Best Kanto Gym Leaders: Every Gen 1 Pokémon Gym Leader, Ranked

Gen I simply had essentially the most memorable fitness center leaders out of any era.

I used to be in a position to comfortably recall seven out of eight of those gyms off the highest of my head, whereas I’d battle to let you know even one of many Kalos leaders.

That being stated, all eight of the Kanto badge holders aren’t made equal.

You may not agree with this checklist fully, however I’ve my causes for rating the entire Kanto fitness center leaders from worst to finest.

8. Blaine

We’re working in descending order, that means Blaine is the “worst” Gen I fitness center chief, for my part.

That’s to not say he’s dangerous; he’s simply the least memorable for me.

That’s a disgrace, too. As a result of Blaine is the OG Pokémon quiz grasp.

It’s an thought that ought to have led to an extremely memorable coach, however for no matter purpose, it didn’t.

If Blaine have been in nearly every other era(particularly gen 6) then he can be on the prime of this checklist.

His Arcanine and Rapidash may give you severe bother if you’re not ready, so his staff ticks that field, too.

It’s additionally just a little identified undeniable fact that the one time Blaine takes off his sun shades is when he’s designing a brand new quiz, that means he wears them in his sleep.

A lot potential, however the execution doesn’t dwell as much as it.

7. Sabrina

Just about each coach on the checklist from right here on out could possibly be moderately put in every other spot.

I’m going to keep away from speaking concerning the anime for most of this checklist, however there are a couple of exceptions the place I believe it has to return up. Particularly, we’ve got to speak about Sabrina.

The Pokémon anime early days have been a bit…. On the market…. There’s no higher instance of the psychedelics that the writing room was taking than the Sabrina episodes.

She is(and I imply this fairly actually) a psychopathic supervillain with magic powers, and he or she additionally occurs to have dissociative identification dysfunction apparently.

When Ash and the gang lose to her the primary time, she shrinks all of them down and traps them in a toy city. Once they fail a second time, she turns Misty and Brock into dolls and traps them in a dollhouse with her precise mom.

Sabrina within the video games is much tamer. However that anime episode is just too weird to gloss over.

6. Lt. Surge

I struggled with the place to place Lt. Surge on this checklist.

He began out at quantity three, and over time was relegated to quantity six. That’s a disgrace, too, as a result of the very existence of Surge is unimaginable.

The staff at Sport Freak designed his character primarily based on the Japanese stereotype of People on the time, and that basically reveals. He’s overly intense and OTT in every part he does. On prime of that, he’s like eight ft tall within the anime, and he’s ex-military.

Surge can be the primary time we ever received a point out of the notorious “Pokémon warfare,” which will get bonus factors with me. Significantly Sport Freak, when are you going to tug the set off on that 18+ challenge?

His staff isn’t very intimidating in-game, although.

I imply, you may catch a Diglett down the street and wreck him. But it surely’s the fashion factors that rely right here.

5. Brock

I do know, I do know, you may put your pitchforks away.

The one purpose that Brock is hitting mid-way is that I deal with his anime and recreation characters like two fully separate entities.

If this have been an inventory of finest anime characters, he can be each single entry on the checklist; it will be like an ode to Brock.

Because it stands, he sucks within the recreation.

Regardless of serving as the primary fitness center chief, he has nothing fascinating going for him. And he performs no half in any grander narrative. You could possibly change him with Teenager Joey and it will not make a distinction.

Granted Brock could be powerful to beat when you took Charmander. However as a Squirtle foremost, I by no means had that problem.

4. Giovanni

Ah sure, the literal mob boss that by some means managed to get verified league standing as a fitness center chief.

If there was ever any proof that the Indigo League was corrupt, that is it.

Giovanni serves because the villain to the whole lot of Gen I, in addition to the penultimate fitness center battle. So logically, he must be increased on the checklist.

However I discovered that he was simply too simple to beat.

He’s a floor kind fitness center chief, and in case you forgot, I used to be a Squirtle foremost. Not solely did this make his battle trivial, but it surely meant that I had nothing to recollect him by apart from being the annoying dude that I needed to hold beating up.

It was solely years later that I noticed the darker context of him being a literal crime lord.

3. Koga

Koga has all the time been a cool fitness center chief.

There’s nothing to complain a few ninja design that fights with poison varieties, which occurs to be a tricker factor to counter, making his battle not a right away sweep.

I’m not placing Koga on this checklist for his battle or his design, although.

I’m placing him right here as a result of he ought to function an inspiration to all working fathers across the globe.

After years of working a 9-to-5 on the fitness center, he received promoted to the league after Lance took over as champion. Not solely that, however he additionally left the fitness center to his daughter. He cemented his household’s legacy, and we should always all be happy with that.

2. Erika

I’ll confess: Erika was a large childhood crush of mine.

She was only some block of pixels, however that was sufficient for my younger eyes.

She runs probably the most memorable gyms within the recreation that reveals off the clear lack of anti-discrimination legal guidelines in Kanto. As a younger boy, although, I had no complaints about that.

Then there was additionally the creepy outdated man that used to stare by means of the fitness center’s home windows all that. Speaking to him is one in all my most vivid Pokémon R/B/Y recollections, and it must be pretty apparent why.

To prime all of it off, Erika is a grass coach. So she kicked me and my Squirtle’s ass.

An awesome design, an awesome staff, and an awesome fitness center all get Erika my quantity two spot.

1. Misty

I’ll confess as soon as once more: Misty was a large teenage crush of mine, and admittedly nonetheless is to today.

I shouldn’t have to clarify why, particularly in the case of the later video games. If I do want to clarify, then you definately is perhaps too younger to fret about it.

Her design feels a lot extra like her anime one does, even after the redesign. There’s sufficient substance there that I can join the 2 characters.

The mirror matchup all the time introduced an issue to me, too, due to that rattling Starmie.

She’s probably the most iconic figures in Pokémon historical past for a purpose. So there’s loads of justification for placing her in first place.