The Sensational Sisters: The Cerulean Gym Run Like a Show

Three Gym Leaders who preferred the stage to battling. Daisy, Violet and Lily held the title in Cerulean City, in the Kanto region, but they had turned their Gym into a music-hall pool and handed out the Cascade Badge without defending it. Above all, they're the three older sisters of Misty, the one who grew up in their shadow before taking over the job in their place.

Contents

• A Gym Turned into a Water Show
• The Cascade Badge, Given Away Rather Than Defended
• Shows That Team Rocket Comes to Crash
• Three Temperaments, and a Little Sister in Their Shadow
• The Day Misty Took Over the Gym
• The Sensational Sisters at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Gym Turned into a Water Show

Once grown up, the three sisters take over the Cerulean Gym without the experience or the desire the job demands. Rather than give up the title, they use their official status as a license to put on shows and stage choreographed numbers in the pool with their Water-type Pokémon.

The payoff reaches well beyond Kanto: their performances earn them a fame that travels from one region to the next, and it's the nickname Sensational Sisters, not the Cascade Badge, that makes their reputation. The lineup is entirely aquatic — several Goldeen, a Seaking, a Shellder and two Seel.

The video games haven't forgotten this act. The three sisters appear only in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, as Gym Trainers, and they make their entrance with a dive off the diving board before each battle. The player faces them from youngest to oldest: Goldeen for Lily, Shellder for Violet, Seel for Daisy, all three at level 16.

The Cascade Badge, Given Away Rather Than Defended

Ash's first visit to Cerulean City is cut short. The three sisters readily admit they're the title holders, but they refuse to battle on the grounds that none of their Pokémon are in any shape to fight: they've just suffered three defeats in a row against young Trainers from Pallet Town.

Daisy then offers to hand him the badge without any battle at all. It's Misty who objects and takes on the battle herself, and her three older sisters discover along the way skills they never suspected she had.

The reward does change hands in the end, but for a reason that has nothing to do with the rules: Ash drives off Team Rocket and saves the Gym's Pokémon, and the sisters give him the badge as a thank-you. It was never won on a battlefield.

Shows That Team Rocket Comes to Crash

When Ash and his friends pass back through Cerulean City to let Horsea rest, they find the sisters in the middle of preparing a new show — and end up drafted onto the stage. Team Rocket uses the performance as cover to kidnap Violet and Lily and get their hands on the Gym's Pokémon.

Daisy then shows what the eldest is capable of: while the group fights off the intruders, she frees her two sisters single-handedly. Violet, for her part, tries to turn Misty's Psyduck against the thieves, to no effect whatsoever. The audience, convinced the incident was part of the act, gives them a standing ovation.

The success earns them six more months of performances, and the sisters persuade Misty to leave Horsea and Starmie with them to round out the troupe. A later show will see them fend off Butch and Cassidy with their two Luvdisc, proof that they can battle when the stage calls for it — though it doesn't change their stance: they'll still ask Misty whether badges couldn't just be handed out for free.

🌊 The stars of the Cerulean pool have their own section: check out the Pokémon plushies.

Three Temperaments, and a Little Sister in Their Shadow

The four sisters' childhood can be read between the lines: the three older girls got dolls and new toys while Misty inherited their old things. The trio built a very strong bond among the three of them, keeping the youngest at arm's length and teasing her — without ever ceasing to love her deeply.

Daisy, the eldest, is blonde, upbeat and easily distracted. She's the closest to the role of Gym Leader: she has some battling experience, is noticeably warmer toward Misty than her younger sisters are, and can keep her cool when her sisters or her Pokémon are in danger. None of that has ever stopped her from handing out badges to anyone who asked.

Violet, the blue-haired middle sister, teases Misty along with Lily while sincerely encouraging her goal of becoming a Water Pokémon Master; her looks come before everything else, even during an attack on the Gym. Lily, the pink-haired youngest of the three, is the harshest and only grants her sister a little talent. On stage, Violet plays the female roles and Lily the male ones, and neither of them enjoyed holding the title of Gym Leader.

The Day Misty Took Over the Gym

The turning point comes from a beauty contest. Daisy's third-place finish wins the trio a trip around the world, which forces them to abandon the Gym overnight. They call back their youngest sister, who has to leave Ash's group to take on the job: Misty officially becomes the Cerulean City Gym Leader.

When they get back from their trip, they don't reclaim the title. The three sisters devote themselves to their acting careers and only fill in for Misty when she's away — which, with a younger sister who travels, happens often. They look after the Gym during her stay in Alola, and take charge again when the World Coronation Series final rekindles her urge to hit the road.

The series infobox eventually made this official: it lists their profession as actresses and their role as substitute Gym Leaders. The title stayed in the family, but it changed hands in the only direction that made sense.

The Sensational Sisters at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who are the Sensational Sisters?
  Daisy, Violet and Lily, Misty's three older sisters. Together they held the title of Cerulean City Gym Leaders, in Kanto, before handing it to their youngest sister and only filling in for her now and then. Their fame comes from their water shows, not their battles.
• Why did they give Ash the Cascade Badge?
  At first they refused to battle him: their Pokémon had just suffered three defeats in a row against young Trainers from Pallet Town, and Daisy offered him the badge without a battle. Misty objected and battled in their place. The badge was eventually given to him as a thank-you, after he drove Team Rocket out of the Gym.
• What Pokémon do the Sensational Sisters use?
  Their troupe includes several Goldeen, a Seaking, a Shellder and two Seel, plus the two Luvdisc from a later show. In Let's Go, each of them fields a single species: Goldeen for Lily, Shellder for Violet, Seel for Daisy.
• Do they appear in the video games?
  Only in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, as Cerulean Gym Trainers in the Beauty class. The game doesn't mention any family tie between them or with Misty, and has them battle from youngest to oldest after a dive off the diving board.
• Who makes the Cascade Badges?
  Kinso, who lives in Rifure Village. When the Gym ran out of badges, it was Daisy who gave Misty the address, from the beach where the trio was enjoying their trip around the world.

In short

The Sensational Sisters' story reads like an internal critique of the Gym system: three official Gym Leaders with neither the skill nor the desire to defend their badge, who would rather turn it into the backdrop for a music-hall act. The series solves the problem in the only logical way, by handing the job to the one sister out of four who actually wanted to battle. All the trio keeps is the role of understudy, called back every time Misty hits the road again.