Yellow: The Manga Healer Who Refuses to Hurt Pokémon

She heals a Pokémon by holding it in her arms, then collapses into sleep. Yellow is the heroine of the second arc of Pokémon Adventures, and one of the few central characters of the manga who has never appeared in the video games. Setting out from Viridian City on the trail of a missing Trainer, she travels hidden under a straw hat, with her Doduo, her Rattata and, above all, that Trainer's Pikachu. Professor Oak puts her in a category all her own: the Healer.

Contents

• A Gift That Heals, at a Cost
• The Yellow Arc: Searching for a Missing Boy with His Own Pikachu
• Straw Hat, Hidden Hair and Three French Names
• A Team Gifted, Rescued and Fished Up
• From Johto to the Emerald Arc: A Full-Fledged Pokédex Holder
• Yellow at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Gift That Heals, at a Cost

The manga sorts its Trainers into archetypes, and Yellow fills a slot all her own. Her gift has two sides: an empathy that lets her read Pokémon's feelings, and therefore understand their thoughts and the way they act, and instant healing that works with a simple touch. None of this can be learned in a Gym.

The trade-off is immediate: every healing sends her into a deep sleep. The scene that establishes the power actually plays out without her. Professor Oak lets her go without being convinced of her strength, then realizes as he watches her walk away that the Pikachu she found badly injured in his lab has been healed — for the sole reason that she carried it.

This gift also shapes the way she battles. Her goal isn't to win but to end the fight without any of the creatures involved getting hurt, which leaves her unable to catch anything for a long time: in Viridian Forest, she fishes without success because she refuses to hurt her catch. A later chapter adds that she can also boost the power of her own Pokémon through her mental strength.

The Yellow Arc: Searching for a Missing Boy with His Own Pikachu

It all starts with an abduction no one witnessed. The hero of the first arc vanishes without a trace after a challenge from Bruno of the Elite Four, and only his Pikachu escapes the fight: the little Electric creature is therefore the only one who knows what happened. Yellow finds it in Pallet Town, decides to team up with it, and first has to beat Professor Oak's Spearow to earn the right to leave. She leaves with the Pokédex the missing Trainer had left behind.

The road that follows is a headlong rush. Lorelei of the Elite Four demands the Pikachu and freezes the sea with her Dewgong — Yellow gets out of it by having her Rattata break the ice. In Celadon City, it's Erika, who is overseeing the search, who asks her to hand the creature over to a more capable Trainer; an impostor seizes the chance to pass himself off as the missing boy, before being taken down by Yellow's Poké Balls, hooked onto his own Bonemerang.

She then owes her training to Blue, who takes her to train in the mountains and discovers the full extent of the problem: she doesn't know her own Pokémon's moves and cries when her Rattata evolves. What follows toughens her up fast. She defeats Team Rocket's three lieutenants aboard the S.S. Anne, enters the surfing contest in Vermilion City that Lance shows up to wreck, then heads to Cerise Island with Blaine for the final act, where Blue, Koga, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Green and Bill are waiting for her.

Straw Hat, Hidden Hair and Three French Names

Her low profile isn't a personality trait, it's a method: she avoids drawing attention because her mission and her powers demand it. The straw hat hides her hair so well that the people around her take her for a boy, and it takes a wave sweeping them both into the depths of Cerise Island for Blaine to realize he's traveling with a girl. She puts her hat back on, and that's the end of it.

The full reveal only comes at the end of the arc, when the hat stops hiding her hair. Only then can the reader connect the straw-hatted searcher with the little girl lost in Viridian Forest in the first arc, rescued from a wild Dratini by the hero and his Venusaur, then taught by him how to catch Pokémon — that's the day she caught her Rattata. A few clues planted earlier made it possible to unmask her ahead of time.

Her French name, for its part, has a story of its own. The Japanese nickname means 'the Jade Grove', but the Glénat translation read it as 'Jade glove' (gant de Jade) and came up with Jamy de Jadegant, the form used notably on the character introduction pages at the start of each volume, whereas the story itself sometimes calls her Jamy de la Forêt de Jade. The Kurokawa edition went a different way, renaming her Ambroise du Bosquet Verdoyant.

A Team Gifted, Rescued and Fished Up

Her team is unlike any other because she barely put it together herself. The Rattata from the very beginning, now a Raticate, remains her first Pokémon, caught with the help of the Pikachu belonging to the boy who had just rescued her. The Doduo that carries her at the start of her quest becomes a Dodrio, and the Caterpie she snatches from a Growlithe's flames with her fishing rod follows her of its own accord before joining the team a few chapters later.

Two members are outright gifts from Gym Leaders: Misty hands over her Omanyte, and Brock his Graveler, just before she leaves to train. She caught neither of them herself, which says a lot about how this character gathers her allies: they're entrusted to her, or she saves them.

The manga has a rule the games don't: as long as she carries her Pokédex, her team doesn't evolve. Without the device during her showdown with Lance, she sees four of her Pokémon reach their next stage in the same chapter — Doduo, Omanyte and Graveler once each, and Caterpie twice in a row, all the way to Butterfree. That's also why she later fields Omastar and Golem.

Add to that a few passing companions. Chuchu, a female Pikachu, joins her between the two main arcs and gets along so well with Pika, the hero's Pikachu, that their Egg hatches the Pichu that will become another Pokédex Holder's partner. A Slowpoke lent by a Swimmer helps her out during the surfing contest, and the wild Seadra she catches to calm it down is released shortly after.

⚡ Chuchu, Pika and their Pichu steal the spotlight: see our section dedicated to Pikachu.

From Johto to the Emerald Arc: A Full-Fledged Pokédex Holder

The next arc gives her an age — twelve — and a family: she appears alongside her Fisherman uncle and travels with Crystal on Professor Oak's recommendation. Along the way, the story reveals that she was the one who woke Entei, Raikou and Suicune from their slumber in the Burned Tower, and that her hat holds the feathers of Lugia and Ho-Oh. She has to take it off to hand the feathers over to Gold: that's when she finally reveals her identity for all to see.

Two years after Johto, back in Viridian City, she's the one who opens Silver's eyes. Searching the memories of the boy's Sneasel, she senses Giovanni's presence there and confirms to him that the Team Rocket boss is indeed that man. When the organization's airship lands on the city, she stands up to Sird and Orm with her Omastar, then turns the battle around by boosting her team's power with the help of Viridian Forest, much to the dismay of two opponents who had just analyzed her Pokémon with the black Pokédex.

Aboard the ship, she witnesses the duel pitting Red and Mewtwo against Giovanni and Deoxys. The alien Pokémon, defeated, discovers it can communicate with her and explains where its bond with the boy comes from: his blood runs through its veins. Before being evacuated, she hooks the hero's finger with her fishing rod — the same gesture that closed her own arc. It's while she sleeps that he leaves her his old Pokédex: she officially becomes a Holder.

The following arc takes her out of play in one stroke, turning her to stone along with the other Holders. Freed by Emerald's wish to Jirachi, she jumps back into the fight and pulls off one of the most spectacular attacks in the manga: she's the one who orders Pika, Chuchu and Gold's Pichu to strike together with Volt Tackle against the Kyogre summoned by Guile Hideout.

Yellow at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Yellow in the Pokémon manga?
  She's the heroine of the second arc of Pokémon Adventures, a manga-exclusive character with no equivalent in the video games. Originally from Viridian City, she sets out to find the hero of the first arc, who vanished after a challenge from the Elite Four.
• What is Yellow's power?
  Two powers, actually: an empathy that lets her read Pokémon's feelings and understand their thoughts, and instant healing through touch. That second ability comes at a price, since she falls into a deep sleep after using it.
• Why does Yellow wear a straw hat?
  To avoid drawing attention, since her mission and her powers call for discretion. The hat hides her hair so well that the people around her take her for a boy, and her identity is only fully revealed at the end of her arc.
• Which Pokémon are on Yellow's team?
  Raticate, her very first Pokémon; Dodrio; Omastar, a gift from Misty; Golem, a gift from Brock; Butterfree, which she had saved from the flames; and Chuchu, a female Pikachu who joined later. Four of them evolve in the same chapter, when she loses the Pokédex that was blocking their evolution.
• Why is Yellow called Jamy de Jadegant in the French Glénat edition?
  Because of a misreading. Her Japanese nickname refers to the Jade Grove, but the translators saw a 'jade glove' (gant de Jade) in it, hence Jadegant. The Kurokawa edition chose instead to rename her Ambroise du Bosquet Verdoyant.

In short

Yellow is the perfect counterexample to the video game Trainer: she doesn't collect, doesn't chase badges, and her goal in battle is for no one to get hurt. Yet the manga gives her the heaviest role in her arc, finding a missing hero, and grants her a Pokédex only at the very end, as recognition rather than starting gear. A team that was given to her, a power that drains her, an identity hidden under a hat: everything that makes her unique fits in those three lines.