinary talent for winning the friendship of almost any species, and draws a conclusion no scientist would ever write into a protocol: rather than keep him at the lab, he lets him grow up on Route 201, surrounded by wild Pokémon.

Years later, Rowan tasks his assistant Mitsumi with finding the boy. The reunion turns into an incident: she accidentally wakes up an Onix and ends up asking for help from a child clinging to the rock snake's skull. She holds out her bag, he reaches in, and it's a Piplup that comes out of the Poké Ball.

Back at the lab, the two of them set off again with a mission: find Dialga, the deity of time. Hareta also gets a brand-new wardrobe out of it, which he clearly wears under protest, already missing his shorts. His look, incidentally, is modeled on that of Lucas, the hero of the games from the same generation — only the hairstyle is completely different.

Piplup, a partner who starts out refusing to obey

The first battle of their partnership isn't really a battle at all. The penguin flatly refuses to attack and leaves Hareta to fend for himself; it's the Onix, more curious than aggressive, that ends up calming down on its own when Rowan arrives. The training they start right afterward goes no better, with the Pokémon still ignoring every command.

What bonds them isn't a victory but a rescue. When that same Onix flies into an inexplicable rage, the two of them decide together to come to its aid, and the partnership finally gets going. It is confirmed shortly afterwards in Oreburgh City, where Gym Leader Roark puts them through a practice match: Piplup wins thanks to an Oran Berry and the duo leaves with the Coal Badge.

One oddity goes unexplained for most of the story: this Piplup never evolves. The answer turns out to lie in an item, an Everstone it had been carrying, which was holding back its growth while making it build up more power than its small body could handle. Once the item is removed, it becomes Prinplup and then Empoleon in quick succession.

A tour of Sinnoh punctuated by Grunts

Team Galactic crosses his path as early as Jubilife City, and in the worst possible way: two Grunts go straight after his Piplup. Hareta chases them all the way to the Oreburgh mine, gets his Pokémon back, then falls into a trap that Roark and Mitsumi have to pull him out of.

In Floaroma Town, he meets Jun, another Trainer sent by Professor Rowan on Dialga's trail. The battle they promise each other is postponed twice: first because Hareta has only one Pokémon — he immediately heads off to catch a Shinx — and then because Team Galactic takes the Valley Windworks hostage and Commander Mars has to be beaten in a Double Battle. From there, the journey speeds up: a Misdreavus caught in Eterna Forest, Gym Leader Gardenia defeated, a disqualification from the Super Contest in Hearthome City for causing damage, then three more Badges.

In Celestic Town a proposal awaits him, not a battle. Cyrus offers him a place in his plan for a world remade from scratch, arguing that sacrificing Pokémon by the thousands, even by the tens of thousands, would count for nothing in the grand scheme. Hareta refuses without a second thought: he will never sacrifice a single one. The fight that follows is cut short when a Gyarados's Giga Impact sends him flying into a river that sweeps him away.

Rebuilt by the Gym Leaders, joined by a giant

It's Byron, who runs the Gym in Canalave City, who fishes him out of the water. He takes him to his Gym, nicknamed the Steel Fortress, to gauge his level, beats him easily because the boy lets his focus slip, then sends him off to train on Iron Island. Once there, Riley entrusts him with a Riolu Egg.

The stay pays off more than any other in the entire manga: the Egg hatches, Shinx reaches the Luxio stage, and three new catches join the team — a Geodude, a Zubat and an Onix. The return to Canalave City is brutal: an explosion rocks Lake Valor, and Team Galactic has seized Azelf. The Gym Leaders and Hareta drive them back, but they escape with the Legendary, and a second face-off with Cyrus ends without a winner because Saturn steps in.

In Snowpoint City, Candice puts him through a most unusual entrance exam: beating the three golems, Regirock, Regice and Registeel. That's where his Riolu evolves into Lucario, and passing the test opens the Snowpoint Temple to him, where Regigigas lies asleep.

The giant's awakening frightens everyone, Candice first of all, who wonders out loud whether this was a good idea. Hareta, for his part, isn't fazed: he has no intention of scaring or hurting anyone, only of testing himself, and this pure desire to battle, with no ulterior motive, impresses everyone present. A few sincere words then achieve what no battle could have: convinced, Regigigas lets itself be caught so it can back him up against Team Galactic.

🔵 The partner that hatched from an Egg has its own section: see all our products featuring Lucario.

Mitsumi, Spear Pillar and a father on the run

The assault on Team Galactic's headquarters turns into a disaster: the Gym Leaders are defeated and held captive, leaving Hareta and Byron to go down alone. Waiting for them at the bottom is the organization's highest-ranking Grunt, none other than Mitsumi — the assistant turned adversary. With Byron taken out, the battle between former teammates begins.

Hareta holds his ground thanks to off-the-wall ideas and shared memories that come flooding back to him mid-battle. Their friendship breaks for good before a combined move from Piplup and Regigigas settles the matter; the organization's plan collapses, the base goes into self-destruct, and Jun gets everyone out of there on his Dragonite.

Cyrus's miscalculations, however, have already set things in motion at Spear Pillar, where Dialga and Palkia are clashing. It takes the combined efforts of Hareta, Jun, Cynthia, Rowan, the Gym Leaders and Team Galactic itself to calm time and space, and bring the crisis to a close.

The final act plays out at the Pokémon League, against a brand-new rival: Koya. Hareta knocks out Flint of the Elite Four in the first round, makes his way through until he faces Koya again, and sees Luxio evolve into Luxray in the middle of the match — a match that Team Galactic, now led by Charon, interrupts. The incident finally brings him face to face with his father, Kaisei; Koya turns out to belong to an international police force that is hunting Kaisei alongside Looker. Before going back on the run, Kaisei leaves his son an Egg: a Minun will hatch from it.

Hareta at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Hareta in the Pokémon manga?
  He's the main character of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, the manga adaptation of the Sinnoh generation. Professor Rowan raises him like a grandson after his father leaves him in his care.
• What is Hareta's first Pokémon?
  A Piplup, picked at random from Mitsumi's bag the first time they meet. It refuses to battle at first, and only evolves into Prinplup and then Empoleon once it's rid of an Everstone that was holding back its growth.
• How does Hareta get Regigigas?
  By convincing it first. After beating Regirock, Regice and Registeel to pass Candice's test, he gains access to the Snowpoint Temple, where a simple, sincere speech is enough to get the giant to agree to follow him; then he catches it.
• Why does Hareta refuse to join Team Galactic?
  Because Cyrus builds his plan for a new world on the sacrifice of Pokémon by the thousands. Hareta draws a line he will never cross: he won't sacrifice a single one, whatever the stakes.
• Does Hareta look like the hero of the Diamond and Pearl games?
  His outfit is modeled on that of Lucas, the male protagonist of that generation's games. His hairstyle, on the other hand, is nothing like it, and that's what sets him apart at first glance.

In short

Hareta is a manga hero built on a method rather than a track record: he talks to his Pokémon before giving them orders, and that's what earns him the cooperation of a stubborn Piplup as much as that of a giant that had slept for centuries. Up against an organization that counts Pokémon as acceptable losses, this way of doing things becomes an argument in itself. The story actually ends where it began, with an Egg handed over by an absent father.