Pokémon/Characters/Blaine

Blaine, known as Katsura in the Japanese versions, is a character in the Pokémon video game series, the Pokémon anime series and the Pokémon manga series.

Blaine is a Gym leader in the Kanto region, who is an expert on Fire type Pokemon. Blaine resides in Cinnabar Island, and has his gym inside a volcano. One of the traits that Blaine has that makes him stand out, at least in the video games and the TV show, is his affection for riddles. This, combined with his training of fire pokemon, has earned him the nickname "The Hotheaded Quiz Master."

In versions Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Leaf Green, and Fire Red, Blaine is the second to last gym leader in the Kanto region (behind Giovanni/Blue).

In each of these games, getting to him requires puzzle solving. It requires answering to questions to avoid other trainers. Victory against Blaine earns the player both a Volcano Badge and TM 38, Fire Blast.

According to information gained from various NPCs in the game, Blaine was inspired to train fire Pokémon after he was guided out of a freezing mountain range by the fire bird Moltres. He is also on good terms with Mr. Fuji.

Blaine makes his home on Cinnabar Island in Red, Blue, Yellow, Fire Red, and Leaf Green and is a native of the island and has lived there since before the creation of the island's Pokémon lab. By Gold and Silver he has moved to the Seafoam Islands because the once dormant Cinnabar Island volcano errupted, making it impossible for him to have his gym there.

In the two Pokémon Stadium games, Blaine is a member of the gym leader lineups. Unlike the other games, he does not entirely rely on fire Pokémon, using the non-fire types Clefable, Kangaskhan, Chansey, Tangela, Parasect, Octillery, and Vileplume. The reason for this is unknown.

Blaine makes no appearance in versions Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald, as those games take place in different lands in the Pokémon world. However, Fire Pokémon are used in a Hoenn gym run by Flannery in Lavaridge Town.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Blaine is first introduced as a Team Rocket scientist working on the creation of Mewtwo. However, his appearance is brief, and he is not given a name until later. It is later revealed that he also was involved in experiments on Eevee, Gyarados, and others. He chose to work with Team Rocket based on his love of science, but regretted his decision after hearing about how Red had been taking on the organization.

As revealed in dreams that Blaine had, while working with Team Rocket, he combined the DNA of Mew with his own DNA in order to finish Mewtwo. This also left some of Mewtwo's DNA inside of Blaine, which not only was claiming Blaine's life, but allowed the gym leader to track the Pokémon. After Mewtwo broke free of the Team Rocket facility, Blaine left the group and went into hiding until he helped Red fight off some Team Rocket thugs.

During the escape from Team Rocket thugs and their Moltres, he discovers the old amber that Red has been carrying, and has him revive it into an Aerodactyl to fight off the Moltres, after which he lets Red keep it as he goes off to find Mewtwo. Red later reencountered Blaine and was able to help him capture Mewtwo with a Master Ball. Because of the DNA that they each had from the other, they were unable to be separated for very long without becoming ill. As a Scientist, Blaine tried to find a way to separate them without hurting either.

Blaine later reappeared three years later as the fourth member of the alliance of good gym leaders (the other three being Brock, Misty, and Erika) to help find Red, who had gone missing. When the Elite Four launch attacks on Pewter, Cerulean, and Celadon City, Blaine is forced to go to Cerise island, the location of the Elite Four's secret base, with the aid of Yellow, Green, Blue and Bill, with the intent of dissolving the group. However, they find Lt. Surge, Sabrina, and Koga instead, who state that they wish to help defeat the Elite Four since they are destroying the land that Team Rocket is suppose to rule. He and Yellow were then paired together to fight against the Elite Four by Sabrina's 'Spoons of Destiny', Eventually facing off against Lance. However, the bond between Mewtwo and Blaine proved to be his undoing, as he fainted before the battle was over.

Blaine first shows up in the 'Mask of Ice' plot during the Johto vs. Kanto Gym Leader Competition during the tri-annual Pokemon League Tournemant, in which he faced off against Clair. While the competition was apparently simply a matter of having the two regions compete against each other, in reality, it was to find out who the new leader of Team Rocket was, as fragments from the leaders Ice Mask had been discovered to be made out of the same material as gym badges. When the Legendary Dogs choose battle partners, Entei selected Blaine based on his specialty with fire pokemon, and it was then revealed that Blaine had been searching for Entei at the same time for his healing flame. Using the flame, Entei was able to break the bond between Blaine and Mewtwo by removing the DNA in Blane's arm, at which point Mewtwo left. He is then able to use the legendary pokemon to easily defeat Clair, who had insisted on holding their match on a runaway magnet train that all the gymleaders had become trapped on.

Blaine then worked with Misty and Lt. Surge (who were battle partners with Suicune and Raikou) to fight against the Mask of Ice and free Lugia and Ho-oh from his control. Ultimately, however, it was the emotions of a large number of pokemon that freed the two legendary birds.

In the show, while Ash is on his way to Cinnabar Island in order to challenge Blaine for a Volcano Badge, he is told by Gary that there is no badge. Believing that Gary is only trying to fool him out of a badge, he does not believe his rival. However, upon arriving, he learns that Gary was actually telling the truth, as a hippie-type character shows Ash and his friends the old, burned-down ruins of Blaine's abandoned gym. The hippie then tells them that as Cinnabar Island grew into a popular tourist attraction, too many non-serious Pokémon challengers arrived, driving Blaine away. He then hands them a business card for his hotel with the location disguised as a riddle.

After Ash and his friends are unable to find a place to stay, Misty figures out this riddle, and as a reward, the hippie (who seemingly appears out of nowhere) gives them free lodging. Through Misty's Togepi, they find a secret entrance into Cinnabar Island's volcano at the hippie's hotel, and learn that the riddling hippie is Blaine in disguise. Ash, now knowing who Blaine is, challenges him to a match. While Ash calls upon Charizard early in the match, the pokemon still refuses to listen to him, so he used Pikachu instead. However, Magmar proves to be too much, and Ash is forced to pull out.

When Team Rocket attempts to capture Magmar with ice rockets, it all goes a bit wrong. The ice rockets froze the inside of the entire volcano, cooling down the superheated rock. By doing this, the rock compacts and starts shattering. Blaine tells Ash that the surge of the lava bursting through the cracks is enough to destroy the island. Ash and Blaine send out their Pokémon to help seal the cracks in the rock, which stopped the eruption. Because of this, Blaine challenges Ash to a one-on-one rematch atop the volcano (the gym was destroyed), with Blaine choosing Magmar. While Ash was considering who he should use, Charizard steps in and volunteers to fight Magmar. Since Charizard saw how strong Magmar was in sealing the volcano, he wanted to test himself. So, for the first time, Charizard follows Ash's orders and defeats Magmar with a Seismic Toss attack, winning Ash the Volcano Badge.

Though there were some Blaine related cards in the Gym Heroes card release, a majority of the Blaine cards were released in the Gym Challenge set. Carrying over from the video games and anime, there are three separate "Blaine's Quiz" cards, known by their number.

The gym card designated for Blaine was designed in a way that gave players with large numbers of Pokémon with Blaine in their name an advantage, by eliminating the water weakness for Blaine's Fire Pokémon.

Blaine later received a minor addition in the 'Vs.' expansion.

Due to Blaine being a minor character in the series outside of the Pokemon Adventures Manga, he has been seen little outside of the main sources. He also receives little attention outside of the strategy guides for the games.

He was featured in the Pokémon version of Monopoly, making up the green monopoly, with Growlithe in place of Pacific Avenue (though its name is spelled wrong), Ponyta where North Carolina Avenue traditionally is, and Rapidash replacing Pennsylvania Avenue. However, it should be noted that all the monopolies consisted of the original gym leaders.

• Along with Sabrina, Blaine was one of only two Kanto Gym leaders who had two episodes about Ash trying to win his badge.
• In the manga, Blaine likes to wear a disguise when he's moving about the island. He also accidentally burnt his mustache off during a training exercise.
• His French and German names are Auguste and Pyro, respectively.
• While his now-standard appearance is that of a bald man who wears sunglasses and has a white moustache, Blaine has had two other previously used designs. In Pokémon Red and Blue, he is a slightly-balding, clean-shaven man, with red hair and no sunglasses. In the animé, his appearance after he has revealed himself to Ash is that of a man with hair on the back of his head, no moustache, and no sunglasses.