Baoba: The Warden Who Closed His Own Safari Zone

The same man goes by a different name depending on the medium. Thibault Souryre in the French version of Let's Go, Baoba in the Johto remakes, Kaiser in the anime: behind these three labels, a single character watches over the one place in Kanto where, back in Pokémon Red and Blue, you catch Pokémon without ever using a move. And his career comes down to a decision few wardens would have made: shutting down, with his own hands, the park that had made him famous.

Contents

• Fuchsia City: a Park, a Zoo and Some Fossils
• Gold Teeth, Dentures and Two HMs on the Line
• Out of Fashion: He Closes His Own Park
• Baoba and the Second Safari Zone, West of Cianwood City
• Kaiser, the Version Censorship Kept Off the Air
• Baoba in the Manga, from Robo-Pidgey to Fainting Spells
• Baoba at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Fuchsia City: a Park, a Zoo and Some Fossils

He is the one who founded the Kanto Safari Zone, located in Fuchsia City, and he serves as both its director and its warden. The place holds a unique spot in the region depicted in Pokémon Red and Blue: there, you fill your Pokédex with Safari Balls, without a single battle being fought.

The park isn't his only achievement. He also opened a zoo in the same city, where rare species are on display, and he has since worked to make sure the Pokémon at both sites are respected and protected. He's also credited with solid general knowledge of Pokémon, and with a collection of fossils of ancient, uncommon species.

The people around him say a lot about him. His employees hold him in high regard and have nicknamed him after a Slowpoke, which they think he resembles: some even go so far as to call him "Mr. Slowpoke". Gym Leader Koga is one of his close friends, to the point of coming to train and patrol the paths of the Safari Zone.

Gold Teeth, Dentures and Two HMs on the Line

In the first-generation games, as in FireRed and LeafGreen, the player finds the Warden at home, east of the Fuchsia City Pokémon Center, and can't understand a single word he says. The man has lost his Gold Teeth, and without them his speech falls apart completely.

The item lies in the very last area of the Safari Zone, which means crossing the entire park to recover it. Returned to its owner, it earns you HM04, Strength, the move that lets Pokémon push boulders around. The Warden had also set up a promotional campaign for his park: anyone who finds the Secret House, all the way at the back, walks away with HM03, Surf.

Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! replay the scene and take it further: this time it's a full set of dentures, lost on Route 19. On the beach south of the city, Jessie and James dig it up from the sand, get rid of it in disgust by handing it to the player, and leave without even asking for a battle. Returning it to the Warden earns you a Safari outfit and the Secret Technique Strong Push.

Out of Fashion: He Closes His Own Park

Three years after the events of the first generation, things have changed. The Fuchsia City Safari Zone has closed and its warden no longer lives in the city: in Gold, Silver and Crystal, the place has simply become inaccessible, while the remakes replace it with a Pal Park.

The decision was his own, and the remakes spell out the details. Someone once told him that his park had gone out of fashion, and he closed it on his own initiative, his pride badly wounded. He then went abroad to study what people liked these days, before choosing Johto as the site of a second Safari Zone.

The next generation, meanwhile, stayed in Fuchsia City. The Pal Park that took the Safari Zone's place is run by his son, and his granddaughter loves going there. That makes him one of the few Kanto extras to be given three generations of family in the same setting.

Baoba and the Second Safari Zone, West of Cianwood City

In Johto, he goes by the name Baoba. The first encounter takes place on Route 39, where he announces the construction of his new park and swaps Pokégear numbers with the player, promising to be the first to call when the work is done.

He keeps his promise: the call comes once the Ampharos in the Olivine City lighthouse has been nursed back to health. The park lies beyond the Safari Zone Gate, west of Cianwood City, a passage carved into the rock that you have to go through and then follow for quite a while before reaching the capture areas.

Once you're there, Baoba doesn't just collect the entrance fee: he offers a two-round test to become the owner of the place — catch a Geodude, then a Sandshrew, the latter only appearing once you've added a desert area. The area customizer, the machine that rearranges the park's six areas, is handed to the player precisely for this second round; the Blocks, whose type changes which species show up, only come afterward. Once the title has been awarded, he asks the new owner to keep paying for a ticket — running costs, after all.

🎣 The Safari Zone's residents have their own section: see the Pokémon figures.

Kaiser, the Version Censorship Kept Off the Air

The anime gives him another name, Kaiser, and a single appearance, in an episode from the first season of the original series. Outside Japan, this character is best known for getting his own episode censored: he points guns at several of the main characters at point-blank range, more than once.

His harshness has a specific origin. Thirty years earlier, he had befriended a Dratini he came across in the park; word of it drew a crowd that never managed to catch the Dragon Pokémon, but took the opportunity to grab everything else and ransack the place. Disgusted, Kaiser became a warden to protect what was left and laid down his rules: a set area, thirty Safari Balls per Trainer, and a fishing rod as the only other tool. Ash catches his thirty Tauros.

Team Rocket kidnaps him to make him reveal where his Dratini is hiding. He withstands their threats but cracks when faced with a tickling robot, then breaks free and joins Ash's group to keep an underwater bomb dropped into the secret lake from going off. Running out of air, he makes it back to the surface thanks to Misty's Staryu; it's a Dragonair that saves Ash at the bottom of the lake, and Kaiser recognizes it as his old friend, before bursting into tears when he discovers that the dragon has a little one of its own.

Baoba in the Manga, from Robo-Pidgey to Fainting Spells

The main manga adaptation gives him the Johto remakes' name from the outset — a name revealed later, in the arc devoted to HeartGold and SoulSilver. He makes his entrance in chapter 21 of the Red, Green & Blue arc, when Red decides to visit the Safari Zone: the Warden puts a squad of robotic Pidgey on his tail — the Robo-Pidgey, tasked with escorting him and keeping an eye on him.

The visit goes wrong. Red breaks the rules by throwing an ordinary Poké Ball, then gets carried off by a Victreebel, which sends the Warden and his surveillance team combing the park all night long. They only find him the next morning, and he announces that he's filled every one of his Safari Balls — news that makes the Warden pass out cold.

The rest of his manga career comes down to brief appearances: he watches the Team Rocket airship fly over Fuchsia City toward Vermilion City, he turns up on a boat bound for the Battle Frontier, and then he organizes the opening of the Johto Safari Zone, near Cianwood City — where Executive Petrel borrows his appearance to escape Silver. Another adaptation leaves him unnamed and replays his original role: his gold teeth are lying somewhere in the park, the hero goes looking for them, and along the way comes across a Slowpoke that looks uncannily like the Warden.

Baoba at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why is the Safari Zone Warden so hard to understand?
  He has lost his Gold Teeth, which are lying in the park's last area, and his speech suffers to the point of being unintelligible. In Let's Go, it's a full set of dentures, dropped on Route 19.
• What does Baoba give as a reward?
  HM04, Strength, in the first-generation games and in FireRed and LeafGreen. In Let's Go, he gives you the Safari outfit and then teaches you the Secret Technique Strong Push. Finding the park's Secret House also earns you HM03, Surf.
• Why did the Fuchsia City Safari Zone close?
  He closed it himself after being told the place had gone out of fashion. Stung, he went abroad to study the new trends, then settled in Johto to open a second Safari Zone there, west of Cianwood City.
• Are Thibault Souryre and Baoba the same person?
  Yes. The name Thibault Souryre only appears in the French version of Let's Go, while the HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes call him Baoba, a name the main manga adaptation also uses.
• Why was the Safari Zone episode censored?
  Because Kaiser, his anime counterpart, threatens and attacks several characters with guns in it, at point-blank range and more than once. The episode was never aired outside Japan.

In short

Few minor characters have such a clear-cut arc. Baoba built the only place in Kanto where you catch Pokémon without battling, then closed it with his own hands the day someone called it outdated, before opening another one at the other end of the map. The anime makes him an armed man who saw his park looted, the manga a director who faints at a kid's haul, the games an old man you can only understand once his teeth have been found. Three treatments, one obsession: leave the park's Pokémon in peace.