Iris (anime)

Iris (Japanese:  アイリス Airisu) is one of Ash's traveling companions in the Unova region. She takes on the role of Misty from his travels in Kanto, The Orange Islands, and Johto, May from his travels in Hoenn and Dawn from his Sinnoh journey.

Before meeting Ash
When she was little, Iris spent most of her time playing with wild Pokémon. One day, a Drilbur took Iris's friend Patrat's home. For ten days, Iris kept challenging the Drilbur but Iris continued losing to it. On the tenth try, she was able to fight, but Drilbur almost fell from the top of a cliff. Iris saved him, and he became her Pokemon.

They entered the tournament of the Dragon Village, and won. During the final battle Drilbur evolved into Excadrill. However, Iris and Excadrill lost their 100th battle against Drayden, who secretly nods to the Elder.

Pokémon: Black & White
Iris is a wild girl that Ash met while traveling in the Unova region. Ash first encountered Iris by mistaking her hair for a Pokémon (since he saw her in a bush picking berries and used his Pokédex, which told him that the Pokémon was in her hair.) He then threw a Poké Ball at her head and she then yells at Ash but soon becomes quick friends with his Pikachu, by hugging him and poking his cheeks which caused him to zap her, for Pikachu gets mad when he gets annoyed by another trainer. Her goal used to be a secret to Ash and Cilan, though it is revealed in BW030, that her goal was to become a dragon master. She also wishes to see the legendary Pokémon Zekrom. She appears to be a wild child and has been seen swinging from vines in forests in order to get from place to place.

Iris, like Ash, Dawn and Misty seems to have her partner Pokémon stay out of its Poké Ball on most occasions. Her partner Pokémon is Axew, the Tusk Pokémon. However, despite the fact, it doesn't go into its Poké Ball and Axew just jumps into Iris' hair whenever she decides to actively go somewhere.

Unlike May or Dawn she practically radiates confidence. On the tomboy scale she is between Misty and May. Her expressions unseen by others suggests a sly, almost manipulative, but well meaning nature. Like Misty at the start of their journey, Ash is in the dark that Iris may or may not be a Gym Leader. Also like Misty, Iris thinks Ash is a little kid but helps him out since he doesn't know a lot about the Unova region.

In BW036, she meets Georgia, her rival, who defeated her when they first met. She also told Ash and Cilan of how she obtained her Excadrill: When she was younger she played with all the Pokémon in the forest and learned that a bully Drilbur stole a Patrat's food.



In BW040, she entered the Don Battle Tournament and won the Wing Set.

Pokémon: Black and White: Rival Destinies
Iris cheered on for Ash in his Gym Battle with Elesa. Then she and Ash have some fun in Nimbasa City visiting all the attractions. Iris also meets Champion Alder, had the opportunity to befriend some Deino that belonged to other trainers and she also dressed as a shrine maiden to summon Landorus.

In BW082, Iris appeared to be glad that the Opelucid Gym was temporarily closed. Meaning that she may be the Gym Leader there. She visited her hometown and helped her friend tame her Hydreigon, after which, she was challenged by Drayden but was defeated.

In BW092, Iris entered the Junior Cup. Her first round was against her rival, Georgia. Iris used Dragonite and Georgia used Beartic. Despite Dragonite not listening to her, Iris defeats Georgia and advances to the quarter-finals. In the 2nd round, she battled Dawn. Dawn used her Mamoswine and Iris used her Dragonite again. Dragonite listened to her at first, but he disobeyed her again. Despite that, Iris defeats Dawn and advances to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Iris battled Ash. Ash used his Krokorok and Iris used her Dragonite. During the battle, Dragonite was starting to listen to Iris which is why she was winning. The battle started to take a turn when Ash's Krokorok evolved into Krookodile. Ash's Krookodile learned Dragon Claw and he used it on Dragonite, which is super-effective. After he was hit by that attack, Dragonite started to lose contol. Ash's Krookodile then used Crunch on Dragonite. Still not listening to Iris, Dragonite used Dragon Rush, which Ash's Krookodile dodged the attack by using Dig. Then he jumped out and used Stone Edge, which was also super-effective. This attack knocked out Dragonite giving Ash the win and Iris was eliminated from the Junior Cup.

Voice Actresses

 * English: Eileen Stevens
 * Japanese: Aoi Yuki
 * Dutch: Sophie Hoeberechts
 * Spanish: Belen Rodriguez
 * Mandarin Chinese: Lin Meixiu
 * Finnish: Saara Aalto
 * Brazilian Portuguese: Agatha Paulita
 * Latin American Spanish: Susana Moreno
 * Polish: Justyna Bojczuk

Achievements

 * Don George Battle Tournament: Winner
 * Clubsplosion: Top 8 [Loses to Montgomery]
 * Pokemon World Tournament Junior Cup: Top 4 [Loses to Ash]

Trivia

 * Iris is considered the first Black character in the Pokémon anime, with Lenora being the second and Marshal being the third.
 * In the games she is the second, with Lenora appearing before her.
 * Iris is named after the Iris Flower which is a native flower to Africa and North America. Also in Greek mythology Iris is the goddess of the rainbow.
 * Iris is currently the only main character in the anime series to keep her Japanese name.
 * Iris is the second of Ash's companions to have an -type Pokémon. The first was Dawn.
 * Couincidently, both Dawn's Pachirisu and Iris' Emolga are based on a type of squirrel.
 * In BW034, Iris was revealed to have a fear of -type Pokémon, the same way Misty has a fear of -Type Pokémon, so this would make her the second female companion to have a fear of a specific type of Pokémon.
 * Iris' fear of Ice-type Pokémon may be a reference to -type Pokémon being weak against -type moves.
 * Iris has currently won two Tournaments in the course of the anime series so far.
 * The first was back in her youth which was the Dragon Village Tournament, the second being the Don Battle tournament.
 * In the anime, she appears to be a novice trainer (still starting out), while in the Pokémon Black and White game, she is a Gym Leader (though she is not the gym leader in Black).
 * Iris and Axew are similar to Zoroark and Zorua in Zoroark Master of Illusions. Axew loves to hide in Iris' hair, same as Zorua. Iris leaps around the way Zoroark did. Iris' hair is the same style as Zoroark.
 * Iris is Ash's first female companion that didn't have a bike.
 * Iris is the second of Ash's female companion who is a complete tomboy, first was Misty and first that excels in physical capabilities.
 * Iris is the third female character to have glowing red eyes when she gets angry. The other two being Jessie and May.
 * Iris, (according to her) says all people of the Dragon Village, have very good hearing and eyesight.
 * All of Iris' Pokemon have a type that is weak against -types, though it should be noted that Excadrill is also a -type, which counters that weakness.