Harley
| Harley ハーリー Harley | |
 Harley | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Eye color | Green |
| Hair color | Purple |
| Hometown | Slateport City |
| Region | Hoenn |
| Trainer class | Coordinator |
| Animated debut | A Cacturne for the Worse |
| English voice actor | Andrew Rannells (4Kids) Billy Regan (TPCi) |
| Japanese voice actor | Jun'ichi Kanemaru |
Harley (Japanese: ハーリー Harley) is a Coordinator and May's rival from Slateport City.
History
Harley first competed against May in A Cacturne for the Worse!. When the two Coordinators met, Harley was annoyed at May for several petty reasons: she was not familiar with his Cacturne, she called Cacturne "scary", and she said the cookies he offered her were "not half bad". Later, the two competed in a Contest, Harley using Cacturne and May using Bulbasaur. During the appeals round, he mentions that he doesn't want anyone to talk during their performance. After that round, in an attempt to publicly humiliate May, Harley played a recording of Max recalling a time when May was younger and she became stuck in water with a swarm of Tentacool and was extremely frightened. May was embarrassed, but went on to defeat Harley.
Harley and May met up again in the episodes Hi Ho Silver Wind!, Deceit and Assist, and Rhapsody in Drew. Harley pretended that he was friends with May, and she initially believed him. He gave her "advice" to have her Skitty use its Assist move repeatedly to make a good appeal; this resulted in Skitty becoming confused after using Bulbasaur's Petal Dance, having to DoubleSlap itself out of confusion. Meanwhile, Drew watched Harley, noticing how he tricked May. Later, May realized Harley's ploy, and soon the two were to battle once again. This time, it was Harley's Cacturne and Banette versus May's Beautifly and Bulbasaur. May won this battle as well, and progressed further into the tournament.
The next time May and Harley met was in Saffron City during the episodes The Saffron Con and A Hurdle for Squirtle. They met on this occasion in the Pokémon Center where Harley stated he was working as an assistant to Nurse Joy in gratitude for her healing his Cacturne. He stated that he was sorry and that he was working hard to make up for things. All of it was a lie and May nearly couldn’t compete because he "mistakenly" told her that she could use her Hoenn pass to compete. However, Lilian Meridian, the Kanto Contest MC, gave her a Kanto contest pass and ribbon box in thanks for her help in repelling Team Rocket when they raided the Pokémon Center.
Harley competed in the contest using Cacturne for the appeals and Ariados for the battles. He defeated Jessie who entered with Wobbuffet, but was defeated himself by May and her Squirtle in the finals.
The next time he appeared was in Harley Rides Again, where he competed in the Wisteria Town Contest, using Ariados in the appeals. He used Ariados's Spider Web to surround the stage with its web, similar to the previous contest. He then asked it to entangle itself with its web and use Scary Face, scaring everyone. He then used his Octillery against May's Munchlax in battle. After utilizing Octazooka, Sludge Bomb and Rest, he defeated May for the first and only time known so far.
He appeared again in New Plot, Odd Lot! and Going for Choke!. This time after learning that May needed one more ribbon to enter the Grand Festival, he devised a plan to prevent this. To do this, he enlisted the help of Team Rocket, promising to help Jessie win and having James and Meowth help him sabotage May behind the scenes. However Ash, Brock, Max and Drew got wind of this and thwarted his plan.
In New Plot, Odd Lot!, it was also mentioned that part of Harley's hate for May came from when a girl who looked like May ate his food when he was younger.
The next time was in May, We Harley Drew’d Ya!, Thinning the Hoard, and Channeling the Battle Zone, where he competed against May in the Kanto Grand Festival. In the Appeals Round, he used his Banette while dressed up as May, asking himself to be called Mayley. He used Cacturne and Wigglytuff against Munchlax and Eevee, but both defeated his Pokémon.
The final major appearance he had was in The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing where he simply watched May and Drew have a practice contest battle. At the end of the episode, he revealed that he was also going to compete in Contests in Johto. He also invited Jessie to do the same, but she denied, saying she still wanted to stay in Team Rocket. Because of this, he got mad at her. He then sent out his Cacturne to battle her. As she was searching for a Pokémon to use, Harley asked Cacturne to use Bullet Seed, sending Team Rocket flying with Jessie still looking for a Pokémon.
He has Contest Passes to compete in Hoenn, Kanto, and presumably Johto as well.
In A Full Course Tag Battle!, he and Wigglytuff appeared in a flashback. Then Harley, Solidad and Drew made a cameo appearance in Pruning a Passel of Pals!, watching May perform in the Wallace Cup.
Harley tended to use nicknames for May behind her back. The first was Meno-chan (English equivalent: Miss Tent) after embarrassing her with the Tentacool story. The second was Kamo-chan, referring to the word often used at the end of May's sentences in Japanese that can imply unsureness. In English, he calls her various cutesy pet-names, including "gingerbread-cookie".
Character
Harley has a rather peculiar personality. He is undeniably flamboyant, wearing an outfit similar in appearance to Cacturne. He has very effeminate mannerisms, which include wiggling his hips as he walks and using アタシ atashi, the Japanese feminine version of I. He also has a tendency to use select English words intermixed with his normal Japanese speech; for example, he calls Cacturne and Banette my buddies or darling, sweeties, and honey and tells May good morning. In the Latin-American dub, this is replaced by using Latin-American slang and allusions to local urban culture; for example, he sings a song by the Mexican showman Juan Gabriel in the Grand Festival, as his Octillery dances in the flames. He talks with a high voice, another sign of effeminacy. Another example of his feminine side is in May, We Harley Drew'd Ya! where Harley cross-dresses as May, calling himself "Mayley" (Japanese: ハリカ Harika), much to May's embarrassment and Solidad's amusement. He is apparently old friends with Solidad, as she said so herself.
Harley is a conniving character with little to no regard for anybody but himself and his Pokémon. He tends to get personal vendettas against people for the smallest of reasons. His vendetta against May began when she said she had never heard of Cacturne before, Cacturne was "scary" and that his cookies were "not half bad"; however, the supposed "real" reason he started to dislike her was because she looks just like a classmate who stole his last snack when he was a small child. He keeps photos of people that he has grudges against in a notebook/photo album. He also tends to inflict humiliation to try to get the better of an opponent, showing sadistic pleasure when he does. This is evident when he pretended to be friends with Max in order to get him to tell an embarrassing story about May only to record it and play it during a Contest. Finally as evidenced by his contest performances, Harley shows no qualms in using dirty tactics to win.
Pokémon
Harley seems to take immense pride in his Pokémon, so much so in fact that he dresses up in clothing modeled after his signature Pokémon, Cacturne. None of Harley's Pokémon share a particular type, but they all have one attribute in common: they can all be quite menacing in contests, even the normally cute Wigglytuff.
This listing is of Harley's known Pokémon:
| Debut | A Cacturne for the Worse |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Yuji Ueda |
| English | Billy Beach |
- Main article: Harley's Cacturne
Cacturne is Harley's main Pokémon. It made its first appearance in A Cacturne for the Worse, along with Harley.
| Debut | Deceit and Assist |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Ikue Ohtani |
| English | Darren Dunstan |
Harley obtained Banette shortly before the Battle Frontier. Banette debuted during the Hoenn Grand Festival in the episode Deceit and Assist when Harley used it in double battle against May alongside Cacturne. It reappeared in New Plot, Odd Lot! and Going for Choke! when Harley lent his Banette to Jessie in an attempt to help her beat May in the final Pokémon Contest before the Grand Festival in an attempt to prevent May from entering. Because it was unfamiliar with her, Jessie continued to tell Banette to use Frustration. This eventually resulted in Jessie's loss to May. Harley also used Banette in the appeals round during the Kanto Grand Festival in May, We Harley Drew'd Ya!.
Banette's known moves are Will-O-Wisp, Thunder, Screech, Torment and Frustration.
| Debut | The Saffron Con |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Katsuyuki Konishi |
| English | Eric Stuart |
Ariados first appeared in The Saffron Con, and Harley also used it in the following episode in the Saffron City contest. It battled against May's Squirtle, but the young Pokémon ended up defeating it by using Ice Beam. It also appeared in Harley Rides Again performing in the appeal round of the Wisteria Town Contest, and in New Plot, Old Lot, where it was borrowed by James and Meowth and used to sabotage May's appeal by secretly shooting its web at both her and her Combusken from above the stage.
Ariados's known moves are Spider Web, String Shot, Double-Edge, Scary Face and Shadow Ball.
| Debut | Harley Rides Again |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Unshō Ishizuka |
| English | Unshō Ishizuka |
Octillery first appeared in Harley Rides Again, where Harley used it to win the Wisteria Town Contest. It also appeared in Thinning the Hoard!, where it was used in Harley's appeal.
Octillery's known moves are Constrict, Octazooka, Sludge Bomb, Rest and Fire Blast.
| Debut | Thinning the Hoard! |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Yumi Tōma |
| English | Michele Knotz |
Wigglytuff's first and so far its only appearance was in Thinning the Hoard!, where it was used in the Kanto Grand Festival. It battled alongside Harley's Cacturne against May's Eevee and Munchlax, where Harley fully used its capability to expand its rubber-like body. After learning from Lilian that Wigglytuff was the Balloon Pokémon, May quickly thought of a plan to utilize this to her advantage. Wigglytuff was eventually defeated by May's Munchlax's Focus Punch, with the help of Eevee.
Wigglytuff was the only one of Harley's Pokémon to appear in May's flashback in A Full Course Tag Battle!.
Harley's Wigglytuff is rather different from the other Pokémon of this species. It has a purple glare across its face, which is probably an attempt to make Wigglytuff fit the 'evil' stereotype of Harley's Pokémon.
Wigglytuff's known moves are Body Slam and DoubleSlap.
Voice actors
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Trivia
- Harley's name may be derived from and could be a corruption of 針 "needle", referring to his signature Pokémon.
- In the original version of the anime, Harley has an annoyance of May's over usage of the word "kamo".
- Harley shares many similarities with Dawn's rival Ursula.
- Both hold a personal grudge against their rival.
- Harley was insulted that May said his cookies were simply okay and Ursula was insulted that Dawn's Pachirisu refused one of her Poffins.
- Both used a traumatic event from their rival's past involving a Pokémon against them.
- Both own a member of the Jigglypuff line.
- Both were defeated in their episode debut where their rival earned their fourth Ribbon in their home region.
- Both were defeated by their rivals' Pokémon that had stage fright in a previous contest.
- Both were defeated by their rival during the first Double Performance round of a Grand Festival.
- Harley also shares many similarities with Dawn's rival Nando.
- Both use a fully-evolved part-Template:Type2 Pokémon as their main partner.
- Both of their Grass Pokémon know the move Bullet Seed.
- Both have long hair, wear hats and green outfits.
- Both are Coordinators and rivals to the main female character in their respective series.
- Both have participated in a regional Grand Festival.
- Both are voiced by Billy Regan in the English dub.
- However they differ as Nando is polite, kind (to the point of being benevolent) and humble while Harley is arrogant, cruel, selfish and rude.
Names
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ハーリー Harley | May be corruption of 針 hari. |
| English | Harley | From his Japanese name. |
| Korean | 할리 Harley | Transliteration of his Japanese name. |
| Chinese | 哈利 Hālì | Transliteration of his Japanese name. |
External links
- Atashi, the fanlisting for Harley.
- Harley's Profile on Pokeani (Japanese)
- Harley's Pokémon on Pokeani (Japanese)
| Top Coordinators | ||
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This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |