Gary Oak: Ash's Rival Turned Project Mew's Top Chaser

Few anime rivals change careers partway through. Professor Oak's grandson, Gary leaves Pallet Town the same day as Ash and spends two whole arcs humiliating him, escorted by cheerleaders and a luxury car. Then he loses, sets off again on foot, and reinvents himself as a researcher. The series turns him into one of its best-loved characters without ever disowning who he was at the start.

Contents

• Kanto: A Car, Cheerleaders and Ten Badges
• Johto on Foot: The Turning Point That Makes Gary Likable
• Prehistoric Pokémon Researcher
• Project Mew: Challenger, Then Chaser
• His Team: Over a Hundred Catches, a Few True Partners
• Another Gary in The Electric Tale of Pikachu
• Gary Oak at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Kanto: A Car, Cheerleaders and Ten Badges

Leaving Pallet Town already sets up the balance of power. Among the Trainers who came to Professor Oak's that morning to get their first Pokémon, Gary is the only one the series identifies alongside Ash, and he's the one the crowd cheers loudest. He leaves town in a luxury car, escorted by a squad of cheerleaders whose phone numbers Brock will be quick to ask for.

Every time their paths cross becomes an excuse to put Ash down, to the laughter of his entourage. He makes his point with numbers: a Krabby bigger than his rival's, and above all ten badges on the board while Ash is still chasing his eighth.

The picture cracks quickly. The Viridian City Gym pits him against Giovanni, backed by an armored Pokémon whose identity stays a mystery, and he loses. At the Indigo League, he's knocked out in his fourth match by a Trainer named Melissa, without ever getting the chance to face Ash there.

Johto on Foot: The Turning Point That Makes Gary Likable

The two boys were friends before they were rivals. A childhood falling-out whose cause is never explained was enough to drive them apart, and Gary drew a blunt arithmetic from it: against Ash, even a tie counts as a humiliation.

Getting knocked out of the Indigo League brings the facade crashing down. Gary heads for Johto with no car, no audience and no stable of Pokémon: he walks, and takes along only an Eevee. That Pokémon eventually becomes an Umbreon, a form that requires a truly happy partner — the best bill of health anyone could have given their partnership.

The Johto League closes the loop. It's Ash who knocks him out in the round of 16, and that particular defeat restores their friendship for good. The audience follows the same path: haughty and provocative enough to stir up controversy in the first season, Gary goes on, after his transformation, to become one of the series' best-loved characters.

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Prehistoric Pokémon Researcher

With the League behind him, Gary announces that he wants to follow in his grandfather's footsteps, but not on the same ground. An episode of the spin-off Pokémon Chronicles gives him his field: prehistoric Pokémon. In it, he brings an Aerodactyl back to life, then has to fight off Cassidy and Butch when they come to steal it.

His work then takes him to Sinnoh, on the trail of Shieldon, where he becomes Professor Rowan's student. There he crosses paths with Ash again, helping him train his Gligar and giving him the Razor Fang that will turn it into a Gliscor; he also shows up in the three-part episode about Team Galactic.

His wardrobe changes along with him. At the end of the ninth season, the purple sweater and yellow boots give way to a black T-shirt and black shoes, purple pants and a bag — Blue's outfit in FireRed and LeafGreen, slimmer silhouette included. For his later return, the series borrows the Blue of HeartGold and SoulSilver instead.

Project Mew: Challenger, Then Chaser

His research in Sinnoh complete, Gary decides to travel the whole world, then signs up for Project Mew as a Challenger. His reasoning is a scientist's rather than a Trainer's: if the Mythical Pokémon carries the genes of every species, studying it amounts to studying all of them at once.

His first trial brings him back to Pallet Town to retrieve a Moltres feather. When a wild Onix attacks, he rescues Ash and his companion Goh, then pinpoints the Legendary through calculation, working from old data. His Blastoise still goes down to Burn Up despite the type advantage; it's a combined Electric-type attack from Electivire and Ash's Pikachu that drives the bird away, and leaves Gary with the feather he'd been after from the start.

The Raid Battle against Articuno, in an icy cavern on the Seafoam Islands, sums up the character. The first Challenger on the scene, he rallies Ash, Goh and Horace, loses his Tyranitar in the very first volley, gets Umbreon to confuse the Legendary before Sheer Cold knocks Umbreon out, then finishes with Arcanine. The group fails, but his orders were sound: the Project awards him a bonus token for the quality of his leadership, and he speaks to Goh as a friend for the first time.

What follows makes him the top-ranked Challenger, with twelve tokens and a win in a trial run by Quillon. Facing the Split-Decision Ruins in the Crown Tundra, he only overcomes the two giants once he stops competing with Goh: he catches Regidrago, Goh catches Regieleki, and Gary is named a Chaser at the top of his class, alongside Goh and Horace.

The final expedition, to Table Mountain on Faraway Island, plays out without any gear: Mew's mere presence knocks out every device, Poké Balls included. Gary climbs the cliff face with Quillon after a Skarmory cuts the group's rope, runs into a Groudon and then a Kyogre that turn out to be nothing more than the Mythical Pokémon's transformations, and shares a vision of the planet's creation with the other Chasers. The Project is put on hold once they return; Gary sets off alone toward his next goal.

His Team: Over a Hundred Catches, a Few True Partners

The number speaks for itself: Gary catches more than a hundred Pokémon in the first season alone. That catching spree long earned him the label of a bad Trainer, the kind who catches first and bonds later.

The series itself makes the case for the defense. Gary is passionate, knows his Pokémon inside out and praises them warmly — his Eevee, which beats Ash's Pikachu, is the first example, and its evolution into Umbreon the second, since that evolution only happens after a genuine bond.

His core team comes down to a few names. The Squirtle his grandfather gave him becomes Blastoise, his signature Pokémon; Umbreon has been with him since Johto; in Sinnoh he adds Electivire, most likely the Electabuzz he evolved there, and a Dodrio whose presence is uncertain — the very one he was greeting, still a Doduo, in the first season. Tyranitar and Regidrago only arrive with Project Mew, while Arcanine was already fighting at his side back in Johto, in the Extreme Pokémon Race and then at the Silver Conference.

Another Gary in The Electric Tale of Pikachu

The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga keeps him as the rival but strips away most of his arrogance: he still makes fun of Ash, but without the haughtiness he shows on screen.

Even what drives the rivalry is different. Ash has a crush on May, Gary's sister — family the anime doesn't give him. Gary crosses Kanto alone, without cheerleaders, and his Indigo League run ends with an elimination at the hands of Ritchie.

The ending diverges just as much. The two boys travel the world together and even come across Lugia, which doesn't stop them from staying rivals until the very last page.

Gary Oak at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Régis Chen the French name for Gary Oak?
  Yes. Gary Oak, called Régis Chen in French, is Professor Oak's grandson and Ash's main rival in the anime's Kanto and Johto arcs.
• Why does Gary become likable from Johto onward?
  Getting knocked out of the Indigo League pushes him to set off again alone and on foot, with a single Eevee. He loses his arrogance along the way, and his defeat to Ash in the round of 16 of the Johto League restores their friendship for good.
• What is Gary's signature Pokémon?
  Blastoise, which evolved from the Squirtle his grandfather gave him as his first partner Pokémon. Umbreon, evolved from his Eevee during his journey through Johto, is his other longtime partner.
• What does Gary do in Project Mew?
  He joins as a Challenger, brings back a Moltres feather, leads a Raid Battle against Articuno, catches Regidrago at the Split-Decision Ruins and finishes at the top of the rankings with twelve tokens, which earns him the title of Chaser.
• Is Gary different in the manga?
  In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, he's far less arrogant, travels without his fan club, and the rivalry stems partly from Ash having a crush on his sister, May.

In short

Gary Oak is the useful counterexample of the TV rival: he doesn't just mellow, he changes careers. The Trainer who racked up ten badges and a luxury car ends up a prehistoric Pokémon specialist, then the top-ranked Chaser in a project devoted entirely to Mew. Hated in the first season, now one of the anime's best-loved characters — and yet he's the same person.