Bugsy: Azalea Town's Bug Gym Leader, butterfly net in hand

A kid, a magnifying glass, a butterfly net. Bugsy guards the Azalea Gym and champions the Bug type, which makes him one of the very first walls on the road through Johto. The games turn him into a weekly appointment, the anime into an opponent that a Fire-type Pokémon isn't enough to sweep aside, and the manga into a researcher at the Ruins of Alph who once held Suicune at the bottom of a net.

Contents

• Azalea Town, the Hive Badge and Nothing but Bug Types
• The Magnifying Glass and the Butterfly Net
• The Thursday Rematch, and the Tournaments
• In the Anime: A Scyther That Fire Can't Touch
• In the Manga: The Ruins of Alph, the Unown and Suicune
• The Tournament Against Sabrina, the Magnet Train and Arceus
• Bugsy at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Azalea Town, the Hive Badge and Nothing but Bug Types

Bugsy runs the Azalea Gym, in Johto, and hands out just one trophy: the Hive Badge, the second of the eight official badges of the region's League.

In the core games, his specialty allows no exceptions. The twelve Pokémon he fields there are all Bug types — Kakuna, Metapod, Shuckle, Shedinja, Vespiquen, Armaldo, Forretress, Yanmega, Pinsir, Heracross, Scyther and Scizor.

The role fits into the usual circuit: eight Gym Leaders to beat, one type each, before you can even hope to reach the League. Bugsy holds the second step, so his badge is one of the first a Johto Trainer picks up.

The Magnifying Glass and the Butterfly Net

His look tells you who he is before he says a word. His features are youthful and frankly androgynous — the manga turns that into a gag — and he's only a few years older than the Trainer who comes to challenge him: shoulder-length purple hair, eyes of the same shade, and green all over his outfit, echoing the type he defends.

Two accessories do the rest. A pouch strapped to his shorts holds a magnifying glass, the tool of his entomological research; and he never puts down his butterfly net.

The uniform follows suit: a short-sleeved jacket, shorts that leave his legs bare, long white socks with a green stripe that stop below the knee, brown shoes, and a yellow tie pinned to the jacket. He's dressed as a naturalist, not a strategist, and the net is presented as the symbol of what ties him to Bug-type Pokémon.

The Thursday Rematch, and the Tournaments

Earning the badge doesn't mean you're done with him. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, you can battle him again, on one demanding condition: having his number in your Pokégear, which means tracking him down in Viridian Forest, where he passes through on Thursdays.

The rematch runs on the same tight schedule. It takes place on Thursday as well, at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City, between 10 a.m. and 7:59 p.m. — a narrow window that puts Bugsy among the Gym Leaders you meet by appointment rather than on their own turf.

He also competes in the Pokémon World Tournament, where he takes part in several events, including the Johto Leaders Tournament and the Type Expert Tournament. The roster adjusts to the format — three Pokémon in Single Battles, four in Double and Rotation Battles alike, all six in Triple Battles — with a gender and an Ability that change from one match to the next, and 1 BP for whoever beats him. Finally, he has been in the mobile game since its launch, in several outfits.

🪲 Bug-type Pokémon have their own section: check out the Pokémon figures.

In the Anime: A Scyther That Fire Can't Touch

His on-screen introduction starts with a fall. Ash and his friends barge into the Gym so clumsily that a startled Bugsy drops his ladder and ends up stuck at the top of a tree; the hero is the one who gets him down. Episode 144 is titled "Gettin' the Bugs Out".

The battle that follows involves just three Pokémon: Spinarak, Metapod, then a Scyther described as powerful and able to withstand fire. So the type advantage doesn't settle the match, which is unusual for a second Gym Leader.

Ash still pulls through, and it's his Cyndaquil that clinches the win. The Hive Badge changes hands: the hero earns his second Johto badge.

In the Manga: The Ruins of Alph, the Unown and Suicune

The manga introduces him through a misunderstanding — he's first mistaken for a girl — then gives him a job. He's part of a team of researchers who came to uncover what the Ruins of Alph are hiding, and his teammates have gone missing.

The exploration quickly turns into a fight. Beneath the ruins, Bugsy and the Trainer with him come face to face with Team Rocket, and it's the Unown living there that settle the battle, with Hidden Power. As for his teammates, he eventually finds them.

The most revealing moment is a defeat. While his team studies the Unown, he waits off to the side, and Suicune comes for him: his capture net really does pin down the Legendary, but an Aurora Beam tears through the mesh and Suicune gets away. The butterfly net has its limits.

The Tournament Against Sabrina, the Magnet Train and Arceus

The manga then enters him in the tournament pitting the Kanto Gym Leaders against Johto's, where he draws Sabrina, the Psychic-type specialist from Saffron City. The type advantage is entirely on his side — and he loses anyway.

How he loses matters more than the score. The opposing Mr. Mime sets up a Light Screen that traps his Heracross inside an invisible house: the Pokémon becomes a sitting target, and the match is over.

From there, the story keeps him in the background rather than front and center. Team Rocket forces him aboard the Magnet Train, where all the Gym Leaders are held with him; when the train splits in two, he's on the half that heads back to the Pokémon League. Later, he turns up standing guard outside the Gym in Ecruteak City, with Falkner and Chuck, because bandits are harassing Morty, the local Gym Leader — the three guard it so zealously that they take Silver for one of the bandits, and it takes Chuck's Hitmontop, which recognizes his Rhyperior, before they let him in.

His last contribution to the story isn't a fighting one. Arceus levels the Gym in a single blow, Bugsy is sent flying, then picked up by Gold on his Typhlosion. It's his knowledge of the Ruins of Alph that gets the plot moving again: he's handed a sheet to translate, he recognizes the site, and he stays there with Lance while Gold sets off to face the Legendary. Later, Petrel takes on his appearance.

Bugsy at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Which badge does Bugsy give out?
  The Hive Badge, the second of the eight official badges of the Johto League. His Gym is in Azalea Town, and he fields only Bug-type Pokémon there.
• How do you get a rematch against Bugsy?
  You need his number in your Pokégear, which means running into him in Viridian Forest, where he passes through on Thursdays. The rematch then takes place at the Fighting Dojo in Saffron City, also on Thursday, between 10 a.m. and 7:59 p.m.
• Which Pokémon does Bugsy use in the anime?
  Only three, in episode 144: Spinarak, Metapod and a Scyther described as powerful and resistant to fire. Ash still wins, thanks to his Cyndaquil.
• Why does Bugsy lose to Sabrina in the manga?
  The Bug type does have the upper hand over Psychic, but the opposing Mr. Mime sets up a Light Screen that traps his Heracross inside an invisible house: the Pokémon is reduced to a sitting target.
• What does Bugsy do at the Ruins of Alph?
  He belongs to the team of researchers trying to uncover their secret. There, he beats Team Rocket members with the help of the Unown, he's defeated by Suicune, and he's the one who recognizes the site on a sheet he's given to translate.

In short

Bugsy is the Gym Leader you meet too early to take seriously, and the one whose gear says everything about his calling: a magnifying glass, a net, twelve Bug-type Pokémon in the core games and not one more. The games make him a Thursday appointment and a tournament regular, the anime a kid stuck in a tree backed by a Scyther that fire doesn't faze, the manga a researcher able to pin down Suicune before letting it slip away. A specialist, in the strictest sense of the word.