#gym leaders

1998, Brock (タケシTakeshi)the Gym Leader of Pewter City by Ken Sugimori for the expansion Gym Heroes (ジム拡張第1弾 リーダーズスタジアム), scanned by us and enhanced by the kind @pinkgermy! An amazing Pokémon Artist, go and follow her account now both here and on Twitter.

1999, Blaine (カツラKatsura)the Gym Leader of Cinnabar Island by Ken Sugimori for the expansion Gym Challenge (ジム拡張第2弾 闇からの挑戦), scanned by us and enhanced by FLECKABEN!

Are you ready to take on the Kanto Pokémon League again? Check out more information under the cut.

Want to learn more? Check out the Memories of Kanto tag. 

Though the badge case image has the gym leaders in their traditional order, you won’t be challenging them that way in Memories of Kanto. Since you begin your journey in Lavender Town, the gym challenge will be in the following order:

Gym Leader 1: Mariana (Cerulean City)

Mariana hasn’t been gym leader in Cerulean City for very long, and she has big shoes to fill! The layout of the gym has remained largely the same, with a large pool in the center of the room where the other trainers in the gym (a swimmer and a tuber) swim around until they spot you. 

Once you defeat Mariana’s team of Poliwag and Goldeen, you have your first badge: the cascade badge.

Gym Leader 2: Torsten (Pewter City)

Pewter City gym has a straightforward design. It’s simply a rocky path where you will be challenged by two campers and a black belt. 

When you reach Torsten, you’ll need to defeat his Onyx and Aerodactyl to win the boulder badge.

Gym Leader 3: Fina (Cinnabar Gym)

Fina has recently built her gym and science center on Cinnabar island, after the original gym was obliterated by an eruption of the island’s volcano. She’s here to research and monitor the island, and her gym is staffed by scientists and ruin maniacs. These trainers do have work to do, so they might just let you pass by unchallenged, as long as you answer their trivia questions correctly. I hope you know about type effectiveness and Pokémon evolution! 

However, you can’t avoid taking on Fina’s Vulpix, Growlithe, Flareon. Once you defeat her, she will reward you with the volcano badge.

Gym Leader 4: Janine (Fuchsia City)

At first glance, Fuchsia City gym appears empty. However, this gym has trained ninjas for decades now, so no one is surprised that it is affectively booby-trapped. Trainers are hidden throughout the room, and you never know when you’ll be thrown into battle with a ninja boy, lass, or battle girl. Make sure you have a lot of antidotes on hand! 

Janine’s team of Venonat, Nidorina, and Crobat, will surely leave you poisoned, but if you survive the battle you’ll receive the soul badge. 

You’ll also receive congratulations from the retired ninja master Koga, who has great faith in his daughter’s abilities. If you talk to him prior to challenging her, he will share some information about poison types with you, though he is skeptical of your odds against Janine.

Gym Leader 5: Vince (Vermillion City)

Vince keeps a much more relaxed gym than his mentor, Lt. Surge. The gym has now been fitted with colorful, musical tiles; if you step on all of the tiles of a given color in the gym, following them from front to back, they’ll play a tune together and turn off one of the rungs in the electric fence blocking off Vince’s stage. Following the musical paths will definitely put you in the sights of the gym’s trainers: a sailor, a juggler, and an idol, who mention that they are also a lead guitarist, keyboardist, and master Metal vocalist, respectively.

Vince compliments you on your musical chops when you reach him, and compares the support a gym leader gives to trainers–both his friends in the gym and the challengers that come from across the region–to the easily-overlooked importance of a bass guitar in a rock song. Once you’ve defeated his Pikachu, Lanturn, Magnezone, and Ampharos you’ll be rewarded with the thunder badge.

Gym Leader 6: Murdoch (Saffron City)

The youngest gym leader in Kanto, Murdoch works hard to be professional. He has turned the nine rooms built into the gym into a shadowy mirror-maze. It’s dark and difficult to navigate, and you will be challenged by school kids and mediums as you work towards Murdoch. (The school kids aren’t subtle about being Murdoch’s battle buddies, and the mediums are similarly un-subtle that they all look upon Murdoch as their adopted grandson and they’re very proud of him. Some will laud his world travels and interest in staying up-to-date with the newest Pokémon discoveries.)

Murdoch is impressed that you reach him, and even more impressed when you defeat his Haunter, Mimikyu, Mismagius, and Gengar. Somewhat begrudgingly, he will give you the marsh badge.

Gym Leader 7: Erika (Celadon City)

Erika takes pride in the upkeep of her flowering maze of a gym. In fact, at one of the windows outside a young girl gazes longingly at the beautiful trainers in the gym. These trainers include a lass, an aroma lady, a beauty, and a pair of ace trainers. 

Erika’s team of Victreebel, Jumpluff, Bellossom, and Tangrowth are formidable, but if you can beat them you’ll receive the rainbow badge, and then there’s only one gym left.

Gym Leader 8: Blue (Viridian City)

Blue has done his grandad proud (if you talk to the retired Professor Oak in Pallet Town he’ll tell you as much!) by becoming a major facet of the community in Viridian City. He has taken well to being a gym leader, though he’ll playfully taunt challengers until or unless they defeat him. He’s built his gym to prepare trainers for the variety of his team, a stark contrast to the rest of Kanto’s gym leaders. You’ll need to navigate through a stream, a grassland, and some rocky terrain to reach Blue, and on the way you’ll battle a variety of ace trainers, all with Pokémon themed to the terrain (water and ice along the stream, grass and bug in the grasslands, and fire, rock, and ground type in the rocky terrain).

Blue will grant you the earth badge once you defeat his team of Rhydon, Exeggutor, Alakazam, Arcanine, Blastoise, which is no small feat. Now that you have all eight badges, he’ll wish you luck against the elite four and the champion. You’ll need it: Blue has never been able to defeat the champion, and not for lack of trying.

I also made Vs. sprites for Mariana, Torsten, Fina, Vince, and Murdoch to be able to make the badge case, but you can’t actually see much of them there, and I spent way too much time on them not to include them, so here they are:

Things are stupid busy at the moment but I finished sketchtember and finally had a chance to post. Have a genderbend Sabrina

meloettium:

the boys are back in town