Pokémon: 10 Characters That Were Totally Wasted

The Pokémon anime has introduced many characters over the years, although some of them were totally wasted and deserve more attention

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The Pokémon anime, much like the games it’s based on, has introduced a plethora of characters since its first episode was aired in 1997. Trainers, rivals, gym leaders – the series has seen a giant number of memorable names come and go.

With such a big cast, there have been some characters (including Pokémon) who never received the same amount of limelight compared to others. These individuals either never received that much focus story-wise, hardly contributed anything to the anime, or just didn’t appear as much – and have left fans wanting more.

Blaziken Mask

Blaziken Mask first appeared in the second episode of the XY series, along with his Mega Blaziken. Given the emphasis on Mega Evolution at the time, it was expected that Blaziken Mask would be a major player down the road.

However, other than a few appearances in the first 10 episodes, this mask-clad trainer didn’t show up that much. Even during the Team Flare saga, Blaziken Mask barely contributed much to the resistance. Even though his true identity was the father of Clemont and Bonnie, that wasn’t enough to warrant him more screentime.

Dawn’s Ampibom

Ampibom has had quite the journey in the anime. Starting off as an Aipom, one of the underrated Pokémon from the Hoenn region, she accompanied Ash to Sinnoh, where she discovered her love for Pokémon contests. She was later traded to Dawn and then evolved, and even helped Dawn win the Celestic Ribbon.

Midway through the Diamond and Pearl series, Ampibom suddenly developed a love for ping-pong. She left Dawn and friends to pursue her ping-pong dreams, which didn’t sit well with fans, as she never showed up again. The long-tail Pokémon could’ve returned to Dawn’s team during the Grand Festival, but that sadly never came to fruition.

Virgil

Virgil was a rescue worker who worked in Unova, and his claim to fame was winning the Vertress Conference. He was a highly competent trainer who had a bunch of Pokémon Eevolutions under his belt.

Virgil never crossed paths with Ash during the Vertress Conference, which was seen as a missed opportunity by fans. His battling skill and Eevolutions would’ve made him a worthy challenger for Ash to face. Another missed opportunity was not using Virgil as a way to introduce Sylveon and the new Fairy typing, despite Generation VI rearing its head around the corner.

Mallow

The Sun and Moon anime saw Ash with the largest group of friends he ever had, having befriended six Trainers in the Alola region. While Lillie got most of the spotlight, Ash’s other friends were often relegated to the background. Mallow was perhaps the most unfortunate case.

Mallow was doomed by a lack of character development, as there were simply too many characters to go around. After her Bounsweet evolved into Tsareena, Mallow was left on the sideline and didn’t progress much as a Trainer. She had an interesting backstory involving her dead mother, but even that wasn’t enough to make her a more prominent character.

Ash’s Goodra

Notably, Goodra was the first and only pseudo-legendary Pokémon that Ash ever owned. With that in mind, many had high expectations for the dragon Pokémon for the remainder of the XY series.

Quite frankly, Goodra never lived up to those expectations, as it was only around for 15 episodes after its evolution. While it did have a few memorable moments in that 15-episode span, the episodes it actually appeared in were only a few. When it returned for the Kalos League, it couldn’t even eke out a single win – a major disappointment for any of Ash’s Pokémon.

Domino

One good look at Jessie, James, and Meowth, and one might think that Team Rocket was full of incompetent operatives, although they had many iconic scenes in the anime. However, not everyone in Giovanni’s organization was bad at their job. Take, for instance, Domino, an elite officer working for Team Rocket.

Serving as the secondary antagonist of the special, “Mewtwo Returns,” Domino had a lot of perks that many other Team Rocket members did not have. She was very close to Giovanni, had command over lower-ranking agents, and was able to talk back to her boss without repercussion. Sadly, Domino only made one appearance overall; her abilities and overall competence would’ve made her a valuable asset for Team Rocket in the main series.

Hau

Hau was the main rival in Sun and Moon, being a grandchild of one of the kahunas in Alola. He was even the Alola League’s last challenger in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, being the last trainer the player had to face to become champion.

Hau received nowhere near the same treatment in the anime, with Gladion replacing him as Ash’s main rival. To add further insult to injury, he didn’t even debut until the 97th episode and got only one episode of character development in before the Alola League began.

Damian

As a so-called “character of the day,” Damian sure had a lot going for him. Not only did he show up in the Pokémon manga, but there is also a trainer in “Let’s Go Pikachu!/Let’s Go Eevee” inspired by him. One would be hard-pressed to find another one-time character with that much notoriety.

Still, it was quite a shame that Damian didn’t appear in more than just one episode. His abandonment of Charmander made him a trainer that fans loved to hate, and he could’ve been a very antagonistic rival during Ash’s Kanto. Unfortunately, Damian never had a Pokémon battle with Ash – instead only being remembered for Charmander’s Flamethrower chasing him away.

Chairman Rose

Much like the mainline games, villains are a very common fixture in the Pokémon anime. The most recent villain in Pokémon is Chairman Rose from Sword and Shield (which also has many unique Pokémon), who is in charge of Marcos Cosmos in the Galar region.

Compared to many of the bad guys that came before him, Rose carries the most wasted potential. Part of the reason why that’s the case is due to the fact that he only appeared in two episodes in the Journeys series when Eternatus was involved. After Eternatus was defeated, Rose went into hiding, and it remains to be seen if he would ever show up again.

Gary Oak

Many Pokémon fans may be surprised to see Gary Oak on this list. Arguably Ash’s most noteworthy rival in the entire anime, Gary has become quite popular due to his brash attitude.

That being said, Gary didn’t make that much of a presence in the original series. He didn’t appear that much during the course of his rivalry with Ash – only appearing just to gloat about his number of gym badges. It wasn’t until after the rivalry was over that Gary made a pretty noticeable impact plot-wise.

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