Delia Ketchum
Delia Ketchum ハナコ Hanako | |
Delia Ketchum | |
Age | 29 (novel) |
---|---|
Gender | Female |
Eye color | Black*, Amber* |
Hair color | Auburn*, Mahogany* |
Hometown | Pallet Town |
Region | Kanto |
Relatives | Ash, Unknown husband/boyfriend (EP002), Unknown father-in-law (EP002) |
Animated debut | Pokémon - I Choose You! |
English voice actor | Veronica Taylor (EP001-AG145) Sarah Natochenny (AG191-present) |
Japanese voice actor | Masami Toyoshima |
Delia Ketchum (Japanese: ハナコ Hanako), also known as Mrs. Ketchum (Japanese: ママさん Mama-san) is Ash's mother in the Pokémon anime.
History
This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. |
According to Takeshi Shudō's novelization, she runs Pallet Town's only restaurant, Pallet House, which she inherited from her mother. When she was younger, she dreamed of becoming both a model and a Pokémon Trainer, but abandoned those dreams to run the restaurant after Ash was born.
Delia made her debut in Pokémon, I Choose You!, telling Ash that he should get to bed for his big day tomorrow. She was then seen in front of Professor Oak's Laboratory with a small group of people from Pallet Town, cheering Ash on as he walked out with his first Pokémon. She was shown to be very sad that her little boy was growing up, but quickly put it aside to tell him everything that she had packed in his backpack for his journey. When she unintentionally insulted Pikachu, who was already upset at getting Ash for a Trainer, he used his ThunderShock and shocked the entire group.
She was seen again in the the next episode when Ash decided to call her while waiting for his Pikachu to be healed by Nurse Joy. She seemed to be surprised that he was already in Viridian. She also mentioned his father, saying it took him four days to get there when he began his Pokémon Journey. Also mentioning his father would be proud of him, she commented that he was the apple of his eye. When he continued to shoot down her words of encouragement, she became angry and scolded him by telling him that he can do anything he set his mind to.
She appears again in It's Mr. Mime Time, watching a performance of the Pokémon Circus. She watches what appears to be a Mr. Mime, but is actually Ash in a costume. This is revealed to her when Ash fights Team Rocket, later stealing their balloon. Later, she invites Brock and Misty over to her house for lunch. A wild Mr. Mime that Ash, Brock, and Misty saw at the beginning of the episode taps on the window, and Delia thinks it's Ash. She lets "Ash" in for a snack, but then the real Ash appears, revealing to Delia that the Mr. Mime isn't fake. Ash asks Mr. Mime to help him, and Delia encourages Mr. Mime, offering it a big dessert. Later, when Team Rocket steals Pokémon with a tank, she has the wild Mr. Mime stop Team Rocket. Stella's Mr. Mime and the wild one build a brick tower around the tank, so Team Rocket fires a missile, but it rebounds and sends Team Rocket blasting off. At the end of the episode, the wild Mr. Mime, whom Delia has nicknamed Mimey, stays with her.
Delia next appeared in Showdown at the Po-ké Corral. Ash greets his mother in the kitchen, and tells her that Mimey vacuumed his face, to which she responds that Mimey cleans dirty things. She also tells him that Mimey only listens to her. Later in the episode, Team Rocket (as a news crew) appears at her house, claiming that they want to have an interview with Ash, but Delia tells them that Ash is at Oak's laboratory.
In The Evolution Solution, Delia went to the Seafoam Islands with Ash and his friends.
In Make Room for Gloom, she tells her son to help out in the garden, but Ash says that he has to do some "serious training" in the mountains. She tells him and his friends to get 3 to 400 pounds of fertilizer from the Xanadu Nursery.
In Go West Young Meowth, she goes to Hollywood with Ash and his friends. They are the only ones who watch the premiere of Cleavon Schpielbunk's new movie, Pokémon in Love, which was filmed in the previous episode.
Three episodes later, she wishes Ash good luck as he heads off to Indigo Plateau for the Indigo Plateau Conference.
She reappears in A Friend In Deed. She is standing outside a restaurant in the Indigo Plateau with Prof. Oak, where she meets Ash and his friends. She cooks in the restaurant (to the confusion of the cooks). When she has cooked for them, they sit down to eat and talk. Later, she is stuck in the elevator with Ash, his friends, Prof. Oak, and Ritchie when Ritchie and Pikachu save them.
In Friend and Foe Alike, she watches Ash's round five battle against Ritchie with Brock, Misty, and Prof. Oak and wonders why Ash isn't there: he has been kidnapped by Team Rocket. She is relieved when he shows up.
In Friends to the End, Delia worries about Ash, as he won't get out of bed.
Delia is seen 35 episodes later, when she arrives at her house and finds Ash, Misty, Brock, and Tracey there. She tells Ash, Misty, and Tracey that she found Brock on the ground in a field of grass. She let him stay at her house, and he has been doing chores for her. They discuss dinner, and when Ash shows her his trophy, she says she could use it as a dumbbell. Later in the episode, she and Mimey pack things into Ash's backpack because he is going to Johto for the Johto League. The next day, Ash leaves for Johto.
Character
Delia Ketchum is a relatively reserved woman. She is usually a quiet and cheerful, but when angered, she makes it known. In fact, she once shouted at an Entei and said he should be ashamed of himself in Spell of the Unown.
Spell of the Unown also revealed that she was once a student of Professor Oak, along with Spencer Hale. Brock once commented that she would make a great Pokémon Trainer because of her perseverance.
Delia lives in Pallet Town with Mimey, a Mr. Mime, that she befriended in It's Mr. Mime Time. Throughout Ash's journey, Delia has mainly stayed at home, but she traveled with Ash to the Unova region in In The Shadow of Zekrom!. She flew home once Ash left on his quest to collect the Unova Gym Badges.
Her husband was mentioned in Pokémon Emergency! as a Trainer still on his journey. However, he has yet to appear onscreen.
Pokémon
This listing is of Delia's Pokémon in the anime:
Mimey |
Voice actors
|
In the manga
In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga
Delia appears briefly in the manga series, The Electric Tale of Pikachu, which is based on the anime.
In Pikachu, I See You!, she and Ash discover Pikachu under the floorboards of their house, chewing on the wiring to eat the electricity. Later, she gives Ash a tearful farewell as he leaves on his Pokémon Trainer's journey.
Trivia
- In Pokémon Live!, it is stated that Delia dated Giovanni and was in his gang, but took a better route in life when she met Ash's father, though this might not be the case in the anime.
- In the English dub, Delia and Ash have always shared the same voice actress, even after The Pokémon Company International changed all of the character's voice actors. Originally, both mother and son were voiced by Veronica Taylor. Since the voice actor switch, both have been voiced by Sarah Natochenny.
Names
Language | Name | Origin |
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Japanese | ハナコ Hanako | From 花子. Means flower child. Also often used as an example female name, similar to Jane Doe in English. |
English, All-European | Delia Ketchum | May be a reference to Dahlia, a flower. Ketchum is a pun on "Gotta Catch 'em all" the original slogan of the franchise. |
Korean | 영자 Yeongja | |
Chinese | 花子 Huāzǐ | Same as 花子 Hanako. |
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This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |