May's Blaziken
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May's Blaziken (Japanese: ハルカのバシャーモ Haruka's Bursyamo) was the first Pokémon acquired by May at the beginning of her travels in Hoenn.
History
Hoenn
In Get the Show on the Road!, Blaziken was given to May by Professor Birch in Littleroot Town when it was still a Torchic. She chose it as her starter Pokémon because she thought Treecko was creepy and scary (though she later called them cute in Trees a Crowd), while the starter Mudkip had attacked her earlier with a Water Gun in the face. However, she seemed to like Torchic's cute appearance and sweet nature. Early on in the journey, Torchic was very inexperienced and ditzy. It did not know how to battle, and tended to wander around obliviously; it also tended to panic when in dangerous situations. On the group's first encounter with Jessie's Seviper (still wild at the time), the Template:Type2 frightened Torchic by trying to eat it.
When May started to ignore Torchic in favor of her new Beautifly, Torchic's personality began to change: it grew more determined to improve itself and recapture May's attention. Its competitive streak continued to grow as it lost most of its childishness and confusion; this culminated in its evolution into Combusken during A Shroomish Skirmish, where it learned both Fire Spin and Sky Uppercut. Combusken itself had a period of being highly aggressive, but this seems to have passed and its personality seems to have evened out more now that it apparently feels that it no longer has to overcompensate.
Combusken proved to be very useful for Pokémon Contests. The first time it took part of one was in Pokéblock, Stock and Berry and Lessons in Lilycove!, when May used it in the Lilycove City Contest. Even though its Fire Spin caused problems during the appeal round, Combusken managed to get a score of 23.6, which helped May to reach the battle rounds. After defeating Jessie and Chimecho, May had to battle Kelly, a coordinator who she met prior to entering the Contest. Kelly and her Grumpig showed great talent and effort, but May and Combusken turned out as the winners, earning them the Lilycove Ribbon.
When May got enough ribbons, she participated on the Hoenn Grand Festival, where Combusken was used in her quarter-finals battle round against Drew's Flygon and Roselia, alongside Skitty, in Rhapsody in Drew. Together, they managed to put up a great fight, but they were defeated, leaving May within the Top 8 coordinators of the Festival.
Kanto Battle Frontier
During Kanto, Combusken had more appearances, due to the Pokémon Contests allowing coordinators to use different Pokémon for each round. In A Hurdle for Squirtle, Combusken was only used for the appeal round of the Saffron City Contest, where it used Fire Spin and Sky Uppercut on May's untied bandana to knot it back to her head. Later on, in Weekend Warrior, it was used for the battle rounds of the Silver Town Pokémon contest. May and Combusken faced coordinator Jeremy and his Venusaur in the final match; after a really close battle, where the Grass-type used the strong move Frenzy Plant, May and Combusken ended as the winners, earning them the ribbon.
In Spontaneous Combusken, it was used once again for the battle rounds, this time in the Chrysanthemum Island Convention. May and Combusken first faced Jessie and Mime Jr.: even though Mime Jr. used Mimic and the highly appealing Tickle, Combusken managed to win the match. On the final battle, May faced Brianna and her Vibrava; when Vibrava started to get the upper hand, Combusken learned Mega Kick and turned things around, defeating it in the end and granting May her third Kanto ribbon.
Finally, in New Plot, Odd Lot!, Combusken was used for the appeal round of the Mulberry City Pokémon Contest. Team Rocket, who banded together with May's rival Harley, attempted to ruin her performance: Harley loaned James and Meowth his Ariados to sabotage May's appeal and kick her out of the Contest, so she would not get the last ribbon she needed to get into the Grand Festival; however, surprisingly, their plan backfired when Combusken's Fire Spin started enveloping Ariados' web, going upwards in a spiral manner, not only setting Combusken free from it, but also surprising all three judges in the process. May managed to advance to the battle rounds (narrowly, though), and went on to defeat Jessie, who this time had borrowed Harley's Banette, in the final round.
For the Kanto Grand Festival, Combusken was used for one of the appeal rounds and two of the battle rounds. Its appeal performance during May, We Harley Drew'd Ya!, just like the one in the Mulberry Contest, involved a frisbee, and easily led her to the next round. Combusken was then used for May's battle against Drew, which started in Thinning the Hoard! and ended in the following episode, Channeling the Battle Zone!. It battled against Drew's Flygon and Absol, alongside Squirtle; however, the fierce battle left only Combusken and Absol on stage after the first half of the five minutes. Just when Absol started to get the advantage, Combusken learned Overheat and gave its very best until the end of the match; by an extremely narrow difference, May and Combusken were announced as the winners of the round, and May moved on to the semi-finals. Combusken then faced Solidad's Pidgeot and Slowbro, battling along with Munchlax; they were defeated with relative ease, leaving May at the Top 4 of the Grand Festival.
In Once More with Reeling, during the break of a Pokémon Contest, Ash and his friends were trying to stop Team Rocket from stealing Pikachu and other Pokémon. In the midst of the ensuing battle, Combusken evolved into Blaziken, and used its Blaze Kick to send Team Rocket flying, upon which Ash remarked "would I love to battle you". Afterwards, May used Blaziken in the Battle Phase against Ash's Sceptile. Although it had a type advantage over Sceptile and its Blaze ability activated at the same time Sceptile's Overgrow did, the battle ended in a tie. Later, it left for Johto with the rest of May's Pokémon, along with May.
Sinnoh
Blaziken appeared again when May made a guest appearance in A Full Course Tag Battle!. It was used in the Seven Stars Restaurant tag battles, in which it battled alongside Dawn's Piplup. When it was first called out, Ash seemed to be pleased at seeing it again, and Brock remarked that it had gotten stronger as well.
Moves used
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Moves Improvised
- Friction Uppercut as a Combusken it would use Sky Uppercut on the ground while charging toward an opponent and sparks from it would charge and make it more powerful. The most noticeable appearance was in the battle with May versus Drew in Channeling the Battle Zone!.
- Water and Fire Whirlwind Combusken uses Fire Spin and Squirtle uses Bubble and the two moves fuse together and blue sparks appear were the Bubbles touch the Fire Spin and traps the target inside it. This is based off of the Battle Dome's Frontier Brain, Tucker's Fusion of Fire and Water which appeared in Tactics Theatrics!!. It was used again in A Full Course Tag Battle! with Dawn's Piplup's BubbleBeam.
In the TCG
May's Blaziken was featured in the TCG as both a Torchic and a Combusken. Below is a list of all cards featuring May's Blaziken.
| Name | Type | Level | Rarity | Set | Set no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May's Torchic |  |
- | - | ADV-P Promotional cards | 037/ADV-P |
| May's Combusken | |
- | - | Movie Commemoration VS Pack: Sea's Manaphy | 002/019 |
Trivia
- May's Blaziken is the only Hoenn starter belonging to a main character that did not fall in love.
- Both its first battle as a Combusken and its first official battle as a Blaziken resulted in a tie. Coincidentally, in both instances it fought against a fully-evolved Template:Type2 Pokémon.
- Combusken evolved into Blaziken exactly 100 episodes after its first Contest victory (in Lilycove City).
- Like Ash's Sceptile, Blaziken was voiced by Darren Dunstan in its second stage followed by Bill Rogers after the voice switch, and Bill Rogers in its final form.
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This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |